Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Virginia Tech shooting kills 32 students and faculty; Country’s deadliest industrial accident in Texas; Vladimir Lenin returns to Russia after years of exile; Charlie Chaplin born; Prince Andrew and Duchess of York announce divorce; Rolling Stone release debut album; Michael Jordan plays last NBA game.

You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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A Market that will only go up.

It’s not for nothing that I will only call him Unindicted Co-Conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio.

Michael Cohen is still in Jail for paying off Stephanie Clifford and he did it for and at the direction of Unindicted Co-conspirator #1.

Bottomless Pinocchio? Well…

President Trump made 18,000 false or misleading claims in 1,170 days
By Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo, and Meg Kelly, Washington Post
April 14, 2020

When we last updated our database of President Trump’s false or misleading claims, it was on Jan. 19, the end of his third year as president. The president’s most frequently repeated false claim was that he presided over the best economy in the history of the United States.

The next day, the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus was reported in the United States. So, with this update through April 3, we’ve added a new category — coronavirus — that already has more than 350 items. Much has changed in the world, with stay-at-home orders, massive economic disruption and topsy-turvy securities markets, but one thing has remained constant — the president’s prolific twisting of the truth.

As of April 3, Trump’s 1,170th day in office, our database shows that he has made 18,000 false or misleading claims. That’s an average of more than 15 claims a day, though since our last update 75 days ago, he’s been averaging just over 23 claims a day. That’s slightly higher than the 22 a day he recorded in 2019.

With millions of Americans suddenly unemployed or facing cuts in pay, the president’s claims of an economic boom are woefully out of date. But that has not stopped him from recalling the pre-coronavirus environment with rose-colored glasses. “Again, we had the strongest economy in the world,” he said at a news conference on April 3. “We had our best ever. We had probably the best economy in the history of the world, bigger than China, bigger than anybody.”

Such economic statistics were a mainstay of the president’s campaign rallies, which were always a rich source of suspect claims. Before the pandemic forced the president to stop holding such events, he held seven rallies between Jan. 30 and March 2. Reading his remarks at those rallies now is like opening a time capsule, as he bragged about job numbers and dismissed the coronavirus as a problem akin to the flu that would magically disappear in April.

In a case of counting his chickens before they hatch, Trump repeatedly proclaimed he had the best unemployment numbers of any presidential term. But he was measuring his three-year average against full four- or eight-year terms. Given the swoon in the economy, it’s now doubtful he will have best record once his term is completed.

Grounded at home, the president has replaced the campaign rallies with his near-daily briefings at the White House on the pandemic. These news conferences have also been a rich source of misinformation. The president has over-promised (such as announcing a Google website that did not exist), sought undue credit or tried to pin the blame for the crisis on others.

For many weeks, Trump played down the emerging crisis. He frequently said there were only 15 cases and these patients would soon be better. He often claimed the low figure was the result of travel restrictions he placed on non-U.S. citizens traveling from China. At the time the virus was spreading rapidly through the United States, largely undetected because the Trump administration failed to quickly set up effective testing.

In early March, the case load started to explode. By March 4, there were more than 100 confirmed U.S. cases and six people had died. One week later, there were 800 cases and 27 deaths. By March 30, there were more than 165,000 cases and 3,000 deaths. By mid-April, the death toll in the United States topped 20,000.

Faced with a calamity, Trump suddenly began claiming that no one had seen this coming. But there have been repeated warnings that the United States was not prepared for a pandemic, including by Trump’s own administration. Numerous news articles documented how Trump dismissed or played down warnings by experts in his administration that the novel coronavirus could turn into a pandemic.
…
Trump’s top three most-repeated claims have remained the same.

His most repeated claim — 291 times — is that the U.S. economy today is the best in history. He began making this claim in June 2018, and it quickly became one of his favorites. As we noted, he’s trying to update it in the wake of the economic swoon. The president once could brag about the state of the economy, but he ran into trouble when he made a play for the history books. By just about any important measure, the pre-coronavirus economy was not doing as well as it did under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson or Bill Clinton — or Ulysses S. Grant. Moreover, the economy already was beginning to hit the head winds caused by Trump’s trade wars, with the manufacturing sector in an apparent recession.

About one in six of Trump’s claims are about immigration, his signature issue — a percentage that increased in early 2019 when the government was partly shut down over funding for his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fact, his second-most-repeated claim — 256 times — is that his border wall is being built. Congress balked at funding the concrete barrier he envisioned, so he has tried to pitch bollard fencing and mostly repairs of existing barriers as “a wall.” The Washington Post has reported that the bollard fencing is easily breached, with smugglers sawing through it, despite Trump’s claims that it is impossible to get past.

