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When the after-action report on the current pandemic is being prepared, Im going to ask the guy with the notepad to write down: China and globalists.

Those words wont be on Trumps list. He cant stop gushing about how much he respects China and the American companies that have outsourced jobs there. Even as China withholds vital medical supplies, he refuses to end our suicidal dependence on them.

His one slight annoyance with China is that it lied about the Wuhan virus, allowing the disease to explode across the globe.

I have a longer list of complaints, beginning with the fact that they eat bats. The resulting pandemic now raging through our country would be bad enough, but our new crisis is a shortage of medical equipment.

Too bad we shipped all our manufacturing to China! Not to worry, surely China wouldnt disrupt the sacred global supply chain.

Oops. China is stockpiling masks and ventilators.

And theres more good news! China makes more than 90% of our antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen and hydrocortisone, 70% of acetaminophen, and 40% to 45% of heparin, according to The New York Times. The last American penicillin plant closed more than 15 years ago.

In early March, the Chinese government ominously warned that if China stopped exporting drugs, the United States would sink into the hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic.

For decades, people like Trumps trade director Peter Navarro have warned us that something like this would happen someday. But we were condescendingly told, This is capital seeking the most efficient market! And, anyway, if China screws with us, well just make it ourselves.

Really? With broken-down buildings, a dispossessed workforce and no machinery? Unfashionable working-class people in the industrial Midwest were discarded long ago. They may as well have had obsolete stamped on their foreheads.

But I notice that you, Wall Street, made a lot of money off of globalization.

Oh, did I? I didnt notice!

What happened to your vaunted concern for Chinas human rights violations the Uyghurs, the Falun Gong, Tibet, child labor?

You should see my place in the Hamptons!

Even before China gave us this latest viral disease not to be confused with H1N1, Asian flu, SARS and bird flu, also from China one of the most frequent questions about Amazon products was: Is this made in China?

Obviously, a lot of consumers would happily pay more to know that something is made in the USA or at least not in China. Wed like to support our fellow Americans. We also prefer products that dont kill the family pet, instantly fall apart or risk being embargoed during a viral pandemic.

How about that search refinement, Amazon? Made in USA including constituent parts or 0% Chinese. Id wager these would be more popular than the hundreds of other search parameters, such as star ratings, price, manufacturer, prime, calories, gluten-free and so on.

Not a chance. The globalists are making a lot of money selling us crappy products, manufactured in a culturally backward, totalitarian regime with zero quality control and absolutely no interest in the well-being of our country.

Why hasnt Trump seized on this nightmare of the New World Order to fulfill a campaign promise and bring manufacturing home?

Where are the massive tariffs on Chinese goods and the Buy American programs?

How about telling Ivanka, No, you are not going to make it even more expensive for companies to hire Americans with this ridiculous Paid Family Medical Leave Act! In fact, were going to seek the repeal of all laws that create jobs only for trial lawyers.

Even a lot of the American companies were so proud of for stepping up to make masks in this crisis ... are making them in China. (New York Times, March 13, 2020: A General Motors joint venture in southwestern China built 20 of its own mask-making machines and began bulk production.)

Trumps reaction? Flatter China so theyll keep buying our soybeans. Maybe theyll throw Jared some business!

Nearly a month ago, The New York Times reported that Trump was preparing an executive order, which could be released in the coming days, requiring the federal government to buy American-made pharmaceuticals.

It apparently went into the same file as that executive order on anchor babies. Were still waiting.

Navarro had the executive order ready to go, but then dozens of pharmaceutical companies lobbied against it, arguing that a diverse pharmaceutical supply chain is precisely what enables the industry to respond quickly and make adjustments in its supply chain sourcing during natural emergencies and global public health crises.

China: If we cut you off, America, youll be in hell.

The Big Pharma lobbyists also noted that Trumps (idle) threat for America to make its own drugs could run afoul of commitments it made under the WTOs Government Procurement Agreement.

NO! WE CANT VIOLATE THE WTOS GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT AGREEMENT!

Trump is the president of the United States. Either he is responsible for a monstrous virus arriving on our shores and destroying our economy or China is. I expected the media to say, Trump! I didnt expect Trump to agree.

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ANN COULTER: The bill for globalism has arrived - MDJOnline.com

I imagine that, if youve never heard of Wendy Bell, you find her anointment as Americas Worst White Woman to be suspicious.

Who is this mystery woman, I picture you asking, who somehow beat Ann Coulter, Abigail Fisher, and Toejam Lobotomy to be Americas worst white woman? How is she the LeBron of Karens?

