The Coronavirus - a virus from eating bats, an accident or something sinister gone wrong?

[swordfish]

https://www.bbc.com/news/53559938

The taking down of a viral video by social media companies has reignited a highly-charged controversy in the US over the use of the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine.

In the video, members of the group America's Frontline Doctors promote it both as a preventative measure and as a cure for Covid-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) say "there is currently no proof" that hydroxychloroquine is effective as a treatment or prevents coronavirus.

The video was broadcast online by right-wing online platform Breitbart, viewed over 17 million times on Facebook. It was also shared on Twitter by Donald Trump and many of his supporters.

The president's son, Donald Jnr, was suspended from tweeting for 12 hours by Twitter after he posted it on his account.

What does the video claim?

The video, a 45-minute livestream of the first day of a "White Coat" summit by the group, was posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Breitbart and quickly went viral.

"The virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax," says one of the doctors in the video.

"You don't need masks. There is a cure. I know they don't want to open schools. No, you don't need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure."

Image captionThe video shows doctors in white coats in front of the US Supreme Court

The Facebook video, as well as racking up millions of views, was shared nearly 600,000 times before it was taken down.

The hashtag #hydroxychloroquine was tweeted more than 153,000 times, becoming one of Twitter's top trends in the US overnight.

Multiple versions of the video continue to be widely shared on social media.

According to data from the Facebook-owned social media analytics tool CrowdTangle, public posts in the last 24 hours containing the word hydroxychloroquine have had 6.6 million engagements (likes, shares, views, comments and reactions) on Facebook and Instagram despite the removal of several versions of the video.

In a statement to BBC News, Twitter said: "Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here."

"We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19," Facebook told the BBC, confirming it was also removing other versions of the video.

YouTube told the BBC: "We have removed the video for violating our Covid-19 misinformation policies."

BBC News also approached Breitbart, the White House and America's Frontline Doctors for comment.

What is the evidence for hydroxychloroquine?

The drug is a well-known treatment for malaria and was first touted by President Trump in March in connection with Covid-19.

The WHO says: "While several drug trials are ongoing, there is currently no proof that hydroxychloroquine or any other drug can cure or prevent COVID-19."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

"The misuse of hydroxychloroquine can cause serious side effects and illness and even lead to death," it adds.

A study conducted by Oxford University found the drug was not effective against Covid-19 in hospitalised patients.

Its effectiveness when used early on during treatment is still being studied, as is its use as a preventative measure.

• Coronavirus and hydroxychloroquine: What do we know?

Medical trials have so far been inconclusive and the results of larger-scale randomised studies will be needed to know if it's effective or not.

In July, the US Food and Drug Administration warned against the use of the drug outside a hospital setting because of possible risks to the heart from taking it.

Who are the doctors?

America's Frontline Doctors is a collection of physicians critical of the scientific consensus around the pandemic. Their event was backed by the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative organisation seeking to re-elect President Trump.

Its founder, Simone Gold, organised a letter to Mr Trump calling for an end to lockdown measures in May.

Participants were encouraged to seek out interviews with social media influencers as the best way to connect with Americans.

There has been intense debate on social media in recent months about hydroxychloroquine, and influential Fox News anchors have also run segments favouring the drug.

Ralph Norman, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, was standing alongside the doctors when they delivered their news conference.

The debate has been increasingly dividing Americans along political lines, with proponents of hydroxychloroquine pointing to President Trump's support of it while accusing critics of covering up its potential effectiveness.

https://thetablet.org/video-of-doctors-touting-covid-19-drug-removed-from-twitter/

WINDSOR TERRACE — As COVID-19 continues to strike hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S., divisions within the medical community over how to treat the virus have risen to the surface.

The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is at the center of one recent controversy.

A video featuring medical professionals from a group called America’s Frontline Doctors, in which they tout the benefits of hydroxychloroquine, was removed from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube among other sites on the night of July 27.

Twitter representatives charged that the video contains misinformation.

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” according to Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley.

“We removed it for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone tweeted.

President Donald Trump, who says he has taken hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against COVID-19 and has touted the drug several times, shared the video with his 84 million Twitter followers before it was removed.

Despite the social media pushback, members of America’s Frontline Doctors are not backing down.

