Democrat Party Must Be Beaten by Allied Forces

Ben Shahn’s
The Passion of Sacco and Vansetti
"Sacco and Vanzetti lie in coffins; in
foreground in front of a colonnaded
neoclassical courthouse (image left).
On the porch behind them hangs a
portrait of the infamous trial judge,
Webster Thayer. Towering over
Sacco and Vanzetti are members of
 the committee that reviewed
convictions: Samuel Stratton, MIT
pres; Lawrence Lowell, Harvard
pres and Robert Grant, retired
judge," (Kuykendall)

Madison, Wisconsin — Neo-liberal cultists, corporate media and academia brandish national-security nostrums, wokism taboo-talk, and therapeutic-complex-speak in the name of science, equality and all that is rational and good. 

This is the Democrat Party 2023, and it is fetid, nonsensical and corrupt.

Democrats want censorship across the media, for our own good of course, and any argument or airing of facts must be shut down. (See Cleveland. Washburne. Leon. Hibbett and Grim. Taibbi. Greenwald.)

As Covid 19 lab-leak case approaches beyond a reasonable doubt, corporate media and the Democrat Party only grudgingly acknowledge why agnosticism and provisional conclusions on Covid 19 origins are consonant with science. 

This agnosticism didn't last long as liberal media are now hyping a ridiculous new story about racoon dogs being the long-sought origin point in among the wet-market delivering SARS-CoV-2.

Laughs Alex Washburne:

This [media] episode is the most desperate, farcical episode in a series of increasingly outrageous, farcical episodes. These unjustified scientific media blitzes feel, to any reasoned skeptic, especially a seasoned skeptic with knowledge of what serious scientific discoveries look like, more like propaganda campaigns than diligent truth-digging efforts. These farces have turned The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Guardian into the Three Stooges of SARS-CoV-2 origins reporting.

Even liberals are asking, can media and Democrat stooges be this dumb?

For some three years, Americans raising questions about Covid 19 origins and asserting need for objective probes were branded racists, conspiracy mongers or allied with Russia.

For liberal-Democrat domestic forces, dishonesty is the best communications policy.

Time to ditch the Democrats. Democrats are protecting lies and are getting more ludicrous by the moment.

This is something media outlets should be aware of when reporting on the origins of COVID-19. https://t.co/HdeY7fkuPA

— Justin B. Kinney (@jbkinney) March 21, 2023

For a compelling knockdown of liberal response to reality, see Bio Safety press release below.

MEDIA OUTLETS SHOULD CORRECT MISLEADING ARTICLES ABOUT RACCOON DOGS STARTING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

 

On Thursday, March 16, The Atlantic published an article titled “The strongest evidence yet that an animal started the pandemic” [1]. Similar stories in other influential publications soon followed:

• New York Times: “New data links pandemic’s origins to racoon dogs at Wuhan market” [2],
• Washington Post: “New covid origin data links raccoon dogs to the pandemic” [3],
• Associated Press: “New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market” [4],
• Scientific American: “New evidence supports animal origin of COVID virus through raccoon dogs” [5].
• Science: “Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19” [6].

This is just a small sample of the barrage of news reports strongly hinting that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic had been solved.

 

We believe these news reports are deeply misleading and should be corrected. We also believe the reports reflect yet another example of a small group of researchers exaggerating their findings and misleading the public with false certainty about the origins of COVID-19.

 

First, the data on which these claims are based have not been made available for other researchers to confirm and independently interpret. Rather, they were only presented in a private meeting between the researchers and the WHO [7]. The media therefore have no independent confirmation that the data are sound or that the researchers’ conclusions are valid.

 

Second, the data provide no substantive new information about the origins of COVID-19, even if taken at face value. According to reports, the central piece of data is a single SARS-CoV-2-positive environmental sample which contains DNA from a raccoon dog. There is no evidence that this raccoon dog started the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, there is no evidence that this raccoon dog was even infected with SARS-CoV-2, as there was also human DNA in the sample, and the viral material could just as easily have come from an infected human. The researchers appear to have cherry-picked this one sample, out of 73 total SARS-CoV-2-positive samples collected at the Wuhan market [7], because this one sample furthers the specific narrative they have advocated in previous publications [8,9].

 

Third, the researchers who reported the data have a documented track record of exaggerating their findings, concealing doubts about their findings, and hiding major conflicts of interest. In 2022, many of the same researchers claimed that they had “dispositive evidence” and “incontrovertible evidence” that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from the wildlife trade [10]. They later withdrew this claim [8,9]. In 2020, some of the same researchers co-authored the paper “Proximal Origins of SARS-CoV-2”, which expressed scientific certainty that SARS-CoV-2 had not been altered in a laboratory [11]. Those authors, however, failed to report a major conflict of interest: that the heads of their funding agencies played an active role in preparing this paper [12]. The researchers also failed to openly acknowledge doubts that they had privately expressed about their conclusions before the funding agency heads became involved (doubts that have only since become public thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests [12]). 

 

We believe that this latest episode represents an unfortunate example of influential media outlets spreading a speculative narrative under the guise of a scientific finding. We also believe that the meagerness of the data being sold to the public underscores the need for an urgent, comprehensive, and forensic investigation into the origins of COVID-19, an investigation that uses not only scientific data, but all the tools of intelligence gathering and law enforcement. 

 

The public deserves real answers, not false certainty.

