Wednesday, April 29, 2020

OUR PRESIDENT HAS BECOME A RAVING LUNATIC

Desperate to retain his presidency, Trump keeps letting his mouth and tweets overload his ass

By Howie Katz

To begin with, I'll confess that I am a never-Trumper. In 2016, America had the two worst choices for president in the history of this nation. I do not believe Trump was ever really serious about becoming president and entered the race only to get the attention this egomaniac craves so much. But then his Republican opponents knocked each other off, leaving him to face the horrible Hildebeast.

I only voted for Trump because the mere thought of having Hillary Clinton as president made me want to puke. This time around, the mere thought of having Joe 'White Obama' Biden or any other Democrat as President also makes me want to puke. But in good conscience, I cannot cast my ballot in November for a president who has become a raving lunatic.

President Trump has been caught telling numerous lies since taking office. That's alright because all politicians lie. But what is laughable is that Trump kept denying that he lied when his lies were caught on TV.

We can overlook his lies because except for his big mouth and angry tweets, he has been a rather good president. He has kept almost all of his campaign promises and he has made America great again after Barack Obama had weakened this once strong nation. I especially like Trump for being the most friendly president of Israel since Harry Truman. Obama, on the other hand, was the most hostile ever president toward the Jewish state and did not hide his hatred for Israeli PM Netanyahu.

Along came the coronavirus pandemic and everything went to pot. America's economy tanked leaving 26 million workers unemployed. You cannot blame Trump for that. But if that wasn't bad enough, Trump kept falling on his own sword by his daily Corona press briefings where he kept putting his mouth in motion before putting his brain in gear.

Among the blunders, without any scientific proof he touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for coronavirus, calling it a "game changer."

Then came the mother of all blunders. During the press briefing on April 22, Trump stated that irradiating the bodies of corona sufferers with UV light might cure the virus, and - here is the real whopper - that injecting or ingesting bleach might work. That's right, he said drinking a disinfectant like Lysol toilet bowl cleaner might be a cure for corona.

Here is what he said about the UV light: "Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light. ... supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do through either the skin or in some other way."

And this is what he said about bleach: "And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks out in a minute. One minute. And there is a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So, it will be interesting to check that." Yes folks, injecting or drinking Lysol could be a sure cure for COVID-19 ... and everything else that ails you, even cancer and AIDS, because it could kill you.



After being excoriated by the media and countless tweets for suggesting that disinfectants like Lysol might cure corona, Trump said he didn't really mean what he said, that he was only being sarcastic with reporters "just to see what would happen." But that was a big lie! If you watch the video of what he said you can see that Trump was dead serious.

The Democrats are having a field day with Trump's cures and so will the White Obama all through the election campaign.

Trump's friends did not come to his defense. Senator Lindsey Graham, usually a strong defender of Trump, remained conspicuously mute.

And Daily Mail columnist Piers Morgan, who has been a personal friend of Trump for more than 10 years and has blasted the Democrats and the media for their unfair treatment of the president, says the daily briefings are led by a “deluded, boastful, petty and spiteful” president. Morgan called Trump's bleach remarks "batshit crazy" and said: "It's hard to imagine a more stupid thing for a President to say than publicly float a completely unsubstantiated 'idea' like that which will inevitably make some Americans believe having bleach inside them will cure the virus."

And Morgan was right. Poison control centers all over the nation were inundated with calls asking if it was safe to drink Lysol or other toilet bowl cleaners. And because of Trump's idiotic bleach cure, there has been a significant increase in the number of bleach poisoning reports.

Trump did what he always does when anyone criticizes him. He went ape shit over the weekend in a barrage of tweets attacking journalists and the media. He even lashed out at Fox News, accusing the network of repeating Democrat talking points and trying to become politically correct, and calling Fox board member and former House Speaker Paul Ryan a RINO.

The picture with the McAfee Antivirus box is a joke, but the president is clearly going batshit crazy.

Morgan wrote Trump an open letter on Monday, telling the president what he must stop doing and what he should do to save his presidency. He had some good advice, but the only advice Trump listens to is what comes out of his cracked head.

Trump is now acting out of desperation because he has been warned that his presidency is slipping away. At times, Trump is acting like a cornered animal, lashing out at everybody in sight. His aides have told him to tone it down, but instead he has ratcheted it up. Trump has truly become a raving lunatic.

If Trump were to have acted like this as an ordinary citizen, his family members probably wold have had him tossed into a loony bin.

Amazingly, people will still vote for a lunatic when things are going well for them. And they'll vote for demagogues like Maxine Waters, AOC and her squad, Adam Schiff and Sheila Jackson Lee. That's why under normal conditions Trump would have a good chance of defeating Biden. But these are certainly not normal times.

It does not matter how well Trump has handled the pandemic or how much good he has done for the country. In the end it will be the economy that either does Trump in or does it for him. Right now, it doesn't look promising for the president because most economists are predicting that the economy will not make a full recovery until sometime in 2021. And if the economy is poor with a high unemployment rate in October, Trump is a dead duck, even if Biden is senile and incoherent.

I hope and pray that Trump defeats Biden, but I will not vote for a deluded, boastful, petty and spiteful candidate with batshit crazy ideas who has become a raving lunatic.

In November, I would like to vote for another Donald - Donald Duck that is - but with the e-slate voting machines, writing in a candidate is hard to do. If I thought my one vote would make a difference I would vote for Trump, but it won't. So I'll just skip the vote for president, but I will vote for the down-ballot candidates.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP FROM HIS (NOW UNFOLLOWED) FRIEND PIERS MORGAN

Cut the covid crap, stop whining, get serious and show some damn empathy – or it will cost you the White House

By Piers Morgan

Daily Mail
April 27, 2020

Dear Donald,

On Friday evening, you unfollowed me on Twitter, which given you only follow 47 accounts was not an insignificant decision.

It came a few hours after I posted a column in which I lambasted you for using your daily coronavirus press briefings to air ‘batshit crazy’ cure theories like ‘injecting or ingesting’ bleach into patients with COVID-19.

I used very forceful language to convey my dismay at such reckless, shocking and woefully irresponsible behavior.

Indeed, the column began with the words ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP!’

And for that, I make no apology.

You are the most powerful person in America and your words carry enormous weight and consequence. Within hours of you suggesting it might be a good idea to use bleach, one public health hotline in one state – Maryland – received 100 phone calls asking about whether they should use household detergent to combat the virus, and was forced to issue an alert warning people not to try it.

New York City’s Poison Control Center took 30 similar calls from the moment your briefing last Thursday night ended to 3pm the next day - and was also forced to release an alert saying that using bleach ‘can put people at great risk.’

This latest debacle came after you previously and repeatedly hyped up an anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, as another ‘cure’ - until it turned out to cause more deaths in COVID patients than those who weren’t treated with it.

This is a terrifying illustration of how dangerous your rhetoric can be.

So yes, I think when it comes to floating mad ideas about potential ‘cures’ for coronavirus, you should shut the f*ck up.

I can understand why such direct language from a long-time friend may have offended you, and I understood that when I wrote it. You have a notoriously thin skin and take any criticism very badly.

(Though, from personal experience, I don’t think you’re a stranger to deploying such profane terminology yourself when something angers you.)

But I’ve always believed the best friends are ones unafraid to offer blunt unvarnished criticism to someone who is behaving in a shockingly self-destructive way, especially when that person is the President of the United States during a global pandemic.

We’ve known each other 15 years, and I’ve always tried to be fair and balanced when it’s come to your presidency. I criticize you when I think you deserve it (I’ve written 55 critical columns about you) and I support you if I think you’re right.

That makes me an outlier in current media, the vast majority of whom either implacably criticize you or blindly support you.

But if you can’t handle my criticism, and our friendship is over, then let me mark the end of our relationship with a few home truths about your spectacularly bad handling of this crisis that may yet, if you heed them, still enable you to get re-elected in November.

1) Get serious, very serious. The world leaders that are seeing their approval ratings soar – including Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Arderne and France’s Emmanuel Macron - are the ones who realized early on this was going to be the biggest crisis in their country’s modern history and have adjusted their behavior accordingly. Nobody wants to see or hear their leader playing the buffoon when thousands are dying from a terrible virus. They want a gravity that reflects the reality.

2) Show some damn empathy and compassion. You’ve barely mentioned, in any of your long rambling briefings, the terrible impact of this coronavirus on the American people. In fact, the Washington Post calculated that you’ve spent just 4.5 minutes expressing any condolences, in over 13 hours of talking from the podium. More than 55,000 Americans have now died. Their relatives, friends and co-workers want to hear that you care about them. So, show them that you do, every day. Tell some of their stories, and those who’ve survived too. We need hope amid the despair.

3) Stop warring with the media. There can be no more important job for any journalist than holding a government’s feet to the fire during such a massive crisis where so many lives are dependent on the right decisions being made. The way you’ve been abusing the media during your briefings is repulsively rude and undignified.

Remember the words of President John F. Kennedy about freedom of the press: ‘Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed. That is why our press was protected by the First Amendment - the only business specifically protected by the Constitution – not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants” but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mould, educate and sometime even anger public opinion.’ If you want the press to show you respect, then start showing them some.

4) Cut the briefings to a maximum of 45 minutes and don’t speak yourself for more than 10 minutes. Nobody wants to hear a daily free-wheeling campaign rally other than you and your die-hard base supporters. In a hideously unedifying way, you keep boasting about your brilliant ratings for the briefings, but the only reasons so many are tuning in are because either they’re scared and want accurate information and reassurance. Or because they love car crash television.

