Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19
The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports are authored by career scientists and serve as the main vehicle for the agency to inform doctors, researchers and the general public about how Covid-19 is spreading and who is at risk. Such reports have historically been published with little fanfare and no political interference, said several longtime health department officials, and have been viewed as a cornerstone of the nation's public health work for decades.
But since Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background, was installed in April as the Health and Human Services department's new spokesperson, there have been substantial efforts to align the reports with Trump's statements, including the president's claims that fears about the outbreak are overstated, or stop the reports altogether.
Deri: 'It is murder to ignore coronavirus regulations'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287289
A leading haredi lawmaker said that not following the country’s lockdown rules to slow the spread of the coronavirus is comparable to murder.
Aryeh Deri, the head of the Shas Party who also serves as Israel’s interior minister, made his comments Saturday night and posted a clip of the speech on his Facebook page.
He criticized the members of the haredi community who deny that the coronavirus is a threat. Israel is preparing for a lockdown to contain an outsized second wave of COVID-19 cases.
Revenge of the Never Trumpers: Meet the Republican Dissidents Fighting to Push Donald Trump Out of Office
https://time.com/5870475/never-trumpers-2020-election/
Jack Spielman has been a Republican his whole life. But over the past four years, he has come to two realizations.
Increasingly upset by President Donald Trump’s “appalling” behavior, his cozy relationships with dictators and the ballooning national debt, Spielman says his first epiphany was that he couldn’t cast a ballot for Trump again. But for the retired Army cybersecurity engineer, the final straw was the President’s retaliation against impeachment witness Lieut. Colonel Alexander Vindman, who retired in July after Trump fired him from the National Security Council in February. Spielman decided he had to do more than just vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden; he had to persuade others to do the same. So Spielman filmed a video for a group called Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT), explaining his views. “I want to do some part,” Spielman tells TIME, “to try to correct the wrong that I did in voting for this man.”
Rosh Hashanah in the shadow of coronavirus: Outline for prayer services
In open spaces, an unlimited number of people can pray in capsules of 20.
In all other zones: Prayer shall be permitted in groups
of up to 25 people. The permitted number of groups in a closed space
shall be double the number of entrances to the structure, again on
condition that the ratio of one person per four sq.m. of space is
maintained.
Florida Latinos flooded with anti-Semitic conspiracy messaging ahead of election
Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are spreading among Florida’s Latino communities ahead of the presidential election, amplified by social media and messaging apps as well as respected mainstream outlets. According to a report in Politico, much of the anti-Semitism stems from QAnon, the growing, false conspiracy theory that claims Democrats and the “deep state” run a pedophile ring and are working to take down US President Donald Trump. Purveyors of the theory often traffic in classic anti-Semitic tropes, claiming that powerful Jews control the anti-Trump cabal.
‘This is f---ing crazy’: Florida Latinos swamped by wild conspiracy theories
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/14/florida-latinos-disinformation-413923
George Soros directs a “deep state” global conspiracy network. A Joe Biden win would put America in control of “Jews and Blacks.” The Democratic nominee has a pedophilia problem.
Wild disinformation like this is inundating Spanish-speaking residents of South Florida ahead of Election Day, clogging their WhatsApp chats, Facebook feeds and even radio airwaves at a saturation level that threatens to shape the outcome in the nation’s biggest and most closely contested swing state.
Trump Defends Indoor Rally, but Aides Express Concern
WASHINGTON — President Trump and his campaign are defending his right to rally indoors, despite the private unease of aides who called it a game of political Russian roulette and growing concern that such gatherings could prolong the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m on a stage, and it’s very far away,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, after thousands of his supporters gathered on Sunday night inside a manufacturing plant in a Las Vegas suburb, flouting a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 50 people.
The president did not address health concerns about the rally attendees, a vast majority of whom did not wear masks or practice any social distancing. When it came to his own safety, he said, “I’m not at all concerned.”
Another presidential assault on science as fires and pandemic rage
A defining trait of Donald Trump's presidency is his incessant destruction of reason, evidence and science in the service of his personal whims, conspiratorial mindset and political requirements.
When another local official told Trump it was time to take "our head out of the sand" by relying on the forest management excuse, the President pounced.
Is Cuomo Directive to Blame for Nursing Home COVID Deaths, as US Official Claims?
