{"id":13341,"date":"2020-03-12T18:43:29","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T01:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13341"},"modified":"2020-03-12T20:36:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T03:36:26","slug":"america-shutting-down-amid-trumps-latest-katrina-bradcast-3122020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13341","title":{"rendered":"America Shutting Down Amid Trump&#8217;s (Latest) &#8216;Katrina&#8217;: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 3\/12\/2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_TrumpOvalOfficeCoronavirus_DowDrop_031220.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">On today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>: Donald Trump&#8217;s error-laden prime-time speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night did little to ease the nation&#8217;s anxieties over the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it appears to have made things much worse in a number of ways.<\/p>\n<p>The Dow Futures market plummeted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-03-12\/trump-s-error-laden-foreign-virus-speech-has-investors-spooked\">as his remarks began<\/a>, with the DJI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/03\/11\/investing\/stock-futures-coronavirus-trump\/index.html\">closing down more than 2,300 points<\/a> on Thursday. In all, after hitting a record high just weeks ago, the markets have lost nearly 90% of the gains they&#8217;ve seen since Trump took office in January of 2017. One more day like this and all of those gains will be lost. So much for &#8220;rocket fuel to the economy&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Fortunes on Wall Street, however, may be the least of the country&#8217;s problems right now.  Trump&#8217;s announcement on Wednesday night called for a travel ban from all European countries other than the United Kingdom (for reasons that no one seems able to explain) and for the payroll tax cut he&#8217;s been seeking for months (long before the virus), which <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/coronavirus-payroll-tax-cut-trump-economics-skepticism\">few experts believe<\/a> will be much help amidst this worsening epidemic. Moreover, no sooner did Trump finish his teleprompter remarks than the White House had to begin <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/covid-coronavirus-errors-trump-oval-office-address-trade-cargo-europe-permanent-residents-health-insurance-copays\">issuing corrections<\/a> to them. No, trade and cargo would <i>not<\/i> actually be banned from Europe, as Trump claimed, and the health insurance industry <i>didn&#8217;t<\/i> actually agree to offer free coronavirus treatments to all as the Liar-in-Chief claimed Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Europe was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-03-12\/europe-blindsided-by-travel-ban-trump-failed-to-brief-allies-on\">blindsided by the announcement<\/a>, and it was left to Democratic Presidential candidates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2020\/03\/joe-bidens-coronavirus-speech-was-everything-trumps-wasnt\/\">Joe Biden<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/03\/12\/bernie-sadners-coronavirus-127514\">Bernie Sanders<\/a> to try and calm an anxious nation today with their own speeches addressing the crisis as Trump continues to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/03\/11\/trump-emergency-declaration-coronavirus-message-125902\">refuse to declare a national emergency<\/a> because it would reveal he had lied about the epidemic for weeks. (And apparently he needs to get Jared&#8217;s permission first.)<\/p>\n<p>The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball all announced they are <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/arts-entertainment\/sports-are-canceled-nhl-mls-mlb-ncaa-join-nba-suspending-play\">suspending their seasons<\/a>, the NCAA cancelled their March Madness tournaments, Disneyland will be closing their doors, and Tom Hanks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/11\/business\/media\/tom-hanks-coronavirus.html\">announced<\/a> that he and his wife Rita Wilson have both contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.<\/p>\n<p>But what about the upcoming primary and general elections? Are we <i>really<\/i> going to continue asking voters to stand in long lines with hundreds of people to vote on potentially virus-infected touchscreen voting systems? As it turns out, hand-marked paper ballots still moist from hand-sanitizer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eagletribune.com\/news\/new_hampshire\/ballot-machines-clog-due-to-increased-use-of-hand-sanitizer\/article_8ba25415-b8d9-562b-814e-4a109c36eba0.html\">also caused problems<\/a> this week in New Hampshire&#8217;s municipal elections, jamming optical-scan tabulators at precincts.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Vote Foundation, led by former GOP Chair Michael Steele, is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usvotefoundation.org\/US_Vote_Foundation_Calls_on_Congress_to_Mandate_NoExcuseVoteByMail\">calling on Congress<\/a> to immediately pass legislation requiring every state in the union to allow no-excuse absentee\/Vote-by-Mail ballots for all voters. And while I am <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=6003\">no fan of Vote-by-Mail<\/a> usually (other than in jurisdiction where voters are forced to vote on touchscreen voting systems at the polls), it&#8217;s looking more and more like we are all going to be voting via VBM this year if the virus continues on its current trajectory. <\/p>\n<p>We cover all of that and <i>much<\/i> more on today&#8217;s show, before ending on a &#8220;lighter note&#8221;&#8230;with Desi Doyen and <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13340\">our latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a> (which, believe it or not, actually has a quite a bit of welcome good news today&#8230;at least once we get past the coronavirus part of it anyway.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-TrumpCoronaSpeechDisaster-ElectionsInPeril_031220.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><br \/>\n[audio:http:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-TrumpCoronaSpeechDisaster-ElectionsInPeril_031220.mp3]<\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On today&#8217;s BradCast: Donald Trump&#8217;s error-laden prime-time speech to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night did little to ease the nation&#8217;s anxieties over the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it appears to have made things much worse in a number of ways. The Dow Futures market plummeted as his remarks began, with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,239,494,89,675,499,1456,479,390,969,6,28,753,841,1315,288,961,320,477,408,170,540,147,166,1124,549,348,1312],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-13341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-barack-obama","category-bernie-sanders","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-coal","category-coronavirus","category-donald-trump","category-economy","category-election-2020","category-election-irregularities","category-election-reform","category-electric-vehicles","category-eu","category-greta-thunberg","category-health-care","category-jared-kushner","category-joe-biden","category-kpfk","category-michael-steele","category-new-hampshire","category-oil","category-lava","category-touch-screen-vote-hopping","category-trade","category-uk","category-vote-by-mail","category-wall-street"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13341"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}