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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 13:00:39 GMT -6
Senator Graham: What she said, she’s blaming the president for people dying because of the way he’s led the country. That’s the most shameful disgusting statement by any politician in modern history. Let me tell you we’ve seen the best of America from our citizens helping each other, delivering groceries, having special shopping hours for senior citizens. She’s the first politician to blame another politician for people dying.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 13:05:01 GMT -6
And Jake just lets her go. Flashback time: www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/nancy-pelosi-visits-san-franciscos-chinatown-to-encourage-people-amid-fears-of-coronavirus/Nancy Pelosi visits San Francisco’s Chinatown to encourage people amid fears of coronavirus SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in San Francisco on Monday spending several hours visiting Chinatown to encourage people to visit the shops and restaurants there amid fears of the coronavirus. ....... Jan 31 — President Trump banned flights from China. Feb. 5 — Democrats blasted President Trump for his China travel ban. Feb 24 — Pelosi was pushing tourism to Chinatown. March 13 — NY Mayor DeBlasio encourages New Yorkers to go about their daily lives as usual. But, orange man bad.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 13:06:45 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 13:10:33 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/03/29/de-blasio-coronavirus-trump-response/De Blasio, NYC Officials Downplayed COVID-19 Threat After Trump Restricted Travel To China. Here Are 5 Examples Mayor Bill de Blasio and his health top official repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus threat while imploring citizens to get on with their lives. They spent two months suggesting New York citizens attend parades and visit movie theatres after the Trump administration imposed restrictions on travel to China. The mayor’s office says de Blasio has put been on top of the problem at the get-go and that it’s “inaccurate” to suggest the mayor dismissed the pandemic. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his top health official were telling citizens to take the subway and attend parades months after President Donald Trump restricted travel to coronavirus-plagued China. De Blasio and New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot took turns telling citizens in February and March that the virus was not as widespread as people thought. Data now show that the city is becoming the epicenter for the coronavirus, which has killed 883 New Yorkers. De Blasio is getting some pushback. CNN’s Jake Tapper, for instance, asked the Democrat on Sunday if his unwillingness to publicly request New Yorkers pull back from New York’s nightlife is partly to “blame for how rapidly the virus has spread across the city?” City officials were working with the information they had at the time, de Blasio responded, adding: “This was a very different world just a short time ago.” The New York mayor has spent weeks railing against what he believes is the president’s poor response to the virus. “Here’s reality: This is a war-like situation,” de Blasio said in a March 14 interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “We’re in a wartime scenario with a Mar-a-Lago attitude being used by the federal government,” he added, referencing Trump’s resort in Florida. Here are five times de Blasio and Barbot downplayed the virus after the president announced in January restrictions on foreign nationals who have recently been to China from entering the U.S. Barbot Tells Citizens Not To Miss Out On A Parade “There is no reason not to take the subway, not to take the bus, not to go out to your favorite restaurant, and certainly not to miss the parade next Sunday.” Barbot said during a Feb. 2 press conference addressing the pandemic. Barbot was referring to a New York Chinatown parade, which celebrates China’s New Year and took place on Feb. 9. Barbot appeared to suggest Trump’s travel restrictions were racist in Feb. 2 tweet to her followers. “I want to be clear, this is about a virus, not a group of people. There is NO excuse for anyone to discriminate or stigmatize people of Asian heritage. We are here today to urge all New Yorkers to continue to live their lives as usual,” she said. Barbot Suggests The Risks Are Minimal Barbot argued in a local TV interview on Feb. 7 that the city is “telling New Yorkers, go about your lives, take the subway, go out, enjoy life.” She did say that citizens must practice good hygiene, but suggested the biggest threat comes from family members and not large packs of people. “And so we know that this virus can be transmitted from one individual to another, but that it’s typically people who live together,” she said during the interview. “That there’s no risk at this point in time — we’re always learning more — about having it be transmitted in casual contact, right?” The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended on March 15 that U.S. citizens inside the country not hold events with 50 or more people for the next eight weeks out of an abundance of caution. CDC suggested avoiding any large conferences, festivals or parades. De Blasio Says New Yorkers Under 50 Years Old Are Safe De Blasio followed suit three days after Barbot’s Feb. 7 comments. (RELATED: FLASHBACK To March 3: De Blasio Asks New Yorkers To Ignore Coronavirus, Get On With Their Lives) “We want to encourage” New Yorkers going out, the mayor said during a Feb. 10 MSNBC broadcast. “If you’re under 50 & you’re healthy, which is most NYers, there’s very little threat here. This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu. And transmission is not that easy,” de Blasio said at the time. De Blasio Suggests New Yorkers Visit Movie Theaters During Pandemic “Since I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives + get out on the town despite Coronavirus,” de Blasio told his Twitter followers on March 3, no more than two weeks before likening the outbreak to a type of World War that required nationalizing industries. He offered some suggestions for what New Yorkers should do instead of social distancing. “I thought I would offer some suggestions. Here’s the first: thru Thurs 3/5 go see ‘The Traitor,'” de Blasio said, referring to a 2019 crime drama about the life and times of a Mafia mob boss. “The Facts Are Reassuring,” De Blasio Says On March 2 ‘The facts are reassuring,” the New York mayor said during a March 2 press conference alongside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. De Blasio added: “We have a lot of information now, information that is actually showing us things that should give us more reason to stay calm and go about our lives” normally. The mayor’s office is pushing back against suggestions that de Blasio downplayed the problem. “No one is taking this more seriously than our mayor and the people of this city. It’s inaccurate to suggest otherwise,” Freddi Goldstein, a spokesman in de Blasio’s office, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 13:13:03 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 14:41:05 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 29, 2020 17:21:52 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 29, 2020 17:23:09 GMT -6
Cuomo wants the Federal Gov't to cover his entire budget shortfall------Get a grip Andrew Maybe he shouldn't have squandered all that tax money on illegals and solar companies.
