Can he do this?
CNN reports that Trump threatens to invoke a “never-used” constitutional authority to adjourn Congress so he can appoint nominees without Congressional approval.
President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to apply a never-used provision of the US Constitution to allow himself to adjourn the US Congress and push through many of his nominees who typically require Senate confirmation. The move came days after he claimed that he has total authority over the states before backing down.
“As the entire US government works to combat the global pandemic, it is absolutely essential that key positions at relevant federal agencies are fully staffed, and we’re not allowing that to take place through our Congress,” Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden during his daily coronavirus briefing. “They’re just not giving it to us. We have many positions that are unstaffed because we can’t get approval.”
Trump said there were 129 nominees “stuck in the Senate because of partisan obstruction.”
Trump’s argument seemed to be that many of these vacancies needed to be filled to assist with the coronavirus response, including the director of national intelligence, two members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, an assistant secretary of the Treasury Department and an undersecretary of agriculture.
The President argued that since the Senate has left until May 4, he must use his constitutional authority to adjourn it.
“The Constitution provides a mechanism for the President to fill positions in such circumstances. The recess appointment, it’s called. The Senate’s practice of gaveling into so-called pro-forma sessions, where no one is even there, has prevented me from using the constitutional authority we’re given,” he said, calling on the Senate to adjourn itself.
The decision to stay away from Washington until May 4 was made, and announced, by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and close Trump ally.
The people whose nominations have been held up are unqualified; that is why they have not been confirmed.
Can he do this?
Isn’t this fascistic?
Doesn’t it threaten our democracy?
Who will stop him?
Not Mitch McConnell.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s not fascism YET, insofar as it’s only one step in a series of steps that, if completed, will take us there (according to Hannah Arendt’s book: The Origins of Totalitarianism).
It IS fascism for the same reason–there are steps that take us there, and THAT’s one of them. Watch out for the freedom of the Press. CBK
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I’ve asked a number of times in previous comments, what will be our Reichstag Fire moment? I think the answer will come sooner rather than later.
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GregB Yes . . . it’s like waiting for the other shoe to drop. CBK
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Say I have an idea, Mr. Trump. Why not just stop nominating people who are so repugnant/unqualified that Senators won’t confirm them?
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I believe a key unanswered question regards the military…….If, for example, he cancels the election, then selectively allows various states to hold their elections……Mitch McConnell will not stop him…..but the American military might. He is likely to pull some atrocious stunts in November….
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From what I have been reading Trump cannot follow through with his latest threat. Both the Senate and the House have set up this thing called “pro forma sessions”.
Trump Threatens to Adjourn Congress But Constitutional Law Expert Says He’s Misinterpreting His Power.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/04/15/trump-threatens-to-adjourn-congress-but-constitutional-law-expert-says-hes-misinterpreting-his-power/#5f4d9198798c
If Trumpty Dumpty follows through with his latest bully tantrum, one or both Houses of Congress may challenge him all the way to the US Supreme Court and defy him until the Court rules on the issue.
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Can he? Yes
Is it fascistic? Yes?
But he will them shoulder all the blame when nothing works
And he will lose independents
And Congress wiil go to court And what would be the reason? And how will McConnell get judges
It will kill any attempt on his part to get more $ for anything
So I think it’s a bluff
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Did you mean he will NOT accept the blame?
He never accepts blame for anything.
Remember he said, as president, I have total authority.
That was after he said—about the failure Of the federal government to produce PPE or ventilators—“I am responsible for nothing.”
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Putin has infiltrated the highest level of our government.
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Was the above comment really from Randi Weingarten?! I certainly hope not, or she has not a clue as to what WH occupant is about. As Diane wrote, “He never accepts blame for anything.” He is akin to Alfred E. Neumann from Mad magazine, “What? Me worry?” He acts as if the U.S. death toll is nothing! (Even one death is too many.)
The remainder of “Randi’s” comments make no sense.
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RE: Randi Weingarten:
The larger the organization someone manages or leads (like AFT and NEA), the bubble they live in springs until it is skin tight cutting them off from the real world.
Like Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Back in the 1980s, the president of the local where I taught, lied and deliberately changed the count from a vote of that district’s 1,000 teachers so we would not go on strike to fight for a planning period and a contracted limit on class size. She didn’t want to go on a strike but the majority of that teachers local did so she lied and reported the majority did not support going out on strike.
And she was just the president of one local for the teachers working on one public school district. Image what the power that comes with being the president of a couple of million teachers does to the way you reason and think.
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My kids and I have been watching the hit show “Tiger King”….of course, at least half the country is these days, right.
