Category: CIA

Hey MSM, you got coronavirus as another opportunity to roast Trump… but do the polls agree?

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President Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been slammed by the mainstream media, with certain networks opting not to air his daily press briefings due to “misinformation.” But polls say the public disagrees.

The Washington Post has been fiercely critical of Trump since long before his election. Yet as the paper described his administration as barrelling “toward calamity” this week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll recorded Trump’s highest ever approval rating, with 48 percent of respondents giving the president the thumbs-up, compared to 46 percent disapproving.

That’s the first time Trump has scored positively on the Post’s poll, but when it comes to his handling of the ongoing pandemic which has killed more than 1,300 Americans thus far, the president’s results are even better. Fifty-one percent approve of his stewardship, while 45 percent don’t.

The results are played out across the board. Polls from Fox News, the Economist, Reuters, Gallup, Emerson and Axios all show positive results for Trump. Gallup’s poll found that 60 percent of Americans support Trump’s response to the crisis, while only 38 percent disapprove. Trump’s handling of the crisis has translated into a record high job approval rating in an average of national polls.

Yet the media tells a different story. President Trump’s daily press briefings are – to quote one NPR station in Seattle – so full of “false or misleading information” that the station will no longer air them.

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Staff at CNN and MSNBC have reportedly pleaded with network bosses to drop coverage of the briefings, and the New York Times ran a column on Thursday wondering aloud “should networks cover them?” Individual news personalities have excoriated the president for allegedly spreading baloney. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said on her show this week that if Trump “keeps lying…it’s going to cost lives.”

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But the public isn’t listening. The same Gallup poll whose respondents rated Trump at 60 percent found that out of all the institutions responding to the pandemic, Americans rated the news media the worst, with only 44 percent of Americans expressing any trust in it. Even Congress, a perennially unpopular institution in these kinds of surveys, scored higher than the media.

Trump’s bump in popularity can possibly be explained by the “wartime president” effect. In times of great crisis, the electorate tends to put partisan politics aside and rally around their leader. At least that’s how the theory goes. No US president has ever lost a re-election bid during wartime, and Trump has certainly attempted to portray the Covid-19 pandemic as a warlike situation. Describing the virus as an “invisible enemy,” Trump told reporters last week that “I view it as a, in a sense, a wartime president.” Whether Trump manages to keep the public on side as the death toll climbs, however, depends on his actions in the coming weeks.

The public’s falling trust in the media is a slightly more difficult trend to explain. The public’s confidence in journalism has been falling for the better part of a decade, yet the current crisis seems to have exacerbated the downward trend. For one thing, the general public could be tired of the media crying wolf too many times. Rachel Maddow, for instance, raised concern about Trump’s “misinformation,” yet cable news viewers will remember Maddow’s own spreading of bogus ‘Russiagate’ conspiracies during the first three years of Trump’s presidency.

Likewise, the public expects reporters to hold their leaders to account. Given the gravity of the coronavirus situation, the media could be grilling Trump on any number of issues, from his plan to reopen the American economy in a matter of weeks, to the breakdown of the $2 trillion stimulus bill he may sign shortly, to his reluctance to actually enforce the Defense Production Act to manufacture vital medical equipment.

Yet when reporters choose to scold Trump for “racism” instead, the general public learns nothing new.

Trump’s gripes with the media are long-standing. However, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic seems to be winning more and more Americans over to his side.

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TEXAS ORDERS 14-DAY QUARANTINE FOR NY-NJ-CT & NEW ORLEANS TRAVELERS

Texas Orders 14-Day Quarantine For NY-NJ-CT & New Orleans Travelers

The Big Apple is Coronavirus epicenter of the US, with cases flaring up in New Orleans as well

By Kit Daniels – March 27, 2020

Texas is now requiring air travelers from Coronavirus hotspots to quarantine for 14 days.

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered travelers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – the tri-state area around New York City – and from New Orleans to isolate themselves for no less than 14 days and may only have direct contact with health care providers.

Abbott’s executive order came in response to White House recommending anyone who just visited the New York City area to self-quarantine as the Big Apple is Coronavirus epicenter of the US.

