Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours | The company behind the breakthrough, Carbios, said it was aiming for industrial-scale recycling within five years. It has partnered with major companies including Pepsi and L'Oréal to accelerate development. Independent experts called the new enzyme a major advance. Billions of tonnes of plastic waste have polluted the planet, from the Arctic to the deepest ocean trench, and pose a particular risk to sea life. Campaigners say reducing the use of plastic is key, but the company said the strong, lightweight material was very useful and that true recycling was part of the solution. The new enzyme was revealed in research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The work began with the screening of 100,000 micro-organisms for promising candidates, including the leaf compost bug, which was first discovered in 2012.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/08/scientists-create-mutant-enzyme-that-recycles-plastic-bottles-in-hours
White-tailed eagles - one of the largest birds of prey with a 2.5-metre wingspan - have been spotted for the first time in 240 years soaring above the North York Moors, England.
https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a32089888/white-tailed-eagles-spotted-north-york-moors/
Bernie Sanders announced on a livestream today (monday)that he's endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden, five days after suspending his own presidential campaign: We must come together to defeat the most dangerous president in modern history. I'm joining @JoeBiden's livestream with a special announcement.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1249760437853401097
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1XUeJA0-f0
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1vOxwoAjQVVxB
China Bans Consumption Of Bats And Snakes But Wants To Export Them To Other Countries | Chinese authorities have temporarily banned the wild animal trade over coronavirus pandemic fears, but they are now offering tax incentives to export their edible exotic animals overseas. China's National People's Congress said in a statement when banning the trade, "The prominent problem of recklessly eating wild animals and its potential risk to public health have aroused wide public concern." But a new report by the Wall Street Journal says they are now hoping to cash in on the multi-billion dollar animal product industry by offering tax breaks on exports. The Journal reports that last month, China's Finance Ministry started offering value-added tax rebates on 1,500 Chinese products, including a 9 percent rebate on "edible snakes and turtles, primate meat, beaver and civet musk, and rhino horns." The Congressional Research Service, responsible for producing nonpartisan analysis for Congress, has raised concern over such tax incentives, stating that encouraging wild animal sales abroad, while banned in China, "could spread the risk to global markets."
https://www.thedailybeast.com/china-bans-consumption-of-bats-and-snakes-but-now-wants-to-export-them-to-other-countries
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-coronavirus-pandemic-china-bans-domestic-trade-of-wild-animals-but-offers-tax-breaks-for-exports-11586683800
Koalas Recovered from Australian Bushfires are Finally Going Home
https://www.travelandleisure.com/animals/koalas-released-into-wild-australia-bushfires
A preliminary estimate from NOAA finds that levels of atmospheric methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, have hit an all-time high. Methane is roughly 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, and while it stays in the atmosphere for only around a decade, as opposed to centuries, like CO2, its continued rise poses a major challenge to international climate goals. "Here we are. It's 2020, and it's not only not dropping. It's not level. In fact, it's one of the fastest growth rates we've seen in the last 20 years," said Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University. | In 2019, the concentration of atmospheric methane reached nearly 1875 parts per billion, the highest level since record-keeping began in 1983. Even more troubling, 2019 saw the second-largest single-year leap in two decades. However, this figure may change, as preliminary estimates have trended high, said Ed Dlugokencky, a research chemist at NOAA. The final numbers will likely be unveiled in November after a more detailed analysis. "We're still waiting to see what the final number is going to be, and it's going to be many months before we know that," Dlugokencky said. "But the fact that methane is increasing means it's further contributing to climate change."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/methane-levels-reach-an-all-time-high/
https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends_ch4/
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials
I served on active duty in the United States military to defend your right to say stupid, racist shit about me.
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1248509820983861249
Lieu, whose known to be a vocal member of the House, told NBC Asian America that speaking up comes with a "fair share" of racist replies. He explained that his duty to defending the Constitution and calling out racism are not mutually exclusive concepts. "When I served in the Air Force, and as a Member of Congress, I took an oath to defend the Constitution," he said. "The First Amendment allows for people to make racist statements. At the same time, we need to stand up to racists. The First Amendment allows for that, too."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1181651
People really do need to understand the sad truth here, related to the fact that we're not going to be able to stop this outbreak. We're trying to manage it, but people will continue to get sick, will continue to get critically ill, will continue to die.
