Below is my column in the New York Post on the Associated Press guideline for reporters to avoid calling Hamas a terrorist organization. Voice of America and other media outlets have made the same decision. This is not about supporting the Palestinian cause. It is about correctly describing a group that commits terrorist attacks as a terrorist organization.
Here is the column:
Confucius once said that “the beginning of wisdom is the ability to call things by their right names.”
That does not appear to be the approach of the Associated Press this week after the media organization told its reporters not to call Hamas fighters “terrorists” after they massacred civilians, raped women, and took a couple hundred hostages from Israel on Oct. 7.
The Voice of America issued its own instruction to avoid calling Hamas “terrorists.”
According to the AP, these fighters are to be called “militants” because the term “terrorist” has “become politicized.”
But there is nothing “politicized” in recognizing that Hamas intentionally targeted civilians, including mowing down unarmed participants at a peace concert.
They burned civilians alive in their homes and raped women.
They intentionally and systemically took civilian hostages, including children and the elderly.
The acts defined the actors. These were terrorist acts and those who committed them were by definition terrorists.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism defines terrorism as “any … act intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to a civilian, or to any other person not taking an active part in the hostilities in a situation of armed conflict, when the purpose of such act, by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.”
The United Nations Security Council specifically includes with this definition “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages.”
Nevertheless, the Associated Press reportedly issued an “Israel-Hamas Topical Guide,” which noted that “terrorism and terrorist have become politicized, and often are applied inconsistently.” Thus “the AP is not using the terms for specific actions or groups, other than in direct quotations.”
This isn’t the first time the AP has made strikingly artificial language choices.
For example, AP reporters were told to avoid using the word “surge” to describe the record number of migrants crossing the border.
Likewise, when there was violence and looting in various cities after the George Floyd killing, AP told its reporters to use “milder terms” like “unrest” rather than “riots.”
Yet when it came to January 6, AP routinely referred to the riot as an “insurrection” (here, here, here).
Notably, in one article titled “Riot? Insurrection? Words Matter in Describing the Capitol Siege,” the AP noted that other mainstream media were using “riot” but also raised the possible terms “sedition” and “coup attempt.”
For the record, I criticized President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 speech while he was still giving it and wrote that his theory on the election and the certification challenge was unfounded.
I denounced the riot as a desecration of our constitutional process. However, it was not an insurrection, in my view. It was a protest that became a riot.
AP and some other outlets do not want to call it a riot not because it isn’t accurate, but because it is not sufficiently vilifying.
Conversely, the media are often eager to avoid “riot” as too judgmental.
Reporters actually told a chief of police not to use the word “riot” in reference to violence by protesters against police.
Similarly, as billions in property damages were occurring in various cities, Craig Melvin, an MSNBC host and co-anchor of “Today,” tweeted a “guide” that the images “on the ground” were not to be described as rioting but rather “protests.”
He noted, “This will guide our reporting in MN. While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as ‘protests’ — not riots.”
Polls have shown that most of the public view January 6 as a riot.
A CBS poll showed that 76% viewed it for what it was, a “protest gone too far.” The view that it was an actual “insurrection” was far less settled, with almost half rejecting the claim, a division breaking along partisan lines.
Obviously, people can disagree, but this would seem an obvious example where the AP would refrain from using the most loaded term of “insurrection” given the legal and factual contradictions in such usage.
The concern is that AP is showing bias in the use of such terms. Journalism schools now teach young reporters to follow an advocacy model in “leaving neutrality behind.”
Likewise, Stanford journalism professor Ted Glasser insisted that journalism needed to “free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice.”
Recently, former executive editor for the Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward released their survey of leading journalists and outlets and also concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful.
Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.”
Downie explained that news organizations now “believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading ‘bothsidesism’ in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects.
“And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”
That view was echoed by Kathleen Carroll, former executive editor at the Associated Press, who declared, “It’s objective by whose standard? … That standard seems to be White, educated, and fairly wealthy.”
The response of the public has been consistent and clear: Trust in the media is at an all-time low.
Roughly 40% of the public has zero trust in the media. Likewise, 50% of Americans believe that the media lie to them to advance their own agendas.
Much of that distrust has occurred over what were viewed as false descriptions.
The best example was the “Let’s Go Brandon” incident.
In that case, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast was doing an interview with race car driver Brandon Brown after he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
During the interview, Stavast’s questions were drowned out by loud-and-clear chants of “F—k Joe Biden.” Stavast quickly declared, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’ ”
“Let’s Go Brandon” has become a type of Yankee Doodling of the media by the public. It reflected an exasperation with framing and revisionism by the media in describing events.
There is no greater disconnect than describing an attack killing hundreds of unarmed civilians and taking hundreds of hostages as the acts of “militants.”
There is wisdom that comes from calling things by the right name. This was terrorism.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
During the 90 days that began on April 6 in 1994, Rwanda experienced the most intensive slaughter in this blood-filled century
Families murdered in their home, people hunted down as they fled by soldiers and militia, through farmland and woods as if they were animals.
“All over the world there were people like me sitting in offices who did not fully appreciate the depth and speed with which you were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.” clinton lies
He had inadequately reacted to the genocide, he said, because he had not really known what had been happening in Rwanda.
a. As the Archive notes, “beginning April 8th, the massacres in Rwanda were reported on the front pages of major newspapers and on radio and television broadcasts almost daily, including the major papers read by U.S. officials and policy elites.” And at that time human rights activists in Washington–who had close relationships with national security adviser Tony Lake and staff members of Clinton’s national security council–were pounding on the doors of the White House demanding action and suggesting options.
THE NATION
David Corn
And Trump is a lying bum?
And Trump is a lying bum?
MY G-D!
Our radical Left-Wing communists remain utterly silent.
We owe a real apology to those poor people. We were legally committed to help them, to intervene. My country is a disgrace. I am ashamed of America.
Notice the work “genocidal” is never applied to Muslim thoughts and actions?
All Recall how, after the Waukesha Christmas Parade Massacre, the MSM immediately labeled it a “Parade Crash” like it was a traffic accident!
Since it was a blatant racist attack that didn’t fit The Narrative, the Media Coverage quickly evaporated!
https://media.townhall.com/cdn/hodl/cartoons/alg102623dAPR-800×0.jpg
“We will cut throats, and from vein to vein, if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation.”
Whose throats? Female broadcasters. Why? Because the morality police didn’t like how they dressed. Which nation? Iran? — No. Afghanistan? — No. *Gaza*.
Hamas is the Taliban in Gaza. It is a brutal dictatorship that enforces Sharia law. There are no rights in Gaza — no right to free speech, to assemble, protest. There is no freedom of religion or of the press. There is no such thing as education. There is only Sharia religious law force fed to young students.
When you refuse to call a terrorist government terrorists, when you protest to support that dictatorship — you endorse its barbarism against its own people. And you endorse its brutal murder of Israelis.
To refuse to brand the Hamas invaders as terrorists is to do a disservice not only to accuracy but to the terrorists themselves, as terror, realistically the only weapon left in their arsenal, is obviously what they intended to deliver. The real question is whether this latest tragedy is just another bump-in-the-road for Israel’s divide and diminish policy, or will the brutality and horror it has engendered force them to treat Palestinians as a people rather than an infestation.
Pretty despicable of you to blame the victim, especially when Israel has time and again been willing to exchange land for peace but the Palestinians will not accept the very existence of Israel under any circumstances.
You might as well say the Jews of Europe “engendered” Nazi brutality by being so good with money.
…will the brutality and horror it has engendered force them to treat Palestinians as a people rather than an infestation.
You likely would defend yourself if a group of belligerents stood outside your house, aimed rifles and started shooting at you, your spouse, children and loved ones inside your house. For the sake of simplicity (and for the lurkers, to whom I am actually addressing my comment), let’s assume you have a spouse, children, loved ones and own a home where you raise a family. You likely would not open the drapes, turn the lights inside your home, nor line your family into a straight line so that your adversaries can shoot everyone dead with one single shot apiece. No, you would likely throw a weapon into the hands of each of your family members, you personally would possibly reach for your handy dandy AR-15 with cases of ammo purchased recently as whites, hispanics, blacks and jews have done in America, and instruct everyone to shoot your adversaries dead. You would roar like a lion, thump your chest, your children would shoot the b*stards dead, and then you would pour a glass of Malbec Wine, vintage 2016, Mendoza County, Argentina, to celebrate. It is a kill or be killed scenario. This isn’t that difficult.