 

 

Signed,

Amir Attaran

Colin D. Butler

Richard H. Ebright

David N. Fisman

Andre M. Goffinet

Elisa D. Harris

Laura H. Kahn

Justin B. Kinney

Yanna Lambrinidou

Milton Leitenberg

Helen E. Mundler

Bryce E. Nickels

Sabrina Packman

Dana Parish

Steven E. Phillips

Eric S. Starbuck

Tyler Stepke

Susan Wright

 

 

About Biosafety Now

Biosafety Now is an organization of experts in biomedicine, mathematics, public health, public policy, law, social science, and public advocacy, all of whom agree that research that creates potential pandemic pathogens more dangerous than those in nature poses existential risks to the public and provides few, if any, benefits for science, medicine, public health, or national security. 

 

References

[1] The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic (The Atlantic; March 16, 2023)

[2] New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market (The New York Times; March 16, 2023)

[3] Genetic data links raccoon dogs to covid origin; WHO seeks China cooperation (Washington Post; March 17, 2023)

[4] New COVID origins data point to raccoon dogs in China market (AP News; March 17, 2023)

[5] New Evidence Supports Animal Origin of COVID Virus through Raccoon Dogs (Scientific American; March 17, 2023)

[6] Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19 (Science; March 16, 2023)

[7] SAGO statement on newly released SARS-CoV-2 metagenomics data from China CDC on GISAID (March 18, 2023)

[8] Worobey, M. et al. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Science 377, abp8715 (2022).

[9] Pekar, J. E. et al. The molecular epidemiology of multiple zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2. Science 377, eabp8337 (2022).

[10] Worobey et al.. The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence. [preprint] Zenodo (2022).

[11] Andersen, K. G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W. I., Holmes, E. C. & Garry, R. F. The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Med 26, 450–452 (2020).

[12] Timeline: The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 (US Right to Know; November 29, 2022)

###

Republicans Go Full-Crazy as Entire GOP Congressional Delegation Votes Against COVID-19 Relief

Not a single Republican has cast a vote for COVID relief in 2021
as the world enters the second year of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Update: House passes American Rescue Plan with no Republican votes, March 10.
--
There is plenty of cause to feel betrayed by the Biden administration ranging from its rejection of student loan forgiveness, minimum wage surrender, to chopping promised survival checks.

But the entire Republican Party congressional delegation has just issued a resounding 'no' to every small business, American family and school suffering under the worst pandemic in modern history. 

News that the Republicans did not muster a single vote on Feb 27 for Joe Biden's $1.9-Trillion American Rescue Plan shows the Grand Ole Party pursuing not just crazy, destructive policy, but also suicidal politics (H. R. 1319 Roll Call).

Biden's bill also provides critical funding "to dramatically increase our country’s sequencing, surveillance, and outbreak analytics capacity at the levels demanded by the crisis," in a nod to virus mutations and evolution, both processes as real and predictable as the misery and devastation already inflicted (White House).

What Republicans are doing is madness unrivaled, and worthy of comparisons to crazed religious states the world-over.

"It is worth sitting and actually considering how completely insane it is the COVID relief package passed the House of Representatives without a single Republican vote," said Saagar Enjeti of The Hill. "You might think this is just Washington politics as usual. But it actually shows how completely out-of-step the GOP is today with the general population."

Enjeti notes that 76 percent of the American people support the American Rescue Plan, including 60 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents (Williams, Morning Consult Poll).

So why wouldn't Republicans want to help with this crisis?

Because, seriously, the GOP is a crazy party.

If this band of anti-social nutcases were around in 1955, they would have opposed the Polio Vaccine, and if this same gang were alive in 1796, they would have branded Edward Jenner and the Small Pox Vaccine as liars and lies.

Meanwhile, the Republicans continue even to advocate against wearing masks, much less federal help.

In Wisconsin, vulnerable neighbors are effectively asking neighbors not to kill them in advocacy for masks and personal hygienic practices, (WKOW-TV, Facebook). Receptions to pleas on local media and social media have been warm and sympathetic, with the exception of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

This is crazy time right at the moment when we as a country can least afford it.

From The Hill:

Nancy Pelosi Is Running out Clock on Stimulus-COVID 19 Relief Negotiation

Two weeks out to Election Day, and Pelosi Postures

Update: Yahoo News: reports: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the White House increased its stimulus offer as the Tuesday deadline to get a deal through before the election looms.

"We've increased our offer up to almost $1.9 trillion," Meadows told reporters on Monday morning. "[The president] is willing to give some additional money in terms of direct payments, he's willing to give some additional money in terms of PPP to restaurants and hotels and small businesses."

Update: Nancy Pelosi sets fake 48-hour deadline to kill stimulus bill.

Updated - A problem for American families battling the COVID 19 Pandemic amid a ravaging economy is Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell do not have to live with the consequences of their actions.

Suppose stimulus-relief negotiations produce nothing.

So what? 

Pelosi, Trump, and McConnell are going to be fine.

They don't sweat deductibles for their healthcare.

All three are millionaires anyway, so they can bail anytime they want, and they're still set, even if the American people did not pay for their pensions.

That is why last week's CNN interview of Nancy Pelosi on the stimulus talks is so jarring.

Pelosi is blatant in her willingness to walk away, and it's clear Pelosi, and not just Pelosi, could not care less what happens to the American people. 

