babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal'Make America Normal Again': Trump backers plead for a virus plan
That ship has sailed and is not returning.
‘Make America Normal Again’: Trump backers plead for a virus plan
Political allies say outlining a more specific plan to battle the coronavirus might be the most important factor for Trump's reelection.
By ANITA KUMAR
07/24/2020 07:45 PM EDT
President Donald Trump restarted the White House coronavirus briefings. He urged Americans to wear masks. He even scrapped his party’s convention.
To many of his own allies, it’s still not enough.
Trump’s political allies, alarmed by his sinking poll numbers, are warning that the president’s best chance to get reelected is to outline more detailed plans to conquer the coronavirus he keeps trying to wish away. They are advising him to offer people something concrete they can look to as the pandemic surges in dozens of states, eroding months of progress.
“The message has to be about the path forward,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.
For weeks, Trump had been doing anything but that. He demonized protesters. He crowed about mail-in voting fraud. He bragged — more than once — about the results of a cognitive test.
Then this week, Trump made more public attempts to change his focus. He spoke of plans to protect nursing home residents. He discussed an agreement to purchase potential coronavirus vaccines. He backed away from strident demands for the next economic relief package being hashed out on Capitol Hill.
Yet the president continued to offer contradictory messages, pushing again for schools to open in the fall, despite the concerns of public health officials. And he didn’t outline any specific plans for addressing complaints about the long wait for test results and the lack of contact tracing, one major key to curbing the spread of the disease. And he claimed that his administration had filled all its requests from states for supplies, though governors dispute that.
more...
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/24/trump-backers-plead-virus-plan-381316
Biden Has Opened Up Huge Lead
https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/25/biden-has-opened-up-huge-lead/
Biden Has Opened Up Huge Lead
July 25, 2020 at 7:41 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Trump’s approval rate is 37% to 60%.
Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot, 51% to 37%.
House GOP Pleas to RNC Go Unanswered
https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/25/house-gop-pleas-to-rnc-go-unanswered/
House GOP Pleas to RNC Go Unanswered
July 25, 2020 at 7:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“While the Trump campaign and the RNC have brought in record amounts of money, some Trump officials see donating to the House as a wasteful investment as the GOP’s chances of reclaiming the majority sharply deteriorate. Their decline in fortunes can largely be attributed to Trump’s sagging support over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the sliding economy.”
State and local officials sue Trump over census order
TheHill.com
State and local officials sue Trump over census order
By Harper Neidig - 07/24/20 04:41 PM EDT
A coalition of state and local officials sued President Trump and his administration Friday over an executive action that would exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census.
The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleges that the order "unequivocally" violates the Constitution's directions for conducting the census.
"And removing undocumented immigrants from the apportionment base will further harm Plaintiffs by, for example, undermining their ability to conduct congressional and state-level redistricting, depriving them of critical federal funding, and eroding the quality of census data on which they rely to perform essential government functions."
New York was joined by 19 other states, Washington, D.C., and more than a dozen cities and states. The coalition includes Colorado, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle.
more...
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/508951-state-and-local-officials-sue-trump-over-census-order
Kim Guilfoyle, Don Jr. Reportedly Stranded Trump Staffers In South Dakota
Shocker-not.
Kim Guilfoyle, Don Jr. Reportedly Stranded Trump Staffers In South Dakota
After Guilfoyle tested positive for COVID-19, she and the president’s son apparently took a jet back to New York, leaving staffers to fend for themselves—an incident some say is emblematic of the turmoil on her fundraising team.
By Eric Lutz
July 24, 2020
Kimberly Guilfoyle may not have the Trump surname, but she certainly fits in, evidently possessing that special blend of incompetence and carelessness that’s central to the family brand. Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., formally joined the president’s re-election bid as a senior adviser in 2019 and has been serving since February as the campaign’s national finance chair. In some respects she’s been successful, helping Donald Trump to build up a considerable war chest. But, according to Politico, she’s also overseen a money-raising operation rife with chaos, cronyism, and backstabbing.
Republicans familiar with her fundraising unit told the outlet that Guilfoyle’s staff is in a state of “upheaval,” with employees leaving and being replaced by additions with little to no relevant experience other than connections to Guilfoyle and her deputy, Sergio Gor, who has feuded with longtime fundraiser Caroline Wren. Caught between Gor and Wren, staffers have reportedly been further upset by Guilfoyle claiming credit for their work—and for apparent disregard for rank-and-file campaign workers, as evidenced by an episode earlier this month in which she and Don Jr. left junior staffers stranded in South Dakota after she tested positive for COVID-19.
