Archive for the ‘Tea Party’ Category

Rick Scott says Americans would rather collect unemployment than go to work – Tampa Bay Times

TALLAHASSEE Sen. Rick Scott wrote in a campaign fundraising email sent Thursday night that Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic would rather collect unemployment than go back to work.

Businesses looking to reopen are telling us their employees dont want to come back to work because they collect more on unemployment, Scotts email said. And who can blame them?

In the email, Scott railed against the $600-per-week unemployment benefits Congress allotted to out-of-work Americans, and he blamed Democrats for allowing it to go through. The benefits made up a part of a $2 trillion package called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. It passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 96-0 in late March.

One of those votes belonged to Scott, although at the time he had strong objections, including that some workers would receive benefits exceeding their former salaries.

When I discovered that the CARES Act allowed workers to make more on unemployment insurance than they could make in a job, I fought back, his email states. Why would Democrats in Congress want to create a disincentive for people to come back to work when we open our economy back up?

Scott spokesman Chris Hartline said the fundraising email was meant to promote the senators op-ed in Fox News, and he pointed to examples in other states of businesses claiming that their employees are making more in unemployment than in their jobs. The CEO of Dominos, however, said hes seen the opposite.

Senator Scott supported significantly expanding unemployment insurance in the CARES Act but he, along with a handful of colleagues, worried that paying workers more to be on a government program than they could make in a job would lead workers to make the rational decision to delay returning to work, harming our economic recovery, Hartline said in a statement. Now we know that he and his colleagues were right.

But in Florida, most out-of-work Floridians have been unable to get either jobs or unemployment, and theyve grown increasingly desperate, with food banks reporting a surge in demand.

Up to 1.8 million Floridians thrown out of work from the coronavirus have filed claims since March 15 up to 18 percent of the states workforce.

Hardly any of them just 153,788 have been able to receive unemployment in large part because of the policies and programs Scott supported and put into place during his eight years as Florida governor.

Riding a wave of Tea Party grievances against government spending, Scott entered office in 2011 just three years into the Great Recession. He passed a number of policies promoted by big businesses.

He signed hallmark legislation requiring recipients to take a 45-question skills test and prove every week that theyve sought work from five employers more than in any other state. The law also cut the number of weeks people are eligible for unemployment assistance and made it easier for the state to deny benefits for misconduct. It also required recipients to file claims online and reapply every two weeks.

While Scotts predecessor, Charlie Crist, oversaw the selection of the company that launched the states now-crippled unemployment website, Scott oversaw the two-year development and disastrous 2013 rollout of the website. In 2015 and 2016, state auditors found that the site had numerous glitches and problems that are still bedeviling Floridians today.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican but a political rival, has issued emergency orders waiving many of the unemployment hurdles Scott created in an effort to get money into the hands of Floridians.

DeSantis has called some of those hurdles perverse, including one that allows businesses to keep employees on the payroll at drastically reduced rates to prevent those employees from qualifying for unemployment.

On Friday, DeSantis said he believed the system was designed to fail, and the $77 million spent to overhaul it under Scotts tenure was not a good investment for the state.

This thing was a clunker, theres no doubt about it," DeSantis said. It was designed, with all these different things, to basically fail, I think.

DeSantis, however, also failed to fix the website. Auditors flagged the problems a third time last year.

While many states have struggled to handle record unemployment claims, Florida has been among the slowest states in the nation to pay claims. Also unlike other states, the amount of money in Floridas unemployment trust fund, which is used to pay claims, has actually increased since March 1, according to the New York Times.

With a net worth last year of $166 million, Scott is one of the nations wealthiest senators. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and isnt up for re-election until 2024.

Scott and two other GOP senators erected a roadblock to the CARES Act bill to try to make the unemployment compensation tied to the persons salary.

We cannot be paying people more money on unemployment than they get paid in their job, he said last month.

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Rick Scott says Americans would rather collect unemployment than go to work - Tampa Bay Times

Tea Party president says he was threatened with arrest for planning protest on Newton Green – New Jersey Herald

The president of the Skylands Tea Party said he was threatened with arrest after he planned a protest on the Newton Green in response to Gov. Phil Murphy's executive orders during the coronavirus pandemic.