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 29, 2020 17:27:06 GMT -6
What are the odds nothing will happen to her?
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 29, 2020 17:27:42 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 29, 2020 17:31:58 GMT -6
I'm sure this will get wall to wall coverage.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 18:28:23 GMT -6
Governors in Colorado, New Jersey, and Minnesota are demanding that private companies whose employees often use personal protective equipment (PPE) submit lists of their inventories to the state, in what could very likely result in the government seizing these supplies and redistributing them to hospitals due to the Covid 19 pandemic. www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/03/26/governor-n-j-auto-body-shops-other-businesses-must-submit-inventory-of-ppe-by-eod-friday/Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has ordered all collision repairers and other businesses with personal protective equipment to submit an inventory to the state by 5 p.m. Friday.
“Any business or non-hospital health care facility, including but not limited to dental facilities, construction facilities, research facilities, office-based healthcare or veterinary practices, and institutions of higher learning, in possession of PPE, ventilators, respirators, or anesthesia machines that are not required for the provision of critical health care services should undertake an inventory of such supplies and send that information to the State by no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2020,” Murphy ordered Monday. “The Office of Emergency Management shall establish a process by which entities subject to this provision can submit this information.”Murphy isn’t ordering companies to forfeit the goods (yet), and some of theses businesses are wondering how it would impact their standing with OSHA should they be stripped of their mandated gear, as the article continues: “It is our understanding that, at this time, that the state will not take PPE, from companies, but that could change in the future if the situation reaches a critical mass and that step needs to be taken,” Auto Care Association Paint, Body and Equipment Specialists community liaison Paul Fiore wrote in an email Thursday.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and governor’s office on Thursday were looking into our inquiries into how shops would, should it become necessary, surrender PPE to the state without facing an OSHA penalty for workplace safety noncompliance. Continue to check Repairer Driven News for updates.
But for now, all you have to do is inventory your gear and submit a list to the state.New Jersey isn’t the only state positioning themselves for a possible seizure of materiel, as a separate article on Repairer Driven News explains: www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/03/27/colo-orders-ppe-inventory-lists-from-shops-minn-rule-might-apply-to-some-facilities/Colorado has ordered auto body shops and other businesses to send details on their personal protective equipment supplies by the end of Friday, and a similar Minnesota command might apply to some repairers as well. Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on March 19 ordered the inventories be submitted by Friday. “I request that any Colorado business or non-hospital health care facility, whether veterinary, dental, construction, research, institution of higher learning, or other, in possession of PPE, ventilators, respirators and anesthesia machines that are not required for the provision of critical health care services undertake an inventory of such supplies by no later than March 26th, 2020 and prepare to send it to the State of Colorado,” Polis wrote. “I direct the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to allocate any supplies received pursuant to this order to support activities related to the COVID-19 response.” Shops should send a list of equipment to the state using this Google Document. The state is not ordering you to ship the actual supplies, Emergency Operations Center public information officer Micki Trost confirmed Friday. “They’re just sending an inventory,” she said. Minnesota’s inventory order is narrower. “Any Minnesota business, nonprofit, or non-hospital health care facility, whether veterinary, dental, construction, research, institution of higher learning, or other, in possession of PPE, ventilators, respirators, or anesthesia machines (including any consumable accessories to these devices) that are not required for the provision of critical health care services or essential services and were not produced by the organization for the purpose of sale, must undertake an inventory of such supplies no later than March 25, 2020,” Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote on Monday. Walz directed businesses to submit that information at mn.gov/ppe. The site instructs visitors to inventory supplies using this form. A FAQ from the state said the order to inventory PPE didn’t apply if all of the supplies were for “essential services.” But if the PPE was used for a mix of essential and nonessential services, an inventory was necessary. “Yes, you need to complete the inventory unless all the PPE in your possession is required for essential services or critical health care services,” Minnesota wrote in a FAQ. “If you have more PPE than you anticipate needing in the near future, please complete the inventory and consider donating it for use in the delivery of critical health care services.” But the Minnesota order goes further: All nonessential usage of PPE must cease and be donated or cease in anticipation of a future request to sell or donate it, according to Walz. “Any Minnesota business, nonprofit, or non-hospital health care facility must refrain from using any such consumable equipment other than for use in delivering critical health care services or essential services requiring such equipment, and must either donate it to a local coordinating entity or prepare for the possibility of being asked to donate or sell it for use by critical health care workers,” Walz wrote Monday
