Of course,
the chances of an "
Abortion access"
reporter critically reporting on abortion are somewhere in the same vicinity as most economic and business reporters praising free markets:
zero.
Why don't Republicans trust the media's reporting on Trump,
you ask?
We spent three feverish years chasing the Russia-collusion whale,
an imaginary beast created by Democratic Party operatives and brought to life by big-name reporters at major outlets.
It's the Jim Acostas and Philip Ruckers of the world who get the book deals and big followings,
not the diligent journalists poring over documents and offering serious,
context-rich reporting.
There are plenty of solid reporters,
but the most of the big-name journalists are only big names because they are granted a perch by powerful corporations.
Instead,
well-read "
Media critic"
newsletters by reporters such as Brian Stelter have become indistinguishable from a Media Matters press release.
If you want to know why news consumers have a difficult time making a distinction between reporters and opinion journalists,
it's because most of the time there is no difference.
Journalists have made it incredibly easy to dismiss their reporting because they treat every Trump misspelling,
self-praise,
garbled sentence,
and exaggeration as if it were Watergate.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-rant-against-the-media/
Is Joe Biden a better candidate than is generally thought?
New polls showing Mr. Biden ahead of President Trump nationally and in battleground states have buoyed Democrats and unsettled Republicans.
In Wednesday's RealClearPolitics average of national polls,
Mr. Biden led Mr. Trump by 6.3 points,
48.3%
to 42.0%. In the three critical "
Blue Wall"
states that Mr. Trump carried in 2016,
Wisconsin,
Michigan and Pennsylvania,
Mr. Biden leads,
respectively,
by 2.7,
5.5 and 6.7 points on average,
and he's ahead in Florida by 3.2 points.
In late February,
Mr. Biden stood at 50.4%,
while Mr. Trump was at 45.6%. Mr. Biden should be enjoying a bump,
having become the presumptive Democratic nominee in dramatic fashion.
Mr. Biden would be better off saying that Hunter's trading on his father's name in China and Ukraine shouldn't have happened and won't happen again.
The Biden Battalion's opening shot at Mr. Trump,
leveled in a memo from deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield and echoed in millions spent on ads by the campaign and its super PAC,
is that the president's weakness toward China led him to bungle the coronavirus response.
After the president announced limits on travel from the Communist state on Jan. 31,
the following day Mr. Biden denounced his opponent's "
Hysteria," "
Xenophobia"
and "
Fearmongering."
Not until April 3 did the former vice president reluctantly come out in support of the travel restrictions.
To win,
Mr. Biden must make the election a referendum on Mr. Trump;
the president in turn must make the race a choice between two candidates with deeply divergent agendas.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-leads-with-his-jaw-11588198336?mod=hp_opin_pos_2
Text messages sent by former FBI official Peter Strzok the same day reveal his intent to continue his pursuit of Flynn.
BREAKING. The operation that targeted Flynn:
CROSSFIRE RAZOR. 1/4/17:
FBI field office found "
No derogatory information"
on Flynn and decided to close RAZOR. 1/4/17:
FBI leadership went off the rails and targeted Flynn: "
Don't close RAZOR"
pic.
In one of the emails dated Jan. 23,
2017,
FBI lawyer Lisa Page,
who at the time was having an affair with Strzok and who worked closely with him on the case discussed the charges the bureau would bring on Flynn before the actual interview at the White House took place.
Former FBI Director James Comey,
who was fired by President Trump for his conduct,
revealed during an interview with Nicolle Wallace last year that he sent the FBI agents to interview Flynn at the White House under circumstances he would have never done to another administration.
In the motion filed earlier this week,
Powell stated "
Since August 2016 at the latest,
partisan FBI and DOJ leaders conspired to destroy Mr. Flynn.
These documents show in their own handwriting and emails that they intended either to create an offense they could prosecute or at least get him fired.
Then came the incredible malfeasance of Mr. Van Grack's and the SCO's prosecution despite their knowledge there was no crime by Mr. Flynn."
The next two points reveal that the agents were concerned about how their interview with Flynn would be perceived saying "
If we're seen as playing games,
WH will be furious."