William Hayden, of Frankford, said he had planned a small gathering Saturday of around 10 to 20 people on the Newton Green in protest, targeting Murphy's stay-at-home directives. The plan was to keep 6 feet apart while live streaming a reading of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which, in essense, calls for the protection against laws that prohibit freedom of speech, religion and the press and the right to assemble and to petition the government. The Newton Green is Sussex Countys only county-owned park.

Hayden knows the coronavirus is serious, stating that his wife, an ICU nurse, sees it first-hand, but notes that Murphy has "taken it upon himself to violate all of our rights."

An avid hiker, Hayden takes particular issue with the closure of county and state parks, noting that as open-air spaces remain closed, popular retailers like Home Depot, Lowes and Walmart are open, allowing more people in tight, enclosed areas.

Murphy ordered parks to close after seeing and receiving reports from state and county officials that people were gathering and failing to abide by social distancing orders. The decision was made in an effort to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, which as of Friday afternoon had claimed 3,840 lives, including 48 Sussex County residents 26 of whom were clients at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation I and II facilities in Andover Township.

But the decision to close parks didn't come without pushback by some Republican lawmakers, including 24th District Assembly members Parker Space and Hal Wirths, who supported the introduction of a resolution by Republican Assemblyman Jay Webber, of Morris County, to reopen the parks. Webber also started an online petition that has, since April 7, garnered over 11,000 signatures.

Hayden said he had obtained a permit in January to host a Patriot's Day event on the Newton Green. The day, held on the third Monday of April each year, commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord. The coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of the event he said.

County officials closed off the Newton Green this week. On Friday, barriers were placed in the park, blocking the entrance points to the Newton Green which is often bustling with people on a workday or even weekend along with caution tape surrounding the perimeter.

Hayden said he has always had a good relationship with Newton Police Chief Robert Osborn, but "the dynamic changed" when they spoke over the phone this week after the chief got wind of Hayden's plans to hold a protest on the Green, which had been posted on social media.

"He told me he would have to arrest me if I went through (with the protest)," Hayden said.

When asked if he was planning on moving the protest elsewhere today, Hayden didn't rule out the idea, stating he "may be doing something."

Osborn decline comment Friday, but instead referred to a statement issued by the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office.

Gregory Mueller, first assistant prosecutor, said Friday his office was advised of Haydens plan, and based on follow up with social media posts, his office responded by issuing a press release.

In the release, Mueller thanked the residents of Sussex County for their "sacrifice, patience and strength" during the ongoing pandemic, noting that their cooperation and adherence to county and state officials along with Murphy's executive orders has "saved many lives in our community."

The statement, in part, continued: "Your commitment in this regard shows your compassion for your fellow neighbor, honors the sacrifice they are making and reduces the danger posed to first responders and health care workers in our county."

"Your actions now, and in the coming weeks," Mueller said, "Could save the life of someone you know or someone you may never meet," the statement ended.

Murphy has echoed similar sentiments in his daily coronavirus briefings, stating that it is essential to stay home and keep with social distancing to flatten the curve.

On Thursday, Murphy stated, "We will get through this unequivocally, not without cost. Look at the lives, the thousands now, of lives we've lost. But we will, New Jersey, get through this together as one extraordinary family, stronger than ever before."

Hayden said that Murphy's executive orders violate the Bill of Rights, a topic that was addressed during a rare interview between Fox News' Tucker Carson and Murphy on Wednesday.

Murphy, in response during the often-heated interview, said he "wasn't thinking of the Bill of Rights" when he issued his March 21 executive order to require New Jersey residents to stay home while banning social gatherings. Instead, Murphy said he looked at "data and science," specifically that "it says people have to stay away from each other."

First Assistant Prosecutor Mueller, when asked his thoughts of the topic, said he was going to respond by quoting a phrase most often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

Hayden said he has plans to attend the Open New Jersey rally that is planned for April 28 at the Trenton War Memorial, the location of Murphys daily coronavirus briefings. The event is expected to include hundreds of people, or more.

Lori Comstock can also be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

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Tea Party president says he was threatened with arrest for planning protest on Newton Green - New Jersey Herald

People are fed up with Trump | Opinions – KPCnews.com

To the editor:

Marilyn Carr responded to my letter titled by KPCNEWS "Serious Times" which seeks to re-write history. I believe she has the same rights as anyone else does to state their opinion. That doesn't give her the right to make up the facts.

