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Ted Cruz will no longer wear a mask in the Senate despite CDC guidelines and rising coronavirus cases
April 15, 2021
As COVID-19 continues to rise across half the country and the CDC IS urging Americans to continue to practice social distancing and mask-wearing, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has decided he will no longer wear a mask while on Capitol Hill.
"At this point I've been vaccinated. Everybody working in the Senate has been vaccinated," the Texas Republican told CNN, which is false. About one in four members of Congress are refusing to be inoculated or to disclose their vaccination status as of last month. And many people who are not working in the Senate, but visiting Capitol Hill on business enter the building daily.
Axios reports COVID -19 is on the rise in half the country, including Texas, which saw an 18.5% increase in new cases from April 6 to April 13.
"At this point, virtually everyone here has been vaccinated. And everyone has the opportunity," Cruz added, after a reporter told him they and others had not been vaccinated.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is the only other Senator who has steadfastly refused to wear a mask. He also claims he is not and will not be vaccinated. Paul tested positive for coronavirus last year in March, which he falsely suggests makes him immune.
The COVID vaccine is highly-effective but not one-hundred percent. Current studies show in real-world examples it's 90% effective, and with 43% of Republicans across the country refusing to be vaccinated, America is a long way away from herd immunity.
Hours before Cruz made clear he will no longer wear a mask, Pfizer announced it will "likely" be necessary for Americans to get an annual booster shot, much like with the flu.
"We're still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19," the CDC notes in an April 2 update. "After you've been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautions—like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces—in public places until we know more."
Cruz has been working up to this moment. Last month he infamously refused a reporter's request to wear a mask, again falsely claiming CDC guidelines did not require him to.
Question: Would you mind putting on a mask for us? Ted Cruz: Yeah when I’m talking to the TV camera, I’m not going… https://t.co/G7I7rNFIyj— Acyn (@Acyn)1616611156.0
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Both Republicans and Democrats can be incredibly aggressive when it comes to fundraising. But conservative pundit and former GOP insider Tim Miller, in a video that is at once comic and scathing, argues that as bad as Democratic fundraising can be, Republicans have become even "skeevier" when it comes to over-the-top fundraising pitches.
Miller — a Never Trumper who left the Republican Party because of his total disdain for former President Donald Trump and his sycophants — certainly doesn't let Democrats off the hook in his video, which appears in text form on the conservative website The Bulwark. But for all its Democrat-bashing, Miller's video bashes Republicans even more.
"The Democrats were the trailblazers on the obnoxious online fundraising," Miller says in his video. "They love bombarding supporters with pushy messages of doom: Kiss any hope, goodbye! We're desperate! Love Me! Give us money now! But during the Trump years, the corporate donations that used to fund the Republicans started to dry up. So, the GOP copied the Dem's tactics, but made it skeevier. You can always count on the Trump brand for a good scam."
Miller goes into specifics about a Trump campaign fundraising "scam," drawing on New York Times reporting about GOP donors who wanted to make a single donation but were slammed with recurring payments instead.
"When new Trump donors signed up," Miller explains in his video, "the campaign would leave a fine print disclaimer pre-checked which committed people to making that donation every month. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters contributed money they didn't mean to. Stacey Blatt, a 63-year-old with cancer, said his utility and rent payments bounced — and he wasn't alone. Banks got so many complaints about fraudulent charges from the Trump campaign that they had to refund $122 million back to supporters after the election. 122 million!"
He continued:
Republicans in Congress saw that, and their response was, "Hold my hemlock". What they were doing was even more sus than Trump. Here's how it worked: They sent a text message asking people if they wanted to sign up for Trump's new social network. (Which, by the way, doesn't exist.) When you put in money to sign up, there were two pre-checked boxes. The first makes your contribution monthly. And it says, if you uncheck it, they'll tell Trump that you're a defector. The next doubles your contribution and says if you uncheck it that you've abandoned Trump. Getting out of this window is harder than canceling an Equinox membership.
These schemes prey on older voters, people who aren't tech savvy, and gullible Trump supporters.
The boom in small donations, Miller complains, is "empowering the most extreme politicians in both parties, but especially on the right."
"After the insurrection," Miller observes, "insane Congresswoman Marjorie 'QAnon' Greene and pro-coup Sen. Josh Hawley raised $3 million from small dollar donors, setting a record."
One of the problems with Democratic small-dollar fundraising, Miller argues, is that liberal donors are being given false hope in deep-red states.
"On the left, it's resulting in viral candidates, with no hope of winning, taking money that could be better used elsewhere," Miller argues. "Last cycle, Amy McGrath and Jamie Harrison raised $200 million, half the GDP of Micronesia. And they both got crushed! They used cherry-picked polling to lure in liberals who were salivating at the possibility of beating Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, even though it was never gonna happen."
Watch the video below:
Not My Party Episode 209 | WE'RE DOOMED send us money www.youtube.com
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Kellyanne Conway signs on with Ohio Senate candidate as primary descends into Trump loyalty contest
April 15, 2021
On Thursday, POLITICO reported that Donald Trump's former campaign manager and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has signed on with the campaign of Bernie Moreno, a Republican hopeful in the Ohio Senate race.
"Conway, who managed Trump's successful 2016 presidential bid, is part of a broader campaign organization that Moreno announced Thursday," reported Alex Isenstadt. "In a statement, she called Moreno 'a conservative, a political outsider, and a successful businessman just like President Donald J. Trump.'"
This comes as Conway, a controversial White House official who became infamous for her defenses of "alternative facts" and violations of ethics rules, has sought a media tour to rehabilitate her image.
"Moreno is running in a crowded Republican primary in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman," continued the report. "The leading contenders, including former state Treasurer Josh Mandel and former state party chairwoman Jane Timken, have been aggressively attaching themselves to Trump."
"Moreno, a technology executive and luxury car dealer who donated to the former president's reelection effort, recently launched his campaign with a video stressing the need to 'protect Trump's victories,'" the report added. "He has highlighted his support from several Trump administration officials, including former acting director of national intelligence Ric Grenell and former U.S. ambassadors Jamie McCourt and Ed McMullen."
Trump has not yet made an endorsement in the race, which takes place in a traditionally conservative-leaning swing state he won twice with comfortable margins. However he has taken a close interest; last month, he summoned the four major candidates, including Moreno, for a vetting session at his Mar-a-Lago country club that observers likened to an episode of his old NBC reality show "The Apprentice."
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