Important reporting from @TheEconomist. @WHO has admitted it did not even REPLY to Taiwan officials raising concerns in late DECEMBER over possible human to human transmission in the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. For fear of hurting WHO relationship with China. Answers needed. pic.twitter.com/YZmVvfZpxM
“The UK government believes the novel coronavirus may have accidentally leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan where scientists were researching viruses, according to a Mail on Sunday newspaper report.
Most experts believe the outbreak of the virus began with animals passing the disease to humans in or near a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan where live animals were sold.
The Mail on Sunday report, however, says that while officials in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government believe this is still the most likely explanation, it is “no longer being discounted” that a leak from a nearby laboratory actually caused the outbreak.
“There is a credible alternative view [to the zoonotic theory] based on the nature of the virus,” a member of the UK government’s emergency committee of senior officials, Cobra, told the newspaper. “Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted.”
There are two scientific labs close to Wuhan where scientists are believed to have been carrying out tests on viruses: the Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
Both are within 10 miles of the animal market where the outbreak is widely believed to have started late last year.
Some scientists in the US believe an accidental laboratory leak is a plausible theory, The Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said last week.”
“The £30million institute, based ten miles from the infamous wildlife market, is supposed to be one of the most secure virology units in the world.
The state-run People’s Daily newspaper said in 2018 that it was ‘capable of conducting experiments with highly pathogenic microorganisms’ such as the deadly Ebola virus.
Scientists at the institute were the first to suggest that the virus’s genome was 96 per cent similar to one commonly found in bats.
But despite its reputation for high security, there have been unverified local reports that workers at the institute became infected after being sprayed by blood, and then carried the infection into the local population.
A second institute in the city, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control – which is barely three miles from the market – is also believed to have carried out experiments on animals such as bats to examine the transmission of corona viruses. “
When this is behind us we need legislation to ensure certain of our country’s medical supplies are returned to US for production. And if that requires some govt price controls, then so be it. We can’t continue to be at the mercy of other countries who are not our friends or allies.
This should never happen again.
“What China Has Done to Starve U.S. Hospitals of Key Medical Equipment is Unforgivable”
“China lied and people died. In December, China ordered its scientists to destroy samples that showed they had a pneumonia-like virus on their hands. They strong-armed doctors from trying to spread the word, kept medical staff in the dark, and prevented new cases of what we know was the Wuhan Coronavirus, or COVID-19, from being reported. And now doctors who tried to raise awareness have vanished. Vloggers documenting the situation on the ground have also disappeared. China allowed Chinese New Year to be celebrated which led to scores of people being exposed. In all, some 5 million people had left Wuhan by the time the Chinese government got its act together. It was too late. And now, their incompetence caused this pandemic.
The world economy has ground to a halt. And while we’re dealing with this nonsense, China has also reportedly tried to corner the market on personal protection equipment which is essential for health care workers around the world. The Trump administration is fully aware of the situation and is mulling legal action. The New York Post quoted one senior lawyer said China’s actions concerning this alleged hoarding is akin to a first-degree murder charge (via NY Post):
Leading US manufacturers of medical safety gear told the White House that China prohibited them from exporting their products from the country as the coronavirus pandemic mounted — even as Beijing was trying to “corner the world market” in personal protective equipment, The Post has learned.
Now, the Trump administration is weighing legal action against China over its alleged actions, a lawyer for President Trump said Sunday.
“In criminal law, compare this to the levels that we have for murder,” said Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign.
“People are dying. When you have intentional, cold-blooded, premeditated action like you have with China, this would be considered first-degree murder.”
Ellis said the options under consideration include filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights or working “through the United Nations.”
Executives from 3M and Honeywell told US officials that the Chinese government in January began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other supplies produced by their factories in China, according to a senior White House official.
China paid the manufacturers their standard wholesale rates, but prohibited the vital items from being sold to anyone else, the official said.
Around the same time that China cracked down on PPE exports, official data posted online shows that it imported 2.46 billion pieces of “epidemic prevention and control materials” between Jan. 24 and Feb. 29, the White House official said.
[…]
Michael Wessell, a founding member of the federal US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, confirmed the situation and said the Chinese maneuvering had left American hospitals “starved of PPE to fight this crisis.””
U.S. companies are finding out they don't own their own factories in China. When they tried to export THEIR medical equipment, the Chinese government stopped them: https://t.co/TgnCkfHJMP@nypost
“Leading US manufacturers of medical safety gear told the White House that China prohibited them from exporting their products from the country as the coronavirus pandemic mounted — even as Beijing was trying to “corner the world market” in personal protective equipment, The Post has learned.
Now, the Trump administration is weighing legal action against China over its alleged actions, a lawyer for President Trump said Sunday.
“In criminal law, compare this to the levels that we have for murder,” said Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign.
“People are dying. When you have intentional, cold-blooded, premeditated action like you have with China, this would be considered first-degree murder.”
Ellis said the options under consideration include filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights or working “through the United Nations.”
Executives from 3M and Honeywell told US officials that the Chinese government in January began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other supplies produced by their factories in China, according to a senior White House official.
China paid the manufacturers their standard wholesale rates, but prohibited the vital items from being sold to anyone else, the official said.”
———–
The UN is as useless as the WHO and cow tow to China at every opportunity. They’re useless, as always.
—
Far past time to disentangle and restructure vital U.S. supply chains.https://t.co/uot9RCOfHY
“Thousands of NY COVID patients are being treated with anti-malarial drug”
“As many as 4,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients in New York are being treated with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, state health officials say.
President Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential life-saver, although there is no widespread scientific evidence to date showing it helps battle COVID-19.
But Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month said health care providers in the state would be using the drug in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, for some last-ditch cases, based on potentially promising research.
“Time is of the essence,’’ Albany University Public Health Dean David Holtgrave, who is on the state’s research team, said in a statement.
A state Health Department official said the DOH has shipped doses of hydroxychloroquine to 56 hospitals across New York, distributing enough “to treat 4,000 patients to date.””
“A Democratic state representative from Detroit is crediting hydroxychloroquine — and Republican President Donald Trump who touted the drug — for saving her in her battle with the coronavirus.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who learned Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19, said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.
“It was less than two hours” before she started to feel relief, said Whitsett, who had experienced shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and what felt like a sinus infection. She is still experiencing headaches, she said.
Whitsett said she was familiar with “the wonders” of hydroxychloroquine from an earlier bout with Lyme disease, but does not believe she would have thought to ask for it, or her doctor would have prescribed it, had Trump not been touting it as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Trump, at his daily coronavirus briefings, has repeatedly touted the drug in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, despite criticism from health professionals that it is unproven and potentially dangerous. There have also been complaints that Trump’s remarks have resulted in a shortage of the drug for those people who normally use it for its recommended purposes.
