TomCADem
TomCADem's JournalStates ranked by COVID-19 test positivity rates: Sept. 12
A more detailed interactive chart is available from John Hopkins at this link:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/tracker/overview
However, it is ironic that after Trump considered turning his back on COVID, since blue states were the ones being hit hard initially, it turns out that Trump should be thanking blue states for keeping COVID from completely overwhelming the United States. The States with the highest positive rates right now are red states while more populated blue states have done a better job in getting down the rates of positive tests. If California or New York had South Dakota's positivity rates, the nationwide death toll would be far higher, and Trump would be busy blaming Governors and disclaiming any responsibility.
Instead, Trump's favorite governor from South Dakota has the highest positivity rate, but no one really notices because it has a small population.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/states-ranked-by-covid-19-test-positivity-rates-july-14.html
New daily cases: 283
Tests per 1,000: 1.4
Idaho: 16.8
New daily cases: 333
Tests per 1,000: 0.8
Alabama: 15.6
New daily cases: 1,138
Tests per 1,000: 1.2
Kansas: 14.6
New daily cases: 568
Tests per 1,000: 1.1
PBS: U.S. trade deficit surged in July to highest in 12 years
This just goes to show that Trump has repeatedly broken his promises across the Board not only has the budget deficit bloomed under Republican tax cuts and their mishandling of the pandemic, but the trade deficit has exploded despite Trump's hawkish policies on trade. Yet, Trump will attack Biden on trade?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/u-s-trade-deficit-surged-in-july-to-highest-in-12-years
The July deficit increase was driven by a record 10.9% increase in imports which rose to $231.7 billion. Exports were also up but by a smaller 8.1% to $168.1 billion.
When Donald Trump campaigned for president in 2016 he pledged to sharply lower the country’s large trade deficits, especially with China, which for years has been the country with the largest trade surplus with the United States.
But despite a number of high-profile trade battles and a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, America’s trade deficits have remained stubbornly high.
CNN: Trump's executive actions are delivering only limited relief as economy sputters
Once again, Trump makes a bad situation worse by announcing and over selling executive actions that he has taken, which fall far short of what he promises. But, by making such announcements, Trump gives Republicans cover to sit on their ass and refuse to negotiate any type of aid to American workers.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/politics/executive-actions-trump-pandemic-relief-results/index.html
The main piece of the package was a $300 weekly unemployment supplement, paid from federal disaster relief funds. While some states have been approved for the unemployment aid, many jobless Americans are still waiting for the cash, more than a month after the last federal bump of $600 went out.
Trump's other big move, a payroll tax deferment set to start Tuesday, isn't automatic. Many businesses have suggested they'll opt out and even those workers who do see bigger paychecks now will owe more in taxes next year.
Trump's actions were limited in scope to begin with. They didn't send out a second round of stimulus checks or disburse more funding for small businesses. The President can't authorize such big spending because the power of the purse lies with Congress.
Worries about being laid off, having hours cut jump: Gallup
Source: The Hill
More than a quarter of U.S. workers now worry about layoffs and having their hours cut, up more than 10 percentage points from last year, according to new polling from Gallup.
Twenty-seven percent of workers surveyed said they are now concerned about being laid off from their jobs, compared to 15 percent last year. The same percentage is concerned about their hours being cut, up from 15 percent in 2019. Twenty-eight percent of workers also worry their wages will be cut, compared to 16 percent last year.
Although the percentage of workers polled who are concerned their benefits will be cut is also up, the increase is smaller, from 23 percent to 30 percent. Almost half of workers in the survey — 46 percent — are worried about at least one of the four scenarios.
The 27 percent of surveyed workers concerned about layoffs is the highest since 2013, the end of the Great Recession, when the level reached 29 percent. Thirty-one percent of workers polled said they were worried about their wages being cut at the same time.
Read more: https://thehill.com/regulation/labor/514545-worries-about-being-laid-off-having-hours-cut-jump-gallup
With a raging pandemic and news of layoffs, you can see why Trump is so actively cheer leading for violence in the streets and trying to stir civil unrest to try to distract from the failures of his Presidency. The only thing Trump can do is scapegoat and distract.
Sadly, because Trump has no plans for dealing with the pandemic instead of ignore it, expect Trump to continue to incite violence while also trying to suppress the vote.
Vox: Why Masks Became Political
BBC News - QAnon, coronavirus and the conspiracy cult
It is interesting to see Europe's perspective on QAnon, a bizarre conspiracy theory has surged in popularity in the US since the pandemic, according to exclusive research seen by the BBC.
Vox - Joe Biden's Policy Vision for America
Which American Presidents are widely considered to have been the most progressive in modern times? FDR and Lyndon Johnson. Yet, when they were elected or selected, neither was considered to be overly progressive. FDR was part of the Roosevelt family dynasty. Lyndon Johnon was Southern Democrat from Texas. Indeed, JFK got blowback from progressives for selecting LBJ as his running mate.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21340746/joe-biden-covid-19-coronavirus-recession-harris
There are aspects of Biden’s policy agenda that rise to this level of ambition. To tackle Covid-19, he’s promised nationwide testing, a 100,000-person Public Health Jobs Corps, hazard pay for essential workers, massive vaccine stockpiles produced ahead of approval for the speediest deployment, and much more.
