Everyone has enough to worry about right now without taking on extra things to worry about.

So I’d like to remove one of your sources of worry. If you are thinking “Trump’s approval numbers have gone up! This means he is going to win reelection! All hope is lost!”

Nope. Nope. and Nope.

Of course his numbers have gone up a little. People *want* to believe in their leaders when things go wrong. W. was up around 90 approval after 9/11 and he was a terrible president that many of us hated.

So going up a few points is actually pathetic for a president during a pandemic. it is a sign of major weakness.

People are literally falling in love with governors they completely hated months ago due to this human need for leadership in awful times.

Trust me, If us progressives from NYS can all of a sudden love Cuomo, there is no bottom to the human ability to forget how much we dislike a pol and all of a sudden start loving them during hard times.

Governors get better marks for handling outbreak than Trump, poll finds

The nation’s governors are getting far better marks for their handling of the coronavirus outbreak than President Trump, according to a new Monmouth University poll. Fifty percent of Americans say Trump has done a good job handling the crisis, compared with 45 percent who say he has done a bad job. But that assessment pales in comparison with how Americans view the response of their governors. Seventy-two percent of the public says their state’s governor has done a good job, compared with 18 percent who say their governor is doing a bad job.

So Trump going up a few points from this is not good news for him (or bad for us). It is truly pathetic.

This will NOT be an easy election to win. We already are seeing Putin’s minions coming out with unverifiable lies about Biden and that will only grow as we get closer to 11/3. BUT WE CAN WIN. With hard work, we can and WILL beat Trump!

Check this out:

Donald Trump starts 2020 in the worst polling position since Harry Truman

A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump 52% to 43% in a general election matchup. average of all polls this month puts Biden's advantage at a similar 7 points. Anthis month puts Biden's advantage at a similar 7 points. And the President starts out in a very unusual place for an incumbent: behind. Trump is the first incumbent president to be trailing at this point in the general election cycle (i.e. late March in the election year) since Harry Truman in 1948

and this:

Bitecofer Model favors a trump loss

As the Democratic primary winds down, with a Biden nomination a delegate-math inevitability even if contests remain on the calendar, it is time for one of the few updates I plan to my forecast, this one, the post-primary update Trump will be heading into the fall with the dubious distinction of being the most embattled, controversial, and scandal-plagued president to seek reelection in the history of the republic — and that was before this virus emerged to create a massive public health disaster and destroy his strongest claim for reelection: the economy.

oh, and this:

Trump remains unpopular in swing counties, just like in 2018

here’s a fascinating finding from that same poll: In approximately 300 “swing” counties where the margin of victory was less than ten points for either candidate – accounting for about one-fifth of the total U.S. electorate – 50 percent back Biden compared with 41 percent who support Trump. Biden leads Trump by nine percentage points in those 300 swing counties. By contrast, Hillary Clinton carried them in the aggregate against Trump in 2016 by a scant one point. That’s possible, of course, because Trump won in the electoral college, even though he lost the national popular vote.

and this:

Americans’ Revulsion for Trump Is Underappreciated

As Democrats fret about their own prospects, many fail to recognize the president’s fundamental weakness. The United States is in revolt against Donald Trump, and the likely Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, already holds a daunting lead over Trump in the battleground states that will decide the 2020 election. Every time Americans have gone to the polls since Trump took office, they have pushed back hard against him. The blue wave that began in state elections in 2017 grew bigger in the 2018 midterms and bigger yet in 2019. Trump focused the Republican Party’s whole 2018 congressional campaign on immigrant caravans and the border wall, and he lost. Trump held rallies in support of the Republican gubernatorial candidates on the last nights before elections in the deep-red states of Kentucky and Louisiana, and they lost. The GOP losses right through the end of 2019 were produced by dramatic, growing gains for Democrats in the nation’s suburbs. Democrats took total control of the Virginia legislature, where the party held on to all the suburban seats it had flipped two years earlier and gained six more.

Progressive tax group to target GOP senators over weak buyback restrictions in coronavirus legislation

A progressive group is launching a $1.2-million ad campaign targeting Republican senators in four battleground states for their votes supporting the 2017 tax bill that included billions in tax relief to many of the same large corporations now poised to receive billions more in bailout money from proposed coronavirus legislation. The group, Tax March — whose goal is to push for the closing of tax loopholes for large corporations — will run radio, television and digital ads in Georgia, Maine, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, starting later this week

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Positive Pandemic News

No spinning that the pandemic is anything but bad news. However, within that we do see glimmers of hope.

First, we have hope in stopping this

The coronavirus isn’t mutating quickly, suggesting a vaccine would offer lasting protection

The coronavirus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, according to scientists who are closely studying the novel pathogen’s genetic code. That relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads, and represents encouraging news for researchers hoping to create a long-lasting vaccine.

FDA authorizes new test that could detect coronavirus in about 45 minutes

The US Food and Drug Administration announced it has authorized the use of the first rapid diagnostic test that could detect the novel coronavirus in approximately 45 minutes. The authorization was made Friday and tests will begin shipping next week, according to a statement from California-based Cepheid, the company manufacturing the tests.

FDA is working on treatment for coronavirus with blood from recovered patients

Dr. Arturo Casadevall was working from home in Baltimore on Thursday when his phone started to buzz with messages from colleagues. The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration had just announced during a White House press briefing that the agency was investigating the possibility of using blood plasma donated by recovered coronavirus patients as a promising short-term treatment for the virus. “There’s a cross-agency effort about something called convalescent plasma,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said during the nationally televised briefing. “This is a pretty exciting area. And again, this is something that we have given assistance to other countries with as this crisis has developed, so FDA has been working for some time on this.” Experts say the potential treatment, which is already being tested in China, could be ready sooner than traditional drugs.