Israel should do likewise against Gaza and West Bank occupants. These occupants are Hamas enablers, sympathizers, and members. When Hamas kills Jews, as they have since Oct 7 in vivo, they use the phones of their dead Jewish victims to call their parents to tell them they killed Jews. Hamas was elected by all of Gaza/West Bank occupants decades ago to govern them. Those occupants know exactly what Hamas does. In fact, this is the same argument the Left Wing in America use on “Whites” regarding “reparations” to blacks. No one living today in America is responsible for blacks enduring slavery in America. Yet, the Leftists thunder daily that all Whites Ameicans are guilty for the sins against blacks in America >150+ years ago. So it follows, the occupants of Gaza and West Bank are Hamas. The occupants support Hamas, cheer for Hamas, have no intention of leaving Gaza/West Bank even after being warned by Israel repeatedly these past several weeks. They wish, desire, demand to die side by side with Hamas because they are one in the same, just like the Left say that all Whites are racists by virtue of “white privilege” (snort). So be it.
Israel should drive all of the occupants of Gaza/West Bank into the Med Sea, Egypt, Lebanon, or into the ground, dead or alive, knowing that if they fail to do so, the occupants of Gaza/West Bank will never stop until every Jew is dead. The occupants keep reminding Jews of the latter. As I have stated on here many times, this is in the history of Muslims, dating back to 700 AD. Muslims today occupy regions of the Med Sea / Middle East, only because they killed Christians and Jews to displace them. Jews need their land as promised by God to them in the Old Testament. This written testimony, as recorded by writers 1000 BC, predates the creation of Islam circa 650 AD.
Memo to Israelis: carpet bomb all of Gaza/West Bank, or else they will carpet bomb you
St Thomas Aquinas’ just war theory applies:
In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war is to be waged. For it is not the business of a private individual to declare war, because he can seek for redress of his rights from the tribunal of his superior. Moreover it is not the business of a private individual to summon together the people, which has to be done in wartime. And as the care of the common weal is committed to those who are in authority, it is their business to watch over the common weal of the city, kingdom or province subject to them. And just as it is lawful for them to have recourse to the sword in defending that common weal against internal disturbances, when they punish evil-doers, according to the words of the Apostle (Romans 13:4): “He beareth not the sword in vain: for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil”; so too, it is their business to have recourse to the sword of war in defending the common weal against external enemies. Hence it is said to those who are in authority (Psalm 81:4): “Rescue the poor: and deliver the needy out of the hand of the sinner”; and for this reason Augustine says (Contra Faust. xxii, 75): “The natural order conducive to peace among mortals demands that the power to declare and counsel war should be in the hands of those who hold the supreme authority.”
Secondly, a just cause is required, namely that those who are attacked, should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault. Wherefore Augustine says (QQ. in Hept., qu. x, super Jos.): “A just war is wont to be described as one that avenges wrongs, when a nation or state has to be punished, for refusing to make amends for the wrongs inflicted by its subjects, or to restore what it has seized unjustly.”
Thirdly, it is necessary that the belligerents should have a rightful intention, so that they intend the advancement of good, or the avoidance of evil. Hence Augustine says (De Verb. Dom. [The words quoted are to be found not in St. Augustine’s works, but Can. Apud. Caus. xxiii, qu. 1): “True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement, or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil-doers, and of uplifting the good.” For it may happen that the war is declared by the legitimate authority, and for a just cause, and yet be rendered unlawful through a wicked intention. Hence Augustine says (Contra Faust. xxii, 74): “The passion for inflicting harm, the cruel thirst for vengeance, an unpacific and relentless spirit, the fever of revolt, the lust of power, and such like things, all these are rightly condemned in war.”
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3040.htm
Excellent comment Estovir!
To refuse to brand the Hamas invaders as terrorists is to do a disservice not only to accuracy but to the terrorists themselves, as terror, realistically the only weapon
leftin their arsenal, is obviously what they intended to deliver.Actually, to refuse to brand them as terrorists is to ignore the very charter that guides their purpose for existence. Don’t be fooled by their 2017 amended charter. They’re still genocidal monsters. https://palwatch.org/storage/documents/hamas%20new%20policy%20document%20010517.pdf
The real question for you is where are you getting your magic mushrooms?
On the Destruction of Israel:
—————————–
‘Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will
obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.’ (Preamble)
Rejection of a Negotiated Peace Settlement:
——————————————-
‘[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and
international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of
the Islamic Resistance Movement… Those conferences are no more than
a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of
Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by
Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a
waste of time, an exercise in futility.’ (Article 13)
Prof. Turley, I find it interesting–nay, distressing–that for years the left has been warning us about white supremacists being the anti-semites we should fear, yet it’s Muslims and Muslim supporters who are against Jews vis-à-vis their BS claims that they are against Israel, not Jews. It’s anti-Semitism and, yes, Hamas are terrorists. They are the new Nazis who Jews should fear.
Professor Turley cites: Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.” An interesting view of American journalism because objectivity has always been viewed as sort of mythical. At best it has been acknowledged by its most renown practioners as no more, nor less objective than expertise in any other form of narrative practice, especially law. Part science, lots of art. That at most, objectivity is a means, a tool, for shaping discourse designed to persuade based on inferences from evidence at hand. The issue here one of the AP’s authority or its credibility. Given that disinterested impartiality in judgment is an ideal (we are all Kantians) advocacy journalism remains the true ground of evolving news reporting.
Jonathan: Well, he has done it again. DJT was in Judge Engoron’s courtroom yesterday in NY to hear and see the testimony of Michael Cohen. DJT scowled a lot at Cohen. During a break outside the courtroom DJT told the assembled press: “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is”. In a previous episode Engoron fined DJT $5,000 for doxing his clerk by name on Truth Social. Apparently, DJT’s latest comments got back to Judge Engoron. After the hearing resumed Engoron called DJT to the witness stand and asked DJT who he was referring to outside the courtroom. DJT replied: “You and Cohen”. Engoron was having none of it because the person “sitting alongside” of him is his clerk. Engoron replied: “As the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible” and this time imposed a $10,000 fine. Engoron also warned DJT that if he continued to attack judges and clerks there would be “severe consequences”. DJT then stormed out of the courtroom with his Secret Service detail chasing him.
It is unlikely DJT will show up again at his civil fraud trial. But who knows. He craves attention and never misses an opportunity to get press coverage. But this time that stakes are high. If convicted DJT could lose his real estate empire. This is a bench trial with no jury. A prudent defendant should not want to alienate the judge when everything he holds dear could go up in smoke. But that is exactly what DJT is doing. I think DJT realizes he has already lost the NY AG Letitia James case so he is acting like a caged animal–striking out in every direction. So I would expect DJT to continue his bizarre and threatening antics right up to the point when Engoron pronounces judgment against him.
YAWN
That judge is a pedophile lawless ex cab driver, who brags about sideswiping constitutional rights.
Can you say impeachment and conviction?
A sane, objective, and impartial judge who subscribes to constitutional American freedom and free enterprise would have thrown this political clown show and Soviet-style “show trial out before the ink was dry on the docket.
The post is about Hamas, terrorism, and murdered Jews, not Trump. Why don’t you start your own blog and you can have your obsessive rants about Trump all day?
Someone comments on this thread:
“Turley claims that the public distrusts media and many believe it lies to them. This is directly attributable to the “media” he works for (by which I believe from the rest of the comment the someone means the Fox News Channel but Turley writes for many media outlets).”