But Whitsett said Trump’s comments helped in her case.”
“Study: While CNN Bashes Trump, They Barely Covered Virus Outbreak”
“CNN’s latest Trump-bashing narrative is something to the tune of: Everyone knew the coronavirus was a serious problem in January, and everyone was taking it immensely seriously except for President Trump and his incompetent administration. Yet a Media Research Center analysis finds CNN’s own coverage of the virus in January and early February was incredibly deficient, as the liberal cable network was reluctant to devote much time to anything unrelated to Trump’s impeachment.
MRC analysts examined all of CNN’s daily programming from 6:00 am to midnight EST between January 17 (the first day any news network discussed the coronavirus) through February 5. Our analysts found that CNN’s January coronavirus airtime averaged 12 minutes per day, or about 40 seconds per hour. That works out to a meager 1.6 percent of their total coverage, even after excluding an average of 21 minutes of ad time per hour on the network.
By comparison, the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) projected a clear sense of urgency from the start. On average they spent two and a half minutes per evening newscast on the coronavirus during those same days — and their newscasts are only about 19 minutes long (minus commercials and teases). That comes out to a rate of five minutes of coronavirus coverage per hour (14% of all coverage), or nearly eight times the rate of CNN.
Additionally, the coronavirus outbreak was the lead-off story in 19 out of 57 (33%) of the network evening broadcasts. During those same 20 days, CNN made the virus its lead story of just four of its 360 hours of programming (or slightly more than one percent).”
FALSE. It was under a 5 year funded and the funding ran out on 9/30/19. That job belongs to the House of Representatives. What was the House doing as the program ran out of funding? pic.twitter.com/MrYKpEKlx2
“A chief line of attack during the coronavirus crisis from former Obama administration officials and leading Democrats is that President Donald Trump shut down a White House office on pandemics that might have stopped COVID-19 from spreading—or at least alleviated the threat.
The attack is based on a 2018 decision by then-national security adviser John Bolton to reorganize the White House’s National Security Council.
But the top National Security Council official at the time of the change stressed that no office was closed.
“We consolidated three directorates into one,” Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This eliminated layers in the reporting chain and in the accountability chain.”
The National Security Council is made up of officials detailed from other agencies, primarily the Defense Department and the State Department. Part of the NSC’s mission is to identify emerging threats and inform the president and Cabinet officials about options.
The accusation that Trump got rid of a pandemic office is among the left’s politicized attacks on the White House since the coronavirus outbreak began. The administration assembled a coronavirus task force run by Vice President Mike Pence to address security and medical issues.
President Barack Obama closed the White House Health and Security Office in 2009, according to The Washington Post. But after the emergence of the Ebola virus in 2014, the Obama administration opened the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense as part of the NSC.
As part of a larger reorganization, Bolton in 2018 merged the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense with two other functions into a new Directorate of Counterproliferation and Biodefense.
The move was based on what Bolton believed would be a natural overlap. Not a single staffer lost his position, according to Morrison, now a senior fellow specializing in Asia-Pacific security at the Hudson Institute.”
But the facts won’t stop the fact checkers from their water carrying for Democrats…..
Exhibit A….
They know the facts, and yet….
“VERDICT
Partly false: The Trump administration disbanded the “pandemic response” team, but some of the team members were reassigned to roles that included pandemic response”
——
That’s a garbage take on this, as their own fact check shows.
“In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Beth Cameron, former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense in the NSC, wrote, “When President Trump took office in 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact.
“Its mission was the same as when I was asked to lead the office, established after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. One year later, I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19”
Three days later, Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, wrote in another Washington Post Op-Ed, “It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction. … One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled” ( here ).
On March 14, 2020, John Bolton described the changes made to the team as streamlining. He tweeted: “Claims that streamlining NSC structures impaired our nation’s bio defense are false. Global health remained a top NSC priority, and its expert team was critical to effectively handling the 2018-19 Africa Ebola crisis. The angry Left just can’t stop attacking, even in a crisis.””
“Zoom Video Communications (ZM) has been the saving grace for millions of people stuck at home, trying to figure out how to work and maintain social relationships in isolation. But the videoconferencing platform has already become a target for scammers, according to a cybersecurity firm that monitors the dark web, the internet’s unlisted phone book of shady sites.
“On April 1st, an actor in a popular dark web forum posted a link to a collection of 352 compromised Zoom accounts,” a spokesperson for cybersecurity firm Sixgill wrote in an email. “In comments on this post, several actors thanked him for the post, and one revealed intentions to troll the meetings.”
Sixgill said these links included email addresses, passwords, meeting IDs, host keys and names, and the type of Zoom account. Most were personal, but not all.
According to Sixgill, “one belonged to a major U.S. healthcare provider, seven more to various educational institutions, and one to a small business.”
The accounts were listed for anyone to download, with the intent to troll and disrupt rather than profit. But given that many are using Zoom for business purposes, confidential information could be compromised.
Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Hangouts and Meet, Skype (MSFT), and Slack (WORK) have seen spikes in usage as work from home soared in March, and Zoom has taken off as one of the newer videoconferencing options. Rapidly, it’s become the go-to platform for canceled schools to figure out how to turn the home into a classroom, for friends and family to see each other, as well as a critical tool for many businesses.
But recently, Zoom has been under scrutiny for privacy and data concerns and CEO Eric Yuan has admitted multiple times that the company had some “missteps” and moved too fast, failing to stem security issues like “Zoombombing,” where someone crashes and disrupts a meeting. Someone even built an automated tool to find Zoom meetings to crash, highlighting the need for users to implement passwords on meetings.
Zoom told Yahoo Finance that the company is “looking into” the problems. Earlier the company said it would be focusing on improving security before new features.”
“In a devastating move, the State Department has joined with Judicial Watch in claiming that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cannot dodge a court-ordered deposition in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking “talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack.” This FOIA request uncovered Clinton’s insecure private home-brew server in 2015.
On March 2, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted Judicial Watch’s request to depose Clinton and her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, in the search for more Benghazi documents. Specifically, Judicial Watch was given the green light to probe Clinton on whether or not she used a private email server to evade FOIA. On March 13, lawyers for Clinton and Mills filed a writ of mandamus, claiming that the former secretary of State could refuse the deposition due to her previous government office. State, represented by Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers, filed a brief arguing against the mandamus claim on Monday.
“Pursuant to this Court’s Order of March 20, 2020, the Department of State respectfully submits this response to the petition for a writ of mandamus. The government did not seek and thus does not support the extraordinary relief of mandamus due to the unique circumstances of this case,” the brief states.
The DOJ brief does not defend the deposition orders, but it does insist that mandamus is not applicable in this case.