"The smartest people in health care and drug development - and they were completely oblivious." How the virus spread from an elite health care conference in Boston to at least six states, DC and three countries, infecting nearly 100: How a Premier U.S. Drug Company Became a Virus 'Super Spreader' | Biogen employees unwittingly spread the coronavirus from Massachusetts to Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/coronavirus-biogen-boston-superspreader.html
#FireTrumpNotFauci Trends After Trump Attacks Fauci
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/13/firetrumpnotfauci-trends-after-president-goes-after-trusted-infectious-disease
Firing Fauci will be a mistake because then he will be free to sit in front of a Camera 24/7 and openly state exactly why all of Trump's decisions are stupid. As long as he is on the task force, they have a measure of control over him.
Tired: Mexico pays for the wall | Wired: American Taxayers pays Mexico to help OPEC raise the price of gasoline. To give Mexico incentive to cut oil production by 100,000 barrels as part of OPEC deal Trump says US will make up the financial difference for Mexico. Says Mexico would reimburse US at a later time.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexico-to-cut-oil-production-by-100-000-barrels-a-day-11586525569
Small Chloroquine Study Halted Over Risk of Fatal Heart Complications | A small study in Brazil was halted early for safety reasons after coronavirus patients taking a higher dose of chloroquine developed irregular heart rates that increased their risk of a potentially fatal heart arrhythmia. | "To me, this study conveys one useful piece of information, which is that chloroquine causes a dose-dependent increase in an abnormality in the ECG that could predispose people to sudden cardiac death," said Dr. David Juurlink, an internist and the head of the division of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto, referring to an electrocardiogram, which reads the heart's electrical activity. | By the sixth day of treatment, 11 patients had died, leading to an immediate end to the high-dose segment of the trial.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/health/chloroquine-coronavirus-trump.html
A sailor who tested positive for Covid-19 on the USS Theodore Roosevelt has died of coronavirus, the US Navy said Monday.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/politics/theodore-roosevelt-sailor-coronavirus/index.html
https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=112614
Trump adviser Peter Navarro claimed on 60 Minutes that 60 Minutes Never Covered Pre-Trump Pandemics. 60 Minutes Interviews Responded By Playing Clips Proving Navarro A Liar: 60 Minutes opens the archive on previous stories on U.S. pandemic preparedness after being challenged by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. See this week's full report on the need for PPE in hospitals, here: https://cbsn.ws/34AqLSK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSx704KK_Ik
Peter Navarro just sat there and lied his ass off with millions watching. They even showed he lied but he stuck to the Trump script; lie and when your caught, lie again to get out of it. Until these a-holes are voted out, it will continue.
Senior officers aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier reeling from a coronavirus outbreak offered to sign a revealing letter about the dire situation, only to be denied by the ship's commander, Capt. Brett Crozier. Crozier, who has since been relieved of command for sending the four-page letter out to over 20 recipients, was asked by senior officers on the ship to sign the letter, according to a New York Times report published Sunday. Crozier reportedly feared for their careers and denied their request.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/coronavirus-roosevelt-carrier-crozier.html
At least 197,000 taxpaying New Yorkers will miss out on coronavirus relief payments from the federal government because of a legislative roadblock put in place by Republicans, according to data from the state Taxation and Finance Department. The $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law last month contains Republican-crafted language that makes people who use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) ineligible for the $1,200 personal checks that the Treasury Department will begin issuing to most workers this week. ITINs are mostly used by undocumented immigrants who can't get Social Security numbers but still pay taxes - and in New York alone, there are 197,187 such filers, according to the data reviewed by the Daily News. | Zona failed to mention that ITIN users pay taxes. In addition to undocumented immigrants, ITINs are used by some U.S. visa holders, family members of permanent residents and foreign nationals who receive income in the U.S. | Meng said in a phone interview last week that the bill was written in such a way that mixed-status families don't qualify for checks, either. That means even someone with a Social Security number, such as a spouse or a dependent child, won't receive any cash assistance if a person in their household uses an ITIN.
