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babylonsister's JournalDavid Corn: Coronavirus and Russia: Trump and the GOP's Double Betrayal
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Coronavirus and Russia: Trump and the GOP’s Double Betrayal
Not since the Civil War have political leaders engaged in such treachery.
David Corn
Not since the Civil War—when leaders responsible for the enslavement and brutalization of millions of Americans sought to destroy the United States and took military action that resulted in the violent deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens—has a group of politicians so profoundly betrayed the republic. And this band—Donald Trump and GOP officials—has done so on two fronts simultaneously. They have failed to respond effectively to a pair of immense threats: a pandemic that has claimed the lives of close to 200,000 Americans, and a foreign attack on the political foundation of the country. What exacerbates this double tragedy is that Trump and his Republican supporters have done so purposefully. This has been no accident or act of unintentional incompetence. In each case, they sacrificed the public interest—including the well-being and the lives of millions of Americans—to serve their own interests. Trump and his crew have forsaken the United States of America.
It can be easy to lose sight of this big picture, as headlines explode every hour within a political media world cursed by tribalized partisan divisions. There already exists more than enough information to support such an extreme-sounding verdict. But evidence piles up each day—perhaps coming so fast as to overwhelm. The latest revelation (as I write) regarding Trump and the coronavirus crisis is that he told reporter Bob Woodward in March, “I wanted to always play it down.” Here is confirmation of what Americans had repeatedly seen with their own eyes for months: Trump lied about the dangers posed by this killer virus. And those lies, mostly unchallenged by his Republican allies and largely echoed by conservative media propagandists, shaped the ineffectual federal response and influenced how millions of Americans viewed the risks posed by the pandemic. One example: sticking with this big lie, Trump, who in early February privately told Woodward that the virus was airborne, refused to encourage mask-wearing. It’s likely that thousands—or tens of thousands—have died due to this.
Trump now claims he did not want to spark a panic. That is clearly another lie. This man relishes in causing panic when it doesn’t exist: the immigrant caravan, antifa, the end of the suburbs. He downplayed the pandemic because in his misguided political calculation he believed such bad news would harm his election prospects. (Actually, doing his job well in response to this crisis would have been a damn good electoral strategy. But that did not seem to occur to Trump.) So he tossed out bullshit while Americans were perishing and the economy was crashing. He abandoned his solemn duty to protect the citizenry instead holding rallies, focusing on his TV ratings, and dismissing (and promoting disinformation about) the gravest threat to the nation in decades. All through his me-first dance of denial, Republicans stood by Trump. They cheered him on at Tulsa. They watched as he led the nation toward calamity and death. They accepted this; they enabled it all. Trump endangered the nation, and they were just fine with that.
Now the public has confirmation—from Trump!—that he wantonly neglected his number-one job: to safeguard the United States.
more...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/coronavirus-and-russia-trump-and-the-gops-double-betrayal/
Florida's bars can reopen starting Monday
Jeeze, that's just great. 
Florida’s bars can reopen starting Monday
By Lisa J. Huriash, Juan Ortega and Brooke Baitinger
Florida’s bars can reopen at 50% capacity across the state starting Monday, and restrictions on restaurants could be eased soon.
The announcement Thursday evening came from Halsey Beshears, head of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis had said a decision about bars was coming “very soon” and he preferred that every business be up and running.
Regarding restaurants, DeSantis said: "We understand the remaining obstacles and we’re going to tackle those. This is the remaining piece. This state of emergency cannot last forever.”
The state shut down bars in late June as the number of COVID-19 cases marched upward, and bars remained closed as restaurants returned to restricted business.
more...
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-ne-desantis-restaurant-roundtable-20200910-uwwstolqmnemhkgguixdoz7db4-story.html
Historian predicts Trump downplaying pandemic...greatest dereliction of duty in presidential history
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/515966-historian-predicts-trump-downplaying-pandemic-will-go-down-as-the-greatestTheHill.com
Historian predicts Trump downplaying pandemic will go down as 'the greatest dereliction of duty' in presidential history
By J. Edward Moreno - 09/10/20 08:22 PM EDT
Allan Lichtman, the historian known for accurately predicting presidential elections, said that President Trump’s downplaying of the coronavirus pandemic will be remembered as “the greatest dereliction of duty” in presidential history.
snip//
Lichtman said he doesn’t believe Trump didn’t want to cause panic.
RNC Chairwoman Asks Trump: Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ronna-mcdaniel-asks-trump-where-the-hell-his-campaigns-tv-ads-have-gone?ref=home
RNC Chairwoman Asks Trump: Where the Hell Have Our Campaign Ads Gone?