It appears evident from an email from former FBI agent Strzok,
who interviewed Flynn at the White House to then FBI General Counsel James Baker,
who is no longer with the FBI and was himself under investigation for leaking alleged national security information to the media.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dont-close-razor-flynn-fbi-setup-continues-unravel-texts-reveal-strzok-went-rails
- Steele recently testified in a British court that he believed
both then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and then-Obama
National Security Adviser Susan Rice were aware of his dossier research
as it was going on in summer 2016.
- Steele told a British court
he believed he had been hired by the Fusion GPS firm owned by Glenn
Simpson through the Democratic National Committee-linked law firm
Perkins Coie to assist the Clinton campaign during the election,
according to a transcript of the testimony.
- A day later in
additional testimony, Steele was asked how he came to present some of
his dossier findings to the U.S. State Department during an October 2016
meeting with then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec.
- Then
Steele was confronted with what lawyers said were notes he took at a
meeting with the FBI in 2016 in which he purported to tell agents that
Clinton was aware of his research.
- Steele often disputed
negative or contradictory accounts offered by other Russia case figures
about his work, suggesting Kavalec’s notes of his meeting contained some
“fairly odd things” and that Justice Department Inspector General
Michael Horowitz’s account of an interview with him was at times
inaccurate.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/steele-testifies-he-believes-hillary-clinton-susan-rice
Perhaps President Trump feels confident because he signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to force meatpacking plants to stay open.
Bloomberg quoted USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue as saying shuttered meatpacking plants will be operational in "
Days not weeks"
thanks to the president's executive order.
Perdue said workers at meatpacking facilities would receive a new attire that includes the protective gear that will better shield them from COVID-19.
At least 12 meatpacking plants have closed in April because of virus-related shutdowns among employees.
While the president downplays the incoming shortage of meat,
Perdue said the national shortfall in meat production is between 20%
to 30%,
to be narrowed to "
10%
to 15%
within a week to 10 days."
He added as plants come back online,
operating capacity will be reduced through the ramp-up period.
Under the executive order,
the USDA can force meat processing plants to reopen,
Perdue said.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union said at least 20 meatpacking workers have died from the virus,
with at least 6,500 infected in the last two months.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/usda-boss-says-meatpacking-plants-will-reopen-days-not-weeks
Two powerful Democratic women are calling Joe Biden's sexual assault accuser a liar,
in sharp contrast to the #
MeToo movement's mantra of '
believe all women.
Abrams rattled off the Biden campaign's bullet points - referring to a New York Times story they say proves the incident "
Did not happen."
The Times said that the Biden camp is lying about their report - and that they did not conclude that the 1993 incident never occurred.
Reade is one of several women who accused Biden last year of inappropriate touching.
Biden apologized to the women and said he would adjust his behavior.
Last month,
Reade said for the first time in public that Biden had also sexually assaulted her in a secluded place on Capitol Hill in 1993.
According to Democratic strategist Basil Smikle,
who served as the executive director of the New York state Democratic Party,
Biden "
Should address it now since we can assume that Republicans will call us on it until Election Day.".
A total of four witnesses have come forward to support Reade's claims that Biden forced himself upon her and penetrated her against her will with his fingers - including a former neighbor who describes herself as a "
Very strong Democrat,"
and a former co-worker who recalls Reade complaining that her former boss had sexually harassed her,
and that she'd been fired after raising concerns.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/top-female-democrats-calling-biden-accuser-liar
We can simultaneously increase protection for those who are most vulnerable to coronavirus and,
with appropriate precautions,
reopen most of our economy and society.
The key to unlocking this false dilemma is a clear understanding of who is most vulnerable to death from this novel killer - and who is not.
As data from the deaths of the more than 58,000 of our fellow citizens to date show,
the answer is clear.
More than 80 percent of all the deaths in America from coronavirus have come from this group.
In the death toll to date,
how many were individuals under 25?
Of the 200 million Americans under 45,
how many have died from this novel virus?
The answers are:
fewer than 100 among under 25s and fewer than 1,000 under 45s. ADVERTISEMENT. Thus,
in contrast to the specter of a nation at risk,
when properly understood,
coronavirus should be seen as a big threat to a small percentage of our population and a small threat to the overwhelming majority.
Specifically,
Purdue's guidelines call for "
Protecting the more vulnerable members of our community by allowing them to work remotely"; "
Spreading out classes across days and times";
and "
Pre-testing students and staff before arrival in August."
To make this feasible,
the university is mobilizing its relevant scientific community,
including its own BLS-2 level laboratory to ensure abundant testing and fast results.
