Trump’s drug card scam

It was just a ploy to get votes. I doubt it ever happens.

President Trump’s Medicare drug discount cards face uncertain path https://t.co/CPmizBMfbN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 15, 2020

This is such a remarkable story on so many levels. Among other things, what would the possible legal justification be for spending $7.9 billion to send out drug discount cards with the president's name on them? https://t.co/eP5IohOPSy pic.twitter.com/zPre94Rf44
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) October 8, 2020

A blatant ploy to use the Medicare trust fund to pay for an election year boost for Trump in the form of a letter and drug discount cards. https://t.co/1mKwwCXtpj
— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 8, 2020

Health officials scramble to explain details of Trump’s $200 drug discount card https://t.co/iSv3Zbavu9
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 26, 2020

Trump is promising to send $200 drug discount cards to 33 million seniors, an election year bid aimed at saying he’s lowering sky high prescription drug costs for older Americanshttps://t.co/R8qVOIJ35t
— POLITICO (@politico) September 25, 2020

News: The WH & Phrma nearly agreed to a $150B deal

Then the WH came back w a bigger ask: they wanted cash cards mailed to seniors to help them pay for drugs

Phrma feared “Trump Cards” – and the specter of an in-kind contrib

Deal blew up

w @maggieNYT >https://t.co/SVMf1zQrsa
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) September 18, 2020

Covers: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” was originally recorded by the great Amos Milburn (who made other records about drinking) in 1953. It is best known now in the version by John Lee Hooker from 1966.

Covers: Alabama Song

“Alabama Song” was written in 1925 by Bertolt Brecht. It was set to music by Kurt Weill and recorded by Brecht’s wife Lotte Lenya in 1970.

I know it from the Doors version on their first album from 1966.

Covers: The Tide Is High

“The Tide Is High” is best known in the 1980 Blondie version but it was originally recorded in 1967 by the Jamaican group the Paragons.

Trump shovels money at farmers to make up for his trade disasters

Not for nothing does Trump talk about the "great patriot farmers" –> Trump’s farmer bailout has given $21 billion to red counties and $2.1 billion to blue ones https://t.co/RKtXGuBJG9
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 20, 2020

Remember Obamaphones? It was part of a whole racist theory that poor black people liked Obama because he gave them free stuff from the government!
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 20, 2020

A stimulus deal might be stymied, but Trump is funneling record subsidies to his farmers.

Payments this year project to top $40 billion.

There was a late push to help North Carolina tobacco farmers & Sonny Perdue was hit with a Hatch Act violation.https://t.co/eHoihGH6WZ
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) October 12, 2020

Should read: Trump attempts to buy farmers votes as his poll numbers decline. https://t.co/KSZQssJjpL
— James (@jcmarbury) September 18, 2020

Trump then falsely claimed that the $28 billion in tariff money given to farmers was paid by China. That's money paid by Americans. (American importers make the actual tariff payments, and study after study has shown Americans are bearing the overwhelming portion of the cost.)
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 24, 2020

Trump just claimed farmers benefit "more than anybody else" from the stock market. He's dead wrong. https://t.co/rAbOqEvk07
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 11, 2020

Farmers’ hopes for respite from Trump-era struggles fade amid pandemic https://t.co/C27IwyJ4vQ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 12, 2020

“Imagine three years ago, you lost 30% of your paycheck and then the next year, you lost another 30%,” says a South Dakota farmer about the losses farmers experienced as a result of U.S.-China trade war. The coronavirus pandemic is adding to those losses. https://t.co/eHBRaYXOi8 pic.twitter.com/8ZPh5hwMFp
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 3, 2020

Trump's farmer trade bailout is already more than 2x the size of the 2009 auto bailout https://t.co/VIzez83uy1
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 21, 2020

Trump announces he plans to redistribute wealth from the American businesses that actually pay tariffs to farmers who are hurt by his trade war, but whose votes are crucial to his reelection hopes https://t.co/pP4nugouGe
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2020

The Trump administration provided more taxpayer dollars to farmers financially damaged by the administration’s
trade policies than the federal government spends each year on CHIP, maintaining America's nuclear arsenal, or the entire State Departmenthttps://t.co/J49Ci84cqh pic.twitter.com/ezbQvL41qv
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 21, 2020

This year alone, Wisconsin will have lost about 800 dairy farms in a downturn that threatens the vitality of rural communities and the state's flagship industry. @journalsentinel https://t.co/eqp5DhJUJJ
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) December 25, 2019

Trump likes dangerous herd immunity

Many more people will die if herd immunity is our strategy against the virus.