The couple had originally made plans to road trip back to New York from South Dakota, where the president gave a dark and divisive speech in front of Mount Rushmore, but apparently took a private flight instead, leaving several junior campaign staffers who’d been in contact with the infected Guilfoyle behind to quarantine alone in their hotel rooms, “scared they’d get sick in a city they’d never set foot in before,” according to Politico. The incident left the staffers so shaken that they reportedly sought out campaign chief of staff Stephanie Alexander weeks later, and several last week sought a meeting with Brad Parscale, though that fell through after he took the fall for the sputtering campaign.
more...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/kim-guilfoyle-don-jr-stranded-trump-staffers-in-south-dakota
Anti-gay politician who decried mask mandate as "draconian" has been hospitalized for COVID
Anti-gay politician who decried mask mandate as “draconian” has been hospitalized for COVID
He wanted to cut funding for "Sesame Street" this year for promoting "the radical LGBTQ agenda."
By Bil Browning Friday, July 24, 2020
An anti-LGBTQ Arkansas Republican who called his state’s mask mandate “draconian” has been hospitalized with a coronavirus infection.
State Sen. Jason Rapert (R), who proposed defunding PBS over an episode of Sesame Street in which out actor Billy Porter appeared, calling it part of “the radical LGBTQ agenda,” has been hospitalized for pneumonia and tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, according to an announcement posted to his Facebook account.
“This is a difficult time for my family, but we know that God is with us always,” Rapert said. “We’re sincerely grateful for the many prayers of love and support that have been expressed on our behalf.”
Despite claiming in a Facebook post that “we have all been doing our best to wear a mask,” the senator was recently seen attending church without a mask. He also condemned the governor’s mask mandate “on principle.”
more...
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/07/anti-gay-politician-decried-mask-mandate-draconian-hospitalized-covid/
LeBron James joins push to turn out ex-felon vote in Florida
LeBron James joins push to turn out ex-felon vote in Florida
By GARY FINEOUT
07/24/2020 01:32 PM EDT
TALLAHASSEE — A group founded by NBA superstar LeBron James and other Black athletes and entertainers is stepping into the fight to register Florida voters with felony records, saying it will help pay court debts and fees so they can cast ballots in the November presidential election.
More Than A Vote, a group established by James and others in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis, on Friday said it will donate $100,000 to help pay outstanding court debts of ex-felons so they can register to vote. The money will go to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which in 2018 successfully pushed to a constitutional amendment that lifted Florida's lifetime voting ban on people with felony convictions. After the amendment passed, the Republican-led state Legislature earlier this year raised the bar for felons to vote, passing a law that is being challenged in federal court.
The partnership will help ensure that "formerly incarcerated American citizens — many of them Black and brown — are able to pay their outstanding fines and fees and register to vote in the 2020 election and beyond.”
The coalition already has raised more than $1.5 million for its fees-and-fines fund, but the partnership with More Than A Vote is expected to bring attention and awareness to the effort.
Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, said the partnership will strengthen democracy and make more voices heard.
The partnership comes amid a bitter legal fight over the voting requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups have likened to an unconstitutional poll tax. One study projected that as many as 775,000 people in Florida with felony convictions have financial obligations that render them ineligible under the law. Of the more than 13.7 million voters registered in the battleground state, nearly a third are either Black or Hispanic.
more...
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/07/24/lebron-james-joins-push-to-turn-out-ex-felon-vote-in-florida-1303417
"Their silence is criminal."
Posted on FB by my sister~ written by Jake Tapper
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=2080958988803211&story_fbid=2882911795274589
We all knew. When he first rode that golden escalator to a paid crowd to announce his candidacy, we knew. His speech tinged with racism and misogyny was only a precursor of what was to come. He told us who he was.
The Republicans have been sucked into the black hole of Trumpism and they are pulling the nation into the abyss. Silent, passive, weak.
While I blame him, I hold most of my contempt for the Republican Party, they had the power to stop him, but didn't.
They have the power to reign him in, but won't.
They stand on the sidelines flush with power and watch him destroy our democratic norms. They watch him violate the Constitution they all swore an oath to defend.
Today in the United States, children are torn from their parents' arms to languish in squalid conditions, caged, alone and afraid. Families remain in a semi-permanent limbo arrested and unable to seek redress.
Today in the United States at least 70,000 Americans will be diagnosed with Covid19. On July 17 it was 74,987, nearly 3 times the number diagnosed only a month ago on June 17 when it was 26,257. The death toll now tops 140,000 and projections are that a quarter of a million Americans will likely be dead by 11/1/2020. Just days before the election. We still lack adequate PPE, we still have inadequate testing, hospitals in some areas are running out of ICU beds, the data is being subverted, a document produced by the task force that shows 18 "red zones" was withheld, witnesses are not being allowed to testify, and the Republicans remain silent.
We have watched Trump abandon our allies leaving the Kurds to be slaughtered by Turkish forces. We just learned he has no interest in challenging Putin over the bounties and murder of our own Troops, and the Republicans remain silent.
