‘Herd Immunity’ Is Trump Policy — And It Means A Massive Death Toll

On Friday, the COVID Tracking Project reported that the number of positive coronavirus infections in the last day had reached 170,000, the highest record ever and a number that was, just a few months ago, hard to imagine. It’s now our daily reality, and it’s likely to only get worse.

Other figures are just as frightening. Hospitalizations — one of the clearest signs of the seriousness of the out break —have reached a new high at 69,000, according to the project. Deaths are at a disturbing 1,300, though that rate is almost certain to spike in recent weeks following the more recent spike in cases. And as the newest and largest wave yet engulfs the country, reports have begun to appear of hospitals being overwhelmed with patients, which is almost certainly a precursor to a spike in the case fatality rate.

It’s our horrifying new status quo, and one that experts and observers have been warning would unfold this fall for months. But the mind-boggling truth is that for the Trump administration, everything is pretty much going as planned. Continue reading.

Trump walks back tweet saying Biden ‘won’ election

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President Trump on Sunday walked back a tweet in which he said President-elect Joe Biden “won” the election while continuing to spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about a rigged presidential election. 

“He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!” Trump initially tweeted in response to a clip from Fox News’s Jesse Watters.

“All of the mechanical ‘glitches’ that took place on Election Night were really THEM getting caught trying to steal votes. They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught,” the president added in a subsequent tweet. “Mail-in elections are a sick joke!” Continue reading.

Trump tunes out pandemic surge as he focuses on denying election loss

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President Trump finally received some good news this past week: Amid spiking coronaviruscases nationwide — more than 100,000 new cases a day since Nov. 4, with deaths rising, too — pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its experimental coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.

But the president was furious.

The news came six days after Election Day — too late to help Trump in his contest against President-elect Joe Biden — and he said both Pfizer and his own Food and Drug Administration had withheld the announcement to prevent delivering him the sort of pre-election public-relations victory that could have helped him in the polls. Instead of touting the vaccine success as a crowning achievement of his administration, as advisers encouraged, Trump barely mentioned it except to gripe on Twitter that “the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election.” Continue reading.

Questions swirl at Pentagon after wave of departures

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Is it a coup, a push to withdraw from Afghanistan or just some petty score settling?

That’s the question that has swirled in defense circles amid a wave of firings and resignations at the Pentagon that saw the ouster of the Defense secretary and installation of several aides seen as loyalists of President Trump.

The shakeup has led Trump’s critics to sound the alarm, with Democratic lawmakers and others fearful of what the Pentagon’s new leadership will try to push through in Trump’s remaining two months in office. Continue reading.

Missing From State Plans to Distribute the Coronavirus Vaccine: Money to Do It

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The government has sent billions to drug companies to develop a coronavirus shot but a tiny fraction of that to localities for training, record-keeping and other costs for vaccinating citizens.

With the prospect that a coronavirus vaccine will become available for emergency use as soon as next month, states and cities are warning that distributing the shots to an anxious public could be hindered by inadequate technology, severe funding shortfalls and a lack of trained personnel.

While the Trump administration has showered billions of dollars on the companies developing the vaccines, it has left the logistics of inoculating and tracking as many as 20 million people by year’s end — and many tens of millions more next year — largely to local governments without providing enough money, officials in several localities and public health experts involved in the preparations said in interviews.

Public health departments, already strained by a pandemic that has overrun hospitals and drained budgets, are racing to expand online systems to track and share information about who has been vaccinated; to recruit and train hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to give people the shot and collect data about everyone who gets it; to find safe locations for mass vaccination events; and to convince the public of the importance of getting immunized. Continue reading.

Militia Groups, Conspiracy Theorists Rally In D.C. For Election Loser Donald Trump

President Donald Trump briefly waved to the crowd from his motorcade on his way to go golfing.

Demonstrators as part of a “Million MAGA March” swarmed Washington, D.C., on Saturday in a show of support for President Donald Trump, whose loss to President-elect Joe Biden was determined exactly a week ago.