At the moment, you’re offering plenty of the latter and none of the former.

5) Tell the truth. In a public health disaster of this magnitude, truth matters more than ever. Yet you’ve offered false or misleading information in 25% of your remarks. This is completely unacceptable in a president during the best of times, but during a crisis like this it’s outrageous. It’s particularly self-defeating when you lie about something that we’ve seen with our own eyes like the bleach moment. It wasn’t ‘sarcasm’, as you claimed later, and you weren’t addressing it to the ‘fake news’ - we could see you asking your experts. So, when you try to excuse your horrendous error like that, you reveal yourself, ironically, to be the purveyor of fake news.

6) Stop constantly praising yourself. It’s nauseating at a time like this. Apart from the fact you don’t deserve much praise for your performance in this crisis due to America’s horribly slow response to the virus and chronic lack of preparedness, it is so diminishing for you to stand there for hour after hour telling us how great you are and what a perfect job you’re doing as America’s death toll rockets ever higher. Macron admitted to his people that his administration had made mistakes in the preparation for this kind of pandemic, and the French people loved his candour. Learn from that; a little humility in your case would go a very long way right now.

7) Leave medical statements to the experts. There have been few more absurd spectacles than watching you at the podium theorizing about any new crazy coronavirus theory you’ve just heard, like you’re Dr House. You’re not a doctor, as you admitted last week. So, stop pretending to be one.

8) Cut tweeting so much irrelevant crap. Last night you embarked on a cringe-making and pitifully petty tweet storm (much of it now deleted) against the media, demanding journalists give back their ‘Noble prizes’. As I pointed out in my reply, it’s ‘Nobel’ and the prizes you were alluding to are Pulitzers. But who the hell cares anyway? There is only one thing you should be laser-focused on right now and it’s how to defeat coronavirus before it slaughters more Americans.

9) I don’t want to hear any more from you about how hard you’re working. I expect, and every American will assume, that the President of the United States is currently working as hard as he possibly can on the biggest crisis to hit the country in modern times. Again, reign in the overly-defensive self-justification and self-aggrandizing, it just irritates people who are suffering massive problems.

10) Forget about the bitter and twisted partisan politics that dominated and scarred your presidency to the point when coronavirus erupted. Everything’s changed. We all have a common enemy now, and it’s one that doesn’t recognize a republican from a democrat. You should be bringing your opponents to the White House and presenting a united front, not continuing to mock and belittle them.

Mr President, nobody pretends that any of this is easy. There can’t be anything worse for any leader than seeing a new, wicked virus ravage the country, killing tens of thousands of people, and the economy suddenly tank to the worst levels in US history.

These are scary times and millions of people are suffering very badly.

But you’re making it worse with your dangerously erratic conduct.

And if you continue, it will cost you the election.

Chancellor Merkel is someone whose crisis leadership is a template for what you should be doing.

Germany’s top coronavirus scientist Christian Drosten explained her popularity today in the Guardian: ‘She’s extremely well-informed, it helps that she’s a scientist and can handle numbers. But it mainly comes down to her character – her thoughtfulness and ability to reassure. Maybe one of the distinguishing features of a good leader is they are not using this situation as a political opportunity. They know how counter-productive it would be.

Exactly.

You’ve dug yourself into a horrible hole, Donald, and you’re making it deeper with everything you do and say.

However, if you heed my advice, and begin to guide the country through its darkest hour with a more serious, consistent, determined and empathetic style, then I believe there is still a chance the American people will forgive you and reward you with re-election later this year.

You don’t have to re-follow me Donald, but for old time’s sake I would urge you to listen to me.

Yours respectfully, Piers.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Good advice from someone who has been a strong supporter of Trump up until now. But the only advice Trump seems to take is what comes out of his cracked head.

STOCKTON WORKING HARD TO KEEP UP APPEARANCES

by Bob Walsh

The local constabulary made a total of eight gun related arrests over the past weekend here in the teeming metropolis of Stockton.

Those arrested were either on searchable probation, had warrants out, tried to flee from the cops or had been seen waving a gun around earlier. I doubt very much any of them were kept in custody very long, except maybe the guy with warrants. The cops did however take some guns away from some bad guys, which is definitely a win.

CAT TOSSING FROWNED ON IN VALLEJO, CA

by Bob Walsh

Vallejo is a nice little city. It was the state capitol of California for a few days before the Civil War. (As was Benecia, another nice little town.)

Chris Palzer is, for the moment, the City Planning Commissioner. He was the moderator at a commission meeting on April 20th, which was discussing a Costco project. The meeting was recorded and is available for public viewing. He was asked for a comment. He stated, "Well, first I'd like to introduce my cat." (The cat could be heard making cat noises in the background. I am guessing Paizer was broadcasting from his home.) He lifted the cat up in front of the camera, then threw it. The cat could be heard thudding against something. He was also swilling beer from a bottle, was I guess is declasse for Vallejo. They can be pretentious there.

Paizer has since sent an email to the Vallejo Times-Herald informing them that he had resigned. However, upon checking with the city, their HR people have no knowledge of any such resignation.

I can see people getting pissed about puppy throwing, but a cat.............

BERNIE SANDERS GETTING FUCKED BY NEW YORK

by Bob Walsh

Bernie Sanders is still on the primary ballot in New York, even though he has suspended his campaign. On Monday New York decided to cancel their presidential primary, on the basis that it is "unnecessary and frivilous." Bernie and the Bernie Bros are NOT happy. Bernie specifically did not withdraw, merely suspended his campaign, and deliberately wants to stay on the ballot in NY and elsewhere in order to continue to amass delegates. He has said that he wants to be able to influence the convention in a "progressive (Communist) direction." What he hasn't said is that Senile Joe may drop dead or completely crash and burn before then, leaving Crazy Bernie as the big, if superannuated, dog.

As I bang this out on the Keyboard it isn't clear if there will be a court challenge. I confess I have never heard of an election being cancelled when there were still two or more people on the ballot on account of it being considered by somebody to be "frivilous and unnecessary."

NYC MAYOR APPOINTS HIS WIFE TO COVID-19 PANEL TO DETERMINE IF THE VIRUS IS RACIST

by Bob Walsh

The Communist Party mayor of New York City, Bill deBlasion, has just appointed his wife to a committee that will look into whether or not the Covid-19 virus is racist.

If they find that it is, what will they do about it? Perhaps sue? Get a restraining order issued requiring the virus to kill more white people? I admit to being puzzled.

I wonder how much the job pays?

I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW KIM AND HILLARY WERE RELATED

by Bob Walsh

Media outlets today (Monday) are openly speculating that North Korea's HMFIC, Kim something or other, is very possibly practicing a very radical minus-six foot vertical social distancing. This is based primarily on photo intel and the fact that the fat bastard has not been seen in public for a couple of weeks. They are speculating that there is a vicious, tyranical borderline-psycho female relative in the wings ready to step in.

I didn't know he and Hillary were even related, at least any more closely than anybody else is related to anybody else..

PLAGUE REPORT UPDATE FROM STOCKTON

by Bob Walsh

Not much to report. I did almost nothing Sat and even less Sunday. Spent all day at my lady friend's dog sitting and binge watching The Lord Of The Rings, as well as a chunk of Seven Days, an interesting SciFi series from a few years back.

Stockton did have a drop-dash-dead at an unspecified local hospital in the wee hours of Sunday. The cops would really like to talk to whoever dropped off the gun-shot victim who went toes up.

They have opened up local golf courses so the golfers are out doing something and not irritating the rest of us, so that's good. And I think my barber shop just reopened, I will find out later today. I am looking shaggy and desperately need my summer haircut.
__________

PLAGUE REPORT FROM STOCKTON

by Bob Walsh

Today (Tuesday) I actually had some legit reasons to go out and run a bunch of errands. Things like Wasp Spray, gas up car and go to my sister's. She lives in the Bay Area and has access to some stuff I don't, at least not easily, and she got me some sick-room gloves and masks which are in very short supply out here.

The drive to her place was smooth and quicker than normal. Traffic was very light. On the way back I could see individual windmills on the Altamont hills from the Dublin Grade. I don't think I have EVER been able to do that since the windmills were put in 25+ years ago. The air in both the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley is MUCH cleaner than it has been for a long time.

Gas is down a lot. Not as much as Wisconsin where it was $1.19 this past weekend, but down a lot.

I actually got a 12-pack of TP off the shelf at Target. They were rationing to one per customer, but it was there.

It isn't skittles and beer, but things are looking up. Now if only my favorite local gun range would open up.

BAD NEWS FOR BIDEN THE PUSSY GRABBER?

A former neighbor of Joe Biden's accuser Tara Reade has come forward to corroborate her sexual-assault account, saying Reade discussed the allegations in detail in the mid-1990s

By Rich McHugh

Business Insider
April 27, 2020

In March, when a former aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, two people came forward to say that the woman, Tara Reade, had told them of the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred — her brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.

Now two more sources have come forward to corroborate certain details about Reade's claims. One of them — a former neighbor of Reade's — has told Insider for the first time, on the record, that Reade disclosed details about the alleged assault to her in the mid-1990s.

"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," Lynda LaCasse, who lived next door to Reade in the mid-'90s, told Insider.

The other source, Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Reade in the office of a California state senator in the mid-'90s, told Insider that she recalls Reade complaining at the time that her former boss in Washington, DC, had sexually harassed her, and that she had been fired after raising concerns.