Lately, Trump has once again begun falsely claiming the Mexico is paying for the border barrier, even though he had to raid the federal Treasury and delay military construction projects to obtain funding over Congress’s objections. And he has used the coronavirus outbreak to justify his push for the fencing, even though the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health experts say they haven’t seen evidence it can stop the virus from spreading.

Trump has falsely said 197 times that he passed the biggest tax cut in history. Even before his tax cut was crafted, he promised that it would be the biggest in U.S. history — bigger than President Ronald Reagan’s in 1981. Reagan’s tax cut amounted to 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product, and none of the proposals under consideration came close to that level. Yet Trump persisted in this fiction even when the tax cut was eventually crafted to be the equivalent of 0.9 percent of gross domestic product, making it the eighth-largest tax cut in 100 years. This continues to be an all-purpose applause line at the president’s rallies.

All three of these claims, of course, are on our list of Bottomless Pinocchios. It takes at least 20 repeats of a Three- or Four-Pinocchio claim to merit a Bottomless Pinocchio, and there are now 37 entries.

Q.E.D.

I watched with horror as Franklin (Son of Billy) Graham set up outside of Mount Sinai Hospital in a Central Park Meadow and put up his Tent Billboards (which by the way don’t work at all if the United States is trying to Bomb you like they did MSF in Afghanistan) because I know for a fact that at least 1 NGO offered them 3 and a Half times the beds with staff to match.

To their credit they treated 130 patients which is more than the Comfort.

But now people have noticed that they make all their Employees (Yup, Doctors and Nurses too) sign a pledge to oppose Gay Marriage.

First, how could you tell? “Sure I oppose that whatever, give me a job!”

And they also said it wouldn’t effect their care, which is fine but you know, normal Doctor stuff- you don’t get Bonus Points. That’s why the U.S. Bombed the MSF, they were treating Taliban. Seriously, the guys in the AC-130 circled it for over 10 minutes after they knew it was a Hospital strafing it with 1 Inch Shells, 2 Inch Shells, and a 4 Inch Howitzer.

Yeah, we’re the Good Guys.

So anyway AIPAC influence got Franklin Graham (who discriminates against Jews) a platform (with Mount Sinai, one of the oldest Jewish Hospitals in New York) where he could Elmer Gantry a pitch for more Prosperity Gospel Dollars on Faux Sunday and he preened in front of his flock of Suckers and Rubes. It was disgusting.

As I say, 250 beds staffed and waiting in 72 hours. The saving grace is that as Admissions level out Health and Hospitals Corporation and the normal NYC Health System seems to be holding up under the stress which is why you’re not seeing overwhelming numbers at the Javits Center or the Comfort or The Samaritan’s Purse (when you think about it a ‘Frank’ admission Graham wants to get his hand in your pocket).

Good riddance to bad rubbish say I. Don’t let the door hit you.

Franklin Graham Says He Is Being Harassed Over Central Park Hospital
By Liam Stack, New New York Times
April 14, 2020

The Rev. Franklin Graham on Tuesday accused elected officials and others in New York of harassment over their criticism of his medical organization, which is operating a field hospital in Central Park for coronavirus patients that requires workers to sign a pledge that they are Christians who oppose same-sex marriage.

Mr. Graham posted his accusation on Facebook hours before Mount Sinai Health Systems, which teamed up with his organization, Samaritan’s Purse, last month, informed state lawmakers that it would begin requiring those who work for the group to sign a second pledge vowing not to discriminate against patients.

Mr. Graham said Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical organization that often works in developing countries, had never discriminated against a patient. But he said that the group had a right to “lawfully hire staff who share our Christian beliefs” because it is a religious charity.

“It seems tone-deaf to be attacking our religious conviction about marriage at the very moment thousands of New Yorkers are fighting for their lives and dozens of Samaritan’s Purse workers are placing their lives at risk to provide critical medical care,” he wrote.

Samaritan’s Purse has treated 130 patients in the 68-bed Central Park hospital since it opened on April 1, the group said on Tuesday. But its role in the response to the virus in New York has been criticized because of its position on L.G.B.T. issues and the past statements and political activities of Mr. Graham, a vocal supporter of President Trump.

On Sunday, Mr. Graham delivered an Easter message on Fox News while standing in front of his group’s medical tents in Central Park. In the message, which included footage of virus patients with their faces obscured, he described the pandemic in terms similar to those used by the president: “a storm” that “none of us anticipated” and “nobody expected.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Graham said that critics had been harassing Samaritan’s Purse with information requests while it was busy trying to save lives. He specifically mentioned the New York City Commission on Human Rights; the Reclaim Pride Coalition, a progressive L.G.B.T. group; and Democratic members of Congress.

