Make Mexico pay for a border wall. Cut middle-class taxes by 35%. Bring jobs back from overseas. Trump has repeatedly failed to deliver on promises.
...
“Trump will say whatever he has to to make it through the interview or the news cycle. He doesn’t know or care about the policy, and his narcissism means he doesn’t care about any damage he’s doing to others,” said Josh Schwerin, senior strategist and communications director at the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA. “Trump isn’t trying to solve the nation’s problems. He’s just trying to get through the day. That leads to broken promises and a badly damaged country.”
...
Of course, before Trump began that long list of promises in that Gettysburg address, he started by promising he would sue every woman who had publicly accused him of sexual assault, harassment and other misconduct. He has not followed through on that, either.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5f287a9bc5b68fbfc886bc05?test_ad=taboola_iframe_mw_news

Nancy Shively, an Oklahoma teacher, voted for Trump in 2016. Now, amid a heated debate on reopening schools and watching his lack of leadership on a response to the pandemic, she says she fears for her life:

When a cigar shop clerk told Adam Zaborowski on Friday he had to wear a mask in the shop, the 35-year-old angrily refused. Instead, he grabbed two stogies, stormed outside — and then pulled a handgun and shot at the clerk, Bethlehem Township, Pa., police said.

The next day, cornered near his home, Zaborowski allegedly fired at police with an AK-47, sparking a wild shootout with at least seven officers that ended with him shot multiple times and under arrest.

The case is the latest violent incident tied to arguments over mandatory mask orders. But Zaborowski’s reaction was driven by his own intense difficulty with the pandemic, his attorney claimed; before the shootout, Zaborowski had lost his job and had also recently lost custody of his child

“He just wasn’t dealing well with the loss of his job, the loss of his child, just not handling the pandemic well,” John Waldron told the Express-Times on Sunday, while noting those factors didn’t justify his violent conduct. “I think he was getting stretched too tight.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/03/mask-mandatory-pennsylvania-shooting-police/

The Bay Area had avoided spikes, but shutdown fatigue, early reopening and a prison outbreak changed that.

It was one of the first metro areas in the United States to fully shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly everyone wears masks, in stores and on streets. Its progressive residents generally have been inclined to follow the rules, and there’s a high level of trust in public health officials, local governments and the fast-changing science.

But now, more than four months after the region put some of the nation’s first shelter-in-place orders in effect, the Bay Area is experiencing a surge in cases and counties are rolling back reopening plans.

The Bay Area, which consists of nine counties and nearly 8 million people, is a cautionary tale for government and health officials. Even though leaders here tried to do everything cautiously and by the book, cases still eventually spiked over a month and a half, to an average of 877 cases a day at the end of July from 217 a day in mid-June.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/08/02/san-francisco-coronavirus-surge/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_virussf-620pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans



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Same thing is happening in Los Angeles/ Orange County areas. People are in dangerous denial.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez described his experience with covid-19 as feeling “like I was 100 years old.” Now, the 27-year-old left-hander will miss the 2020 season while recovering from a heart issue related to the illness.

Rodriguez, who tested positive for the coronavirus July 7, was ready to return July 18, but, five days later, an MRI revealed what turned out to be myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that has been shown to be a complication of a virus that can affect the kidneys and heart as well as the lungs.

“The heart is the most important part of your body, so when you hear that — the first time that I heard it — I was kind of scared,” Rodriguez said (via Mass Live) July 26. “Now that I know what it is, it’s still scary, but now I know exactly what it is. Just talk to my mom, talk to my wife, they know what I have and everything. Now we just gotta take the rest. That’s hard, but you gotta take a rest.''

“Here’s one of the best pitchers in the game last year and he’s not able to perform on the field,” Red Sox Manager Ron Roenicke said (via the AP). “You’re more at risk when you’re older, but it hits the young pretty hard, too, at times. And Eddie just, unfortunately, is one of those guys that it hit hard, and to get to lose an entire season, it’s pretty rough on anybody.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/02/red-sox-ace-27-wont-pitch-this-season-because-heart-ailment-linked-covid-19/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_red-sox-1245pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

City officials led by Dighavkar, the assistant municipal commissioner in charge of Dharavi, charted their own course. After identifying five areas reporting the most cases, they focused on screening every house for people with fever or low oxygen levels. Local doctors were enlisted to inspire confidence among residents.

