riversedge
riversedge's JournalInitial COVID vaccine supply 10% of original government promise
Source: axios
4 hours ago - Health
The federal government plans to stagger shipments of coronavirus vaccines to help ensure that states don't run out of supplies, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's current plans would make 35 million to 40 million COVID vaccine doses available — instead of the 300 million doses originally promised. The "lower-than-anticipated allocations have caused widespread confusion and concern in states," the Post reports.
Local and state officials are rushing to change vaccination plans.
The number of vaccines available could pick up in January and February but will still be lower than the administration originally projected.
Pfizer and BioNTech have halved their original estimates of how many of their coronavirus vaccines would be shipped globally by the end of this year, citing supply-chain issues, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.
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Read more: https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-vaccine-scarcity-b058fe58-697b-4031-b1ad-23b1a7444d10.html
Poll: Biden's already more popular than Trump's ever been
Biden's already more popular than Trump's ever been
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/06/politics/biden-trump-popularity-analysis/index.html
Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN Updated 9:47 AM ET, Sun December 6, 2020
(CNN)Poll of the week: A new Gallup poll finds that President-elect Joe Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating.
The same poll gives President Donald Trump a 42% favorable rating and a 57% unfavorable rating.
What's the point: The 2020 election was, like almost every election involving an incumbent, mostly about voters' feelings toward said incumbent. Not enough attention, however, has been paid to the fact that the challenger was a fairly popular guy. He did not allow Trump to make this election a choice of the lesser of two evils.
Indeed, Biden is more popular than Trump has been at any point since he started running for president in June 2015.
A look across all the polling shows that Trump's favorable rating has usually been in the 30s or 40s, like in the Gallup poll. In the network exit poll, it was 46%.
The highest favorable rating I could find in any live interview poll for Trump was after he won the 2016 election. His favorable rating stood at 50% in a Bloomberg News poll conducted by Selzer and Company.
Trump never actually got above 50% in any live interview poll. .......................................
'A massive failure by President Trump': Chris Wallace beats down HHS secretary over COVID debacle
Source: raw story
Published 1 min ago on December 6, 2020
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday grilled Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar after polls show that Americans do not trust a COVID-19 vaccine that has been rushed through the approval process by the Trump administration.
During an interview with Azar on Fox News Sunday, Wallace noted that 40% of Americans have told pollsters that they are reluctant to get the vaccine.
“One of the reasons is because concern about politics,” Wallace explained. “Why not stop the politics and let the scientists do their jobs?”
For his part, Azar insisted that he had not prevented scientists from making sure the vaccine is safe.....................................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/a-massive-failure-by-president-trump-chris-wallace-beats-down-hhs-secretary-over-debacle/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
https://twitter.com/CitizenWonk/status/1335599512383995912?s=20
https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1335609232851341312?s=20
https://twitter.com/Socialiberalist/status/1335590391341584384?s=20
Trump called Georgia Gov. Kemp on Saturday to push for the state legislature to reverse Biden's win.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/georgia-republicans-await-trump-visit-with-trepidation-ahead-of-crucial-vote-11607187433?mod=hp_lead_pos2
Trump Renews Push to Overturn Georgia Presidential Vote
President calls Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday to urge the state legislature to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state
GOP Leaders Worry What Trump Will Say at Georgia Rally
President Trump heads to Georgia on Saturday to rally voters ahead of the two Senate runoffs in January. WSJ’s Cameron McWhirter reports on why some Republican Party leaders are worried about what the president could say to the crowd. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Updated Dec. 5, 2020 3:40 pm ET
President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday to push for the state legislature to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state, according to a person familiar with the call, the latest move in the president’s unprecedented push to overturn his election loss.
The call came hours before Mr. Trump was to travel to Georgia for a Saturday evening rally to support incumbent Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the Jan. 5 runoffs, which will determine which party controls the Senate. Mr. Perdue is facing Democrat Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, and Ms. Loeffler is running against Democrat Raphael Warnock, a pastor.
Republicans are eager for Mr. Trump’s help in driving voter turnout for the two GOP candidates, but some also fear that his efforts to portray the presidential election as “rigged,’’ and his criticism of state Republican leaders for their handling of balloting, will discourage his supporters from voting.
In his conversation with Mr. Kemp Saturday, Mr. Trump asked the governor to call a special session of the state legislature and push lawmakers to appoint pro-Trump electors who would swing the Electoral College in his favor, the person familiar with the call said. While federal law allows state legislatures to intervene in the process of appointing electors in the event the voting process fails on Election Day, no evidence of widespread election fraud has emerged in Georgia.