In interviews with Insider, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the politics podcaster Katie Halper — who broke the story of the assault allegations — Reade has said that in the spring or summer of 1993, she was told to meet Biden in a semiprivate corridor to deliver a duffel bag. There, she said, Biden pushed her up against a wall, reached under her skirt, and penetrated her with his fingers. When she resisted his advances, Reade said, Biden expressed annoyance and said, "Aw man, I heard you liked me." Then, she said, he pointed a finger at her and said, "You're nothing to me." After that, she said, he shook her by the shoulders and said, "You're OK, you're fine," before walking away.

Before the alleged assault, Reade said, she had already complained to her superiors in Biden's office that the way Biden looked at her and touched her made her uncomfortable. She got no response, she said, and after the alleged assault was abruptly relieved of her duties managing interns. She said she later filed a complaint about her treatment — but not the about the assault allegation — with a Senate human-resources office.

The Biden camp has denied Reade's allegations. "Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims," Kate Bedingfield, Biden's communications director said in a statement earlier this month. "We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false."

Asked to comment specifically on LaCasse's and Sanchez's comments, Bedingfield referred Insider to her previous statement. She did not respond to a request to interview Biden about Reade's accusations.

Insider sought access to Biden's senatorial papers, which are housed at the University of Delaware, to search for records that may shed light on Reade's claims. The university denied the request, saying Biden's papers "will remain closed to the public until two years after Mr. Biden retires from public life."

'I remember she was devastated'

LaCasse told Insider that in 1995 or 1996, Reade told her she had been assaulted by Biden. "I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him," LaCasse said. "And he kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn't feel there was anything she could do."

LaCasse said that she remembers Reade getting emotional as she told the story. "She was crying," she said. "She was upset. And the more she talked about it, the more she started crying. I remember saying that she needed to file a police report." LaCasse said she does not recall whether Reade supplied any other details, like the location of the alleged assault or anything Biden may have said.

"I don't remember all the details," LaCasse said. "I remember the skirt. I remember the fingers. I remember she was devastated."

LaCasse is the first person to independently corroborate, in detail and on the record, that Reade had told others about her assault allegations contemporaneously. Reade's brother Collin Moulton previously told Insider that he recalled his sister saying that Biden "had his hand under her clothes at some point."

In a series of interviews with Insider over the past week, LaCasse said she decided to speak up now, at a time when Reade's story is under intense scrutiny in the media and facing denials from the Biden campaign, because she believed Reade's account when she first heard it.

"I have to support her just because that's what happened," LaCasse said. "We need to stand up and tell the truth."

'It takes a lot of guts to do what she's doing'

LaCasse, 60, is a retired former medical staff coordinator and emergency-room clerk for San Luis Obispo General Hospital. She lived next door to Reade in 1995 and 1996 in an apartment complex near the beach in Morro Bay, California, a seaside community between Santa Barbara and Monterey. She told Insider that she and Reade shared a bond because they were both mothers, and their young daughters swam together in the apartment complex's indoor pool.

LaCasse said she would sometimes sit on her front stoop to smoke cigarettes after putting her daughter to bed, and that Reade would occasionally join her. It was during one of these evening conversations, she said, that Reade told her about the alleged assault. "We were talking about violent stories," LaCasse said, "because I had a violent situation. We just started talking about things and she just told me about the senator that she had worked for and he put his hand up her skirt."

LaCasse acknowledged that coming forward to support an allegation against the Democratic presidential nominee "may have repercussions for me." But she said she has no political ax to grind and intends to vote for Biden.

"I personally am a Democrat, a very strong Democrat," she said. "And I'm for Biden, regardless. But still I have to come out and say this."

Insider has verified, through publicly available records, that Reade and LaCasse were neighbors at a Morro Bay apartment complex in 1995. A review of LaCasse's social-media presence shows a long history of anti-Trump sentiments. She has written approvingly of both Biden and his Democratic rival Bernie Sanders on Twitter. In March, she shared a link on Facebook to a story detailing Reade's allegations, with the message, "This is my good friend Tara Reade, who was assaulted by Joe Biden in 1993."

LaCasse told Insider that she and Reade fell out of touch after Reade moved out of their apartment complex in the late '90s. But the two reconnected in 2016, she said, when Reade reached out to her on Facebook.

In April 2019, Reade told a Nevada City, California, newspaper that Biden had inappropriately touched her and made her uncomfortable, though she did not accuse him of assaulting her.

It was after that story, LaCasse said, that she and Reade first revisited the conversation they'd had about Biden in the mid-'90s. "She mentioned that she had come forward," LaCasse said, "and so I said, 'Oh my gosh. Yeah. I do remember that.'"

Then late last month, in a podcast interview with Halper, Reade made her full accusation known — that Biden had attacked her in a corridor, shoved his hand up her skirt, and digitally penetrated her.

After seeing how political operatives and news organizations responded to the claim — the Biden camp denied it outright, and critics scoured Reade's social-media accounts for evidence of a purported affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin — LaCasse said she decided to come forward.

"She didn't ask me to," LaCasse said. "I volunteered to do that just recently. If this was me, I would want somebody to stand up for me. It takes a lot of guts to do what she's doing."

Reade told a former colleague she had been fired for voicing concerns

Yet another source reached by Insider corroborates some of Reade's claims about her time working for Biden.

After she left Washington, DC, Reade worked for California state Sen. Jack O'Connell. Lorraine Sanchez, a former legislative staffer in O'Connell's office, mentored Reade and worked alongside her from 1994 through 1996. Sanchez told Insider that Reade complained at the time about being mistreated by her former employer.

"[Reade said] she had been sexually harassed by her former boss while she was in DC," Sanchez said, "and as a result of her voicing her concerns to her supervisors, she was let go, fired."

Sanchez said she does not recall if Reade offered details about the sort of harassment she allegedly suffered, or if she named Biden. "What I do remember," Sanchez said, "is reassuring her that nothing like that would ever happen to her here in our office, that she was in a safe place, free from any sexual harassment." Reade said she never experienced harassment from any other employer she had during her time in Washington, and that the employer Sanchez recalls her complaining about was Biden.

Sanchez praised Reade for speaking out. "It takes great courage and strength to come forward," Sanchez said in a statement to Insider. "It's much easier to keep silent. However, I also understand the duty we have as women to share our story regardless of who the perpetrator may be."

Reade went on to work in the domestic-violence unit for the King County prosecutor in Seattle, and she received her law degree from Seattle University School of Law in 2004. She later served as a legal-services director for the Snohomish County Center for Battered Women.

An anonymous 1993 call to 'Larry King Live'

Last week, video emerged of an unnamed woman that Reade says is her mother calling into a 1993 broadcast of CNN's "Larry King Live" devoted to the culture of Washington, DC. The woman claimed that her daughter had run into unspecified "problems" with a US senator.

"I'm wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington," the caller said. "My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him."

Reade had previously told The Intercept's Ryan Grim that her mother, who died in 2016, had made such a call, but couldn't recall the date. When Grim mentioned it on a podcast, Twitter users dug up the transcript and video.

Reade, who has listened to the newly unearthed phone call, told Insider that it was indeed her mother's voice speaking to King. "It was almost a spiritual experience, because my mom loved me so much and supported me," Reade said, choking back tears. "I get emotional even now, and I gave her such a hard time about [calling] Larry King's show that I feel really bad that I couldn't say to her now, 'Thank you so much,' and give her a hug. And I think the most powerful part for me was just how she crossed space and time to help me."

Some former coworkers cast doubt

In addition to the denial from Biden's campaign, other former Senate staffers have emerged to cast doubt on Reade's accusations.

Marianne Baker, who was Biden's executive assistant for almost two decades, including in 1993, issued a statement saying she never witnessed or heard of any inappropriate conduct: "I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade's accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager."

Insider has reached out to other staffers who worked in Biden's office during the time Reade worked there. Melissa Lefko, at the time a staff assistant, said she doesn't remember Reade at all, and that she would have been aware of any accusations of assault or harassment at the time. "Had there been anything, I would have heard about it," she said.

An intern who worked under Reade, and who asked to remain anonymous, said she does not recall Reade discussing any allegations of assault or harassment. But she does corroborate Reade's claim that she was abruptly relieved of her duties as intern supervisor in April 1993, a move that the former intern found odd at the time.

A police investigation has been moved to 'inactive status'

Earlier this month, Reade filed a report with the DC Metropolitan Police department memorializing her allegations about the 1993 incident. Even though the statute of limitations rendered a full investigation highly unlikely, she took the step, she told Insider at the time, for "safety reasons" because she had faced online harassment. "I also wanted to make it clear that I would be willing to go under oath or cooperate with any law enforcement regarding it, because it did happen," she said. "Even if it was 26 years ago."

On April 20, a police spokesperson told Insider that there was "an active investigation" into Reade's complaint. But in a statement on Saturday, the department said the case had been "moved to an inactive status." Reade said she expected that outcome, and said she is not backing down.

"I'd like to be heard in a fair and objective way," she said. "And I'd also like to hear Joe Biden's response, which has not happened. My hope is that the conversation will move forward and we will examine how I was treated when I came forward, and really look at the fact that, like domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment is not a partisan issue. It is an equal-opportunity offender."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bad news for Biden, but it won't hurt him because it did not hurt Trump when several women accused him of sexually assaulting them. That means we will have two pussy grabbing presidential candidates running against each other.