More Democratic representatives are publicly expressing their disgust.

In the interview, Queen Nancy spoke extensively of her respect for Wolf Blitzer and stated Blitzer showed disrespect of Congress and Committee chairs. 

But viewers are left wondering where the American people fit in.

The latest news this weekend on the stimulus talks is not cause for optimism.

Pelosi does not get it, and she remains willing to walk away.

A press aide tweeted the American people will get nothing, or the White House must change its $1.8 Trillion offer.

The Speaker and Secretary Mnuchin spoke at 7:40 p.m. by phone tonight for just over an hour. While there was some encouraging news on testing, there remains work to do to ensure there is a comprehensive testing plan that includes contact tracing and additional measures to...(1/3)

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) October 18, 2020

Mitch McConnell said the Republican-led Senate would "consider" a deal reached between the White House and Pelosi, reports The Hill.

But Pelosi and Trump seem content to drive American families over a cliff.

Oh, for Nancy's edification, the American people care even less about House Committee chairs than they do about the Queen's respect for Wolf Blitzer.

Said Pelosi last week to Wolf Blitzer, "You evidently do not respect the chairman of the committees who wrote this bill."

I know I don't.

Writes Andrew Yang:

I wish that Congress felt the impact of their failure to pass a relief bill as deeply and personally as the families that need relief.

— Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) October 17, 2020

Wisconsin Woman and Husband Contracted COVID 19, Quarantined, Feared Med Costs — Wife Died at 54

No matter how beautiful, no matter what a Jean Flansburgh brings to her community, she doesn't count, not to D.C. politicians

Madison, Wisconsin —  Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh of Black Earth, Wisconsin (Dane County), died from COVID 19 on September 29, 2020 on her last day of her two-week quarantine.

Ms. Flansburgh, (July 14, 1966 - September 29, 2020), was a lifelong Wisconsinite.

By all accounts, Flansburgh was beloved, the type of person who brought light to a situation through an easy smile and a quick wit.

But Ms. Flansburgh need not have died, reports A. J. Bayatpour of WKOW-TV (Madison).

Ms. Flansburgh, like the rest of us, feared the massive costs incurred for medical treatment in the American healthcare system that places profit over the lives and health of people.

After contracting COVID 19, she went into quarantine on Sept 15, feared medical costs and delayed medical treatment, then suddenly died on Sept 29.

Reports A. J. Bayatpour of WKOW:

For Kenneth Linde, his niece's [Jean Flansburgh] death is a statement about all of the problems facing the American middle class. Linde bemoaned how his niece needed a second job in order to afford 'a night out to have fish fry' and found that job tending bar, where he worried she may have caught the novel corona virus.

Flansburgh's husband, Joe, also caught the virus. Linde said the couple never went to see a doctor, fearing it would lead to a hospital bill that would overwhelm them.

'For two weeks, they coughed and wheezed and looked at each other, alone, sequestered in quarantine with their three dogs,' Linde said.

Linde said, on their 14th day of quarantine, Joe ran to the store to buy more dog food. When he got back home, Linda was dead.

Linde acknowledges his niece was overweight and that was a pre-existing condition that put her at risk of a severe COVID infection. He said the focus on COVID victims, however, should still be on the experiences that will no longer happen and the memories robbed from friends and families.

'What has been denied is the beauty of a person giving of themselves to other people, putting a smile on their face,' Linde said. 'Doing small things for other people that other people never would've done.'

People like Jean Flansburgh don't matter to those politicians holding up COVID 19 relief in Congress — like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.

People like Jean Flansburgh don't count. 

No matter how beautiful, no matter what a Jean Flansburgh brings to her community, this woman does not exist in the minds of the pathologically obtuse (see The Rational National).

A man, Don Freix, in northeastern Wisconsin heard the story on The Rational National pod-cast, and wrote his Wisconsin State Representative, Joel Kitchens in northeastern Wisconsin. 

Mr. Freix is incenced.

So is everyone who hears the story of  Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh of Black Earth, Wisconsin, with the aforementioned exception of Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.

Freix' letter to Joel Kitchens is reproduced below:

Joel,

You and your gerrymandered legislative majority have not met in session for over 180 days, nor have we seen one press release or publicized conversation with your legislative leadership from you, to address the current pandemic nor the most obvious problem individuals and every scale of business owner in the state is saddled with year after year, eliminating private insurance industry profiteering and establishing a universal health care policy.

Wisconsin woman dies, afraid to seek medical help, fearing unaffordable medical bills.  

This tragedy is on you.

This message isn't just about casting blame, workable ideas exist that yourself and your GOP colleagues refuse to admit, to consider, much less to implement.  Here are a couple suggestions from Professor Richard Wolff (if you are capable of listening through the first 5 minutes) using Switzerland as an example, what they've done to address unemployment, constituent jobs and the industry threats that you get from WMC [Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce], which essentially currently controls your majority caucus and your votes.

I'll consider addressing you as Representative, if or when I see any instance of that behavior from you in office happening.

With wary regards,

Donald Freix    
Fish Creek

---
A drive through visitation for Linda "Flansy" Jean Flansburgh will be held from 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm, Friday, October 16, 2020 at Winn Cress Funeral Home, 5785 Hwy Q, Waunakee, WI  53597.  Memorials should be made directly to the family.