And, it became clearer than ever after the first few episodes. No wonder we have Trump. He’d fit right into this show.
Joe Exotic, James Brown, P. T, Barnum, Donald Trump….the list goes on and on. Could any other nation in the world create characters like these -however you judge them?
It reminds me of when I was a kid and we went to the Demolition Derby (cap’ed on purpose, folks.) It was held at a racetrack right down the road from where I grew up. (Now the site of a Bed Bath and Beyond or some other big box retailer like that.)
And, this wasn’t the type of lamo demolition derby I’ve seen advertised today where cars politely back into each other and there are all sorts of thought out safety precautions. No, no, no….
Imagine a wide open track the size of a football field with cars just BASHING into one another. After picking up significant speed.
I was transfixed as a child. Amazed. A group of bikers sitting in front of us one time had brought a watermelon filled with some sort of alcohol and they cut it open with this giant knife and were passing it around, guzzling out of it. Meanwhile, one station wagon with the words “For Mom!” spray painted on the side was chasing other vehicles, like a rabid hyena on wheels.
What a country!
And, now Trump is the host for this huge, national Demolition Derby held mostly online. Of course, he’s smashing up the Constitution. That’s what his whole, scary show has been about from the start. That’s his shtick. He’s a CRASH. And about a quarter of the country would still pay to see it, damn the flattened curve, full speed ahead.
Of course, the damage here, will be very, very REAL and lasting. To our government, to each and every one of us.
If I had more time I’d go back and start reading Carl HIaason novels about Florida. They’d also help me understand this moment in our nation’s history. Yeah, the whole world is dealing with the pandemic but there’s a reason why the ‘Rona has hit us so hard.
I’d write more now but I have “serious” online school work to do….whatever that is these days.
Be well all.
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You can see why Trump wants to adjourn Congress. We have people in Congress brave enough to tell the facts concerning Trump’s total lack of ability to lead. Jared has NO business being involved in the distribution of supplies.
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Senate Democrats To Trump: You Failed At Managing National Stockpile
04/15/2020
More than a dozen Senate Democrats sent a letter to President Donald Trump slamming his administration for what they described as a failure to properly manage the Strategic National Stockpile amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far killed 24,000 people across the U.S.
The Democrats, led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Patty Murray of Washington state, urged Trump to explain why the federal stockpile was nearly depleted of critically needed personal protective equipment as the pandemic continued to worsen in the country.
The letter highlighted dozens of governors’ requests to receive supplies from the stockpile in order to protect public health workers and medical professionals who are fighting the spread of the virus.
“However, your Administration has failed to sufficiently respond to these requests,” the letter read.
“It should not take public pleas from governors or letters from congressional delegations for states to obtain the supplies they need,” the senators continued. “The stockpile was intended to support a response to a large scale disaster, and yet, as the country finds itself experiencing exactly the kind of crisis the stockpile was created to mitigate, your Administration has failed to respond with the urgency that is so clearly needed.”…
The Democrats also expressed concern over Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner’s remarks earlier this month, claiming that the supplies in the federal stockpile were not meant for states to use.
Trump later defended Kushner’s comments by saying that the federal government was “not an ordering clerk.”
“They have to fend for themselves,” Trump said of the states…
Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-trump-letter-national-stockpile_n_5e97486dc5b6ead140068df5?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006
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I assume this is because he wants to continue stocking the federal courts with unqualified, but ideologically sympatico, knuckle-draggers like Justin Walker.
Can the comment above really be from Randi Weingarten? If it is (and count me among the skeptics), then I wish the president of a national teachers’ union wrote with better syntax and punctuation.
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“Walker attended Catholic school for 13 years graduating from Louisville St. Xavier High School.”
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Rex Sinquefeld, the Missouri billionaire, grew up in an orphanage, went to Catholic schools, and hates public schools. He is a self-made billionaire and he thinks everyone else should use their bootstraps, as he did.
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Linda goes on and on and on . . . . Please know: The Catholics are out to get us. CBK
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Moscow Mitch is elected by the tribalism of Kentucky Catholics and evangelicals and by racial bigots, (assumes no overlap). Black and brown Catholics voted Democratic in the 2016 presidential election. 60% of white Catholics voted for Trump. Catholic Vote opines that the ratio will be higher for Trump’s re-election.
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. . . look out . . . here come the Catholics. CBK
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Linda is doing what Trump does: Trump cannot listen to someone if they don’t agree with him. Instead, he looks under every rock in their past, their race, their gender, their party affiliation, or whatever, to find the source of the obvious **I HATE TRUMP” rhetoric (forget the truth, of course).
