Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Demovictory9
Demovictory9's Journal
Demovictory9's Journal
April 27, 2020
Atlanta, New Orleans and Orlando are huge conference destinations. Red states need Blue states to
open. Those are the primary destinations for out of state conferences in my field. I was scheduled for a conference in New Orleans in May that was cancelled.
We are all in this together.
https://www.nny360.com/artsandlife/lifestyle/when-can-we-travel-again-experts-share-their-predictions/article_7bf42001-ee35-5ec0-b669-226eddcfccfe.html
A recent Harris Poll asked Americans how long after the curve flattens they would go to a hotel: “One fifth of Americans (21%) say they will stay in a hotel within a month,” with the figure rising to 41% within three months and 60% within six months.
For airlines, the tipping point for most Americans to return to flying comes after four to six months. And more than half said they’d wait a year or more before going on a cruise, according to the poll.
Roger Dow, chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association, thinks travel will rebound, just not as quickly and not all at once.
One thing for sure, Dow said, “Americans generally are going to stay home until next year. ... Europe is done for American travelers.”
“The most important thing as an industry is that we have to be ready for when that moment comes.”
Whenever that may be, there is the matter of gearing up, hotels reopening and flights being added back to a schedule that saw a drop of nearly 60% from Jan. 6 to April 6, according to OAG, which analyzes airline data.
April 26, 2020
Trump tweet "Thank you President Trump" LOL
....fraud
@donnabrazile
(and others who are even worse). Chris Wallace is nastier to Republicans than even Deface the Nation or Sleepy Eyes. The people who are watching
@FoxNews
, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. So do I!
April 26, 2020
Grudge alert. Trump is bringing up the 2016 debates and Paul Ryan.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
8m
....Even the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats laughed at the Fox suggestion. No respect for the people running
@FoxNews
. But Fox keeps on plugging to try and become politically correct. They put RINO Paul Ryan on their Board. They hire “debate questions to Crooked Hillary”....
April 26, 2020
And the usual laws of nature don’t apply to him. He was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women by the crotch. Didn’t matter. He got nearly three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Still he won. If he wasn’t exactly found guilty of elaborate coordination with the Russians, he was certainly shown to be open to it. Onward he rolled, and he kept rolling past his gross abuse of power in dealing with Ukraine and his richly deserved impeachment for it.
He’s Houdini, he’s Scheherazade, he’s all the escape artists of history and fiction rolled into one and swirled with golden-orange topping. He’s lucky beyond all imagining. But here’s the thing about luck: It runs out.
There’s incessant talk of how fervent his base is, but the many Americans appalled by him have a commensurate zeal. For every Sean Hannity, there’s a Rachel Maddow. For every Kellyanne Conway, a George Conway. She and her ilk may be wily in their defense of the president. He and his tribe are even better in their evisceration of him.
And what of the diaspora of refugees from the Trump administration: people like Rick Bright, the government scientist who says he was just stripped of his leading role in the search for a coronavirus vaccine because he wouldn’t parrot Trump’s cockamamie talking points? I predict that as November nears, more and more exiles will speak out, sharing alarming accounts of life inside the president’s hall of mirrors. Trump in turn will mutter about the “deep state,” but the phrase won’t fly when he’s left with such a shallow pool of charlatans around him — and when he’s making such a repellent fool of himself.
Don’t tell me that his nightly briefings are just a new version of the old stadium rallies; their backdrop of profound suffering makes them exponentially harder to stomach. Americans who take any comfort from them were Trump-drunk long ago. The unbesotted see and hear the president for what he is: a tone-deaf showman who regards everything, even a mountain of corpses, as a stage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/opinion/bleach-sunlight-coronavirus-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
He's lucky beyond all imagining. But here's the thing about luck: It runs out
I know, I know: He’s Trump. He carries the secret weapon of his spectacular shamelessness, which means that he’ll resort to ploys and lies that even the most unscrupulous of his opponents wouldn’t attempt. He’ll destroy what he must so long as he gets to rule over the wreckage.And the usual laws of nature don’t apply to him. He was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women by the crotch. Didn’t matter. He got nearly three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Still he won. If he wasn’t exactly found guilty of elaborate coordination with the Russians, he was certainly shown to be open to it. Onward he rolled, and he kept rolling past his gross abuse of power in dealing with Ukraine and his richly deserved impeachment for it.
He’s Houdini, he’s Scheherazade, he’s all the escape artists of history and fiction rolled into one and swirled with golden-orange topping. He’s lucky beyond all imagining. But here’s the thing about luck: It runs out.