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 18:40:24 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/03/29/u-of-wisconsin-chalking-blaming-chinese-virus-on-china-is-racist/U. of Wisconsin: Blaming Chinese Virus on China Is “Racist” Administrators at the University of Wisconsin, Madison condemned a series of “anti-China” chalk messages that appeared this week. One chalk message referred to the “Chinese virus” while another blamed the ongoing pandemic on the Chinese government. The University’s chancellor referred to the chalking as “racist behavior.” According to a report by Campus Reform, the University of Wisconsin, Madison is fighting back against a series of anonymous “anti-China” chalk messages that appeared on campus this week. In a statement, University of Wisconsin, Madison Chancellor Rebecca Black argued that China is not responsible for the pandemic. She went on to suggest that the chalk messages were “racist.” “No one person, country, or ethnicity created this pandemic — disease does not discriminate,” Chancellor Blank stated in the email to all students and faculty. “We want to be clear that racist behaviors or stereotyping of any kind are not tolerated at UW-Madison — no matter if we are online, passing others in public, or quarantined at home.” Dean of Students Christina Olstad said that the chalk messages should not be tolerated by the community. “We are here for students and here to let them know that [any discriminatory] behavior is not tolerated at UW-Madison,” Olstad said. “We can do better than this.” The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, condemned the chalk writings in a post on social media. “The Asian American Studies Program denounce these anti-China and anti-Chinese acts found on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on March 24, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has no nationality or race,” the Facebook post reads. “We stand with the world in compassion and kindness for those affected, as we adhere to the Safer at Home directive.” Breitbart News reported in 2018 that activist students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, had argued that serving ice cream on campus made Muslim, Jewish, and vegan students feel unwelcome.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 19:25:59 GMT -6
dailycaller.com/2020/03/28/coronavirus-kennedy-center-musicians-bailout/Kennedy Center Lays Off Musicians After Receiving $25 Million Arts Bailout The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts told musicians it will stop paying them Saturday, less than a day after the organization received a divisive $25 million arts bailout. The Washington, D.C. group sent an email to musicians in the National Symphony Orchestra saying their checks would be cut off starting April 3, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed to provide the money to the Kennedy Center as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill President Donald Trump signed Friday. (RELATED: Pelosi Says Senate Coronavirus Bill Is Discriminatory To Residents In DC, One Day Before House Vote) “The Covid-19 Advisory Committee was broadsided today during our conversation with [Kennedy Center President] Deborah Rutter,” the email reads. “Ms. Rutter abruptly informed us today that the last paycheck for all musicians and librarians will be April 3 and that we will not be paid again until the Center reopens.” “Everyone should proceed as if their last paycheck will be April 3,” it continued. “We understand this will come [as a] shock to all of you, as it did to us.” Other arts and humanities grants Pelosi called for included $36,000,000 for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and $7,000,000 for Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. (RELATED: Mitch McConnell Restructures Campaign Into Meals Effort For Kentuckians Affected By Coronavirus) “The country is burning and House Democrats would rather delay passage of direct relief to working families and small business so they can manipulate the way we conduct elections, bail out the postal service, impose greenhouse gas mandates on the airlines, and ensure diversity on corporate boards,” Rachel Bovard, senior policy director at the Conservative Partnership Institute, told the Daily Caller regarding Pelosi’s bill. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie cited Pelosi’s “pork” spending as a central reason for his attempt to delay the passage of the stimulus bill Friday. The Kennedy Center completed a $250 million renovation in 2019.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 21:23:45 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 21:27:58 GMT -6
