Conspiracy Theory Meds

So, fatty President Donnie Trump is pushing the malaria drug, "hydroxychloroquine" as a potential "cure" for Covid-19, the coronavirus.

I'd be more interested in possibly trying this medication, again, developed, tested and approved to treat malaria, when and IF this guy takes it first, on-camera to prove he's actually taken it:

 After he takes it and survives it for 12 months, sure, we should all be in on that.  

But, being the fat, bloated obese racist that he is, he'll never do that.  SOOOO brave!

Phyllis Lyon, famed LGBTQ activist, dies

Lesbian rights pioneers Del Martin (C) and Phyllis Lyon (2ndR) cut their wedding cake after getting married at city hall in San Francisco, CA, on June 16, 2008. Lyon passed away on Thursday, April 9, 2020

Activist Phyllis Lyon, who spent more than 50 years fighting for LGBTQ rights, died of natural causes. She was 95.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared the news of Lyon's death in a post on Twitter on Thursday, calling her a "dear friend."

When Newsom served as mayor of San Francisco, he officiated the wedding between Lyon and her late partner Del Martin in 2008.

In 2004, San Francisco officials allowed gay couples in the city to wed, prompting a flood of applicants to the City Hall clerk's office. The officials chose Lyon, then 80, and Martin, then 83, to take the first vows.

Those unions were voided by California's Supreme Court, until 2008 when it struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling paved the way for same-sex couples to marry in the state -- and Lyon and Martin chose to get remarried.

"Phyllis—it was the honor of a lifetime to marry you & Del," Newsom wrote in the tweet, which was accompanied by a video of the two of them. "Your courage changed the course of history."

Phyllis and Del were the manifestation of love and devotion. Yet for over 50 years they were denied the right to say 2 extraordinary words: I do.

Phyllis—it was the honor of a lifetime to marry you & Del. Your courage changed the course of history.

Lyon and Martin, who passed away in 2008, first met back in 1950. Together, they were pioneers in fighting for same-sex marriage in California.

The couple founded the Daughters of Bilitis -- the first lesbian rights organization in the US -- in 1955.  Both are considered champions of the LGBTQ rights movement.

Lyon died of natural causes, California State Sen. Scott Weiner, who is chairman of the LGBTQ caucus. 

"We lost a giant today," Weiner wrote. "Phyllis Lyon fought for #LGBT equality when it was neither safe nor popular to do so. Phyllis & her wife Del played a crucial role winning the rights & dignity our community now enjoys. We owe Phyllis intense gratitude & love for her work.

Kate Kendall, former executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said she will miss Lyon.  

"She and Del are dancing again," she wrote on Twitter.  "I will miss her so much."

V.P. Mike Pence's office blocks public health officials from appearing on CNN

Pretty easy to see why.  Pence is such a suck-up, lapdog for Trump.  He actually believes he’s protecting himself politically, when in fact, he’s digging his own hole even deeper.

New York (CNN Business)Vice President Mike Pence's office has declined to allow the nation's top health officials to appear on CNN in recent days and discuss the coronavirus pandemic killing thousands of Americans, in an attempt to pressure the network into carrying the White House's lengthy daily briefings in full.

Pence's office, which is responsible for booking the officials on networks during the pandemic, said it will only allow experts such as Dr. Deborah Birx or Dr. Anthony Fauci to appear on CNN if the network televises the portion of the White House briefings that includes the vice president and other coronavirus task force members.

CNN often only broadcasts President Donald Trump's question and answer session, which sometimes includes the health care officials, live on-air.

After Trump leaves the podium, CNN frequently cuts out of the White House briefing to discuss and fact-check what the President had said. A CNN executive said that the network usually returns to such programming because of the extensive length of the full briefing that includes Pence, which can run in excess of two hours.

CNN did, however, air the vice president's portion of the briefing Wednesday night.

Regardless, Pence's office has declined to make the nation's top health care officials available to CNN for the last seven days.

"When you guys cover the briefings with the health officials then you can expect them back on your air," a Pence spokesperson told CNN.

Fauci, Birx, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Surgeon General Jerome Adams have all appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox during the last week, despite the fact that the broadcast networks have generally not covered the briefings that have included the vice president and health officials.

But the Vice President's office has blocked all CNN appearances since last Thursday night.

Fauci appeared on the last five weekly CNN Town Halls, with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The Vice President's office has refused to make him, or anyone, available for Thursday's town hall.