“Every person who enters the State of Texas as the final destination through an airport, from a point of origin or point of last departure in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, or the City of New Orleans, or in any other state or city as may be proclaimed hereafter, shall be subject to mandatory self-quarantine for a period of 14 days from the time of entry into Texas or the duration of the person’s presence in Texas, whichever is shorter,” Abbott declared.
“This order to self-quarantine shall not apply to people traveling in connection with military service, emergency response, health response, or critical-infrastructure functions, as may be determined by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.”

“Each person covered under this order to self-quarantine shall be responsible for all associated costs, including
transportation, lodging, food, and medical care.”

Affected travelers are to notify the Texas Dept. of Public Safety of their quarantine location upon disembarking from their flight, the executive order added.

A order will likely to reduce air travel severely from these areas.

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Leftist Journo Takes Pleasure In US Becoming Worst Hit Coronavirus Nation: ‘Who’s The S***hole Country Now?’

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“If you needed anymore evidence these people hate America.”

By Steve Watson

A leftist columnist seemingly took pleasure in the fact that the US has become the country with the most confirmed cases of coronavirus by mocking President Trump and proclaiming “Who’s the shithole country now?”

Julia Ioffe, who writes for GQ, tweeted out the inane comment along with a link to a New York Times story on the development.

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Of course, Ioffe provided no salient facts or useful information, such as President Trump’s assertion that the spike in confirmed cases is down to more robust testing being rolled out.

Nor did Ioffe indicate that in comparison with other hard hit countries, the mortality rate in the US stands at 1.5%, which equates to much fewer deaths per confirmed cases than Italy (10%), Spain (8%), Iran (7.6%) and France (6%).

No, Ioffe simply wanted to vent her pent up Trump derangement syndrome.

Americans are not amused:

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Italian Mayor Threatens to Send “Police With Flamethrowers” to Break Up Graduation Parties

Some continue to ignore social distancing rules.

By Paul Joseph Watson – 26 March, 2020

An Italian mayor has threatened to send police armed with flamethrowers to break up graduation parties as some people continue to ignore social distancing rules despite a nationwide lockdown.

“I’m getting news that some [people] would like to throw graduation parties,” said Vincenzo De Luca, mayor of the Italian town of Campania. “We will send police. With flamethrowers.”

Meanwhile, Massimiliano Presciutti, the mayor of Reggio Calabria, accused some Italians of behaving as if they were in the dystopian sci-fi movie I Am Legend by walking their dogs too much.

“Where the f*** are you all going? You and your dogs… which must have an inflamed prostate?” asked Presciutti.

The mayor said he had personally confronted one such individual.

“I stopped him and said, ‘Look, this isn’t a movie. You are not Will Smith in I Am Legend. Go home.”

Antonio Tutolo, the mayor of Lucera, also slammed people for arranging for mobile hairdressers to visit their homes.

“Getting in mobile hairdressers? What the f*** is that for? Who the f*** is supposed to even see you with your hair all done in a casket? Do you understand the casket will be closed?” he said.

At least 40,000 people were fined for being outside without good reason during the first week of the lockdown in Italy, with some facing 21 years in prison.

“Even gatherings like funerals have also been banned,” reports Zero Hedge. “At least 50 people in Sicily are facing serious criminal charges after breaking the quarantine order after having a funeral for a loved one.”

Meanwhile, across Europe, one particular demographic appears to be paying no attention to lockdown laws whatsoever – migrants.

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Wicked, Immoral Woman: Pelosi Tried to Ram Illegal Ballot Harvesting into Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

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By Jim Hoft – March 26, 2020

For Speaker Pelosi, it was never about helping people. It was only about power.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to ram illegal voter harvesting into the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill.

The illegal ballot harvesting provision was removed from the final package but only because Pelosi got caught.
What an evil, wicked woman.

Democrats know cheating by voter harvesting works.
The Democrat Party flipped 7 of 14 Republican House seats in California in 2018 thanks only to voter harvesting tactics.

Ballot harvesting is illegal in most states. In Texas, New York and Pennsylvania they arrest people for ballot harvesting.
Pelosi wants to make to stuff this into the coronavirus stimulus plan.
The Daily Caller wrote about ballot harvesting in 2018.

Passed as a barely noticed change in the state’s vote by mail procedures in 2016 and signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown, California’s AB 1921 allows voters to give any third party — not just a relative or someone living in the same household, as was previously the law — to collect and turn in anyone else’s completed ballot.