For Linda, it’s “let’s look under every rock in someone’s background and see if we can find some sort of Catholic influence,” which if course is ALL BAD.
Linda would get an “F” in research methods in college and is branding this site as involved in a conspiracy theory. CBK
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A conspiracist doesn’t have a narrative to construct when, in plain sight, theocrats sidle up next to despots and when they publicly document their activities.
But, it is easy to understand the origin of others’ fears, given the widespread cover-up of priest abuse.
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Linda Again, typical response. CBK
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CBK,
Maybe you should not take the bait.
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Hello Diane, Good idea. BTW, I did that for a long time, and almost every time I tuned in, there Linda was Catholic-bashing again. CBK
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I understand,and you know I don’t agree with her. If you or Linda are ever in Brooklyn, I invite you to the Oratory of St. Boniface on Duffield Street, a vibrant Roman Catholic Church with strong social justice values. I know all the priests there as friends. I’m Jewish and my partner, who is RC, worships there. People of every color and ethnicity, gay and straight, rich and poor and middle-class, are members of the congregation. I don’t go there as often as Mary, but I know it’s a wonderful community.
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Hello Diane: I don’t travel much, but have always wanted to visit there, and I am honored to be invited. Thank you. Catherine
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Diane: An afterthought: If anyone reads my notes, it’s clear that I don’t give the Catholic Church a pass, and I doubt that you do, as Linda suggests. The Church has been around centuries longer than anything named “evangelical” and has a lot to answer for–for centuries longer. I don’t give public education a pass either, though of course I support it fully . . . . much work to do there also. We just don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater (to lean on a very old metaphor).
I am glad to see some revival of history and political/social sciences in public education and think its loss, along with the arts, is part of why we are where we are today . . . where so many who grew up in the last 50 years have no idea about what’s at stake with the wholesale moves toward privatization and total capitalization (pay to play) of everything. Thanks. CBK
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People make errors when they write on a cell phone late at night.
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Trump has a long list of totally unqualified bigots that he wants to appoint as federal judges. They are so incompetent that not even the Republicans approve them.
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Funny, it wasn’t so important for the Supreme Court to be fully staffed when Obama was President.
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Uncle Albert’s Nephew Don’t you know? . . . for Trump and his children, and for the the current bunch of “Republicans” and “conservatives,” what is good for the goose is NOT good for the gander. mememememememe CBK
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Tangential- a couple of years ago, the Catholic Labor website reported that, after Walmart and the US government, Catholic organizations are the 3rd largest U.S. employer.
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Presumably, attorney general William Barr, who said religion should be introduced at every opportunity, is advising Trump.
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Linda It’s a Catholic conspiracy. And no one else in Government (besides Catholics) purveys politics that are dangerous to democracy or to public education. CBK
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CBK,
I understand how you feel about this constant attack on ALL Catholics. It is wrong. Linda should recognize that “some” Catholics, “some” Protestants, “some” Jews, “some” everybody else, engage in awful behavior.
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Diane My guess is that many of whatever religious affiliation who are bystanders and/or who are quiet supporters of Trumpism, for whatever reason, have a crisis of conscience bubbling up from below, so to speak. From what I can tell, many are weary of ignoring it and (what they, themselves call) holding their noses? CBK
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Diane,
I’ve shown admirable restraint as I have been insulted, called ignorant, labeled a sinner (along with all others), etc. In doing so I have refrained from assuming that the person hurling the invectives is representative of any faction of the religious group to which she says she belongs. And, I have avoided responding in kind to her inappropriate style of argumentation.
Your comment makes clear the political activities of evangelicals are cause for concern. But, Catholic political activity is protected?
I understand you think the information about Catholic organizations as reportedly, the 3rd largest US employer, is unrelated to political influence and presumably irrelevant. We will agree to disagree.
I understand you think the USCCB and state Catholic Conferences pose no threat to women’s rights, public education, American democracy, etc. We will agree to disagree.
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Linda Your response to me (referring to priest pedophilia in the Catholic Church) reveals exactly what’s so insidious about referring to group identity rather than focusing on the issues of concern.
It’s innuendo that, in this case, implies that I or anyone who is Catholic, must either support pedophilia or hide low-life priests from being found out. (And that is not insulting/?). And your statements about evil only revealing that you do not read for understanding, which reveals the ignorance that you claim not to have to be sadly self-imposed. CBK
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Linda,
Labeling all the members of any religious, racial, or ethnic group as evil is stereotyping.