The Netherlands Recalls 600,000 Chinese Face Masks - Comes After Turkey, Spain, Ukraine, Czech Republic Return Faulty Chinese COVID-19 Test Kits. www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3077428/netherlands-recalls-600000-face-masks-china-due-low-qualityDutch officials have recalled 600,000 face masks manufactured in China because they did not meet quality standards, the government’s health ministry said on Saturday. The news shocked frontline medical staff in the Netherlands, who rely on high-quality products to protect them from contracting Covid-19, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said. Half of the shipment of 1.3 million supposedly top-of-the-line face masks – known as N95 in the United States and Hong Kong – had already been distributed to doctors and nurses treating the most critical Covid-19 patients, the government said.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 21:29:57 GMT -6
Buisness as usual in China. dailycaller.com/2020/03/29/chinese-markets-reopen-bats-dogs-cats/Live animals are still for sale in Chinese food markets that reopened after the country recently declared victory over coronavirus. Cages full of cats and dogs waiting for slaughter and the unsanitary preparation of animals is again reportedly a common sight in Chinese food markets, often called wet-markets, according to in-country correspondents with the Daily Mail. China ordered that its wet-markets be shut down in January, after facts emerged suggesting that coronavirus was first transmitted to humans via bats and other live animals sold in the often filthy places of commerce, according to Business Insider. However, now that China says it’s beaten the virus, the markets seem to have resumed business as usual. “The markets have gone back to operating in exactly the same way as they did before coronavirus,” said a Daily Mail correspondent who observed the markets re-opening Dongguan. “The only difference is that security guards try to stop anyone taking pictures which would never have happened before.” Another correspondent in Guilin, a city in southwest China, photographed a sign advertising bats, snakes, spiders, lizards and scorpions for sale as remedies for common illnesses. (RELATED: Scientists Warned That Bats And Chinese Wet Markets Could Foster The Next Pandemic — In 2013) Images have also begun to circulate on social media of traditional Chinese foods considered odd by Western standards for sale in the newly reopened wet markets. CNBC host Jim Cramer tweeted out a video of live scorpions for sale. Although China says it’s beaten COVID-19, many are skeptical about how honest the ruling Chinese Communist Party has been in reporting infection statistics throughout the pandemic. National Review says it has identified dozens of instances in which China lied to the world about the virus in its borders. China has recorded 82,342 cases of the virus, according to Our World In Data. The first case appeared in Wuhan in November, reports LiveScience.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 22:09:56 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/29/coronavirus-globalization-historian/Pandemic Historian: Coronavirus ‘a Disease of Globalization’ The Chinese coronavirus “is emphatically a disease of globalization,” a pandemic historian at Yale University says. In an interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Yale University’s Frank Snowden — a historian who most recently in 2006 published a book about Italy’s eradication of malaria — details how the coronavirus pandemic is threatening the globalist worldview of free movement of people and free trade. The interview finds the Journal‘s Jason Willick seemingly admits the coronavirus is tainting globalism and pushing Americans and the peoples of Europe toward nationhood: Yet while the [bubonic] plague saw power move up from villages and city-states to national capitals, the coronavirus is encouraging a devolution of authority from supranational units to the nation-state. This is most obvious in the European Union, where member states are setting their own responses. Open borders within the EU have been closed, and some countries have restricted export of medical supplies. The virus has heightened tensions between the U.S. and China, as Beijing tries to protect its image and Americans worry about access to medical supply chains. [Emphasis added] Snowden told the Journal the coronavirus is a direct result of the globalization of the American economy after nearly four decades of free trade policy initiatives: The coronavirus is threatening “the economic and political sinews of globalization, and causing them to unravel to a certain degree,” Mr. Snowden says. He notes that “coronavirus is emphatically a disease of globalization.” The virus is striking hardest in cities that are “densely populated and linked by rapid air travel, by movements of tourists, of refugees, all kinds of business people, all kinds of interlocking networks.” [Emphasis added] Globalization, Snowden notes, has driven the coronavirus to majorly impact the wealthiest of Americans. “Respiratory viruses, Mr. Snowden says, tend to be socially indiscriminate in whom they infect. Yet because of its origins in the vectors of globalization, the coronavirus appears to have affected the elite in a high-profile way,” the Journal piece states. “From Tom Hanks to Boris Johnson, people who travel frequently or are in touch with travelers have been among the first to get infected.” The infection of thousands of the nation’s rich and upper-middle-class has driven class warfare in regions like the Hamptons in New York where some of the wealthiest, most liberal celebrities own property. A report by Maureen Callahan for the New York Post chronicles how the working class staff of the Hamptons’ elite are