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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
March 16, 2021
Posted on Mon, Mar 15th, 2021 by Sean Colarossi
Biden Administration Is Quietly Scrubbing Every Bit Of Trump Misinformation Out Of The CDC
During the course of the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump spewed misinformation on a regular basis, often putting out anti-science nonsense under the guise of CDC guidance.
Rachel Maddow reported on Monday night that the Biden administration is quietly and quickly doing a massive cleanup effort to scrub the CDC of this anti-science “junk” that the Trump administration left behind.
Leading the effort is the number two official at the CDC, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who Trump silenced during his administration.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1371634506231320579
Maddow said:
Trump’s failure to lead with science led to the loss of lives and credibility
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/03/15/biden-administration-is-quietly-scrubbing-every-bit-of-trump-misinformation-out-of-the-cdc.html
Biden Administration Is Quietly Scrubbing Every Bit Of Trump Misinformation Out Of The CDC
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/03/15/biden-administration-is-quietly-scrubbing-every-bit-of-trump-misinformation-out-of-the-cdc.htmlPosted on Mon, Mar 15th, 2021 by Sean Colarossi
Biden Administration Is Quietly Scrubbing Every Bit Of Trump Misinformation Out Of The CDC
During the course of the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump spewed misinformation on a regular basis, often putting out anti-science nonsense under the guise of CDC guidance.
Rachel Maddow reported on Monday night that the Biden administration is quietly and quickly doing a massive cleanup effort to scrub the CDC of this anti-science “junk” that the Trump administration left behind.
Leading the effort is the number two official at the CDC, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who Trump silenced during his administration.
“In the Biden administration, she’s allowed to have public facing documents and appearances again,” Maddow said. “In fact, they put her in charge right away of going back over all the CDC COVID guidance and advice that was published during the Trump administration to make sure that none of the junk survived.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1371634506231320579
Maddow said:
We got a new president, a new administration, that meant a new CDC director. And now, finally, today, without any fanfare whatsoever, they started to do the cleanup. The number two official at the CDC, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who had been silenced alongside other career scientists at the CDC under the Trump administration. Dr. Schuchat today submitted this very low-key report to the new CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President Biden’s appointee to run the CDC. And Schuchat, again, was one of the career scientists whose public statements and appearances were stopped by the Trump White House. Well, in the Biden administration, she’s allowed to have public facing documents and appearances again. And, in fact, they put her in charge right away of going back over all the CDC COVID guidance and advice that was published during the Trump administration to make sure that none of the junk survived, to take out, to remove anything that hadn’t really been CDC science, that the Trump administration insisted be put out anyway. She was in charge of a review to identify and root out the junk the Trump administration put out in the CDC’s name or watered down or otherwise corrupted at that agency, so that once again, we the public – we the world – can have confidence in what the CDC says about COVID.
Trump’s failure to lead with science led to the loss of lives and credibility
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/03/15/biden-administration-is-quietly-scrubbing-every-bit-of-trump-misinformation-out-of-the-cdc.html
March 15, 2021
Posted on Mon, Mar 15th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Democrats Plan To Steamroll Republicans With Reconciliation For Big Infrastructure Jobs Bill
Senate Democrats expect Republicans to try to block a big job-creating infrastructure bill, so the Democrats are planning to use reconciliation.
Politico reported that Sen. Ben Cardin was caught on a hot mic telling Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that reconciliation is the plan:
Biden and Buttigieg have had several bipartisan meetings in the Oval Office, but several factors make earning Republican support for infrastructure legislation a challenge.
Democrats aren’t fooling around. They aren’t going to engage in a dance with obstructionist Senate Republicans that ends with them not supporting the proposed legislation. Senate Republicans will be given plenty of chances to help to shape an infrastructure bill.
If they refuse, Democrats will go it alone and take all of the credit for rebuilding America and creating even more good jobs.
Democrats Plan To Steamroll Republicans With Reconciliation For Big Infrastructure Jobs Bill
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/03/15/democrats-plan-to-steamroll-republicans-with-reconciliation-for-big-infrastructure-jobs-bill.htmlPosted on Mon, Mar 15th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Democrats Plan To Steamroll Republicans With Reconciliation For Big Infrastructure Jobs Bill
Senate Democrats expect Republicans to try to block a big job-creating infrastructure bill, so the Democrats are planning to use reconciliation.
Politico reported that Sen. Ben Cardin was caught on a hot mic telling Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg that reconciliation is the plan:
“Ultimately it’s going to be put together similar” to the American Rescue Plan, the Covid bill just passed by Congress last week, Cardin said, with multiple committees crafting legislation which would then be stitched together. Democrats will “most likely have to use reconciliation,” he said, noting that Republicans will only “meet with you to a point.”