Judicial Watch also filed a brief against mandamus, arguing that Clinton and Mills failed to “demonstrate that they have no other adequate means of relief” and they also failed to show “that the District Court’s order was a judicial usurpation of power or a clear abuse of discretion or that [Clinton and Mills] have a clear and indisputable right to a writ.”
Rather, “the District Court reasonably concluded that Clinton’s previous explanations for using a personal email server are cursory, incomplete, and seemingly at odds with what discovery has yielded to date.” Furthermore, the Judicial Watch filing argues that Clinton and Mills are trying to dodge deposition testimony by relying on “their status as former high-level government officials.” Yet the two “do not offer a single case from this Court or any other, holding that former high-level government officials should not be required to follow regular appellate channels to challenge a discovery order.”
So?
Chins is the bad guys. We suspect they were careless.
But it may have been deliberate.
And they cornered the market on relief material.
So?
What are we going to do about it?
Send some more manufacturing over there because it is cheaper to make.
China doesn’t have a minimum wage law that prohibits efficient manufacturing.
It is the minimum wage laws that put the manufacturing overseas.
Nobody can live on the present minimum wage.
So? Raise the minimum wage.
Nobody can live on that either.
That is our problem. It’s all political.
Pass it on to the next generation. Mine got a free pass.
I fear for my grandkids. I really do.
Nothing is free. Everything cost somebody something.
"Phoenix TV has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as a major overseas outlet used to spread propaganda and promote the policies of the communist government in Beijing." https://t.co/yY0aBxjf3Z
I think both you and I can agree that WHO modifies, shades, manipulates etc Chinese statistics and quite frankly many other countries. Unfortunately it needs to placate national gov’ts to maintain access. And Taiwan is a special problem — if any international agency does anything remotely resembling Taiwan, China will punish it and curtail its access.
However, I don’t think we can use “China lied” as an excuse. The European experience taught Canada and the US what happens when you take Chinese data at face value. And the US gov’t has intelligence agencies in China gathering data all the time. With these facts, North American gov’ts may have been prepared. But thats not what happened — in the US Congress, several members sold stock instead of sharing information, Trump golfed and held rallies, and my own premier told people to enjoy their March holidays. The latter has really come back to hurt Ontario as over 50% of our cases are from people returning from their March holiday — especially Florida.
There is sufficient evidence to say the federal gov’t failed especially in the initial weeks. Unlike David Frum, I don’t think Trump is soley to blame — his appointees, bureaucrats, etc can take some share. At the state level, some have done really well or at least have recovered sufficiently from initial problems. However, some have been horrible — Georgia’s governor claiming they didn’t know asymptomatic people could be carriers. At the top of the list is Florida governor DeSantis who didn’t close the beaches during March break instead it went by county and 1000s of young people and Canadians have returned north infected. And now he has declared church an essential business (is it taxable then?). I think he needs to read Matthew 6 v6.
These are not failures of party but personal failures. And quite clearly in Trump’s case, his selfish narcissism has been a failure for the people
So the coronavirus deaths are Trump’s fault and not the viruses?
BS.
“The United States is on trajectory to suffer more sickness, more dying, and more economic harm from this virus than any other comparably developed country.”
Again. BS. When you do it on a per capita basis, you know, the honest way, the US is 6th on the list.
————
“The utter unpreparedness of the United States for a pandemic is Trump’s fault. ”
Again… BS. No one in the world was prepared for this.
————
“The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal is Trump’s fault. ”
No, that’s the fault of the burecrats who run the orgs responsible, and the Dem controlled House, the ones responsible for funding all such programs. Trump has no control here. Separation of powers. You can look it up yourself.
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“Air travelers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people? That was Trump’s fault too.”
Trump was the one who put the travel ban in effect, and Dems whined and cried for weeks. Trump saved lives.
——–
I could go on, but I don’t feel like wasting any more time on Frum’s garbage takes. He’s a disgusting human being.
I don’t take the DailyMail too seriously. Until the scientific community agrees that China was able to produces a virus to resemble a natural evolve virus as opposed to synthetic, I’m good with the “wet” market story.
I don’t think any company is surprised they don’t actually own their factories in China. Eminent domain exists everywhere and in national emergencies, gov’ts take liberty with property rights. I’m sure 3M in Minnesota can sympathize as their business has also been limited by the US gov’t.
Other news;
The US Supreme Court threw out 1000s of mailed in Wisconsin ballots. They issue their ruling in private as they were practising self isolation. The irony of issuing a ruling in private to force people to vote publicly was lost on the 5 judges who vote for the ruling.
The premier of Alberta has agreed with Trump that tariffs should be used to increase the price of gas in North America in order to support the oil industry. Not sure if they realize the quickest way to an economic recovery when this is all over is cheap energy. I say let the Saudis and Russians sell us cheap energy, when they run out, the price will rise so that fracking and oil sands become profitable (unless we find better sources of energy prior to this) Use cheap energy when you can.
And about those minimum wage laws…No one ever talks about who REALLY gets hurt by rising wages.
California started raising it’s minimum wage laws before 2015. They are to reach $15 an hour some time this year.
When we retired about 2007 (Me) and 2008 (Mary Anne) we had just about $200,000 in an annuity that paid about 1% a year interest. By the time California/s minimum wage went up from $9 an hour we had $200,000 in that annuity. Just for the sake of discussion, let us look at the purchasing power of that $200,000 over the roughly 5 years from 2015 to 2020.
Our $200,000 would have to grow to $300,000 to have the same purchasing power it had before the hourly wages were raised.
I didn’t say I agree wholeheartedly with him, even I think he was harsh. But I do think we should read it just for the timeline he gives and its information packed. Frum issued quite the rant.
The US is on a bad trajectory — and if it doesn’t change soon it will eclipse Italy etc on a per capita basis. I wouldn’t blame Trump exclusively for it. There’s some bad governors (looking at Florida) as well. Not too mention an excellent transportation network to move people from place to place. (Canada is lucky in the sense our urban areas are actually isolated from each other). A problem for the US will be the movement of people and various levels of social isolation practiced depending on state, county, or city. Federal leadership is missing here. The Europeans from the data I have seen are at the top of the curve right now but the US has yet to reach it. As more testing is done, the extent of the problem will become clearer. Right now on a per capital basis the US has passed the Netherlands and Ireland and is moving up on Germany and Portugal. In terms of deaths per capital the US is ahead of Denmark, Germany, Austria, Iceland, Canada and Portugal.
Trump’s travel ban was ineffective. Frum has a point here. He only banned Chinese nationals, people still traveled to and from China. Secondly, his travel ban was not any earlier than other countries. And there was little screening of the people coming from China.
Bob, there’s no conclusive evidence that raising min wage increases inflation. It just doesn’t happen. The greatest loss in purchasing power has to do with the rising cost of shelter. In my city, rent went up by 25% in one year. And trust me, this is probably the least appealing city in Ontario (except if you already live here) My house rose in value by almost 100% in five years. Minimum wage did not lead to rise in the cost of shelter.