turning on them as those infected disregard rules and Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines: “There’s not a vegetable to be found in this town right now,” says one resident of Springs, a working-class pocket of East Hampton. “It’s these elitist people who think they don’t have to follow the rules.” [Emphasis added] It’s not just the drastic food shortage out here. Every aspect of life, most crucially medical care, is under strain from the sudden influx of rich Manhattanites panic-fleeing … — and in some cases, knowingly bringing coronavirus. [Emphasis added] … “We’re at the end of Long Island, the tip, and waves of people are bringing this s–t,” says lifelong Montauker James Katsipis. “We should blow up the bridges. Don’t let them in.” [Emphasis added] While globalization has delivered soaring profits for corporate executives, working- and middle-class American communities have been left behind to grapple with fewer jobs, less industry, stagnant wages, and increase competition in the labor market due to decades-long mass legal immigration. Since 2001, free trade with China has cost millions of Americans their jobs. For example, the Economic Policy Institute has found that from 2001 to 2015, about 3.4 million U.S. jobs were lost due to the nation’s trade deficit with China. Of the 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost in that time period, about 2.6 million were lost in the manufacturing industry, making up about three-fourths of the loss of jobs from the U.S.-Chinese trade deficit.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 29, 2020 22:14:11 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 30, 2020 1:58:04 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/03/29/mccarthy-pelosi-wants-fourth-coronavirus-package-with-liberal-priorities-take-the-opportunity-of-a-crisis/McCarthy: Pelosi Wants Fourth Coronavirus Package with Liberal Priorities — ‘Take the Opportunity of a Crisis’ In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was looking to a fourth coronavirus relief package from Congress to accomplish liberal priorities, including changes to the voting laws and to fund project items like the Green New Deal and Planned Parenthood. Partial transcript as follows: BARTIROMO: You said the next two months. And Secretary Mnuchin said the same thing, 10 to 12 weeks, to address the dislocation, just in the next 10 to 12 weeks. So, does that mean we’re getting another stimulus, a fourth package after the next 10 to 12 weeks? MCCARTHY: I’m not sure we need a fourth package. And before we go to start drafting a forth package, I’d like these three packages we just put out — remember, it’s more than $2 trillion, the largest we have ever seen — to take care and get this economy moving. Remember, for unemployment insurance, we’re adding another $600 above what your state pays. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCCARTHY: We start paying in the first week, and we give you additional 13 weeks. What concerns me is, when I listen to Nancy Pelosi talk about a fourth package now, it’s because she didn’t get in the things that she really wanted to change the election law, a Green New Deal, expand — make us pay for Planned Parenthood, and expand what you’re seeing for sanctuary cities. Those are the things why this bill was held up for a week, but those are the things that we stopped. BARTIROMO: That is so outrageous that you were actually being asked to consider funding Planned Parenthood, at a time that we are in this crisis situation, where you’re trying to come up with a relief package. I just want to share with you what Nancy Pelosi said this morning, though, Congressman because she is just saying this right now: “President Trump denial at the beginning of this was deadly,” and that, right now, “As he fiddles” — her words — “as he fiddles, people are dying.” This is what Nancy Pelosi said this morning. Your reaction? MCCARTHY: Well, what I see is that Nancy is trying to cover herself and the Democratic Party, because the amount of damage that they had just done in the last week, requesting about changing election law, that her number three in her own party said they wanted to restructure government, take the opportunity of a crisis. And, Maria, what happened last week, 3.2 million Americans lost their job, six times higher than in the financial crisis, higher than the Great Depression, all because Democrats wanted to put their liberal parts in. But this president fought for it. This president stopped that. And what’s most importantly is, history will not be kind to the Democrats. Holding up that week was so critical. When you look at the action that President Trump took, one of the first to stop that the Chinese would be coming into America, or Europe as well. And their own party criticized the president for doing those actions, but it saved thousands of lives, just as he wanted to move this bill. I was sitting in that meeting last Sunday. This bill is 99 percent where it was last Sunday. But Nancy Pelosi held it up, bragged to her members in the idea of changing Green New Deal, Planned Parenthood, changing election law, and expanding sanctuary cities, nothing to do with coronavirus. They did get 24 million more dollars for the Kennedy Center. BARTIROMO: Well, it’s incredible, because she tells — she — yes, exactly, $25 million for the Kennedy Center. And yet she tells a completely different story. You know this. You know that said she did jujitsu on the plan. She said, we had to do jujitsu to change it to get it where it is.