Well, years ago, when Wendy Bell was still an anchorwoman at WTAE-TV (Pittsburghs ABC affiliate), six people were killed in a horrific mass shooting in a predominately black Pittsburgh suburb. A week after the shooting, Bell went to her Facebook fan page and published what historians now refer to as the Moby Dick of White Privilege. (By historians I mean I.)

She began with some thoughts on how she hadnt been able to walk or talk since the shooting, continued by effectively calling the mothers of the suspected shooters broke black hoes, described the shooting with Pulitzer-level black poverty porn imagery, and then ended with a pitch-perfect screed on how a recent family night at the Cheesecake Factory with a smiling and skipping black server gave her hope for us. (If you think Im making this up, pleaseI beg of youread what she wrote. And even if you dont think Im making this up, read it for your own entertainment.)

Bell was eventually fired from WTAE. She subsequently sued them for racial discrimination, and the case was settled.

I thought this would be the last of Wendy Bell; that maybe the only time Id see or hear from her going forward would be in line at PetSmart. But Wendy Bell is the Jason Voorhees of white women: Just when you think shes finally gone, shes behind you with a podcast. She was hired in late 2018 by KDKA Radio, where shes had carte blanche to be as Wendy as she can be.

This brings us to Sunday, where during a Facebook Live segment of her show, she admitted that she kinda, sorta wants to kill your grandparents for freedom. (Seriously, you need to watch this. Please, please, please, please, please, please watch this.)

Even for her, this is...a lot. The whiteboard, the gestures, the eyes, the sweaterthis is Peak Wendy. And this is the same woman who said He moved like a dancer with a satisfied smile on his face. And I couldnt take my eyes off him. Hes going to Make It in reference to a teenager at a restaurant who happened to be serving while black.

Social distancing has made me realize how much I took for granted, and how much of that I truly miss. The thought of shopping at Giant Eagle, for instance, induces nostalgia. And today, after seeing Wendy back in the news, I realized how much Ive truly missed her unique brand of dangerous, triflin, batshit crazy. Welcome back, old friend.

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Wendy Bell, America's Worst White Woman, Is Back (and Wants to Kill Your Grandparents) - The Root

The news coming out of the presidents Monday press conference on the coronavirus is truly alarming.

President Trump, under growing pressure to rescue an economy in free fall, said Monday that he may soon loosen federal guidelines for social distancing and encourage shuttered businesses to reopendefying public health experts, who have warned that doing so risks accelerating the spread of the novel coronavirus or even allowing it to rebound.

America will again and soon be open for businessvery soon, Trump said at the daily White House news conference. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.

The consensus among expertsincluding infectious disease expert Anthony S. Fauci and other senior officials on Trumps coronavirus task forceis that restaurants, bars, schools, offices and other gathering places should remain closed for many more weeks to mitigate the outbreak, the worst effects of which are yet to be felt in the United States.

But Trump has been chafing against that notion and impatient to get American life back to normal.

If it were up to the doctors, theyd say lets keep it shut down, lets shut down the entire world ... and lets keep it shut for a couple of years, Trump said Monday. We cant do that.

Of course, Trump is incapable of telling the truth. No one is suggesting that we need to shut down for a couple of years. But he has to exaggerate to make a point.

During the press conference, John Karl asked the president whether he was worried that if he lifted restrictions too soon, the virus would start spreading. The correct response would be to remind Karl that the virus hasnt been contained. It is still spreading. Instead, Trump suggested that he would lift restrictions based on what he is hearing about the mortality rate.

At the beginning, nobody knew anything about this particular virus, and Trump said he heard numbers that the mortality rate for the virus might be as high as 5%, compared with .001 or 2 or 3 percent for the normal flu.

The mortality rate, to me that is a very big factor, Trump said.

Were under 1% now, Trump said. Its still terrible. The whole concept of death is terrible, but theres a tremendous difference between something under 1% and 4 or 5 or even 3%.

Once again, the president isnt telling the truth. Here is what the World Health Organization said about the coronavirus mortality rate earlier this month.

Mortality for COVID-19 appears higher than for influenza, especially seasonal influenza. While the true mortality of COVID-19 will take some time to fully understand, the data we have so far indicate that the crude mortality ratio (the number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3-4%, the infection mortality rate (the number of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually well below 0.1%.

While it is difficult to discuss these issues when we are referring to peoples lives, the estimates from WHO of 3-4 percent were based on the number of reported cases rather than the number of infections. Experts have calculated an infection mortality rate of 1.4 percent in the city of Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have originated. But given that mortality rates vary, here is a summary of what we currently know.