“The Dream of a $15 Minimum Wage Gets a Reality Check From Inflation”
“For most of the decade, support for a $15 national minimum wage has grown among Democrats. Once seen as a fringe idea when it was introduced in 2012, at least 19 Democrats running for president in 2020 support the increase. Last week, the U.S. House passed a bill that would raise the minimum wage to that hourly rate by 2025, which could boost the incomes of 17 to 27 million workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But by then, inflation could make an increase to $15 seem like too little, too late.”
———–
“With inaction in Congress, some states and cities have raised the minimum wage on their own. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal level. Since 2014, voters in nine states have approved higher minimum wages through ballot measures, while legislatures in 17 others have enacted them. There’s some form of inflation indexing in 17 states, while seven have enacted wage increases for a set time period, after which no adjustment is currently planned.
Michigan currently has the longest time horizon of any state for fixed minimum wage increases, set through 2030. They represent a 28% pay rise in nominal terms. But if inflation continues at a 2% annual rate, the true increase will amount to 4.7% over 11 years. Once that statutory maximum is reached, inflation will steadily eat away at the minimum wage’s buying power.
This erosion will start much earlier for states like Massachusetts, which has scheduled gradual increases to $15 by 2023, but hasn’t codified any future automatic inflation adjustments.”
————
More….
And it very clearly leads to job losses and reduced income over time.
cbo.gov/publication/55681
“How does increasing the minimum wage affect family income? By boosting the income of low-wage workers who keep their jobs, a higher minimum wage raises their families’ real income, lifting some of those families out of poverty. However, income falls for some families because other workers lose their jobs and business owners must absorb at least some of the higher costs of labor. For those reasons, the net effect of a minimum-wage increase is to reduce average family income.”
——–
“Real family income. Before-tax family cash income (primarily earnings but also unemployment compensation, cash benefits from public assistance programs, and other forms of income), expressed in 2018 dollars. Changes in real family income include increases in earnings for workers receiving a higher wage, decreases in earnings for workers made jobless, losses in income for business owners, and decreases in purchasing power because of increases in prices.”
“The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family IncomeFebruary 18, 2014Report
Raising the minimum wage would increase family income for many low-wage workers, moving some of them out of poverty. But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated and the income of those workers would fall substantially.”
The Bloomberg link has a lot of hypotheticals and predictions but little actual data. It does say that decades of research by economists have produced conflicting conclusions (probably based on the actual economists biases) The CBO report is actually quite optimitic — 0.1% would lose their job but actual income for the rest would rise by $1 billion. However, it does say it would negatively affect the wages of people who currently make 6 times the living wage. In other words companies paying a higher min wage would take it out of upper management. I like this report so far. Further on, it may even raise wages for those slightly above min wage. Mind you this entire report is about employment and barely a word about inflation.
Everytime i see a governor compliment Trump, I think about the press conference where he asked them to show appreciation. And then wonder if they are only flattering Trumo so he won’t divert medical supplies to Florida
Breaking: Trump is firing 7 IGs in one fail swoop, sources confirm to @RealClearNews. Most likely will be the IGs that were appointed by Pres. Obama or beforehand. He wants his own people in those positions now. Trump during his briefing said he has "put in 7 names" for IGs.
The Defense Production Act allows the feds to do so. And why wouldn’t they? Much of these “commandeered” equipment was marked for facilities that aren’t even up and running yet.
“Additional masks were to be used at a proposed COVID-19 testing site as yet to be launched by Somerset and Hunterdon counties.”
—————-
And this is not at all out of the ordinary. The purpose of the Act is so the feds can send supplies where most needed, not just where folks want them.
““While it’s not uncommon in situations such as this that an executive order can be put out to commandeer equipment, I think that since we’re all in this together there should have been a conversation,” she said. “
Its the lack of communication, coordination, and common purpose. This gives the impression that states and counties etc are competing for resources without any central direction or visible leadership.
The orange man isn’t always bad — sometimes its the people below him, while he doesn’t even know whats happening (see Kushner). However, when its clear he wants and expects flattery one can be a bit skeptical about the sincerity of flattery when he receives it.
Again, about that raise in the minimum wage, the minimum wage in my state will go up by half, $10 an hour to $15 dollars an hour. What could I have done to get my savings up by half? $200,000 to $300,000? That political move cost us plenty!
Oh, and the State of California says that 60% of the cost of things is wages.
Again, we were suckers for putting away $300 every 4 weeks (13 paychecks a year) for over 20 years.
PS Now for the Conspiracy Theory;
The rise in incomes as the minimum wage goes up is one BIG way to cover the YUGE!!! national and State debts.
Wandering Views 
This one is for HRW.
Like I said….. China’s handmaid.
LikeLike
Is it still just a conspiracy theory?
https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-government-coronavirus-may-leaked-chinese-laboratory-covid-2020-4
“The UK government believes the novel coronavirus may have accidentally leaked from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan where scientists were researching viruses, according to a Mail on Sunday newspaper report.
Most experts believe the outbreak of the virus began with animals passing the disease to humans in or near a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan where live animals were sold.
The Mail on Sunday report, however, says that while officials in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government believe this is still the most likely explanation, it is “no longer being discounted” that a leak from a nearby laboratory actually caused the outbreak.
“There is a credible alternative view [to the zoonotic theory] based on the nature of the virus,” a member of the UK government’s emergency committee of senior officials, Cobra, told the newspaper. “Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted.”
There are two scientific labs close to Wuhan where scientists are believed to have been carrying out tests on viruses: the Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.
Both are within 10 miles of the animal market where the outbreak is widely believed to have started late last year.
Some scientists in the US believe an accidental laboratory leak is a plausible theory, The Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said last week.”
———-
More from The Mail….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8188159/Did-coronavirus-leak-research-lab-Wuhan-Startling-new-theory-no-longer-discounted.html
“The £30million institute, based ten miles from the infamous wildlife market, is supposed to be one of the most secure virology units in the world.
The state-run People’s Daily newspaper said in 2018 that it was ‘capable of conducting experiments with highly pathogenic microorganisms’ such as the deadly Ebola virus.
Scientists at the institute were the first to suggest that the virus’s genome was 96 per cent similar to one commonly found in bats.
But despite its reputation for high security, there have been unverified local reports that workers at the institute became infected after being sprayed by blood, and then carried the infection into the local population.
A second institute in the city, the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control – which is barely three miles from the market – is also believed to have carried out experiments on animals such as bats to examine the transmission of corona viruses. “
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When this is behind us we need legislation to ensure certain of our country’s medical supplies are returned to US for production. And if that requires some govt price controls, then so be it. We can’t continue to be at the mercy of other countries who are not our friends or allies.