The group held a conference, called the White Coat Summit, in Washington D.C. on July 27-28 to discuss treatments for COVID-19, including the use of hydroxychloroquine, and to address what they call the “massive disinformation campaign” regarding the pandemic and “to empower Americans to stop living in fear.”

The video taken down from social media sites is of a press conference that shows several medical professionals talking about the anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment for coronavirus. The doctors openly question why it isn’t more widely used for patients.

Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician, went so far as to describe hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19 when used in concert with two other drugs – zinc and Zithromax.

“America, there is a cure for COVID,” Immanuel says on the video.

That view flies in the face of the opinions of other medical experts. There is no known cure for COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

“I’ve seen it work. So far, I’ve not lost one patient,” Immanuel insisted, going as far as to call it “unethical” for hydroxychloroquine not to be used by doctors.

Immanuel has made controversial medical claims in the past. Certain medical conditions like infertility and impotence, she says, are the result of people having sex in their dreams with witches and demons. Her own Facebook biography describes her as a “prophet of God to the nations” and says she is a “Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God’s battle-ax, and weapon of war.”

Hydroxychloroquine is “an amazing drug,” said Dr. Richard Urso.

Urso said there is a great deal of research showing hydroxychloroquine to be effective.

“The science is all right here,” he says in the video.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is urging caution when it comes to hydroxychloroquine.

FDA experts have said the anti-malaria drug comes with serious health risks for COVID-19 patients. In June, the FDA revoked an emergency approval it had awarded that allowed doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist in Elgin, Illinois, favors the use of hydroxychloroquine. But he said the argument in favor of it is more nuanced than the media is presenting.

Tiballi, who has often appeared in “Ask the Doctor” segments on Currents News on NET-TV, said numerous studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine is highly effective in treating COVID-19 – but only if used as a course of treatment very early on in the progression of the virus.

“If it is prescribed within the first two days of diagnosis, it is very effective,” he told The Tablet. “Studies have shown that there was a drastic difference in the death rates in patients who took it early versus the death rates of patients who took it later on. The difference was obvious.”

Hydroxychloroquine can also be useful as a way to help prevent COVID-19, according to Tiballi.

“If you gave it to every adult in America, it is possible you could see COVID disappear,” he said.

Tiballi also questioned why hydroxychloroquine has fallen out of favor in many medical circles: “The world Health Organization, up until last year, called it one of the best drugs out there.”

He criticized sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for taking down the video featuring America’s Front Line Doctors. When asked if he believed the doctors were being censored, Tiballi said, “There’s no question they are.”

The America’s Frontline Doctors press conference video has drawn controversy for other reasons. In it, Immanuel speaks out against social distancing and wearing face masks as the sole factors in slowing down the spread of COVID-19.

“You don’t need a mask,” she said. “We don’t need to be locked down” when there are effective treatments, she said.

Despite the video being removed, it was still popping up on social media sites, largely because users shared it and re-uploaded it.

Meanwhile, other controversies have come to the forefront of the medical community.

Dr. Sapan Desai, a vascular surgeon who supplied information for two published medical studies that found that hydroxychloroquine was linked to increased deaths in COVID-19 patients, was later found to have cut corners and misrepresented data in his research, the New York Times reported.

The two studies, published in May, have since been retracted, according to the Times.

 

Those last 2 sentences are part of my reasoning for not trusting the experts the MSM keeps telling us to.  You never hear about how their studies have been refuted and retracted.......

 

[Irishman]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

And yet Mr. Fauci's terrible pitching form get a pass, and leaves his credibility intact.  🙂

 

Never said he did. But if this is the attack mounted against him, then he will certainly stand taller. 

[Muda69]

9 minutes ago, swordfish said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/53559938

The taking down of a viral video by social media companies has reignited a highly-charged controversy in the US over the use of the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine.

In the video, members of the group America's Frontline Doctors promote it both as a preventative measure and as a cure for Covid-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) say "there is currently no proof" that hydroxychloroquine is effective as a treatment or prevents coronavirus.

The video was broadcast online by right-wing online platform Breitbart, viewed over 17 million times on Facebook. It was also shared on Twitter by Donald Trump and many of his supporters.