If we can summon the combination of imagination and courage that Daniels has demonstrated,
the U.S. now has an opportunity to reduce the risk of death from coronavirus for the most vulnerable,
while at the same time allowing most of society to return to their livelihoods and lives.
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/494949-we-can-protect-the-most-vulnerable-and-reopen-the-economy
House Speaker told a reporter that she doesn't "
Need a lecture or a speech"
comparing the treatment of sexual assault allegations against former Vice President and Supreme Court Justice.
Washington Examiner reporter Kerry Picket asked Pelosi at a press conference how "
Democrats square with the idea that they're essentially standing by Biden but used a comparatively different standard with Justice Kavanaugh when you demanded an investigation against Kavanaugh when a similar allegation came out against him."
Q: "
How do Democrats square they're essentially standing by Biden but they're using a comparatively different standard with Kavanaugh when you demanded an investigation on Justice Kavanaugh-?".
Tara Reade,
a former Senate aide,
said last month that Biden sexually assaulted her in a secluded part of Capitol Hill in 1993 when he was a Delaware senator.
A number of people including Senate Majority Leader have claimed there is a double standard in the way Democrats and the media have responded to and covered the accusations against Biden and those leveled against Kavanaugh before he was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Biden has yet to be asked about the allegations,
which his campaign denied in a statement on March 28.Reade was one of several women who came forward last year to say that Biden's public touching had made her uncomfortable.
Reade's brother also previously said that she told him that Biden "
Had his hand under her clothes at some point."
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495502-pelosi-tells-reporter-she-doesnt-need-a-lecture-on-biden-kavanaugh-comparison
A North Carolina tattoo shop owner was arrested on Wednesday for defying the state's stay-at-home order and opening for business.
Meyers told The News and Observer that he knew he would be charged,
but hopes that his defiance of the order will inspire more small business owners to do the same.
"
You can arrest one person,
but you can't arrest all these people."
"
If people are willing to take the risk,"
Meyers said, "
It's their body and their choice."
A hair salon owner in the state is also planning to reopen on Thursday,
ignoring the state's orders.
Jessica Wesley,
owner of The Room hair salon in Roxboro,
said that she has already booked appointments for when she opens the doors.
"
I'm not a big fan people telling me what to do,"
Wesley told local station ABC11.
https://districtherald.com/majority-of-voters-want-immigration-halted-more-hispanics-support-moratorium-than-white-people/
The Trump administration is planning to speed up development of a coronavirus vaccine with the goal of having 100 million doses ready by the end of 2020,
a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
Several agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services announced plans earlier in April to partner with more than 15 drug companies as well as European regulators in an effort to spur development of vaccines and treatments for the disease.
The latest Trump administration efforts to speed vaccine development were originally reported by Bloomberg News,
citing people familiar with the matter.
Called "
Operation Warp Speed,"
the project will join private pharmaceutical companies with government agencies and the military in trying to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months,
Bloomberg News said bloom.
Last month,
President Donald Trump directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to speed development of a vaccine,
and administration officials have been meeting on the effort for three to four weeks,
the report added.
Bright has said he was ousted as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority,
or BARDA,
because he resisted the administration's efforts to push malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine touted by Trump to treat the coronavirus even though their effectiveness has not been demonstrated and there are concerns about heart damage.
The agency had a total of $
5 billion set aside for vaccine development.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-trump-vaccine/trump-administration-plans-operation-warp-speed-to-rush-coronavirus-vaccine-bloomberg-news-idUSKBN22B30C
The point about government isn't ideological because government spending was about the only contributor to growth in the first quarter,
adding 0.13%
to GDP. Nearly all of that was federal spending,
with states chipping in 0.2%. Congratulations.
Anyone who thinks government can replace the private economy in creating opportunity for Americans should examine the carnage from the shutdowns.
The government had to play a role in financing the shutdown it ordered because only government has the borrowing and lending capacity to counter a potential depression.
The more the government extends its political control into private decisions beyond the shutdown,
the slower the recovery will be.
Senator Josh Hawley wants the government to guarantee 80%
of employer payroll costs up to the national median wage.
The government has already appropriated $
2.9 trillion for coronavirus relief.
His best chance to win now is to offer a pro-growth vision and policies that can save the post-virus economy from the stranglehold of government.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-government-economy-11588201354?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
