Monday, March 30, 2020

Ford and General Electric team up to produce ventilators as major manufacturers shift to medical equipment


7 p.m. cheers for frontline coronavirus workers sounded like a soccer match in New York City tonight


The My Pillow guy Mike Lindell says this: "God gave us grace on November 8, 2016, to change the course we were on. God had been taken out of our schools & lives, a nation had turned its back on God. I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word. Read our Bible"


Federal judge Reggie Walton, who slammed Attorney General Barr, has obtained the full and unredacted Mueller report from the Justice Department.


FUN FACT: If the My Pillow guy, Michael Lindell, appears at a briefing, it is no longer a briefing.


2018 article about My Pillow whack job


Trump tells @Acosta that he could make him look like a "minor league player" when it comes to who can cause the most panic.@Acosta asked the President about the President's previous statements downplaying the virus.


Meet two of the newest members of the Kennedy Center board that just stop paying members of the National Symphony Orchestra -- after pocketing $25 million in stimulus money. Trump Taps Jon Voight, Mike Huckabee for Kennedy Center Board


.@realDonaldTrump, I made a video about your role in spreading this virus and the consequences of your failure to act months ago


This morning on live television, the president of the United States admitted he is opposed to laws that would make it easier for Americans to vote because that would hurt Republicans


Jerry Falwell Jr. is one dumb fucker


"He also said he believes all Oakdale prison staff have now been exposed to the virus..."


The fear Trump articulates here––that if more Americans voted, Republicans would never win––is not just his, but that of most Republican leaders in Washington. This is why they oppose all efforts to protect and improve our system of self-government and embrace authoritarianism.


BREAKING: A Florida sheriff announced an arrest warrant for a controversial pastor after the religious leader refused to stop holding packed church services amid the coronavirus outbreak


This is how democracies die: When they cede too much power, give in to the decrees of an autocratic ruler, punish dissent, and forget the past horrors of dictatorship. Democratic freedoms must be safeguarded, especially in times of crisis.


Federal Reserve estimates coronavirus job losses could total 47M; unemployment rate may hit 32%, topping Great Depression peak of 24.9%


Kick Hungary out of the EU


If someone with a high security clearance talked like this about Russia while slagging our NATO ally, they'd be reportable as an insider security threat.


According to the Kremlin, Trump initiated the phone call. The call addressed: ▪️#coronavirus & "closer interaction between the U.S. & Russia" ▪️oil prices ▪️"some other issues re: bilateral relations" Trump and Putin "agreed to continue personal contacts."


How do you say “fuck all the way off” in Russian?


Nationalize the supply chain of critical medical supplies. Nationalize the supply chain of critical medical supplies. Nationalize the supply chain of critical medical supplies. "Miami VA hospital employees told to wear, reuse one surgical mask per week"


President Trump should be using the Defense Production Act to get our first responders and health care providers the masks, gowns, and protective equipment they need. This is a matter of life and death


We see you, America. We see your lamp beside the golden door. We see your caring. We see your Comfort


DOJ turns over unredacted Mueller report to US District Judge Reggie Walton in DC, per court order


Please check on the elderly that you know. I haven’t seen my mom in two weeks. I usually see her 3-5 times a week. I’m her only child. She’s single and lives alone. We chat but I can’t see her. She’s isolated at home, can’t work for fear of exposure. Check on your neighbors.


USNS Comfort passes the Statue of Liberty as it enters New York Harbor on Monday morning.


"There are no red states and blue states..this virus attacks everyone and it attacks everywhere" "this is no time for politics, no time for partisanship" New York Gov @AndrewCuomo


I am asking healthcare workers across the country: If things are not urgent in your own community, please come to New York. We need relief for nurses. We need relief for doctors. If you can, help us: We will return the favor in your hour of need.


Twitter seems to have become more aggressive in its removal of coronavirus misinformation from powerful people in the past 48 hours.


FIRST: We learned my opponent David Perdue sold casino shares & bought medical stocks after the Senate was briefed on the impending pandemic. THEN: A new poll shows us beating him: 40% - 39%! David Perdue MUST GO — and we’re making it happen. Chip in


MEOW


I produced Commercials for Trump casino in 1986 my music producer was in a meeting with Trump and he said he didn’t want any “n**ers” on camera or on the track and he called him “Spick Jew” because he was from Puerto Rico and his parents were Holocaust survivors


Who funds the federalist?


“It is remarkable that anyone ever took Russia’s coronavirus numbers at face value.” Indeed. Remember Chernobyl.