The president's son, Donald Jnr, was suspended from tweeting for 12 hours by Twitter after he posted it on his account.

What does the video claim?

The video, a 45-minute livestream of the first day of a "White Coat" summit by the group, was posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Breitbart and quickly went viral.

"The virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax," says one of the doctors in the video.

"You don't need masks. There is a cure. I know they don't want to open schools. No, you don't need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure."

Image captionThe video shows doctors in white coats in front of the US Supreme Court

The Facebook video, as well as racking up millions of views, was shared nearly 600,000 times before it was taken down.

The hashtag #hydroxychloroquine was tweeted more than 153,000 times, becoming one of Twitter's top trends in the US overnight.

Multiple versions of the video continue to be widely shared on social media.

According to data from the Facebook-owned social media analytics tool CrowdTangle, public posts in the last 24 hours containing the word hydroxychloroquine have had 6.6 million engagements (likes, shares, views, comments and reactions) on Facebook and Instagram despite the removal of several versions of the video.

In a statement to BBC News, Twitter said: "Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here."

"We've removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19," Facebook told the BBC, confirming it was also removing other versions of the video.

YouTube told the BBC: "We have removed the video for violating our Covid-19 misinformation policies."

BBC News also approached Breitbart, the White House and America's Frontline Doctors for comment.

What is the evidence for hydroxychloroquine?

The drug is a well-known treatment for malaria and was first touted by President Trump in March in connection with Covid-19.

The WHO says: "While several drug trials are ongoing, there is currently no proof that hydroxychloroquine or any other drug can cure or prevent COVID-19."

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

"The misuse of hydroxychloroquine can cause serious side effects and illness and even lead to death," it adds.

A study conducted by Oxford University found the drug was not effective against Covid-19 in hospitalised patients.

Its effectiveness when used early on during treatment is still being studied, as is its use as a preventative measure.

• Coronavirus and hydroxychloroquine: What do we know?

Medical trials have so far been inconclusive and the results of larger-scale randomised studies will be needed to know if it's effective or not.

In July, the US Food and Drug Administration warned against the use of the drug outside a hospital setting because of possible risks to the heart from taking it.

Who are the doctors?

America's Frontline Doctors is a collection of physicians critical of the scientific consensus around the pandemic. Their event was backed by the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative organisation seeking to re-elect President Trump.

Its founder, Simone Gold, organised a letter to Mr Trump calling for an end to lockdown measures in May.

Participants were encouraged to seek out interviews with social media influencers as the best way to connect with Americans.

There has been intense debate on social media in recent months about hydroxychloroquine, and influential Fox News anchors have also run segments favouring the drug.

Ralph Norman, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, was standing alongside the doctors when they delivered their news conference.

The debate has been increasingly dividing Americans along political lines, with proponents of hydroxychloroquine pointing to President Trump's support of it while accusing critics of covering up its potential effectiveness.

https://thetablet.org/video-of-doctors-touting-covid-19-drug-removed-from-twitter/

WINDSOR TERRACE — As COVID-19 continues to strike hundreds of thousands of people across the U.S., divisions within the medical community over how to treat the virus have risen to the surface.

The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is at the center of one recent controversy.

A video featuring medical professionals from a group called America’s Frontline Doctors, in which they tout the benefits of hydroxychloroquine, was removed from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube among other sites on the night of July 27.

Twitter representatives charged that the video contains misinformation.

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy,” according to Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley.

“We removed it for sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone tweeted.

President Donald Trump, who says he has taken hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure against COVID-19 and has touted the drug several times, shared the video with his 84 million Twitter followers before it was removed.

Despite the social media pushback, members of America’s Frontline Doctors are not backing down.

The group held a conference, called the White Coat Summit, in Washington D.C. on July 27-28 to discuss treatments for COVID-19, including the use of hydroxychloroquine, and to address what they call the “massive disinformation campaign” regarding the pandemic and “to empower Americans to stop living in fear.”

The video taken down from social media sites is of a press conference that shows several medical professionals talking about the anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment for coronavirus. The doctors openly question why it isn’t more widely used for patients.

Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician, went so far as to describe hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19 when used in concert with two other drugs – zinc and Zithromax.