Every elected Wisconsin representative should pay respects, and find out what COVID 19 has wrought upon average Americans.

Hey, Nancy, Take the Deal; Are You Crazy?

Update: See Congress Has Another Chance to Pass a Stimulus, Democrats need to take it, (Harris, Slate).

Nancy Pelosi is deranged, the real thing.

Faced with the obliteration of the recovery, such as this recovery is, Pelosi is stubbornly refusing to take a $1.8 trillion stimulus, out of concern that this would be a political victory for the president.

Even Wolf Blitzer, no progressive is he, was taken aback by Pelosi's refusal to just take the deal Trump has offered, (Cillizza, Microsoft News).

Here's Blitzer questioning Pelosi:

Blitzer: Even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion, Congressman Ro Khanna for example. But let met just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well. I assume you admire him. He's a Democrat.

And he just said this. He said "People in need can't wait until February, $1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice the Obama stimulus. Make a deal, put the ball in McConnell court."

So what do you say to Ro Khanna?

Pelosi: What I say to you is, I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position. Ro Khanna, that's nice. That isn't what we're going to do and nobody's waiting till February.

Listen to the CNN interview, Nancy Pelosi is a crazy person, truly. And this unhinged Speaker is the only person standing in the way of getting $1.8 trillion out of Trump and Mitch McConnell during the COVID pandemic.

Guess Joe Biden's position. Dead silence from the Democratic Party nominee.

See also:

In Wisconsin We Don't Care about the 25th Amendment; Pelosi Is Out-of-touch Playing Gratuitous Politics

Madison, Wisconsin — People in Wisconsin are worried about their families, and small-business failure to come on a gargantuan scale.

So, instead of hammering out another COVID stimulus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) is playing games with rhetoric about the 25 Amendment, continuing a ridiculous personal spat with the president.

In three months Trump is gone, and no Cabinet member is going to sign on to a declaration that he is unfit.

Meanwhile, every economist is issuing dire warnings about that families, landlords, restaurants, taverns, professional-service, essentially everyone except the top few percent are facing catastrophe.

So, Nancy Pelosi gets to insult the lunatic in the White House that he is even more unfit. How does this help us? 

This is a colossal waste of time that tells us, in the words of Krystal Ball, "noone is this town [D.C.] actually gives a shit about the people who are most impacted."

Pelosi is self-absorbed, possessed of an inflated sense of her own personal importance, with a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for what Americans are going through, (Mayo Clinic).

Sound like someone else in high public office?

I'm under no illusions about the White House, but Pelosi needs to focus: We matter, not her, and not her need for gratuitous insult during high national crises.

@SpeakerPelosi: "Tomorrow, by the way, tomorrow, come here tomorrow. We're going to be talking about the 25th Amendment."

Full video here: https://t.co/5q4HIglmaZ pic.twitter.com/8Jeim87yJM

— CSPAN (@cspan) October 8, 2020

Bi-partisan Refusal to Pass COIVD Stimulus Clinches It — Americans Don't Count with Dems and GOP

Veep debate shuns COVID relief bill

Parties Unmasked

 

Update: Madison, Wisconsin — Just heard the Joe Biden TV spot exclaiming "It's a simple proposition, we're all in this together." 

Biden is lying.

It's major lie. Unless you are pouring serious money into Congress and the parties, you are out; you do not count with the Republican and Democratic parties.

Even the most obtuse member of Congress realizes how devastating the recession, COVID 19 and business-as-usual are to families and most Americans.

The COVID 19 relief-stimulus bill did not even come up last night in the veep debate, noone wants to talk about it.

But Democrats and Republicans do not care. They don't, you are not a member of their D.C. club, and you may as well curse the coming Wisconsin Winter.

One would think after Trump walked away from COVID relief talks, that all of Congress would be howling, constantly raising hell, harassing us about this injustice with the frequency of a Mike Lindell My Pillow commercial. 

Outside of a few tweets and a statement or two, instead, we get dead silence and no action from Pelosi and Schumer. 

 

Krystal Ball laid it out yesterday: 

 

I will never forgive Trump for abandoning Americans right now. He was the only person who solely held in his hands the power to get this done. 

 

I don't want to let Pelosi off the hook here either. She decided for electoral gain, she would rather Americans have nothing than to give Trump any kind of a win. 

 

Now, she's probably correct politically. But it is an unconscionable, and frankly psychopathic position. 

 

Trump's position is both politically idiotic and psychopathic cruel. The bottom-line of this recession, which has ultimately dictated the lack of response, is that noone is this town actually gives a shit about the people who are most impacted.

 

This was the most unequal recession of all time, devastating the bottom half of the country, and leaving unscathed, or even benefiting the top echelons of society. If ever you wondered how much the people here actually care about you, you now know in absolutely uncertain terms — they don't.

Now, watch, (because observing and commenting is about all we can do with the two parties), as the United States sinks into another Great Recession, if we're lucky.

Disgust with Trump and Pelosi Grows; They Both Don't Get It

'If ever you wondered how much the people here [in D.C.] actually care about you, you now know in absolutely uncertain terms — they don't.'
- Krystal Ball

The COVID Coronavirus imperils the economy with a synchronized assault engineered by the president, with, it bears noting, a big assist from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D).

Trump and Pelosi seem like partners in a sick game in which Americans lose.

You won't get this from the New York Times or Washington Post, but Krystal Ball of Hill TV just blew the whistle on the whole Washington D.C. dance.

