Damn! I wish the Lincoln Project would do some ads like this Susan Collins hit piece above targeting Trump enablers in the House like Michael McCaul and Roger Williams in Texas, and Ken Calvert and Doug LaMalfa in California (Fox News and the Corona, CA Police Department practically did all the work to set up the Calvert one already).There's so much material to work with-- even beyond the whole enabler thing. Like how about this report from Forbes yesterday that as of tomorrow over 40% of American renters will be in danger of being evicted. That's when 25 million unemployed people will stop receiving weekly $600 federal enhancements to their unemployment checks. Mitch McConnell waited for the last second to announce they can get $200 instead or nothing. And McConnell knew it would be coming at the exact moment when the Federal Eviction Moratorium expired, placing renters in extreme jeopardy of losing their homes. Niall McCarty wrote that "Combined with the cut in unemployment payments, it is likely to create the perfect storm for U.S. renters. An analysis from global advisory firm Stout Risius Ross estimates that more than 40% of renter households in the U.S. are going to experience rental shortfall during the Covid-19 crisis with just under 12 million facing eviction over the next four months alone. Around 17 million are likely to be impacted throughout the pandemic. There states likely to be worst impacted include beet red states like West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana (as well as electorally crucial, swingy Florida). It's worth noting that Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Florida are also among the worst hit by Trump's pandemic.The fact that swing state voters are telling pollsters that want to see that $600 weekly unemployment check enhancement extended-- the one the congressional Republicans want to shrink to $200-- makes a series of ads on it all the more compelling. Change Research asked voters in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and they overwhelmingly supportall the Democratic objectives for the next bailout and the only one the Republicans care about-- corporate immunity from law suits-- is the one they reject. Look at this graphic!Yesterday, Politico reporter Ally Mutnik noted that GOP House members who thought they had nothing to worry about are starting to fret (also sweat). "Privately," she wrote, "some party strategists concede it’s a much grimmer picture, with as many as 20 Republican seats at risk of falling into Democratic hands... There's a growing fear that Trump’s plummeting popularity in the suburbs could threaten their candidates in traditionally favorable districts, and that their party's eagerness to go on offense might leave some underfunded incumbents and open GOP-held seats unprotected. Internal Democratic surveys in recent weeks have shown tight races in once-solid GOP seats in Indiana, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Montana that President Donald Trump carried handily 2016-- data that suggest the battleground is veering in a dangerous direction for the GOP.Among the Republican House members not voluntarily retiring most likely to be not showing up in Congress in 2021 are John Katko and possibly Lee Zeldin in New York, Don Bacon in Nebraska, Mike Garcia in California, Chip Roy, Michael McCaul, Roger Williams, and possibly Van Taylor and Ron White in Texas, Steve Chabot in Ohio, Richard Hudson in North Carolina, Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania, Don Young in Alaska, Jim Hagedorn in Minnesota, David Schweikert in Arizona... And there are a whole slew of GOP retirements where seats are absolutely flipping including those currently held by Mark Walker (NC), George Holding (NC), Peter King (NY), Will Hurd (TX), Kenny Marchant (TX), Rob Woodall (GA), Susan Brooks (IN), Greg Gianforte (MT) and maybe even Ted Yoho's and Duncan Hunter's seats in Florida and California!Why? Why? Why? Look at this CNN screen capture from yesterday. You think voters want more of this?Trump will need to get rid of Fauci when he declares that some bogus "vaccine" is the real thing and stages a TV event of him ingesting it. Maybe Stella Immanuel, a deranged homophobic religious-lunatic from Cameroon who got a medical "degree" in Nigeria, is exactly who he's been looking for. Will Sommer wrote at the Daily Beast that Trump loves that she endorses hydroxychloroquine and agrees with him that face masks aren’t necessary. This insane person: "Fellow Americans. How long are we going to allow the enemy to take over our beloved nation. How long are we going to allow the gay agenda, secular humanism, Illuminati and the demonic New World Order to destroy our homes, families and the social fiber of America. It is only the church that was given the mandate by the creator of the universe to thread upon serpents and scorpions." Trump and Trump, Jr. have retweeted this nutcase:Imagine her spicing up the daily coronavirus reports! I wonder if she will also take the opportunity to talk about some of her other fields of expertise, like "alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams... She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by 'reptilians' and other aliens."
Immanuel gave her viral speech on the steps of the Supreme Court at the “White Coat Summit,” a gathering of a handful of doctors who call themselves America’s Frontline Doctors and dispute the medical consensus on the novel coronavirus. The event was organized by the right-wing group Tea Party Patriots, which is backed by wealthy Republican donors.In her speech, Immanuel alleges that she has successfully treated hundreds of patients with hydroxychloroquine, a controversial treatment Trump has promoted and says he has taken himself. Studies have failed to find proof that the drug has any benefit in treating COVID-19, and the Food and Drug Administration in June revoked its emergency authorization to use it to treat the deadly virus, saying it hadn’t demonstrated any effect on patients’ mortality prospects.
Señor Trumpanzee was grilled about her at his fake-news conference and he got so freaked out that the abruptly ended the farcical conference and deleted his retweet:
"Mr. President, the woman that you said is a great doctor in that video that you retweeted last night said masks don't work and there is a cure for Covid-19, both of which health experts say is not true. She's also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens, and that they're trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious," [CNN's Caitlin] Collins asked.The CNN reporter went on to press Trump: "It's misinformation.""I don't know which country she comes from, but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients," Trump said. "And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her."When Collins asked a follow-up question about Immanuel's dismissal of wearing face masks-- which Trump himself advocated last week-- the President walked away from the podium, though on Wednesday he continued to say he was "very impressed" by Immanuel.Although Trump has frequently spread false and misleading information over the course of the pandemic-- while downplaying advice issued by the government's top medical experts-- his decision to amplify Immanuel raises fresh questions about the administration's messaging and pandemic response. It also gives her ideas a significant platform and risks lending credibility to someone who has made a number of dangerous claims in the past.
I'm guessing that the country is ready for a change away from all this now.Abscess by Chip Proser