This should never happen again.
“What China Has Done to Starve U.S. Hospitals of Key Medical Equipment is Unforgivable”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/04/06/what-china-did-to-starve-our-hospitals-of-key-medical-equipment-to-combat-the-wuh-n2566443
“China lied and people died. In December, China ordered its scientists to destroy samples that showed they had a pneumonia-like virus on their hands. They strong-armed doctors from trying to spread the word, kept medical staff in the dark, and prevented new cases of what we know was the Wuhan Coronavirus, or COVID-19, from being reported. And now doctors who tried to raise awareness have vanished. Vloggers documenting the situation on the ground have also disappeared. China allowed Chinese New Year to be celebrated which led to scores of people being exposed. In all, some 5 million people had left Wuhan by the time the Chinese government got its act together. It was too late. And now, their incompetence caused this pandemic.
The world economy has ground to a halt. And while we’re dealing with this nonsense, China has also reportedly tried to corner the market on personal protection equipment which is essential for health care workers around the world. The Trump administration is fully aware of the situation and is mulling legal action. The New York Post quoted one senior lawyer said China’s actions concerning this alleged hoarding is akin to a first-degree murder charge (via NY Post):
Leading US manufacturers of medical safety gear told the White House that China prohibited them from exporting their products from the country as the coronavirus pandemic mounted — even as Beijing was trying to “corner the world market” in personal protective equipment, The Post has learned.
Now, the Trump administration is weighing legal action against China over its alleged actions, a lawyer for President Trump said Sunday.
“In criminal law, compare this to the levels that we have for murder,” said Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign.
“People are dying. When you have intentional, cold-blooded, premeditated action like you have with China, this would be considered first-degree murder.”
Ellis said the options under consideration include filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights or working “through the United Nations.”
Executives from 3M and Honeywell told US officials that the Chinese government in January began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other supplies produced by their factories in China, according to a senior White House official.
China paid the manufacturers their standard wholesale rates, but prohibited the vital items from being sold to anyone else, the official said.
Around the same time that China cracked down on PPE exports, official data posted online shows that it imported 2.46 billion pieces of “epidemic prevention and control materials” between Jan. 24 and Feb. 29, the White House official said.
[…]
Michael Wessell, a founding member of the federal US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, confirmed the situation and said the Chinese maneuvering had left American hospitals “starved of PPE to fight this crisis.””
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More from the NY Post…..
https://nypost.com/2020/04/05/trump-admin-weighs-legal-action-over-alleged-chinese-hoarding-of-ppe/
“Leading US manufacturers of medical safety gear told the White House that China prohibited them from exporting their products from the country as the coronavirus pandemic mounted — even as Beijing was trying to “corner the world market” in personal protective equipment, The Post has learned.
Now, the Trump administration is weighing legal action against China over its alleged actions, a lawyer for President Trump said Sunday.
“In criminal law, compare this to the levels that we have for murder,” said Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign.
“People are dying. When you have intentional, cold-blooded, premeditated action like you have with China, this would be considered first-degree murder.”
Ellis said the options under consideration include filing a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights or working “through the United Nations.”
Executives from 3M and Honeywell told US officials that the Chinese government in January began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other supplies produced by their factories in China, according to a senior White House official.
China paid the manufacturers their standard wholesale rates, but prohibited the vital items from being sold to anyone else, the official said.”
———–
The UN is as useless as the WHO and cow tow to China at every opportunity. They’re useless, as always.
—
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Working.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/05/ny-coronavirus-patients-being-treated-with-anti-malarial-drug/
“Thousands of NY COVID patients are being treated with anti-malarial drug”
“As many as 4,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients in New York are being treated with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, state health officials say.
President Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential life-saver, although there is no widespread scientific evidence to date showing it helps battle COVID-19.
But Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month said health care providers in the state would be using the drug in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, for some last-ditch cases, based on potentially promising research.
“Time is of the essence,’’ Albany University Public Health Dean David Holtgrave, who is on the state’s research team, said in a statement.
A state Health Department official said the DOH has shipped doses of hydroxychloroquine to 56 hospitals across New York, distributing enough “to treat 4,000 patients to date.””
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Further proof, and praise from another unlikely source.
——
“Detroit rep says hydroxychloroquine, Trump helped save her life amid COVID-19 fight”
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/04/06/democrat-karen-whitsett-coronavirus-hydroxychloroquine-trump/2955430001/?fbclid=IwAR1vrBAvHtGj7MPc_3cLwPHEqBFHyK4a1RxxTmCULSiddHxhkFRJNIDjLiQ
“A Democratic state representative from Detroit is crediting hydroxychloroquine — and Republican President Donald Trump who touted the drug — for saving her in her battle with the coronavirus.
State Rep. Karen Whitsett, who learned Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19, said she started taking hydroxychloroquine on March 31, prescribed by her doctor, after both she and her husband sought treatment for a range of symptoms on March 18.
“It was less than two hours” before she started to feel relief, said Whitsett, who had experienced shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and what felt like a sinus infection. She is still experiencing headaches, she said.
Whitsett said she was familiar with “the wonders” of hydroxychloroquine from an earlier bout with Lyme disease, but does not believe she would have thought to ask for it, or her doctor would have prescribed it, had Trump not been touting it as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Trump, at his daily coronavirus briefings, has repeatedly touted the drug in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, despite criticism from health professionals that it is unproven and potentially dangerous. There have also been complaints that Trump’s remarks have resulted in a shortage of the drug for those people who normally use it for its recommended purposes.
But Whitsett said Trump’s comments helped in her case.”
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THIS is CNN.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2020/04/06/study-while-cnn-bashes-trump-they-barely-covered-virus-outbreak
“Study: While CNN Bashes Trump, They Barely Covered Virus Outbreak”
“CNN’s latest Trump-bashing narrative is something to the tune of: Everyone knew the coronavirus was a serious problem in January, and everyone was taking it immensely seriously except for President Trump and his incompetent administration. Yet a Media Research Center analysis finds CNN’s own coverage of the virus in January and early February was incredibly deficient, as the liberal cable network was reluctant to devote much time to anything unrelated to Trump’s impeachment.
MRC analysts examined all of CNN’s daily programming from 6:00 am to midnight EST between January 17 (the first day any news network discussed the coronavirus) through February 5. Our analysts found that CNN’s January coronavirus airtime averaged 12 minutes per day, or about 40 seconds per hour. That works out to a meager 1.6 percent of their total coverage, even after excluding an average of 21 minutes of ad time per hour on the network.
By comparison, the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) projected a clear sense of urgency from the start. On average they spent two and a half minutes per evening newscast on the coronavirus during those same days — and their newscasts are only about 19 minutes long (minus commercials and teases). That comes out to a rate of five minutes of coronavirus coverage per hour (14% of all coverage), or nearly eight times the rate of CNN.