There’s incessant talk of how fervent his base is, but the many Americans appalled by him have a commensurate zeal. For every Sean Hannity, there’s a Rachel Maddow. For every Kellyanne Conway, a George Conway. She and her ilk may be wily in their defense of the president. He and his tribe are even better in their evisceration of him.
And what of the diaspora of refugees from the Trump administration: people like Rick Bright, the government scientist who says he was just stripped of his leading role in the search for a coronavirus vaccine because he wouldn’t parrot Trump’s cockamamie talking points? I predict that as November nears, more and more exiles will speak out, sharing alarming accounts of life inside the president’s hall of mirrors. Trump in turn will mutter about the “deep state,” but the phrase won’t fly when he’s left with such a shallow pool of charlatans around him — and when he’s making such a repellent fool of himself.
Don’t tell me that his nightly briefings are just a new version of the old stadium rallies; their backdrop of profound suffering makes them exponentially harder to stomach. Americans who take any comfort from them were Trump-drunk long ago. The unbesotted see and hear the president for what he is: a tone-deaf showman who regards everything, even a mountain of corpses, as a stage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/opinion/bleach-sunlight-coronavirus-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
April 26, 2020
-------
Has Trump decided to use the coronavirus to win in November?
It sure looks that way. The tip-off came with Trump’s wild swing between Wednesday and Thursday over opening businesses in Georgia. On Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was a genius for allowing businesses like massage parlors and nail salons to open on Friday, with restaurants and bars opening on Monday. But less than 24 hours later, Trump had changed his mind.
“I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp. I wasn’t at all happy,” Trump announced from the podium at the Thursday briefing. What had happened overnight to sour Trump on “liberating” Georgia? “Trump’s sudden shift came only after top health advisers reviewed the plan more closely and persuaded the president that Kemp was risking further spread of the virus by moving too quickly,” the Associated Press reported on Friday.
That same morning, the New York Times published a front page story with another clue right there in the title: “No Rallies and No Golf, Just the TV to Rankle Him: Feeling Alone, President stews Over Image.” Buried in the story was the news that among the few calls a frustrated Trump agrees to take as he molders away in the White House are from his campaign manager, Brad Parscale. After Trump has heard the bad news about the coronavirus from his medical experts at his daily press briefing, what do Trump and Parscale discuss? “The latest polling data,” the Times reports.
Bingo. At six o’clock he’s hearing that the body count has hit 50,000. At nine, he’s hearing how far he is behind Biden in the key swing states of Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio. If he’s running behind now, with 50,000 dead, what’s it going to look like in October or November when the number tops 100,000?
Trump is balancing the grim news from his medical experts against the equally grim news from his campaign manager. When the choice is between dead people or his reelection, it’s an easy call. He is going to let it rip. His poll numbers are already so bad, he doesn’t have anything to lose. What’s another 50,000 to 100,000 dead compared to four more years of profiteering from the White House?
But the key to Trump’s plan is who dies. Watch the way he plays the game as the rest of the states make plans to reopen. He’s seen the facts and figures that social distancing works. He knows opening the economy will cost lives. He’s going to be very, very careful with states he expects to carry, but narrowly, like Georgia. The states that are a lock for Trump, or the states he doesn’t stand a chance in? Let them rip. Get the dying out of the way now. Maybe by the fall the coronavirus infection numbers will go down, maybe not.
The number of those killed won’t go down, but Trump doesn’t give a shit. He’s not the president of the United States. He’s the president of the Confederate States of MAGA. All he wants to do is win. If they’re not Trump’s voters, let ’em die
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/trumps-death-march-to-november-if-theyre-not-his-voters-let-em-die/
Trump's death march to November: If they're not his voters, let 'em die
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/trumps-death-march-to-november-if-theyre-not-his-voters-let-em-die/-------
Has Trump decided to use the coronavirus to win in November?
It sure looks that way. The tip-off came with Trump’s wild swing between Wednesday and Thursday over opening businesses in Georgia. On Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was a genius for allowing businesses like massage parlors and nail salons to open on Friday, with restaurants and bars opening on Monday. But less than 24 hours later, Trump had changed his mind.
“I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp. I wasn’t at all happy,” Trump announced from the podium at the Thursday briefing. What had happened overnight to sour Trump on “liberating” Georgia? “Trump’s sudden shift came only after top health advisers reviewed the plan more closely and persuaded the president that Kemp was risking further spread of the virus by moving too quickly,” the Associated Press reported on Friday.
That same morning, the New York Times published a front page story with another clue right there in the title: “No Rallies and No Golf, Just the TV to Rankle Him: Feeling Alone, President stews Over Image.” Buried in the story was the news that among the few calls a frustrated Trump agrees to take as he molders away in the White House are from his campaign manager, Brad Parscale. After Trump has heard the bad news about the coronavirus from his medical experts at his daily press briefing, what do Trump and Parscale discuss? “The latest polling data,” the Times reports.
