caulfield12

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52425825 Looks like antibody/immunity passports are not going to be a thing. Not shocked to see Azar on the way out. The writing has been on the walls for weeks, and that thing with the “dog breeder” (his Chief of Staff) taking a major role was probably the last nail in the coffin. Redfield’s likely the next to be axed...for putting out negative interviews and simply the completely botched initial CDC testing rollout in Jan/Feb. Meanwhile, it’s back to the WHO and China as bogeymen since a GOP governor like Kemp doesn’t work very effectively. Since Mark Cuban is still talking about running for President, might as well have Bill Gates (huge WHO supporter/funder), too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-expands-battle-with-world-health-organization-far-beyond-aid-suspension/2020/04/25/72c754e6-856e-11ea-9728-c74380d9d410_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_viruswho528pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans&itid=hp_hp-banner-main_viruswho528pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans President Trump and his top aides are working behind the scenes to sideline the World Health Organization on several new fronts as they seek to shift blame for the coronavirus pandemic to the world body, according to U.S. and foreign officials involved in the discussions. Last week, the president announced a 60-day hold on U.S. money to the WHO, but other steps by his top officials go beyond a temporary funding freeze, raising concerns about the permanent weakening of the organization amid a rapidly spreading crisis. At the State Department, officials are stripping references to the WHO from coronavirus fact sheets, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has instructed his employees to “cut out the middle man” when it comes to public health initiatives the United States previously supported through the WHO.

https://theathletic.com/1757830/2020/04/23/layoffs-twitch-streams-and-hope-checking-in-on-the-white-sox-minor-leagues/?source=shared-article

We did have a couple of quarters of robust growth, but as soon as the boost from the tax cuts wore off, we were back down around 2% GDP growth. The “robust” job creation we did experience was mostly in the service/gig/retail sector, and was still not higher percentage wise or even in raw numbers compared to the last two years under Obama. This what my cousin had to say about the situation in the South: “It is all about Football and the $$$. Depending on how Trump is behaving, Jones has a good chance. We applied (she runs a non-profit providing senior/elderly services with a thirty year history), like most small businesses and nonprofits, for the SBA PPP and EDIL loans. We knew from the get go that the big businesses were going be first to be funded. They change the rules to fit what will benefit their big buddies and get votes in November. The working poor are being screwed too. Georgia opens up the service industry businesses and they call the employees back to work. Guess what, they are having to stay home to take care of their children. Day Care centers are closed. What are these characters thinking? No idea when schools will resume. So, you call your boss to say you can’t return to work and he fires you. So then he won’t have to pay unemployment. I can’t believe Trump has a chance in November. He is self serving, egotistical, and outright rude and disrespectful.”

Here comes correlation is not equal to causation arguments in 3, 2, 1. I’m going to guess their argument will be so many more people are kept inside by coronavirus, household cleaning incidents were bound to increase by X factor of cases anyway.

Definitely not in Florida (Castro comments), North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania (fracking). The only state where Sanders was outperforming Biden by about 1% in Wisconsin. Sanders failed to unite the party after Nevada, continuing a grievance campaign against the establishment. That 60 Minutes interview was awful. Instead of exploiting the opportunities to put Clinton (emails) or Biden away, he refrained and got bogged down in philosophical or semantics arguments. He struggled to control some of the worst social media impulses of followers (my way or the highway mentality.) While he did make inroads with Hispanics in the SW, he didn’t expand his coalition in any meaningful way over the four years he had the opportunity to improve his 2016 weaknesses. While my preference would have definitely been for Sanders, and my support for Biden is only slightly higher than HRC, he wasn’t the right person to lead our country together through the greatest collective crisis in a century...the only way something would get done legislatively was by controlling the House AND Senate in 2021-22, leading to Tea Party II and reversals of all those new policies in 2023/24. And the Senate was never going to break for Sanders in November unless the US completely imploded.