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 30, 2020 3:00:26 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 30, 2020 3:08:21 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 30, 2020 3:09:15 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 30, 2020 16:57:38 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 30, 2020 16:59:40 GMT -6
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Post by kcrufnek on Mar 31, 2020 1:32:48 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 31, 2020 3:33:53 GMT -6
Show of hands, does this surprise anyone?
LEAKED AUDIO: Kennedy Center President Deployed Lobbyist to Secure $25 Million in Coronavirus Stimulus, But Not a Cent for Workers. The audio was first obtained by Jack Posobiec of One America News.
During the leaked conference call, which took place on March 26, Rutter repeatedly makes excuses for why they are laying off their employees despite knowing that they will be receiving $25 million in the stimulus package. She says that the Kennedy Center has been barely keeping their heads afloat for years and that being closed, without the money from the government, would have meant they would run out of cash on May 15.
Rutter also discussed how they deployed a lobbyist to get them the money from the stimulus package, seemingly with no intention of using it to protect the jobs of their staff.
“We are really grateful for this $25 million, but I will tell you that it does not keep us whole,” Rutter says in the beginning of the call. “In fact, the language that Tracy [Henke] worked so closely with all the appropriators on was clear that we needed this just to be able to reopen.”
She continued on to say that “this does not keep us whole along the way. Fortunately, Tracy has really great relationships on the Hill. We have fantastic support from board leadership and all of those relationships and savvy, I will say, is what brought us that $25 million.”
Henke is the center’s Vice President of Government Relations, as of November 2019. She has previously worked in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, and the private sector.
Rutter went on to address the fact that there are many people who are very unhappy about the amount of money going to the center, when it should be going to places like hospitals.
“Some of you are probably aware of the fact that we are now, uh, the target for a lot of unhappy people who believe that we are taking the money away from sick people. In the case of a stimulus bill, it is to try to continue to do business, and to stimulate the economy in the future,” Rutter said. “In this case, this funding is pretty prescriptive in that it says ‘you need to do this for operational expenses so that you can open up again after this, uh, uh, closure — this period of time, this closure.’”
“What’s different from previous funding from the federal government is that it will allow us to pay for things that the federal appropriation generally doesn’t — so in this case it will be able to be used for operational expenses, like what it takes for us as a uh, a staff, to be able to uh, uh, make sure that the building is open and ready for programming and activity, after, when we can reopen,” Rutter continued.
Rutter did not specify what they are normally not allowed to use federal funds for, but will be able to use it for this time around.
Our source said that the stimulus is going to the nonprofit portion of the center, and that they already receive federal government appropriations for the building and its maintenance — including the staff that maintains it.
During the call, Rutter repeatedly apologizes for seeming inarticulate as she clearly attempts to carefully craft what she is saying and the words she chooses.
“I’m sorry that I seem very stumbly and less articulate today, but this is a really really challenging time. I know it’s hard for you, I pray that you all are healthy and safe and I’m grateful for your commitment and I’m grateful for the work that you are doing from home,” she said.
Rutter repeatedly says that the “$25 million does not allow us to maintain our current structure.” Their current payroll, she explains, is approximately $5 million per month, including taxes.
“The baseline cash flow says that if we had not received any cash, and everything stayed exactly as it is today, no changes, we would draw fully on the line of credit, we would be out of cash, on May 15. Couldn’t do anything further. So, with no changes, assuming we could even open on May 15, we would have no cash to do the work moving forward,” she said. “We extended that cash flow all the way through September 30, and um, we would be in arrears to the tune of $32 million. So, again, with the $25 million, and doing nothing, we still would be out $32 million. That’s actually sort of why we were asking, initially, for $35 million from the federal government.”
Rutter said that the center is “right in the vortex of, uh, um, uh, the negative cash flow situation,” but that they have received a spike in transactions, including ticket sales, donations and gift certificate purchases, that come out to around $2.5 million. However, this is still not enough money to continue to pay their employees. She said some of this is money that “is for our programming and some of that is for rental programming where we have been accepting the cash and doing the transactions for those ticket sales,” so they will not actually get to keep that portion of it.
Approximately 17 minutes into the call, Rutter is asked by an employee what the stimulus covers and what it does not. She says there’s very specific language written into the bill.
“It is relatively broad, but as we were working with the appropriations staff, and the senators, and congressional leadership — this was all about being able to reopen. So, we have to be able to have the capacity to open and stay open. It’s not like we can spend the money right now to keep everybody whole and then find ourselves without cash.”