Biden and Buttigieg have had several bipartisan meetings in the Oval Office, but several factors make earning Republican support for infrastructure legislation a challenge.
Democrats aren’t fooling around. They aren’t going to engage in a dance with obstructionist Senate Republicans that ends with them not supporting the proposed legislation. Senate Republicans will be given plenty of chances to help to shape an infrastructure bill.
If they refuse, Democrats will go it alone and take all of the credit for rebuilding America and creating even more good jobs.
March 15, 2021
ICE Keeps Releasing Detainees With Positive Coronavirus Tests, Says Report
Someone needs to get their act together...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-keeps-releasing-detainees-with-positive-coronavirus-tests-says-report?ref=home
ICE Keeps Releasing Detainees With Positive Coronavirus Tests, Says Report
‘IT’S REPREHENSIBLE’
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Published Mar. 15, 2021 7:00AM ET
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are repeatedly releasing detainees who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, according to a report from The Washington Post. In one example, an asylum-seeker from Cameroon was driven from immigration detention to a bus station in the California border city of Calexico and, when volunteers greeted him and offered help, he told them he had been diagnosed with COVID-19. The next day, a Cuban man was dropped off who had also just tested positive. Immigration advocates told the Post that it’s right that detainees with the virus should be released to get medical care, but said it’s reckless to release them into the public without providing help. “It’s reprehensible,” Jules Kramer, chief of operations at the Minority Humanitarian Foundation, told the Post. “It’s a threat to public safety. It’s a threat to our asylum-seekers. It’s a threat to the people on the ground helping.” In a statement, ICE spokeswoman Paige Hughes said: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody... In these particular instances, ICE had no legal authority to continue detention for the individuals referenced.”
March 15, 2021
What a mess — the media's dopey Biden gotcha stories
Return of the Optics Police
Eric Boehlert
33 min ago
Leaning hard into the task of creating conflict and controversy where none exists, the Beltway press is trying its best to rustle up gotcha stories that ding President Joe Biden. Struggling to adjust to the new media landscape that does not feature a narcissistic, pathological liar president, and one who does not purposely create outrage, journalists are swinging and missing as they work too hard to manufacture news.
Biden travels during the pandemic! Biden wears a Rolex! Biden hasn't given a press conference! Biden hasn't credited Trump for the vaccine! Biden hasn't "united" the nation! The breathless exercise is already tedious. And it's only March.
In a way this is the Beltway press returning to "normalcy" after Trump's four years of deliberate chaos. And normalcy for the D.C. media is pelting Democrats with gotcha stories about optics and how something the president has done doesn't look right, as determined by journalists. Not that the president has done anything wrong. Just that it doesn't feel right, and that now that gets treated as Important News, just months after a president who ran the White House as a criminal enterprise and tried to demolish free and fair elections in America left office.
snip//
Over this weekend, the Associated Press returned to a weird Biden gotcha storyline: He should avoid air travel during the pandemic. "The White House defends those [Delaware] visits at a time when the administration is urging the public to avoid unnecessary travel," the AP tweeted.
The wire service first pushed the Fox News-sponsored narrative last month, stressing that Biden's decision to fly on the weekend to his home in Delaware ran counter to CDC pandemic guidelines. The obvious hole in the gotcha story is that the CDC urges Americans not to travel because it wants people to avoid crowded airports and crowded planes, which is not something Biden has to encounter as the President of the United States. The idea that the Oval Office occupant cannot safely travel one year into a pandemic makes no sense.
Fact: Biden has deliberately unplugged Trump's outrage treadmill. The press needs to adjust and stop trying to concoct gotcha news.
Eric Boehlert: What a mess -- the media's dopey Biden gotcha stories
https://pressrun.media/p/what-a-mess-the-medias-dopey-bidenWhat a mess — the media's dopey Biden gotcha stories
Return of the Optics Police
Eric Boehlert
33 min ago
Leaning hard into the task of creating conflict and controversy where none exists, the Beltway press is trying its best to rustle up gotcha stories that ding President Joe Biden. Struggling to adjust to the new media landscape that does not feature a narcissistic, pathological liar president, and one who does not purposely create outrage, journalists are swinging and missing as they work too hard to manufacture news.
Biden travels during the pandemic! Biden wears a Rolex! Biden hasn't given a press conference! Biden hasn't credited Trump for the vaccine! Biden hasn't "united" the nation! The breathless exercise is already tedious. And it's only March.
