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babylonsister's JournalJeff Sessions Fails To Win GOP Nomination For His Old Senate Seat Outright
POLITICS 03/03/2020 11:10 pm ET Updated 1 hour ago
Jeff Sessions Fails To Win GOP Nomination For His Old Senate Seat Outright
The GOP primary will be heading to a March 31 runoff.
By Amanda Terkel
Jeff Sessions was once one of President Donald Trumps closest allies and became his attorney general but they had a falling-out when Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.
The battle to pick the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Alabama is headed to a March 31 runoff.
Jeff Sessions, President Donald Trumps former attorney general who served as senator until 2017, will face former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville.
Sessions should have been a shoo-in for his old seat. He represented the state in the Senate for 20 years before joining the Trump administration.
more...
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alabama-senate-race-runoff_n_5e5e87bec5b67ed38b3946fc?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR2T1sq1JkxTwN353FBOEdl-7yzw7vXHxRf4pJJ-rNq3ohlNJ5_u066dTGg
Democrat Cunningham wins primary, will challenge Tillis in North Carolina
Democrat Cunningham wins primary, will challenge Tillis in North Carolina
Cunningham's victory sets up what is expected to be a tight race between GOP incumbent Thom Tillis
By Stephanie Akin and Griffin Connolly
Posted March 3, 2020 at 8:49pm
Army veteran and former state Sen. Cal Cunningham sailed through the North Carolina Senate primary Tuesday, setting up what is certain to be a closely watched race in November against vulnerable Republican incumbent Thom Tillis.
Cunningham, who led in fundraising and had the endorsement from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was leading with 58 percent of the vote when The Associated Press called the race shortly after 8:30 p.m. with 4 percent of precincts reporting. Erica Smith, a state senator and former school board member who got an unwanted boost from national Republicans in the last weeks of the race, came in second.
more...
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/03/democrat-cunningham-wins-primary-will-challenge-tillis-in-north-carolina/
'Incompetence' of Trump's coronavirus response has 'exceeded what anyone would expect':...
Incompetence of Trumps coronavirus response has exceeded what anyone would expect: Harvard epidemiologist
Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story March 3, 2020
The Trump administrations bungling of the coronavirus outbreak has left many medical professionals fuming, including an emergency room doctor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital who on Monday called the federal governments slow response a national scandal.
The New York Times has published a lengthy report about how the Centers for Disease Control completely flubbed making its own coronavirus testing procedure, which has left doctors and hospitals without fast and reliable methods for diagnosing patients who may have the disease.
Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, gave the Times an even harsher assessment about the Trump CDCs performance so far.
more...
https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/incompetence-of-trumps-coronavirus-response-has-exceeded-what-anyone-would-expect-harvard-epidemiologist/?fbclid=IwAR2N1hCVhDNVKXziYzqnckqSYU2IzF1P2ytO1WLfAl0euAN3joo-xIdzIuE#.Xl6luRpmPGM.facebook
Trump's Interior Department Reportedly Changed Scientific Reports to Say Climate Change Is Good
Mar. 2, 2020
Trumps Interior Department Reportedly Changed Scientific Reports to Say Climate Change Is Good
By Matt Stieb
The presidents habit of changing facts to fit his personal outlook appears to be trickling down within the administration: According to the New York Times, an official at the Interior Department has, in at least nine reports, edited the agencys studies and impact statements to include misleading information including the debunked claim that rising levels of carbon dioxide driving climate change are beneficial to the planet.
The official, Indur M. Goklany, was promoted in 2017 to the office of the deputy secretary responsible for reviewing climate policies. His practice of altering reports was so well known within the agency it had its own shorthand: Goks uncertainty language. Goklany, who is an electrical engineer and not a climate scientist, often pushed inaccurate analysis into reports, like the claims that global warming is positive for agriculture because it may increase plant water use efficiency and lengthen the agricultural growing season. Neither idea reflects the scientific consensus that climate change will cause significant disruptions to agriculture in the U.S. and abroad.
Goks uncertainty language also attempted to question the accuracy of climate modeling, which is quite reliable, according to a recent study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. As the Times notes, Goklany has a long history of inaccurate climate skepticism and was only recently empowered within the agency he has worked for since the 1980s:
But Mr. Goklanys Interior Department responsibilities expanded substantially in the early months of the Trump administration, when he was elevated by Trump appointees to a position guiding the Interior Departments climate policy and began attending senior-level meetings and weighing in on early policy moves such as changes to the departments website In interviews, four current and former Interior Department officials said Mr. Goklanys rise was abrupt and unexpected.