1. The distrust of the media is not a “Turley claim.” Gallup and other mainstream research groups have found a steady decrease in trust of the media over the last 50-60 years. It is now at its lowest point ever (matching the previous all time low during the Hillary Clinton media blitz of 2016). https://news.gallup.com/poll/512861/media-confidence-matches-2016-record-low.aspx
2. The steady decrease began 25 years BEFORE the creation of Fox News Channel (plus it always amazes me that leftists make this claim about FNC when fewer than 1% of adults even watch it; do leftists believe that this measly 1%-* of Americans have some inordinate amount of control over the other 75% of Americans who distrust the media?)
___________
*Per Nielsen last time I checked but it’s been a few months
Dennis Byron,
Well said and interesting comment.
I have had several comment that I am some pro-Trump loving Fox News watcher when I have stated many times on the good professor’s blog that I have not had cable in over 10 years. I do not watch Fox or MSM in general but get my news from Independent news sources. And I did not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020, but third party. S. Meyer and myself had a long and interesting conversation about it.
Yet, Fox news seems to be the boogeyman they love to pin everything on.
Heck, as I understand it, leftist liberals watch more of Fox news than most conservatives.
Upstatefarmer, spot-on. I’m amazed at how well-versed the communist commenters are regarding what Fox News broadcasts. I don’t watch Fox, but it’s interesting to see how much they do.
Upstate, like you I got rid of cable media years and years ago (I actually have a cable coming into my house for the local broadcast channels and for the Internet) and also like you I did not vote for Trump (in fact I have not voted in any national election since 1992 because my vote for Clinton then was such a disappointment in terms of what he promised vs what he supported-*). I am totally apolitical… I think they’re all hacks based on years involved in local nonpartisan government activity where I have lived
In my now coming up on 20-year-long retirement, I have done and continue to do a lot of research into and helping people with their Social Security and Medicare decisions. I found in doing that research that almost anything the left says about those two subjects, the opposite is true. I subsequently believe (but not based on rigorous research) that that is true of anything the left says.
(I think you are probably right about leftists watching FNC but they probably don’t admit that to Nielsen so aren’t part of the 1% 🙂 )
________
*Years later however I did thank Clinton for signing Medicare Part C into law and conceiving the Part D that Bush later signed (and which Biden ended last year)
There’s one indisputable fact in this equation: Fox, News Max, Breitbart, and other alt-right news organizations constantly beat the drum that mainstream media LIE, that they can’t be trusted or only tell half-truths, all because they don’t harp on things like the ‘Hunter Biden Scandal”, they didn’t push the “Big Lie”, they don’t constantly defend Trump or attack Hillary Clinton, they don’t carry Trump rallies, and they don’t push conspiracy theories Mainstream media don’t call Biden “senile” or a “criminal” or accuse him of being the head of a “Biden Crime Family”. Also, PBS, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, et al, NEVER accuse those alt-right media of lying or suggest to their viewers that they shouldn’t watch. That fact alone is very telling if you were trying to decide WHO is spreading propaganda for political reasons. It’s not mainstream media, who are populated by real journalists, not ministers of propaganda. It’s sad that so many people fall for their lies.
Huh? There is NO equation. There is the gold standard of media research saying that only 1% or less of adults watch Fox News Channel. Maybe if you add all the rest of the things you mentioned which I’ve never heard of, it becomes 1.5%.
So back to the question I asked and that you seem to be dodging: “Do you believe that this measly 1.5% of Americans have some inordinate amount of control over the other 64.5% of Americans who also distrust the media?”
Why do you seem to have trouble grasping the point that if a person does not watch media outlet X, it cannot be propaganized by it or otherwise be influenced by it. The vast vast vast percentage of people who do not trust the media according to Gallop are watching “PBS, xxxxx, CBS, ABC, NBC, xxx, et al,” not Fox News Channel (I had to x out MSNBC and CNN from your list because even fewer people watch them… their adult vieweship does not even add up to Fox’s COMBINED)
Your numbers are off.
From Pew Research (Nov. 2019 study), 39% of adults got political news from Fox within the past week. Fox is not just a channel, it is a media organization with a website, etc.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/04/08/five-facts-about-fox-news/
Brookings (2023): 25% of GOP are Fox consumers (though, the other options were not mutually exclusive – i.e., “social media consumer” could be reading a Fox article):
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/whether-he-debates-or-not-trump-owes-a-lot-to-fox-news/
And, as you know, Fox’s primetime hosts are providers of opinion (or in the words of Tucker’s lawyers, “entertainment”), not fact-based news.
Please, don’t cloud the issue with facts when Gigi has her “indisputable” reality.
To the person who is too cowardly to use her name
In finding that only about 1% of adults in the United States watch Fox News Channel, I prefer to use the apolitical gold standard of media research – Nielsen – rather than the two far left wing sources you posted (and in the process you mixed apples and minerals with the Brookings blather – my research sources is talking about ALL adults, yours is talking about registered Republicans) https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-cable-news-nielsen-ratings-for-q3-2023/538247/ and you totally misquoted the Pew Research)
But even if your Brookings source is half right, back to my original question which the left totally avoids: “Do you believe that this measly 10% of Americans have some inordinate amount of control over the other 65% of Americans who also distrust the media?”
Welcome to Turley’s no-rules crapsite, where people who post comments under their real names get defamed and banned, and trolls with multiple fake screen names flood the comment section with juvenile, brain-damaged BS.
Ralph, seriously dude, One can’t help but wonder why you are still here. All you do anymore is post your own whiny crap several times a day, obsessing over screen names. You seem so miserable. Wouldn’t you be happier if you just go hang out all day with your fellow Trumpsters?
Have you any idea what it looks like to stand in the pig sh!t all day and blame the pigs?
Keep showing the world what Turleyville is really all about, Tom.
This waste of bandwidth was YOUR doing, jackwad. You’re commie in fascist clothing. You create the crapola, then try to put it off on someone else. Classic lefty tactics from a right wing nut. Same as the string of comments below with Jimmy. If you dont want these kinds of replies, then kindly mind your own business.
Or, just keep standing in the crap and complaining about.
It was terrorism but so were the blm “riots” and they were riots bc i heard of a guy who sss. $150k peace of equipment was destroyed and the insurance didn’t cover it …. bc it was a riot. So yay wirds do matter. Bw. Who let the dawg out? Who who who? Re.
Gigi
Ok, here we go again. Just repeating a lie doesn’t make it true, no matter how many times its repeated, nor by how many. You’ve been told that ad nauseum.
But since you insist on doubling down on stupid, I will destroy your response, line by line, even though I know you’ll either just run away again or repeat the same lies and claim it’s from “reputable sources”.
You claim Joe Biden hasn’t done anything positive? If you think this, it’s because you are a disciple to alt-right media and the cult of Trump.
Several lies here.
1. I am not a “cult45er”. Didn’t vote for him in either election, but I will this time because of a)people like you and b) Biden is destroying our country.
2. I guess you didn’t read the part about how SEVENTY SIX PERCENT think the country is headed in the WRONG direction. So now 76% are disciples of alt-right media?
3. You can LIE and call Fox News alt-right all you want, and I’m sure it looks like that to you in pink-o land, but it will NEVER be true and EVERY TIME you say it, it reduces your already pitiful credibility and frankly, just makes you look foolish. Using the term is much more a reflection of who and what YOU are, than those you seek to disparage. As evidence, take a look at the RATINGS, dum dum. Which single network do a LARGE plurality of people watch? Alt-right suggests a fringe or non-mainstream viewpoint. In fact, why don’t you look up the definition right now and get back to us?
Among other accomplishments, Biden got passed the Chips Act, the Infrastructure Act, the Debt Ceiling Act, the Inflation Control Act and other legislation that benefits everyone.
First Lie… There is NO SUCH THING as the Inflation Control Act House Resolution Number 5376 is called the INFLATION REDUCTION ACT. And IT is a lie perpetrated on ill and under-informed Americans, because it admittedly does nothing to reduce inflation. It was passed thru the Senate WITHOUT bipartisan support, as is the norm, under a process known as reconciliation, which the Dems used repeatedly to pass legislation that was not suitable for compromise. By the way, who was the final Dem holdout and why did he/she finally agree to vote yes? Go look it up, because I know you have no clue.