In a way this is the Beltway press returning to "normalcy" after Trump's four years of deliberate chaos. And normalcy for the D.C. media is pelting Democrats with gotcha stories about optics and how something the president has done doesn't look right, as determined by journalists. Not that the president has done anything wrong. Just that it doesn't feel right, and that now that gets treated as Important News, just months after a president who ran the White House as a criminal enterprise and tried to demolish free and fair elections in America left office.
snip//
Over this weekend, the Associated Press returned to a weird Biden gotcha storyline: He should avoid air travel during the pandemic. "The White House defends those [Delaware] visits at a time when the administration is urging the public to avoid unnecessary travel," the AP tweeted.
The wire service first pushed the Fox News-sponsored narrative last month, stressing that Biden's decision to fly on the weekend to his home in Delaware ran counter to CDC pandemic guidelines. The obvious hole in the gotcha story is that the CDC urges Americans not to travel because it wants people to avoid crowded airports and crowded planes, which is not something Biden has to encounter as the President of the United States. The idea that the Oval Office occupant cannot safely travel one year into a pandemic makes no sense.
Fact: Biden has deliberately unplugged Trump's outrage treadmill. The press needs to adjust and stop trying to concoct gotcha news.
March 14, 2021
Texas lawmaker: Biden administration didn't cause influx of migrants at border
"This is a challenge that we've been seeing for several years. It's not going away — until we fix it," Rep. Veronica Escobar said.
By MAYA PARTHASARATHY
03/14/2021 11:53 AM EDT
Rep. Veronica Escobar on Sunday pushed back on claims that the Biden administration's rollbacks of Trump-era immigration policies have caused a surge in undocumented migrants at the Southern border, saying such an argument "obscures the bigger picture."
The number of migrant children detained at the border has tripled in recent weeks; host Jake Tapper pointed out that more than 4,000 children are currently in Border Patrol custody.
“What we are seeing today is the consequence of four years of dismantling every system in place to address this with humanity and compassion," Escobar said. She cited administration officials at Health and Human Services and other departments working to reduce the number of days children are detained before being moved to licensed facilities reunited with their families.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1371104516146397184
more...
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/14/escobar-biden-influx-migrants-border-475860
Texas lawmaker: Biden administration didn't cause influx of migrants at border
Texas lawmaker: Biden administration didn't cause influx of migrants at border
"This is a challenge that we've been seeing for several years. It's not going away — until we fix it," Rep. Veronica Escobar said.
By MAYA PARTHASARATHY
03/14/2021 11:53 AM EDT
Rep. Veronica Escobar on Sunday pushed back on claims that the Biden administration's rollbacks of Trump-era immigration policies have caused a surge in undocumented migrants at the Southern border, saying such an argument "obscures the bigger picture."
"This is not something that happened as a result of Joe Biden becoming president," the Texas Democrat said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "We saw the increases dating back almost a year, and this was during the Trump administration."
The number of migrant children detained at the border has tripled in recent weeks; host Jake Tapper pointed out that more than 4,000 children are currently in Border Patrol custody.
“What we are seeing today is the consequence of four years of dismantling every system in place to address this with humanity and compassion," Escobar said. She cited administration officials at Health and Human Services and other departments working to reduce the number of days children are detained before being moved to licensed facilities reunited with their families.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1371104516146397184
more...
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/14/escobar-biden-influx-migrants-border-475860
March 14, 2021
Majority of Iowans Don't Want Grassley to Run Again
omg, what took them so long? 
https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/13/majority-of-iowans-dont-want-grassley-to-run-again/
Majority of Iowans Don’t Want Grassley to Run Again
March 13, 2021 at 7:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 55 Comments
A new Des Moines Register poll finds 55% hope Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) does not run for U.S. Senate again in 2022, while 28% think he should and another 17% are not sure.
March 13, 2021
https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2021/03/nebraska-governor-claims-legalizing-medical-cannabis-will-kill-your-kids/
In response to efforts to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska, the state’s Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts trotted out the oldest anti-weed trope in the book: “If you legalize marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1370450218441973772
"If you legalize marijuana, you're gonna kill your kids."
https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2021/03/nebraska-governor-claims-legalizing-medical-cannabis-will-kill-your-kids/
In response to efforts to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska, the state’s Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts trotted out the oldest anti-weed trope in the book: “If you legalize marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1370450218441973772
March 13, 2021
womp womp
https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/12/trump-properties-placed-on-debt-watch-lists/
Trump Properties Placed on Debt ‘Watch Lists’
March 12, 2021 at 4:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments
Trump Properties Placed on Debt 'Watch Lists'
womp womp
https://politicalwire.com/2021/03/12/trump-properties-placed-on-debt-watch-lists/
Trump Properties Placed on Debt ‘Watch Lists’
March 12, 2021 at 4:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments
Four of former President Donald Trump’s New York properties, which have come under scrutiny in a Manhattan criminal investigation, have been placed on debt “watch lists” by banks over their struggling finances, CBS News reports.