4 HOURS OF SWEET-TALKING A COLD BLOODED COP KILLER INTO GIVING UP

Gunman stood over officer and fired multiple times, affidavit says as second shot Baton Rouge officer fights for his life

WBRZ
April 26, 2020

BATON ROUGE – A police officer was killed in a Sunday afternoon shooting and a second officer was gravely injured during the same incident.

Police say the gunman responsible also killed at least one other person earlier that day during a domestic dispute.

The two officers were shot after responding to reports of gunfire and encountering the gunman on Conrad Drive, near the corner of Winbourne Avenue and N. Foster. The officers were shot around 12:30 Sunday afternoon.

According to official police documents 36-year-old Ronnie Kato, a man with a history of making threats against the police, has been identified as the shooter.

An affidavit report says after fatally shooting one of the officers, Kato stood over the deceased officer's body and continued to shoot him multiple times with an assault-style rifle.

Authorities say Kato's actions corresponded with earlier threats he'd made against officers of the law.

According to official documents, in 2017, Kato's girlfriend told authorities he'd threatened to "Gavin Long" any police officers who she called, a reference the man who shot and killed three officers in an ambush on Airline Highway in July 2016.

Police spent four hours in a standoff with Kato at the Conrad Drive home.

Earlier in the day, Kato had used the same assault-style rifle during a deadly domestic violence-related encounter on North Pamela Drive that left 58-year-old Curtis Richardson dead.

It was hours after this incident that the two officers encountered the gunman and were shot on Conrad Drive.

At a news conference Sunday evening, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said a 21-year police veteran died in the shooting. A seven-year police veteran was shot and was “fighting for his life,” the chief said.

The chief did not identify the officers. Baton Rouge Police will handle the investigation going forward.

Around 4 p.m. Sunday, reporters gathered near where the standoff was unfolding heard noises that sound like heavy gunfire. Police were in the area, attempting to coax the suspect from the house. Video captured by a WBRZ live camera at the scene recorded video where the sounds are heard lasting about 3 seconds.

Kato was later taken into custody.

Police from various area law enforcement agencies set up a motorcade for the body of the officer killed. There was a large procession leaving the hospital, a respectful memorial to officers killed in the line of duty.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I've said many times before, back in my time there would be no sweet talking to a cop killer. He would be ordered one or two times to surrender and failing to do so, the sorry piece of shit would have been shot multiple times.

40 and 57-YEAR OLD COLD CASES SOLVED USING GENEALOGY

Police use DNA, genealogy to arrest suspect in 1980 NorCal killing

Associated Press
April 26, 2020

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Northern California man has been arrested on suspicion of raping and killing a woman four decades ago after investigators used an advanced search technique to identify the suspect through DNA of possible family members.

Phillip Lee Wilson, 71, was being held in Sacramento County jail without bail on suspicion of killing Robin Gisela Brooks, who was 20 years old when she was stabbed to death in her Rosemont apartment on April 24, 1980. He was arrested at his home on Thursday, sheriff's officials said.

The Sacramento Bee reports Brooks was last seen walking home alone after ending her night shift at a doughnut shop.

There were no immediate suspects and the case went cold until 2004 when investigators developed a DNA profile from the person who apparently cut himself during the assault.

Sgt. Micki Links, who continued to investigate the case after he retired, said detectives used genetic genealogy to link Wilson to the crime.

The same DNA search technique was used to capture the suspected Golden State Killer who committed a series of California rapes and killings from the 1970s and 1980s.

“I have been involved in this investigation for 16 years,” Links said Friday at a news conference announcing Wilson's arrest. “I’ve dreamed of this day to actually stand up here and say we’ve arrested the man responsible for this crime.”

Brooks' sister, Maria, joined the conference by video and said she hoped Wilson's arrest will give hope to other victims of unsolved crimes.

“I know Robin is smiling and saying job well done,” she said.
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World's oldest cold case is solved: Rape and murder case of 16-year-old girl scout Margaret 'Peggy' Beck which was reopened 57 years after her death leads detectives to suspect aged 80 traced through a DNA database

Daily Mail
April 27, 2020

Margaret 'Peggy' Beck was raped and killed at the age of 16 while at a Girl Scout Camp in Jefferson County, Colorado in 1963.

Police are seeking James Raymond Taylor, now 80 years old if surviving, on suspicion of rape and murder at Flying G Ranch all those years ago.

Using genetic material preserved from the scene of the crime scientists were able to profile the suspect's DNA in 2007 and again in 2019.

These DNA profiles then led detectives to members of the suspect's family, whose DNA appeared as a match in online consumer databases - which contain genetic information gathered from home ancestry and DNA testing kits among other sources.

MAYBE THE RAT WAS ALIVE WHEN IT WAS DROPPED OFF AT THE POST OFFICE

Man guilty of sending dead rat to ex-wife in Florida

Associated Press
April 25, 2020

TAMPA — An Indiana man faces up to fives years in federal prison for threatening his ex-wife over several years and mailing a dead rat to her Florida home.

Romney Christopher Ellis, 55, of Indianapolis pleaded guilty Thursday in Tampa federal court to making interstate threats and mailing injurious articles, according to court records.

According to a criminal complaint, Ellis had engaged in a four-year-long campaign of harassment against his ex-wife, who lives in Tampa, through text messages, photographs, videos and mailings.

He threatened to decapitate and set her on fire, investigators said. He routinely made racially and sexually charged statements in the text messages, including sending sexually explicit images of himself.

Ellis sent text messages stating that he had traveled from Indiana to Florida to see his ex-wife. On one occasion, Ellis mailed a package to the victim’s home containing a dead rat and black rose.

Postal inspectors executed a search warrant at Ellis’s Indianapolis home in February. Prosecutors said they recovered a handwritten note containing the names and addresses of his ex-wife, as well as her family and friends.

NOT THE TIME TO BE MAKING JOKES

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calls state ‘God’s waiting room’

By Yaron Steinbuch

New York Post
April 27, 2020

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sparked outrage by referring to the Sunshine State as “God’s waiting room” during a briefing about the coronavirus pandemic.

“Florida is ground zero for the nursing home — we’re God’s waiting room,” DeSantis said Sunday, using an old joke about the number of retirees who flock to his state, WPLG Local 10 reported.

“We have a huge number of facilities, a huge number of residents,” he said, adding that Florida had acted swiftly to protect the elderly.

DeSantis said he realized from the beginning, by paying attention to statistics from South Korea, “that not all age groups were equally at risk for coronavirus” — and that deaths were occurring in “folks 65 and up.”

Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Terrie Rizzo slammed the Republican governor for his “God’s waiting room” comment.

“Governor, this isn’t a time to do stand-up, it’s a time to stand up and lead,” she said in a statement.

His remarks also were condemned on Twitter.

“Then the FL state house has to be Satan’s waiting room for heartless governors,” Mary Walters wrote.
see also
States begin to reopen as coronavirus pandemic intensifies

On Sunday, DeSantis also said at an Orlando medical center that parts of the state are now “on the other side” of the coronavirus outbreak.

He said he would soon announce whether he would lift edicts that shuttered much of the state’s economy, noting the “hysteria” in the early weeks of the outbreak has not materialized in Florida.

As of Sunday, the state had over 31,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,070 deaths.

“Florida has performed better than anyone predicted,” the governor said. “People should be comforted in knowing that all those predictions of hundreds of thousands of people hospitalized were not accurate, and it has just not been the case, so that’s a good thing.”

ISRAEL ACQUIRES US MADE RAPID CORONA TEST

1-hour corona testing hailed as 'game-changer'

By Maytal Yasur Beit-Or

Israel Hayom
April 27, 2020

Laboratory equipment that provides coronavirus test results in 45 minutes has been in use in Israel for the past week and a half, Israel Hayom has learned.

The new test processing units from the US-based Cepheid are considerably faster that the equipment previously used, which took three to four hours to show results. The units have been installed in over 40 hospitals, including geriatric centers.

The ability to achieve rapid results combined with extensive testing and epidemiological study is considered one of the most important tools in the nation's strategy to transition out of "corona mode." The new systems are in use mainly for cases considered urgent, such as women in labor who want to know if they have the virus, or geriatric patients who are hospitalized. The units, which can analyze up to 16 corona tests at once, are also used for medical staff.

After the new technology was approved for use in the US, the Trump administration placed limits on export quantities, but Israel's Medison Pharma imported a few of the systems via Sweden.

Professor Mitchell Schwaber of the National Center for Infection Control and Antibiotic Resistance in the Health Ministry said, "In my opinion, at this stage of our battle against the virus, the ability to diagnose as many people as possible quickly is critical. That ability has an enormous effect on the ability to test medial staff, to hospitalization of acute, geriatric, and psychiatric patients, and the community. In addition, rapid identification of carriers in the population at large is vital to our ability to isolate corona carriers quickly and get to the people with whom they had contact in real time, which is a game-changer."

Meir Jakobsohn, founder and CEO of Medison, said that the units from Cepheid were in "enormous demand in the US and abroad."

"The test is accurate and of high-quality and is characterized by the health and defense ministries as a 'game-changer' when it comes to finding and discovering cases of coronavirus," Jakobsohn said.

"I'm happy we managed to ensure a steady supply of tests to quickly. Our systems have been in place in Israeli hospitals for years, so the tests can be immediately put to use nationwide," he added.

