Trump Supporters Swarm Texas Capitol, Chant 'Fire Fauci!' at Coronavirus Lockdown Protest

Texas protesters swarmed the state capitol building on Saturday calling for the removal Dr. Anthony Fauci while protesting stay-at-home orders meant to combat the coronavirus.

The “You Can’t Close America” rally follows protests to lock down measures in other states including Michigan and North Carolina.

“Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci,” chanted protesters in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Saturday Afternoon while others could be seen yelling, “Let us work! Let us Work.!’

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/watch-trump-supporters-chant-fire-fauci-at-coronavirus-lockdown-protest-in-texas/

The covidiots are out of control

At least we don't have to worry about Hillary's emails

Are any other countries dealing with this bullshit or is this strictly an American thing?

The Covidiots, Branch Covidians, or whatever else you want to call these jackasses are protesting governors trying to keep us safe from a deadly virus circling the globe.

Why the fuck would you protest that?

Are any other countries dealing with this bullshit or is this strictly an American thing?

Washington Post: Trump's plan is designed to shield himself from blame should there be new outbreaks

As testing outcry mounts, Trump cedes to states in announcing guidelines for slow reopening
By Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb
April 16, 2020 at 4:27 p.m. PDT

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Despite Trump’s desire for a May 1 reopening, his plan does not contain a date for implementation and is a vague set of recommendations for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools and other gathering places in jurisdictions that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases and hospital loads.

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The plan effectively reverses Trump’s claim earlier this week that he had “total authority” to declare the nation reopened. The federal guidelines shift accountability to governors and mayors, placing the onus on them to make decisions for their own states and localities based on their own assessments of the coronavirus’s spread and risk of resurgence.

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Trump’s the-buck-stops-with-the-states posture is largely designed to shield himself from blame should there be new outbreaks after states reopen or for other problems, according to several current and former senior administration officials involved in the response who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-testing-outcry-mounts-trump-cedes-to-states-in-announcing-guidelines-for-slow-reopening/2020/04/16/202ec300-7ffa-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html

If things improve dramatically and the economy takes off (unlikely), Trump will try to take all the credit. If things so south fast (likely), Trump will shift blame to the states.

He's so obvious.

Nearly all US job gains since 2009 have been wiped out

Not only has Trump wiped out all his jobs gains since he took office in 2017, but he’s pretty much wiped out all of Obama’s job gains as well.

Thanks, asshole


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https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/16/us-only-417000-jobless-claims-away-from-losing-gains-since-2009.html

It took only four weeks for the U.S. economy to wipe out nearly all the job gains in the last 11 years.

The coronavirus and the forced closure of business throughout the country again fueled the number of Americans applying for state unemployment benefits, which last week totaled 5.245 million, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Combined with the three prior jobless claims reports, the number of Americans who have filed for unemployment over the previous four weeks is 22.025 million. That number is just below the 22.442 million jobs added to nonfarm payrolls since November 2009, when the U.S. economy began to add jobs back to the economy after the Great Recession.

Only 417,000 more U.S. workers need to file for unemployment benefits to erase all nonfarm gains since 2009, a figure likely to be easily surpassed this week.

Hot spots erupt in farm belt states where governors insist lockdowns aren't needed

Source: Politico

The only hospital in Grand Island, Neb., is full. The mayor has asked for a statewide stay-at-home order that the GOP governor insists isn’t needed. More than one-third of those tested for coronavirus in the surrounding county are positive — and there aren’t enough tests to go around.

Grand Island is the fourth-biggest city in a state President Donald Trump and his top health officials repeatedly name check for keeping the virus at bay without the strict lockdowns 42 other states have imposed.

Except that new cases there and in Iowa, South Dakota and other parts of the heartland are starting to spike, raising concern about new hot spots that could quash Trump’s push to reopen the economy and extend the public health crisis well into the summer.


Trump and red state governors for weeks have fairly bragged about how large parts of the farm belt have escaped the ravages of the virus without the enforced shelter-in-place policies common on both coasts. It’s still unclear whether the states actually “flattened the curve,” or if the virus just reached there later. But now, cases are erupting, threatening a local population that doesn’t always have easy access to the same health care as more urban areas. And the outbreaks are striking the heart of the nation’s farming and meatpacking industry, potentially disrupting the national distribution of food as meat processing plants close down and truckers who move food across the country are sidelined by illness.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/coronavirus-hot-spots-farm-belt-189272

Exactly right...