Infrastructure Act. Name ONE thing that has or will be accomplished in your district from this act. $550 Billion in new spending, what a FANTASTIC accomplishment from a guy who unveiled the plan at $4 TRILLION.
Chips Act Now you’re just trying to make us laugh. Was that the Act that caused gas prices to soar to over $4.00 a gallon or mortgage rates to skyrocket to 8%? By the way, Gigi, you never told us all how much more a person has to spend on a $250k home at 8%, than they do at 3%. Let’s put it this way, even at $4 a gallon, it would buy A LOT of gas.
Debt Ceiling Act You call this an accomplishment that he “got passed”? Jeezus, can’t you be serious for even one second? The “no negotiation, clean raise the debt ceiling” Joe? Why did it get passed Gigi, do you even know? Go look it up and report back.
He has mended relations with our NATO and EU allies.
Really?? How exactly did he do that? By telling them they really don’t have to pay 2% of GDP, as they promised they would? No. By parading his sorry POS son around with him all over Europe? No. Who did you speak to at NATO that said everything was much better now?
He turned around the economic disaster left by the orange one you worship into the best unemployment rate in 50 years.
You keep getting schooled on this LIE and yet you just keep repeating it.
a) “orange one you worship” proves my earlier point that you are the poster child for TDS. It’s no wonder you don’t like the term. You seek to discredit someone by using the phrase, but it only discredits you.
b) not a fan of trump, but even less a fan of 8% inflation, $4 gas, and DOUBLING my house payment due to interest.
c) Unemployment numbers mean NOTHING, and this imbecilic argument of yours has been torched many times before. First of all, that is a number of people actively seeking employment. Actually, its not even that right now…its the number of people collecting a check until it runs out and they move on to the next READILY AVAILABLE job. There are 12 million more jobs than workforce and that IS NOT because of Biden. Trumps numbers pre-pandemic were comparable, and better in the brown and black communities. And the rest of his pre-pandemic economy put Biden’s to literal SHAME. PERIOD. You need a new talking point, that one ain’t flying here or anywhere outside your bubble.
He is bringing inflation under control, brought about by Trump’s stupid trade war and the shortages of consumer goods and computer chips that resulted.
OMG is there no limit to your audacious falsehoods? First, the inflation BIDEN created isn’t “under control”, nor will it be in the foreseeable future. Also, inflation is cumulative. I am trying real hard not to call you names like ignorant and stupid, but the further I read, the harder it gets. Inflation isn’t brought on by “trade wars”. Where did you get that?? WTF do you think happens when you start printing $6 TRILLION? It makes your dollar worth LESS. Do you understand that? Because if you don’t, there is no discussing this with you. You should just stop and let the grownups talk. When your dollar is worth less, it takes more of them to buy the same goods. Also, the price of fuel affects the price of EVERYTHING, including the cost to make EVERYTHING and the cost to deliver EVERYTHING and the cost to do EVERYTHING. And I am laughing my a$$ off at the last assertion. Those shortages had nothing to do with the pandemic??? Just stop.
Biden got COVID under control, too, so Americans are no longer dying in record numbers.
ANOTHER LIE. What did “Biden” DO to get it under control? As I recall, he caught it himself? How the heck did that happen? In fact the multi boosted, masked moron has had it TWICE! Every time he did, how did he get it? From someone he knew had it??? No! So how many people did he unknowingly give it to? You call that “Biden got it under control”? Sounds to me like the only thing he personally did was SPREAD it. You can’t possibly have this small of an intellect. You seriously don’t know why the virus has waned and why less people are dying? Biden? WTF? A magic wand? Get a grip. Less people are dying because the virus isn’t as prevalent and many of the most vulnerable are ALREADY DEAD. MORE THAN HALF of them AFTER BIDEN took office, IN SPITE of the fact that he had a VACCINE and THERAPEUTICS. Explain that, if its the Presidents fault how many people die. Biden is why less people are dying now??? I mean, how to even reason with someone that insists on acting that stupid?
Those who think the country is headed in the wrong direction are pathetically uninformed, just like you are.
WOW, talk about some DENIAL! I say 76% and you say they are uninformed, and you have the answers. Does 76% of the country watch this media you speak of? They look out their door, at the gas prices, at the food prices, at their house payment, at their bank accounts, at their record credit card bills, at the drag queen story hour, at the corruption in the white house, at the idiots on our college campuses. They don’t need you, me or ANYONE else to GIVE THEM THEIR OPINION, you numbskull. Is that what you want, to give everyone their opinion? It is, isn’t it? Admit it. You want to “inform” them, so they won’t pay attention to their bank accounts or their children’s failures or the depravity around them. Reprogramming, that’s the answer.
They blame Biden for things like migrants swarming our border–
Gee, why would they do that when he said “We want people to SURGE to the boarder”, during the Presidential primary debates. Remember that?
when it is Congress that has failed to act to change our asylum laws. Present law allows anyone to apply for asylum.
No, it doesn’t. What change in the asylum law will fix it, GIgi??? You got the answer??
ANOTHER LIE. To legally apply for asylum, you MUST enter through a port of entry. Anyone entering illegally between ports of entry is to be a) immediately deported on the first attempt and b)arrested on the second attempt. Our asylum laws also do not allow for asylum on the basis of economic status. But Nancy Pelosi said the quiet part out loud didn’t she? “We need them to pick the cwops” (meaning crops, but she talks like elmer fudd with those falsies).
If Republicans don’t like this, why don’t they sit down with Democrats and change the law? Why don’t they? So they can blame Joe Biden for migrants swarming our southern border–and, the blame-shifting is working.
The President has all the power he needs to fix this. He doesn’t want to. We all know why. Nancy told us.
Who shall we blame for lifting “remain in Mexico”? Hint—–BIDEN
I SAID ‘it was reported” that 5,800 Palestinians have died–this is from the BBC and multiple other foreign news sources actually present in Gaza–are they liars?
Where did they get their info Gigi the LIAR? Like I said, from the same source that said the hospital was flattened by the Israelis and over 500 people died. F-ing lies. And when you repeat them, you’re a LIAR. You’ve had this explained to you before. They lied about the hospital. Is there ANY possibility at all that they are not lying about the casualty count? I seriously doubt it. And YOU have no idea. So using those numbers to make a point is at the least inauthentic. I use the term liar instead because you have repeatedly shown yourself to be one.
You do this because you are part of the cult of Trump and are indoctrinated into attacking anyone who doesn’t agree with your personal views.
I was a well informed conservative long before Trump came along. Just look at how I use real source material and proper terminology and you use “media outlets” and vague BS. (Inflation Control Act??? Where’d you get that one??) You miss the mark again, as you have done many times in attempting to disparage someone’s views, because you think that Trump created the populist movement. That is why you are going to lose “bigly” in 2024, whether Trump is in jail or not.
And by the way, the populist movement didn’t create Trump either. YOU did.
Exemply gratia:
“Elections have consequences”—BHO’s excuse for ruling by fiat
Abolish the filibuster and then—
Add 4 Dem Senators
Pack the Supreme Court
Abolish the Electoral College
Who would do such a thing? DEMOCRATS
Why? So they never have to deal with that pesky “minority” again.
I don’t speak for “most people”??? No, just 76%. We will see who “most people” are next year brainiac.
@Jimmy,
C’mon man, you may not be an orange man umpa loompa ?sp? but admit it. You’d vote for him over Brandon.
-G
I would NEVER vote for Brandon, that is a fact. Just look at his three question “press conference” today. Dude can’t even finish a thought. How many times have we seen him stop, sigh, pause for 3 pregnant seconds, and then say “well anyway”.
I mean WTF is that, Gigi?
@Jimmy,
Sorry mate, but that -G comment was me.
gigi is way too funny and I honestly couldn’t pretend enough to dumb down anything to match her posts.
My sister and I had a conversation w her son (very liberal) where he accused us of being Trumpers.
My sister put it best… waving her hands like she was a scale… Trump vs. Hillary Trump is the lesser evil.