Goklanys misleading language made it into reports that impacted major watersheds in the West including the agricultural powerhouse of the Klamath, Californias second-largest river by volume. According to environmental attorney Kristen Boyles, the ultimate goal of placing the information in the reports was to make it part of the record. She told the Times that having contradictory analysis in official scientific reports will allow climate skeptics in the agency to say, Were not going to consider climate change.
more...
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/interior-edited-docs-to-say-climate-change-is-good-report.html
Coronavirus emergency bill held up over vaccine cost concerns
I shouldn't be surprised.Coronavirus emergency bill held up over vaccine cost concerns
Democrats are insisting the spending package include significant funding to purchase large amounts of coronavirus diagnostics.
By SARAH OWERMOHLE, ANDREW DESIDERIO, SARAH FERRIS and SARAH KARLIN-SMITH
03/03/2020 04:34 PM EST
Updated: 03/03/2020 05:53 PM EST
An emergency funding bill to respond to coronavirus is being held up by a dispute about overpaying for tests, treatments and vaccines.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said Republican lawmakers are resisting Democratic efforts to control costs of products that are developed in response to the outbreak.
Our Republican friends don't want to see the kinds of limitations that we want to see," Schumer said after a briefing with members of the White Houses coronavirus task force, including Vice President Mike Pence and HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
The administration's top scientists have said any coronavirus vaccine could be at least a year away from reaching the market. Moderna Therapeutics is working with National Institutes of Health on a vaccine while Johnson & Johnson has received funding from HHS's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
Democrats are insisting the spending package include significant funding to purchase large amounts of coronavirus diagnostics, treatments and vaccine, when it becomes available, which would then be made available to the public free of cost, according to a senior Democratic aide.
Republicans are trying to eliminate the fair and reasonable price federal procurement standard for the vaccines and treatments that will be developed and purchased with the emergency funds. Fair and reasonable price is a basic standard to prevent price gouging in federal contracts. Without the language, drugmakers could charge the government above-market rates, meaning fewer Americans will have access, according to the Democratic aide.
more...
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/03/03/coronavirus-emergency-bill-119729?__twitter_impression=true
Burr, Warner ask DNI to declassify Khashoggi info
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/03/congress-ask-declassify-khashoggi-information-119458Burr, Warner ask DNI to declassify Khashoggi info
The effort to pry details from the Trump administration underscores the ongoing tensions between Congress and the White House.
By ANDREW DESIDERIO
03/03/2020 11:18 AM EST
The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee are demanding that the Trump administration disclose information about the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chairman and vice chairman of the panel, sent a letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on Monday asking him to declassify key details about Khashoggis brutal 2018 killing, according to a source familiar with the matter. Their letter follows a similar effort by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who wrote to Grenell separately last week.
The Trump administration was required under a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act to reveal its formal determination of who was responsible for Khashoggis murder and dismemberment which was carried out inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by late January. The intelligence community has yet to make a public declaration as required by law, only sending a classified report to Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers have been briefed multiple times on Khashoggis murder, but the Trump administration has yet to publicly acknowledge what senators from both parties said was clear to them from the briefings: that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing and was kept apprised of the government-led operation to murder and dismember Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and legal U.S. resident who was highly critical of the regime.
The bipartisan effort to pry details from the Trump administration underscores the ongoing tensions between Congress and the White House over the U.S.s posture toward Saudi Arabia. President Donald Trump has buttressed the Saudi crown princes denials of involvement in the murder, and the administration as a whole has resisted bipartisan pressure to sanction the Saudi government and cut off U.S. weapons sales to the kingdom.
The Post first reported on the joint letter from Burr and Warner.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), who pushed for the Khashoggi provision in the defense bill, held a news conference on Tuesday to bring further attention to the issue. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to assert that it has delivered justice for Khashoggis murder, pointing to U.S. sanctions on more than a dozen Saudi citizens believed to have been involved in the killing.
Mika And Joe Poke Trump Over His Obvious Fear Of Facing Joe Biden
https://crooksandliars.com/2020/03/mika-and-joe-poke-trump-over-his-obvious3/03/20 8:28am
Mika And Joe Poke Trump Over His Obvious Fear Of Facing Joe Biden
"Joe Biden was a man Donald Trump feared so much, he allowed himself to be impeached," Mika Brzezinski said.
By Susie Madrak
Video @ link~
Morning Joe poked fun at Trump's seeming panic over Joe Biden's rising primary success.
Trump was in Charlotte, North Carolina last night, one of the states that votes today.
It's being rigged against, it is sad, being rigged against crazy Bernie. Crazy Bernie is going to go crazy, crazy. I think crazy Bernie will be more crazy when he sees what they're doing. I called it a long time ago.