“America, there is a cure for COVID,” Immanuel says on the video.

That view flies in the face of the opinions of other medical experts. There is no known cure for COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

“I’ve seen it work. So far, I’ve not lost one patient,” Immanuel insisted, going as far as to call it “unethical” for hydroxychloroquine not to be used by doctors.

Immanuel has made controversial medical claims in the past. Certain medical conditions like infertility and impotence, she says, are the result of people having sex in their dreams with witches and demons. Her own Facebook biography describes her as a “prophet of God to the nations” and says she is a “Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God’s battle-ax, and weapon of war.”

Hydroxychloroquine is “an amazing drug,” said Dr. Richard Urso.

Urso said there is a great deal of research showing hydroxychloroquine to be effective.

“The science is all right here,” he says in the video.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is urging caution when it comes to hydroxychloroquine.

FDA experts have said the anti-malaria drug comes with serious health risks for COVID-19 patients. In June, the FDA revoked an emergency approval it had awarded that allowed doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Robert Tiballi, an infectious disease specialist in Elgin, Illinois, favors the use of hydroxychloroquine. But he said the argument in favor of it is more nuanced than the media is presenting.

Tiballi, who has often appeared in “Ask the Doctor” segments on Currents News on NET-TV, said numerous studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine is highly effective in treating COVID-19 – but only if used as a course of treatment very early on in the progression of the virus.

“If it is prescribed within the first two days of diagnosis, it is very effective,” he told The Tablet. “Studies have shown that there was a drastic difference in the death rates in patients who took it early versus the death rates of patients who took it later on. The difference was obvious.”

Hydroxychloroquine can also be useful as a way to help prevent COVID-19, according to Tiballi.

“If you gave it to every adult in America, it is possible you could see COVID disappear,” he said.

Tiballi also questioned why hydroxychloroquine has fallen out of favor in many medical circles: “The world Health Organization, up until last year, called it one of the best drugs out there.”

He criticized sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for taking down the video featuring America’s Front Line Doctors. When asked if he believed the doctors were being censored, Tiballi said, “There’s no question they are.”

The America’s Frontline Doctors press conference video has drawn controversy for other reasons. In it, Immanuel speaks out against social distancing and wearing face masks as the sole factors in slowing down the spread of COVID-19.

“You don’t need a mask,” she said. “We don’t need to be locked down” when there are effective treatments, she said.

Despite the video being removed, it was still popping up on social media sites, largely because users shared it and re-uploaded it.

Meanwhile, other controversies have come to the forefront of the medical community.

Dr. Sapan Desai, a vascular surgeon who supplied information for two published medical studies that found that hydroxychloroquine was linked to increased deaths in COVID-19 patients, was later found to have cut corners and misrepresented data in his research, the New York Times reported.

The two studies, published in May, have since been retracted, according to the Times.

 

Those last 2 sentences are part of my reasoning for not trusting the experts the MSM keeps telling us to.  You never hear about how their studies have been refuted and retracted.......

 

They forgot to only trust doctors who didn't graduate from a "mediocre medical school."

 

[Irishman]

1 hour ago, swordfish said:

So multiple patients successfully recovering is not credible?  

If it is coming from her? No

If you are seeing a specialist of any sort; eye doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc. and they tell you that the earth is flat, are you sticking with them? Or are you bailing? I know I am out. 
As I stated earlier. Yes there are published reports that speak to the benefits of those drugs, but there are also plenty of reports that refute the claims made, or at least say there is not a significant difference in using the drugs compared to not using them. 

[Howe]

On 7/8/2020 at 10:44 AM, Howe said:

Books on Dr. Fauci published long before the coronavirus

Award winning scientific colleagues of Dr. Fauci

[swordfish]

1 hour ago, Irishman said:

If it is coming from her? No

If you are seeing a specialist of any sort; eye doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc. and they tell you that the earth is flat, are you sticking with them? Or are you bailing? I know I am out. 
As I stated earlier. Yes there are published reports that speak to the benefits of those drugs, but there are also plenty of reports that refute the claims made, or at least say there is not a significant difference in using the drugs compared to not using them. 

My accountant is a "flat earther".....