Trump vs, Brandon? Again lesser evil.
I have friends who are more conservative / right of me… who actually voted for Brandon out of spite for Trump.
Funny thing is… they now regret that decision.
G is for Gumby….
-G
Gigi has NO critical thinking skills, and I don’t find it humorous at all. I find it sad. She cuts and pastes talking points and quotes media outlets like they are not left wing hacks, all the while criticizing any media thats not left wing. She has had her lies and misinformation pointed out many times, but just keeps repeating them. Generalities like “Trump’s fault” with no basis whatsoever. When she tries to invoke details, she steps in doo doo EVERY TIME. Like claiming that the inflation rate when Trump left office was 8%. How you gonna reason with someone who has that reality?
Prescription drug price negotiations? LMAO Clearly no clue how the process works nor how drugs are priced. But no need, she has the left wing nuts to tell her its a wonderful thing. Wondering how many prescriptions one might pay for with the $1000/mo they save by having a 3% mortgage vs 8%.
From CNN, August 29, 2023:
The Biden administration unveiled Tuesday the names of the first 10 drugs subject to price negotiations in Medicare, including several popular blood thinners and diabetes medications.
They are: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica and Stelara, as well as Fiasp and certain other insulins made by Novo Nordisk, including NovoLog.
The medications treat heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes and autoimmune diseases, among other conditions. Medicare enrollees paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs last year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Those who didn’t receive additional financial assistance shelled out as much as $6,500 on average.
“Today is the start of a new deal for patients, where Big Pharma doesn’t just get a blank check at your expense and at the expense of the American people,” President Joe Biden said at a Tuesday afternoon event at the White House celebrating the unveiling of the list. “Big Pharma is charging Americans more than three times what they charge other countries simply because they could. I think it’s outrageous. That’s why these negotiations matter.”
Once set, the negotiated prices take effect in 2026 – though the drug industry has filed multiple lawsuits seeking to derail the effort. Up to 9 million seniors will be taking the drugs on the list at that time, according to the White House.
Historic new power under fire
The controversial program was authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats pushed through Congress last year. The drug industry and their supporters, however, are determined to quash the effort, filing at least eight lawsuits in recent weeks declaring it unconstitutional.
Undaunted, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has forged ahead with its historic new power, which Democrats have long argued is a way to lower drug prices.
In his Tuesday remarks, Biden highlighted his other efforts to lower health care costs. The Inflation Reduction Act also caps the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for Medicare enrollees, allows seniors to get more vaccines at no charge and penalizes drugmakers that raise prices higher than inflation. Other provisions kick in in coming years.”
Yeah, I’m stupid, I lie, and so does the CMS, which is where this information came from. YOU, sir or madam, are a troll, and probably a paid one.
+100
“Yeah, I’m stupid, I lie, and so does the CMS,”
Learn one thing Natasha. Most prices in the free marketplace are based on realistic goals. That means if the price is lowered for one party, it is raised for another. Alternatively companies do other things so they can still make a profit.
The $6,500 is spurious since Part D exists and most Medicare recipients are on Part D so the price is already lower to most Medicare patients. I believe the patent on Eliquis and Entresto are expiring so Biden is once again taking credit for things he had nothing to do with. He should be blamed for many of these problems based on his history as a Senator.
The pricing of pharmaceuticals is not a free market. Who made things that way? The government, in other words people like Biden passed legislation that increased the cost of pharmaceuticals. They are protecting companies like Pfizer and keeping their profits high. The government today advertises Covid shots for youngsters where the shots should not be given. Who makes the profit? Pfizer.
S. Meyer: Learn one thing about prescription drug prices. Big Pharma sells to Canada and other countries, at a profit, for massively lower prices–I’ve seen statistics that say, before Republicans outlawed getting prescriptions filled from Canadian pharmacies, that people could get a prescription filled by a Canadan pharmacy for about 20% of the cost of a US-based pharmacy. Big Pharma is ripping off American Consumers because it can and because it has the support of Republican lawmakers. Excerpted from “Statistica”:
Drug prices in the U.S. – Statistics & Facts
In the United States, drug prices are a more hotly debated topic than in any other developed country. And this, of course, is no surprise. The U.S. alone generates nearly half of all global pharmaceutical revenues, derived largely from the high price tags on drugs. Namely branded, patent protected drugs reach very high prices in the U.S., often multiple times higher than in other comparable countries. Per capita spending on pharmaceuticals stands at approximately 1,400 U.S. dollars in the U.S., while it is distinctly below 900 dollars in neighboring Canada. Among comparable countries, the U.S. is also the country with the highest annual growth of drug prices.
So, what is the reason for this?
There is no single reason to explain the drug pricing ‘issue’ in the United States. Instead, it is a mix of several factors that lead to the U.S. being the ‘cash cow’ for the pharmaceutical industry. However, the fact that there is no fully integrated universal health coverage in the U.S., is among the biggest reasons. Whereas in Canada or in the United Kingdom a governmental body negotiates with pharmaceutical players to slow down prices or just skip too expensive drugs all together, the drug manufacturers in the U.S. negotiate – more or less – directly with the market. Thus, pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. tend towards setting drug prices to the very maximum that the market can bear. Although some politicians and large parts of the U.S. public agree that there should be more governmental negotiation power, Congress has so far been unable to pass adequate legislation.”
The Inflation Reduction Act has helped changed all this. Of course, the drug companies are fighting for their profits tooth and toenail in courts.
And, the cost of prescription drugs is NOT based on recouping costs for inventing the drug.
From “Make It”, January, 2019
Americans spend about $1,200 on prescriptions drugs a year, according to the latest figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That’s more than people pay in any other developed country in the world.
In the past, pharmaceutical companies have attributed high prices to innovation, arguing that new and improved drugs are naturally more expensive. But a new study published in the journal Health Affairs complicates that idea.
It suggests that, largely, costs have gone up because companies are raising the price of drugs that are already available.
“We found that, in the case of brand-name drugs, rising prices were driven by manufacturers increasing prices of medications that are already in the market rather than [by] the entry of new products,” lead author Inmaculada Hernandez, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, tells CNBC Make It.
‘Out-of-pocket costs continue to soar’
Looking at wholesale data for around 27,000 prescription drugs, Hernandez and her colleagues found that, between 2008 and 2016, brand-name oral prescription drugs rose 9 percent annually, while injectable drugs increased 15 percent per year. Inflation, meanwhile, is only about 2 percent.
These percentage changes reflect list prices, which are set by manufacturers and don’t fully match what consumers pay, since they don’t account for rebates or insurance discounts.
Some increased prices, such as those for specialty and generic drugs, seem to be driven by the entry of new medications into the market, the researchers found. Otherwise, price increases don’t necessarily reflect improvement or even change.
In 2014, the list price for a Sanofi brand of insulin called Lantus increased nearly 50 percent, for example, even though it had already been on the market for more than a decade. (The average net price, or what consumers pay, for Lantus has actually decreased in recent years, though, a spokesperson for Sanofi tells CNBC Make It.)
Pharmaceutical companies kicked off the new year with significant price hikes. Dozens of drugmakers raised the list prices of hundreds of medications an average of 6.3 percent on Jan. 1, according to a recent analysis from the health software company Rx Savings Solution.
“Those increases are examples of what we mean by year-over-year inflation in existing products,” Hernandez says.
Gerard Anderson, professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, tells NPR that raising the cost of existing drugs benefits drugmakers and insurers.
“Research and development is only about 17 percent of total spending in most large drug companies,” he says. “Once a drug has been approved by the FDA, there are minimal additional research and development costs so drug companies cannot justify price increases by claiming research and development costs.”
The study did not examine why prices of existing drugs have gone up, but the researchers say a lack of competition and the regulatory environment in the U.S. allow “for price increases much higher than in other countries.”
“Americans spend about $1,200 on prescriptions drugs a year,”
LMAO
Thats a hundred dollars a month, you goob. Or 1/10th of what it costs when interests rates go from 3% to 8%.