Mr. Kemp, a Republican, declined the president’s request, the person said. The Washington Post earlier reported details of the request. Mr. Kemp doesn’t plan to attend the rally.
To Read the Full Story
WSJ does not mention anything about this call being illegal.--just unprecedented.
President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday to push for the state legislature to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state, the latest move in the president’s unprecedented push to overturn his election loss
https://twitter.com/HawaiiDelilah/status/1335345301708673025?s=20
https://twitter.com/BKAY1224/status/1335339458082856968?s=20
https://twitter.com/alva_koontz/status/1335340194585661441?s=20
Nevada, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin deliver more defeats to Trump legal effort.
Source: nytimes
The Trump campaign and its Republican allies lost four legal challenges to the election in four states in a little more than an hour on Friday evening as President Trump’s attempts to use the courts to overturn the election results drew ever closer to an end.
The first defeat came around 4:30 p.m. when the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed a Republican-led petition to stop certification of the state’s voting results because of what the campaign said were improprieties with how elections officials handled absentee ballots. Minnesota certified its vote results on Nov. 24 and the state’s top court ruled that the effort to derail the process was untimely not only because the petition was filed just hours before certification occurred, but also because the state had set rules for handling absentee ballots more than two months earlier.
Then, a little after 5 p.m., the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by Mr. Trump to appeal a loss last month in a lower court which had denied his effort to halt the certification of the vote in Wayne County, home to Detroit, after he questioned the validity of absentee ballots there, too. Michigan certified its statewide results on Nov. 23, which rendered Mr. Trump’s attempt to derail the process moot.
Within minutes, a state judge in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit filed in Carson City last month by several Republican presidential elector candidates who claimed there was widespread illegal voting in the state and sought a court order to nullify the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the state and declare Mr. Trump to be the winner.
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Not long after 6 p.m., the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued Republicans their fourth defeat of the evening. In a scathing order, the court dismissed an attempt by a conservative group, the Wisconsin Voters Alliance, to overturn the state’s already certified election results and let Wisconsin’s presidential elections be chosen by the state legislature instead.........................................
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/04/us/joe-biden-trump/nevada-michigan-minnesota-and-wisconsin-deliver-more-defeats-to-trump-legal-effort
Take that trumpy!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1335018550457724929?s=20
President Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday.
President Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
The RNC Shelled Out $300K for Don Jr.'s New Book
Source: daily beast
The huge sum that the GOP paid to give signed copies of the book to its donors appears to be its largest-ever payment for “donor mementos.”
Lachlan Markay
Reporter
Updated Dec. 04, 2020 2:55PM ET / Published Dec. 04, 2020 9:44AM ET
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-republican-national-committee-shelled-out-dollar300k-for-don-jrs-new-book/
The pages would do for a bird cage
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1334871662769164292?s=20
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1334872297660887046?s=20
'People are dying': Reporter backs Trump advisor Larry Kudlow into a corner on president's gross neg
https://twitter.com/PaulaReidCBS/status/1334889853276856322?s=20
Q: “2K people a day are dying of COVID...where is the President’s leadership?”
WH ADVISOR: “I don’t understand..”
‘People are dying’: Reporter backs Trump advisor Larry Kudlow into a corner on president’s gross negligence
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/people-are-dying-reporter-backs-trump-advisor-larry-kudlow-into-a-corner-on-presidents-gross-negligence/#.X8p-Ujkr6JA.twitter
Published 10 mins ago on December 4, 2020
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow (Gage Skidmore)
Tensions ran high at an outdoor press conference Friday when a reporter asked White House advisor Larry Kudlow, “Where is the President?” and he replied, “I don’t understand.”
The reporter said, “2,000 people a day are dying of COVID. Where is the President’s leadership?”
CBS News White House correspondent Paula Reid reported from Washington, D.C. Friday and shared the tweet below. The responses flowed in from there.....................................
Ambulance companies at 'a breaking point' after receiving little Covid aid
Gawds. what a horrible mess we are in.
Ambulance companies at 'a breaking point' after receiving little Covid aid
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ambulance-companies-breaking-point-after-receiving-little-covid-aid-n1249586?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
In a letter obtained exclusively by NBC News, the American Ambulance Association told the Department of Health and Human Services that “the 911 emergency medical system throughout the United States is at a breaking point.”