MONEY TALKS
Jamie Ross, Reporter
Updated Sep. 11, 2020 6:27AM ET /
Published Sep. 11, 2020 6:03AM ET
Florida Schools Defy Governor
https://politicalwire.com/2020/09/11/florida-schools-defy-governor/Florida Schools Defy Governor
September 11, 2020 at 6:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
“The state Department of Health has tried to directly quash reporting on the virus in some instances, after DeSantis said K-12 testing data ‘needs to be put in the right context.’”
David Remnick: Bob Woodward on a Nightmare Presidency
Daily Comment
Bob Woodward on a Nightmare Presidency
By David Remnick
September 10, 2020
If Donald Trump possessed a soul, a trace of conscience or character, he would resign the Presidency. He will not resign the Presidency.
Trump is who he has always been, and the details that we learn with every passing day merely fill in the portrait with sharper focus and more lurid colors. The man who lied about the nature of the novel coronavirus to the American people (but confided in Bob Woodward) is the same man who, as a real-estate huckster, used to say that the best way to hype a new building was to “just give them the old Trump bullshit.” Deception is his brand.
It is hard to identify a constituency that Trump has not betrayed. A self-proclaimed populist, his greatest legislative triumph was a gargantuan tax cut for the wealthy. (“You all just got a lot richer,” he told his cronies at Mar-a-Lago.) A self-proclaimed champion of the military, he reportedly says “my fucking generals are a bunch of pussies” and refers to fallen American soldiers as “losers” and “suckers.” His lies and expressions of contempt are so routine, so numerous, that we grow inured to their gravity and even forget that only recently he was impeached in the House of Representatives, avoiding conviction thanks only to a conscience-free Republican majority in the Senate. Trump’s lack of stability is so pronounced that he inspires nightmares in his closest aides. As we learn from “Rage,” Woodward’s new book, Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, was so concerned that the President would set off a nuclear confrontation with North Korea that Mattis slept in his clothes in case he had to race to the Pentagon or the White House in the middle of the night. In his interviews with Woodward, Trump seems so hungry for approbation that, like a child, he spills news of a secret weapons system––“We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.” (This weapons system is presumably different from the hypersonic “super duper” missile that Trump hinted at in May.)
The polls show Joe Biden ahead, but there is no question that the election could go either way. As he proves almost daily, Trump is capable of saying or doing anything to win. And if he doesn’t win, the presumption that he will hand over power without some sort of duplicity is far from assured. And yet the dismissive reaction on Fox News to the revelations in Woodward’s book was telling. On Wednesday night, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham were all smug laughter as they tried to describe the excerpts from Woodward’s book as so much irrelevance and hokum and to redirect attention to all the many devilish ways that Biden was describing the country as “evil” and “racist.” And, by the way, Ingraham said, there’s another book that you really ought to read! “Obsession: Inside the Washington Establishment’s Never-Ending War on Trump,” by Byron York, a Fox contributor and correspondent for the Washington Examiner.
Trump’s Presidency has been appalling––but not unpredictably so. That he would bring misery and division to this country should have been obvious from the start. Flagrantly corrupt and instinctually autocratic, he immediately set about threatening democratic values and the rule of law, while encouraging autocrats abroad and white nationalists at home. He has aroused hatred for the free press and slimed the patriotism of everyone from John McCain to John Lewis. It is a painful thing to say, but the evidence assaults us daily: Trump is a miserable human being. Ask his sister, a retired federal judge; in a taped conversation with the President’s niece, she refers to him as “cruel.” It is the rare adviser or satrap who leaves the White House and does not hasten to write a memoir or speak to the press with the intention of sounding a common alarm, that Trump poses a threat to national security even more profound than the news-weary public can imagine. Woodward reports that the former director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, came to believe, more and more, that the Russians had something on Trump. “How else to explain the President’s behavior?” Woodward writes. “Coats could see no other explanation.”
more...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/bob-woodward-on-a-nightmare-presidency
Russians Tried To Hack Biden's Campaign, But He Was Ready
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/09/10/joe-biden-russia-attempted-hack.htmlPosted on Thu, Sep 10th, 2020 by Jason Easley
Russians Tried To Hack Biden’s Campaign, But He Was Ready
Microsoft detected that Russian state hackers were trying to hack a campaign firm working for former vice president Joe Biden.
Reuters reported:
….
The hacking attempts targeted staff at Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with Biden and other prominent Democrats, over the past two months, the sources said.
A person familiar with SKDK’s response to the attempts said the hackers failed to gain access to the firm’s networks. “They are well-defended, so there has been no breach,” the person said.
The firm that was the Russian target works for the Biden campaign and several other Democratic candidates.
These are the same tactics that the Russians used to help Trump in 2016. The 2016 hacking gave Trump and Putin information on Clinton campaign plans and strategies. It is a different world in 2020. The Biden campaign has learned from the hacks on Hillary Clinton and has done a better job with preemptive defense against Russian attacks.