Perspective: Trump wants to try for herd immunity.

Without a vaccine, it could kill millions. https://t.co/2nvhfUkzys
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 14, 2020

"Sky News found dozens of fake names on the list of medical signatories, including Dr. I.P. Freely, Dr. Person Fakename, and Dr. Johnny Bananas." White House Cites Herd-Immunity Petition Signed by Fake Experts https://t.co/MX49EaYfPi via @thedailybeast
— Meg Gardiner (@MegGardiner1) October 14, 2020

"Herd immunity" means the deaths of 100s of thousands MORE Americans, a total surrender to COVID-19. That this deeply immoral nonsense is being contemplated shows the total failure of lapdogs like .@SenDanSullivan to hold this administration to account. https://t.co/Zg62333PLM
— Dr. Al Gross (@DrAlGrossAK) October 14, 2020

This action by @realDonaldTrump & @WhiteHouse to embrace herd immunity will result in millions of dead Americans. The ONLY reason to let the virus spread is if you don’t believe a vaccine would work. Why don’t we let measles spread? Because there’s a frickin vaccine. https://t.co/EORPZBax7a
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 14, 2020

Here’s why herd immunity through natural infection is not a public health strategy. We don’t know how long #covid19 immunity lasts. Millions will die in the process. Public health is about protecting the public’s health. It is NOT knowingly causing infection & preventable death. pic.twitter.com/3X8VdsZvgK
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) October 14, 2020

Encouraging people to get infected in pursuit of herd immunity is unethical and will substantially increase the numbers who die from COVID. @WHO has called it like it is, and US government agencies and scientific academies should be just as clear on it https://t.co/bDPZbhQLYn
— Tom Inglesby (@T_Inglesby) October 14, 2020

What a Trump supporter told us heading into Iowa rally… 👇🏻 https://t.co/ZVffVZ0kgI
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 14, 2020

“It’s never going to work, unless you’re prepared to see an enormous death toll,” @Laurie_Garrett says of herd immunity.https://t.co/OmDTXtXDJm
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 15, 2020

Great sign in Iowa

Billboard outside Des Moines airport where Trump holds Iowa rally tonight. pic.twitter.com/XHix45wzlw
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 14, 2020

Trump’s fake Seal Team 6 scandal

Trump is an endless source of conspiracy theories.

Trump has endorsed a falconer's Benghazi conspiracy theory that Joe Biden killed Navy SEALs in a blood sacrifice and that Osama Bin Laden is still alive because Seal Team 6 killed his body double. https://t.co/KIkNJuRXrr
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 13, 2020

He did it again. It’s not just flat-out insane, it’s disrespectful to the brave fighters from SEAL Team Six. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/okPfZJzPMg
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 14, 2020

The Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden (and who supports President Trump) has some thoughts on the deranged conspiracy theory the president is pushing this week. https://t.co/Sy1A4zUEtT
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 14, 2020

As his “unmasking” allegations were being revealed as a hoax, Trump was retweeting lunatic claims that Obama and Biden “may have had Seal Team 6 killed” and that Osama bin Laden was still alive and living in Iran. @PostOpinions https://t.co/cXuaQwc4LC
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) October 14, 2020

What's even weirder is that at least one member of Seal Team Six is going to vote for Trump, a president who argues that Seal Team Six has been murdered. https://t.co/UhQMjnlnm6
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 14, 2020

The president retweets a story suggesting that Barack Obama had Seal Team 6 murdered. And the world barely notices.

https://t.co/jOVemD0eBC via @BulwarkOnline
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) October 14, 2020