Additionally, the coronavirus outbreak was the lead-off story in 19 out of 57 (33%) of the network evening broadcasts. During those same 20 days, CNN made the virus its lead story of just four of its 360 hours of programming (or slightly more than one percent).”
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More lies from Democrats……
————–
The truth….
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/24/the-truth-about-the-charge-that-trump-eliminated-white-house-pandemic-office-before-coronavirus
“A chief line of attack during the coronavirus crisis from former Obama administration officials and leading Democrats is that President Donald Trump shut down a White House office on pandemics that might have stopped COVID-19 from spreading—or at least alleviated the threat.
The attack is based on a 2018 decision by then-national security adviser John Bolton to reorganize the White House’s National Security Council.
But the top National Security Council official at the time of the change stressed that no office was closed.
“We consolidated three directorates into one,” Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “This eliminated layers in the reporting chain and in the accountability chain.”
The National Security Council is made up of officials detailed from other agencies, primarily the Defense Department and the State Department. Part of the NSC’s mission is to identify emerging threats and inform the president and Cabinet officials about options.
The accusation that Trump got rid of a pandemic office is among the left’s politicized attacks on the White House since the coronavirus outbreak began. The administration assembled a coronavirus task force run by Vice President Mike Pence to address security and medical issues.
President Barack Obama closed the White House Health and Security Office in 2009, according to The Washington Post. But after the emergence of the Ebola virus in 2014, the Obama administration opened the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense as part of the NSC.
As part of a larger reorganization, Bolton in 2018 merged the Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense with two other functions into a new Directorate of Counterproliferation and Biodefense.
The move was based on what Bolton believed would be a natural overlap. Not a single staffer lost his position, according to Morrison, now a senior fellow specializing in Asia-Pacific security at the Hudson Institute.”
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But the facts won’t stop the fact checkers from their water carrying for Democrats…..
Exhibit A….
They know the facts, and yet….
“VERDICT
Partly false: The Trump administration disbanded the “pandemic response” team, but some of the team members were reassigned to roles that included pandemic response”
——
That’s a garbage take on this, as their own fact check shows.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-trump-fired-pandemic-team/partly-false-claim-trump-fired-pandemic-response-team-in-2018-idUSKBN21C32M?fbclid=IwAR1XyWEtuNi7ijTzGl2kSBP93sRDuHekvt13aVjF2oUvFBqoSlhfT-6DbJI
“In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Beth Cameron, former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense in the NSC, wrote, “When President Trump took office in 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact.
“Its mission was the same as when I was asked to lead the office, established after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. One year later, I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19”
Three days later, Tim Morrison, former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the NSC, wrote in another Washington Post Op-Ed, “It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction. … One such move at the NSC was to create the counterproliferation and biodefense directorate, which was the result of consolidating three directorates into one, given the obvious overlap between arms control and nonproliferation, weapons of mass destruction terrorism, and global health and biodefense. It is this reorganization that critics have misconstrued or intentionally misrepresented. If anything, the combined directorate was stronger because related expertise could be commingled” ( here ).
On March 14, 2020, John Bolton described the changes made to the team as streamlining. He tweeted: “Claims that streamlining NSC structures impaired our nation’s bio defense are false. Global health remained a top NSC priority, and its expert team was critical to effectively handling the 2018-19 Africa Ebola crisis. The angry Left just can’t stop attacking, even in a crisis.””
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This is why we can’t have nice things…..
“Hackers are posting verified Zoom accounts on the dark web”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hackers-are-posting-verified-zoom-accounts-on-the-dark-web-161442319.html
“Zoom Video Communications (ZM) has been the saving grace for millions of people stuck at home, trying to figure out how to work and maintain social relationships in isolation. But the videoconferencing platform has already become a target for scammers, according to a cybersecurity firm that monitors the dark web, the internet’s unlisted phone book of shady sites.
“On April 1st, an actor in a popular dark web forum posted a link to a collection of 352 compromised Zoom accounts,” a spokesperson for cybersecurity firm Sixgill wrote in an email. “In comments on this post, several actors thanked him for the post, and one revealed intentions to troll the meetings.”
Sixgill said these links included email addresses, passwords, meeting IDs, host keys and names, and the type of Zoom account. Most were personal, but not all.
According to Sixgill, “one belonged to a major U.S. healthcare provider, seven more to various educational institutions, and one to a small business.”
The accounts were listed for anyone to download, with the intent to troll and disrupt rather than profit. But given that many are using Zoom for business purposes, confidential information could be compromised.
Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Hangouts and Meet, Skype (MSFT), and Slack (WORK) have seen spikes in usage as work from home soared in March, and Zoom has taken off as one of the newer videoconferencing options. Rapidly, it’s become the go-to platform for canceled schools to figure out how to turn the home into a classroom, for friends and family to see each other, as well as a critical tool for many businesses.
But recently, Zoom has been under scrutiny for privacy and data concerns and CEO Eric Yuan has admitted multiple times that the company had some “missteps” and moved too fast, failing to stem security issues like “Zoombombing,” where someone crashes and disrupts a meeting. Someone even built an automated tool to find Zoom meetings to crash, highlighting the need for users to implement passwords on meetings.
Zoom told Yahoo Finance that the company is “looking into” the problems. Earlier the company said it would be focusing on improving security before new features.”
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Hillary is still trying to dodge accountability for her failures…..
https://pjmedia.com/trending/hillary-clinton-cant-duck-out-of-benghazi-testimony-by-citing-official-privilege-state-dept-says/
“In a devastating move, the State Department has joined with Judicial Watch in claiming that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cannot dodge a court-ordered deposition in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking “talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack.” This FOIA request uncovered Clinton’s insecure private home-brew server in 2015.
On March 2, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth granted Judicial Watch’s request to depose Clinton and her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, in the search for more Benghazi documents. Specifically, Judicial Watch was given the green light to probe Clinton on whether or not she used a private email server to evade FOIA. On March 13, lawyers for Clinton and Mills filed a writ of mandamus, claiming that the former secretary of State could refuse the deposition due to her previous government office. State, represented by Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers, filed a brief arguing against the mandamus claim on Monday.
“Pursuant to this Court’s Order of March 20, 2020, the Department of State respectfully submits this response to the petition for a writ of mandamus. The government did not seek and thus does not support the extraordinary relief of mandamus due to the unique circumstances of this case,” the brief states.
The DOJ brief does not defend the deposition orders, but it does insist that mandamus is not applicable in this case.
Judicial Watch also filed a brief against mandamus, arguing that Clinton and Mills failed to “demonstrate that they have no other adequate means of relief” and they also failed to show “that the District Court’s order was a judicial usurpation of power or a clear abuse of discretion or that [Clinton and Mills] have a clear and indisputable right to a writ.”