Monday, April 27, 2020

KANSAS FARMER, COW SUFFER SERIOUS BURNS FROM METHANE EXPLOSION

Silas Whitman was lighting a cigarette when his cow farted

The Kansan
April 26, 2020

NEWTON, Kansas -- Harvey County Sheriff Chad Gay announced his department was called to the scene of an explosion at the Silas Whitman farm Sunday. The farm is located about eight miles west of Newton, just north of US50.

Upon their arrival, deputies found Whitman, 42, with serious burns to his face and chest, and his cow's rear badly burned.

Whitman was able to tell deputies that he was standing behind the cow and decided to light up a cigarette. All he remembered was flicking his lighter.

Deputies determined that the cow farted at the moment Whitman lit up his lighter, thus causing the methane gas to explode.

Whitman was ruched to the Ascension Via Christi St. Francis burn center in Wichita. A veterinarian was called to treat the cow.

Methane is a highly explosive gas. There have been several reports of methane gas explosions during colonoscopies.

CDC director Robert R. Redfield, said he was sending a team to the Wichita hospital to get Whitman's permission for CDC to use him in its "You Can Quit" anti-smoking TV commercials.

WELL, THAT WAS A SHORT TRIP

by Bob Walsh

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the most overturned court in the nation) has issued a stay against Judge Benitez's ruling in the CA ammo license case. That means the ammo license laws are now again in effect until the matter can be heard by a higher court. What a bunch of commie asswipes. (Actually, the court isn't nearly as liberal as it once was, thanks to Trump.)

ELECTRIC POWERED COMMERCIAL AVIATION IS HERE .....SORT OF AT LEAST

by Bob Walsh

The deHavilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a commonly used bush plane in the wilds of Canada. At the end of last year Harbour Air, a commercial operator of these planes in a float plane configuration installed a 750 HP electric engine in place of the Pratt & Whitney radial and flew the damn thing. They are so happy with it they are in the process of converting their entire fleet of 14 Beavers to electric power. The cost per mile and maintenance costs are about half of the gas powered version. The reduction in drag on the aircraft from the radial engine nose is significant. The electric engine weighs 300 pounds less than the gas engine and goes an incredible (for air engines) 10,000 hours between major maintenance intervals. The engine is specifically set up to spin at 1900 rpm, which is pretty much ideal for a propeller. The torque is incredible. The test flights have used well under full throttle for takeoff. Right now the power pack is slightly over 2,000 pounds but the production version should be about 1500 pounds.

The range is likely to be severely limited right now, but since Harbour Air's normal flight time is less than 1/2 hour per hop it is in the realm of reasonable.

Right now they anticipate actual paying client service starting up in about two years.

A VERY COSTLY DONATION

by Bob Walsh

The Sleep Train Arena is a large building on the edge of Sacramento, CA. It has been pretty much empty since the Kings went downtown and is likely to become the new site for the Sacramento Zoo.

When Sac started looking for a site for an emergency set-up field hospital the Kings organization "volunteered" the building. It is more-or-less modern, has lots of parking, easy access, a large open area, good utilities, etc. Looked like a winner, and the local media made much of the Kings' generosity.

What they didn't mention, and what wasn't real obvious from the get-go, was the kings' wanted (and got) $500,000 per month, plus utilities plus security costs for rent. Now I am not saying that is an unreasonable cost. The media had to file a FOIA to get a copy of the contract.

The total cost to the state will be about $3 million for three months. Is that a good deal for a 400 bed hospital? Maybe it is, I don't know. If, however, it is such a good deal why did they try to bury the cost?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Almost all of the sports franchise owners are robber barons socking it to the poor taxpayers. This is just one example.

INJECTING CORONAVIRUS SUFFERERS WITH LYSOL IS TRUMP'S LATEST CURE

President Trump's batshit crazy coronavirus 'cure' theories are not just shockingly senseless and stupid - they're going to kill people

by Piers Morgan

Daily Mail
April 23, 2020

SHUT THE FUCK UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP.

Seriously.

Throughout this coronavirus crisis, the leader of the free world has turned the daily White House task force briefing into a rambling two-hour self-promoting rally.

He's devoted large chunks of them to trashing the media, attacking political opponents, telling us how great he is, and re-writing history as he tries to defend all the mistakes he's made since the virus first erupted.

And he's done all this while 50,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, the worst death toll in the world, and nearly a million cases have now been reported across the country.

But by far the most reckless and dangerous thing President Trump has done is use the most powerful podium on earth to air his batsh*t crazy theories about how to beat the virus.

And last night he stooped to a shameful new low by suggesting people suffering from COVID-19 should be injected with toxic disinfectant.

Yes, you read that right.

It's hard to imagine a more stupid thing for a President to say than publicly float a completely unsubstantiated 'idea' like that which will inevitably make some Americans believe having bleach inside them will cure the virus.

Yet that's exactly what he did.

Trump made his absurd claim after William Bryan, the Department of Homeland Security under secretary for science and technology, gave a presentation about new research which supposedly shows 'emerging results' that coronavirus degrades faster in warm conditions and dies quickest when exposed to direct sunlight.

He didn't explain why if this is the case, the virus has wreaked havoc in warm weather parts of the US like Florida and New Orleans.

Bryan added that his research also indicated bleach can kill the virus in five minutes, and a concentrated isopropyl alcohol solution can kill it in 30 seconds.

The President loved what he was hearing and decided to proffer his own ideas after Bryan had finished.

His first was that irradiating patients' bodies with UV light might work too.

'Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light,' he said, turning to Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, whose blinking face remained wearily, impassive as he added: 'and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it? And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do through either the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too? Sounds interesting.'

He asked Dr Birx if she had ever heard of the 'heat and light' treatment to treat the virus.

'Not as a treatment,' she replied.

'I think it's a great thing to look at,' he countered.

But this, it transpired, was just the warm-up – literally - for his BIG idea.

'And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks out in a minute,' Trump mused.

'One minute. And there is a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So, it will be interesting to check that.'

At this point Trump stated the only fact he uttered during this medical diatribe of nonsense: 'I'm not a doctor.'

No, Mr President, you're not – so why do you keep pretending to be one?

He gave his own answer to that question: 'I'm like a person that has a good you-know-what.'

No, I don't know what, actually.

I just see a president pretending to be a medical expert and spewing theories that might have disastrous consequences.

Doctors around America reacted with bemusement and anger.

Pulmonologist Dr Vin Gupta told NBC News: 'This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it's dangerous. It's a common method that people utilise when they want to kill themselves.'

Another pulmonologist, John Balmes from Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, told Bloomberg News: 'Inhaling chlorine bleach would be absolutely the worst thing for the lungs. The airway and the lungs are not made to be exposed to even an aerosol of disinfectant. Not even a low dilution of bleach is safe. It's a totally ridiculous concept.'

Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at University of California at Berkeley, tweeted: 'Trump's briefings are actively endangering the public's health. Boycott the propaganda. Listen to the experts. And please don't drink disinfectant.'

Yet when Philip Rucker, a reporter from the Washington Post, challenged Trump by saying, 'respectfully, sir, you're the president and people turning into the briefings, they want information and guidance and want to know what to do. They're not looking for rumour,' Trump snapped back rudely: 'Hey Phil, I'm the president and you're fake news.. I'm just here to present talent, I'm here to present ideas.'

No, you're not, Mr President.

You're there to do exactly what that reporter said.

For you to use your platform to fly absurdly delusional and dangerous medical 'cures' during this crisis is an outrageous abuse of your position.

And why the hell is Homeland Security getting involved in medical solutions the virus anyway?

As Dr Irwin Redlener, the director of the Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, told MSNBC: 'Everything that this scientist talked about from homeland security was basically incoherent, nonsensical, not really supported by evidence, and really contrary to a lot of things that we do know about some of the things he was saying. People have been getting Covid in warm climates.. UV light can be very harmful.. and the fact the president actually asked somebody about injecting disinfectants or isopropyl alcohol into the human body was kind of jaw-dropping.'

Yes, it was.

Let's be very clear: disinfectants are extremely hazardous substances and can be poisonous if ingested.

Even external exposure to disinfectants can be very harmful to the skin and respiratory system.

We all know this because every bottle of disinfectant we ever buy carries ominous warnings about it.

Disinfectant manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser was one of many including Dettol and Lysol forced to put out a statement after Trump's comments, saying: 'We must make it clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route.)

Sadly, this is not the first President Trump has floated dangerous and unproven medical coronavirus cure theories.

Several weeks ago, he repeatedly pumped up a malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, and was joined by a number of enthusiastic conservative TV hosts and pundits.

Then he, and they, suddenly stopped.

Why?

A study of coronavirus patients in a US military veterans' hospital found MORE deaths among those treated with hydroxychloroquine than those treated without it.

So, it was doing more harm than good.

When Trump first began saying in mid-March what a good idea the drug was for coronavirus, a Phoenix man died after attempting to self-medicate from the virus by drinking chloroquine phosphate, a fish-tank cleaning additive that they wrongly thought was the hydroxychloroquine Trump had been talking about on TV.

His wife, who was left critically ill too but survived, said: 'We were scared of getting sick.'

How many Americans, also scared of getting sick now the crisis has escalated dramatically, will now be tempted to try taking bleach to combat COVID-19?

We don't know.

But what we do know is that if they do it because they heard President Trump say it was an 'interesting idea' on TV, then their deaths will be directly on him.

Think this won't happen?

The BBC reported today that sales of bleach have already been rocketing in the US during this pandemic because so many false conspiracy theories have erupted claiming it can help cure everything from autism to AIDS and hepatitis.

