Watchdog finds Trump admin spent $66 million jailing a few dozen at a time at migrant prison camp

“During the initial period of performance,” the GAO continued, “CBP paid the contractor to operate the facility at full capacity, including food and guard services, regardless of the number of individuals housed in the facility, due to the terms of the delivery order it negotiated with the contractor.” So few people were jailed at Tornillo that…

CBS News rounds out sweep of week’s polls documenting Trump’s crappy coronavirus ratings

Here’s how Trump rated on his coronavirus handling in five separate national polls this week: The CBS poll was brutal in almost every way. But since Trump insists his coronavirus briefings are must-watch TV, it’s particularly worth noting that just 37% of respondents said they trust Trump to relay accurate medical information, while 63% don’t trust him. The Monmouth…

Georgia and Texas voting rights advocates go to court in the battle for absentee ballot access

Georgia extends state primary and advocates demand paid postage for absentee ballots Yesterday, state Republican officials in Georgia convened and decided to delay the state primary election to June 9. All seats in the Georgia state legislature are up for reelection, along with some local races. Georgians remain under a statewide stay-at-home order, which was recently…

Drug pusher Trump has a share in the malaria drug he keeps overselling for coronavirus

On Monday evening, The New York Times ran an article headlined “Trump’s Aggressive Advocacy of Malaria Drug for Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community” which is an absolutely miserable and incorrect headline. The medical community is not “divided” over Trump’s daily use of the national airwaves to push an untested remedy for a deadly disease. Everyone…

Trump adviser issued January coronavirus warning, but Trump only paid attention to the racist part

Navarro’s primary suggestion, in the January 29 memo, for fighting the outbreak was a travel ban from China, which Trump did impose and which worked … well, look around you and judge if that was sufficient. That policy proposal may have affected the seriousness with which Navarro’s warning was taken, since Navarro is always looking for…

Conservative courts order Wisconsin election to proceed—risks to health and democracy be damned

This means that those who have the misfortune to receive their ballots late—a distinct possibility for many, given the huge surge in requests—now face an impossible choice, as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in a dissent: They must either risk their health by voting in person on Tuesday, or disenfranchise themselves by not voting at…

Trump warns that easier voting means ‘you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again’

Rep. Thomas Massie objected to the same provision in coronavirus response, tweeting that “Universal vote by mail would be the end of our republic as we know it.” Because apparently our republic as we know it is dependent on it being easier for rich white people to vote. In 2018, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith “joked” about voting at…

ICE cancels request for 45,000 face masks for deportation agents following congressional pressure

Among the legislators condemning the order was Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who has been a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies. “Instead of pausing deportation operations, ICE is trying to get 45,000 N95 masks from the government,” he tweeted. “That’s 45,000 masks our front line health care workers desperately need to save American lives,…