The Russians are pulling their same old tricks again, and so far haven’t shown anything new that wasn’t in their 2016 playbook.
The difference is that Biden and the Democrats are ready and not surprised by Russia’s attempts to help Trump.
Teachers in at least five states have died with coronavirus since fall semester started
We need another lockdown.
Teachers in at least five states have died with coronavirus since fall semester started
By Justine Coleman - 09/10/20 03:33 PM EDT
Teachers in at least five states have died from COVID-19 since the fall semester started, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
At least six teachers across Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina have died since early August as students return for the school year. It is unknown whether these teachers became infected at school, but several attempted to quarantine to avoid infecting other students and educators.
Special education teacher AshLee DeMarinis died on Sunday after showing symptoms four days after the start of school for John Evans Middle School in Potosi, Mo. The 34-year-old, who suffered from asthma, spent three weeks on a ventilator in the hospital, the Post reported.
In Columbia, S.C., third grade teacher Demetria “Demi” Bannister from Windsor Elementary School died this week after experiencing complications from COVID-19, according to newspaper The State. High school history teacher Tom Slade, 53, who worked at Vancleave High School in Mississippi, died on Sunday of the coronavirus, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported.
Assistant high school football coach Nacoma James, 42, also died of the virus. He was a teacher at Lafayette Middle School, Mississippi Today reported.
Theresa Horn, a 62-year-old special education teacher who taught at Tahlequah Public Schools in Oklahoma, died from a heart attack after testing positive for COVID-19, according to ABC affiliate KTUL. The school district conducted classes virtually for two days after her death, and since then, announced at least 11 identified coronavirus cases and instructed dozens to quarantine.
Another special education teacher died a week before virtual classes started in Des Moines, Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/515906-teachers-in-at-least-five-states-have-died-with-coronavirus-since-fall-semester
U.S. sent millions of face masks to China early this year, ignoring pandemic warning signs
In light of yesterday's revelations, this seems even more criminal
U.S. sent millions of face masks to China early this year, ignoring pandemic warning signs
In January and February, the United States shipped millions of masks to China from companies such as 3M.
In January and February, the United States shipped millions of masks to China from companies such as 3M. (Justin Chin/Bloomberg)
By Juliet Eilperin, Jeff Stein, Desmond Butler and Tom Hamburger
April 18, 2020 at 2:13 p.m. EDT
U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars’ worth of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat.
In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year — from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis of customs categories which, according to research by Public Citizen, contain key personal protective equipment (PPE). Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.
While the percentage increase of exports to China was steep, they represent a small fraction of the overall U.S. need. Throughout the country, the shortage has forced hospitals, nursing homes and first responders to ration masks and other protective gear as they treat infected and high-risk patients, creating a secondary health crisis among first line providers.
more...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/us-sent-millions-of-face-masks-to-china-early-this-year-ignoring-pandemic-warning-signs/2020/04/18/aaccf54a-7ff5-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html
Two Prominent Conservatives Call For the Death of the GOP
Two Prominent Conservatives Call For the Death of the GOP
Dan K
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Thursday September 10, 2020 · 12:49 PM EDT
It’s no longer unusual to find Jennifer Rubin, one of WaPo’s house conservatives, calling for removing many GOP officials. This morning, however, she went further and called for voting out all of them. On top of that, Tom Nichols, a leading conservative member of the Federalist, wrote the same thing in The Atlantic.
Rubin: Seven reasons to vote every Republican out of office.
Nichols: This Republican Party Is Not Worth Saving: No one should ever get a second chance to destroy the Constitution.
Start with Jennifer (I’ve written enough diaries about her I can speak of her on a first-name basis. She’s never heard of me, of course):
Followed by a list of their crimes, by paragraph, with a summary sentence for each:
Republicans thereby enabled Trump’s abuses of power.
Republicans subverted U.S. national security.
Republicans have supported a commander in chief unfit to lead men and women in uniform.
Republicans have thereby helped foment racial division and violence.
In short, Republicans have put their own political survival above the lives of Americans.
Republicans have thus helped undermine the central attributes of democracy — free and fair elections, and the peaceful transfer of power.
snip//
Next, Tom Nichols, who starts off by saying “I was a Republican for most of my adult life” who really believed that ”While the Democrats were the party of recrimination and retreat, the Republicans were the party of the future.” Uh, right. But regardless, he now sees the GOP for what it has been for generations (even if he won’t admit that part):
He blasts the GOP for clinging to Trump because of judges and abortion:
more...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/10/1976431/-Two-Prominent-Conservatives-Call-For-the-Death-of-the-GOP
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