Dec. 1, 2020, 3:30 PM CST
By Phil McCausland
Stefan Hofer's ambulance company, West Traill EMS, in Mayville, North Dakota, has received only one or two calls that weren’t related to Covid-19 over the past two months. But he said the case count has ballooned by 20 to 30 percent because of the pandemic. At the same time, the company's expenses have mounted, its revenue has cratered and its workforce is being decimated by the virus.
The company — which is private and supported by volunteers, a few employees and four trucks — covers more than 1,500 miles of North Dakota prairie and serves about 10,000 people on the far east side of the state.
Private EMS services, both in urban and rural centers across the country, collectively received $350 million in Covid-19 relief funds in April, but those companies said that money ran out within weeks. Months later, the need remains great as they face another coronavirus surge.
Hofer said he doesn’t know how long his company can keep up its current pace — much less how it will manage the increase in cases they expect from the Thanksgiving holiday — if ambulance services like his don’t receive additional federal aid. He said he may lose employees soon. That could mean answering fewer calls, too...................
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The association said in its letter to the Department of Health and Human Services that the paramedics and emergency medical techs who make up ambulance services across the country need $2.62 billion — about $43,500 for each of the approximately 60,000 ambulances that answer 911 calls. They suggested that the funds be pulled from the Provider Relief Fund, a $175 billion pot created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support health care workers and distributed by HHS.
Despite the ambulance association’s ongoing request for support, they haven’t received anything beyond the $350 million they received in April.....................................
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1334908273338806272?s=20
Trump sues in federal court to put Wisconsin lawmakers in charge of election outcome
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MADISON ........................................
Trump called on a federal judge late Wednesday to respond to the case within 48 hours as the president seeks to find a foothold in a courtroom before the Electoral College meets in 11 days to finalize the election for President-elect Joe Biden.
The lawsuit by the Trump campaign challenges absentee voting in Wisconsin by arguing it discriminates against "able-bodied" voters, that broad availability of voting by mail contradicts the Wisconsin Legislature's disfavor of such voting, and because ballot drop boxes were not manned.
"While everyone understands that public officials working in cities and towns across Wisconsin are dedicated and selfless, it should not be a moment of pride that the Wisconsin Elections Commission offered so little guidance that absentee ballots could be intermingled with library books and utility bills," the suit argues.
On Thursday, the case was assigned to Judge Brett Ludwig in the eastern district court in Milwaukee. Trump named Ludwig to the seat earlier this year to fill the long-vacant seat of Judge Rudolph Randa, who died in 2016. The U.S. Senate confirmed Ludwig on Sept. 9.
That action came hours before the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a separate case filed by Trump attorneys. That case, which seeks to nullify more than 200,000 votes cast in Milwaukee and Dane counties, is likely to be refiled in state circuit court.
U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig
Jeffrey Mandell, an attorney representing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in the state case, said the federal lawsuit "is an untoward effort to obtain two bites at the same apple."
"Not content to try to disenfranchise over 200,000 Wisconsinites in state court, the President is now asking a federal court to take Wisconsin’s choice for President away from voters and to give it to politicians," Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said. “Democracy doesn’t work that way. No matter how many lawsuits are filed, we’ll keep standing up for Wisconsin voters.” ....................................................
Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/03/trump-files-federal-court-challenge-wisconsin-election-outcome/3807794001/
Pres. Trump continued his Hail Mary legal attempt to contest his election loss with a new federal lawsuit filed late Wednesday in Wisconsin, the latest in a blizzard of suits around the country that have so far met with a resounding string of defeats.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1334367022944227330?s=20
Farah resigns as White House communications director in tacit nod to Trump's loss
Source: Washington Post
Dec. 3, 2020 at 4:27 p.m. EST
White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigned from her post Thursday after 3½ years in the Trump administration.
Farah, 31, began her White House tenure as press secretary under Vice President Pence before joining the Defense Department as press secretary last September, and she returned to the White House as communications director in April. She is the first person to serve in these three roles in one administration, and the youngest Pentagon press secretary.
Farah’s departure, with little over a month remaining in President Trump’s administration, amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that — despite his baseless and dangerous claims to the contrary — Trump lost the 2020 election, and much of his team is now pondering their post-White House future.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-farah-resign/2020/12/03/1623fa7a-3598-11eb-a997-1f4c53d2a747_story.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_politics
This Farah was a quite one--I have never heard of her.
https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1334638070474412039?s=20
Alyssa Farah’s last day as White House communications director is Friday. She is seen outside the White House in October. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)
https://twitter.com/Lissthesassy/status/1334638692376440835?s=20
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