His economic recovery plan would pay health insurance costs for newly unemployed people, offer middle-class parents and caretakers $8,000 a year for child or long-term care support, spend $700 billion on manufacturing and R&D to expand jobs in those sectors, and make it easier to organize unions.
His climate plan features $2 trillion in investments in clean energy and a clean electricity standard mandating that electricity production in the US not produce any carbon by the year 2035.
Trump Made A Huge Mistake In Drawing Attention to Susan B. Anthony, A Voting Rights Activist!
Trumpsters and Republicans love to bleet the word "Freedom" as though all it stood for was the right to be able to shoot a gun and not wear a mask. Yet, without missing a beat, Republicans happily support efforts to suppress the vote in the midst of a pandemic.
On top of that, Trump has denigrated John Lewis, who was a protester known for getting in "Good Trouble." But before Lewis, Susan B. Anthony got arrested for voting illegally because she was a woman.
After her arrest on charges of voting illegally in the 1872 federal election, Susan B. Anthony undertook a speaking tour . The title for her lecture was "Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?" In her lecture, she explained why the right to vote and exercising that right is essential to freedom. In short, Susan B. Anthony asked how can the consent of the governed be given, if the right to vote be denied?
So, if Trump is going to pardon Susan B. Anthony after her death, why not ask him about why he and Republicans are trying so hard to reverse and to suppress the rights that Susan B. Anthony fought for? How can the consent of the governed be given, if the right to vote is denied?
Susan B. Anthony's words are as true today as they were a hundred years ago:
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/anthony/anthonyaddress.html
Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws. We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life. liberty and property. And when 100 or 1,000,000 people enter into a free government, they do not barter away their natural rights; they simply pledge themselves to protect each other in the enjoyment of them, through prescribed judicial and legislative tribunals. They agree to abandon the methods of brute force in the adjustment of their differences, and adopt those of civilization.
Nor can you find a word in any of the grand documents left us by the fathers that assumes for government the power to create or to confer rights. The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several states and the organic laws of the territories, all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights.
"All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, nor exclusion of any from their full and equal enjoyment. Here is pronounced the right of all men, and "consequently," as the Quaker preacher said, "of all women," to a voice in the government. And here, in this very first paragraph of the declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for, how can "the consent of the governed" be given, if the right to vote be denied. Again:
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Exercise Your Freedom and Vote! Susan B. Anthony Explains Why Voter Suppression Is Anti-Freedom
Trumpsters and Republicans love to bleet the word "Freedom" as though all it stood for was the right to be able to shoot a gun and not wear a mask. Yet, without missing a beat, Republicans happily support efforts to suppress the vote in the midst of a pandemic.
Even before John Lewis was getting in "Good Trouble," there was Susan B. Anthony who got arrested for voting illegally because she was a woman. After her arrest on charges of voting illegally in the 1872 federal election, Susan B. Anthony undertook a speaking tour . The title for her lecture was "Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?" In her lecture, she explained why the right to vote and exercising that right is essential to freedom. In short, Susan B. Anthony asked how can the consent of the governed be given, if the right to vote be denied?
So, exercise your freedom and vote. And, anyone who is trying to suppress the vote is trying to take away freedom from American citizens.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/anthony/anthonyaddress.html
Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of every individual member thereof to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws. We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life. liberty and property. And when 100 or 1,000,000 people enter into a free government, they do not barter away their natural rights; they simply pledge themselves to protect each other in the enjoyment of them, through prescribed judicial and legislative tribunals. They agree to abandon the methods of brute force in the adjustment of their differences, and adopt those of civilization.
Nor can you find a word in any of the grand documents left us by the fathers that assumes for government the power to create or to confer rights. The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several states and the organic laws of the territories, all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights.
"All men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, nor exclusion of any from their full and equal enjoyment. Here is pronounced the right of all men, and "consequently," as the Quaker preacher said, "of all women," to a voice in the government. And here, in this very first paragraph of the declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for, how can "the consent of the governed" be given, if the right to vote be denied. Again:
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
US coronavirus: New CDC guidance says Covid-19 rates in children 'steadily increasing'
Source: CNN
Health experts say children make up more than 7% of all coronavirus cases in the US -- while comprising about 22% of the country's population -- and the number and rate of child cases have been "steadily increasing" from March to July.
The data was posted alongside updated guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for pediatricians that also includes what is known about the virus in children.
"Recent evidence suggests that children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings," the guidance states.
Transmission of the virus to and among children may have been reduced in spring and early summer due to mitigation measures like stay-at-home orders and school closures, the CDC says."Recent evidence suggests that children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings," the guidance states.
Transmission of the virus to and among children may have been reduced in spring and early summer due to mitigation measures like stay-at-home orders and school closures, the CDC says.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/us-coronavirus-new-cdc-guidance-says-covid-19-rates-in-children-steadily-increasing/ar-BB17ZcJ4?li=BBnb7Kz
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