I am not a doctor, but I do prefer to trust a doctor to give me accurate advice on things medically-related (regardless of whether or not he/she thinks people may get an STD from an alien or whatever).  I trusted the Fauci/Birx crew early on in this crisis that started before March, but since Dr. Fauci and his ilk have moved the goalposts so many times (actually if you really look at his answers you will see he always gives positive nods to both sides of and issue in a way that he can never be called "wrong") I will tend to believe what started early in this crisis and originated in other countries may be the one thing that could really work.

And again - I find it really puzzling why this story of these doctors staging a news conference at the SCOTUS was ignored and then attempted to be removed from the public scrutiny.

[Howe]

Exposed: Dr Fauci’s 15 Deadly COVID-19 Errors

Published on July 14, 2020

Written by Jim Hoft

 

It’s hard to believe but America’s top Infectious Disease Doctor Anthony Fauci has been wrong on the coronavirus pandemic — Almost every step of the way!

Here is a list of fifteen key errors, contradictory statements and dangerous gaffes by NIAID Director Dr. Tony Fauci:

 

1.)  Dr. Fauci says he warned Trump in January that the US was in real trouble but that is not what he said publicly. In January Dr. Anthony Fauci told Newsmax TV that the United States “did not have to worry” about the coronavirus and that it was “not a major threat.”

 

2.)  Dr. Fauci warned of an apocalyptic coronavirus pandemic — then just weeks later he compared the coronavirus to a bad flu.

3.) Dr. Fauci based all of his predictions on the garbage IHME models that were OFF BY MILLIONS and then later told reporters, “You can’t really rely on models.”

4.) On March 20th Dr. Fauci jumped in and “corrected” the president during a press briefing on hydroxychloroquine treatment for coronavirus saying, “You got to be careful when you say ‘fairly effective.’ It was never done in a clinical trial… It was given to individuals and felt that maybe it worked.”

Exactly two weeks later hydroxychloroquine was deemed the most highly rated treatment for the novel coronavirus in an international poll of more than 6,000 doctors.

5.)  Dr. Fauci pushed these garbage models every step of the way.

A month ago Dr. Fauci claimed 1 million to 2 million Americans would die from coronavirus. Then he said 100,000 to 200,000 Americans will die from the virus. Three weeks ago he agreed 81,766 Americans would die from the coronavirus. Then by that Wednesday the experts cut the number of deaths to 60,415 projected deaths.

6.)  On Easter Dr. Fauci suggested President Trump should have shut down the economy in February…  When the number of known cases in the US was around 100.  Fauci later walked back his attacks.

7.) Dr. Fauci said cruises were OK on March 9th.  That was a huge error.

8.) Dr. Fauci said malls, movies and gyms were OK on February 29th.  That was another huge mistake.

9.) Dr. Fauci was wrong about the first coronavirus deaths in the country. Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx and the CDC were off by nearly a month. California officials revealed in April that a patient in Santa Clara died from coronavirus on February 6th not February 29th.

10.) Dr. Fauci and the CDC missed the millions and millions of US citizens who had already contracted the coronavirus before the draconian lockdowns took place.  Knowing this could have prevented the economic calamity.

11.) On April 15, 2020, Fauci endorses Tinder hookups, unbelievably. Then said Americans should never shake hands again.

12.)  Dr. Fauci relied on corrupt W.H.O rules to lock down the United States and destroy the US economy. Meanwhile, this delays the herd immunity that is needed to prevent a future outbreak of this deadly virus.

13.)  Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx used the Imperial College Model to persuade President Trump to lock down the entire US economy.  The Imperial model has since been confirmed as A COMPLETE FRAUD.

14.) Dr. Fauci warned that Georgia would see a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths by opening their economy too early.

He was wrong again – In fact the opposite happened.

15.) And on Tuesday during testimony Dr. Fauci told Dr. Rand Paul that opening the schools would not be a good idea.

Last week The Netherlands and Switzerland reopened their schools after finding children are not at risk from coronavirus and are not carriers of the virus.

Dr. Fauci continues to be wrong day after day. Yet, US Senators and the media treat him like a wise king. The doctor put over 20 million Americans out of work based on bogus models.
And yet this man — after all of his devastation — still has a job.

