Tulsa sees Covid-19 surge in the wake of Trump's June rally

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/us/tulsa-covid-trump-rally-contact-tracers-trnd/index.html

The city of Tulsa is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, a little over 2 weeks after President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in an indoor arena there.

Dr. Bruce Dart, Executive Director of the Tulsa Health Department, said in a press conference on Wednesday there are high numbers being reported this week, with nearly 500 new cases in two days and trends are showing that those numbers will increase.

There had been a 20% decline in new Covid-19 cases the week of June 28 through July 4.

The Tulsa Health Department reported 266 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number in the county to 4,571. There are 17,894 cases in Oklahoma and 452 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States.

When asked if the cases in Tulsa are going up due to the rally on June 20, Dart said that there were several large events a little over two weeks ago.

"I guess we just connect the dots," Dart said.

 

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CNN, "There were literally no health precautions to speak of as thousands looted, rioted, and protested in the streets and the media reported that it did not lead to a rise in coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, the President's rally was 18 days ago, all attendees had their temperature checked, everyone was provided a mask, and there was plenty of hand sanitizer available for all. It's obvious that the media's concern about large gatherings begins and ends with Trump rallies."

Trump says he disagrees with CDC school reopening guidelines, calls them 'impractical'

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-says-he-disagrees-with-cdc-school-reopening-guidelines-calls-them-impractical

“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things.”

 

The president did not explicitly detail which CDC recommendations he takes issue with, though CDC Director Robert Redfield has encouraged all schools to “do what they need” to reopen.

Trump warns stocks will 'disintegrate' if he loses. But stocks are climbing as Biden pulls ahead

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/investing/biden-trump-stock-market-election/index.html

 President Donald Trump is warning a blue wave in November will crash into Americans' investment portfolios. Wall Street, however, is hardly cowering at the prospects of a Democratic sweep.

"If you want your 401k's and stocks, which are getting closer to an all time high (NASDAQ is already there), to disintegrate and disappear, vote for the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats and Corrupt Joe Biden," Trump tweeted Monday.

The ominous warning stands in stark contrast with the view from Wall Street. Investors seem totally unfazed by the political troubles of Trump, whose surprise 2016 election win set off a boom in the stock market.

 

Vindman to retire from military. His lawyer blames White House 'campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation'

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/politics/vindman-retiring-alleged-white-house-retaliation/index.html

 "The President of the United States attempted to force LTC Vindman to choose: Between adhering to the law or pleasing a President. Between honoring his oath or protecting his career. Between protecting his promotion or the promotion of his fellow soldiers," Pressman said in a statement to CNN. 

It is "absurd and frightening" for the White House to be involved in promotions at this level, the source added.

Israel had coronavirus firmly in its grasp, only to see it slip away

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/middleeast/israel-coronavirus-second-wave-netanyahu-intl/index.html

 For months, Israel appeared to be an international model of coronavirus success.

With early travel restrictions and sweeping closures, the Startup Nation had largely contained the spread of Covid-19, recording a mortality rate that was far better than many countries in the Western world. As coronavirus tore across the United States and Europe, Israel was comfortably moving towards reopening.

'Lying, Cheating Failure’: New Book By Trump's Niece Casts Trump As Traumatized Narcissist | MSNBC

Mary Trump's disturbingly credible assessment of her 'dangerous' Uncle Donald

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/08/opinions/mary-trump-book-dangerous-donald-dantonio/index.html

 No one will ever fully explain Donald Trump: the cruelty, the vanity, the insecurity converted to massive overconfidence. However, in "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," his niece Mary L. Trump comes closer than anyone to describing the making of a seemingly heartless person who won his way to the White House.

 On page after page of this book, to be published next Tuesday, the author relies on her perspective as an insider and her expertise as a psychologist to reveal the family dynamic that produced a person capable of the kind of outrageous acts Trump has committed. This is, after all, a man who used insult, racism, and lies to gain and maintain power. A president whose leadership contributed to lethal fiascos involving asylum-seeking children, hurricane victims and, now, a pandemic made far worse by his bungling. Through it, he has seemed immune to feelings of regret, grief and empathy.

Once a source of pride, Israel’s virus response now a cautionary tale for world

https://www.timesofisrael.com/once-a-source-of-pride-israels-covid-response-now-a-cautionary-tale-for-world/

 

After inspiring worldwide praise, Israel’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has now emerged globally as a blueprint for how not to reopen the economy too fast as a second wave of infections, worse than the first, sweeps the nation.

While many countries had looked to Israel’s early closing of borders and initial flattening of the curve as a guide, recent international reports have focused negatively on the Jewish state, asking what went wrong and how that can be avoided in other countries.

Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/coronavirus-churches-outbreaks.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed.

The virus has infiltrated Sunday sermons, meetings of ministers and Christian youth camps in Colorado and Missouri. It has struck churches that reopened cautiously with face masks and social distancing in the pews, as well as some that defied lockdowns and refused to heed new limits on numbers of worshipers.

 

Mississippi's War: Slavery and Secession | MPB

Cooper: Trump says US in a good place. His experts say otherwise

See Trump's Own Family Call Him A Cheating, Traumatized “Clown” | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC

Tucker Carlson ratchets up criticism of Duckworth, calls her a 'coward'

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/506322-tucker-carlson-ratchets-up-criticism-of-duckworth-calls-her-a-coward

 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson escalated his criticism of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Tuesday night, calling her a “coward” for refusing to come on his show without a public apology.

The Fox News host said his show reached out to the Illinois Democrat’s office to invite her on the program to have a “vigorous, reasoned exchange between adults.” But he said a representative “informed us that before even considering our request, we must first issue a public apology for criticizing” the senator.

“Keep in mind that Tammy Duckworth is not a child, at least not technically – she is a sitting United States senator, who is often described as a hero,” he said. “Yet Duckworth is too afraid to defend her own statements on a cable TV show. What a coward.”

Sweden Has Become the World’s Cautionary Tale

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/sweden-economy-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Its decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage — a red flag as the United States and Britain move to lift lockdowns.

This is what has happened: Not only have thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed lockdowns, but Sweden’s economy has fared little better.

“They literally gained nothing,” said Jacob F. Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “It’s a self-inflicted wound, and they have no economic gains.”

The results of Sweden’s experience are relevant well beyond Scandinavian shores. In the United States, where the virus is spreading with alarming speed, many states have — at President Trump’s urging — avoided lockdowns or lifted them prematurely on the assumption that this would foster economic revival, allowing people to return to workplaces, shops and restaurants.