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Good week: Joe Biden

The former vice-president cemented his lead over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race with another string of primary victories on Tuesday most significantly in Michigan, where the leftwing senator had sensationally beaten Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden currently holds a lead of 881 delegates to Sanders 725 and the race moves next week to four states the Vermont socialist lost to Clinton last time: Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio. If Biden wins the swing state of Florida, especially, it could be a knockout blow to Sanders in the race for the nomination. Belying his usual gaffe-prone image, Biden made a calm, statesmanlike speech on Super Tuesday election night praising Sanders and his supporters for their tireless passion and calling on them to help him defeat Donald Trump together. And he took the same measured tone on Thursday when he made a statement about the escalating coronavirus emergency attempting to draw a contrast with the chaotic handling of the epidemic so far by the man he hopes to replace.

Bidens main challenger for the Democratic nomination was not ready to quit after his disappointing run of primary results on Tuesday. Although he was silent on election night itself, the next day Sanders made a forceful speech looking ahead to his debate with Biden on Sunday in Phoenix and insisting his campaign was strongly winning the contest of ideas. But the speech had a strange tone it was almost as if Sanders was now preparing to move into a new role of holding Bidens feet to the fire and making sure the left of the party is not crowded out by the moderates likely victory. Joe, what are you going to do to end the absurdity of the United States of America being the only major country on earth where healthcare is not a human right? Sanders asked. Are you really going to veto a Medicare for All bill, if it is passed in Congress? In 2016, his decision to stay in the race all the way to the bitter end only endorsing Clinton in July of that year was perceived by many of his supporters as helping push Clintons platform to the left, for example on healthcare. He may be trying something similar now. He made his own sober speech on the coronavirus.

The president lurched this week from transparently playing down the threat of the coronavirus it wasnt long ago he was promising the number of cases within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero to full-on nativist crisis mode, closing the gates to most Europeans, with the exceptions, bizarrely, of the Brits and Irish. With over 1,600 cases in the US so far, this seemed to be a case of slamming the door to what he called the foreign virus well after the horse had bolted. And by falling back on the kind of ultra-nationalist authoritarian gestures that delight his base, Trump is risking the one thing most analysts agree would decimate his chances of victory in November: an economic crash. Wall Street plunged in the wake of his statement which characteristically was littered with alarming factual errors that he and his administration had to rush to correct. If this was Trump taking charge in an emergency, few seemed reassured.

Things were pretty bad for continental Europeans, suddenly barred from travelling to the US and abruptly blamed for the coronavirus by Trump. But surely the biggest losers of the week were Republicans whose unswerving loyalty to their president may actually now be risking their health. A Reuters/Ipsos poll not only found Democrats to be about twice as likely as Republicans to say the coronavirus poses an imminent threat to the United States but also that more Democrats than Republicans say they are taking steps to be prepared, including washing their hands more often or limiting their travel plans. As if to illustrate this gulf, while Biden and Sanders cancelled rallies because of coronavirus fears this week, Trump pushed ahead with scheduling a new one in Milwaukee for 19 March. While public health experts caution us against large gatherings, the commander-in-chief schedules a rally, tweeted David Axelrod, former chief strategist for Barack Obama. What message does that send? As the coronavirus pandemic intensified further day by day, the rally was postponed.

Read more from the original source:
Why Joe Biden won another week in US politics and Republicans lost - The Guardian

ACT UP protest at the FDA.Photo:

For anyone who lived through the start of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the current coronavirus pandemic is cause for deja vu or flashback nightmares. The rapid acceleration of an unknown pathogen through the population, the failure to minimize risk, the pervasiveness of denial were all key characteristics of the early days of the AIDS epidemic, just as they are for the COVID-19 outbreak.

The unifying thread between the two viruses is the Republican Party. In both cases, GOP leaders took a bad situation and made it worse, risking thousands of lives in the process.

Related: Republican reneging on the social contract in times of crisis breeds disaster

When HIV first appeared in 1981, the Reagan administration was just getting underway. Much as with the Trump administration, the Reagan White House was just about the worst possible group to respond to the unfolding crisis. The only difference between the Trump administration and the Reagan administration was their initial response.

Trump called the virus a hoax. The Reagan White House made HIV a joke.

At a 1982 White House press briefing, spokesman Larry Speakes laughed when a reporter asked if Reagan was aware of what people were calling the gay plague.

Instead of answering, Speakes took the occasion to affirm his heterosexuality. I dont have it, do you? he asked the reporter. On a different occasion, Speakes jokingly questioned the reporter, Lester Kinsolving (who repeatedly pressed the issue despite his own homophobia) about his abiding interest in fairies.

Response to the coronavirus still lends itself to homophobia, though not at the same volume. But what is the same is the rights insistence that the virus is caused by someone other than their idea of an American. This time, its the stupid insistence on calling the disease the Wuhan virus, or as Trump did, a foreign virus, as if a pathogen had a nationality.

Its a classic us vs. them mentality, the same as fueled the AIDS epidemic.