Yet someone who has lied nearly 20,000 times while in the WH and thinks injecting or ingesting disinfectant clearly DOESN’T have any mental degradation because...he’s “rich,” which makes him more worthy or valuable somehow? Didn’t we see the exact same trick...four years ago, trying to convince voters that Hillary Clinton was failing physically? What has Trump done in the in the last 6 weeks that would indicate he shouldn’t be removed by his Cabinet. He refuses to attend coronavirus task force meetings, but instead just goes on spontaneous riffs in front of worldwide audiences about some latest junk science for a miracle cure that will only serve to get more Americans killed? It doesn’t bother you that the rest of the world is now watching these daily breakdowns (over science or fighting with reporters) and thinks the US has gone insane? Do you feel prouder now to be an American? Are your children better off now than they were four years ago?

https://theweek.com/articles/655770/61-things-donald-trump-said-about-women Explain how, for example, evangelical Christians voted 81% to 16% for Trump over Hillary Clinton...let’s remove Biden from this entirely. They all had the opportunity to vote for a woman who suffered at the hands of a man most frequently compared to Trump and Dr. Jeffrey Epstein. How could they do that? Trump has had multiple divorces, and at least 27 documented cases of sexual assault/harassment violations. Perhaps the one thing I’ve never heard critics of the Clintons or Obamas say is that didn’t raise their kids well. Conversely, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single person not economically or politically tied to Trump who asserted he was an exceptional parent. Yet all of these factors were consistently ignored.

A couple of thoughts. Most of the Southern states are safely in the GOP column in November, other than NC/VA and Florida. I can see where DeSantis and Kemp (until this week) felt they owed Trump or at least didn’t want to cross him. Maybe the relatively warmer weather and getting antsy with cabin fever, maybe it’s the outdoors culture (hunting, boating, fishing, camping), maybe it’s a little bit of that ornery, States’ right streak we’ve seen since the late 60’s/early 70’s and George Wallace, hard to pinpoint exactly. Two, almost all of the state budgets are closer to being balanced in those particular states than the Northeast, Illinois, West Coast, etc. What doesn’t make sense is Florida. Yeah, I get the travel/tourism lobby’s influence, we saw it the other night with the Las Vegas governor’s tone deaf comments. But the senior population down there is huge. They vote at the highest rate of pretty much any voting bloc, and have LONG memories. As soon as Sanders left the race, that state went up for grabs.

Trump just dodged all the questions in the press briefing and only read remarks already prepared for him. That’s a first. Just 20 minutes when they’ve been averaging 1:45. Apparently the “just being sarcastic” about loony Covid treatments defense hasn’t taken. No Fauci or Birx today to make him look bad with their reactions. LOL at the “Should Hillary Clinton finally be brought to justice?” banner ad at the top of the page from some entity called Conservative Buzz. I guess a year from now it will be the same question posed about Ivanka and Jared.

Just spoke with my cousin in Huntsville, AL. It’s crazy to imagine, but seems like ONE of the factors behind the rush to get things restarted across the South is the desire to see SEC Football this season. There’s almost a perfect correlation with proposed states reopening (I guess you could make a similar albeit more tepid argument for NASCAR) and that particular athletic conference’s geographic spread. Now the just shocking news reported by the NY Times that Trump rarely attends the MEETINGS of the coronavirus task force...but obviously never passes the opportunity to be on t.v.

Let’s just put it this way. Dr. Birx was (visibly uncomfortable yesterday, for perhaps the first time in public)...and even felt strongly enough about it that the official WH Coronavirus briefing transcript was changed to reflect she was NOT recommending any of Trump’s suggestions this morning. The first time I heard the audio, it seemed like she was stumbling and in shock, then she quickly segued into “as a fever treatment” (meaning the extreme heat)...difficult to catch, so the original notes coming out made it seem like she was neutral on the topic or even okay with Trump’s suggestions. That Birx reaction video (there was a similar one from Fauci weeks ago, putting hand over face in dismay) has been getting nonstop play all around the world, which won’t make her boss very happy, at all. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/politics/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-laura-ingraham-coronavirus/index.html Then there’s Rudy Giuliani, who makes Trump look like Neil Degrasse Tyson almost.

She’s too brazenly politicking for it, and she did lose to Kemp, which looks like O’Rourke losing to Cruz in TX now. She also aligned herself with Sanders from the beginning. If they really thought she could tip GA or Florida to the Dems, then they will definitely consider it. Klobuchar isn’t inspiring at all, her Midwest advantage isn’t as crucial to the Dems for now...Whitmer’s coronavirus response makes her a Trump target and she’s still relatively inexperienced, so it comes back to Warren or Harris IMO.

