Category: News

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Trump Brags On White House TV Ratings After Reviving Press Briefings

Donald Trump
Donald Trump took the time to copy and paste text from a New York Times report about the viewership of the White House daily press briefings since the onset of the COVID-19 threat. It took the Donald four tweets to fit in all the ratings numbers he is so proud of, and then he came back an hour later with yet another ‘ratings tweet.’ An unprecedented number of Americans are contracting a lethal virus and Trump’s takeaway is beating “Bachelor finale” ratings.

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Terror Charges For Woman Who ‘Intentionally’ Coughed On $35K Worth Of Groceries

(image via Facebook)
A woman in Pennsylvania entered a Gerrity’s Supermarket on Wednesday afternoon this week and proceeded to intentionally cough on fresh produce, a small section of the bakery, meat case and grocery items, alleges the store’s co-owner Joe Fasula. Writing on the store chain’s Facebook page, Fasula says the woman is known “to be a chronic problem in the community.” “While there is little doubt this woman was doing it as a very twisted prank, we will not take any chances with the health and well-being of our customers,” writes Fasula. “We had no choice but to throw out all of the products she came in contact with. Working closely with the Hanover Township health inspector, we identified every area that she was in, we disposed of the product and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected everything.” Fasula adds, “Although we have not yet quantified the total loss, we estimate the value to be well over $35,000.” “The only silver lining to this travesty is that it gave us the unfortunate opportunity to test our protocols and demonstrate how seriously we take your safety,” said Fasula in closing. “At one point, we had over 15 employees involved in the disposal and clean up.” The Hill is now reporting the woman has been charged for making terrorist threats via her coughing stunt.

Margaret Cirko, 35, allegedly “intentionally contaminated” grocery items by coughing and spitting on them, claiming to be sick while attempting to steal a pack of beer, according to the Hanover Township Police Department.

The incident resulted in the store disposing of $35,000 worth of produce, meat, and other essential items. Cirko was sent to a mental health hospital to be evaluated after her arrest.

Cirko was charged with two felony counts of terroristic threats using a biological agent, one count of criminal mischief, and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and attempted retail theft.

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Miami Winter Party Attendee Dies Due To COVID-19

Israel Carreras (image via Facebook)
From WSVN in Miami:

Miami-Dade County has reported its first two coronavirus-related deaths, and one of them has been identified as a 40-year-old man with no prior health issues or complications, according to family members.

Israel Carreras was identified as the first death in Miami-Dade, Friday. Later that evening, a 79-year-old man was reported as the county’s second death.

Carreras succumbed to the virus after his friends said he contracted it during the Winter Party Festival in Miami, where several other cases of the virus had appeared.

Carreras’s partner, Franco Conquista, told WSVN he stayed with Carreras at his home, taking care of him for two days, as he also had been infected. Conquista says Carreras eventually found it difficult to breathe so he went to the hospital. But after four or five days the doctors put him in an induced coma because he was really agitated. The sleep state keeps patients who might be anxious about breathing from removing a respirator out of panic. Carreras never regained consciousness. The 40-year-old Cuban native had lived in South Florida for several years, and friends described him as a hard worker who often clocked in around 14 hours per day at a warehouse. He also drove as an Uber driver in order to save money to send to his family in Cuba each month. As Conquista is still self-isolating himself, he wants people to know “this is serious.” “They need to stay at home,” he told the news station. “It doesn’t just kill old people. This poor boy had only 40 years old. It can kill anybody, so just stay home and think of other people. Try to save other people’s lives. Just because you are not affected directly doesn’t mean that people are not suffering from this.”

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Trump Wants His Signature On Stimulus Checks As If He’s Giving Americans Money

Donald Trump (photo: public domain)
The Wall Street Journal reports Donald Trump would like to see his signature on the stimulus checks that will be sent out after he signed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package into law Friday, according to an administration official. Normally such checks would be signed by a disbursing officer, not the president. Trump always wants “credit” for everything that happens in the country, and a check bearing his signature could appear to some as if the Donald is giving Americans these funds when actually the American people are writing the checks.

