This Day in History | 1929

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out the first “Oscar’s” awards, at a dinner party for around 250 people held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

Good morning Middle Americans, 

House Democrats barely passed their massive $3 tillion phase 4 coronavirus relief package. The bill, which only got one Republican vote, now heads to the Senate where Republicans will whittle it down to suit their needs. It’s going to set up quite a showdown. President Trump has already indicated that he’ll likely sign off on more direct payments to Americans. What choice does he have? There’s 33 million Americans who are out of work. They need the money. This is what’s called a Mexican Standoff, a confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory.

Did you catch Joe Biden’s latest virtual disaster?  When asked about the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, Biden cited the loss of “millions of lives” and “85,000 jobs.” WTF? We have a great article below from the Atlantic, which gives us some insight to the deep challenges facing Biden’s team, while he’s riding out the pandemic from his basement. Spoiler alert, it’s a disaster. 

How does President Trump feel about the pandemic death toll? Depends who you ask. Some people say it’s the only thing team Trump cares about.  But if you listen to Trump’s former Art of the Deal coauthor, he couldn’t careless. 

Hillary Clinton, America’s Grand-Karen-in-Chief has surfaced again. And she’s up to her old tricks, crapping all over “deplorables”. This time she’s taking on the protesters in Michigan. 

Finally today, we wanted to point you to a tragic story with massive racial implication that’s developing right now in Kentucky. A 26 year old EMT was shot and killed by Police. The cops were serving a no-knock warrant. The boyfriend of the EMT is facing attempted murder charges after grabbing his gun, shooting one of the police officers. His attorneys say he was rying to defend his home. 

Read all about it

-Fraser Dixon

Democrats Push New $3T Coronavirus Relief Bill Through House

(AP) – Democrats have powered a massive $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill through the House, an election-year measure designed to brace a U.S. economy in free fall and a health care system struggling to contain a pandemic still pummeling the country. 

Friday’s 208-199 vote, with all but one Republican opposed, advances what boils down to a campaign-season display of Democratic economic and health-care priorities. It has no chance of becoming law as written, but will likely spark difficult negotiations with the White House and Senate Republicans. Any product would probably be the last major COVID-19 response bill before November’s presidential and congressional elections.

Learn more here

Biden’s Virtual Campaign Is a Disaster

(The Atlantic) – They say that if you live long enough, you’ll get to experience nearly everything, and so it has been for Joe Biden, who has lived to see history’s first Zoom presidential campaign. Unfortunately for him, it’s his.

Nobody looks good on Zoom—or FaceTime or Skype or any of the other online simulacra of human interaction that the lockdown has forced upon us. It diminishes all the distractions and intangibles that give life texture and zest, that make life seem rather pleasanter than it is. Did anyone fully understand just how unfunny late-night talk-show hosts are—take your pick; I pick Stephen Colbert—until the pandemic forced them online and deprived them of the Pavlovian and highly implausible laughter of their studio audiences? So too with political campaigns.

Read more here

Art of the Deal Co-Author: COVID-19 ‘Deaths Don’t Matter’ to Trump

(NBC News) – As Pres. Trump pushes for the U.S. to immediately reopen despite rising death tolls and dire medical warnings, a former confidant who co-authored Trump’s best-seller the “Art of the Deal” says that while it may sound “extreme,” Trump has “no conscience” and “the deaths don’t matter to him.” Author and businessman Tony Schwartz explains why and recounts his history working with Trump in this interview with MSNBC.

Watch here

Hillary Clinton Calls Armed Michigan Lockdown Protests ‘Domestic Terrorism’

(The Hill) – Hillary Clinton is condemning armed protests calling for the end to stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic, calling the demonstrations “domestic terrorism.”

“Armed men storming a legislature to disrupt its democratic proceedings is domestic terrorism. It cannot be tolerated,” Clinton tweeted Friday.

Her tweet linked to an article by Newsweek about Michigan choosing to close down its Capitol and cancel its legislative session after armed protests and death threats to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Read more here

Family Sues After 26-Year-Old EMT Is Shot and Killed by Police in Her Own Home

(CBS News) – Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was asleep in her Kentucky home just after midnight on March 13 when police entered with a search warrant in a drug investigation and opened fire, killing her. Now, a lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family accuses the officers of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence.

Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officials said officers engaged in the shooting after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them first. But the lawsuit alleges that police did not identify themselves and that Walker, a licensed gun owner, thought someone was breaking in. Neither Walker nor Taylor had a criminal history of drugs or violence, the suit says.

Find out more here