My letter clearly indicates GDP growth, which is in addition to the current GDP. The statement Obama never exceeded 2% GDP is not supported by any respected economist. Obama took over a jalopy then turned it into a Lamborghini, gave the keys to Trump so he could drive it over a cliff. Trump will never create as many jobs as Obama did because he's going to be a one term President. Tea party backed candidates keep losing races and the Wisconsin Trump endorsed judge was defeated just last week.

People are fed up with Trump and it's time the Republican party takes the wheel away from the do nothing Tea party cult.

The small business loan money is now gone and in the hands of the most well connected who had long standing relationships with banks. Mom and Pop got left out again.

The Affordable Care Act provided 20 million Americans with insurance they otherwise would not have. This same plan was first introduced by Republicans, enacted by Mitt Romney and since then have tried to destroy it.

The former head of the White House Pandemic Response Team never spoke to Laura Ingraham on Fox as Mrs. Carr claims. Tim Morrison who was on the Trump/Ukrainian call however, was and wasn't even part of the team. He was a Bolton loyalist and Bolton fired the leadership of the team. Dr. Fauci told Congress on March 11th it would be great if it were still there. He has also stated a vaccine is 12-18 months away. Fox currently is being sued for their reckless reporting on this issue.

Trump did not stop travel from China on Jan. 31st. He did however on Jan.24th praise and thank President Xi "on behalf of the American people" for containing the virus and for his "transparency." On April 6th there were 9,626 virus related U.S. deaths. Now ten days later there are 31,590. The Tea party wants us to think Trump, Banks, Braun and Pence have protected Americans and are working hard. The number of those infected and the dead strongly disagree.

Michael Gillespie

Auburn

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People are fed up with Trump | Opinions - KPCnews.com

History: Wilmington men responded to 1775 Concord alarm | News – Tewksbury town crier

The holiday known as Patriots Day marks the anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington.

While the Fourth of July celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking the formal separation from England, Patriots Day commemorates the first battle of the Revolutionary War. And yet Patriots Day is only a state holiday, and a Monday holiday at that.

There were a great many Wilmington men who responded for the call to arms on the night of April 18-19, 1775. And while Concord and Lexington are not in Wilmingtons back yard, they are close neighbors. The Minute Men from Wilmington had only 17 miles to march that night.

Boston and the towns of Eastern Massachusetts were hotbeds of action in the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party are well-known events that occurred in the years before the actual fighting began.

The division between the colonists and the King began over the issue of taxation. About 1761, the British began an effort to be more efficient in collecting taxes on molasses on ships entering the port of Boston. Molasses might not seem like much of an issue, unless you consider that it was used to make rum, which meant that a lot of molasses went through the port.

Subsequently, more taxes were implemented. In 1765, the Stamp Act placed a tax on all documents. That same year, riots broke out. In one instance, a mob attacked the Boston home of the tax collector, doing considerable damage. Soon thereafter, the home of the lieutenant governor was targeted, with severe damage.

The Stamp Act was repealed on Feb. 22, 1766, which resulted in a wild celebration when word reached Boston three months later. But parliament soon replaced the Stamp Act with the Townshend Act, placing taxes on goods going through the port.

In 1768, the ship Liberty, owned by Hancock, arrived in Boston with a cargo of wine. The captain declared it to be of much less volume than was true, and when an inspector arrived aboard to check the amount, the crew seized him and nailed him in a cabin. He was held there until the excess wine was unloaded.

On Oct. 1, 1768, British troops arrived in Boston, initiating what became known as the Occupation.

Things continued to heat up, leading to the Boston Massacre, on March 5, 1770. A mob of Yankees had surrounded a British patrol, which had come to the rescue of a sentry. Although the patrol officer did not give an order to fire, a shot was fired, and the eight soldiers fired into the crowd. Five men were killed.