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News Round-Up: March 27, 2020

Ryan Worley (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Chippendales’ Ryan Worley (above) has the right idea for a Friday night. Man, this week kinda kicked my butt… How are you folks doing? Thinking best thoughts everyone’s way. • Fox News: Former Vice President Joe Biden bests President Donald Trump by nine points in a 2020 ballot test, in the first Fox News Poll since Biden became the de facto Democratic nominee. Notably, Biden has an eight-point edge in battleground states (48-40 percent). However, Biden’s advantage grows to 25 points, 57-32 percent, in close counties (where Hillary Clinton and Trump were within 10 points in 2016). • NewNowNext: Click over to read a deep dive into the many husbands of “Joe Exotic,” one of the stars of the bizarre docu-series Tiger King. I watched the first two episodes last night after seeing everyone talk about it. It’s quite the odd assortment of big cat ‘private zoo’ characters. • Out Music: Bounce into the weekend with this new cut from Bright Light Bright Light – “This Was My House,” a sugar-rush of dancefloor pop featuring Madonna’s longtime backing vocalist duo Niki Haris and Donna De Lory. “The song is about how the safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community have been fractured of late with a palpable uprising of anti-LGBTQ+ and xenophobic rhetoric, which is scarily even more real now as these public spaces are closed for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the artist.

• NY Daily News: New Yorkers should be prepared for the city to remain in “pause” due to coronavirus through May even as President Trump gives Americans “false hope” the country will reopen by Easter next month, Mayor de Blasio said Friday. “We have to be ready for that and I think it’s going to spread in the country,” de Blasio said when asked if the city would be closed through May. “This idea of Easter is, unfortunately, a false hope. It would be better for the president to be blunt with people that we’ve got a really tough battle ahead.” • KIT212: Kenneth rounds up the best of local gay rags in the U.S. and around the world including DNA Magazine featuring Nordic hottie Patrik Isoaho (below).

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House Passes Coronavirus Stimulus Package

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)
From CNN:

The House of Representatives on Friday approved a historic $2 trillion coronavirus response stimulus package, clearing the way for President Trump’s signature.

The far-reaching legislation stands as the largest emergency aid package in US history. It injects a massive financial boost into a struggling economy with provisions aimed at helping American workers, small businesses and industries grappling with the economic disruption.

Key elements of the package include sending checks directly to individuals and families, an expansion of unemployment benefits, money for hard-hit hospitals and health care providers, financial assistance for small businesses and $500 billion in loans for distressed companies.

The bill now heads to Donald Trump’s desk where he will sign it into law later today. As I previously reported, Rep. Thomas Massie went into the chamber with a pre-announced plan to call for a full vote by the House members. Because of that threat, hundreds of lawmakers were forced to return to Washington to ensure a quorum was present. When Massie asked for his voice vote, Rep. Anthony Brown, the presiding officer in the speaker’s chair, pointed out that not enough members stood up to back his request. House rules require one-fifth of lawmakers to stand up in support of such motions. Massie protested saying there was not a quorum of lawmakers present. And so, Brown called for a count of the lawmakers present in the chamber and galleries and found there were enough members present. “A quorum is present. The motion is adopted,” he ruled.

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Trump Calls Out GOP Rep. Thomas Massie As “Third Rate Grandstander”

L-R Rep. Thomas Massie, Donald Trump
Donald Trump has now turned his ire on a member of his own party. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has issues with the Coronavirus Stimulus legislation that passed in the Senate earlier this week and now needs to be approved by the House. Massie has tweeted he plans to ask for a full vote of the House which will require members who are home in their own districts to travel back to Washington, D.C. which will cause the bill’s approval to be delayed. Trump took to Twitter to call the Republican out as a “third rate Grandstander:”

“Looks like a third rate Grandstander named @RepThomasMassie, a Congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT State, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress. He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous & costly. Workers & small businesses need money now in order to survive. Virus wasn’t their fault. It is “HELL” dealing with the Dems, had to give up some stupid things in order to get the “big picture” done. 90% GREAT! WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!”