“If we are able to reopen on May 11, we believe our losses, on that kind of income statement, are already 21 million. If we have to stay closed until the end of June that pops up to 30, and if we have to stay closed all the way until September, it’s around a $55 million loss to our institution. So, it’s not just cash that we’re having to address, it’s how we do our business moving forward. So, the stimulus is cash that will help us along the way.”
Multiple employees also asked how they should respond to questions and negative comments on social media. She referred them to the website to find the language that they used.
When asked if employees could donate a portion of their paychecks back to the center to prevent layoffs and furloughs, Rutter said she considered this, but that she couldn’t get to the number they needed. She said that people will take home more money by taking advantage of the unemployment benefits in the stimulus package.
“The more we are learning about the unemployment benefits, it is clear that in some cases it is really going to be more valuable for individuals to be furloughed so that they can collect unemployment instead of contributing back,” Rutter said.
Another employee asked, “so do I understand this correctly, the Kennedy Center got money from the stimulus bill, but it’s not enough to prevent us from having to do furloughs and layoffs?”
Rutter replied, “yes, that is correct. That is why I wanted to start with the cash flow that said, absent that money, coming in we would be out of cash and unable to move forward as of mid-May. That’s why I laid out the specifics of what it is we spend our money on, if we paid nothing else, during that period of time. So, the $25 million will be used to ensure that we can get through this period and open up, and then stay open, and we will have to make some decisions along the way, certainly.”
When asked about the organization’s endowment, Rutter said that they only had less than $100 million, but should have $400 million. “if we did, we would be in a much better place,” she said. “If we had a larger endowment, we could be doing more with those funds today.”
She said that even a big donor couldn’t necessarily save them, because it is an ongoing issue with their budgeting. They recently completed a $250 million renovation and received $41 million from taxpayers in 2019 alone.
The source who leaked the audio said that they are not a disgruntled employee who is doing this to retaliate for a potential layoff or furlough.
“I am not a disgruntled employee who is upset about layoffs/furloughs,” the source said. “American business and nonprofits are facing tough and uncertain times. I recognize that this is pork. Congress passed an amazing package to assist Americans out of work, and we all need to work to have our own reserves, just like business and non-profits. I am an American who believes that nonprofits need to be sustaining, an American who finds it unconscionable that a nonprofit would state that they need the money for their 6 million/mo operations — which is largely staff — to Congress, the press, and others, and then turn around and start to layoff and furlough all non-essential employees.”
The day after this phone call, President Trump signed the $2 trillion CARES Act, which was meant to support businesses continuing to pay their employees. The bill specifically says the money was meant to “cover operating expenses required to ensure the continuity of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and its affiliates, including for employee compensation and benefits, grants, contracts, payments for rent or utilities, fees for artists or performers.”
In an email to employees that evening, the Kennedy Center told them to assume their last paycheck will be April 3.
“Everyone should proceed as if their last paycheck will be April 3,” an email to employees after the bill passed read. “We understand this will come [as a] shock to all of you, as it did to us.”
One America News will have a segment breaking down the phone call even further airing on Tuesday. We will add a clip of their report to this article when it is available online.
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 31, 2020 3:35:40 GMT -6
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 31, 2020 3:46:51 GMT -6
www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/03/30/msnbcs-hayes-crazy-to-me-everyones-still-carrying-coronavirus-briefings-live/On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” host Chris Hayes stated that it’s “crazy” to him that media outlets are still taking the White House’s coronavirus briefings live, “when you’ve got the MyPillow guy getting up there talking about reading the Bible.” Hayes began by saying that Trump uses the briefings as “propaganda sessions, regularly spewing misinformation and lies when he is at the podium. They have morphed into something akin to Trump rallies without the crowds.” He later added, “It’s obviously above my pay grade. I don’t make the call if we take him or not, but it seems crazy to me that everyone’s still taking them when you’ve got the MyPillow guy getting up there talking about reading the Bible.”