"You know, we talked about this for some time, Mika, it is fascinating how much Donald Trump fears, is petrified politically of Joe Biden," Scarborough said.
"He obviously is seeing internal polls that show he must be doing badly in a lot of swing states against Joe Biden because again, Joe Biden was a man Donald Trump feared so much, he allowed himself to be impeached over Joe Biden, trying to dig up dirt from a foreign leader in exchange for military funding. I mean, only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached and he did it to try to stop Joe Biden. Now, of course, he goes to these rallies, he rants endlessly about the Democrats trying to steal the process from Bernie Sanders. He is again, obviously, really shaken and disturbed by the prospect of facing Joe Biden."
"That's the backdrop, he was impeached because of his behavior around Joe Biden," Mika said.
Mayor Pete Was Good for the Left
Mayor Pete Was Good for the Left
He made moderates comfortable with progressivism.
By William Saletan
March 02, 202011:49 AM
snip//
Astonishingly, this minor league mayor raised a boatload of money. A lot of it came from high-dollar fundraisers, and that aroused suspicions. Some of my friends and colleagues bought the argument, made by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, that Buttigieg was a tool of billionaires. Its one of those arguments that makes you think youre seeing beneath the surface of politics, but its actually shallow. Yes, its good to know whos funding whom. But thats no substitute for studying what the candidates have done and what theyre proposing. From education to health care to taxes, Buttigiegs platform, like Sanders and Warrens, was about helping ordinary people, not the rich.
Buttigieg wasnt as aggressive as Sanders or Warren. He didnt agree that a state monopoly on basic health insurance should be federally imposed. His alternative, Medicare for all who want it, reflected a different approach to governing. He believed that most people, after experiencing public health insurance and comparing it with private plans, would prefer the public option. But he refused to mandate that result. If progressives like me are right that its the best plan, then everybody will choose it, he reasoned. But if were wrong, and for some people their other plan was better, were going to be really glad we didnt kick them off of it.
Thats a prudent way to introduce progressive ideas. It allows for the possibility that a program will turn out to be a disappointment or a mistake. It also respects freedom of choice. Buttigieg knows that well-intended policies can fail. And as a gay man from Indiana, he understands that sometimes you have to connect with people who dont see things your way. In his withdrawal speech on Sunday night, he saluted, as he always does, the future former Republicans who supported him. They supported him because at every opportunity, he reached out to them. He spoke for a movement defined not by who we push away, but by how many we can call to our side.
Many critics on the left saw Buttigieg as a sellout who tugged the Democratic Party to the right. In reality, he did the opposite. By sending signals of inclusion to moderates and disaffected Republicans, he made us comfortable with a candidate whose ideas were often well to our left. I didnt agree with him that the filibuster should be abolished or that justices should be added to the Supreme Court. But because those ideas were coming from him, I was willing to listen to them.
He also spoke bluntly about his Christianity. Many secularists dont appreciate this, but its important. Democratic politicians tend to treat religion as an implicit threat. Buttigieg doesnt. He defends Christianity as a progressive faith, and he attacks Trumpism as a perversion of it. In his remarks on Sunday night, he pointed out that Trump cloaks in religious language an administration whose actions harm the least among us: the sick and the poor, the outcast and the stranger.
more...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/pete-buttigieg-2020-campaign-good-for-democrats.html
Next, Martial Law
https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/next-martial-law-trump-national-emergency-powers-coronavirus/
Next, Martial Law
by Robert Kuttner
March 2, 2020
I give Trump about a week to do a 180-degree pivot away from virus denial, and toward martial law. Hes always wanted to be a full-on dictator. The virus gives him his opening. As clueless as he is, this will soon dawn on him.
snip//
With Trump, you get the worst of both worldsthe dictatorial swagger without the competence. As incompetent as he is, he will take credit for the public-health bureaucracy he has savaged.
The epidemic is payback for cascading policy failures. Many sick people dont seek medical help because they lack health insurance. The coronavirus is especially insidious in that respect because its early symptoms resemble cold or flu. And 40 percent of people in the service sector dont have paid sick days, so they go to work sick.
Americas long-term failure of health policy is now compounded by Trumps general incompetence and perverse attack on the public-health system. We will all pay the price.
One must hope that Trump pays a dear price in November. Unless Chief Justice John Roberts, who detests Trump, is more of a shill for Trump than he appears, even martial law wont cancel the election.
How to Make Gel Alcohol Hand Sanitizer
Alcohol and aloe vera gel. That's it!
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Gel-Alcohol-Hand-Sanitizer?fbclid=IwAR0u_MSFSa2eJt1L2P6qnNp5L8PUjfQTmoSz449sjdRGpDcoUNa_I-lcQ50
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