An acting director of DHS, acting commissioner of CBP, and acting head of Immigration and Naturalization have unleashed an unmarked, unidentified, paramilitary force on the city of Portland. Their mission to abduct and terrorize "Violent Anarchists" who have committed the act of graffiti on federal buildings. They do this with the blessing of the DOJ under a bizarre Executive Order expanding the role of the FPS to protect "monuments", and Republicans remain silent.
We witnessed the murder of an unarmed black man under the knee of a sadistic police officer. Protests over police brutality were met by police brutality. Police insisting that they are above the law and will not be called to account for their actions. As the list of senseless and cruel deaths at the hands of police grows, the administration has sided with the police and the Republicans have offered nothing but "incentives" to stem the genocide.
He is destroying the USPS, putting it in the hands of a wealthy donor who has already ordered service to be "slowed down".
He has instructed the DOJ to negotiate away protections for people with pre-existing conditions making their health insurance unobtainable.
He is destroying Voice of America to create his own propaganda machine within the Federal Government.
He teargassed and shot rubber bullets at peaceful protesters, including the Priests at St. Johns to do a photo op.
Eliminating Trump is not enough every Republican that has remained silent and enabled this must be voted from office.
Their silence is criminal.
Their silence enables him.
Their silence destroys what made America great in the first place.
The list is endless, but the silence of the Republican party is deafening, and I will never forgive them or the people who continue to support them.
May we all get to November 3 and vote in such overwhelming numbers we destroy Trumpism forever, before it destroys us.”
Two Florida mayors urge residents to wear masks at home
Two Florida mayors urge residents to wear masks at home
By Marty Johnson - 07/23/20 10:05 PM EDT
Two Florida mayors who govern Miami and Miami-Dade County encouraged their residents on Thursday to wear masks inside to lower the transmission rate of COVID-19 between family members.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) explained that while the city's number of daily new cases is down, the virus is still being spread easily through households, as multigenerational households are commonplace in Miami.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez (R) had a similar message at his own press conference.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/508836-two-florida-mayors-urge-residents-to-wear-masks-at-home
"Trump Voters Are Old and They Don't Want to Die": Why Trump Finally Flip-Flopped on Mask Wearing
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/why-trump-finally-flip-flopped-on-mask-wearing“Trump Voters Are Old and They Don’t Want to Die”: Why Trump Finally Flip-Flopped on Mask Wearing
New campaign chiefs Bill Stepien and Jason Miller got the president to reverse course as sagging swing state polls show his coronavirus strategy is tanking with voters. “For the longest time, he didn’t want to be told what to do,” said a former West Wing official.
By Gabriel Sherman
July 22, 2020
snip//
The flip-flop is Trump’s biggest concession yet to the fact that his erratic coronavirus response has damaged him politically. “For the longest time, he didn’t want to be told what to do,” a former West Wing official told me. An Economist/YouGov poll released on Tuesday showed Trump trailing Joe Biden by seven points. “It’s simple. Trump voters are old and they don’t want to die,” a Republican close to the White House said.
According to sources, Trump came around to mask wearing after intense lobbying by his new campaign chiefs, Bill Stepien and Jason Miller. “They showed him polling that things are so bad in the swing states. It was enough to get Trump to move on from the mask issue,” a campaign adviser told me. In an interview, Miller praised Trump’s evolving position on masks. “I thought yesterday’s press conference was fantastic and laid out a clear path forward for how the government and American people will unite to defeat the invisible China virus,” Miller said.
The new campaign regime’s apparent success at getting Trump to abandon mask denial is a sign of Miller’s growing influence in Trumpworld since Trump demoted Brad Parscale earlier this month. “Jason understands my message. He gets who I am,” Trump told an adviser a few days ago. It is also something of a comeback for Miller, a 2016 campaign veteran who had been Trump’s original pick for White House communications director. (Miller reportedly turned down the West Wing job after former Trump campaign staffer A.J. Delgado disclosed she and Miller had had an affair during the 2016 campaign; she later gave birth to their child.) “Jason is the first person Trump talks to in the morning and the last one he talks to at night,” the campaign adviser said. (“No, that would be Melania Trump,” Miller said when I asked if he spoke to Trump last each day.) Miller shares Trump’s penchant for going low. He told me that the campaign will ratchet up attacks on Biden by alleging the former vice president will be controlled by the “radical left wing.” “Things are going to escalate a notch,” Miller said.
Republicans worry, though, that there will be only so much Miller can do to temper Trump’s worst impulses. Trump is a “contrarian and likes to pick fights,” the former West Wing official said. At a fundraiser earlier this month, Trump told donors that he was skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a person briefed on his remarks. “You know people get these huge vaccines and they’re never the same after,” Trump said, according to this person. Earlier this month, Trump also threatened to veto a defense spending bill that included a provision to rename military bases named after Confederate figures. “Why is he doing this?” asked the former official. “The only people who want this are in Alabama, and they’re with Trump anyway.”
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