The protest didn’t quite live up to its name, however.

A few thousand Trump supporters ― many of them unmasked ― did show up to Freedom Plaza in a show of solidarity with the president, who has spent the last week desperately seeking to overturn the results of the election by falsely claiming widespread voter fraud, but the number of marchers fell way short of the “more than one million” falsely touted by the Trump administration on Saturday afternoon.  Continue reading.

Rep. Patty Acomb (HD44B) Update: November 16, 2020


Dear Neighbors, 

I’d like to start by thanking the people of Minnetonka, Plymouth, and Woodland for the opportunity to serve our community for another two years. Returning to the Minnesota House of Representatives is an honor, and I’m excited to continue working with you.  

New COVID-19 Measures 

Unfortunately, we’re experiencing a significant surge in COVID-19 cases in Minnesota. Last week, Governor Walz introduced a series of targeted steps to help curb the spread of the virus. Bars and restaurants must end dine-in service at 10 p.m. and close counter seating and service. There is a 10-person limit for indoor and outdoor gatherings, and all gatherings should be limited to members of three households or less. Capacity limits for larger events, such as weddings and funerals, will be phased in and eventually capped at 25 people. You can find more information about the new restrictions here.  

This is a dangerous time for Minnesotans. Each of us must do our part to slow the spread of COVID-19. In addition to following the new restrictions, please continue to wear a mask, social distance by at least six feet, and stay home if you’re not feeling well. Public health officials are also encouraging Minnesotans to get tested for COVID-19. You can find a testing site near you here.  

Continue reading “Rep. Patty Acomb (HD44B) Update: November 16, 2020”

After thousands of Trump supporters rally in D.C., violence erupts when night falls

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President Trump’s supporters had celebrated for hours on Saturday, waving their MAGA flags and blaring “God Bless the U.S.A.” as they gathered in Washington to falsely claim that the election had been stolen from the man they adore. The crowd had even reveled in a personal visit from Trump, who passed by in his motorcade, smiling and waving.

But that was before the people who oppose their hero showed up and the mood shifted, growing angrier as 300 or so counterprotesters delivered a message the president’s most ardent backers were unwilling to hear: The election is over. Trump lost.

On stark display in the nation’s capital were two irreconcilable versions of America, each refusing to accept what the other considered to be undeniable fact. Continue reading.

Republicans seek to batter Warnock ahead of Georgia runoff

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Republicans are launching an all-out assault on Democrat Raphael Warnockahead of the January Senate runoff in Georgia, surfacing months of opposition research that went largely unused leading up to last week’s general election.

Warnock’s opponent, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), has already put more than $1 million behind two new attack ads that seek to tie Warnock to the so-called “radical left” and accuse him of celebrating “anti-American hatred.”

Other Senate Republicans have joined in on the attacks, hyperaware that the runoff between Warnock and Loeffler will play a critical role in determining party control of the upper chamber in 2021 and beyond. Continue reading.

Defense secretary sent classified memo to White House about Afghanistan before Trump fired him

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In the run-up to the election, President Trump’s tweet saying that all U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas!” raised alarm among senior U.S. officials who had been working on a more gradual withdrawal.

The existing plan, tied to precarious negotiations with the Taliban insurgent group to sign a peace deal with the Afghan government, had not yielded the progress that American officials wanted. While the Pentagon was on its way to reducing the number of troops to fewer than 5,000 this month, negotiations appeared to stall and the Taliban continued to launch attacks across the country.

After consulting with senior military officers, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper sent a classified memo to the White House this month expressing concerns about additional cuts, according to two senior U.S. officials familiar with the discussion. Conditions on the ground were not yet right, Esper wrote, citing the ongoing violence, possible dangers to the remaining troops in the event of a rapid pullout, potential damage to alliances and apprehension about undercutting the negotiations. Continue reading.