Fauci’s mistakes will take years to correct. Only in government can someone with this kind of a record still keep a job.

[Muda69]

2 hours ago, Irishman said:

If you are seeing a specialist of any sort; eye doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc. and they tell you that the earth is flat, are you sticking with them? Or are you bailing? I know I am out. 
 

So individuals have to pretty much think and believe exactly as you do in order for you to have any sort of relationship with them.  Got it.

And I fail to understand how believing the earth is flat makes someone an incompetent accountant.

 

[raiderx2]

6 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

So individuals have to pretty much think and believe exactly as you do in order for you to have any sort of relationship with them.  Got it.

And I fail to understand how believing the earth is flat makes someone an incompetent accountant.

 

Incompetent, maybe not.  But it would make me question my level of sanity for doing business with a "professional" who believes the earth is flat,. 

[Muda69]

1 minute ago, raiderx2 said:

 But it would make me question my level of sanity for doing business with a "professional" who believes the earth is flat,. 

Why? Have you asked any of the "professionals" you may deal with (lawyers, doctors,  pharmacists,  accountants, engineers, etc.) if they believe the earth is flat? 

What if you found out your dentist of 20+ years was an atheist?

 

 

[Bobref]

2 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Mr. and Miss/Mrs. are the only honorifics I personally choose to use in my writing and conversation.

 

You are the current leader in the clubhouse for “Anti-Elitist of the Year.”

[Muda69]

Senate Republicans' $1 Trillion COVID-19 Relief Bill Includes Billions for New Fighter Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Missiles

https://reason.com/2020/07/28/senate-republicans-1-trillion-covid-19-relief-bill-includes-billions-for-new-fighter-jets-attack-helicopters-and-missiles/

Quote

The $1 trillion coronavirus relief package released by Senate Republicans yesterday includes billions of dollars for new weapons and defense projects that appear to have little to do with fighting the pandemic.

Part of the Senate Republicans' relief package—collectively known as the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools (HEALS) Act—is a $306 billion appropriations bill authored by Sen. Richard Shelby (R–Ala.). That legislation includes close to $30 billion in defense spending, with a good chunk of that money allocated to purchasing new aircraft, ships, and missiles.

"I believe we need to act with a sense of urgency. The American people are fighters, but the accumulated strain of this pandemic is a serious burden on folks," said Shelby, who chairs the Senate's Appropriations Committee, in a press release. "With the additional resources this legislation provides, I believe we can give them greater confidence that we are getting our arms around this virus."

Speaking of arms, Shelby's bill includes $283 million for the Army through the end of 2022 "to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally" on the condition that money be spent on acquiring AH–64 Apache attack helicopters made by Boeing.

The legislation also gives the Army another $375 million for upgrading its complement of Stryker armored personnel carriers, which are made by General Dynamics. The Army reportedly awarded the company a $2.48 billion contract to build new, more mine-resistant Stryker vehicles in June. The text of the HEALS Act says that this funding will come in addition to any money that's already been allocated.

The Air Force, meanwhile, will get $686 million to purchase more F-35As, a fighter plane made by Lockheed Martin. Its development has been plagued by cost overruns and delays. The bill will also put $720 million into funding buying more C-130J military transport aircraft, in addition to $650 million to pay for replacement wings for the Air Force's A-10 aircraft.

The Navy will get its beak wet too, receiving $1 billion to purchase P–8A Poseidon aircraft, plus $1.4 billion for new medical ships, $260 million for a new Expeditionary Fast Transport vessel, $41 million for new Naval Strike Missiles and launchers (made by Raytheon), as a well as close to $50 million for submarine-detecting "sonobuoys."

The Washington Post reports that many of these programs had their funding repurposed to help pay for President Donald Trump's border wall. Republicans' coronavirus legislation replaces that funding, and then some.

The Trump administration only slashed the budget for the Navy's procure P–8A Poseidon aircraft by $180 million, but is now seeing its funding increased by $1 billion, reports the Post.

The Department of Defense is hardly the only recipient of generous line items in the Senate GOP's relief bill. The Trump administration reportedly requested that the legislation include $1.75 billion for a new FBI headquarters building (although the Wall Street Journal reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) has come against that particular item).