Probably the best-known event leading up to the Revolution came on Dec. 16, 1771. Hundreds of Yankees dressed as Mohawk Indians raided three tea ships at Griffins Wharf on the Boston waterfront. In three hours, they cleaned the ships of tea, dumping the tea and chests into the harbor. The event, known as the Boston Tea Party, came to symbolize the colonists despise for British taxes. The British, who do enjoy their tea, did not enjoy the tea party. There were demands for payment for the tea and for punishment of the ringleaders.

The matter of payment for the tea became quite a cause for the British, to the point where they closed the port of Boston as punishment. The Port Act took effect on June 1, 1774, and later that month, two more regiments of British troops arrived in Boston, swelling the military ranks to 4,000 in a town of only 17,000.

In the winter of 1775, the colonists in Massachusetts towns formed committees of men who would respond at a minutes notice, should a call to arms go out. They were known as the Minute Men.

On Feb. 25, 1775, the first such call came forth in Salem. General Gage, the British commander in Boston, ordered troops to seize 19 cannon which patriots had collected at Salem Forge. The British sailed to Marblehead, then marched to Salem.

The residents of Salem had been alerted by a rider, though, and set to work moving the cannon. When the British troops arrived, there was little they could do. The bridge they had to cross was drawn, and all boats had been taken to the opposite shore. The British were able to negotiate an arrangement where they were allowed to cross the bridge, but they could not go within 150 yards of the cannon.

Not a shot was fired, but the event was not without significance. The British had tipped their hand, and the patriots knew their alarm system worked. Another point was that the British believed that the Colonists would not shoot.

There were other British incursions into the countryside, seeking stores of powder, cannon and muskets.

But the raid that began on the evening of April 18 was different. British troops headed for Lexington in hopes of capturing two prominent leaders of the revolutionary movement, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

Adams, a maltmeister, was a church deacon in Boston and unquestionably the strongest leader in the Sons of Liberty. Hancock was a well-known merchant, better described as a smuggler, and a very wealthy one at that.

The movement of British troops in Boston were closely watched, and riders were ready to alert the countryside should movement become imminent. On the evening of April 18, William Dawes set out on horseback by way of Boston Neck. Paul Revere, meanwhile, had a church deacon display two lanterns in the steeple of Old North Church, giving the famous One if by land, two if by sea signal. The British troops were crossing the Charles River. Revere also crossed the Charles, borrowed a horse, and set forth on his famous ride.

Hancock and Adams were at Clarkes Tavern in Lexington, and that is where the British hoped to find them. And once Revere had warned them, Hancock and Adams at first said they would not flee. Before long, however, they were convinced that they were more valuable to the cause if they were kept alive. They left in a carriage for Woburn. Later they went to Billerica.

Wilmington had two groups that responded, although not everyone was from Wilmington. The Militia, under Capt. Timothy Walker, had about 50 men. The Minute Men, commanded by Capt. Cadwallader Ford, Jr. consisted of 27 men.

In the wee hours of April 19, a rider alerted residents that the British were on the march. The Minute Men gathered at their training ground, a field at the corner of Federal Street and Middlesex Avenue. The town had no common at that time. From there they marched to Bedford, joining along the way with other Minute Men.

The British troops, meanwhile, had arrived at Lexington, where a skirmish ensued and eight Minute Men were killed. The British then proceeded to Concord, where they took positions on two bridges. By that time, hundreds of Minute Men were swarming to the battle. At Old North Bridge, the British troops were backed up to the bridge by hundreds of Minute Men. No order was given to fire, but the British fired, killing two Yankees, and wounding a drummer. The Yankees returned the fire, killing three soldiers and wounding four. The British then started their march back to Boston.

At Bedford, the Minute Men from Wilmington learned of the skirmish at Lexington, and were told that the British had proceeded to Concord. Col. Ebenezer Bridge of Billerica took command of the several groups of Minutemen, and ordered them to Meriams Farm in Concord, at a point where the road crossed a bridge.

Shortly after noon, the British came marching down the road. At Meriams Corner, they had to form a narrow column to cross a bridge. The Minute Men took advantage of this formation and opened fire. From then on, it was virtually a shooting gallery for the Minute Men, firing from positions alongside the road.

The British troops, whose uniforms and equipment were more for show than for battle, dropped their packs and ran.

The British finally reached Lexington, where they were able to regroup and await reinforcements. But those reinforcements were delayed through a series of snafus.