By the way, Joe Biden responded to Trump, late as usual, and his statement is fluff, nothing.

The President turned his back on you. pic.twitter.com/oeI8dck2LL

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 6, 2020

Said Krystal Ball this morning:

I will never forgive Trump for abandoning Americans right now. He was the only person who solely held in his hands the power to get this done. I don't want to let Pelosi off the hook here either. She decided for electoral gain, she would rather Americans have nothing than to give Trump any kind of a win. 

Now, she's probably correct politically. But it is an unconscionable, and frankly psychopathic position.

Trump's position is both politically idiotic and psychopathic cruel. The bottom-line of this recession, which has ultimately dictated the lack of response, is that noone is this town actually gives a shit about the people who are most impacted. 

This was the most unequal recession of all time, devastating the bottom half of the country, and leaving unscathed, or even benefiting the top echelons of society. If ever you wondered how much the people here actually care about you, you now know in absolutely uncertain terms — they don't.

Watch the Hill TV segment below.

Trump to Country: Nothing, No Stimulus, No Direct Payments, 'Im Ending COVID Relief Talks'

Biden Fails to Respond

Update: Economy nears tipping point as Trump sends new erratic, contradictory intentions on aid.

The news hit Tuesday mid-afternoon in a Tweet, Donald Trump is pulling the plug on America.

Reports the New York Times:

President Trump on Tuesday abruptly ended talks with Democrats on an economic stimulus  bill, sending the stock market sliding and dealing a final blow to an intensive set of on-again-off-again negotiations to deliver additional pandemic aid to struggling Americans before the November elections.

Mr. Trump announced that he was pulling the plug on the effort in a series of afternoon tweets in which he accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California of 'not negotiating in good faith' and urged Senate Republicans to focus solely on confirming his nominee to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks.

This means struggling families get nothing, small businesses get nothing, renters get nothing, small landlords get nothing and are left with no means of recouping months of no rent from tenants, states and municipalities get nothing, for starters, as the COVID Coronavirus imperils the world economy with a synchronized failure engineered by the president of the United States.

"Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned earlier Tuesday that the economic recovery remains fragile seven months into Coronavirus pandemic without further economic stimulus," reports the AP.

Trump ended his no-relief Tweets in all capitals: "THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"

Meanwhile Joe Biden tweeted eight times in the hour after Trump in communications in which the Democratic Party nominee failed to note, comment or advocate in any way on Trump's walking away from COVID relief. 

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supports Trump's decision.

Moratorium on Residential Evictions Should Come with Landlord Subsidy Fast

In late Oct, Pres Donald Trump issued a sweeping moratorium on residential evictions through the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention.

The moratorium seems a rare bold, public health initiative. 

It's not and it exemplifies policy not even approaching half-measure value on a still-growing crisis.

What a massive stimulus bill should do to address this swath of policy is send federal money directly to landlords to pay for tenants in need of help.  

The subsidy could can be free, or payback without interest or whatever. This would solve the problem for the tenants, the landlords, the banks and the coming worst-yet liquidity crisis. 

In context, the moratorium is dishonest. Tenants in need are just pushing off eviction until after Jan 1 because after that they’ll be expected to come up with a pile of money for back-rent, penalties and they won’t have it.

If Trump were smart, he'd push, as he is able, a major stimulus legislation that includes a residential landlord stimulus.

But comprehensive public policy solving crises is not what Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden do.

They all play political games and likely Democratic Party officeholders will receive a new memo advising Dems to blame everything on the Russians.

Wisconsin GOP Justices Seen as Corrupt, Litigation Is Pending

Wisconsin Supreme Court entrance at state capitol

Update: In Jere Fabick v. Andrea Palm, Appeal Number 2020AP000828, A May 18 state DoJ legal filing reads in part: "As a result of this Court's decision in Legislature v Palm, the petitioners' motion for an injunction and petition for an original action challenge an order that no longer exists. If this Court doe not sua sponte deny the petitioners' motion for an injunction and decline to take jurisdiction of the petition for an original action because the claims are moot, then the State Respondents respectfully request that the Court issue a schedule for supplemental briefings on the issue of mootness," (Wheeler Report).
  
Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Supreme Court republicans deciding questions through fidelity to law is as likely as Republican legislators using empirical investigation and scientific findings to inform public policy.

It's not the way it is here.

Impartial processes are often mission-critical barriers to Republican Party aims of achieving corporatist demands and fundamentalist taboo-morality dogma.

Democratic foundations such as law, rights and empirical reality are rejected by Republicans, in conception.

All proceedings, hearings, deliberation and elections should arrive at orderly, pro-Party results. Law and citizen input must be minimized because the rule of law and rights-laden democracy can be powerful opposing forces to Republican Party autocracy.

It is in through this perspective that we can understand the work of Wisconsin Republican justices reaching preordained, nakedly corrupt decisions to serve Republican Party interests.

Noone was surprised by the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision to block Gov Tony Evers administration's safer-at-home Emergency Order 28, (Wisconsin Executive Orders), (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal).

That legal case is entitled Wisconsin Legislature v. Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, Julie Willems Van Dijk and Nicole Safar, In Their Official Capacities As Executives of Wisconsin Department of Health Services Respondents. (Appeal Number 2020AP000765), (Case History).