“If any of these groups had funded and erected their own emergency field hospitals to serve Covid-19 patients in Central Park, we would join what we believe would be most New Yorkers — and Americans — in applauding and praying for them, not harassing them,” he wrote on Facebook.

Ok wait. They offered. You used your AIPAC contacts to work a deal. Why do Jewish people want to work with Fundamentalists? They want all of you to die in Armageddon so they can have Jesus back!

Oh, and they blame you for his death and don’t want to share showers with you because circumcision you know.

Last week, four Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation sent a letter to Kenneth L. David, the president of Mount Sinai Health System, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo asking how the Samaritan’s Purse field hospital would operate. The lawmakers also asked how the group came to be involved in the virus response in New York.

“Now more than ever, New York City must uphold its values and ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in seeking medical attention,” the lawmakers wrote.

In his statement, Mr. Graham said such requests had the effect of “diverting precious resources of time and energy and personnel away from serving Covid-19 patients” at a time when “the death toll in New York continues to climb.”

Mount Sinai has been criticized for weeks over its decision to collaborate with Samaritan’s Purse. Jason Kaplan, a spokesman for the hospital network, said the decision was based on the fact that “this virus kills people of every religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation.”

Mr. Kaplan also said that Samaritan’s Purse had agreed to adhere to Mount Sinai’s anti-discrimination policies.

“Mount Sinai and Samaritan’s Purse are unified in our mission to provide the same world-class care to anyone and everyone who needs it,” Mr. Kaplan said in an email. “No questions asked.”

Mr. Graham has defended the group’s views and its “statement of faith” as a matter of religious freedom. But the group’s vision of Christianity, and the role it plays in its operations, has caused concern in New York, including among some Christians.

Last week, a plan to turn the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, into a virus hospital was abruptly shelved after tension between the diocese, which promotes a more inclusive form of Christianity, and Samaritan’s Purse, whose workers were set to staff the facility.

Mount Sinai said the plan was put on hold because the number of virus-related hospitalizations in New York had begun to level off. Behind the scenes, though, Episcopal leaders said they believed it might still have proceeded if Samaritan’s Purse had not been involved.

Did you read that? Even the Episcopalians won’t have him.

And Mount Sinai is lying.

You know what grieves me? It’s the sense of Martyrdom. These people are bigoted assholes and should rightly be shunned by everyone regardless of Faith. Who wants to be around them anyway?

More Zack Morris, who is still trash.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

The Titanic sinks off the coast of Newfoundland; President Abraham Lincoln dies; Jackie Robinson becomes first African American player in Major League Baseball; US launches air raid against Libya; Cambodian Communist revolutionary Pol Pot dies; Punk rocker Joey Ramone dies at age 49.

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.

Ray Bradbury

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Like Bullwinkle J. I keep all my money stashed in my mattress so Market pertubations don’t disturb me much, however I am so off the grid I debate whether jumping through hoops is worth it.

From our good friend dday.

Your Coronavirus Check Is Coming. Your Bank Can Grab It.
by David Dayen, The American Prospect
April 14, 2020

This week, the $1,200 CARES Act payments Congress approved in response to the coronavirus crisis will begin to appear in Americans’ bank accounts. The funds will be wired to eligible recipients who previously authorized the IRS to post their refunds (or Social Security payments) through direct deposit. This will speed relief far more quickly than having the IRS mail a check, which could take up to five months.

But the money may not make it into the hands of those who need it to pay bills, buy food, or just survive amid mass unemployment and widespread suffering. Individuals might first have to fend off their own bank, which has just been given the power to seize the $1,200 payment and use it to pay off outstanding debt.

Congress did not exempt CARES Act payments from private debt collection, and the Treasury Department has been reluctant to exempt them through its rulemaking authority. This means that individuals could see their payments transferred from their hands into the hands of their creditors, potentially leaving them with nothing.

Banks would be first in line to grab the payments to offset a delinquent loan or past-due fees. Even if the individual thinks their account with that bank is closed, if the payments post there, the bank could conceivably use them to cover old debts.

The Treasury Department effectively blessed this activity on a webinar with banking officials last week. In audio obtained by the Prospect, Ronda Kent, chief disbursing officer with Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, can be heard explaining that banks had posed questions to her about “whether these payments could be subject to collection from the bank to which the money is deposited, if the payee owes an outstanding loan or other payments to the bank.” She responded—twice—that “there’s nothing in the law that precludes that action,” while counseling that the banks’ compliance officers should consult with their legal offices about what policies their banks will implement. “You will want to know for your bank what your bank has decided to do,” Kent said.