The reinforcements were hardly enough to stop the carnage for the British. They limped back into Cambridge, where they were at last under the protection of the guns of the warship Samoset.

The Minute Men also had a case of delayed troops that day. The Minute Men from Salem and Marblehead stood and waited, while their captain awaited orders that never came. They arrived a half hour after the British reached Cambridge.

The Americans suffered heavy casualties that day, but the British fared much worse. There were 49 Americans killed, and 39 were wounded. The British lost 73 men, and 174 were wounded.

One of the Minute Men who responded from Wilmington that day was Daniel Gowing, who lived on what is now Park Street. His house still stands, and has for many years been the home of the Andersens. Gowing, as he departed his house early that morning on horseback, pulled a sapling as a switch. When he returned home that night, the switch was still in the saddle of his horse. He planted the sapling near his house, and it became known as the Lexington Elm. It lived for nearly 150 years, and was finally cut down about the time of World War I.

Capt. Cadwallader Ford, Jr. became a courier in the Revolutionary War, replacing Paul Revere, who had become too well-known to the British.

The Minute Men companies were soon disbanded, and many of the men then fought in the Continental Army.

Many of Wilmingtons Minute Men are buried in Wildwood Cemetery, in the lot next to the old Town Hall. The late William Meyer, a longtime member of the re-created Wilmington Company of Minute Men, did an exhaustive study of the grave sites.

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History: Wilmington men responded to 1775 Concord alarm | News - Tewksbury town crier

Frank Rich: Trumps War on the States – New York Magazine

He has somehow hit a new level of instability. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Most weeks,New YorkMagazine writer-at-largeFrank Richspeaks with contributorAlex Carpabout the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, the multistate coronavirus recovery plans, and Trumps decision to put his name on stimulus checks.

After weeks of disappointment with the White Houses pandemic response,a group of governors in the Northeast and one on the West Coasthave announced plans to coordinate the reopening of businesses and schools regionally. Could this bring an escape from Trumps policy shortcomings, or will it simply escalate his attempts to grab power?

Nothing will stop Trumps attempts to grab power. His novel theory of presidential governance, as he himself has defined it, is to seize total authority while bearing no responsibility. He will throw any power move against the wall to see if it sticks. When the coastal coalitions of governors chose to flatly ignore or, in Andrew Cuomos case, mock his bid to set himself up as a king, he pivoted in a blink to his dead-on-arrival push to adjourn Congress so he could staff governmental vacancies with a new round of C-list hacks who wouldnt be subject to Senate approval. Every day a new tantrum, a new search for scapegoats for his catastrophic mismanagement of Americas public-health catastrophe, and a new attempted end run around the rule of law. The daily Trump show is the most predictable daytime television series since Romper Room.

Yesterday Trump again threatened to use his power to wreak vengeance against states who dont do his bidding: If were not happy, well take very strong action against a state or a governor As you know we have very strong action we can take, including a close down. What a close down means is unclear; perhaps Trump will ask Bill Barr for authorization to put Cuomo under house arrest in Albany. But many governors and not exclusively those in the coastal coalitions will refuse to obey Trumps much-hyped decision to open America by May 1. (For the first time, May Day may prove synonymous with Mayday.) Already, some of the Wall Street tycoons he strong-armed into White House conference calls yesterday told him that most Americans wont return to work without a wholesale testing regimen to assure them their lives are not at risk. Since Trump continues to claim that America now has the most expansive testing system anywhere, a desperately needed federal testing initiative will continue not to happen and much of the country will continue not to reopen.

But while Trump doesnt have the power to close down states that defy him or to force private businesses to open with a big bang, he does have one kind of power political power. And he will wield it. Not with the goal of defeating the coronavirus hes convinced himself that war is won but with the goal of arousing his base to a red-hot pitch of rage that will guarantee its massive turnout in November. As we have seen in recent days, this strategy has a strong ideological and cultural component that in form and content is redolent of the tea party movement of 2009, which in turn led to the shellacking (Barack Obamas term) of the Democrats in the 2010 midterms.