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-taxpayers-new-york-relief-payments-20200413-xcv7uxc3dfhfrfdiz7wxvbrq7a-story.html
At least 19 people were killed and dozens were injured after a swarm of destructive tornadoes and damaging winds tore across the South on Easter Sunday. Violent storms brought more than 400 reports of severe weather, including 360 reports of wind damage and dozens of tornadoes associated with a powerful storm system barreling across the country. Power was knocked out to 1.3 million customers between Texas and Pennsylvania. The workweek began with yet another day of dangerous weather, a continuous line of strong to severe storms stretching more than 700 miles from the Gulf Coast to the Mid-Atlantic on Monday morning.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/04/13/tornado-severe-weather-east-coast/
China Limited the Mekong's Flow. Other Countries Suffered a Drought. | New research show that Beijing's engineers appear to have directly caused the record low levels of water in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. | The data modeling created by Mr. Basist and his colleague Claude Williams measures the various components of a river's flow, from snow and glacial melt to rainfall and soil moisture. The scientists found that for most years, the natural, unimpeded flow of the upstream Mekong roughly tracked water levels measured downstream at a gauge in Thailand, with occasional exceptions when dam reservoirs in China were being filled or released. When there was a seasonal drought in China, the five downstream nations - Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam - would eventually feel it. When there was overabundant water in China, floods ensued in the Mekong basin. But during last year's wet season, the fortunes of the river's two parts diverged in dramatic fashion. As China's section of the Mekong welcomed an above average volume of water, downstream countries were stricken by a drought so crushing that parts of the river dried up entirely, leaving cracked riverbed exposed in a season when fishing should have been plentiful.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/world/asia/china-mekong-drought.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/world/asia/mekong-river-dams-thailand.html
Joe Biden said that the economic challenge presented by the coronavirus pandemic will be "the biggest challenge in modern history," in an interview Tuesday evening with CNN's Chris Cuomo. | "I think it's going to, it may not dwarf, but eclipse what [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] faced," he said. "We have an opportunity, Chris, to do so many things now to change some of the structural things that are wrong, some of the structural things we couldn't get anyone's attention on." | The combination of the pandemic and a free-falling economy has exposed several policy shortfalls that some Democrats have been speaking to for years. In the two weeks before March 28, about 10 million people in the US filed initial claims for unemployment, the most since the statistic started being tracked in 1967. "The Band-Aid's been ripped off," Biden said. He highlighted potential reforms to the voting system, environmental reforms, and ensuring that people who need money to survive the economic fallout from the pandemic receive it.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/4/8/21213524/joe-biden-pandemic-opportunity-structural-change
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/biden-trump-phone-call-coronavirus-cnntv/index.html
--- According to a new analysis by the consulting firm Health Management Associates (HMA), the Covid-19 crisis could lead to between 12 million and 35 million people losing employer-sponsored health coverage due to job losses. Not all of them will tumble into the ranks of the uninsured. Some will be caught by Medicaid, by the PPACA (federal exchange plans+subsidies), or by other safety net programs. Some will find new jobs, with new insurance. But millions will fall through the cracks, particularly in states that have refused to expand Medicaid. In a scenario where unemployment hits 25 percent - calamitous, but plausible - HMA forecasts that as many as 11 million people could find themselves uninsured. That wipes out about half of PPACA's coverage gains, practically overnight.