Nobody is “embracing.” It’s all about winning an election, pure pragmatism. Should we question every Christian who voted for Trump after two divorces and all his affairs that he bragged about on Howard Stern or with Billy Bush? They were simply voting on abortion rights and tax policy/government deregulation. You really think they believed for a minute he was even familiar with the Bible?

I think so...because her expertise in economics/consumer protection/law is going to come in especially handy going into Great Depression II, not to mention her policy wonkiness covers for some of his obvious weaknesses. Whitmer, Klobuchar and Harris continue to hover near top, with Cortez Masto (NV) and Lujan Grisham (NM) in the underdog position.

Now he can simply blame Brian Kemp in Georgia (still hard to imagine losing the state, maybe 25% likelihood if there’s a huge second wave that shuts everything down or even a combined fall/winter Covid/flu one), DeBlasio, Hogan, Pritzker, Polis in Colorado, etc. And “coastal elites” in general... Another immense problem is he’s already tethered to DeSantis in FLA.

If those voters watched the press conference yesterday and still vote in a way that enables Trump to hold onto power...then NOTHING will convince them. It means they would essentially prefer to re-elect a President with, what, 27-30 allegations from various women, numerous payoffs, obvious and incontrovertible connections with Epstein, etc. If Warren is named as VP and the Sanders agenda gets highlighted as much as possible without a national convention...things will smooth out simply because the House of Representatives and Senate wouldn’t get anything significant accomplished during another four years of Trump. It also means Ivanka Trump running in 2024 against Nikki Haley and Mike Pence. Update: US Pork supply now down 24% and beef 10%.

Emm...practically running Bernie Sanders out of the election in the span of 2-3 weeks shows how willing they are to tack to the far far right of liberal/progressive. Nobody is buying this Biden as socialist crap...not when AOC is arguing they really shouldn’t be in the same party, along with the likes of Joe Manchin and Doug Jones. Trump’s scathing attacks on women (and female reporters) have gifted the middle of the road suburban soccer moms back to the Dems. That’s not even counting the foreshadowed threats to ObamaCare, Medicare and Social Security were Trump to win (scaring the elderly to Biden as well). The African Anerican turnout will beat HRC’s 2016 numbers by a wide margin. Pete Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Hickenlooper seem like liberals in comparison. The one big positive of this primary season is that he’s been forced just enough to the left that he’s not going to repel the Sanders/Warren/AOC progressive side of the party enough to prevent them from voting or going with a minor party protest candidate.

Trump knows he’s losing right now, which is why he’s so desperate to get the economy restarted. He’s behind in PA and Michigan by considerable margins, 2-3 points behind in WI (note recent state SC election loss) and it’s a dead heat in Florida, with his fate increasingly tied to how DeSantis handles the pandemic (results not so good so far). He resents Biden staying at home in Delaware and not drawing as much media scrutiny, simultaneously knowing he can’t stand to give up his own daily spotlight. Biden can very simply neutralize him by limiting debates to detached, online affairs...unless it looks like the race is tightening again. Trump will get desperate to do in-person rallies, likely resulting in reinfections from either the Republican National Convention or scheduling an outdoor rally too soon. Putting voters’ lives at risk isn’t going to play well, either. That’s why he would have been smarter to get this dealt with as early as possible...now it’s too late. Most voters make up their minds 5-6 months out. 75-80% of the voters’ minds are already made up. He’s underwater with independents, seniors and, most important, is underperforming in battleground states compared to solid red or blue ones...a complete reversal of 2016. And he is a laughingstock on Chinese social media about this UV light, disinfectant (Lysol already has issued a warning) tan your way out of coronavirus nonsense. This hour’s most popular vid is him talking on this subject while the camera keeps panning to Dr. Birx’s increasingly chagrined, almost pained reaction.

