Monday, September 14, 2020
Trump ignores science at dangerous indoor rally
President Donald Trump offered a glaring new example of his refusal to put medical science before politics with a large indoor rally Sunday night that made a mockery of social distancing, while the pandemic he mismanaged has now claimed more than 194,000 American lives.
President Trump Questions Integrity of Upcoming Election at Nevada Campaign Rally
https://time.com/5888534/trump-rally-nevada/
Kicking off a Western swing, President Donald Trump barreled into Nevada for the weekend, looking to expand his path to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims that Democrats were trying to steal the election.
Trump defied local authorities by holding a Saturday night rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the state’s Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result.
“This is the guy we are entrusting with millions of ballots, unsolicited ballots, and we’re supposed to win these states. Who the hell is going to trust him?” Trump said of Gov. Steve Sisolak. “The only way the Democrats can win the election is if they rig it.”
Pandemic brings Trump's war on science to the boil – but who will win?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/03/science-donald-trump-coronavirus
Three years of hostility to evidence-based policy have led to a
crisis in which the president’s ill-informed, self-serving ‘hunches’
have deadly consequences
Trump lied about science
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/11/science.abe7391
Over the years, this page has commented on the scientific foibles of U.S. presidents. Inadequate action on climate change and environmental degradation during both Republican and Democratic administrations have been criticized frequently. Editorials have bemoaned endorsements by presidents on teaching intelligent design, creationism, and other antiscience in public schools. These matters are still important. But now, a U.S. president has deliberately lied about science in a way that was imminently dangerous to human health and directly led to widespread deaths of Americans.
This may be the most shameful moment in the history of U.S. science policy.
It also meant silencing health officials who tried to tell the truth. On 25 February, Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), said, “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.” She was right and Trump knew it. But he shut her down. He also tried to control messaging from Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost leader on infectious diseases. Trump’s supporters insisted that Fauci and Messonnier were not being muzzled, but now we have clear evidence in emails that they were.
Donald Trump tries to quash two hugely damaging stories
In Lewis Carroll's 1865 storybook for children of all ages, Alice jumps down a rabbit hole. It spools into a Wonderland where eating a cake can make you grow nine feet tall. A place where rabbits wear waistcoats and kid gloves. Where Dodo birds set the rules for running races. And where the grinning Cheshire Cat sits in a tree and tells Alice that if you don't care where you're going to wind up, it really "doesn't matter which way you go."
That quip is the reason senior White House adviser Jared Kushner recommended "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to author Bob Woodward as one of the crucial texts for understanding his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. But remember that when Alice says, "I don't want to go among mad people," the Cat replies, "Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here." Or, in the words of the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit" -- "logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead."
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Bret Baier Shuts Down Trump Campaign Spokesperson’s Lies About Woodward Tapes
On Thursday’s edition of Special Report, Fox anchor Bret Baier interviewed both Biden national press secretary TJ Ducklo and Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh about Trump’s intentional efforts to downplay the severity of the coronavirus pandemic back in February and March.
But as Murtaugh went on to claim that Trump was saying the “same things” publicly that he was telling Woodward, Baier stopped him in his tracks.
“That’s not true, Tim” the anchor said, interrupting his
guest. “It’s not true. When he was saying publicly that the virus would
go from 15 to zero and then it was magically going to wash away, that is
not the same thing he’s telling Bob Woodward, that it’s a deadly virus
that travels over the air and it’s really serious and ‘I like to
downplay it.’ He was not saying the same things publicly that he was
privately to Bob Woodward.”
Sean Hannity: Biden 'did everything wrong' in response to coronavirus, is hoping 'you will all forget'
https://www.foxnews.com/media/sean-hannity-joe-biden-everything-wrong-coronavirus
DEFENDING TRUMP'S LIES BY CLAIMING BIDEN LIES ALSO
According to Hannity, Biden is "lying" when he claims President Trump did everything wrong in response to the coronavirus outbreak, while the former vice president was the one to “sound the alarm” on the pandemic.
In fact, the host pointed out, Biden adviser Ron Klain had praised China on Jan. 27 for being “more transparent and more candid than it has been during past outbreaks.”