New York says to Italy, Hold My Beer

23 Mar 2020: Italy reported 602 new deaths, bringing the total to 6,077 with the tally of cases in the country rising to 63,928. The number of cases in the US surged past 35,000 with a death toll of 495, according to John Hopkins University data.

US pandemic relief remains stalled in congress. Speeches from Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) offer stark contrasts. The GOP bill proposed in the senate favors corporations more than workers so house democrats are working on a different package.  

The US now has the third most cases in the world and is racing up the charts with New York the current global hot spot. Population density is not helping, especially the covidiots who reject social distancing and self isolation. Some New Yorkers are attempting to flee to other states, large numbers of them becoming Floridiots.

US governors have so far ordered 158 million Americans in 16 states to stay home, and requested federal assistance in obtaining more hospital beds, personal protective equipment, and ventilators. Trump has signaled he wants a short shutdown so the economy doesn’t suffer. Even Lindsey Graham disagrees with Trump on this. 

Surgeon General Jerome Adams has warned, "This week, things are going to get bad." Trump continues to tout malaria medications despite lack of testing, tepid response from the medical community, and a related death. Trump appears to have replaced Dr. Anthony Fauci with Dr. Deborah Birx during his press propaganda conferences rallies. 

Trump claimed he used the Defense Production Act (DPA) in recent negotiations with companies, but there is no evidence. Hanes Brands did recently announce workers in Latin American factories would be sewing surgical masks instead of socks, but not N95 ventilator masks which are urgently needed. After Trump announced automobile manufacturers would soon begin manufacturing medical equipment, an AP fact check quickly refuted. Axios also investigated.  
https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2020-03-22/ap-fact-check-trump-falsely-says-ventilators-coming-fast
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-trump-gm-medical-supplies-production-9a490add-0eb9-4c10-a647-3f57ae148028.html

North Korea claims Trump sent a personal letter to Kim offering cooperation in fighting the pandemic. Awaiting fact check on this. https://time.com/5807957/north-korea-trump-letter-coronavirus-cooperation/ Time is rated Left-Center biased based on story selection that mostly favors the left and High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact check record. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/time/

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate cease fire and end to all conflicts around the world. Human rights organizations are calling for an end to sanctions against Iran during this crisis.

Macron in France and Xi in China are urging global coordination among world leaders, G-20 style, to combat the virus. Hard to imagine Trump would be invited to join, or contribute much to those efforts.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/world/coronavirus-updates-usa-world.html  New York Times is rated Left-Center biased based on word and story selection that moderately favors the left, but highly factual and considered one of the most reliable sources for news information due to proper sourcing and well respected journalists/editors. Failed fact checks were on Op-Ed’s and not straight news reporting. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/new-york-times/

While Canada’s Trudeau recently thanked children for all they are doing during these troubling times, Trump rebuked a reporter for asking what he would say to people who are afraid right now.

Vox examined virus risks for different age groups. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/23/21190033/coronavirus-covid-19-deaths-by-age

Vox is rated Left Biased due to wording and story selection that routinely favors the left, and Mostly Factual in reporting, rather than High, due to two failed fact checks, with only one offering a correction. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/vox/

President Cuomo is now trending on Twitter, lauded for putting public health above the economy.

Dick Pound also is trending. He’s a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommending the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo be postponed until 2021.

In local news, Old Salem is transforming garden plots into “Victory Gardens” to grow food for local food banks. This inspires me to pull weeds in my own garden in preparation for planting after Easter.