“They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” - Donald Trump, referring to vote-by-mail provisions in the first draft of the recent bill


The Justice Department has started to probe a series of stock transactions made by lawmakers ahead of the sharp market downturn stemming from the spread of coronavirus, according to two people familiar with the matter.


remarkable thing for the elected leader of a democracy to confess


This is Pastor Tony Spell: He defied Gov.John Bel Edwards banning public or private gatherings with more than 50 people to stop the spread. "I feel the Covid-19 scare is politically motivated," Spell told CNN. He estimated his church hosted about 300 people for Tuesday's service.


The USNS Comfort seen sailing to New York Harbor from a NYS escort vessel. The Comfort brings 1,000 much-needed hospital beds & 1,200 personnel to New York. I'll be in NYC to receive a briefing upon its arrival.


"Here’s the Deal" - Joe Biden


USNS Comfort has arrived in NYC. It’s passing World Trade Center right now on the Hudson River. I can hear cheering from Jersey City


Another day another republican governor begging for respirators on national television.


So, CBS News Caught Using Footage from an Italian hospital. All you guys had to do is come to New York and show the world this


ICYMI hundreds of thousands of Kansans and Missourian who would have had insurance if the states expanded Medicaid are bracing for the worst (medically and financially) as #coronavirus spreads in the two states.


"President Clinton defended himself, but he never stopped being President. I think one of the reasons that he survived is that the public may not have liked what the President had done, but believed that he was still able to do his job," Graham said


For too many people across the country, social distancing has become a way to signal which side of the culture war you’re on. The consequences could be disastrous. My latest:


A nurse in NY took this pic of coronavirus fatalities loaded into a truck, meanwhile that fucker is tweeting about his ratings


Fox News's summary of their interview with Trump had no relation at all to what actually happened during the interview, which is a fitting way to cap it off


Fox & Friends' final question for Trump comes courtesy of Ainsley Earhardt: "How can we pray for you?" (Trump doesn't answer the question.)


Once a reality show host.... President Trump took part of the weekend to brag about his ratings. As @brianstelter writes in a terrific piece, talking about ratings while people are dying and others are pleading for help? It is beneath any human being.


Trump on Chinese coronavirus misinformation: "Every country does it"


Trump on Russia: "They also fought World War 2. They lost 50 million people. They were on partner, in World War 2. Germany was the enemy. And Germany's like this wonderful thing...now we don't talk to Russia, we talk to Germany. I mean, look, it's fine. I want to talk to Germany"


Trump begins his phone interview with Fox & Friends by trying to blame Obama for the country's lack of "medical product" (Trump had 3 years to replenish supplies!)


That was one of the KGB/GRU recruiting lines for decades.


Next Friday—April 10—marks a full year since Kirstjen Nielsen resigned as Secretary of Homeland Security. Not only has the position been formally vacant (with two “acting” secretaries) for the past 355 days, but there’s been no nominee—and no suggestion that one is forthcoming.


This week's @NewYorker cover:


Opera singer Plácido Domingo hospitalized in Mexico with coronavirus


Israeli public health ad


The penultimate graf in this is like a punch in the gut. What Sept. 11 Taught Us About Confronting Catastrophe


Nurses Die, Doctors Fall Sick and Panic Rises on Virus Front Lines


BREAKING: Netanyahu and several of his aides entered self quarantine after one aide was diagnosed positive for Covid-19, PM office says


On @realDonaldTrump's unsubstantiated claim yesterday that hospitals may be hoarding masks, Fauci says he needs to "find out what they were talking about." "It could be that there are many more patients there that need [the masks]."


Panicked Republicans now want to blame impeachment for bungling the coronavirus response: report


100-year-old TB vaccine investigated as a weapon against coronavirus


Some of the most critical US military commanders and operations forces are operating under extraordinary protection measures to ensure that in the event of a sudden security crisis, there will be enough healthy troops and leaders to carry out orders.


This gives you an idea of how many layers of protection doctors need to keep themselves safe everyday from the Coronavirus.


The FBI has reportedly reached out to Sen. Richard Burr about his stock sell-off.


“About $200 billion of emerging-markets debt owed to China has gone unreported in official statistics in recent years”


CNN’s @JDiamond1 attacks OAN reporter @JennPellegrino by calling her a “propagandist” from a “fringe outlet.”


The shocking sight of field hospital tents set up in Central Park illustrates the magnitude of the coronavirus crisis in New York.