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Post by soonernvolved on Mar 31, 2020 3:50:08 GMT -6
thefederalist.com/2020/03/30/media-reaction-to-yamiche-alcindor-dustup-with-trump-shows-why-their-approval-ratings-are-low/Media Reaction To Yamiche Alcindor Dustup With Trump Shows Why Their Approval Ratings Are Low Her peers rushed to defend her, but Alcindor has a track record of partisan commentary and unnecessarily hostile and silly questions. Mollie Hemingway By Mollie Hemingway MARCH 30, 2020 The ongoing dysfunctional codependent relationship between the political media and President Donald Trump flared up again on Sunday afternoon during a Rose Garden press conference on the government’s handling of the Wuhan virus that has swept the globe. Trump needs the media to act the way they do so he can dunk on them and look good by comparison. The media are enjoying the short-term rush of their war with Trump, wearing his abuse as a badge of honor among their peers. On Sunday, the media were pretty sure they had Trump in a bind when he reacted negatively to a question by PBS’s Yamiche Alcindor. You can watch the whole shebang here, but her first question was about Trump’s comments from a few days ago about ventilator needs and whether they were being exaggerated by some politicians. While the question was typically accusatory, it was somewhat mild compared to many of her typical questions. Still, in response, he accused her of being negative and then gave a winding three-minute answer in which he complimented her and critiqued her again. Vintage Trump. She wanted a second question and he said it wasn’t fair for other reporters. When he called on a CNN reporter a bit later, that reporter yielded to Alcindor. She asked another accusatory question suggesting it was insane to worry about widespread suicide or depression resulting from an economic catastrophe. Then followed the CNN reporter’s question. It was a train wreck. Also accusatory, the reporter snipped a quote to make Trump sound like he’d said something different than what he’d said at a previous press conference. Trump forced him to read the quote in context, showing that the accusatory “gotcha” question was not an accurate depiction of what had been expressed. In this sense, all three questions were absolutely golden for Trump, who could tee off on them in the way he tees off on most political media. But political media really thought the moment went well for them. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times spun the exchange (and added some trademark Haberman mindreading) as if it were “triggering” for the president widely known for enjoying dustups with his media foes. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post dramatically claimed that Alcindor “routinely gets under his skin with probing questions,” and said Trump was “losing his cool, again.” The Obama bros who host “Pod Save America,” excitedly announced that Alcindor — “The incredible reporter who puts up with this shit from Trump all the time” — would be their next guest. Many media figures spent the evening doing something very constructive. How constructive? Well, they worked really hard to get #WeLoveYamiche trending on Twitter! “What did you do during the Coronavirus Era, grandpa?” “Well, I spent some evenings trying to get a hashtag trending, and other similar important work, much like firefighters do.” It is sad that some people think getting something trending, if it was indeed trending, is how one wins an argument. But such is the high-level thinking we’re dealing with these days. In any case, as trust in media remains low, it is worth noting that Alcindor may be a perfectly fine reporter at times, but she also has done her fair share to make people think she’s similar to her peers in terms of extreme bias and sensationalism. Most recently, she was the reporter who wasted valuable time asking President Trump if he approved of something that supposedly someone in the White House said to a reporter, although the reporter refused to identify the person in question. The supposed thing that supposedly happened was that someone — we don’t know who — called the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, the “Kung Flu” virus. It was an utterly ridiculous question during a global pandemic even if the event had verifiably happened. Alcindor was also one of the reporters who deceptively edited a quote to make it sound like Trump had told governors they were on their own, when in fact he had explicitly said the federal government would help them if the more efficient method for acquiring needed goods was a bust. Alcindor has at times been a poster child for press bias toward Trump, such as in an incident where she sounded more like President Barack Obama’s personal press secretary than a White House reporter. CNN has praised Alcindor for her support of the Russia collusion narrative. She complained when President Trump visited troops in Iraq, suggesting it was nothing more than a political rally. Of Communist China, she wrote, “your chances of improving your station in life there vastly exceed those in the United States.” Alcindor is not consistently accusatory or hostile toward politicians. Sometimes she is very favorable or gentle toward them, such as when Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., proposed restricting Americans’ 2nd Amendment rights if she were elected president. Alcindor praised Democratic Sen. Michael Bennett, D-CO, when he railed against Republicans on the Senate floor for the government shutdown. This was way back to last year, when journalists cared about the economic consequences of federal workers not being paid for a few weeks. Alcindor claimed people were scraping together their last pennies and Bennett “losing it on the Senate floor in that way was really a lot of Americans saying, ‘We can’t take this anymore.'” When Jussie Smollett made his rather difficult-to-believe claim about being brutally attacked by a culturally astute roving gang of MAGA-hat-wearing bigots, Alcindor totally bought it. “We have to do better as a country. This is disgusting,” she wrote. She’s also the reporter who accused people who support the national interest of being racist. Alcindor clearly has many friends in the press corps, and they were elated to have a chance to defend her. It’s always good to have friends who defend you when powerful people critique you. The incident is a good time to remember, though, that the country would benefit from a press corps less concerned with their cliques and more concerned about the American public they ostensibly report for. Perhaps it’s time to give political reporters a rest from the White House briefings and replace them with public health, mental health, business, education, and other beat reporters. Trump flourishes the more the White House press corps is riddled with political activists posing as journalists. But the country might fare better with more informed questions from reporters able to think through issues less politically
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