Cuomo’s criticisms drew a quick reply in a tweet from Michael Caputo, an assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“Does the #DemConvention know @NYGovCuomo forced nursing homes across NY to take in COVID positive patients and planted the seeds of infection that killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers?” he wrote.
While experts say this policy was flawed, is it fair to say that the governor’s directive “forced” nursing homes to take patients who were sick with COVID-19? And to what extent did that strategy sow the seeds of disease and death? When we examined the evidence, we found it was less clear-cut than the statement makes it seem. The policy likely had an effect, but epidemiologists identified additional factors that fed the problem. What’s more, the policy did not “force” nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients. Nursing homes interpreted it this way.
Bottom line: State and federal rules didn’t force nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, but many of them believed they had no other choice.
Fact check: Trump makes four false claims in one sentence
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/14/politics/fact-check-trump-mccabe-clinton-mcauliffe/index.html
In what may be a new record for President Donald Trump, he made four false claims in one sentence of a tweet on Saturday.
Trump has regularly blasted McCabe in tweets and public remarks. His Saturday sentence on Twitter: "Was Andy McCabe ever forced to pay back the $700,000 illegally given to him and his wife, for his wife's political campaign, by Crooked Hillary Clinton while Hillary was under FBI investigation, and McCabe was the head of the FBI???"
Almost everything he said was inaccurate. Let's break down the sentence point by point.
Trump was referring to $675,288 that was donated to the unsuccessful 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign of McCabe's wife, Dr. Jill McCabe: $207,788 from the state Democratic Party and $467,500 from Common Good VA, the political action committee (PAC) of then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Monday, September 14, 2020
Fauci: Trump downplaying COVID-19 threat 'not a good thing'; expect no 'normality' until 2021
Trump told Woodward in a recorded interview Feb. 7 about how much "more deadly" COVID-19 would be than the flu, a startling juxtaposition from the president's public remarks at the time and in the months since about COVID-19, its lethality and its spread.
For months in public, the president assured the
public that the coronavirus was "under control" in the U.S. and would
"go away."
"When you downplay something that is really a threat, that is not a good thing," he said.
Trump Endorses Extrajudicial Executions: Killing of Antifa Suspect Was “Retribution”
President Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as “retribution.” Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. “This guy was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him,” Trump told Pirro. “And I will tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.”
Death of Antifa gunman who was killed by a fugitive task force after allegedly shooting dead a Trump supporter is ruled a homicide as a witness claims cops opened fire without warning while he was eating a gummy worm and clutching his cellphone
- Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was shot multiple times and killed by US Marshals outside an apartment block in Washington state last Thursday
- The officers swooped on Reinoehl to arrest him after he was charged with the murder of right-wing activist Aaron 'Jay' Danielson, 39
- Danielson was shot dead during a protest in downtown Portland on August 29
- Coroners ruled Reinoehl's death a homicide Wednesday
- An autopsy revealed he died from multiple shots to his head and torso
- It is still not clear how many times Reinoehl was shot but at least four officers fired multiple rounds at the suspect during the incident
- A witness has cast doubt on the task force's version of events
- Nate Dinguss told The Washington Post Reinoehl was not obviously armed with a firearm and was eating candy when the officers opened fire without warning
- Dinguss, 39, said cops did not identify themselves or try to arrest the suspect
- He also said cops waited 'multiple minutes' before giving Reinoehl medical care
The death of an Antifa gunman who was killed by a fugitive task force after allegedly 'lying in wait' and shooting dead a Trump supporter has been ruled a homicide as a witness claimed cops opened fire without warning while he was eating candy.
הפוסק החסידי: ילד שחלה לא ילך להיבדק
https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1137737
והנה הנהגת הרשויות דאם יש ילד אחד בחידר שנתגלה שיש לו את הנגיף, אז מכניסים את כל הכיתה לבידוד 14 יום ומתבטלים מלימוד התורה כל הכתה הרבה זמן... וע"כ מן הראוי שאם ילד אחד חלה שלא יעשו בדיקות, שעי"ז יתחייבו ע"פ הרשויות לבטל תורה, אלא הילד החולה ישאר בביתו עד שיבריא, וייתכן שישאר עוד שלשה ימים אחר שיבריא, ולא יבטל תורה דאחרים, וכן יעשה באברך בכולל שלא יבטל את כל הכולל על ידו" כותב הגרמ"ש.