Called “ballot harvesting,” critics say the practice is ripe for fraud. Consider “Lulu,” who was recorded trying to “harvest” what she thought was a Democratic voter’s ballot in Rep. Knight’s district.

 

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Army Asks Retired Soldiers in Health Care Fields to Come Back for COVID-19 Fight

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By Hodge Seck

The Army has a message for its retirees: Uncle Sam wants you to help fight the novel coronavirus.

A message sent by Defense Finance and Accounting Services, which processes and dispenses retiree pay, asked troops who had previously served in specific health care specialties to consider “re-joining the team” to address the current pandemic crisis. It’s signed by Lt. Gen. Thomas Seamands, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Army Personnel, G-1.

“We need to hear from you STAT!” reads the message, obtained by Military.com.

The Army, it states, is gauging the interest of retired officers, noncommissioned officers and more junior enlisted soldiers in assisting service efforts to treat the sometimes-deadly disease. The message does not specify whether retired troops would be returned to active status or serve in some other capacity.

“These extraordinary challenges require equally extraordinary solutions and that’s why we’re turning to you — trusted professionals capable of operating under constantly changing conditions,” the message states. “When the Nation called — you answered, and now, that call may come again.”

The call was addressed to retirees from the following health care-specific military occupational specialties:

  • 60F: Critical Care Officer

  • 60N: Anesthesiologist

  • 66F: Nurse Anesthetist

  • 66S: Critical Care Nurse

  • 66P: Nurse Practitioner

  • 66T: ER Nurse

  • 68V: Respiratory Specialist

  • 68W: Medic

The message came with a caveat: retired personnel now working in a civilian capacity in a hospital or other medical facility should make that known. Army officials said they did not want to pull personnel from service they were “providing to the Nation” in that role. They added that former soldiers from a different specialty who were interested in supporting Army efforts should also reach out to communicate that interest.

The call-out directed interested retirees to contact Human Resources Command, Reserve Personnel Management Directorate at Fort Knox, Kentucky, providing contact info and MOS.

As of Wednesday, the Pentagon reported 227 cases of Coronavirus among U.S. troops and 435 total among Defense Department-connected personnel. U.S. cases on Wednesday passed 64,000.

This week, the Pentagon announced that military medical and dental treatment facilities would postpone the majority of elective surgeries, dental procedures and invasive procedures for 60 days as it shifts most resources to fighting the pandemic. A massive relief package moving quickly through Congress Wednesday would triple the number of hospital beds available at these facilities and give the DoD $1.5 billion to open expeditionary military hospitals.

The call to retirees also comes on the heels of a recommendation from the National Commission on Military, National and Public Service for the creation of a “critical skills Individual Ready Reserve” that would serve essentially as a roster of qualified individuals in high-demand fields, likely including health care, on standby to support the Defense Department in times of national emergency. It’s one of 164 recommendations that will be considered by Congress in coming months.

The U.S. Selective Service System also owns a yet-to-be activated standby plan known as the Health Care Personnel Delivery System, colloquially known as the “doctor draft,” that would “provide a fair and equitable draft of doctors, nurses, medical technicians and those with certain other health care skills if, in some future emergency, the military’s existing medical capability proved insufficient and there is a shortage of volunteers.”

That proposed mechanism, however, is designed for use only in wartime and in connection with a broader national mobilization effort, with the approval of Congress and the president.

In a briefing at the Pentagon Wednesday, Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, Joint Staff surgeon, said he felt generally comfortable that the U.S. military had the resources it needed to continue to fight the virus.

“I’m very comfortable that we’ve analyzed the communities where we have military bases. We’ve looked at what we think their medical requirements would be when an outbreak occurs or if an outbreak occurs in that community,” he said. “Do we have enough health care resources there? Is it the right mix of health care resources? That’s then allowed us to identify what medical capabilities from the military we can offer to help support the whole of government, or to support combatant commands in other parts of the world.”

Interested retirees can contact Human Resources Command, Reserve Personnel Management Directorate, at usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.g3-retiree-recall@mail.mil or call 502-613-4911.

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VIDEO: MUSLIM WOMEN GATHER IN GROUPS, CLAIM CORONAVIRUS CAN’T INFECT THEM

Video: Muslim Women Gather in Groups, Claim Coronavirus Can't Infect Them

Not the brightest idea.