Yell or spit at anyone right now - much less in a grocery - and you get what you get..


Crime statistics in major U.S. cities show Americans stuck at home get robbed less often, but are more likely to fight each other


“Despite hundreds of Covid-19 cases, AZ governor has refused to order shelter-in-place and has barred localities from acting on their own”


Social distancing guidelines have been extended until April 30th in an attempt to mitigate the impact of coronavirus in the country.


Just two weeks ago the head of Emergency at Wuhan Central hospital went public, saying authorities had stopped her and her colleagues from warning the world. She has now disappeared, her whereabouts unknown.


“Saudi Arabia appears to be exploiting weaknesses in the global mobile telecoms network to track its citizens as they travel around the US, according to a whistleblower who has shown the millions of alleged secret tracking requests”


As meatpackers rush to meet demand, their employees are starting to get COVID-19. But some workers say they’re going to work ill because they don’t have paid sick days and can be penalized for staying home


USA on Murdoch's Fox - Take every last cent. Strip it down to the studs.


Like many other journalists who have spoken out, I say it's nuts to take these briefings live. Cover them. Sort out what's true. But journalism isn't open mic night.


“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt — Andrew Cuomo


oh my god, no


The coronavirus could infect more than a million Americans and kill up to 100,000 people in the country, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the US coronavirus taskforce


Question: Did Fox News publish information that they knew to be false, or with reckless disregard for its truth, with the intention of luring people that they knew or should have known would believe them, into material & forseeable harm? Answer: HELL YES! Sue their ass.


There is no clear answer yet as to why Italy has been so badly affected by the coronavirus. The country has the highest death toll in the world at 10,779 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University


John Prine is on a ventilator right now and the dumbest motherf*cker of his generation is on a ten minute rant about his ratings


I wrote this just now. You should read it. “Trump: I’m Doing a Great Job Fighting the Coronavirus, and 100,000 of You Will Die”


No, President Trump, Massachusetts is not happy. The Commonwealth has received a fraction of its requested supplies. Your administration has outbid or seized our direct purchases. Health workers’ lives are at risk and people are dying.


Reality crushed Trump. He has downplayed COVID-19 & made deaths skyrocket. Now he’s panicking & reshaping: -“1 to 2 million deaths if we did nothing” -“If we can hold that down to 100k..so we have between 100 & 200k..we all have done a very good job” These people are his victims


Fox News cuts coverage the second the President’s answer devolves into a rant about ratings and The Bachelor. They cut audio until he’s done talking


200,000 coronavirus deaths would be roughly four times the American death toll during the entire Vietnam War. Trump indicated today he plans to tout that figure as *an accomplishment* on the campaign trail.


I am issuing this challenge to the President: in the next 48 hours, direct the production and distribution of respirator masks, gloves, protective face shields and gowns to fill every supply request made by a governor to the federal government. Lives are at stake. — Joe Biden


When will @realDonaldTrump finally invoke the #DefenseProductionAct to start producing desperately needed #PPE, such as masks, gowns, and gloves? WHAT IS HE WAITING FOR⁉️


Glad @realDonaldTrump reversed himself about Easter & extended social distancing guidelines another 30 days. @POTUS now recognizes that the cure (social distancing) is not worse than the problem (overwhelmed hospitals & people dying). Hopefully #MAGA folks will listen to him.


This is an obscenity. "The prospect of 2 million deaths seemed to stick with Trump because he repeated the statistic 16 times at Sunday’s news conference."


The DOJ investigation puts Burr in a tough spot. If he testifies before the SEC, his testimony can be used against him in a criminal case by DOJ. But if he takes the Fifth, that can be used against him if the SEC brings a case against him.


ump was president for 3 years before coronavirus came to the country. Blaming the lack of preparedness on Obama is pathetic.


Fact check on tonight’s briefing: Trump denies saying two things he said on television in the last four days.


Newt Gingrich is saying the country wasn't prepared for coronavirus because Democrats impeached Trump


Hobby Lobby chose to close its stores yesterday. Today, it fired people by email. People lost their insurance. They offered no severance. They said, "it’s in the hands of God.” Remember that.


Gee. Why would any of our elected officials want to help out rich real estate tycoons? Can't figure this out. What happened? Bonanza for Rich Real Estate Investors, Tucked Into Stimulus Package


Judge grants Kushner tenants free rent at East Village complex charged with operating illegally Kushner Companies COO said "primary focus is helping our residents during the Covid-19 crisis" but adds they plan to appeal decision as soon as courts


Translation: “People are dying, but I’m a ratings hit.”