I know too many Catholics who are social justice activists to accept blanket condemnation of all members of this faith community.
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Jeez, I wonder if that can possibly be true.
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I’ve posed the question to a few media. If I get an answer I’ll post it.
I’ve also asked about the ratios for union-represented workers in Catholic hospitals, nursing homes, social services, schools, universities and newspapers.
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One in 6 U.S. hospitals are Catholic. Mother Jones’ research was summarized (12-18-2013), “Charts: Catholic Hospitals Don’t Do Much for the Poor”.
Students in the Catholic Cristo Rey school chain work 1 week a month for other organizations and some of them return their pay to the school. Ohio is one state that gives Cristo Rey $6,000 per voucher student. Research from another state showed some parishes generate more from vouchers than from worshippers.
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Linda quotes: ““Charts: Catholic Hospitals Don’t Do Much for the Poor”.
This really nails both writers’ ignorance . . . CBK
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Linda,
It would be great if you devoted your time to the evangelicals who are Trump’s real base.
Read Katherine Stewart’s book THE POWER WORSHIPPERS.
It will make your blood boil.
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Wow.
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Diane I doubt you or anyone here wants to eliminate any religious group from the political dialogue (with some exceptions for the worse of the extremes).
If I may, a method of Trump is not to respond to the argument, where the truth is, but to some identity of the person (again, like gender, race, party, etc.). That’s not only a common logical fallacy (Trump is a walking set of logical fallacies), but is a basic method of the tribal mind. His focus is not on WHAT, but WHO (whether personal or group identity).
The problem, then, is how easy it is to be sucked into playing in the same logical ballpark–personal or group identity OVER the truth of the argument or position a person takes, if you see what I mean in this case with either Catholics or evangelicals. Truth and person/group (both are essential) switch places and focus, or sometimes one eliminates the other. And conspiracy theories are as much about what is OMITTED as what is said. And what is said commonly supports some hard ideology or other, not to mention a guru and thinkers of a lesser kind.
In Trump’s case, he’s less subtle than most (he’s plainly moronic in that regard–doesn’t say much for his followers) and he omits the entire argument (and so its truth) to focus only on the person/group identity. CBK
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BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
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Three quotes which may be of interest.
For me, it seems they describe the country under the Trump presidency.
The historical cycle seems to be: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy, from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.
• This quotation was actually by Henning W. Prentis, Jr., president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers, in a February 1943 address entitled “The Cult of Competency”
I would add: “lost his country” to me means the country is lost with such a person in charge.
As for the rest of his fellow citizens, he is close to them, but he does not see them; he touches them, but he does not feel them; he exists only in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
It is not, perhaps, unreasonable to conclude, that a pure and perfect democracy is a thing not attainable by man, constituted as he is of contending elements of vice and virtue, and ever mainly influenced by the predominant principle of self-interest.
It may, indeed, be confidently asserted, that there never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.
• Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, Alexander Fraser (1854). Universal History: From the Creation of the World to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I. Petridge and Company. p. 216.
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Hello Gordon Wilder: On that last quote (up to the 18th century?) I think that’s why Jefferson’s writings were so visionary–his long study of history saw (in my view) where we were going (or could go) and wrote our founding documents accordingly. He recognized that there IS a tension (between what and who) and that a government could be dynamic enough to hold those two principles in right relation to one another and to the moving continuum that is history on the move (and, referring to the first quote, never finished). CBK
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WHO addresses mental health problems in the world. Wonder if they would work to get Trump the mental help he sorely needs. [Now that I would approve.] Trump always needs scapegoats for his misdeeds. It figures that Fox would be also screeching.
…………………………………………..
Urged On by Conservatives and His Own Advisers, Trump Targeted the W.H.O.
But his announcement that he would freeze the U.S.’s contributions to the organization in the middle of a pandemic was denounced by Democrats as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
April 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — Fox News pundits and Republican lawmakers have raged for weeks at the World Health Organization for praising China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. On his podcast, President Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, urged his former boss to stop funding the W.H.O., citing its ties to the “Chinese Communist Party.”
And inside the West Wing, the president found little resistance among the China skeptics in his administration for lashing out at the W.H.O. and essentially trying to shift the blame for his own failure to aggressively confront the spread of the virus by accusing the world’s premier global health group of covering up for the country where it started.