An official at a financial institution who was on the call and wishes to remain anonymous said that Kent’s comments, translated from regulator-ese, mean: “We don’t want to say anything explicitly and are telling you to make a business decision.” In other words, the statement was a green light for banks to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis to collect prior debt.

“At a time when people are desperate to buy food, the idea that anybody would grab [the $1,200 payments], let alone the banks they trust with their money, is appalling,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director with the National Consumer Law Center.

Not that I’m telling you Banks are bad and evil, though they are.

Pelosi looks to seize Trump’s bully pulpit
By HEATHER CAYGLE and SARAH FERRIS, Poltico
04/14/2020

As President Donald Trump beams into American homes with his daily coronavirus briefings, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided the best way to counter him is to be everywhere — even if that means doing so from her San Francisco kitchen.

Almost daily, Pelosi pops up on one network or another — even cycling through the late-night talk show junket — dropping in for interviews from a computer propped up on a dining room table that sits just off her West Coast kitchen.

“He has the bully pulpit and that’s a good thing for a president to have. It’s a bad thing for the health of the country if the president is not speaking truth,” Pelosi said in an interview. “Our purpose is really to say how do we follow the science, the evidence, the data … that will take us down from this.”
…
And as a top negotiator in those trillion-dollar talks, Pelosi has worked to hold the line against Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding to go bigger even if it meant delaying a deal for days as unemployment numbers and political pressure increased.

“When you’re in a war, your first priority is force protection, protecting the troops. Our front-line workers need the equipment they deserve,” Pelosi said of the ongoing negotiations on a private call with her caucus on Monday, according to multiple Democrats.

Pelosi lashed Trump for talking about rushing to reopen the economy — possibly as soon as May 1 — without evidence that the virus will have abated enough to ensure Americans are safe.

“During this period of reflection and the rest, I am really very afraid of what the president may do. He’s not learning from his past mistakes,” Pelosi told Democrats on the call. “He’s talking about reopening — and on the basis of what?”

Congressional stalemate deepens as Pelosi, Schumer say they won’t budge on coronavirus funding demands
By Erica Werner, Washington Post
April 13, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Monday that they won’t agree to the Trump administration’s insistence on more money for small business loans unless their demands are met for additional funding for hospitals, state and local governments and food stamp recipients.
…
Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Schumer (D-N.Y.) also rejected suggestions from President Trump that the country could reopen quickly, saying “there is still not enough testing available to realistically allow that to happen.”

The back-and-forth between Mnuchin and the Democratic leaders on Monday followed a Saturday statement from congressional GOP leaders in which they, too, rejected the Democrats’ demands and showed no interest in negotiating.

The developments appeared to harden a stalemate on Capitol Hill over how or when the federal government will take further action to address the worsening economic impacts of the coronavirus, with millions newly unemployed and much commerce in the nation at a virtual standstill as the U.S. confronts recession conditions.

She should hang tough because Republicans are desperate to avoid a declining Economy headed into November even though at this point it’s inevitable. Also they’ve already started to cheat on Phase 3, why indulge them? Clawbacks and restrictions! More Aid to States to shore up Budgets and to the Poor who don’t have any money and can’t get any.

‘Almost sinful’: Pelosi skewers Trump over threats to reopen country too soon
By SARAH FERRIS and HEATHER CAYGLE, Politico
04/13/2020

Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed President Donald Trump during a private call with her caucus Monday, saying he was putting Americans in grave danger if he rushes to reopen the economy at the end of this month.

Pelosi sharply criticized Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, telling Democrats it was “almost sinful” how his administration had failed to live up to promises to make testing available to all Americans and quickly address the mask, gown and glove supply shortage in hospitals across the country.

“The more misrepresentations he puts out there, the more it obscures the truth,” Pelosi told Democrats, according to multiple sources on the call. “We have to insist upon the truth — what they’re saying is not knowledge, is not facts, is not real.”

Pelosi returned to her criticism of Trump multiple times during the two-hour call, saying without a plan for adequate testing and contact tracing, it would be impossible for the president to guarantee Americans a safe reentry into their normal life.

The California Democrat said it was up to Democrats to speak out about the administration’s missteps, calling the lack of national testing and protective equipment for medical providers months after the first U.S. coronavirus case “a complete failure.”

“And we cannot let them lie about it,” she added, according to Democrats on the call.

Only as bad as the Flu.