Get a grip. THIS was his big accomplishment??? No wonder he is 9 points behind a soon to be convicted felon!
Trump favored allowing the importation of drugs and permitted that to occur. I disagree with those Democrats and Republicans who protect big pharma, causing the people to suffer from high prices. If restrictions for drug imports disappear, which I would support with certain provisions, I predict the pharmaceutical companies might limit their supply of drugs to these nations or raise their prices, making them unaffordable for some third-world nations.
Americans pay a big price. We account for the nut the companies require and a lot of their profit. That means that even when selling drugs at low prices abroad, the profits from those drugs increase net profits.
Drug costs are high for many other reasons, including third-party payers, middlemen, and all sorts of rules and regulations. Much of this high cost comes from the government, whether from regulation, subsidization, or laws preventing the individual from buying directly.
Don’t believe the government is the panacea for the high cost of prescription drugs. It is a major cause of the high costs. If the government were uninvolved, drug expenditures would drastically fall.
If i was a paid troll, dum dum, i wouldnt be wasting tome refuting your stupidity. Money would be better spent for someone to provide a cogent response to an intelligent post, rather than picking apart your juvenile lies and talking points.
So you posted Bidens propaganda about what its going to do. Look at what it says to idiots like you
caps the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for Medicare enrollees, allows seniors to get more vaccines at no charge
Oh, so the government decreed that insulin will cost less??? No, dum dum, the government just pays more of it. Meaning you and i. Idiot.
Oh so seniors get more vaccines for free?? So these vaccines dont cost anything??? Who pays for them??? Idiot
Subject to negotiations??? Wtf does that mean??? What is the government’s leverage? We wont buy your drug?!! High priced drugs (other than nuclear medicines) are drugs that are still under patent. Thats why they can charge huge prices. Where are they gonna get them if not from the patent holder???
Lets take a random drug on your little list, dollface. Stelara. Stelara (ustekinumab) is available as a generic. Its already cheap. Because its available as a generic. But you ARE stupid, and swallow it hook, line, and sinker.
Again, how much drugs can one buy with an extra $1k/mo in their pocket because they pay 3% mortgage vs 8%.
NOTHING is free. There is always a cost.
So you just crow on about a program that may or may not provide marginal relief to 2.7 PERCENT of the population.
Bwahahahaha. Troll.
According to current polls more than half of the country would pick Trump over Biden.
And those numbers are worse in the swing states.
I did not vote for Trump in 2016, or 2020, but I can assure you my vote in 2024 will be for whoever can defeat Biden.
Polls are useless this early.
No one read your comment… it was too wordy and full of bs.
And “Pam”, you know this because???
LMAO
Idiot
It seems others read them. You must be a headline reader that skips content.
Thank you.
Jimmy,
Great take down of Natasha with facts. Well done.
I would add, as I have pointed this out to Natasha more than a few occasions:
Unemployment and the post-COVID economy. Biden had nothing to do with it. The post-COVID economic recovery was lead by Red States re-opening their economies, which lead to a hiring spree. Those were not new jobs Biden tries to gaslight Americans. Those were jobs already there, but closed due to the COVID shutdowns.
Biden then spent trillions in printing more money when it was not needed. More than a few economists said that, to include Obama’s economic advisor Larry Summers. And that is what gave us the inflation we are seeing today. As you aptly point out, inflation is cumulative, so we are all still suffering under effects of the 2022 8% inflation.
As I have repeated to Natasha multiple times, the Home Household survey is a better metric of unemployment. Fact of the matter is the Home Household survey shows more Americans have to work two or even three jobs to make ends meet. That is the Biden economy for you.
Savings are at a low compared to the 2007 economic crisis.
Americans are using credit cards to make ends meet at a record pace.
Now, 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 59% last year.
In 2022, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) increased 4.6% in 2022 to reach 12.4%. The first overall increase in that metric since 2010.
Also, real median household income declined by 2.3% from $76,330 to $74,580, while real median earnings of all workers dropped 2.2%.
Biden’s sanctions on China’s chip manufacturing did more than anything Trump did, in one blow.
Upstate
Thanks for the props, and the additional data. I could go on for hours about all the ways that braindead’s handlers screwed it all up. But Gigi can’t get past that unemployment number. The only people that could possibly give a rats behind about the rate being .2% lower than pre pandemic, is the .2%. The other 98.8% dont GAS. The other 98.8% KNOW they are worse off now than under Trump, and the real metrics corroborate their evaluation of their own status. But there is a small group, who like GIGI, won’t admit it. And she accuses others of being in a cult. Pro-jection!!
Thats fine, but when she rejects reality to substitute her own, i draw the line.
Here’s what “Fact Check.Org” says:
Summary
In our seventh installment of this feature, gauging how various factors have changed under President Joe Biden, we found:
The economy added 13.2 million jobs under Biden, putting the total 3.8 million higher than before the pandemic.
The unemployment rate dropped for a time to the lowest in nearly 54 years; unfilled job openings surged, with over 1.6 for every unemployed job seeker.
Inflation roared back to the highest level in over 40 years, then slowed markedly. In all, consumer prices are up nearly 15.7%. Gasoline is up 51.2%.
Weekly earnings rose briskly, by 12.2%. But after adjusting for inflation, “real” weekly earnings went down 3.4%.
The S&P 500 has increased 20.2%
The percentage of Americans without health insurance has gone down by 1.3 percentage points.
Consumer confidence is 6.4 points lower, according to a University of Michigan index, but it has gone up for two straight months.
The number of apprehensions of those trying to cross the southern border illegally dropped dramatically in June, but is still up 310%.
U.S. crude oil production has increased 8.2%; imports are up 7.3%.
The trade deficit for goods and services climbed 30.1%.
Debt held by the public has gone up 18.9%.
Refugee admissions have increased 38.5%, but that’s 2,556 refugees per month on average — far short of Biden’s campaign goal of admitting 125,000 a year.
There are 3.8 million more jobs under Biden than before the pandemic. You claim that jobs were there, just not filled, well, Biden getting COVID under control changed that, and arguing that the “jobs were there” is nonsense. If someone isn’t working a job, they are unemployed. If the economy returns and the job is filled, then that’s one less unemployed, and the person who turned things around should get the credit. Biden marshalled the assets to get people vaccinated–something Trump couldn’t do. He sourced the super-cold freezers, got together PPE and qualified people to administer vaccinations and got shots in arms. Trump lied about the seriousness of COVID, deliberately, and he’s on tape with Bob Woodward admitting this.
You like to pick and choose metrics for measuring things that fit your pre-determined outcome, but that’s not how economists do it. The fact is, America is STILL recovering from Trump and his disasterous handling of our economy.
“If someone isn’t working a job, they are unemployed. “
This is a perfect example of either how ignorant you are or how big of a LIAR you are.
My son is a student in college. He is not “unemployed”, nor is he counted in unemployment numbers. My mother was a housewife for many years. She was not “unemployed”, nor was she counted among the unemployed. My oldest brother retired from one of my businesses in 2018. He is not unemployed nor is he counted among the unemployed. The whole “president created jobs” argument, to put it politely, is silly. Stop drinking the cool aid. How exactly did biden “create” those jobs? By borrowing $6 Trillion dollars? Just stop.
If someone is recently out of work and actively seeking a job, they are unemployed and counted among the unemployed. Period. Unemployed also does not count those who have stopped looking for work or decided life is better just being a bum. Do you think the drug addicts under the viaduct are counted as unemployed? You do, dont you?
You love this number and its MEANINGLESS, so dont tell me I pick and choose metrics, madam projection. Pretty much everything you posted from factcheck corroborates what i said. Crap now, better before.
Look, you either know damn well that trump would still be president and his economy would still be booming, if it were not for Covid, or you’re just a hopeless idiot. Give it up, screeching Trump Trump isnt gonna save your boy next year.
As for Covid, MORE PEOPLE DIED UNDER BIDEN. MORE. MORE GIGI. MORE.