Navy SEAL who became famous for his part in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden pushes back against Trump for tweeting QAnon-linked conspiracy theory that the terrorist leader's death was a hoax. @connorobrienNH https://t.co/dJsSDtmtkT
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 14, 2020

The president retweeted an insane article alleging "Biden and Obama may have had Seal Team 6 killed" posted by a QAnon account and written by "an ex-Community Organizer and Homeschool Mom." pic.twitter.com/ydoCEFLkAt
— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) October 13, 2020

Anti-Trump yard signs in Pittsburgh

😂😂😂👀👀👀 shit is getting real in the Burgh. pic.twitter.com/2DUN6XQDeh
— Nicole Lee #UBI 🧢 #BLM 🍎🏴‍☠️ (@nicolepagelee) October 13, 2020

This will only make sense if you’ve spent time in Pittsburgh.

More on the Pittsburgh parking chair history:

Got you covered lol. History: https://t.co/yxxjABnGUS
— Nicole Lee #UBI 🧢 #BLM 🍎🏴‍☠️ (@nicolepagelee) October 13, 2020

Climate update 10/20/20

The pipeline from law schools to the Federalist Society to the Supreme Court has been funded by foundations that have also supported climate denial. https://t.co/ptXRwKwvI7
— The New Republic (@newrepublic) October 14, 2020

The Trump administration argues that the federal government does not have the authority to set restrictions on carbon emissions, or to force states to reduce coal-fired power. A victory would strip future administrations of a key weapon to tackle warming. https://t.co/NoqBUfponv
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) October 11, 2020

"The Trump administration discovered it had a secret superpower." Successive judges have ruled that top officials, including the head of the Bureau of Land Management, are likely serving illegally. The response? Ignore it. https://t.co/XVmjUIdlkU by @LFFriedman
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) October 10, 2020

The 2020 ozone hole grew rapidly from mid-August and had grown to about 9.2 million square miles when it peaked in early October, according to a statement from the World Meteorological Association https://t.co/OtuuqKYrWM
— CNN (@CNN) October 9, 2020

The Trump administration is delaying National Climate Assessment, which shows Americans how climate change is affecting their communities. Meanwhile, Trump told one advisor he wants a hostile climate science review after election and WH recruiting deniers. https://t.co/B7kKaoKfoS
— Scott Waldman (@scottpwaldman) October 5, 2020

Though there is plenty of optimism throughout the research, one area where we find young Americans are very worried that things are getting worse: the environment.

Climate, oceans, and rivers are all areas of serious concern. pic.twitter.com/jsfaWl8Cyf
— Kristen Soltis Anderson (@KSoltisAnderson) October 6, 2020

"What we’re most concerned about is things can still get worse.” https://t.co/Qjf6LxqARC
— Climate Desk (@ClimateDesk) October 5, 2020

The melting today on Greenland's ice sheet is roughly equal to the greatest rates of ice loss in the last 12,000 years, a new study shows. https://t.co/GZG1B1bHhv
— CNN (@CNN) October 5, 2020

So much has gone wrong since the Democrats lost control of the House in 2010 that it’s easy to imagine climate change again being relegated to the to-do list, @ElizKolbert writes—but there isn’t time for that. https://t.co/47BMUy8slT
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 30, 2020

Hurricanes, floods and wildfires imperil hundreds of hazardous waste sites. The Trump admin. won't talk about the rising risks.

This article was published in partnership with @insideclimate and @TexasObserver. https://t.co/JvbNzUK38x pic.twitter.com/jcGA2MShLa
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 14, 2020

8 Vital Questions About Global Warming and the Election — and the answers.https://t.co/UaGuDiBpJq
— NYT Climate (@nytclimate) October 14, 2020

Globe sets record for warmest September, and there's nearly a 2-to-1 chance 2020 will set record for hottest year.https://t.co/me6TxbTFvO
— AP Health & Science (@APHealthScience) October 14, 2020

The Antarctic Ocean is in climate crisis. This week, the world could take a big step towards protecting its future https://t.co/42dqFK8yGM
— TIME (@TIME) October 20, 2020