Tracker

The American public and media have become desensitized to these travesties. it has become the new normal and America may never recover.

From huffingtonpost.ca: BILLINGS, Mont. ― A U.S. judge cancelled a key permit Wednesday for the Keystone XL oil pipeline that’s expected to stretch from Canada to Nebraska, another setback for the disputed project that got underway less than two weeks ago following years of delays. Judge Brian Morris said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to adequately consider effects on endangered species such as pallid sturgeon, a massive, dinosaur-like fish that lives in rivers the pipeline would cross.

From Salon.com Trump admin awards N95 contract far above normal price to bankrupt company with no employees: report A combination of demand and the government’s laggard response has chummed the market for protective medical gear. The Trump administration awarded an N95 mask procurement contract worth eight times the usual price to a bankrupt company with no employees which has never even manufactured the respirator masks, according to a new report. The company, Panthera, claims to provide tactical training and "mission support" for the Department of Defense and other government agencies. However, it has no experience with manufacturing or medical equipment, The Washington Post reported this week. Panthera's parent company filed for bankruptcy in the fall, and it has not employed anyone since May 2018.

And all Trump needs now is a big fire in Washington and a violin to complete his persona.

The racism in the States goes way back to Scotland and the clearances and the potato famine in Ireland. There is even strong evidence that the desire to retain slaves was really at the core of the American revolution.

Q: What borders on insanity? A: Canada and Mexico

From Alternet.org President Donald Trump may have gotten more than he bargained for Friday, when he posted three tweets, just sixteen words in total, that stunned and infuriated the nation and have legal experts weighing in on just how much trouble he could be in. One, a former U.S. Dept. of Justice official, suggests possibly a lot. But first, the tweets: The average Trump supporter might say, “So?” Or, as Trump has often defended his actions, he has a First Amendment right to say what he wants. 00:0000:37 Both are wrong, according to Mary McCord, a former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice, and former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, according to her bio at Georgetown Law, where she is a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. If all that’s not enough, McCord currently serves as the Legal Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP). In other words, she knows what she’s talking about. And what she’s saying, in a just-published Washington Post op-ed, is Trump’s actions meet the definition of inciting insurrection, and inciting insurrection is “illegal.” “President Trump incited insurrection Friday against the duly elected governors of the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia,” McCord begins. “Just a day after issuing guidance for re-opening America that clearly deferred decision-making to state officials — as it must under our Constitutional order — the president undercut his own guidance by calling for criminal acts against the governors for not opening fast enough.”

According to Eric Margolis, who I have followed for 20 years and has been remarkably accurate in his reporting and predicting of European and middle-eastern events, it was no accident hat Trump wanted to open the country up and "defeat" the Coronavirus by Easter. This was to cement his status as a messiah among the rabid evangelicals in the US who already see him as the second coming of Jesus. An interesting take on the current pandemic. www.ericmargolis.com/2020/04/lies-wont-stop-covid-19/

From the Daily Beast: Trump Leads Pro-Plague States of America to a COVID Civil War BREAKING OUT He is telling us plainly that he will stoke civil unrest and further harm public health to find a political pathway out of a galactic-scale ****-up of his own making. Rick Wilson Editor-At-Large Updated Apr. 17, 2020 11:12PM ET / Published Apr. 17, 2020 8:54PM ET Donald Trump fired the first shots in the COVID Civil War this week, a modern-day Jefferson Davis of the Pro-Plague States of America sending his opening salvo from Fort Twitter at Democratic governors who dared to question if it wasn’t just a wee bit early to end the stay-at-home orders in states still far to the left of the peak. He started the week with claims of “total authority” and then cried about a supposed mutiny by mouthy state leaders. By Friday, he was up to calls to “liberate” states. Who does he want people to rise up against, exactly: People who don't want to die? People who don't want protesters spreading a deadly disease that's already killed 34,000 Americans? Governors who swore an oath to serve their states and protect their citizens? Science? Medicine? Michael Tomasky

Don't you need two for an argument?

Not everyone has the ability to shop once per week, but it would make things better if they did. There are those who do not have vehicles and bring home food almost daily because that's all they can carry. Save-On foods and other stores are advertising "free" home delivery and curbside pickup but you need to place your order a week in advance. In general though, I ventured out to Canadian Tire and Home Depot today and was stuck by the politeness and good humour of everyone, although having to push a cart around to pick up a small can of paint seemed silly.