By Paul Joseph Watson – March 26, 2020

A video clip out of India shows Muslim women defying social distancing rules by gathering in groups in the street while claiming they are immune to coronavirus.

Yes, really.

The women were gathered to protest against the India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which they claim discriminates against Muslims, and were not about to let a deadly global pandemic stop them.

One woman claimed that coronavirus was predicted in the Koran and that “death will come anyway, don’t frighten us by using this virus.”

“Allah is great, Allah sent this coronavirus,” claimed another woman, adding, “Allah makes decisions about who needs to live and who needs to die.”

“Here we are standing in groups. Nothing will happen to us. No disease can infect us,” she added.

Another woman claimed the only people afraid of coronavirus were those who lived in fear.

Well, I suppose at least some of them were covering their faces.

This week the Indian government announced that 80 cities would go under complete lockdown with trains and buses suspended and markets, malls, cinemas, schools, colleges and gyms all closed.

As we highlighted yesterday, there was also a large protest march against coronavirus in Egypt, with footage showing crowds of men walking down the street shouting “Allahu Akbar” in ‘defiance’ of COVID-19.

 

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Former UK PM Gordon Brown: Time for ‘Global Government’ to Tackle Coronavirus

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

By Simon Kent – 26 Mar 2020

Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday.

The left-wing former Labour leader said there was a need for a taskforce involving world leaders, health experts and the heads of international organisations that would have supreme and unfettered executive powers to coordinate the response.

He gave no indication of who would appoint the “leaders,” how long they would serve for or just what their powers would involve, the Guardian reports.

Brown simply wants a new layer of global supra-government to force a solution to a crisis that began in Wuhan, China.

“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.”

Brown said the current crisis was different to the one he was involved in 2008 during the global financial crash. “That was an economic problem that had economic causes and had an economic solution.

“This is first and foremost a medical emergency and there has to be joint action to deal with that. But the more you intervene to deal with the medical emergency, the more you put economies at risk.”

Brown said his proposed global taskforce would fight the crisis on two fronts. There would need to be a coordinated effort to find a vaccine, and to organise production, purchasing and prevent profiteering.

“We need some sort of working executive,” Brown said. “If I were doing it again, I would make the G20 a broader organisation because in the current circumstances you need to listen to the countries that are most affected, the countries that are making a difference and countries where there is the potential for a massive number of people to be affected – such as those in Africa.”

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund needed an increase in their financial firepower to cope with the impact of the crisis on low- and middle-income countries, he said.

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LA Mayor Warns of Mass Deaths, Condemns Trump’s “False Hope” and Says His City Will be on Lockdown For 2 MONTHS – Maybe Even Longer

By Cristina Laila – March 26, 2020

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti already announced that the city will be shutting off water and power to any non-essential businesses that defied orders and stayed open during the Coronavirus crisis.

During his Tuesday press briefing Garcetti announced that the Department of Water and Power will be shutting off services for the businesses that don’t comply with the “safer at home” ordinance.

The Los Angeles Mayor also warned of mass deaths, condemned Trump’s “false hope” of the country reopening soon and said his city will be on lockdown until at least May, maybe even longer.

Garcetti made these remarks to Business Insider after 12 deaths were confirmed in Los Angeles due to Coronavirus. TWELVE.

Via Business Insider:

Los Angeles residents will be confined to their homes until May at the earliest, Mayor Eric Garcetti told Insider on Wednesday.

“I think this is at least two months,” he said. “And be prepared for longer.”

In an interview with Insider, Garcetti pushed back against “premature optimism” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying leaders who suggest we are on the verge of business as usual are putting lives at risk.

“I can’t say that strongly enough,” the mayor said. Optimism, he said, has to be grounded in data. And right now the data is not good.

“Giving people false hope will crush their spirits and will kill more people,” Garcetti said, adding it would change their actions by instilling a sense of normality at the most abnormal time in a generation.

“This will not kill most of us,” he said. “It will kill a lot more people than we’re used to dying around us.”

President Trump said during a Fox News town hall that he would like to have the country back open for business by Easter.

“I would love to have [the country] open by Easter,” Trump said on Tuesday. “It’s such an important day for other reasons.”

 

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