A New York biotech company is working to make an antibody treatment for the coronavirus

As the new coronavirus continues to envelop much of the globe, a lab outside New York City is racing to find a antibody treatment that could temporarily protect from the illness — or even treat it. The biotech company Regeneron is in early development of a treatment that could guard against catching the coronavirus for several months using antibodies from mice that have been genetically modified with immune systems to mimic those of humans.

As the First Coronavirus Vaccine Human Trials Begin, Manufacturer Is Already Preparing to Scale Production to Millions

Last week, the first volunteers in a study of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine received their first doses, and the vaccine’s developer, Moderna Therapeutics, is already thinking ahead. Although testing on the vaccine will take at least a year to complete, the work could provide valuable information about how the immune system can fight coronaviruses and could give scientists a head start if any new outbreaks of the virus were to occur.

Second, we have some good silver linings of the virus

New York City’s crime rate plummets amid coronavirus shutdown

The first weeks of pandemic in the nation's largest city spurred a double-digit drop in crime, as the bad guys seem to be just as scared of the novel coronavirus as everyone else.

China bans trade, consumption of wild animals due to coronavirus

China’s top legislature said it will immediately ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, in a fast-track decision it says will allow the country to win the battle against the coronavirus outbreak.

LA nearing third straight week of clean air

Amid a rainy March in which millions of Angelenos are observing orders to stay at home, sight lines in the city are getting a bit clearer, and its notorious smog is nowhere to be found. For nearly three straight weeks, air quality maps tracking the region’s scores on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index have been nothing but green—the color that denotes the cleanest air.

Third, we have a lot of companies doing the right thing

Ralph Lauren pledges $10M to global coronavirus efforts, will produce gowns and masks

The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation announced on Thursday that it will be putting $10 million toward global response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic and begin the production of masks and isolation gowns amid increased demand for the resources.

Starbucks Is Giving Free Coffee to First Responders, Healthcare Workers During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Starbucks is offering free coffee to all front-line responders helping with the COVID-19 outbreak as a way to say thank you for everything these individuals are doing to help communities worldwide. Through May 3, the coffee chain is offering a free tall brewed coffee — hot or iced — to any customer who identifies as a first responder or front-line worker supporting the healthcare system. This includes police officers, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, hospital and medical staff, and medical researchers.

Union Locates 39 Million N95 Masks for Healthcare Workers, Local Governments

Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West announced Thursday that it located 39 million N95 masks and will make them available to state and local governments and health care systems that are fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Delivered 1K Ventilators To LA as Promised, California Governor “It’s a Heroic Effort”

As it became known just now, that 1,000 ventilators from Elon Musk arrived in Los Angeles today.

Fourth, we have ordinary people showing how extraordinary we can be

Selfless acts: How Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus

People across the United States are taking steps to help one another amid the coronavirus pandemic.



From companies donating masks and ventilators to hospitals, to everyday people helping their neighbors, there are countless examples of people trying to do the right thing during an extraordinarily difficult time.



The Hill is keeping track of them here. School principal visits drive-thru to tell student she is valedictorian Photo of man holding sign thanking health care workers 'for saving my wife's life' goes viral Texas Roadhouse CEO donates salary, bonus to workers American Humane launches fund to help cats and dogs displaced by coronavirus crisis FedEx employee shares photo of care package left for delivery drivers Four Seasons provides free rooms to medical personnel

‘How Beautiful Is That?’ Cuomo Says 6,175 Mental Health Professionals Volunteered to Offer Free Services to Struggling New Yorkers

Cuomo announced in a press conference Wednesday that at least 6,175 mental health professionals heeded his call to volunteer to help New York state provide free online services to those who need it amid the state’s coronavirus outbreak.

x Cuomo: "The outpouring of support for the people of New York has been so inspiring. Not just from New Yorkers. I'm telling you from across the country ... We've asked medical staff to volunteer ... 40,000 had volunteered. We now have 12,000 more people in one day volunteering." — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 26, 2020

Here’s the good some are doing to combat the fear and isolation of the coronavirus

Beder’s daily 30-minute cello concert in Mount Rainier, Md., is one of hundreds of kind gestures being made by people across the nation to combat the dislocation and isolation brought on by the novel coronavirus. Teachers have been staging car parades in communities across the country where their homebound students live. In one Maryland neighborhood, teachers from a neighborhood school staged a 25-vehicle parade.

Finally, we have the fact that it is the states, and not the federal government, that have the most power in this fight

Trump has megaphone, but states control virus shutdowns

President Donald Trump has the biggest megaphone, but it’s governors and local officials who will decide when to begin reopening their economies after shuttering them to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Constitution largely gives states the authority to regulate their own affairs.

Other Good News

Governor signs bill abolishing Colorado’s death penalty, commutes sentences of state’s 3 death row inmates

Polis on Monday signed into law a bill abolishing Colorado’s death penalty, simultaneously commuting the sentences of the three men on the state’s death row. Polis signed the death penalty repeal measure in private, given the outbreak of the new coronavirus. Colorado is now the 22nd state to eliminate capital punishment.

People are so creative

Finally, I have really enjoyed the memes people have made about this mess. Here are some of my favorites from just this week

Nation’s dogs fucking loving whatever’s going on right now

Dogs across the country are full of joy as their families are suddenly spending much more time with them at home. ‘I get very lonely when everyone is gone. I know they’ll come back but I miss them a lot. All of a sudden though, my family is here all the time. I don’t know what’s happening but I’m loving it,’ said Rex Barkshire, a young labrador.

That is it for today. Stay safe everyone. Practice physical distancing and staying socially connected. We are all in this together and I am so grateful for that ❤️ ✊ ❤️