Rather, “the District Court reasonably concluded that Clinton’s previous explanations for using a personal email server are cursory, incomplete, and seemingly at odds with what discovery has yielded to date.” Furthermore, the Judicial Watch filing argues that Clinton and Mills are trying to dodge deposition testimony by relying on “their status as former high-level government officials.” Yet the two “do not offer a single case from this Court or any other, holding that former high-level government officials should not be required to follow regular appellate channels to challenge a discovery order.”
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So?
Chins is the bad guys. We suspect they were careless.
But it may have been deliberate.
And they cornered the market on relief material.
So?
What are we going to do about it?
Send some more manufacturing over there because it is cheaper to make.
China doesn’t have a minimum wage law that prohibits efficient manufacturing.
It is the minimum wage laws that put the manufacturing overseas.
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Nobody can live on the present minimum wage.
So? Raise the minimum wage.
Nobody can live on that either.
That is our problem. It’s all political.
Pass it on to the next generation. Mine got a free pass.
I fear for my grandkids. I really do.
Nothing is free. Everything cost somebody something.
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Your bias is showing again Jake.
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The CCP plant gets busted. Her news agency is owned by a subsidiary of the China State Bank.
————-
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———
https://twitter.com/Wintericecccc/status/1247451642670100482
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Now you may dismisd as a rant from never trumper David Frum but its a damning article
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/
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Aj
I think both you and I can agree that WHO modifies, shades, manipulates etc Chinese statistics and quite frankly many other countries. Unfortunately it needs to placate national gov’ts to maintain access. And Taiwan is a special problem — if any international agency does anything remotely resembling Taiwan, China will punish it and curtail its access.
However, I don’t think we can use “China lied” as an excuse. The European experience taught Canada and the US what happens when you take Chinese data at face value. And the US gov’t has intelligence agencies in China gathering data all the time. With these facts, North American gov’ts may have been prepared. But thats not what happened — in the US Congress, several members sold stock instead of sharing information, Trump golfed and held rallies, and my own premier told people to enjoy their March holidays. The latter has really come back to hurt Ontario as over 50% of our cases are from people returning from their March holiday — especially Florida.
There is sufficient evidence to say the federal gov’t failed especially in the initial weeks. Unlike David Frum, I don’t think Trump is soley to blame — his appointees, bureaucrats, etc can take some share. At the state level, some have done really well or at least have recovered sufficiently from initial problems. However, some have been horrible — Georgia’s governor claiming they didn’t know asymptomatic people could be carriers. At the top of the list is Florida governor DeSantis who didn’t close the beaches during March break instead it went by county and 1000s of young people and Canadians have returned north infected. And now he has declared church an essential business (is it taxable then?). I think he needs to read Matthew 6 v6.
These are not failures of party but personal failures. And quite clearly in Trump’s case, his selfish narcissism has been a failure for the people
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What garbage.
So the coronavirus deaths are Trump’s fault and not the viruses?
BS.
“The United States is on trajectory to suffer more sickness, more dying, and more economic harm from this virus than any other comparably developed country.”
Again. BS. When you do it on a per capita basis, you know, the honest way, the US is 6th on the list.
————
“The utter unpreparedness of the United States for a pandemic is Trump’s fault. ”
Again… BS. No one in the world was prepared for this.
————
“The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal is Trump’s fault. ”
No, that’s the fault of the burecrats who run the orgs responsible, and the Dem controlled House, the ones responsible for funding all such programs. Trump has no control here. Separation of powers. You can look it up yourself.
———-
“Air travelers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people? That was Trump’s fault too.”
Trump was the one who put the travel ban in effect, and Dems whined and cried for weeks. Trump saved lives.
——–
I could go on, but I don’t feel like wasting any more time on Frum’s garbage takes. He’s a disgusting human being.
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I don’t take the DailyMail too seriously. Until the scientific community agrees that China was able to produces a virus to resemble a natural evolve virus as opposed to synthetic, I’m good with the “wet” market story.
I don’t think any company is surprised they don’t actually own their factories in China. Eminent domain exists everywhere and in national emergencies, gov’ts take liberty with property rights. I’m sure 3M in Minnesota can sympathize as their business has also been limited by the US gov’t.
Other news;
The US Supreme Court threw out 1000s of mailed in Wisconsin ballots. They issue their ruling in private as they were practising self isolation. The irony of issuing a ruling in private to force people to vote publicly was lost on the 5 judges who vote for the ruling.
The premier of Alberta has agreed with Trump that tariffs should be used to increase the price of gas in North America in order to support the oil industry. Not sure if they realize the quickest way to an economic recovery when this is all over is cheap energy. I say let the Saudis and Russians sell us cheap energy, when they run out, the price will rise so that fracking and oil sands become profitable (unless we find better sources of energy prior to this) Use cheap energy when you can.
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And about those minimum wage laws…No one ever talks about who REALLY gets hurt by rising wages.
California started raising it’s minimum wage laws before 2015. They are to reach $15 an hour some time this year.
When we retired about 2007 (Me) and 2008 (Mary Anne) we had just about $200,000 in an annuity that paid about 1% a year interest. By the time California/s minimum wage went up from $9 an hour we had $200,000 in that annuity. Just for the sake of discussion, let us look at the purchasing power of that $200,000 over the roughly 5 years from 2015 to 2020.
Our $200,000 would have to grow to $300,000 to have the same purchasing power it had before the hourly wages were raised.
So, we were suckers for saving money!
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I didn’t say I agree wholeheartedly with him, even I think he was harsh. But I do think we should read it just for the timeline he gives and its information packed. Frum issued quite the rant.
The US is on a bad trajectory — and if it doesn’t change soon it will eclipse Italy etc on a per capita basis. I wouldn’t blame Trump exclusively for it. There’s some bad governors (looking at Florida) as well. Not too mention an excellent transportation network to move people from place to place. (Canada is lucky in the sense our urban areas are actually isolated from each other). A problem for the US will be the movement of people and various levels of social isolation practiced depending on state, county, or city. Federal leadership is missing here. The Europeans from the data I have seen are at the top of the curve right now but the US has yet to reach it. As more testing is done, the extent of the problem will become clearer. Right now on a per capital basis the US has passed the Netherlands and Ireland and is moving up on Germany and Portugal. In terms of deaths per capital the US is ahead of Denmark, Germany, Austria, Iceland, Canada and Portugal.
Trump’s travel ban was ineffective. Frum has a point here. He only banned Chinese nationals, people still traveled to and from China. Secondly, his travel ban was not any earlier than other countries. And there was little screening of the people coming from China.
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My reply is to Chas @ 10:42 and 10:46. I have yet to see anyone talk about this.