And as a direct result, calls to poison centres have also rocketed as people misuse it and ended up seriously ill from severe vomiting, diarrhoea, dehydration and acute liver failure after drinking bogus 'miracle cure' products containing bleach.

Yet despite this, President Trump thought it was a sensible move to suggest people should have bleach injected or ingested into their bodies to fight COVID-19.

Some found Trump's latest ridiculous medical theories amusing, and myriad Trump and bleach memes have gone viral on social media.

I don't find any of this funny.

In fact, I found his remarks breathtakingly stupid, reckless and dangerous.

As I said at the start of this column, the President needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think Kaboom will work better.

Seriously though, first Trump touts hydroxychloroquine as a "game changer" and now this. Call me a never-Trumper, but the longer he continues to hold these briefings, the more often his mouth will keep overloading his ass and the more batshit crazy he is going to look.
__________

TRUMP'S CLEAN GETAWAY
Donald Trump WALKS OUT of White House coronavirus briefing after just 22 minutes and refuses to take a single question a day after his disinfectant disaster


Daily Mail
April 24, 2020

President Donald Trump avoided questions at his White House briefing Friday after giving conflicting responses on his proposed idea of treating coronavirus with disinfectants.

Trump said he was being 'sarcastic' when he asked government officials to study the idea of injecting disinfectants as a possible cure for coronavirus. He said he wasn't being serious when he asked his coronavirus task force coordinator and another official took study the proposal, and claimed he was jousting with reporters - only to later say government scientists were already working on the idea.

'I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,' the president said - after his comments, delivered at length and no hint of a smile during his live televised press briefing, brought blowback.

An image of his medical adviser Dr. Debbie Birx's horrified reaction went viral, suggesting she did not think it was sarcastic.

Disinfectant manufacturers rushed out statements urging people not to consume their products and scientists warned of serious harm if people did.

EDITOR'S NOTE; Trump beat feet because his pants were on fire.
__________

No more coronavirus briefings? Trump tweets they are "Not worth the time & effort!"

Daily Mail
April 26, 2020

An embattled Trump took to his favorite social media platform on Saturday to slam 'fake news' and to cancel the White House press briefings.

'What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,' he asked in the Saturday tweet. 'They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!'

Prior to the tweets, the White House called the press pool and announced that the press briefing was cancelled.

The White House has expressed that Trump's frequent pressers may be causing more harm than good as his approval ratings slide back down into the 40s.

Concerns grew after the president's now infamous claims that injecting disinfectant could cure coronavirus. Trump made the off-the-cuff remark during a Thursday press conference where he appeared to suggest that Covid 19 could be cured by using UV light inside the body - and by injecting disinfectants.

Even close aides were said to be shocked by the 'off-the-cuff' disinfectant remarks while Dr Deborah Birx, on Trump's Coronavirus Task Force, looked horrified.

His aides blamed his remarks on an eagerness from the president to present positive news, according to NBC .

EDITOR'S NOTE: Blaming the reporting of his coronavirus cures on a hostile media and fake news won't fly since what Trump says is all caught on TV.

It's probably a good thing if the briefings are cancelled.

BIDEN THE PUSSY GRABBER

Video clip emerges of Joe Biden sexual assault accuser Tara Reade's mother phoning Larry King 27 years ago to ask if her daughter should go to the press about a 'prominent senator'

Daily Mail
April 25, 2020

A 1993 video clip has emerged of the mother of Vice President Joe Biden's sexual assault accuser speaking to CNN's Larry King about her daughter's alleged assault.

The video appears to back former Biden staffer Tara Reade's claims that she told her mother about the harassment related to her boss 27 years ago.

Reade filed an official criminal complaint against the now presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner on April 9, accusing Biden of shoving his hand under her skirt and penetrating her with his fingers while they stood in a senate corridor, an accusation he denied.

The latest evidence to emerge shows Reade's mother Jeanette Altimus calling into the Larry King Show in August 1993, the same month that Reade left Biden's staff, and anonymously asking a panel's advice on her daughter's 'problems' with a 'prominent senator'. There is no mention of sexual assault in the clip.

Reade, who was in her 20s at the time of the alleged assault, had previously revealed Altimus called into the show when she told her about the sexual assault claims 27 years ago but was unable to remember the exact date or year of the phone call.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob Walsh, it's high time you dropped that 'hairsniffer' crap and use 'pussy grabber' instead.

NEW YORK OUTLAWED THE DEATH PENALTY, YET IMPOSES THE DEATH PENALTY ON NURSING HOME PATIENTS

New York refused to send nursing home’s COVID-19 patients to nearly empty USNS Comfort

By Bernadette Hogan, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding

New York Post
April 24, 2020

New York health officials were warned in writing that a Brooklyn nursing home where 55 patients have died of coronavirus was overwhelmed — weeks before it began topping the state’s official list of resident COVID-19 deaths, damning emails show.

Cobble Hill Health Center CEO Donny Tuchman sent a desperate email to state Health Department officials on April 9, asking if there was “a way for us to send our suspected covid patients” to the hospital built inside the Javits Convention Center or the US Naval hospital ship Comfort — the under-utilized federal medical facilities on Manhattan’s West Side.

“We don’t have the ability to cohort right now based on staffing and we really want to protect our other patients,” Tuchman wrote in a chain of the emails reviewed by The Post.

He was denied.

“I was told those facilities were only for hospitals” to send their overflow patients, Tuchman said.

At the time Tuchman sent his plea, only 134 of the 1,000 beds at the Javits Center were full and the Comfort — which had just been reconfigured to treat up to 500 COVID-19 patients — had a mere 62 on board.

Adding insult to injury, the Navy hospital ship wound up treating just 179 patients before Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday said it was no longer needed.

The Comfort remained docked at Pier 90 with 29 patients on board Friday but was expected to return to its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, as soon as possible.

Cobble Hill has led all state nursing homes in the number of residents killed by the coronavirus since the state Health Department began releasing those figures last week.

That figure remained stable as of Thursday, the latest date for which statistics were available, and was followed by 51 at Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in Queens.

Kings Harbor Multicare Center in The Bronx, Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Queens, and Carmel Richmond Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Staten Island were next, with 45 deaths each.

Tuchman’s April 9 email wasn’t the only time that the state was put on notice about the dire conditions at Cobble Hill.

In an email one day earlier, Tuchman told Health Department officials that the facility had “over 50 symptomatic patients scattered through the building and almost no gowns.”

Tuchman said Cobble Hill had been asking the city’s Office of Emergency Management “daily” for more gowns, but “gotten only a few hundred delivered.”

“There is no way for us to prevent the spread under these conditions,” he wrote in desperation on April 8. “Is there anything more we can do to protect our patients and staff? Thank you for any help you could be.”

Tuchman got a response 20 minutes later, but all it offered was an attachment with advice on how to conserve PPE, the email chain shows.

“Many facilities have built this guidance into their contingency plan in the event of PPE supply shortages and depletion of supplies. Thanks,” a health official wrote.

A follow-up response about two hours later added, “Please be sure to submit your request through the local OEM daily” — even though Tuchman had said he was already doing that.

Tuchman said Friday the shortages of protective gear grew so severe staffers resorted to wearing trash bags as protection — echoing the situation that scandalized Mount Sinai West hospital in Manhattan when The Post exposed the practice there last month.

“This has been a very sad and painful experience,” Tuchman added. “Once the virus gets into the building it is very, very hard to control.”

Cuomo sparked widespread outrage earlier this week when he said that providing private nursing homes with PPE was “not our job,” with Mayor de Blasio, a longtime rival, saying there’s a “moral imperative to protect our seniors.”

Cuomo also said Thursday that any nursing home that can’t provide a coronavirus patient with an “adequate level of care” could ask the Health Department to transfer the patient elsewhere, and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said he was unaware of any nursing home having made that request.

Under a controversial March 25 order, the Health Department barred nursing homes from refusing admission to “medically stable” coronavirus patients.

In a prepared statement, Health Department spokesman Gary Holmes said, “To be clear: We engaged in conversation with Mr. Tuchman on more than one occasion regarding staffing. He wanted additional help, but stated he was able to meet basic needs under the directive – which included having adequate facilities.”

Holmes also said officials “conducted a focus survey at Cobble Hill and found no deficient practices” and that it would soon be receiving “more than 1,400 gowns and approximately 1,500 face shields.”

“Additionally, as we track inventory for all facilities daily, our records indicate they have more than a week’s supply of N95 masks, two month’s supply of surgical masks, and nearly two week’s supply of gloves,” he added.

USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT SHOULD GET ITS SACKED CAPTAIN BACK

US Navy recommends reinstating aircraft carrier captain fired over leaked coronavirus warning

By Ryan Pickrell

Business Insider
April 24, 2020

US Navy leaders recommended the reinstatement of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was fired over a leaked coronavirus warning, The New York Times reported Friday afternoon.

The recommendation to reinstate Crozier was confirmed by multiple other outlets.

The recommendation was delivered by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and acting Secretary of the Navy James McPherson to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who has reportedly requested more time to make his decision on the former carrier captain.

Gilday and McPherson, according to The Times, determined last week that Crozier should not have been removed from his position as captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Their recommendation was presented to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Tuesday and Esper on Friday.

Following the reports on the Navy's decision, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement that "this afternoon, Secretary Esper received a verbal update from the acting Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations on the Navy's preliminary inquiry into the COVID-19 outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt."