Trump claims he didn't realize until today that 2.2 million Americans might have died if people didn't start social distancing (the study that number is based on was widely publicized and published nearly 2 weeks ago


"There is something going on. I don't know if it is hoarding. It is maybe worse than hoarding" -- Trump again suggests that de Blasio, Cuomo and New York nurses are somehow conspiring to make unreasonable demands on the federal government for masks and ventilators


TRUMP: "The modeling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in 2 weeks. I will say it again. The peak, the highest point of death rates, remember this, is likely to hit in 2 weeks ... Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30, to slow the spread."


Without evidence, Trump accuses hospitals of "hoarding" ventilators


One can't help but think that Trump devotes so much time to talking about what private businesses are contributing to the coronavirus response because the federal government is doing so little


"That's why you used to work for the Times and now you work for somebody else" -- Trump unloads on Yacmiche Alcindor for asking him a question about his attacks on blue state governors


Trump just said he wants to allow corporations to deduct entertainment expenses to help restaurants. Here’s a different idea. Have the government buy millions of meals from these restaurants for low income people & health care workers.


Listen to Trump call a black woman “you people.” When Trump refers to his “good friend Jim” we know he means “Jim Crow.”


This reporter killed it. Who is he?


Moscow Mayor Sobyanin drops the bomb and orders a full lockdown in Moscow - on a four hours’ notice. No walks outside, even physical exercises are allowed.


Yamiche and Trump


Coronavirus III: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver


Jerry Falwell Jr. needs to hire a good lawyer


"...I've been talking to Fox insiders over the last few days, there's a real concern inside the network that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled. "


"I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tweeted after President Trump lashed out at her.


Murdoch's media empire has done almost as much for COVID-19 as it's done for Trump and destroying the climate.


Thanks to @JDiamond1 for passing me the microphone & letting me ask my second question. I asked: Which health professionals are telling you that more people will die from the economic impact than coronavirus? Trump didn’t answer directly and instead just repeated his claims.


Ken Shimura died of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus on Sunday night. The 70-year-old has been described as "Japan’s Robin Williams" and was one of the country's best-known comedians with a career that dates back to the 1970s.


The president is making a shocking admission on national TV: that he and some of his advisors actually considered just “riding it out,” or not responding to the pandemic at all, until they learned that 2 million Americans could die. Maybe THIS is why we lost that critical month.


My daughter's first grade teacher has died from COVID-19.


The Pentagon is struggling to stay ahead of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Navy forced to sideline an aircraft carrier and infections mounting


why did you quit such a great team the day after #Khashoggi was slaughtered


To summarize: Amid a global pandemic killing thousands of Americans, Trump disparaged CNN, NYT, and PBS at his press conference, while saving his praise for a fringe cable channel that peddles right-wing conspiracy theories.


CREW writes to the W.H. Counsel that the group believes Jared Kushner’s shadow coronavirus task force appears to be violating both the Presidential Records Act and Federal Advisory Committee Act by using private email accounts and by meeting in secret.


People are dying. Everyone is anxious, many downright scared. Healthcare workers are literally risking, and sometimes losing, their lives to care for us. We don’t have enough ventilators or PPE. And our president is reveling in his press conference TV ratings?


. @realDonaldTrump, you implied something today which made me think - If 1000 nurses (say 2 hospitals in NYC) treat 30 patients a day and change their masks per safety guidelines each time, that’s 30K masks. Over a 10 day period, that’s 300K masks. No conspiracy, just math.


Trump allowed COVID-19 to slip out of control. He cut the CDC. The economy is in the toilet. Do polls really show Americans approve of the job he’s doing?


As president, I will always choose hope over fear, unity over division, truth over lies, and science over fiction. — Joe Biden


The White House’s new trick of turning off the microphone so reporters can’t asks follow ups is pretty much what you need to know.


Trump just called Yamiche Alcindor “you people” y’all are getting close to hearing the N-word like we did on ‘Apprentice’


“L'état, c'est moi.”


Dr. Jared Burks was on a break from working at the hospital -- where he is on the frontlines of fighting the coronavirus pandemic -- when a tornado struck and destroyed his family's home in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Saturday.


Dire assessments in an email chain, obtained by a freedom of information request, belie President Trump’s rosy statements from the same time


Of all the sobering data coming at us, of death, sickness, testing capacity, ventilators, lost jobs, and businesses on the brink, it would seem TV ratings would be the least important number anyone would even think to consider.