Then theres the footdragging. Reagan himself never talked about the AIDS epidemic until 1985, by which point it had killed 12,000 Americans. Reagans head of Health and Human Services, Margaret Heckler, kept reassuring the public that the blood supply was 100% safe for hemophiliacs and the average citizen.

In fact, it was anything but safe. The administration simply didnt care about the epidemic and certainly not about the gay men AIDS was killing. There was no sense of urgency, despite warnings from public health officials that the disease was spreading.

In 1986, the National Academy of Sciences declared this is a national health crisis . . . of a magnitude that requires presidential leadership to bring together all elements of society to deal with the problem.

Needless to say, the leadership never came. By the time Reagan left office, more than 89,000 Americans had died from AIDS. Activism from organizations like GMHC and ACT UP exhibited more leadership than Reagan and his fellow Republicans did.

Were seeing the same thing playing out now, but in real time and at a much more accelerated pace. Trump and his administration are asleep at the wheel. Mike Pence, whom Trump made point person on the coronavirus response, quite literally made an HIV epidemic worse when he was governor of Indiana, a time when it was far easier to stem outbreaks than the 1980s.

But if you lived through the AIDS epidemic, none of that will be a surprise. Its just the repeat of a tragedy from a party that apparently learned nothing from the death of tens of thousands of Americans from HIV.

Read more here:
Republicans are very good at making epidemics much worse than they should be - LGBTQ Nation

Republicans and conservatives appear to be the least worried of all about the coronavirus, even as alarming news coverage amplifies public uncertainly about treatments, cures, risks and preventative behaviors.

Yes, theres a panic poll.

Here are the simple stats from a new Economist/YouGov survey: 67% of Republicans are either not too worried or not worried at all about the risk of contracting the illness, or the actual seriousness of it.

The survey found that 59% of independents and 38% of Democrats agreed with that. Among conservatives, 68% said they were not worried, making that group and Republicans the most carefree of the 30 demographics surveyed in the poll, which was conducted March 1-3. More numbers in the Poll du Jour at columns end.

Meanwhile, yet another survey reveals a strong sentiment among Republicans toward President Trump. A new Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday found that 60% of Republican voters see the coronavirus as a scare tool to get Trump. Over one-third of all voters 35% agree with that. And Democrats? Two-thirds disagree, and instead insist that the coronavirus is a major threat to the nation. The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted March 3-4.

THAT LUXURIOUS TOUCH

While the rest of us clear grocery store shelves of hand sanitizer to foil coronavirus, the well-heeled folks are going for luxury.

The rich are preparing for coronavirus differently: concierge doctors, yachts, chartered planes and germ-free hideaways. The rich are sparing no expense, advises Jonah Bromwich, a features reporter for The New York Times.

Among their favorites of the moment: Pear and bergamot-scented rinse-free hand wash from Byredo at $35 for a single ounce. The company is completely sold out of it. Then theres a high-end air purifier by Molecule Air for $799 or a private jet flight from Florida to New York for $20,000. V.I.P. emergency rooms are also in fashion defined as well-stocked, members-only hospital facilities. Custom fitted facial masks are popular, writes Mr. Bromwich who adds that the germ-free panic room is also a must-have.

For those who really want to bunker down as global infections mount, a well-stocked home bunker represents the ultimate luxury, he noted. It is equipped with a negative pressure system to restrict the circulation of pathogens, and is basically an isolated guest wing consisting of a bedroom and kitchen stocked with IV hydration, medicines, lab supplies, gloves, gowns, masks, oxygen and food, as well as a set of dishes and linens.

And forget the villa in Rome. Mr. Bromwich also says the rich are chartering yachts to spend germ-free, pleasant moments on the sea.

It totally makes sense. Youre keeping your family contained in a very small, should-be-clean environment. And going from your car to your F.B.O. meaning fixed base operator, or private jet terminal to your private jet right onto the tarmac. And from there, right onto your yacht, and not having to deal with the public, Jennifer Saia the president of B&B Yacht Charter in Newport, Rhode Island told the reporter.

WALLOWING IN ADJECTIVES

When in doubt, roll out the adjectives.

After President Trump was acquitted Feb. 5 in the impeachment proceedings against him, his foes in the news media immediately search for a new narrative. Portraying the president as some kind of swashbuckler appears to have fit the bill.

Since the liberal attempt to remove the president ended in failure, the media talking heads are fretting about how Trumps acquittal has created an emboldened chief executive who threatens the rule of law like never before, writes Bill DAgostino, an analyst for the Media Research Center, a conservative press watchdog.

Journalists often find a convenient word they like then everyone uses it.

During the month of February, Mr. DAgostino and his team found 239 instances in which TV journalists alleged Mr. Trump was emboldened cataloging the occurrences on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC. Fox News played a minor role in the effort, using the E-word only five times.

Many of these claims about an emboldened Trump featured the kind of overblown language one might expect from an action movie trailer, Mr. DAgostino says.