The fed purchasing of high yield not only allows risky companies to sell bonds at lower rates than they should be, but hedge funds who own those same bonds turnaround and sell them to the fed, take the cash and buy up stocks chasing the stock market higher.

If you look at stock valuations right now, one could make the argument that the stock market is not only more overvalued now than it was at the all time high in feb, but it’s even more overvalued than the dot com bubble. This is because forward earnings have crashed due to the coming depression. The forward earnings crash is sending p/e valuations higher.

There’s so much money out there and it’s going to all the wrong places. Our economy cannot efficiently allocate capital and give it to the right people.. Everything is broken.

Critics Mock Trump's Imaginary 'Authorizing' Order to State Govs: 'I Am Authorizing the Sun to Rise'

By Ken Meyer
Apr 14th, 2020, 10:13 pm

President Donald Trump drew a barrage of ridicule online for “authorizing” state governors to reopen their states from coronavirus lockdowns — at their own discretion.

As Trump held his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on Tuesday, he announced that he “will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly, and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening, very powerful reopening plan of their state in a time in a manner which is most appropriate.” He also said that he wouldn’t put “any pressure” on governors to decide when the time is right to reopen their states.

Trump’s comments are a considerable backtrack from just 24 hours earlier, when he claimed “total” authority to decide when the country’s economy goes back to normal. This claim has been broadly criticized for its conflicts with American federalism and states’ rights as outlined in the 10th Amendment.

As such, political observers noted that Trump was rhetorically bestowing powers to state governors that they already possessed, and there was plenty of mockery thrown into the mix:

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https://twitter.com/kimmasters/status/1250219882215440384

Read more....

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/online-critics-mercilessly-parody-trumps-imaginary-authorizing-order-to-state-govs-i-am-authorizing-the-sun-to-rise/

Liberty University Hit with Class Action Lawsuit

Source: Politicalwire

Liberty University students filed a class action lawsuit against the school alleging that the university and it’s president, Jerry Falwell Jr., placed “students at severe physical risk and refused to refund thousands of dollars in fees owed to them for the Spring 2020 semester,” the New York Times reports.

Falwell downplayed the pandemic for weeks before finally announcing a shift to online instruction in late March. However, the school invited students to stay in its residence halls and will only give students a $1,000 credit if the leave campus.

Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2020/04/14/liberty-university-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit/

Trump's epic failures aren't going unnoticed around the world.

Indian News Anchor Eviscerates Trump For Demanding Malarial Drug: He’s ‘Bullying Allies’ After ‘Failing Miserably’ to Control the Virus
By Charlie Nash
Apr 14th, 2020, 12:28 pm

Indian news channel WION attacked President Donald Trump last week for threatening India if they don’t export the anti-malarial drug hydroxycloroquine, which has been alleged to help treat coronavirus patients.

In the segment, WION host Palki Sharma accused President Trump of “bullying allies” after “failing miserably at controlling the Wuhan virus.”

“Our cover story tonight is about a president who is disconnected with reality. A president who is failing miserably. A president who was in denial about this pandemic,” declared Sharma, noting, “Things became so bad that a Russian military plane landed in America with medical supplies made by a company that the U.S. had sanctioned.”

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“A retaliation. That is what the U.S. president is threatening. First, a botched up response, and now such bluster. America has more than 370,000 cases cases of the coronavirus, the highest in the world, they’re failing miserably at controlling the Wuhan virus, and now Donald Trump is looking for a fall guy,” Sharma continued. “The president is blaming everybody but himself. Trump wants to show that he is in control. Unfortunately for him, not many believe this.”


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Sharma went on to accused Trump of “bullying allies” and “demanding supplies” on the threat of retaliation as a response to receiving backlash for acting “too late,” and in the segment also described the United States’ delayed coronavirus response as “negligence” and “criminal.”

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/indian-news-anchor-eviscerates-trump-for-demanding-malarial-drug-hes-bullying-allies-after-failing-miserably-to-control-the-virus/