https://www.healthmanagement.com/wp-content/uploads/HMA-Estimates-of-COVID-Impact-on-Coverage-public-version-for-April-3-830-CT.pdf
--- Covid-19 is worsening a policy problem (high cost of health care, lack of health care, etc) that long predates the virus. Tying health insurance to employment is now, and always has been, a disaster. It gives bosses too much power over workers, reduces entrepreneurship, saddles businesses with health costs they can't control and insurance problems they don't understand, makes the tax structure more regressive, reduces wages, bloats administrative spending, and drives up costs throughout the system. It has also, as Paul Starr writes in Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle Over Health Care Reform, created a "policy trap" that has stymied health reformers over and over again: About 220 million Americans get insurance through their employers (180+ million plans that cover 220+ million people), and for all the system's flaws, they are mostly pretty happy with that insurance, which makes them resistant to disruptive change.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/matt-bruenigs-case-for-single-payer-health-care/id1081584611?i=1000446691804
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9579/index1.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cost-of-employer-provided-health-coverage-passes-20-000-a-year-11569429000
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/05/health_reform_for_beginners_th.html
https://www.vox.com/2015/11/2/9634504/health-premium-wages-evidence
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20200218.375060/full/
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/14/the-worst-tax-breaks/end-the-exemption-for-employer-provided-health-care
https://www.amazon.com/Remedy-Reaction-Peculiar-American-Struggle/dp/030018915X
--- But disruptive change is here, whether anyone wants it or not. It won't just be felt in the rising ranks of the uninsured, in the millions of people who lose the insurance provided by their workplace and have to scramble, desperately, for an alternative. It will also be felt by those who keep their job-based insurance, only to see it degrade as their employer rushes to cut costs.
--- According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, average premiums for employer-based insurance have risen 54 percent over the past decade - far outpacing wages or inflation. Cost-sharing has increased, too: Average annual deductibles have doubled in the past decade. Employers have been shunting health costs onto employees in both good times and bad, and these are the worst times. Many of those who keep their employer-based insurance will see their premiums and deductibles rise, their networks narrow. This is a crisis. But it is also an opportunity to solve the policy trap and finally move beyond employer-based insurance.
https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2019-summary-of-findings/
--- The problem is that canceling 180+ million insurance plans covering 220+ million people is likely to be a political catastrophe. When polled, it routinely turned people against Medicare-for-all. Most members of Congress - including some co-sponsors of Sanders's bill - blanched at that level of disruption. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed it, as did the Senate Democrats who will lead the next health care push. The logic was straightforward: If the problem you're trying to solve is that people hate losing the insurance their employer gives them, forcibly taking it away from them isn't likely to go over well. Moreover, the tax increases necessary to move the entirety of the employer-based system onto the federal budget would be eye-popping. That's what killed the statewide single-payer push in Sanders's home state of Vermont, and Sanders never said how he'd solve it nationally.
https://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7427117/single-payer-vermont-shumlin
--- But if the political weakness of Sanders's plan is that it upends too much of the current system, the substantive weakness of Biden's plan is that it does too little to transform the current system. Biden's plan leaves the current system more or less intact, but adds a subsidized, Medicare-based public option available to individuals and small businesses. Under the Biden proposal, the employer-based system remains, but if you lose your job, or simply don't like or can't afford the insurance offered by your employer, you have another option. The plan would also serve low-income Americans in states that refused to expand Medicaid, giving them an option they desperately need. But the Biden team made a series of policy choices to limit the impact their public plan would have on employer-based health insurance. Large employers are not allowed to buy into the new public option. Individuals can't use the money their employer is spending on private health insurance to buy into the public option. What they've built isn't a glide path to Medicare-for-all, or even to a new hybrid system. Instead, they've created a backstop to reinforce the current system, with all its flaws. And over the next year, the coronavirus is going to make those flaws gruesomely apparent. The Biden team's fear is that opening the public option to all employers would destabilize the employer-based system - companies with sicker, older workforces would rush into the public system, driving up its costs, or perhaps they would nudge their older, sicker employees to enter into it so they could offload their spending onto taxpayers. These concerns are reasonable, but they're also manageable. Whether you choose to solve them reflects whether you think the American health care system is fundamentally broken or just needs to be patched up.