You see it in the internet fever swamps, where Anthony Fauci is a deep state traitor and #FireFauci is a battle cry that Trump retweeted for a reason, despite his subsequent claim that he wont fire Fauci. You see it in the pronouncements of Republican politicians like the Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, the Indiana congressman Trey Hollingsworth, and the Louisiana senator John Kennedy, who have prioritized a reopened economy over the lives of their constituents. The shutdown did not stop the spread of the virus, Kennedy explained yesterday. I wish it had, but its too late for that. You see it in the protest at the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan, where demonstrators decried Governor Gretchen Whitmer for stomping on their freedom with stringent anti-corona restrictions. (Predictably enough, this tea partyesque circus is underwritten by a group linked to the right-wing billionaire DeVos family.) And of course you see it on Fox News, where the prime-time lineup is trying to foment this street theater into a national phenomenon, social distancing be damned. The American spirit is too strong and Americans are not going to take it, declared Jeanine Pirro, attempting to portray Howard Beale in drag. And what happened in Lansing today, God bless them, its going to happen all over the country.

Where will this lead? Theres no way to predict what will happen on Election Day. But unless you choose to ignore whats already happening in other nations that lifted restrictions too early, there will be new waves of the virus, including in rural America, among religious congregations that abandon social distancing, and at MAGA venues where Trump hopes to rekindle his rallies. Even now, we are seeing a rise in hot spots in states like Florida, governed by mini-Trumps who were tardy in shutting down as the virus hit and are, in Trumps language, chomping at the bit to reopen. The No. 1 hot spot in the country is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the mini-Trump governor, Kristi Noem, remains steadfast in her refusal to impose tough public-health measure even as a Smithfield food-processing plant has shut down in the wake of a cluster of more than 600 infections.

Its been clear this week that Trump has hit a new level of berserk since last weekends epic Times report documenting in meticulous detail that he squandered at least six weeks to inaction, as the virus cut its lethal swath across America. He even used a coronavirus press briefing to unveil a Goebbels-esque propaganda video (produced at taxpayers expense) to try to rewrite that history. Wait until he sees the sequel coming from the fake news: The timeline of how he squandered the weeks between May 1 and the arrival this summer or fall of the next wave of infection, panic, re-shutdowns, and mass death.

Trump hasordered that his own name appear on the Treasurys stimulus checks, an addition that will likely delaypayment for many recipients who need it most. Is there a benefit for him in putting his name on this crisis?

Wait are you really saying it was Trumps idea to put his name on these $1,200 checks? He has told us it was all a surprise to him! In any event, the notion that a plague could be another beneficial branding opportunity for Trump makes sense only if you think it was Herbert Hoovers own brainchild to coin the name Hooverville for the impoverished shanty towns that sprang up during the Great Depression. At least we can be grateful that though Trumps name is printed on the checks, he didnt, in the end, insist on signing them. Under the law, only a civil servant, not the president, can sign IRS disbursements. Had Trump insisted on his signature, these checks would have bounced like those in his preWhite House business career.

The benefits of this stunt will be short-lived in any case. The Washington Post reports today that the IRSs first distribution of these payments, by direct deposit, is another major screwup that has affected millions of Americans. Whenever the cash arrives, with or without Trumps signature, it wont last long for the struggling recipients. Trumps refusal to endorse any emergency aid for an already challenged postal system as of last weekend 19 employees had died, and roughly 1,000 had tested positive or were presumed positive for the virus could further slow the checks arrival even as it achieves his goal of shutting off voting by mail in November. (The postal service is projected to run out of money in late September.) As an added insult, the federal relief program to shore up small businesses that retain their employees has now run out of money altogether.

But like that proverbial rooster who would take credit for the sunrise, Trump can always be counted on to take credit for any good news, even if he had little or nothing to do with it. And to blame everything that goes wrong on someone else. If Americans dont get their $1,200 promptly, that will be Nancy Pelosis fault. The immediate crisis for Trump is that the failures are rapidly outpacing the list of handy scapegoats as this pandemic marches on. Hes run through China, Obama, the Democrats, the media, and the World Health Organization, among others. Whos next? Hillary, Hunter Biden, Robert Mueller, and James Comey, of course. Jeff Sessions? New caravans on the march from Latin America? NFL players? Shifty Schiff? Pocahontas? Its truly only a matter of time before we learn that it was John McCain who brought the coronavirus back from Vietnam.

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Frank Rich: Trumps War on the States - New York Magazine