Trump is the one who allowed COVID to get out of control. Excerpted from “Scientific American”:
When the World Health Organization first called COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, few people had any idea what the world was in for. The progression was swift: borders clamped shut, authorities issued stay-at-home orders, and public life ground to a near halt. Most of the world had no experience dealing with an infectious disease outbreak of this scale. The previously unknown virus, now called SARS-CoV-2, could spread through the air, often before (or, in some cases, possibly without ever) causing any symptoms. COVID—though mild for many people—struck down elderly and more vulnerable individuals (and occasionally very healthy ones) with a vengeance, launching a wave of fear, suffering and death unlike any in recent memory.
“In the beginning, when this started a year ago, we knew that it was spreading. And we knew that it also was lethal in some percentage of people,” says Stanley Perlman, a virologist at the University of Iowa, who is an expert on coronaviruses, a group that includes SARS-CoV-2. “But I don’t think we had a full appreciation about how bad it was.”
Among the biggest shocks was that the U.S. fared worse than most other countries, with more than 29 million cases and nearly 530,000 deaths as of this writing. “We absolutely can’t say that we had the most robust response to the pandemic, up till this point, because we have had a higher death rate per capita than so many other places,” says Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
As the country raced to react to this new and terrifying scourge, mistakes were made that together cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Yet the tireless efforts of health care workers, along with an unprecedented vaccine push, have saved countless others. Scientific American interviewed scientists and public health experts about the biggest mistakes in the U.S.’s response, some of the key successes and the lingering questions that still need to be answered.
WHAT WENT WRONG
Downplaying the danger and sidelining experts. During the pandemic’s crucial early days and weeks, then president Donald Trump and other authority figures actively minimized the virus’s threat. Trump dismissed it as no worse than the flu and said the pandemic would be over by Easter.
“One thing that shouldn’t have been done is people downplaying the infection,” Perlman says. “That was a real big problem, because if you let the pandemic get out of control and don’t take it seriously, it gets worse.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially told the media that the threat to the American public was low. When a CDC spokesperson acknowledged in late February that disruptions to daily life could be “severe,” the agency was quickly sidelined—and Trump himself became the government’s main conduit for COVID updates through his daily briefings. “The Trump administration really tightly controlled what [the CDC] could put out,” says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security. This muzzling of the CDC and top government health experts made it hard for them to communicate accurate and lifesaving scientific information to the public. Under President Joe Biden’s administration, government science agencies and health officials have been given renewed respect and independence. But rebuilding public trust in these authorities will still take time.
WHEN people died isn’t the issue–it’s Trump’s lying and utter incompetence that caused COVID to spiral out of control, leaving a mess for Biden to clean up, which he did.
“it’s Trump’s lying and utter incompetence that caused COVID to spiral out of control, leaving a mess for Biden to clean up, which he did.”
LMAO
When you feed constantly on the garbage you posted above, its no wonder you are a TDS infected troll.
What did Biden do, exactly, GiGI? His piss-ant mandates? Or did he just convince people to “take it seriously”. What would people have done differently if Trump had said “its gonna kill 2 million people”? You just spout off but never explain. Spew and spout. Thats all you do.
Or maybe it was Joe saying, “get the vaccine and you wont get covid and you wont spread covid”.
How many deaths did that cause by giving people a false sense of security? Idiotic statements are your specialty.
Under Biden, Fauci was just as distrusted and disrespected as he was under trump. You wanna blame someone, blame dr “dont mask-mask-double mask-mask”
Biden didnt get jack sh!t under control, you imbecile. The virus in the US generally went the way it did everywhere on the planet. The differences and the reasons are easy to see, and they aint about trump. We are americans. You dont lock our asses down like u would infermany. You get that? Were trump and biden running the world??? It ran a course that it was going to run. All your twisting and twirling doesn’t change the fact.
If its bad, its trumps fault. If its good, its bidens work. The timing doesnt matter at all. Just look at yourself. Its pathetic.
You have a penchant for mixing irrelevancies into facts. You spoke of people who lost their jobs due to COVID and then those jobs opened back up again, so, according to you, Biden doesn’t deserve credit. Now, you’re claiming that your son who (allegedly) is in college isn’t working, so he’s not “unemployed”. I pointed out that people who formerly worked at a job and lost it due to COVID became unemployed. When that employer began hiring again because Biden got COVID under control, that should be credited to Biden. You say it shouldn’t count because those jobs existed previously–BUT they were lost because of COVID that Trump’s incompetence allowed to get out of control. Regardless, Biden still created 3.8 million more jobs than existed before the pandemic. Trump was NEVER going to be President–America never wanted him in 2016 or 2020. He found a way around the will of the American people in 2016, and tried to cheat again in 2020, but it didn’t work.
Look, buggy boy liked your drivel again. You have no facts. Only opinions. Say this next line like you are the Arby’s voice.
Hundreds of thousands died because Trump downplayed the severity!!!
Do you have any idea how stupid you sound? Funny, nobody listens to trump cuz he’s a nut, until they do, according to you. The TDS is strong with this one.
I never said anything about what jobs were here before or after covid. I said presidents dont create jobs, you moron, just like they dont cause death from covid. Anyone who died because they didnt take Covid seriously can blame it on DARWIN.
Lmao at my son “allegedly” in college. This is absolute proof that your IQ is south of 100.
I was giving you examples of people who “ARENT WORKING A JOB”, but are NOT unemployed. You said
“If someone is not working a job, they are unemployed”
That is an utterly stupid thing to say and i gave you several examples of why it was a stupid thing to say.
So whether i even have a son or a brother, or even a mother, is irrelevant. The point i was making was extremely relevant. It was that you dont even know what u are saying.
The unemployment rate NOW is essentially the same as it was pre-covid. That is mostly because, as i previously mentioned, there are 12 million vacant jobs. Jobs are abundant. They were abundant pre covid. Get over it. Biden didnt create a single job. Businesses create jobs. I create jobs. I have created hundreds more jobs than joe the pedophile biden ever has (which is zero if u dont count hunters job as bag man).
But here is the problem with your people’s wonderful plans for the economy. A good reason the economy always STINKS under dems and flourishes under pubs. You think you can tax and regulate your way to a good free market economy. Doesnt work. Think about this:
If the government sent out a notice to every business in the US and said, starting next month there will be an additional VAT on EVERYTHING, but it will be paid by the business and not by the consumer, What do you think would happen the next day? I will tell you. the price for every part, every whole good, every service, and every expense that i have that is passed to my customers, would go up by 10%. So who really ended up paying the VAT? Idiot.
I’m only going to bother responding to two of your stupid assertions: From National Immigration Forum:
“Affirmative asylum process – Individuals can apply for asylum affirmatively if they are physically present in the U.S., regardless of how they entered the country within one year after arrival. They can also apply for asylum at ports of entry. In an affirmative asylum process, a USCIS officer decides whether the individual will be granted asylum in the U.S. If USCIS denies an asylum application in the affirmative asylum process after the individual’s visa has expired, he or she is referred for removal but can utilize the defensive asylum process to renew his or her request for asylum.”
The POTUS does NOT have unilateral authority to change immigration laws–that must be done by Congress. As our laws stand, ANYONE “physically present” in the US can apply for asylum, and is entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. Congress could change this, but it’s not going to because Republicans control the House and think they are scoring points politically by blaming Biden for our borders being swarmed with South Americans. And Republican business owners benefit from migrants because they work for cheap, don’t report violations of safety regulations, don’t report businesses for refusing to pay overtime, for sexual harassment and don’t make workers’ comp claims.
Someone seeking asylum does NOT have to enter at a point of entry. Just be “physically present”. The rest of the drivel you spewed is just as wrong, but life is just way too short.
Wrong again numbnuts. Notice that once again you dont go to the source, you quote some secondary commentary. What that means, since you proved once again you have no reasoning skills, is that someone who is already here LEGALLY, can apply for asylum. “Regardless of how they entered” means whether by visa, green card, passport travel, etc. The assumption that they are here legally proceeds from the fact that if they enter illegally (meaning between ports of entry), UNDER CURRENT LAW, they can be imprisoned and/or fined, and upon release from prison, deported. Claiming asylum DOES NOT make unlawful entry lawful. The statute, 18USC1325 does not allow an accepting for asylum seekers.