https://joebiden.com/healthcare/
--- Biden isn't going to embrace Sanders's Medicare-for-all plan. But he can do better than his current health care proposal, and he should. I can even suggest a place for him to start. Back in July, the Center for American Progress released its "Medicare Extra" proposal. The plan was, and is, an intriguing synthesis of left and moderate ideas on health reform. It's universal, it uses Medicare's pricing power to hold down costs, it rebuilds the health system around public insurance - and it gives everyone, everywhere, a true choice between public and private options, no matter what their employer is offering. In all those ways, it goes much further than Bidencare. At the same time, Medicare Extra retains private insurance options, allows employers to continue offering insurance to employees if they think they can provide something better than the public option, and it holds the total price tag to somewhere in the $2.8 trillion to $4.5 trillion range. Which is to say, it's not nearly as disruptive as Sanders's Medicare-for-all bill, and it only requires about a tenth of the tax increases. Medicare Extra builds a new public insurance program called, well, Medicare Extra. The new plan shares Medicare's name, but its benefits are much more expansive: It includes, for instance, vision, dental, and reproductive health coverage. Everyone in the system, from individuals getting insurance from their employer to traditional Medicare enrollees, could choose to purchase Medicare Extra instead, and they'd be eligible for normal subsidies and employer cash-outs if they did so. So unlike in Biden's plan, employers could buy Medicare Extra for their employees, and even if they didn't, employees could take the money their employer is spending on private insurance and use it to buy Medicare Extra. Premiums are on a sliding scale, with Americans under 150 percent of the poverty line paying nothing and those making 500 percent of the poverty line or more seeing their total contribution capped at 9 percent of income. Cost-sharing, too, varies by income, with total out-of-pocket spending, even for the richest, capped at $5,000. Newborns would automatically be enrolled in Medicare Extra, as would the uninsured and every legal resident upon turning 65. Anyone on traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Tricare, Veterans Affairs coverage, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, the Indian Health Service, or employer-sponsored coverage could opt in. The plan saves money by expanding Medicare's pricing power throughout the system - including to employer-provided private insurance. It's the first of the major Democratic proposals to rely on a version of all-payer rate setting.
https://www.americanprogress.org/?p=472520
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/9/8001173/all-payer-rate-setting
--- There are plenty of details and decisions in this plan worth debating. But something like Medicare Extra offers a middle ground that this moment demands. It eases the disruption of reform without reinforcing the dysfunctions of the status quo; it makes employer-provided health insurance one option people can freely choose, if they prefer it, rather than making it the only option most people have; and it creates a system that, while not single-payer, is far more integrated than anything we have now: a public system with private options, rather than a private system with fractured public options.
Joe and Bernie just announced 6 joint task forces made up of Bernie and Biden staff to develop policy. I think this is an incredibly intelligent way to handle the transition, and hopefully it shows that Biden is truly willing to work with the leftist wing. I think this is the way Biden intends to govern. It is an incredibly smart way to unite the party and the country on policy and vision. I was hoping for a candidate somewhere to the left of Biden and to the right of Bernie. I may end up getting what I wanted after all. Biden knows how to bring people into the field. That's why Obama picked him as VP. He's one of the best coalition builders we've ever had.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1249760437853401097
I am no Biden fangirl. Democrats claim I'm a Republican and Republicans claim I'm a Democrat. If the entirety of the land between myself and my polling place is made entirely of alternating mounds of hot lava, broken glass, and Covid-19 medical waste, I will still be at the polls the second they open. To get Donald Trump the fuck out of office. #Biden2020
The people pushing the 'Biden has dementia' bullsh!t use quickly edited videos to show him struggling with words. Biden had a speech impediment growing up, and still struggles with it. It's bullsh!t that people try and push such a blatantly false narrative. Biden is doing speeches constantly. 20-30 minutes long. He has some nasty gaffes but it’s little specs amongst a sea of coherence.
If you prefer Medicare-for-all that means you are pro-federal-healthcare which means you need to vote against the anti-federal-healthcare Republican Party. Republicans want to eliminate all federal health care programmes. Vote DEMOCRAT.
Not everyone likes Biden, but we can all get behind Bye Don. Thank you Bernie Sanders for doing the right thing, way earlier than expected. This is very early for 2nd place to endorse the primary winner, historically. Covid-19's impact is serious and the Democratic voting base are not f!cking around (they curb-stomped Sanders, and he clearly lost a lot of his 2016 supporters).
Biden Campaign to Sanders Campaign: Let ByeDons Be ByeDons
If you think sitting out and letting Trump win another term is something that's going to make people "open their eyes and never vote R again", you haven't been paying attention to the last 40+ years, let alone the last 4 years.