"After the Secretary receives a written copy of the completed inquiry, he intends to thoroughly review the report and will meet again with Navy leadership to discuss next steps. He remains focused on and committed to restoring the full health of the crew and getting the ship at sea again soon."

Lawmakers have weighed in on the decision, urging Esper to reinstate Crozier. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith wrote Friday, "During this time of crisis, Captain Crozier is exactly what our Sailors need: a leader who inspires confidence ... Captain Crozier should be reinstated to his command immediately."

The saga of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the coronavirus outbreak aboard the carrier has been an unusual ride, one that has seen a ship captain relieved of his command, hundreds of sailors fall ill, and the resignation of an acting Navy secretary.

The Navy revealed that there had been a coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt on March 24. The number of sailors who tested positive quickly multiplied, growing rapidly from just three to a few dozen in a matter of days.

The carrier was forced into port in Guam, where it has been sidelined for a month.

On March 30, Crozier sent an email to three admirals in his chain of command and copied seven Navy captains, The Washington Post reported.

He said in the email: "I believe if there is ever a time to ask for help it is now regardless of the impact on my career."

Attached to the email was a four-page letter warning that the situation aboard the carrier was worsening and urging the Navy to quickly evacuate the crew. "Sailors do not need to die," he wrote.

That letter leaked to The San Francisco Chronicle and was published in full on March 31.

Two days later, then-acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly announced he had decided to relieve Crozier of his command.

Modly did not directly accuse Crozier of leaking the letter but said he allowed it to be distributed outside the chain of command, making it susceptible to a leak. He said the captain "demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis."

The acting secretary later revealed to The Washington Post that he moved swiftly to fire Crozier, even as other military leaders recommended first conducting an investigation, because he was concerned that President Donald Trump might feel the need to intervene.

An investigation, which informed the recommendation of Navy leaders, was launched after the captain was relieved of his command.

The day after Modly's announcement, videos of captain leaving the ship surfaced online. The videos showed his crew cheering and chanting his name.

On April 6, Modly, who flew out to Guam at a cost of $243,000 to taxpayers, spoke to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. In a profanity-laced speech, he sharply criticized Crozier for perceived failings and expressed frustration with the crew's love for their captain.

After transcripts and audio recordings of the speech leaked to the media, Modly issued a statement saying he stood by every word. Later that day, he issued a follow-up statement apologizing to the Navy, Crozier, and the carrier crew.

Modly resigned on April 7, submitting his resignation to the secretary of defense.

As the Navy continued its investigation into Crozier's actions, it has also continued its battle the coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The aircraft carrier is mostly empty at the moment, as roughly 88% of the crew of roughly 4,800 sailors has been moved ashore. As of Friday, a total of 856 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier had tested positive for the coronavirus. A number of sailors have been hospitalized, and one sailor assigned to the carrier has died.

CORONA GLOOM AND DOOM

Israeli Army: Corona Crisis to Last Another 18 Months

By Ryan Jones

Israel Today
April 24, 2020

It’s hard to imagine even another week under lockdown. Many worry that every extra day of closure brings the economy closer to total collapse. But Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate believes that the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors will be dealing with the coronavirus and its aftermath until the end of 2021, at least.

It’s the job of Israel’s military intelligence to routinely assess the long-term affects of various events and situations. And it’s good at this job. In the case of COVID-19, these experts should be taken even more seriously.

According to veteran Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, the Military Intelligence Directorate has dedicated unprecedented resources to keeping on top of the coronavirus, both at home and abroad.

Caspit reported in the Hebrew-language daily Ma’ariv that the formation of Israel’s global coronavirus intelligence center happened about two months ago. The head of the directorate’s technology arm, identified only as Col. N, seemed distracted. Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Tamir Hayman asked him what was on his mind. Fear that Israel could be the next Italy, that’s what Col. N couldn’t shake.

General Hayman wasted no time. Col. N was immediately put in charge of a task force comprising 400 analysts and experts who scan every shred of information related to the coronavirus worldwide. In this way, from their command center at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israeli Military Intelligence is able to produce some of the world’s most detailed analyses and strategies in the battle against COVID-19.

How long?

Israel’s Military Intelligence is in the know when it comes to the coronavirus. That much is clear. The fact that they are devoting so much of their resources to this crisis should be quite telling.

Still, Caspit asked how long General Hayman and his men believed the crisis would last. Until the end of 2021, at least, was the disheartening answer.

Of course, there is debate over whether it’s the virus itself, or the aftermath of our government’s policies that will take so long to overcome.

Many experts, including Israelis, are saying that COVID-19 is something we will have to learn to live with, even if a vaccine is developed. It will become a seasonal threat like the thousands of other viruses we battle every year. Perhaps more damaging is the global lockdown, which in Israel has resulted in 27 percent unemployment. Nightly news broadcasts have shifted from scaremongering over the number of dead to heart-wrenching stories of average Israelis who can’t put food on their tables.

Lying neighbors

Arab states and Iran are lying about their number of infected and dead, charged Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. And that makes the timeline to regional recovery even more uncertain.

Channel 13 News cited Cohen as telling a meeting of health officials on Thursday:

“In Lebanon, Iraq and Syria there is a high morbidity and they’re lying. The number of infected and dead that the Iranians are reporting is also not true. The numbers I’m familiar with are much higher.”

Iran has confirmed 87,000 coronavirus cases and 5,481 deaths. That already makes it the hardest hit country in the Middle East. And the reality could be much worse. Cohen is not the only one saying that the Islamic Republic is concealing the true extent of the crisis.

Iraq, meanwhile, has confirmed just 1,677 cases and 83 deaths, Lebanon has reported 688 infections and 22 deaths, and Syria has confirmed a mere 42 cases and three deaths.

ISRAEL SHOULD TELL THE ANTI-ISRAEL UN AND ALSO THE EU TO FUCK OFF!

UN, EU warn Israel against pushing annexation plans

Israel Hayom
April 24, 2020

The United Nations' special envoy to the Middle East on Thursday Warned Israel against pushing ahead with applying sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, a move the fledgling Israeli government would be able to pursue as early as July 1 under its coalition agreement,

The UN's warning joined one issued by the European Union, who urged Israel not to compromise the current status quo in the area.

In a video briefing with the UN Security Council on Thursday, special envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov cautioned that Israeli annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley would deal a "devastating blow" to the two-state solution.

French news agency AFP said that, citing the "continued confrontation and fighting, as the human toll of war continues to rise," Mladenov called Israel's plans to apply sovereignty to areas designated for Israel under the US peace plan for the region were "dangerous" and could significantly destabilize the region.

"The dangerous prospect of annexation by Israel of parts of the occupied West Bank is a growing threat," he said, asserting that any such move would be in a violation of international law.

"This would deal a devastating blow to the two-state solution, close the door to a renewal of negotiations, and threaten efforts to advance regional peace," he said.

Mladenov thus echoed European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, who said any annexation move by Israel "would constitute a serious violation of international law."

The 27-member bloc does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and that it will "continue to closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly," Borrell said.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Blue and White leader Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement that would enable the move despite the latter's aversion to it.

Netanyahu's pro-settler base is eager to move forward with annexation while the friendly administration of US President
Donald Trump is in office.

The White House's long-awaited Mideast plan, unveiled earlier this year, envisions leaving parts of the West Bank under
permanent Israeli control. The Palestinians have rejected the plan as biased.

Israel's Foreign Ministry responded to the EU with a statement deploring that Borrell "opts to see the relations between
Israel and the European Union" solely through the "status of the territories."

HIDALGO SUED BY DR. ATTILA THE HUN

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo sued over face mask requirement

KPRC
April 23, 2020

HOUSTON – A Houston-area doctor who is also a conservative political activist is suing to block Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s recent order requiring residents over 10 years old to wear face masks in public places for 30 days, with some narrow exceptions.

"The rights we enjoy under the Texas Constitution are being trampled on by Judge Hidalgo, while millions of individuals have lost their jobs and thousands of businesses are on the brink of bankruptcy," Dr. Steven Hotze's petition to the Harris County District Court reads. "If Judge Hidalgo's Order is not declared unconstitutional and void, once this virus passes, the rights we are afforded under the Texas Constitution will forever be damaged."

The suit claims Hidalgo has exceeded her authority by implementing orders more restrictive than those of Gov. Greg Abbott, which take precedence. It also claims that the Disaster Act limits Hidalgo’s powers to those explicitly outlined in the statute, which “does not contain any language forcing private citizens to wear masks, wash their hands, refrain from touching their face, or stay 6 feet away from another under the threat of fines.”

Hidalgo's order, signed Wednesday and slated to take effect Monday, comes after similar measures were taken by local officials in Austin, Dallas and Laredo to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. According to the order, violations are punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail.

Jared Woodfill, who is representing Hotze, said Hidalgo must show a compelling governmental interest and ensure the infringement on private residents' rights is narrow; he believes she's satisfied neither requirement.

"This is clearly the most egregious order that I've seen from an elected official regarding this COVID-19 pandemic in the entire country. I haven't seen any that have gone this far," he said, referencing the hefty fine. "This sets horrible precedent for future viruses and future elected officials who will come in and say, 'Well, look at what Judge Hidalgo did. We can do the same thing.'"

He expects there will be a hearing on a temporary restraining order by Friday. If denied, Woodfill said he will immediately appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. In the meantime, a rally called "Let Freedom Ring" is planned to take place outside Hidalgo's office at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Hidalgo could not be immediately be reached for comment.