March 12, 2021
Good grief — New York Times credits Trump for Biden's vaccine victory
Both Sides madness
Eric Boehlert
2 hr ago
In a wildly misguided attempt at Trump rehabilitation, the New York Times this week suggested Trump deserves credit for the extraordinary success the new Biden administration is having getting Americans vaccinated. Leaning hard into the Both Sides narrative, the Times generously headlined its piece, "Biden Got the Vaccine Rollout Humming, With Trump’s Help."
What the article lacked however, was any compelling evidence that Trump deserves vaccine credit, after having spent all of 2020 completely indifferent to the deadly pandemic, and spreading nonstop public health lies. Fully 60 percent of Americans over the age of 60 have received their first Covid vaccine today, compared to just eight percent under Trump. Biden should rightly take bows for that remarkable trend, after the previous administration showcased its vaccine incompetence.
Under Trump, the U.S. vaccine rollout was seen as a national embarrassment. Under Biden, it’s become a model for the world, administering nearly 100 million shots. And now the Covid relief bill, which Trump and Republicans failed to pass for ten months, will pump billions into helping communities nationwide vaccinate.
The Times article represents some truly egregious revisionist history, politely positioning today's Mar-a-lago resident as a president who simply ran out of time and wasn’t able to get the pandemic job done — who worked hard to create an infrastructure for his Democratic successor. That's a wildly inaccurate retelling of what happened and the almost criminal neglect Trump showed through all of last year in terms of fighting the pandemic and getting Americans vaccinated. Instead, more than half a million died.
Trump wasn't some kind of passive, disinterested bystander during the Covid crisis. He actively made it worse at every possible turn, from the moment he gave the stand down order for the virus invasion last winter ("We have it totally under control" ), to lying about testing , telling Americans to ingest cleaning fluids in order to cleanse themselves of the virus, and the complete disregard he showed for mask-wearing right up until his final days in office. In truth, Trump spread more deliberate lies about Covid to a larger audience than anyone else on the planet, according to a study from Cornell University.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/good-grief-new-york-times-credits
Eric Boehlert: Good grief -- New York Times credits Trump for Biden's vaccine victory
Good grief — New York Times credits Trump for Biden's vaccine victory
Both Sides madness
Eric Boehlert
2 hr ago
In a wildly misguided attempt at Trump rehabilitation, the New York Times this week suggested Trump deserves credit for the extraordinary success the new Biden administration is having getting Americans vaccinated. Leaning hard into the Both Sides narrative, the Times generously headlined its piece, "Biden Got the Vaccine Rollout Humming, With Trump’s Help."
What the article lacked however, was any compelling evidence that Trump deserves vaccine credit, after having spent all of 2020 completely indifferent to the deadly pandemic, and spreading nonstop public health lies. Fully 60 percent of Americans over the age of 60 have received their first Covid vaccine today, compared to just eight percent under Trump. Biden should rightly take bows for that remarkable trend, after the previous administration showcased its vaccine incompetence.
Under Trump, the U.S. vaccine rollout was seen as a national embarrassment. Under Biden, it’s become a model for the world, administering nearly 100 million shots. And now the Covid relief bill, which Trump and Republicans failed to pass for ten months, will pump billions into helping communities nationwide vaccinate.
The Times article represents some truly egregious revisionist history, politely positioning today's Mar-a-lago resident as a president who simply ran out of time and wasn’t able to get the pandemic job done — who worked hard to create an infrastructure for his Democratic successor. That's a wildly inaccurate retelling of what happened and the almost criminal neglect Trump showed through all of last year in terms of fighting the pandemic and getting Americans vaccinated. Instead, more than half a million died.
Trump wasn't some kind of passive, disinterested bystander during the Covid crisis. He actively made it worse at every possible turn, from the moment he gave the stand down order for the virus invasion last winter ("We have it totally under control" ), to lying about testing , telling Americans to ingest cleaning fluids in order to cleanse themselves of the virus, and the complete disregard he showed for mask-wearing right up until his final days in office. In truth, Trump spread more deliberate lies about Covid to a larger audience than anyone else on the planet, according to a study from Cornell University.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/good-grief-new-york-times-credits
March 12, 2021
Progressives, Meet Your New Hero: Joe Biden
WHO IS THIS GUY?