Why would any country want to wipe itself out in the process? Russia would have nobody left to sell oil to...China would have no markets for its exports. It’s like cutting off one’s nose to spite the face. It would just eventually lead to mutually assured destruction of the entire world through nuclear weapons...or, in the case of North Korea, regime change or China having to take over and be a caretaker of it as an additional province. In fact, you can make a legit argument that it would other normal circumstances actually bring the US together, to unite the people again like 9/11, fighting a common enemy. For China, risking pariah state status after 5000 years of history waiting to get to precisely this point doesn’t make much sense, since many believe the US will inevitably be surpassed in the next 25-50 years anyway. Why take that chance? Even if they emerged as the “#1 country in the world,” nobody would ever trust China again if the international community could prove they were complicit.

Without an American flag lapel pin!

Joe Biden has absolutely nothing to do with the current situation we are in. Obama was one of the most eloquent speakers in recent history, but campaigning is not always the same thing as leading. There was the common attack that ALL he could do was speak in terms of hope and aspirations (which was yet another backwards compliment, “surprise” at his articulateness). Biden will have a strong cabinet and especially well-qualified VP candidate if he wants to be elected. We need an inundation of the ONE quality he currently possesses in abundance, empathy and the ability to understand the problems of everyday people, to work across the aisle politically and reach out to repair relationships with former allies.

“Bryan, who is the DHS undersecretary for science and technology, is not a medical doctor. Rather, he has a master of science in strategic intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College in Washington, D.C. and a bachelor of science in logistics systems management from Colorado Technical University in Colorado Springs, CO, according to his bio.” Why are we not getting advice from real, qualified doctors...? With each week that passes, we actually get less medical insights and more stream of consciousness political ranting.

If your son or daughter’s teachers or minister/pastor provided the exact same advice, and one of their classmates or best friends died, who do you think would/should be held accountable? Let’s imagine just for the sake of argument they are already 18. “You don’t earn trust by telling people how good you did. You earn it by saying the hard stuff.”

Probably thinks this because he is constantly tanning to get that orange glow except for the white goggle area around the eyes. Btw, Greg, the immigration hold on green cards is not directly correlated with international flights over the last 4-6 weeks...it’s more the lack of demand, intl. route cutbacks and limits on European flights, consolidation in the airline industry. Now 13 beef/pork processing plants shut down around the US, 30 deaths from that worker community. Roughly 15% of national pork production shut down.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mayor-las-vegas-wants-open-154419267.html Las Vegas mayor (I) has brilliant idea to reopen casinos while providing them absolutely no guidance because that’s basically the free enterprise system, she’s doesn’t really know anything about the science but they can figure it all out. Literally rolling the dice on everyone’s lives to keep the tax revenue/tourism rollin’ in. “We’re offering to be a control group.” But one of her statisticians thought that might be a bad idea? She thought concerns (from China) about air conditioning potentially spreading the virus had no bearing or relevance...because, well, Las Vegas casinos, hotels, shows, shops and restaurants clearly don’t need to consider the ramifications of centralized air conditioning systems being in use. And should so many Americans currently struggling financially to make ends meet really be encouraged to book a trip? Some of the state lottery tickets being “essential” purchases is one thing, but that wasn't going to directly impact social distancing as much as serve as a regressive form of taxation. Apparently she hasn’t ever watched the first three minutes of Contagion. This is what the leading economic research has found,” he said, citing a research paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). “Back in the Great Depression, the United States banned and deported most immigrants from Mexico… this act made native unemployment worse in the Depression. This is because immigrants are the backbone of many industries that massively employ Americans. A few Americans took jobs opened up by the past barriers. But more Americans lost their jobs when the businesses that depended on immigrants folded.” In 2018, foreign-born workers accounted for approximately 14% of the American workforce. Even with exceptions for seasonal farm work and front-line health workers, Clemens said, “that doesn’t even begin to capture the ways that the public health battle and the economy depend on immigrants.” He continued: “Immigrants clean the hospitals, without which an Intensive Care Unit cannot operate. Immigrants render meat and ship it to grocery stores, without which Americans staying at home can’t make sandwiches. Immigrants are more than a third of U.S. bakers. They are 31% of the janitors and 20% of the delivery workers at grocery stores. They are 29% of all workers in food processing. If you’re self-isolating at home now, you almost certainly ate food processed by an immigrant this very morning.” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-immigration-move-233544862.html