Hidalgo’s decision quickly drew criticism from Republican elected officials like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston. Attorney General Ken Paxton emphasized that police officers should “use discretion” and focus on dangerous criminals posing a threat to the community. Nearby Galveston and Montgomery counties made clear they would not be following Hidalgo’s lead.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hotze is far to the right of Attila the Hun. I really don't think he gives a shit about the face mask order ... he just wants to keep his fading star in the spotlight.

TEXANS ARE 'EXTREMELY' CONCERNED ABOUT THE ECONOMY

Most Texas Voters Think Coronavirus Will Be Contained ‘In The Next Few Months,’ UT/TT Poll Finds

by Ross Ramsey

The Texas Tribune
April 24, 2020

Texas voters are concerned about the coronavirus and believe it presents a serious crisis, and they are deeply worried about the economy, unemployment and the health care system. But they also think the disease could be contained enough to return daily life to normal within a few months, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

The coronavirus pandemic is a serious crisis, according to 66% of registered Texas voters, while 26% say it’s “a serious problem but not a crisis.” Democrats are more likely than Republicans to call it a crisis: 91% said so, compared with 48% of Republicans. And urban voters (75%) were more likely to call it a crisis than suburban voters (66%) or rural voters (54%). While 81% of black voters say the pandemic is a serious crisis, only 66% of Hispanic and 65% of white voters agreed.

“Partisans are relying on different sources of information,” said Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’re hearing something different. It’s not that Republicans don’t think it’s a crisis. It’s that they don’t think the Democrats are getting good information.”

A majority of voters (54%) are “extremely” or “very” concerned that the coronavirus will spread in their communities. Again, the poll found differences: The level of concern is higher among Democrats than Republicans, urban voters over suburban and rural voters, and black and Hispanic Texans over white voters.

Large majorities are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the national and state economies, unemployment and the health care system. At the same time, 43% say they’re satisfied with the health care system, while 52% are not.

The economic concerns erase party lines: 72% of Texas voters are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the national economy, and 67% say the same about the state economy. Worry over unemployment — 75% say it’s a top concern — is also amplified. Democrats (83%) were a bit more likely than Republicans (71%) to express deep concern, but the issue is clearly on the minds of a substantial majority of Texas voters.

“These attitudes are, to some extent, evidence that social distancing has worked,” Blank said. “People are more concerned about the economy. You might have no chance of getting the virus because you’re not leaving your house, but you could still lose your job. That affects more people directly than the coronavirus does.”

Health care is also a major issue, with 65% saying they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about it. At the same time as they fret over the strain on that system, 43% of voters — and 64% of Republicans — say they are “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with the health care system in the U.S. Only 24% of Democrats agree; 74% of them are “not very” or “not at all” satisfied with the country’s health care system.

How Things Are Going

A small group of voters — 9% — believes the coronavirus has been “contained in the U.S. to the point that most activities like social gatherings, workplaces and sporting events can return to normal.” Another 21% think the situation will reach that point in the next few weeks, 41% say it’ll happen in the next few months, and 17% think it will be contained in the next year. A small group — 9% — thinks it will be a year or more before things return to normal.

Republicans are more optimistic than Democrats, with 47% saying either that the disease is already sufficiently contained or that it will be in the next few weeks. Among Democrats, only 12% agree, with 46% saying containment will come in the next few months and 28% saying it will come in the next year.

“There’s a lot of sentiment in the middle of the spectrum here,” said Daron Shaw, a government professor at UT-Austin and co-director of the poll. “It’s a serious crisis, at the very least a big deal. And while we’re concerned about the damage to the economy, it’s such a public health risk that that takes precedence now. When you’re talking about the people in the middle willing to go along with what the government is doing, there’s a general sense that Americans will do a lot to deal with it.”

As some voters have turned their attention to the economy and some have developed more optimistic views than others about when the coronavirus will be contained, the patient tend to separate from the impatient within the electorate, said James Henson, co-director of the poll and head of the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin. Democrats want to wait, while some Republicans want to reopen the economy.

“Almost half of Republicans say it is already over or will be in the next few weeks; 47% say it’s already contained,” Henson said. “And you can see what public officials think their partisans want. If your constituents think we’re doing enough, you’re going to be reluctant to do more.”

A 57% majority of Texas voters say the people they know are either doing enough or doing too much to adjust their habits to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. A slim majority of Democrats, 51%, say people aren’t doing enough, while 37% say they are; among Republicans, 55% say the people they know are doing enough (and 13% say they’re doing too much), while only 24% say they’re not doing enough.

Whether to remain at home turns out to be a partisan issue. A majority of registered voters, 55%, say not keeping people at home long enough is a bigger threat to the country than keeping people at home for too long; 34% see it the other way, saying it’s a bigger threat to let stay-at-home policies overstay their welcome.

A 55% majority of Republicans, however, say remaining at home for too long is the greater threat. For 83% of Democrats, the bigger worry is not keeping people at home long enough in response to the coronavirus.

“There is some predictable ideological reaction to this,” Shaw said. “Republicans want to get back to normal and regard the government restrictions as onerous. But the magnitude of the difference, the devolution into partisan lines, is really striking.”

Many Republican voters expect a return to normal activity relatively soon — an expectation reinforced by official talk of loosening restrictions next week. Their leaders are watching that while also talking to medical experts about what’s going on with the pandemic. “This explains why, in a competitive state like Texas, you would constantly be adjusting the throttle,” Henson said.

Voters’ Personal Concerns

On a personal level, health issues outweigh financial issues with voters, with 80% expressing concern about “you or someone you know” getting infected, and 71% concerned about their physical safety or the safety of someone they know. Loss of savings or retirement funds were a concern for 64%.

Female voters (50%) are more likely than male voters (39%) to say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about physical safety. And black (50%) and Hispanic (52%) Texans are more likely than white (40%) voters to have heightened concerns about safety.

Asked what they’re “extremely concerned” about — an indication of urgency — respondents’ top items are getting infected or having someone you know get infected (33%), loss of savings or retirement funds (25%), physical safety (25%), paying utility and other bills (20%), making rent or house payments (18%), and losing your job (17%).

Life And Work During The Pandemic

Most voters — 63% — say they only leave their residences when they “absolutely have to,” while 20% say they still leave their residences, but carefully. About 9% say they’re living just as they did before the pandemic, and about the same number say they haven’t been leaving home at all.

Republican voters say they get out more — 11% continuing as they did before the outbreak and 26% saying they’re going out but are careful when they do — but 58% say they’re only leaving home when they must. More Democratic voters (70%) say they’re not roaming unless they have to, while 5% are behaving as they did before the pandemic and 15% say they come and go with care.

A large number of Texans — 44% — say their work status or situation has changed since the outbreak of the virus. That was the answer from 41% of white voters, 47% of black voters and 52% of Hispanic voters. More than a third of those with changed work situations say they are now unemployed because of the pandemic, including 51% of Hispanic voters in that group, 43% of black voters and 28% of white voters. Among college graduates whose work circumstances changed because of the pandemic, 25% say they’re now unemployed; among those who finished high school and didn’t go to college, it was 46%.

Among those whose work situations have changed but who are still employed, 64% say they are working at home or remotely instead of in their regular workplaces, 32% are working fewer hours, and 19% have seen either their pay or benefits cut.

Most of the voters whose work situations are the same as they were before the pandemic are either retired or were already unemployed, but 41% work full or part time — 40% of them at home, 60% outside their homes.

Support For Coronavirus Proposals

An overwhelming majority of Texas voters — 85% — say they would support mandatory quarantines of anyone exposed to the coronavirus. Only 7% say they would oppose those policies. That support cuts across party and demographic lines.

“When push comes to shove, there is extreme majority support across every group for quarantining anyone exposed to the virus,” Blank said. “Even if a large number of Republicans don’t see it as a crisis, when it comes to the seriousness of the virus at the individual level, there’s no ambiguity.”

A 75% majority says employers should be required to offer paid sick leave to employees who are ill. Sick leave had the support of 71% of Texas voters in a February 2019 UT/TT Poll; Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support it, but a solid majority of Republicans, 61%, say sick leave should be a required benefit. Within the Republican ranks, there’s a large difference. While GOP men favor required sick leave 53% to 34%, GOP women favor it 67% to 12%. Among Democrats, 92% back sick leave as a required benefit.

A narrower majority — 55% — say all Texans should be allowed to vote by mail in the coming 2020 general election in response to the pandemic. This issue, currently being fought in the courts in Texas, is plainly partisan. Among Republicans, 59% say they would oppose allowing all Texans to vote that way, while 86% of Democrats favor it. A slight majority of independents, 51%, favor wide-scale voting by mail in Texas.

For accurate information about the coronavirus, voters trust medical and health professionals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, friends and family, and Gov. Greg Abbott, in that order. Their least-trusted sources for that kind of information, again in order, are social media and online sources, the news media, and Donald Trump.

Asked what information sources they rely on, registered voters’ top answers were local news sources, conversations with family and close friends, newspaper and online journalism outlets, network TV news, and cable news

The University of Texas/Texas Tribune internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from April 10-19 and has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points, and overall margins of error of +/- 4.24 percentage points for the coronavirus unemployment question, +/- 5.36 percentage points for the question on work status, +/-3.77 percentage points for the question on the status of those not displaced by the pandemic, and +/-5.94 percentage points on the question of where the unaffected but employed voters are working. Numbers in charts might not add up to 100% because of rounding