Mr. Trump’s decision on Tuesday to freeze nearly $500 million in public money for the W.H.O. in the middle of a pandemic was the culmination of a concerted conservative campaign against the group. But the president’s announcement on the W.H.O. drew fierce condemnations from many quarters.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said cutting its funding was “not in U.S. interests.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the decision “dangerous” and “illegal.” Former President Jimmy Carter said he was “distressed,” calling the W.H.O. “the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus.”…
But defending the W.H.O. on Wednesday, Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of its emergencies programs, cited the early warning it sounded.
“We alerted the world on January the Fifth,” Mr. Ryan told reporters.
Dr. Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment with Mr. Trump’s decision to freeze funding.
“W.H.O. is not only fighting Covid-19,” he said. “We’re also working to address polio, measles, malaria, Ebola, H.I.V., tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer, diabetes, mental health and many other diseases and conditions.”…
The president publicly shrugged off the virus throughout January and much of February, repeatedly saying that it was under control. He said in mid-February that he hoped the virus would “miraculously” disappear when the weather turned warm.
Mr. Trump barred some travel from China in late January, a move that health experts say helped delay widespread infection. But he also presided over a government that failed to make testing and medical supplies widely available and resisted calling for social distancing that allowed the virus to spread for several critical weeks…
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BBC:
China reported the cases to the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN’s global health agency, on 31 December.
But WHO experts were only allowed to visit China and investigate the outbreak on 10 February, by which time the country had more than 40,000 cases.
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Trump’s Congressional Economic Task Force includes ALL 74 Senate Republicans, excluding Romney, and 22 Democrats. This is to ensure that Trump gets the response that he wants. People getting sick, with many elderly dying, is a great way to save money on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid while promoting the economy. It’s a definite ‘win-win’. Both Braun and Young are die-hard Trump supporters.
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Senators to advise Trump on economy
Young, Braun on task force weighing business restart
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said Thursday that Americans are “going to have to take a little risk” and resume commercial activities in certain places amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., said he hopes people can begin gathering again soon but that consumers will determine how fast the U.S. economy reboots.
Young and Braun announced in separate teleconferences that President Donald Trump had appointed them to the new Congressional Economic Task Force. The group includes 74 Republicans, 22 Democrats and an independent. Every GOP senator was chosen except Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote in favor of convicting Trump at the end of his impeachment trial this winter.
Braun reported “a little bit of a tug-of-war” between task force members seeking to relax restraints on businesses and those wanting self-isolation orders to remain in place until more people are tested for COVID-19.
“I think we need to move on testing as quickly as we can. … I don’t think we can do that comprehensively in a timely fashion to where we won’t have permanent damage to the economy,” Braun said during a teleconference arranged by the Indiana Broadcasters Association.
Some businesses are “real close” to “when you go beyond the point of no return as an entity,” he said.
“Until we have a vaccine, until we have therapies that are proven to work, we’re going to have to take a little risk, take all of the knowledge we’ve learned about it and be entrepreneurial in how we go forward,” said Braun, who owns an auto parts distribution business and is a member of Senate committees with jurisdiction over agriculture, health, education and labor….
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How can the country reopen when the death numbers keep going up?
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U.S. Virus Deaths Hit Horrifying One-Day Record: 4,591
Tom Sykes
Updated Apr. 17, 2020 7:20AM ET /
Pedro Vilela
The number of reported deaths in the U.S. hit a grim new high on Thursday, spiking to nearly double the previous record during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, 4,591 people were reported to have died from coronavirus; the prior daily record was 2,569, on Wednesday. In total, there have been more than 33,000 deaths in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Global deaths now top 144,000.
Read it at Wall Street Journal
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Carol, there are only 51 Republicans in the current Senate, 44 Democrats, and 2 independents that caucus with the Democrats.
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CORRECTION: In this congress, there are 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, and 2 independents that caucus with the Democrats.
The other numbers were from the 2017- 2018 Congress
https://www.senate.gov/history/partydiv.htm
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Lloyd Lofthouse: This article came from a local paper in Indiana. Thanks for the correction.
Trump is still wanting to get his way in everything. Then when it goes wrong, there will always be someone to blame.
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Trump has been a failure as an honest businessman all of his life. But he has been successful as a con man, a liar, a cheat, and a fraud.
Hopefully, if we get him out of the White House before he dies in his 90s, all the lawsuits waiting to be filed in NY State will end his life of crime and destruction.
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In signing off, I disclose something personal to correct the record.
Three of the people I most love, my husband, my son-in-law and my best friend for 50 years are Catholic, as well as other friends and family I deeply cherish, most of whom, vote Democratic.
My comments, exclusively, reflect opposition to theocracy and its political abuses which explains my unwillingness to engage, in kind, in this and other related threads..
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