Another case now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court is the so-called second safer/stay-at-home litigation, Jere Fabick v. Andrea Palm, Appeal Number 2020AP000828.
 
Fabick appears part of the Republican Party effort to dismantle targeted statutory law protecting public health and safety without the introduction of legislation. No need for a bill when hyper-activist justices stand ready to accomplish Party aims.

"Final briefs have been filed in a second lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's 'Safer at Home' order, this one arguing the order violated peoples' rights to freedom of worship, speech and travel under the Wisconsin Constitution," reports Wisconsin Public Radio.

Fabick is pending before the state Supreme Court. A decision whether the Court will hear the case is expected soon.

As local public health officials issue local orders to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the wake of Palm, the state DoJ issued an advisory opinion on May 15 affirming the authority of local officials because they are empowered by a different statute than the governor and Health secretary.

The non-binding DoJ opinion states in part:

4. First,  the supreme court’s  decision  addressed  only  DHS’s  authority found in Wis. Stat. § 252.02. That statute does not govern the authority of local health officers, which is separately set out in Wis. Stat. § 252.03. That separate grant of local authority  provides,  among  other  things,  powers  to  'prevent,  suppress  and  control  communicable  diseases'  and 'forbid  public  gatherings  when  deemed  necessary  to  control  outbreaks  or  epidemics.'  Wis.  Stat.  §  252.03(1)–(2).1  Because the  court  decision addressed a different statute applicable to a state agency, and not the statute applicable to local authorities, the Palm decision is not directly controlling on powers under the latter statute.

More litigation is expected by some observers.

Gov Tony Evers Sees End of Safer-at-Home Order; Would Follow Trump, Republicans' COIVD 19 Policy

Update II: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is warning Congress that if the country reopens too soon during the coronavirus pandemic, it will result in "needless suffering and death,"
(Madisoncom). Gov Evers' political gambit in issuing a new May 11 Emergency Order is his latest let's-hope tactic.
 
Update: See The GOP tests 2020 campaign theme: ‘Some of you will have to die.’ Tony Evers' message accepts this GOP premise, giving up major public health infrastructure built up over generations.

Madison, Wisconsin — Gov Tony Evers signaled a major course change in coronavirus COVID 19 policy in a statement last week, telling WBAY-TV his current Stay-at-Home order — now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court awaiting decision — should expire on May 26.

Evers (D) told WBAY's reporter, Cami Rapson, that he believes he can predict COVID 19's trajectory on May 26, divine relevant data points now, and infectious-disease experts' advice and conclusions, false statements that fly in the face of leading epidemiologists and the history of unpredictable and rapid progression of this coronavirus through the American population, (Roberts, New York Times).

Said Evers in a meandering interview with WBAY:

I think by [May] 26th we will be in a place where we don't have to do that, [extend Stay-at-home], unless something extraordinary happens. You know, the virus doesn't consult with me on that, but we are doing a great job with testing and tracing those results in a way that I feel confident we are headed in the right direction. ...

Whether we need to extend that, I frankly think we are going to meet our metrics that we laid out anyway. And so I'm doubtful. But if we have surges all across the state and things are going backwards, I suppose that's possible. But I think Safer at Home has worked, it's done its job, and we will continue to open up the state as we can thoughtfully and safely do it.

Evers is now rhetorically appeasing the Trump administration and Wisconsin Republicans, all of whom are working to end public health experts' pandemic policy at the expense and very lives of vulnerable members of our citizenry.

Tony Evers is privately derided by progressives and Democrats here for his dithering politics, exemplified by Evers' heavily criticized effort to hold Wisconsin's April 7 elections before reversing course on April 6 in the face of national ridicule. But Evers' comments last week garnered silence among Wisconsin Democrats.

Evers insists his public policy is informed by science.

As national media cite experts warning social-distancing efforts will not be sufficient to control the pandemic in the long term in the United States, Evers publicly musing ending social-distancing in some two weeks seems absurd.

Writes Siobhan Roberts in the New York Times:

By now we know — contrary to false predictions — that the novel corona virus will be with us for a rather long time.

'Exactly how long remains to be seen,' said Marc Lipsitch, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 'It’s going to be a matter of managing it over months to a couple of years. It’s not a matter of getting past the peak, as some people seem to believe.'

A single round of social distancing — closing schools and workplaces, limiting the sizes of gatherings, lockdowns of varying intensities and durations — will not be sufficient in the long term.

In the interest of managing our expectations and governing ourselves accordingly, it might be helpful, for our pandemic state of mind, to envision this predicament — existentially, at least — as a soliton wave: a wave that just keeps rolling and rolling, carrying on under its own power for a great distance.

Tony Evers seems an unappealing cross between Peter Pan and Neville Chamberlain as COVID 19's in-effect proponents wish to create a make-believe herd immunity among our citizen 'warriors,' a reality that is unachievable without a vaccine.

See the paper at the Center for Infectious Disease Research andPolicy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota for three projected scaniros of COVID 19.

Wisconsin Republican Justices Put on Shit Show in Stay-at-Home Orals

Wisconsin Supreme Court entrance at state capitol

Update: "The court’s five Republican justices appeared to have no compunction about ending social distancing rules for the rest of the state’s citizens, even as they conducted their hearing remotely on Zoom," writes Mark Joseph Stern in Slate.