The Trump/Republican Auto Rollback Will Eliminate 13,500 Jobs: According to its own math, the administration’s biggest environmental rollback could inflict billions in damage on the economy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/trumps-auto-rollback-will-eliminate-13500-jobs-cafe/609748/
Republicans Are Planning to Use Coronavirus to Gut Renewable Energy | Conservative groups aligned with the oil industry hope to block any aid for the solar and wind industries, which have been decimated by the pandemic.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7ev53/republicans-are-planning-to-use-coronavirus-to-gut-renewable-energy
On the courts of appeal, the final word in the overwhelming majority of federal cases, more than one-quarter of active judges are Trump appointees. Give him another term and it will be half. The numbers are so big now because of the back log McConnell created during Obama's presidency.
https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/search/advanced-search
"Donald Trump is a pathological liar, utterly immoral, and a narcissist."
- Ted Cruz
Trump Campaign Sues Northwoods TV Station For Airing Trump's Own Words on COVID-19
https://www.wpr.org/trump-campaign-sues-northwoods-tv-station-airing-covid-19-attack-ad
Karl Anthony-Towns' mother, Jacqueline Towns, has passed away due to coronavirus, the Timberwolves say.
http://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1249783226203242496
Bernie Sanders 2020 National Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray rebukes Bernie Sanders endorsement of Joe Biden. And then tries to sidle up to AOC, after lambasting her last week. #NotUsMe
https://twitter.com/briebriejoy/status/1249775161689214976
What does she expect to get done without Biden in the White House? Ralph Northam, who was seen as a "moderate" as well as "Republican-lite" is quietly passing one of the most progressive agendas in Virginia. Biden is movable. Voting for the Green Party is not going to make any of those goals more likely. Billionaire (and now Governor) JB Pritzker (D-IL), a candidate who I watched multiple left leaning Democratic volunteers refuse to carry literature for, has passed LGBT+ curriculum, price caps on insulin, etc.
As an elected Senator, Sanders only had to deal with Bush for 2 yrs before Obama won. Maybe with Trump he actually learned how urgent this election is.
#COVID19 cases continue to grow in Florida but the doubling time (number of days it takes for the case count to double) is growing longer, suggesting some slowing.
https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1249810307226230785
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-president-democrat-primary-election.html
It’s not a surprise that Biden won Wisconsin handily, but his 2-to-1 margin so far in liberal Dane County, home to Madison, shows how little support there was left for Sanders.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-president-democrat-primary-election.html
Wisconsin Supreme Court and Statewide Election Results | The balance of power on the court is at stake, with a conservative incumbent justice, Daniel Kelly, facing off against a liberal challenger, Jill Karofsky. | Why is the State Supreme Court race crucial? Its conservative majority
is likely to uphold the G.O.P. legislature on redistricting, voting
access, guns and school choice. | Outside groups have spent more than $5 million to influence voters in
the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, illustrating how pivotal the election
is in the state.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-spring-elections.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/politics/wisconsin-election.html
A Veterans Hospital Changed Its Coronavirus Mask Policy After Employees Complained | Days after a BuzzFeed News article on rationing in LA, officials debuted new guidelines to protect medical personnel. | Two days after the publication of the BuzzFeed News report, the policy was overhauled. The new guidelines suggest that workers obtain a new mask when going between positive cases and suspected or negative cases. Some workers had been asked to use the same surgical mask for an entire week, but now will be given one each day. In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, Medical Center Director Dr. Steven Braverman apologized to workers for a “failure on my part to effectively communicate with you so that each and every employee knows our operational status and what we’re doing to keep you safe.” One staff member told BuzzFeed News “that level of honesty surprised me.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/a-veterans-hospital-changed-its-coronavirus-mask-policy
Wisconsin demonstrates why Sanders quit. He won 71 of 72 counties in 2016, and his strong Midwest run was a big part of his electability pitch. In 2020, Biden is beating Bernie in most of Wisconsin's counties.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-president-democrat-primary-election.html
Good, keep it closed forever, release the poor tortured creatures to a farm sanctuary so they can live out their lives in peace: A major pork processing facility is closing down due to coronavirus. That one facility accounts for 4% to 5% of the country's pork.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/12/business/meat-plant-closures-smithfield/index.html
The question Trump couldn't answer: "What did your Administration do in the entire month of February". Instead attacks journalist Paula Reid as "fake".