Within 10 days, 47,000 people had been screened, and 400 symptomatic people were tested for the virus, with 20 percent turning out to be positive. An additional 4,000 people, including contacts and those with co-morbidities, were placed in institutional quarantine.

Health-care camps were set up in prominent locations in the slum where people could walk in and get a free virus test. Officials urged dozens of private clinics in the area to remain open so more cases could be detected. In turn, the government provided them with protective gear and daily sanitization.

“We chased the virus,” Dighavkar said, “instead of waiting for people to report it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/how-a-packed-slum-in-mumbai-beat-back-the-coronavirus-as-indias-cases-continue-to-soar/2020/07/30/da859532-d039-11ea-826b-cc394d824e35_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_virus-mumbai422pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

_________________________________________

Yup, Trump provided states with less than what a third world slum got.

Source: Washington Post

PORTLAND, Ore. — This city's battle-scarred downtown was calm much of Friday after federal agents withdrew from the streets where they had faced off with protesters for days, though dozens remained stationed downtown to respond to any further violence.

The agents, who had been posted at a federal courthouse that protesters had targeted with graffiti and fire, moved to other downtown locations, held in reserve under a deal between Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) and the Trump administration. Amid criticism of the federal officers’ tactics, local and state police who took their place at the courthouse were far less aggressive — largely staying out of sight Thursday night, making no arrests and firing no tear gas.

In moments reminiscent of the once-nightly clashes, a few protesters threw rocks or fireworks at the empty space where federal agents had stood. But the crowds were largely peaceful Thursday night into Friday, listening to speeches about police brutality and racism and chatting on the grass.
...
The Department of Homeland Security is keeping more than 130 federal agents stationed near the courthouse as a “quick reaction force,” in case protests turn violent again, according to an internal DHS document reviewed by The Washington Post.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/calm-returns-to-portland-as-federal-agents-withdraw/2020/07/31/3606b35a-d364-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_protestledeall-1204am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Pressed on this, Weaver made an interesting concession. He allowed that he helped elect Jeff Sessions to the Senate in the 1990s. Given Sessions’s racially charged history and his longtime role in building a U.S. nativist movement, Weaver allowed this had contributed in its own small way to pushing the GOP toward a Trump takeover.

“I have my own atonement to do every day about that,” Weaver told me. “Did I contribute to putting a brick in the road to where we are today? Yeah, I did.”

“Trickle-down economics has proven not to work,” Weaver said, allowing that “growing and growing" inequality is a big reason the American people are losing faith in government, which is often said to have helped Trump’s rise.

If the Lincoln Project has a broader agenda, then, it appears to be burning down as much of the GOP that helped bring us Trump as possible. Obviously, we should approach all this with a trust-but-verify skepticism, but Weaver has now planted markers for us to judge the group against.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/20/does-lincoln-project-have-secret-agenda-answer-is-surprising/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

Source: Washington Post

The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.

The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, the people said.

The administration’s posture has angered some GOP senators, the officials said, and some lawmakers are trying to push back and ensure that the money stays in the bill. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential deliberations, cautioned that the talks were fluid and the numbers were in flux.

The negotiations center around a bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell (R-Ky.) is preparing to unveil this coming week as part of the negotiations with Democrats on what will likely be the last major coronavirus relief bill before the November election.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/18/white-house-testing-budget-cdc-coronavirus/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_bailouthill-310pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

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"I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down please,' " https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/22/politics/donald-trump-testing-slow-down-response/index.html

Source: Business Insider

Sweden's prime minister has ordered an inquiry into the country's decision not to impose a coronavirus lockdown after the country suffered thousands more deaths than its closest neighbours.

"We have thousands of dead," Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven said at a press conference on Wednesday, while admitting that the country's handling had exposed Sweden's "shortcomings," The Times of London reported.

"Now the question is how Sweden should change, not if."

Unlike most other European countries, including its closest neighbours, Sweden did not implement strict, wholesale lockdown measures in response to the pandemic. Instead, the country has largely allowed businesses and hospitality to remain open and students to attend school.



Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-opens-inquiry-into-coronavirus-strategy-of-no-lockdown-2020-7?r=US&IR=T

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Please raise your hand if you predicted this.

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