These sort of things are just the tip of the iceberg so far as the right wing/GOP/Tea Party/Trump are willing to go. They have money and willing pawns who might as well wear brown shirts.

This ought to put an end to the debate about restrictions but it won't.

I have seen confederate flag stickers on Alberta vehicles, so go figure. Apparently there is something attractive about racism and slavery.

Trump has already dropped broad hints that he expects his followers to resort to violence if/when he is turfed. He will deny encouraging them, but the understanding is clear. After all, they are "fine people".

From www.thedailybeast.com U.S. Virus Deaths Hit Horrifying One-Day Record: 4,591 UNSPEAKABLE PAIN Tom Sykes Updated Apr. 17, 2020 7:20AM ET / Published Apr. 17, 2020 4:17AM EDT Pedro Vilela The number of reported deaths in the U.S. hit a grim new high on Thursday, spiking to nearly double the previous record during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, 4,591 people were reported to have died from coronavirus; the prior daily record was 2,569, on Wednesday. In total, there have been more than 33,000 deaths in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Global deaths now top 144,000.

From www.dailybeast.com In a disturbing new series of tweets, President Trump on Friday urged Americans to “liberate” three U.S. states that are run by Democratic governors amid protests over coronavirus shutdowns. The three tweets took aim at Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia. “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!” one tweet read. Trump on Thursday refused to criticize protesters in some states, including Michigan, who are flouting stay-at-home orders and social-distancing guidelines amid the deadly pandemic. “I think they’re listening, I think they listen to me,” he said. “They seem to be protesters that like me and respect this opinion, and my opinion is the same as just about all of the governors.” Trump has gone back and forth on who should have the ultimate authority to reopen state’s economies. On Monday, he claimed he has “total” power as president, while on Thursday he insisted governors would be able to “tailor [an] approach that meets the diverse circumstances of their own states”—the same day the U.S. deaths from COVID-19 hit a record 4,591 people.

Most of the money earmarked for small business has been diverted to mega corporations. United airlines got 58 billion dollars and then started laying people off by the thousands. With Trump having fired most Inspectors General, there is minimal oversight, if any.

From www.Dailygrail.com Army Decides a Pandemic Is a Good Time to Give GOP Donors $569 Million to ‘Build the Wall’ MONEY PRINTER GO BRRR What coronavirus crisis? Big Republican donors get a half-billion dollar, no-bid deal that one watchdog calls “a travesty that must be investigated and audited immediately.” Spencer Ackerman Noah Shachtman William Bredderman Updated Apr. 17, 2020 7:35AM ET / Published Apr. 16, 2020 8:30PM ET In the middle of a pandemic that has killed 27,000 Americans and counting, the Army this week gave a politically connected Montana firm half a billion dollars—not to manufacture ventilators or protective gear to fight the novel coronavirus, but to build 17 miles of President Trump’s southern border wall. On Tuesday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it awarded BFBC, an affiliate of Barnard Construction, $569 million in contract modifications for building “17.17 miles” of the wall in two California locations, El Centro and San Diego. That works out to over $33 million per mile—steeply above the $20 million-per-mile average that the Trump administration is already doling out for the wall. Construction is supposed to be completed by the end of June 2021. And it’s only the latest wall contract the firm has gotten. BFBC, a reliable contributor to Republican politicians, has gotten over $1 billion in taxpayer money in less than a year to build a mere 37 miles worth of wall. Scott Amey, the general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, urged federal watchdogs to investigate the new BFBC contract.

Look at the possible bright side- they might throttle each other.

And the protest was organized by the family of one Betsy Devos, Trump's Secretary of Education who has been fiercely busy licensing private schools with generous grants for startups and many of these took the startup money and are no longer to be found anywhere. Many millions have evaporated.

Lotsa people in lotsa places are beavering away on a cure, but no one is any closer than 12 months.

Yesterday I heard that Google and Microsoft are jointly developing a phone app that will track if you are or have been in proximity to one person or another. On one hand, it may be a good way to backtrack spreaders of infection to identify where it came from but I can foresee all manner of potentials for abuse by authorities and hackers.

Apparently the right-wing nuts in the States have been encouraging their followers to go out in public with no masks or distancing to "prove" that this is all a hoax. And if they die off in large numbers, it will validate Darwin and improve the gene pool at the same time.