Reid joined CBS News in 2010. She graduated from the College of William & Mary in 2005 where she double majored in psychology and English. Reid earned her JD from Villanova University School Law and went on to pass Bar Exams for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 2016, Reid also completed a Masters in Bioethics (MBE) from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband.
https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/profile/paula-reid
- Trump last week: "I like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them, because from a constitutional standpoint, that's the way it should be done"
- Today: "They can't do anything without the approval of the president of the United States. When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it has to be."
Remember when healthy school lunches were tyranny?
Trump is asked what provisions in the Constitution give him the right to re-open the country. Trump says "numerous provisions" and offers to provide a list. He doesn't actually name any provisions. The Constitution largely gives states the authority to regulate their own affairs.
With 95% reporting in Milwaukee, the Democratic Judge Jill Karofsky has a significant margin, with nearly 70% of the vote.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-spring-elections.html
Floridians should keep social distancing until a vaccine exists, surgeon general says | After his assertion on social distancing, Scott Rivkees was quickly removed from the room by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ spokeswoman.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/13/floridians-should-keep-social-distancing-until-a-vaccine-exists-surgeon-general-says/?outputType=amp
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-surgeon-general-removed-governor-desantis-coronavirus-briefing-after-saying-social-1497629
Trump: the states and governors should be in charge of testing, PPE and ventilators.
Also Trump: the states and governors can't be in charge lockdowns
Trump: When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total
Constitution: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment
The Republicans' constitutional law professor impeachment witness: Pres Trump stated that “When somebody is President of the United States, his authority is total.” The Constitution was written precisely the deny that particular claim. It also reserved to the states (& individuals) rights not expressly given to the federal government.
https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1249837933038837760
President Trump just stated that the power of the federal government is "absolute." That would effectively negate federalism and a variety of other constitutional principles. "Absolutes" find little sanctuary within our constitutional system of limited and shared powers.
https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1249842841720930304
The Trump People are not going to any formal way, that he has TOTAL AUTHORITY. This is just an example of Trump talking 100% out of his ass, and he's supported by people who thinks that's fine. He attacks everything and his people love it.
The networks would never give Barack Obama this much free time to ramble on about what a great job he was doing regardless of the crisis. Network leaders would be freaked out by conservative criticism and buckle under pressure. This nonstop coverage is just preposterous.
With 94% reporting in Kenosha County, the liberal Jill Karofsky is leading 15,020 to 10,652. Her win there is remarkable given that Trump carried the county in 2016. Kenosha County is considered one of those all-important swing counties. Hard to see the liberal judge’s lead there as good news for the Republicans in November.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-spring-elections.html
Maybe Republicans telling voters they were happy to risk voters’ lives for if it meant Republicans would win a state Supreme Court seat motivated people to vote against them. #backfire
Reporter Kaitlan Collins: "You said your authority is total. That is not true. Has any governor agreed? Who told you the President has total authority?"
Donald Trump: "Enough."
Kaitlan Collins (born April 7, 1992)[1] is an American journalist. She is a White House correspondent for CNN. Previously, Collins served as the White House Correspondent for the website The Daily Caller.[2] Collins graduated from Prattville High School in Prattville, Alabama and went on to attend the University of Alabama.[3] Collins attended the University of Alabama where she was also a member of Alpha Phi sorority. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and political science in May 2014, Collins moved to Washington, D.C..[4] | In July 2018, Collins was barred from a Trump administration press conference in the White House Rose Garden.[6] Collins said that she was barred from the event after asking Trump questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen in the Oval Office. Collins said she was told by senior White House officials that such questions were "inappropriate for that venue."[7] | Correspondents Association called the ban "wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak."[7][8] Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, issued a statement in support of Collins, saying that his organization "[stood] in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press."[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaitlan_Collins
Both judges appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker -- Judge Paul Dedinsky and Judge Dan Gabler -- lose by at least 20 percentage points.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/04/13/milwaukee-election-results-gabler-vs-kiefer-circuit-judge/5125441002/
Also, while turnout was actually up in that 2019 race relative to 2018, you can see how close Democrats were to winning that race, a result that would give them a 4-3 majority today. If just half of this extra Milwaukee turnout showed up for them in 2019, they'd have won.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-president-democrat-primary-election.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-spring-elections.html
Pence: Our hospitals were not overwhelmed and are not overwhelmed at this hour by this (coronavirus), Pence dismissing covid19 as a hoax
The whole month of February. Trump held campaign rallies --
Feb 10 in New Hampshire
Feb 19 in Arizona
Feb 20 in Colorado
Feb 21 in Nevada
Feb 28 in South Carolina.