If the mittens fit, you must admit—with the passage of this relief bill, the president is arguably in FDR and LBJ’s league already.
David Rothkopf
Published Mar. 12, 2021 4:53AM ET
snip//
It is telling that with the passage of the $1.9 trillion relief package, Biden’s White House spokesperson Jen Psaki described the measure as “the most progressive bill in American history.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called it “the most consequential legislation many of us will ever be party to.” But this was not just a case of establishment leaders congratulating themselves.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the 93-member voice of the left on the Hill, said: “The American Rescue Plan is a truly progressive and bold package that delivers on its promise to put money directly in people’s pockets and decisively crush the coronavirus’s spread, which is responsible for our economic crisis. Compared to the response to the Great Recession, this package meets the scale of this unprecedented crisis, delivering the equivalent of 7 percent of GDP for the coming year – exactly what economists say is needed to jumpstart our economy and the labor market.
But the bill is more than just a sweeping and urgently needed piece of legislation. It is a watershed in recent American politics. As Chris Hayes said on The Rachel Maddow Show, “(I)t feels like we drove a stake through a certain kind of anti-welfare austerity politics that was incredibly powerful for four to five decades.” The Center for American Progress (CAP) issued a statement saying, “The American Rescue Plan is transformative because it rejects the long-discredited doctrine of trickle-down economics by directing aid to the working and middle-class Americans who not only need it the most, but whose spending will boost the broader economy.”
The CAP statement cited the fact that the plan will reduce overall poverty by nearly a third and cut child poverty in half. Vox’s story on the bill and where it could lead carried the headline “Joe Biden just launched the second war on poverty.”
The comparison with Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty is apt. It also echoes the perception that existed of perhaps the greatest American progressive icon of the past 100 years, Franklin Roosevelt, of whom few expected revolutionary greatness when he entered office. The point in both cases is that while the progressive movement depends on the vision, boldness, and creativity of the likes of Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or in the past of firebrands like Eugene V. Debs or Robert La Follette, the most consequential progressives are often those who find a way to actually get things done.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/progressives-meet-your-new-hero-joe-biden?ref=home
Progressives, Meet Your New Hero: Joe Biden
Progressives, Meet Your New Hero: Joe Biden
WHO IS THIS GUY?
If the mittens fit, you must admit—with the passage of this relief bill, the president is arguably in FDR and LBJ’s league already.
David Rothkopf
Published Mar. 12, 2021 4:53AM ET
snip//
It is telling that with the passage of the $1.9 trillion relief package, Biden’s White House spokesperson Jen Psaki described the measure as “the most progressive bill in American history.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called it “the most consequential legislation many of us will ever be party to.” But this was not just a case of establishment leaders congratulating themselves.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, the 93-member voice of the left on the Hill, said: “The American Rescue Plan is a truly progressive and bold package that delivers on its promise to put money directly in people’s pockets and decisively crush the coronavirus’s spread, which is responsible for our economic crisis. Compared to the response to the Great Recession, this package meets the scale of this unprecedented crisis, delivering the equivalent of 7 percent of GDP for the coming year – exactly what economists say is needed to jumpstart our economy and the labor market.
But the bill is more than just a sweeping and urgently needed piece of legislation. It is a watershed in recent American politics. As Chris Hayes said on The Rachel Maddow Show, “(I)t feels like we drove a stake through a certain kind of anti-welfare austerity politics that was incredibly powerful for four to five decades.” The Center for American Progress (CAP) issued a statement saying, “The American Rescue Plan is transformative because it rejects the long-discredited doctrine of trickle-down economics by directing aid to the working and middle-class Americans who not only need it the most, but whose spending will boost the broader economy.”
The CAP statement cited the fact that the plan will reduce overall poverty by nearly a third and cut child poverty in half. Vox’s story on the bill and where it could lead carried the headline “Joe Biden just launched the second war on poverty.”
The comparison with Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty is apt. It also echoes the perception that existed of perhaps the greatest American progressive icon of the past 100 years, Franklin Roosevelt, of whom few expected revolutionary greatness when he entered office. The point in both cases is that while the progressive movement depends on the vision, boldness, and creativity of the likes of Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or in the past of firebrands like Eugene V. Debs or Robert La Follette, the most consequential progressives are often those who find a way to actually get things done.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/progressives-meet-your-new-hero-joe-biden?ref=home
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Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
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