I like that you think life is too short to justify your lies. I couldnt agree more, because twisting and twirling is time consuming, and so is critical thinking.
And, you are wrong about the economy “booming” due to Trump. From NBC News 1/20/2021:
For much of Trump’s presidency, it was easy for him to claim credit for stock gains, since he was set up for success, economists say.
“The economy was in pretty good shape. Nothing was really out of balance,” said Dan North, chief economist for North America at Euler Hermes.
Corporate expectations of lower taxes and fewer regulations sent business optimism soaring. “It was the right environment to go up. The Biden stock market has an awful lot going against it,” North said.
The Biden stock market has an awful lot going against it.”
Last March 9 and again on March 12, as the coronavirus began to take over the country, stocks fell so far, so fast, that electronic “circuit breakers” had to be triggered to stave off a full-blown collapse. That weekend, Trump tweeted, “BIGGEST STOCK MARKET RISE IN HISTORY YESTERDAY!” while saying nothing to address, or even acknowledge, the nation’s growing economic fears. The following week, circuit breakers were again triggered on two different days as stocks continued to slide.
The CARES Act, along with aggressive action from the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and add liquidity to the financial system, ultimately stopped the market’s fall. In the ensuing months, Wall Street recovered, while Main Street suffered.
Experts say this is just one example of why it was not only pointless, but foolhardy, for Trump to claim credit for a rising market. “In the investment business, generally speaking, we know that the things that make the stock market move are myriad and complex. It’s difficult, at best, to gauge cause and effect,” Martin said.
Despite his self-professed business acumen, Trump squandered some of the market momentum he was handed, analysts say. “He did quite a few things to really impede the progress of the stock market,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at the Independent Advisor Alliance. “The trade war with China was, by far, the most detrimental.”
That trade war was widely regarded as a failure: It drew to an uneasy truce in early 2020, with little gained for American consumers or businesses.
The new president, on the other hand, faces a heavier lift. “President Trump is handing Biden an economy in shambles, still down nearly 10 million jobs from its pre-pandemic peak and struggling to avoid a double-dip recession,” Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi wrote in a research note earlier this week.
“Whereas you might say what Trump inherited was a ‘normal market,’ Joe Biden is inheriting a market that’s at extremes,” Martin said. “You just have a whole new ballgame for Joe Biden.”
Valuations are high, inflation is broadly low but shows pockets of escalation, and market observers say Wall Street seems to be positioned for a best-case scenario regarding Covid-19 containment and immunity. Anything that doesn’t live up to the market’s lofty expectations could trigger a reversal in investor sentiment.
“If you’re the average person, do you care if GDP was 3.2 or 3.4 percent? No, you care if you have a job.”
If the market does drop from its current highs, though, economists don’t expect Biden to respond the way his predecessor might have. Unlike Trump, Biden is more likely to focus on containing Covid-19 and getting the sputtering labor market recovery going again. “The Biden administration, I think, is going to focus more on the unemployment rate and jobs and less on what the actual stock market may do,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors. “Right now, our immediate problem is still the coronavirus and getting the economy reopened.”
North said: “It’s going to take a long time to get those 10 million jobs back, particularly because there’s been so much permanent business closure. That’s what I believe the administration will focus on and, honestly, should focus on.”
“If you’re the average person, do you care if GDP was 3.2 or 3.4 percent?” he said. “No, you care if you have a job.”
Martha C. White
Martha C. White is an NBC News contributor who writes about business, finance and the economy.
Trump was no better at handling America’s finances than his own. He is clueless.
You’re either the dumbest person on earth, and i mean that sincerely, or the biggest lie, and dont even believe your own lies. Trump had low unemployment and high gdp, and low inflation and low interest and low gas prices. THATS what people care about dipwad. Nobody was talking about the stock market, ms red herring gas lighting obfuscating straw man.
Where is your authority that a POTUS could singlehandedly change immigration law? Cite it or shut up. Where is your authority to claim I am wrong? I provided a source. All you provided was argument and adhominem attacks.
I gave you the applicable code, so your entire statement is another LIE.
The president doesnt need to change the law, only enforce it.
Your source was sh!t.
These people didnt drop in from outer space, you moron. They came because the policies INVITED them. You jail the first few hundred that come across for a week, then you deport them and you tell the rest that the same fate awaits them, and they stop! Duh.
You feed, house and bus them wherever they wanna go, and guess what??? 8 million.
The names arent ad hominem, they are earned. Wear them proudly.
Cooper Union college in NY is the same school that recently hired the machete wielding “arts” adjunct instructor, a Marxist left wing pinko. This is precisely what Democrats and the Left believe: moral relativism. For them there are no objective truths, no absolutes, everything is defined by a whim, their whim of course.
Jews are being hunted down at a library. This is insane!!!!!
Democrats did this.
Jewish students take refuge in library and lock themselves in while pro-Palestinian demonstrators POUND on the door to gain entry at NYC’s liberal Cooper Union college
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12673287/cooper-union-jewish-students-hide-library-pro-palestine-demonstration.html
Can’t wait for the MSM to report the story as – ‘Mob of Jewish students lock pro-Palestinian students out of library, preventing them from prepping for upcoming exams.’
Wait, academic credit for anti-Israel political activism, and for watching anti-Israel propaganda?
https://www.thejc.com/news/world/students-can-get-extra-credit-for-attending-palestinian-march-says-uc-berkeley-1r8O8kDk3HV6mlgd3K8amL
Nothing new. When I was in high school back in 1970, a world history teacher offered extra credit for anyone that attended a meeting, which he didn’t describe. It turned out to be a meeting of the John Birch Society. I guess the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction.
I’m all for freedom of speech, and agree with Turley about the answer to lies being truth, not censorship., but I’m not sure how freedom of speech translates into allowing multiple trolls to use multiple fake screen names, as is clearly happening in the Professor’s comment sections.
Look at the Anonymous troll, complaining about trolls with fake screen names.
Can’t make this stuff up!
I mean, WTF is a “fake screen name” anyway??? LMAO
It’s a fake fake name!
Bwahahahahahahaha
I’m talking specifically about YOU, a-hole — and you write amazingly like the troll “Tom.”
Gee, i never would have guessed that you meant me. If i did, i probably would have ridiculed you.
We all know why you complain about my posts. Because i dont suck orange co** like you do.
As i recall, you promised to disappear several times.
Who is Tom?
LOL — show me the comment section comments that contains comments from “Jimmy” where I “promised to disappear, “Tom.”
You’re doing a great job of proving what a fraud this crapsite is.
All that proves is that I dont “fill this site” with comments.
Maybe “threatened to disappear” is more accurate. As if anyone would GAS.
How does that pig manure smell?
LMAO
What happened, Tom? Did they kick you off, so you changed your name, thinking that your irrational fury, name-calling, lack of writing and analytical skills don’t give you away?
What happened to you, Natasha?
God, your ignorance and propensity to lie are only exceeded by your lack of self awareness.
LMAO
Lots of new trolls in Turleyville — or old trolls with new fake screen names.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Great to see bipartisan support for Israel in House passed resolution — see linked Hill article. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4275502-house-approves-resolution-backing-israel-in-first-move-by-new-speaker/
@Concerned…
I would have to say that the 10 Dems are a cause for concern.
Now I can see someone who is a vocal pacifist voting present.
But there are the squad members …
If you took 10 minutes to learn the basic history of the region and conflict… you would support Israel.
* Israel left Gaza which they controlled since the 6 days war (IIRC)
* PA took control but lost it to Hamas. One of Hama’s public tenant or ‘plank’ is ‘Death to Israel’.
* Hamas has co-opted any and all Aide/Relief to their benefit first and dole out the rest to their supporters. Do this for 15yrs and you now control the hearts and minds.
* Hams strikes, uses their own people as human shields as martyrs so that when Israel responds.. the horrors and innocent casualties.
So you stand with Israel. Because as messed up as any country’s policies can be… they are not targeting or calling for the death of innocent people.
-G