And while emboldened is the word of choice for the time being, the study also found that the following descriptors for Mr. Trump were also used in the coverage: Wild, unbound, dangerous, angry, unleashed, unchained and furious.

NOW THERES A THOUGHT

Yes, lots of pundits and strategists still claim President Trump and the Russians somehow stole the 2016 election.

But that might not be logical.

If Mike Bloomberg couldnt buy 2020, how could Russia buy 2016? asks Mollie Hemingway, senior editor for The Federalist.

We had years where people were saying a couple hundred thousand dollars in barely literate Facebook ads from Russians caused Donald Trump to win. Here you had a guy spend nearly $1 billion and he went nowhere, she tells Fox News.

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POLL DU JOUR

84% of U.S. adults are not wearing a medical face mask in public out of concern for coronavirus; 90% of Republicans, 81% of independents and 85% of Democrats agree.

14% are very worried about the coronavirus; 6% of Republicans, 12% of independents and 21% of Democrats agree.

33% are somewhat worried about the virus; 27% of Republicans, 29% of independents and 42% of Democrats agree.

35% are not too worried; 40% of Republicans, 37% of independents and 30% of Democrats agree.

18% are not worried at all; 27% of Republicans, 22% of independents and 8% of Democrats agree.

Source: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted March 1-3.

Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

Go here to read the rest:
Inside the Beltway: Poll: Republicans least alarmed by coronavirus - The Washington TImes

Republicans are demandingthat the Supreme Court stand up for the Manhattan District Attorney's office as it fights for subpoenas of President Donald Trump's taxes.

Newsweekreported that37 Republicans have signed onto a briefdemanding the High Court uphold the DA. The brief was filed Monday by the Republicans, including former members of Congress and the Executive Branch as well as notorious Trump antagonists George Conway and John Dean.

The group said in the brief that they "are concerned that President Trump's assertions of absolute immunity from process, while in office and more generally his arguments against accountability in any forum could impose lasting damage on our constitutional system of checks and balances as well as on the rule of law."

It also argues that Trump's lawyers are demanding the court "depart radically from that principle by holding that criminal investigations may not touch the president's affairs in any way, even when those investigations require nothing at all from the president."

"This extraordinary assertion is not based on any specific claim of privilege, but rather on a sweeping claim of absolute immunity," the brief continues.

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The case they reference is part of a grand jury investigation into alleged payments Trump made to women he allegedly had affairs with.

Federal judges have already ruled against Trump, which is why it's now appearing before the court, who will hear oral arguments March 31.

"The Framers designed a system in which no one is above the law, not even the president. Historically, this court has adhered to that principle. It should do so again and affirm the decision of the Second Circuit," the brief explains.

Read the full report atNewsweek.

See the rest here:
Dozens of Republicans tell the Supreme Court to force President Trump to turn over his taxes - Salon

The state of Virginia just made history as the first Southern state to pass a ban on anti-gay conversion therapy.

The heartening development to outlaw the discredited practice, in which pseudoscience is employed to try to change peoples sexual orientation, came largely at the behest of Virginia Democrats and was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam on Monday. While the Democrats do deserve credit on this one, its also important to recognize the dozen Virginia Republican state legislators who bucked the rest of their party to come down on the right side of this vote.

The bill, HB 386, outlaws licensed counselors and medical professionals from offering minors any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender. Importantly, it only applies to those under age 18.

Bans on this kind of anti-gay conversion therapy are something everyone should support, regardless of political persuasion or even personal religious views on homosexuality. Why? Because conversion therapy doesnt work. Its a debunked form of medical malpractice and fraud, something even die-hard libertarians think should be illegal.

Theres really no disputing this point. Almost all of the major medical organizations condemn conversion therapy, and theres essentially zero evidence of it ever working. As I previously wrote:

Of course, its not just that conversion therapy doesnt work. Neither does tarot-card reading or fortune-telling, but those arent illegal. The reason Virginia lawmakers are right that anti-gay conversion therapy must be outlawed is because its not just ineffective, but demonstrably harmful, so much so that it puts young peoples lives at risk.

One study showed that youth who faced familial pressure to change their sexual orientation were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. Those who faced formal conversion efforts from religious clergy were three times as likely to attempt to kill themselves.

Increasingly, this is becoming a point of bipartisan consensus. Republicans governors such as Larry Hogan and Charlie Baker have signed bans on conversion therapy into law, and even Utahs Republican-controlled state legislature just outlawed the fraudulent practice. Now, in Virginia, its heartening to see a dozen Republicans backing the ban as well, even if many still opposed it.

State Sen. Jill Vogel broke with all the other Republicans in the Virginia Senate to vote for the bill. Meanwhile, in the House, 11 brave Republicans crossed the aisle to vote to ban the practice. This is an encouraging sign of progress. Lets hope even more Virginia Republicans come around on this issue soon.

Original post:
Cheers to the 12 Virginia Republicans who backed gay conversion therapy ban - Washington Examiner