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News Round-Up: March 26, 2020

Max Emerson and friend (photo: Charlie Nunn)
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Cutie Max Emerson (above) offers this important public service announcement – “If you foster a doggo you don’t have to quarantine alone. Shelters need your help now more than ever, so if you’re one of the lucky people still financially stable please consider it.” • The Gaily Grind: A “traveling musical minister” who dismissed the COVID-19 threat as “mass hysteria” has just died from complications due to the virus. • Washington Blade: A cadre of 17 senators — including six former presidential hopefuls and one current candidate — are calling on the Food & Drug Administration to take another look at the ban prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating blood amid the coronavirus crisis. • New Music: Pop sensation 5 Seconds of Summer drops their latest single, “Wildflower,” an 80s-inspired, upbeat power-pop bop. The band says they left out words from the chorus so that people can “make the chorus kind of a choose-your-own-adventure. Expect to hear “WildFlower” all over the place this spring and summer.

• Deadline: NBC has set 9 p.m. Thursday, April 23, for the series finale of Will & Grace and will precede it with a half-hour retrospective special hosted by Eric McCormack. The special will chronicle the series’ guest stars and its history-making moments from over the years, including the first male-to-male kiss on network television. Elton John and Norman Lear also will appear. • NewNowNext: In addition to her Las Vegas shows being postponed due to the coronavirus threat, Lady Gaga has announced she will also delay the release of her upcoming album, Chromatica, as well. “While I believe art is one of the strongest things we have to provide joy and healing to each other during times like this, it just doesn’t feel right to me to release this album with all that is going on during this global pandemic.” • Advocate: The gays asked for it, and #BeardEdgeEdge is here. During an Instagram Live session on Wednesday with Dr. Dara Krass, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg was looking pretty fur-tastic.

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Labor Department: Record 3.3 Million File For Unemployment

After much of the country shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Labor Department reports a record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s four times the previous record. From the Washington Post:

A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, as restaurants, hotels, barber shops, gyms and more shut down in a nationwide effort to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Last week saw the biggest jump in new jobless claims in history, surpassing the record of 695,000 set in 1982. Many economists say this is the beginning of a massive spike in unemployment that could result in over 40 million Americans losing their jobs by April.

Laid off workers say they waited hours on the phone to apply for help. Websites in several states, including New York and Oregon, crashed because so many people were trying to apply at once. The nation’s unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in February, a half-century low, but that has likely risen already to 5.5 percent, according to calculations by Gimbel. The nation hasn’t seen that level of unemployment since 2015.

This graphic from NPR shows the dramatic spike in new claims.

(image via NPR)

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NPR Station Stops Broadcasting Trump Briefings Due To ‘False Information And Exaggerations’

NPR station KUOW in Seattle has announced it will no longer broadcast the White House daily briefings on the coronavirus due to “a pattern of false information and exaggeration.” Via the Washington Post:

“After airing the White House briefings live for two weeks, a pattern of false information and exaggeration increasingly had many at KUOW questioning whether these briefings were in the best service of our mission — to create and serve a more informed public,” notes the statement, posted Wednesday afternoon.

“Of even greater concern was the potential impact of false information on the health and safety of our community.” KUOW provided three examples of bogus information stemming from the briefings. All of them — surprise — came from President Trump.

• “Nobody knew there’d be a pandemic or an epidemic of this proportion,” President Trump said at a live White House briefing on March 19 despite warnings from the U.S. Intelligence community earlier this year.

• “You’re seeing very few empty shelves,” our listeners heard live from President Trump on March 20. Local reporting shows many stores are out of basic supplies, including hand soap.

• We’re going to be able to make the drug chloroquine “available almost immediately” said President Trump on March 19. The president claimed, incorrectly, that the FDA had fast-tracked approval of its use to treat COVID-19. There isn’t current medical evidence of the efficacy of that drug in treating COVID-19.

In related news, The Hill reports major news outlets have now started to cut away from the briefings after less than half an hour as well. Except Fox News, of course,