Bingo. At six o’clock he’s hearing that the body count has hit 50,000. At nine, he’s hearing how far he is behind Biden in the key swing states of Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio. If he’s running behind now, with 50,000 dead, what’s it going to look like in October or November when the number tops 100,000?
Trump is balancing the grim news from his medical experts against the equally grim news from his campaign manager. When the choice is between dead people or his reelection, it’s an easy call. He is going to let it rip. His poll numbers are already so bad, he doesn’t have anything to lose. What’s another 50,000 to 100,000 dead compared to four more years of profiteering from the White House?
But the key to Trump’s plan is who dies. Watch the way he plays the game as the rest of the states make plans to reopen. He’s seen the facts and figures that social distancing works. He knows opening the economy will cost lives. He’s going to be very, very careful with states he expects to carry, but narrowly, like Georgia. The states that are a lock for Trump, or the states he doesn’t stand a chance in? Let them rip. Get the dying out of the way now. Maybe by the fall the coronavirus infection numbers will go down, maybe not.
The number of those killed won’t go down, but Trump doesn’t give a shit. He’s not the president of the United States. He’s the president of the Confederate States of MAGA. All he wants to do is win. If they’re not Trump’s voters, let ’em die
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/trumps-death-march-to-november-if-theyre-not-his-voters-let-em-die/
April 26, 2020
We stand behind the president
April 26, 2020
seventy-one percent of single Democratic Party voters said they are very unlikely to even consider dating a person who voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, a new survey finds.
The Pew Research Center study revealed the country's widening partisan divide has bled into Americans' dating habits, with 45 percent of Democrats or left-leaning voters outright declaring they "definitely would not" pursue a relationship with a Trump voter. That share is more than double the 19 percent of Republicans or right-leaning respondents who said they "definitely would not" date someone who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And based purely on party lines, 43 percent of Democrats said they would not likely date anyone who is a Republican, compared to just 24 percent of Republicans who said the same of their liberal counterparts.
The multi-layered Pew survey of nearly 5,000 "single-and-looking" Americans showed that members of both parties were more likely to romantically write-off a person who voted for Trump or Clinton in 2016 rather than someone who simply identified as a member of the opposite party. Only 4 percent of Democrat-leaning voters admitted they had previously dated a Trump voter, and only 4 percent of Republican-leaning voters conceded the same about dating a Clinton voter.
https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-three-quarters-single-democrats-wont-date-trump-voters-survey-finds-1500225
Poll: Dems would not date a Trump voter
https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-three-quarters-single-democrats-wont-date-trump-voters-survey-finds-1500225seventy-one percent of single Democratic Party voters said they are very unlikely to even consider dating a person who voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, a new survey finds.
The Pew Research Center study revealed the country's widening partisan divide has bled into Americans' dating habits, with 45 percent of Democrats or left-leaning voters outright declaring they "definitely would not" pursue a relationship with a Trump voter. That share is more than double the 19 percent of Republicans or right-leaning respondents who said they "definitely would not" date someone who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And based purely on party lines, 43 percent of Democrats said they would not likely date anyone who is a Republican, compared to just 24 percent of Republicans who said the same of their liberal counterparts.
The multi-layered Pew survey of nearly 5,000 "single-and-looking" Americans showed that members of both parties were more likely to romantically write-off a person who voted for Trump or Clinton in 2016 rather than someone who simply identified as a member of the opposite party. Only 4 percent of Democrat-leaning voters admitted they had previously dated a Trump voter, and only 4 percent of Republican-leaning voters conceded the same about dating a Clinton voter.
https://www.newsweek.com/nearly-three-quarters-single-democrats-wont-date-trump-voters-survey-finds-1500225
April 26, 2020
-----
From almost the moment the words left Trump’s mouth it was clear some sort of damage limitation was needed.
But, as shock and amazement traversed the globe, it was slow in coming. When it did arrive, on Friday lunchtime, it was a clean-up attempt that clearly could have gone better. At a White House event Trump tried to justify his dangerous comments, falsely claiming that he was “asking a question sarcastically to reporters”.
On Friday, even as the US death toll topped 50,000 and the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus cases grows nearer, Trump tried to make what critics saw as a desperate and dishonest U-turn.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” the president, sitting at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, told reporters as he signed emergency funding legislation.
“When I was asking a sarcastic – a very sarcastic question – to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside, but it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter.”