Whether all this defense pork will end up being passed by the Senate remains to be seen.

Given that the Senate just last week approved a $740 billion defense spending bill, and the federal government ran an $864 billion budget deficit last month, one could argue now is not the time to spend more money on the military.

So the DoD is already getting $740 billion in defense spending but they had the gall to sneak in $30 billion in a bill for Covid-19 relief?

More proof the military-industrial complex runs Washington, not the citizens.

 

[raiderx2]

In my world, one's religious belief, or lack there of, is just that, their belief.

Comparing that to one who believes the earth is flat is asinine.  I really don't need to explain that to you do I Muda.

[Muda69]

3 minutes ago, Bobref said:

You are the current leader in the clubhouse for “Anti-Elitist of the Year.”

Thank you. 

[Muda69]

2 minutes ago, raiderx2 said:

In my world, one's religious belief, or lack there of, is just that, their belief.

Comparing that to one who believes the earth is flat is asinine.  I really don't need to explain that to you do I Muda.

Believing in <insert deity here> and that the earth is flat are both "beliefs", are they not?   

Why a "flat earther" offends or scares you and others so much is puzzling.  Has one ever aggressed against you or your family?

 

 

[Bobref]

3 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Believing in <insert deity here> and that the earth is flat are both "beliefs", are they not?   

Is 2 + 2 = 4 a “belief?”

[raiderx2]

19 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

 

Believing in <insert deity here> and that the earth is flat are both "beliefs", are they not?   

Why a "flat earther" offends or scares you and others so much is puzzling.  Has one ever aggressed against you or your family?

 

 

Slow day Muda?

Simply, no.  One is belief/faith, the other is fact.  See the difference?  Unless of course you still believe the earth is flat.  Do you believe the earth is flat Muda?

And where did I say a flat earther offends me or scares me, show me where I said that.

[Muda69]

20 minutes ago, Bobref said:

Is 2 + 2 = 4 a “belief?”

A belief in mathematics?  Yes, I would assume so.  But then again I'm just a graduate of what many would consider a "mediocre university".

 

[swordfish]

31 minutes ago, raiderx2 said:

Incompetent, maybe not.  But it would make me question my level of sanity for doing business with a "professional" who believes the earth is flat,. 

A person's "belief" in the shape of the earth other than an orbital ellipse is what I would describe a character flaw that I feel has very little to do with her ability to keep my books correctly since she has been doing my stuff since the 90's.  FWIW -  I still respect Muda's opinions except as it may apply to Christianity since he and I do not share the same opinion on that topic.  

[Muda69]

1 minute ago, raiderx2 said:

Slow day Muda?

Simply, no.  One is belief/faith, the other is fact.  See the difference?  Unless of course you still believe the earth is flat.  Do you believe the earth is flat Muda?

And where did I say a flat earther offends me or scares me, show me where I said that.

No, not slow.  Actually quite busy.  But I always try and make time for good conversation.

No, I don't see the difference.  To me there really isn't much difference between an individual who believes in <insert deity here> or one that believes the earth is flat.  I would generally have no problem having a relationship with either one.

And no, I do not believe the earth is flat.

And your earlier statement was:

Quote

But it would make me question my level of sanity for doing business with a "professional" who believes the earth is flat,. 

So being in a business relationship with an individual who reveals they are a "flat earther" makes you question your very sanity.  A frightening thought, no?

 

[raiderx2]

SF what if they believed in Big Foot, Unicorns or the Loch Ness monster? :)

 

[Irishman]

17 minutes ago, raiderx2 said:

SF what if they believed in Big Foot, Unicorns or the Loch Ness monster? :)

 

[swordfish]

Maybe the "cray cray" nurse isn't so far out there after all....Here is the paper that started the good doctor Fauci on the path of recommending anti-malaria drug therapy as "hopeful" until he was corrected by whoever is influencing his thinking......for whatever the reason......

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3575899&fbclid=IwAR21brCvvOFVFh5DOlOjaGyHJHs2_LBlnaSiqMI8fhkVdkwUTs9cSlik2Cw

 

[raiderx2]

2 minutes ago, Irishman said:

His real name is Daryl.

[Irishman]

"The US Government is partly run by lizard people".