The White House has made two non health care officials available to CNN in the last week. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper appeared on "State of the Union" on Sunday and Peter Navarro appeared on Anderson Cooper's show on Friday and "New Day" on Monday.

Trump has also declined CNN's repeated requests for an interview, instead appearing only on Fox News for softball interviews multiple times during the national emergency.

CNN has stated that they are considering not televising the coronavirus task force daily briefings because Trump started hijacking those around Thursday, April 2, 2020, and basically turned them into campaign rallies/conspiracy theory excursions.  Lots of fact-checking going on in real time as well as after the fact.

And Pence, for his part, yeah, on paper he's the Vice President of the United States, but in reality, he's Trump's lapdog and flunkie.  Lock-step. 

Trump is desperately seeking to avoid blame

This comes from CNN.com

Opinion by Jill Filipovic

Updated 7:48 AM ET, Wed April 8, 2020

President Donald Trump has royally screwed up the federal government's coronavirus response, and he knows it. And he's doing what he always does: Instead of fixing any of the many problems he's caused, he's trying to weasel his way out of blame and doing all he can to dodge oversight and responsibility.

On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, Trump demoted Glenn Fine, the man tapped last month to independently oversee spending on the $2 trillion federal coronavirus stimulus package. Because Fine, who was the acting inspector general from the Defense Department, was removed from that role, he also lost his chairmanship of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (only inspectors general are eligible to be on that committee). No explanation was offered.

This isn't just about the specter of the President potentially attempting to assert free rein over the outlay of taxpayer-funded relief. American lives are at stake. The health of our economy -- not just Wall Street winnings, but the livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans, and our basic ability to put food on our tables and care for our families -- is at risk.

Fine's role -- the one that will now be assumed in an "acting" capacity by Sean W. O'Donnell, who will do this along with his other job as Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General -- was to make sure that an enormous stimulus package was being spent as allocated, with minimal waste and no abuse or corruption.

It's disturbing that Americans now may have to worry that our President and his cronies could turn a relief package into a vehicle for self-dealing and a sweetheart deal for the rich, but here we are.

Fine had been picked by a group of independent federal inspectors general who determined he would do the best job. According to The New York Times, the former Justice Department inspector general "earned a reputation for aggression and independence in scrutinizing the FBI's use of surveillance and other law enforcement powers in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks."

But in Trumpland, such competence and expertise aren't a requirement but a barrier, especially when it comes to oversight duties. The incompetent man at the top is desperate not to have his inadequacy revealed.

Fine's head is just the latest to roll as the President has been systematically guillotining watchdogs across the federal government. In a transparently vindictive move, he also removed Michael Atkinson last Friday as the Intelligence Community inspector general. Atkinson had done his job in informing Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment. Trump doesn't like being held responsible for his actions, so Atkinson was out.

On Monday Trump also attacked Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm for doing her job. Grimm's office had reported what Americans already know: That there are widespread delays in testing for coronavirus, and serious supply shortages at the nation's hospitals. None of this is news to anyone. But Trump nonetheless tweeted that the report was "Another Fake Dossier!"

Trump seems to fancy himself more of a king than a President. The same man who once pledged to "drain the swamp" seems to love mucking around in it, and attacks anyone who tries to clean it up.

No administration is perfect -- remember the Obamacare rollout debacle? Nobody expects error-free governance, but good leaders are able to deal with mistakes, swiftly correct them, and accept independent oversight. Anything else isn't democracy, it's dictatorship. Americans in urgent need of relief during and after the pandemic need to see this stimulus plan wisely and efficiently dispatched.

There are about 400,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 12,800 dead -- and those numbers may be significant underestimates. Without effective oversight -- and there is no reason to believe that Glenn Fine would not have provided it -- it will be impossible to tell if the stimulus package is being used efficiently to help as many people as possible. Without immediate, unflinching feedback on how Health and Human Services is managing this crisis, it will be harder to know the ways to improve the stimulus in real time and stem the tide of disease, death and financial ruin.

Donald Trump could not care less about the health and well-being of the American people. He has no attachment to good governance, professional ethics, or public service. He doesn't like independent watchdogs because they're inconvenient for him; he prefers lapdogs. And so he is exploiting the pandemic to sack anyone who might point out just how terribly he has mangled the response.

The result won't just be a swampier and more corrupt White House. 

We Americans may pay with our lives.