But video of the briefings clearly demonstrated otherwise. There was no hint of sarcasm and Trump’s attempts to rewrite the immediate past were undermined by the evidence just a simple Google search away.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/25/donald-trump-coronavirus-disinfectant-sarcastic-tipping-point
the moment the words left Trump's mouth it was clear some sort of damage limitation was needed
Debacle of Trump's coronavirus disinfectant comments could be tipping point-----
From almost the moment the words left Trump’s mouth it was clear some sort of damage limitation was needed.
But, as shock and amazement traversed the globe, it was slow in coming. When it did arrive, on Friday lunchtime, it was a clean-up attempt that clearly could have gone better. At a White House event Trump tried to justify his dangerous comments, falsely claiming that he was “asking a question sarcastically to reporters”.
On Friday, even as the US death toll topped 50,000 and the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus cases grows nearer, Trump tried to make what critics saw as a desperate and dishonest U-turn.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” the president, sitting at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, told reporters as he signed emergency funding legislation.
“When I was asking a sarcastic – a very sarcastic question – to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside, but it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter.”
But video of the briefings clearly demonstrated otherwise. There was no hint of sarcasm and Trump’s attempts to rewrite the immediate past were undermined by the evidence just a simple Google search away.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/25/donald-trump-coronavirus-disinfectant-sarcastic-tipping-point
April 26, 2020
Frustration is mounting as more families across the US enter their second or even third week of distance learning—and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last, the AP reports. Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups, and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are cramming all their children's school work into the weekend or even a single day. "We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard," says Massachusetts mom Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten.
"I'd rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math," she adds. That stress is only compounded for families with multiple children in different grades, or when parents work long hours outside the home. In some cases, older siblings must watch younger ones during the day, leaving no time for school work. "I think the pressure is on and I think it's on even more for some of our low-income families," says Rachel Pearl, chief program officer for Friends of the Children-Portland. One Pennsylvania mom says she finally broke down last week when her fourth-grade son and second-grade daughter each had assignments due: "I was feeling like a failure," she says. "I thought, 'I just can't do this.'"
https://www.newser.com/article/11a2f50d87922deef40d710887acdd04/i-just-cant-do-this-harried-parents-forgo-home-school.html
'I Just Can't Do This': Harried Parents Are Giving Up on Home schooling
https://www.newser.com/story/290070/i-just-cant-do-this-harried-parents-are-giving-up.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_img_bFrustration is mounting as more families across the US enter their second or even third week of distance learning—and some overwhelmed parents say it will be their last, the AP reports. Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups, and e-mailed assignments that pass as pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are cramming all their children's school work into the weekend or even a single day. "We tried to make it work the first week. We put together a schedule, and what we found is that forcing a child who is that young into a fake teaching situation is really, really hard," says Massachusetts mom Alexandra Nicholson, whose son is in kindergarten.
"I'd rather have him watch classic Godzilla movies and play in the yard and pretend to be a Jedi rather than figure out basic math," she adds. That stress is only compounded for families with multiple children in different grades, or when parents work long hours outside the home. In some cases, older siblings must watch younger ones during the day, leaving no time for school work. "I think the pressure is on and I think it's on even more for some of our low-income families," says Rachel Pearl, chief program officer for Friends of the Children-Portland. One Pennsylvania mom says she finally broke down last week when her fourth-grade son and second-grade daughter each had assignments due: "I was feeling like a failure," she says. "I thought, 'I just can't do this.'"
https://www.newser.com/article/11a2f50d87922deef40d710887acdd04/i-just-cant-do-this-harried-parents-forgo-home-school.html
April 26, 2020
Demand for oil has dropped due to stay-at-home orders around the world
Pumps are still extracting from the ground and the oil has to go into storage
Video released by U.S. Coast Guard shows a flotilla of oil tankers anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
The Coast Guard has increased its presence around almost 30 ships that are acting mostly as floating storage tanks for oil
Crude oil is not being used as businesses remain closed and restrictions on travel remain
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8255559/Dozens-oil-tankers-float-coast-Southern-California-global-lockdown-sees-demand-plummet.html
30 oil tankers sitting off the coast of CA with no where to unload, act as floating storage tanks
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/watch-aerial-footage-shows-dozens-of-oil-tankers-that-cant-unload-off-socal-coast/2113300/Demand for oil has dropped due to stay-at-home orders around the world
Pumps are still extracting from the ground and the oil has to go into storage
Video released by U.S. Coast Guard shows a flotilla of oil tankers anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
The Coast Guard has increased its presence around almost 30 ships that are acting mostly as floating storage tanks for oil
Crude oil is not being used as businesses remain closed and restrictions on travel remain
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8255559/Dozens-oil-tankers-float-coast-Southern-California-global-lockdown-sees-demand-plummet.html
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: California
Member since: Tue Feb 27, 2018, 10:32 PM
Number of posts: 32,475