Sanders currently losing all counties in Wisconsin. In 2016, Sanders won all but one county (Milwaukee). Sanders dropping from 71/72 counties in 2016 to 0/72 counties in 2020 is the most dramatic swing of the primary, so fitting that it was the last one.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/07/us/elections/results-wisconsin-president-democrat-primary-election.html
There’s a real argument to be made that a combination of Sanders staying in until Wisconsin voted + backlash to the Republicans pushing ahead with the election is what provided the votes for Democrats to win the state Supreme Court race. Had Sanders dropped out, before Wisconsin, a hundred thousand Sanders voters would have stayed home (another hundred thousand more already early-voted and mailed in absentee ballots weeks in advance), which would have been less votes for the Democratic judge running to unseat the Republican judge. Him staying in the race at least ensured as full of a turnout as possible, which benefited the democratic judge.
This performance by Trump will be viewed with breathtaking fascination by Presidential scholars someday. The self pity, dishonesty and finger pointing represent a profound failure of leadership capacity in a moment of deep crisis. His unfitness is extraordinary and deadly.
https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1249821553153409026
Here's video of PaulaReidCBS grilling Trump on what his administration did in the month leading up to the coronavirus crisis. "You didn't use it to prepare hospitals. You didn't use it to ramp up testing."
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1249828326534975488
Democrat Jill Karofsky wins 10-year seat on Wisconsin Supreme Court. For perspective, in a district that Trump won by +1, Karofsky won by +17 (Kenosha): Okay, this may be the single most definitive aspect of the Wisconsin results so far: Kenosha County has been as swing as it gets, Trump +1%, Evers +3%, and Hagedorn (con) +3%. Now Karofsky, the liberal challenger, is up by 17% (94% in).
https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1249843194990395394
Where to even look? Dodge County, which went for the conservative by about 35% last year, went for Kelly by only about 17% this year. Also big drops for Kelly compared to 2018 & 2019 in Washington & Ozeida, hyper-red counties in Milwaukee suburbs.
https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1249844253880127489
I don’t even live in Wisconsin but I’m so fucking excited!!!
https://twitter.com/skipthesubway25/status/1249844458184728576
Thank you to all the brave WI voters, everyone who phonebanked, texted and canvassed AND to everyone who wrote #PostcardsToVoters for #JillForJustice http://PostcardsToVoters.org
https://twitter.com/ManMet80/status/1249844930199146497
Tears are streaming down my face. Good thing I’m quarantined alone in my Brooklyn apt. What Wisonsinites were forced to risk and the determination they showed, there are no words. I had seriously lost hope until this.
https://twitter.com/BlondeinBklyn/status/1249847585554272257
Bigger short-term: the 200k+ voters being purged was sitting at 3-3 and now has a 4-3 majority against. "A smaller conservative majority" may not sound important, but there's a lawsuit about removing ~200k voters from the voting rolls in Wisconsin that's been appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. | A conservative law firm asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly overturn an appeals court ruling that stopped the purging of more than 200,000 people from the state’s voter rolls, a move that Democrats argued was intended to make it more difficult for their voters to cast ballots. Moments after the filing, a conservative justice on the Supreme Court who previously sat out the case because he’s on the ballot on April 7 said he would “rethink” that decision after the election. The court deadlocked 3-3 without Justice Dan Kelly’s participation when asked to take the case earlier, so he could be a deciding vote.
https://apnews.com/f07a6407a419b7a3b1420ab41387bfd7
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