The chance of someone with symptomatic Covid-19 dying varied by age, confirming other studies. For those aged 15 to 44, the fatality rate was 0.5%, though it might have been as low as 0.1% or as high as 1.3%. For people 45 to 64, the fatality rate was also 0.5%, with a possible low of 0.2% and a possible high of 1.1%. For those over 64, it was 2.7%, with a low and high estimate of 1.5% and 4.7%.

Nevertheless, on Monday night, Trump tweeted this from Ann Coulter.

It is probably safe to say that Trump loved that number, but didnt bother reading the linked article. If he had, he would have learned that the author, while having worked on pandemics, is an engineer, not a health professional.

But, for the sake of argument, lets go with his figures. The population of the United States is currently about 327 million. Estimates are that somewhere between 20-60 percent of the population will be infected with the coronavirus. If the mortality rate was 0.45 percent, that would mean the death of between 294,000 and 883,000 Americans. We are currently at about 600. Those are the lives this president is willing to sacrifice on the altar of the economy.

Here is how Governor Cuomo reacted to the presidents plan.

Those joining the president in choosing the economy over life include Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Of course, Trumps economic advisors and some business leaders are joining that chorus. But what about those who, on religious grounds, claim to be pro-life? The publication First Things, which touts itself as Americas most influential journal of religion and public life, published an article about this by R.R. Reno.

Undoubtedly shelter in place will slow the spread of disease, but at what cost to the body politic? Beware public health officials who advise burning the village in order to get rid of the pestilence.

And beware those who pronounce that we should save lives at any cost. Thats a dangerous falsehood, one that leads to barbarism and slavery. There are many things more important than physical survivallove, honor, beauty, and faith. Anyone who believes that our earthly existence is worth preserving at any cost will accept slavery. As St. Paul teaches, he is already a slave, spiritually speaking.

All of a sudden, when we are talking about the economy instead of womens bodies, asking people to shelter in place is the road to slavery. Risking a minimum of 300,000 lives is small potatoes to Reno.

I am reminded of something David Simon said about the message he was sending with his series The Wire.

I didnt start out as a cynic, but at every given moment where this country has had a choice its governments, institutions, corporations, its social framework to exalt the value of individuals over the value of the shared price, we have chosen raw unencumbered capitalism. Capitalism has become our god. You are not looking at a marxist up here, but you are looking at somebody who doesnt believe that capitalism can work absent a social framework that accepts that it is relatively easy to marginalize more and more people in this economy. Capitalism has to be attended to. And that has to be a conscious calculation on the part of society, if that is going to succeedA t some point, either more of us are going to find our conscience or were not.

It is clear that Donald Trump and his enablers are devoid of a conscience. In the coming weeks, as hundreds of thousands of lives are on the line, well find out about the rest of us.

If you enjoyed this article, consider making a donation to help us produce more like it. The Washington Monthly was founded in 1969 to tell the stories of how government really worksand how to make it work better. Fifty years later, the need for incisive analysis and new, progressive policy ideas is clearer than ever. As a nonprofit, we rely on support from readers like you.

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Trump Is Willing to Risk Hundreds of Thousands of Lives - Washington Monthly

Maybe it's just me, but when Bill Gates talks about how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, I trust him more than Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter.

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Bill Gates on CNN: returning to normal life in April is not realistic - Boing Boing

Ann Coulter is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers -- Guilty: Liberal Victim and Their Assault On America (January 2009); If Democrats Has Any Brains,They'd Be Republicans (October 2007); Godless: The Church of Liberalism (June 2006); How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) (October, 2004), Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism (June 2003); Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right (June 2002); and High Crimes and Misdemeanors:The Case Against Bill Clinton (August 1998).

Ann Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a popular syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. Ann Coulter is a frequent guest on many TV shows, including Hannity and Colmes, Wolf Blitzer Reports, At Large With Geraldo Rivera, Scarborough Country, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, The O'Reilly Factor, and Good Morning America; and has been profiled in numerous publications, including TV Guide, the Guardian (UK), the New York Observer, National Journal, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle magazine, among others. Ann Coulter was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard Posner in 2001.

Ann Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.

After practicing law in private practice in New York City, Ann Coulter worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. From there, Ann Coulter became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, D.C., a public interest law firm dedicated to the defense of individual rights with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, civil rights, and the free exercise of religion.

A Connecticut native, Ann Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.

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Ann Coulter - Articles & Political Commentary