Hello Dante? What Level Is This?

[ponchi101]

I saved this clip for this morning. Extremely interesting.
You know I wrote about the concept of "who we really are". I focused on America and Venezuela, because of obvious reasons. That Prof Greer brought that up was interesting.
And indeed, America needs to really talk about some facts, pointed out in the clip. You cannot continue down this path of separation of the nation unless you really get to understand the past. Txs for the clip.

[skatingfan]

Can we lock this thread now?

[ponchi101]

Or let it die of natural causes? (topics in this forum that are not viewed/posted on will be pruned in 180 days)

[JazzNU]

I mean with indictments a plenty forthcoming and impeachment on the horizon for this treasonous family, we can probably just keep it for now.

[JazzNU]

[ti-amie]

I was thinking about leaving this one open and closing the Politics thread although I think some kind of thread dedicated strictly to politics going forward is needed. Keep in mind anyone can start a thread. I will leave that thread open until Sunday night.

The arrests are continuing so maybe they can be posted here instead.

[JazzNU]

From a reply to the above Tweet

[JazzNU]

I mean. WTH?!?

[JazzNU]

This could be in covid thread of course, but this is more Dante level, how this grifting administration permeated and disrupted and doomed the US covid response. Just pitiful. It's a long article, so posting the Tweet to it. But will link the article directly below as well.





https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01 ... nk-science

[JazzNU]

^^ If you're not up for reading the report on the site, this is a quick look at some of what is in it that the report's author put on Twitter


Katherine Eban
@KatherineEban


EXCLUSIVE: My new special report in @VanityFair: a deep dive into @US_FDA #COVID19 response. Agency besieged w/ product pitches funneled from Trump @WhiteHouse, based on new internal docs and dozens of exclusive interviews, including w/ @SteveFDA. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01 ... nk-science

A special White House email was created for "‘concierge service’ on these offers and requests," according to email sent by former deputy @WHNSC director Matthew Pottinger in March. /2

Through that email poured a "tsunami" of pitches for COVID diagnostics, including from @itsmarlamaples @TheJillKelley and ventilators backed by @IvankaTrump. @DrPeterLurie calls this special access "Outrageous." /3

In March WH meeting, @ScottGottliebMD and Dr. Fauci fought to preserve @US_FDA authority on #hydroxychloroquine, after @SecAzar dangled stroke-of-pen authorization. Trump silenced Azar mob-style, w/ finger to lips. /4

As COVID spread, @US_FDA got early admonition from @HHSGov to slow down early outreach to diagnostic test makers, and be "reactive," not "proactive," according to an internal email. /5

Career FDA officials besieged by Oleandrin pitches, backed by @MyPillowUSA CEO Mike Lindell. @US_FDA investigator uncovers: extract given to workers at TX meat-packing plant, nursing home, possible human subject violations. /6

Rookie commissioner @SteveFDA tells colleagues @HHSGov is "evil." Says to @VanityFair he found DC's political lies unnerving: "It is very unusual in hospital medicine that someone lies, because people die.” /END

https://twitter.com/KatherineEban/statu ... 098945024
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1351 ... 45024.html

[ponchi101]

How soon we are reminded that closing this topic would be folly.
Of course, you have reached the bottom. But now comes the ugly part: exploring this cesspool, looking into every crevice and tunnel to see the level of perfidy that these people attained.
We have reached the bottom. But now we need to dig around to see where the stench is coming from. Which is basically everywhere.
The news above: sickening.

[ti-amie]

I was thinking about combining the Politics thread and this one into one thread. The report below could go into the Covid thread but belongs here because I think there's more news like this to come.

Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start 'from scratch,' sources say
By MJ Lee, CNN
Updated 11:37 AM ET, Thu January 21, 2021

(CNN)Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.

The Biden administration has promised to try to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around and drastically speed up the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus. But in the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration's Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

"There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch," one source said.

Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from "square one" because there simply was no plan as: "Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence."

The incoming White House now faces intense pressure to make good on the promises that Biden made during the campaign and the transition phase to drastically turn things around on the pandemic and conduct himself entirely differently from Trump when it comes to the virus and vaccine distribution. During the transition period, Biden was openly critical of what he described as a "dismal" rollout of the Covid vaccines under the Trump administration, making clear that he placed significant blame on his predecessor for the situation he would ultimately inherit.
Two Covid-19 vaccines were approved for use in the United States before Trump left office. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 16.5 million vaccine doses had been administered as of January 20 -- far short of the last administration's goal of administering 20 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020.

The new administration has asked some of the key players who worked on Covid and vaccines under Trump to resign from their roles, including Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. It has kept on others such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is now serving as Biden's chief medical adviser on Covid-19. Adams was asked to stay on as an adviser.

Prior to Inauguration Day, some of Biden's Covid-19 advisers had wanted to be careful not to be overly critical in public of the Trump administration's handling of the virus and vaccine, given that the Biden transition team was already having a hard time getting critical information and cooperation from the outgoing administration, the source said.

Now that the transition of power has taken place, the Biden administration is hoping that they can quickly start to get a clearer picture of where things actually stand with vaccine distribution and administration across the country, going through something of a "fact-checking" exercise on what exactly the Trump administration had and had not done, they added.

CNN has previously reported that the Biden team's most urgent concerns on Covid-19 include potential vaccine supply problems, coordination between federal and local governments, as well as funding, staffing and other resource needs for local governments. That is in addition to the emerging Covid variants, which the new White House -- in consultation with scientists and experts -- is watching warily.

Biden has made clear that slowing down the spread of Covid-19 and getting 100 million vaccine shots into Americans' arms in his first 100 days in office are of utmost priority -- goals that will shape whether Biden's first years in office are ultimately deemed successful.

Within hours of being sworn into office, Biden signed an executive order requiring masks on all federal property, a part of his campaign promise to push for a federal mask mandate during his first 100 days in office.

"This is going to be the first of many engagements we're going to have in here," Biden said in his first appearance in the Oval Office as president. "I thought with the state of the nation today there's no time to waste. Get to work immediately."

On Biden's first full day in office on Thursday, the White House is focusing on Covid-19 by rolling out a national strategy for getting the pandemic under control including numerous executive actions related to vaccination and testing.

Criticizing the "lack of cooperation" from the Trump administration as an "impediment" for the new administration, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Wednesday that he was still confident that the administration can meet its 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days target.

"For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to Covid," Zients said. "And we've seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today ... that'll change tomorrow."

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics ... index.html

[ti-amie]

This is what annoys me about outlets like CNN where its head is a MAGAt. POTUS based his comments about rapid deployment assuming that he would inherit at least a basic structure he'd have to beef up. If there is nothing in place (Jared sold it all) then they will have to build one and it will probably take longer than he would like. I expect all MAGAt leaning outlets (looking at CBS and ABC and NBC to a lesser extent) will be pushing this "he couldn't do it" story without putting the blame where it belongs.

[ponchi101]

I was thinking about combining the Politics thread and this one into one thread. The report below could go into the Covid thread but belongs here because I think there's more news like this to come.

...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics ... index.html

Remember. Click the POST NUMBER, the link will be copied immediately and you can post in both topics. This news is relevant.

About the news: Biden is too experienced for this. This promise of 100MM people vaccinated in 100 days will blow up in his face. Now he finds it may be impossible, not because of his team but because the previous buffoons. But try to tell that to the Fox News crowd. FN will reach 100 days, and at the stroke of midnight, all their talking heads will declare this administration a failure.
And Biden will have given it to them in a platter.
He has to be more circumspect. If people think that the GOP is dead, that is foolish. They will return to their regular shenanigans ASAP.

[ti-amie]

Journalism Twitter is in an uproar about this.