Madison, Wisconsin —The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning on the Republican-led legislature's petition to block Gov Tony Evers administration's safer-at-home Emergency Order, (Wisconsin Executive Orders), (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal).

Most observers believe the Republican-led state court will rule in the Republican Party's favor, so partisan have Republican justices become.

The legal case is entitled Wisconsin Legislature v. Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, Julie Willems Van Dijk and Nicole Safar, In Their Official Capacities As Executives of Wisconsin Department of Health Services Respondents. (Appeal Number 2020AP000765), (Case History).

The Legislature wants a Court order, (temporary restraining order), that would bar enforcement of the stay-at-home order issued April 16, 2020, (Wisconsin Executive Orders).

Oral arguments today featured rhetorical, contentions and seemingly outrageous comment by two Republican justices —Chief Justice Patience Drake Roggensack (R) and Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley (R).

Justice Patience Roggensack second-guessed the administration's executive order and mused falsely that the coronavirus mostly impacted workers in meat-packing plants, and not what she termed "the regular folks."

Observes listening in online gasped at what appeared to be Roggensack's false observation implicitly disregarding the health and safety of Wisconsin citizens.

Justice Rebecca Bradley editorialized that the stay-at-home order is comparable to the infamous Japanese internment camps.

And Wisconsin's Republican chief justice just dismissed a coronavirus flare up because it only impacted people who work in meat packing plants and not "the regular folks."

— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) May 5, 2020

Justice Rebecca Bradley, a Republican, just compared Gov. Evers' stay-at-home order to the forced Japanese internment order upheld in Korematsu.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 5, 2020

Attorneys Ryan J. Walsh for Petitioner, and Colin T. Roth for Respondents, argued the case.

On May 1, the Court voted to accept jurisdiction over the case and agreed to hear argument on the following issues, which were set forth in the Legislature’s petition:

The questions before the Court concern alleged overreach by the Evers administration accused of running afoul of Wisconsin statutes through its rule-making processes in its Executive Orders, (Wisconsin Court Headlines).

Republican justices also accused the Evers administration of violating the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions, Executive Orders, (Wisconsin Court Headlines).

The Wisconsin Supreme Court bars in-person oral arguments, using video conferencing instead, due to "health concerns created by the COVID-19 pandemic," (Wisconsin Supreme Court).

The May 5 oral arguments are reproduced below in YouTube by Wisconsin Eye.

Wisconsin Gov and DoJ Brief: Toss Republican Suit Seeking End to Stay-at-Home Order

Madison, Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Dept of Justice filed a brief asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to deny the Republican-led legislature's petition to block the Tony Evers administration's safer-at-home Emergency Order, (Wisconsin Executive Orders).

The legal case is entitled Wisconsin Legislature v. Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, Julie Willems Van Dijk and Nicole Safar, In Their Official Capacities As Executives of Wisconsin Department of Health Services Respondents. (Appeal Number 2020AP000765), (Case History).

The Legislature wants a Court order, (temporary restraining order), that would bar enforcement of the stay-at-home order issued April 16, 2020, (Wisconsin Executive Orders).

In the response brief, the Evers administration asks the Court to deny the legislature's petition for an original action before the high state court, and the motion for a temporary injunction.

Observes believe the legal position of the administration is strong, but the Republican-led Wisconsin Supreme Court often acts an adjunct for the Republican Party in political cases.

The brief emphasizes the prominence of Wisconsin Statute § 252.02, the COMMUNICABLE DISEASES or Pandemic statutes.

States the brief:

Even if  this  Court  were  to  accept  jurisdiction, the claims should be dismissed as a matter of law.

A. The  language,  context, and history of Wis. Stat. § 252.02 make clear that DHS was authorized to issue Safer-at-Home.

It is well-accepted that statutes like Wis. Stat. § 252.02 provide  broad grants   of  authority  to  respond  to  a very  rare  and  narrow  type  of crisis—the  very  one  we  now  face  with  a  rapid  spread  of  a  novel  communicable  disease. These   kinds   of   provisions   appear in statutory   codes throughout  the  country. To  respondents’  knowledge,  every  state   operates   under   laws   vesting   these   duties   in   a   department of  health  or  similar  executive  agency,  and  the  petitioners  have  not  suggested  otherwise.  These  laws  are designed to  provide  an  executive  agency  the  tools  to  act  quickly  and  with  flexibility  based  on  circumstances  on  the  ground. Wisconsin’s version of these laws, in section 252.02, does  just  that.  It  gives  DHS  flexible  powers to  address  the specific  threat of a  rapidly  spreading  disease. That  makes  sense:  this  Court  has  long  acknowledged  the  commonsense  proposition that public health officials must be able to react swiftly and effectively in the face of an imminent or existing crisis.

As  it  pertains  to the pandemic  here,  the  statutes  contain  three  independent  powers  that  authorize  measures found  in  Safer-at  -Home: Section  252.02(6)  permits  DHS  to  “authorize and implement all emergency measures to control communicable diseases.” Section 252.02(4) allows the agency to  “issue  orders  .  .  .  for  the control  and  suppression  of  communicable diseases” that “may be made applicable to the whole  .  .  .  of  the  state[  ].”  And  Section  252.02(3)  authorizes  DHS  to  “close  schools  and  forbid  public  gatherings  .  .  .  to  control outbreaks and epidemics.”Petitioners’ approach  to these statues  is not only atextual, it also   would lead to absurd, and dangerous, results. This is exactly the  time  when  pandemic  statutes  should apply with their full force. [pp 22-23]

The Evers administration April 28 press release is linked here.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court currently bars in-person oral arguments, using video conferencing instead, due to "health concerns created by the COVID-19 pandemic," (Wisconsin Supreme Court).