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Bob, there’s no conclusive evidence that raising min wage increases inflation. It just doesn’t happen. The greatest loss in purchasing power has to do with the rising cost of shelter. In my city, rent went up by 25% in one year. And trust me, this is probably the least appealing city in Ontario (except if you already live here) My house rose in value by almost 100% in five years. Minimum wage did not lead to rise in the cost of shelter.
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Wages influence almost everything you buy.
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No conclusive evidence?
Google is your friend…..
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-minimum-wage-increase-inflation/
“The Dream of a $15 Minimum Wage Gets a Reality Check From Inflation”
“For most of the decade, support for a $15 national minimum wage has grown among Democrats. Once seen as a fringe idea when it was introduced in 2012, at least 19 Democrats running for president in 2020 support the increase. Last week, the U.S. House passed a bill that would raise the minimum wage to that hourly rate by 2025, which could boost the incomes of 17 to 27 million workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But by then, inflation could make an increase to $15 seem like too little, too late.”
———–
“With inaction in Congress, some states and cities have raised the minimum wage on their own. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal level. Since 2014, voters in nine states have approved higher minimum wages through ballot measures, while legislatures in 17 others have enacted them. There’s some form of inflation indexing in 17 states, while seven have enacted wage increases for a set time period, after which no adjustment is currently planned.
Michigan currently has the longest time horizon of any state for fixed minimum wage increases, set through 2030. They represent a 28% pay rise in nominal terms. But if inflation continues at a 2% annual rate, the true increase will amount to 4.7% over 11 years. Once that statutory maximum is reached, inflation will steadily eat away at the minimum wage’s buying power.
This erosion will start much earlier for states like Massachusetts, which has scheduled gradual increases to $15 by 2023, but hasn’t codified any future automatic inflation adjustments.”
————
More….
And it very clearly leads to job losses and reduced income over time.
cbo.gov/publication/55681
“How does increasing the minimum wage affect family income? By boosting the income of low-wage workers who keep their jobs, a higher minimum wage raises their families’ real income, lifting some of those families out of poverty. However, income falls for some families because other workers lose their jobs and business owners must absorb at least some of the higher costs of labor. For those reasons, the net effect of a minimum-wage increase is to reduce average family income.”
——–
“Real family income. Before-tax family cash income (primarily earnings but also unemployment compensation, cash benefits from public assistance programs, and other forms of income), expressed in 2018 dollars. Changes in real family income include increases in earnings for workers receiving a higher wage, decreases in earnings for workers made jobless, losses in income for business owners, and decreases in purchasing power because of increases in prices.”
—-Also known as…. inflation.
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More…..
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/44995
“The Effects of a Minimum-Wage Increase on Employment and Family IncomeFebruary 18, 2014Report
Raising the minimum wage would increase family income for many low-wage workers, moving some of them out of poverty. But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated and the income of those workers would fall substantially.”
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Voter suppression or just stupidity? Either way this couldve bern the onion but its not.
https://www.axios.com/wisconsin-republican-speaker-election-coronavirus-dc08a298-2201-440a-9ef0-304f62ca570d.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100&fbclid=IwAR1Y3Izr6vAkW1Rt85_n8KiOPCW_EFpMQKelq9BjYOhTocVXgDYP7xfLj3w
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The Bloomberg link has a lot of hypotheticals and predictions but little actual data. It does say that decades of research by economists have produced conflicting conclusions (probably based on the actual economists biases) The CBO report is actually quite optimitic — 0.1% would lose their job but actual income for the rest would rise by $1 billion. However, it does say it would negatively affect the wages of people who currently make 6 times the living wage. In other words companies paying a higher min wage would take it out of upper management. I like this report so far. Further on, it may even raise wages for those slightly above min wage. Mind you this entire report is about employment and barely a word about inflation.
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Good.
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1247648326268452864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1247648326268452864&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weaselzippers.us%2F
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Further proof Frum’s piece is garbage.
Gov Cuomo: It’s “The Plain Truth” That President Trump Has “Delivered”
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This is not good
https://www.newjerseyhills.com/echoes-sentinel/news/somerset-county-ordered-35-000-medical-masks-the-federal-government-seized-the-whole-order/article_97ad57a6-004c-53c8-8451-e85a124d35ba.html?fbclid=IwAR1nw_y2yf1DMSaa4YUx4VTlcNHFieS18NLwdBV9eKR-jE2DUv2zSSjz0QA#utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
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Everytime i see a governor compliment Trump, I think about the press conference where he asked them to show appreciation. And then wonder if they are only flattering Trumo so he won’t divert medical supplies to Florida
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Sure, because they couldn’t possibly mean it.
That’s a good little leftist……
Orange Man Always Bad, amiright?
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Shoulda done this 3 years ago.
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HRW,
The Defense Production Act allows the feds to do so. And why wouldn’t they? Much of these “commandeered” equipment was marked for facilities that aren’t even up and running yet.
“Additional masks were to be used at a proposed COVID-19 testing site as yet to be launched by Somerset and Hunterdon counties.”
—————-
And this is not at all out of the ordinary. The purpose of the Act is so the feds can send supplies where most needed, not just where folks want them.
““While it’s not uncommon in situations such as this that an executive order can be put out to commandeer equipment, I think that since we’re all in this together there should have been a conversation,” she said. “
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Its the lack of communication, coordination, and common purpose. This gives the impression that states and counties etc are competing for resources without any central direction or visible leadership.
The orange man isn’t always bad — sometimes its the people below him, while he doesn’t even know whats happening (see Kushner). However, when its clear he wants and expects flattery one can be a bit skeptical about the sincerity of flattery when he receives it.
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Again, about that raise in the minimum wage, the minimum wage in my state will go up by half, $10 an hour to $15 dollars an hour. What could I have done to get my savings up by half? $200,000 to $300,000? That political move cost us plenty!
Oh, and the State of California says that 60% of the cost of things is wages.
Again, we were suckers for putting away $300 every 4 weeks (13 paychecks a year) for over 20 years.
PS Now for the Conspiracy Theory;
The rise in incomes as the minimum wage goes up is one BIG way to cover the YUGE!!! national and State debts.
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Wisconsin people have been hearing about getting their votes in for a month or so already. It is not like they all had to vote today.
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On a similar note,
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-04-07/hospitals-washington-seize-coronavirus-supplies?fbclid=IwAR2bDl8LuemGvXEFGFOR_y0ovXRh8Y1M5A1z3coBHUHSQTgIOeNJs3beiF8
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Ban 3M from exporting masks to Canada but send a million masks to Israel?
https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/us-department-of-defense-give-1-million-masks-to-idf-for-coronavirus-use-623976?fbclid=IwAR242Jx-ZpT629J9PiORwpmJ7SY8acNpGVjuSCeBVKBOdsKLqqutnqavzfU
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