Wisconsin Republicans Seek Court Action to Block Safer at Home Order

Madison, Wisconsin — Republicans asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block the Tony Evers administration's safer-at-home Emergency Order 28.

The Safer at Home order seeks to protect the public from the deadly COVID 19 disease during the state public health emergency, (Wisconsin Executive Orders; Wisconsin Examiner; Wisconsin State Journal; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

The legal case is entitled Wisconsin Legislature v. Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, Julie Willems Van Dijk and Nicole Safar, In Their Official Capacities As Executives of Wisconsin Department of Health Services Respondents. (Appeal Number 2020AP000765), (Case History).

The Republican-led Legislature seeks a Court order, (temporary restraining order), that would bar enforcement of the stay-at-home order that was issued April 16, 2020, (Wisconsin Executive Orders).

The state Supreme Court is often used as an instrument to advance Republican Party aims.

The legal petition is unusual in its use of political rhetoric.

The petition characterizes the Evers administration work on the Public Safety emergency as a "decree," and includes use of adverbs such as Incredibly, brazenly to describe executive orders issued during the health emergency.

The legal action follows objection from rightwing billionaires such as Charles Koch and Liz Uihlein. Uihlein urges her company employees in a recent email to oppose Gov Evers' work on COVID 19, (Bloomberg).

The Wisconsin Supreme Court majority is biased for Republican Party interests.

Five right-wing justices routinely rule for their partisan patrons. With the defeat of Justice Daniel Kelly in April, the Republican majority on the Court will be four rightwing justices to three when Kelly's term expires on July 31.

The petition urges the case be resolved without oral argument.

The petition states:

Although this case would warrant oral argument under ordinary circumstances, the Legislature respectfully requests that the Court resolve this urgent dispute without it. Emergency Order 28 takes effect on April 24, 2020, and prompt adjudication is necessary to avoid ongoing irreparable harm. For the same reason, immediate publication is unnecessary to the extent that it would delay a resolution of the emergency motion.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court currently bars in-person oral arguments, using video conferencing instead, due to "health concerns created by the COVID-19 pandemic," (Wisconsin Supreme Court).

Rightwing Wisconsin Cops Downplay COVID 19 Danger

Update - Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge John Broomes Blocks Kansas Rule Limiting Religious Gatherings Amid Coronavirus Outbreak. The stupid is here.

Madison, Wisconsin — Republican Party rightwingers remain ambitious and ignorant, defining traits for this group of religious fundamentalists, billionaires and others who do their work, (NYT).

COVID 19 is dangerous and deadly. Rightwing Wisconsin law enforcement dopes using their offices of public trust to endanger public safety reveals the nature of many Wisconsin cops — rightwing and stupid.

Republicans remain opposed to science and public health to protect people from the coronavirus COVID 19 assault that has not peaked yet in Wisconsin.

Law and public safety only count when cops target black and brown folks who of course are criminal by virtue of their skin color.

Last week, Wisconsin was treated to County sheriffs and a police chief assuring people that COVID 19 isn't that bad after-all.

COVID 19 is, again, dangerous and deadly.

As reported by Robert Mentzer, Colby-Abbotsford, Wisconsin (central Wisconsin) Police Department Chief Jason Bauer writes Wisconsin Gov Evers (Facebook) that "faith in God" is enough to defeat COVID 19, which this halfwit Bauer says is the Devil whom we ought not fear.

The Colby-Abbotsford police chief writes in a letter to the governor: “Think of COVID-19 as the Devil. We are not supposed to fear the Devil, faith in God should prevail. I do not fear the Devil nor COVID-19.” https://t.co/v5WcetW683 pic.twitter.com/2Y4qDLPH1E

— Rob Mentzer (@robertmentzer) April 16, 2020

Wisconsin was also recently treated to the spectacle of law enforcement yahoos — pretending to scientific attainment, public health expertise and brilliant, new interpretations of Constitutional liberties — from the Racine and Dodge county sheriffs.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling says, "state law does not have the power to supersede or suspend the Constitutional rights of American citizens," (Rogan, Racine Journal Times, Madison.com).

Dodge County Sheriff Dale J. Schmidt says, "The overreaching measures taken by State government will have dire lifetime consequences for businesses, homeowners, and families. I took an oath to uphold the constitutional rights of our citizens and I can not in good faith participate in the destruction of Racine County businesses or interfere in the freedoms granted to all of us by our Constitution," (WISC-TV).

Wisconsin cops are not really students of the Wisconsin and United States constitutions. They're not really academics who study public health emergency powers and liberty.

These cops are committed ideologues who during this period of public health crisis work on their number one objective: rightwing politics. One hopes few listen to the misinformation and lies they peddle.

Christopher Schmaling, Dale J. Schmidt and James Bauer represent ignorance, and regard malice and lies as virtues.

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers and rightwigners lurk behind the scenes,

If you don't know this, you're the SUCKER they rely on.#wiunion #wipolitics #velshi #AMJoy

— JakeEdwards (@JakeMadtown) April 19, 2020