On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and co-host Ben Cunningham to the studio.
During the second hour, Leahy and Cunningham discussed the politicization of the coronavirus by the Democrats who are using it as leverage in Congress to push their abortion agenda. The men both agreed that this was incredibly inappropriate and received a call from a Davidson County biology teacher who agreed and was sickened by it.
Leahy: There is a presidential campaign going on. Actually you can’t miss it because coronavirus and the economic response is dominating the news. And yet the Democrats are jumping in at every level and playing politics.
Cunningham: Absolutely. There is no effort, I don’t think I’ve heard one Democrat, maybe Tulsi Gabbard but with that exclusion, every one of them is trying to politicize this. Nobody on the Democratic side is saying, “Hey this is a national crisis. We’ve got to come together and I don’t like Donald Trump, but this is a problem for the American people.”
Donald Trump is not the issue here. The issue is the coronavirus. How quickly it’s going to spread? How many people it’s going to kill?
How it’s going to devastate this economy and we’ve got to come together. That’s what the Democrats ought to be saying. But they are not. They are politicizing everything.
Leahy: Actually, Joe Biden is saying I want to unify everybody except Donald Trump and his supporters who are evil. (Laughs) It’s just incredible.
Cunningham: Telling us we’re full of…
Leahy: Yeah, full of blank.
Cunningham: Whatever.
Leahy: Blank. Yeah, that’s how to unify the country right now. Now there is a bill currently before Congress that is supposed to address the economic problem. And the Democrats are playing politics with it, Ben.
Cunningham: They are in fact playing politics and it is what infuriates people about Washington, D.C. Here we have a major health crisis and the Democrats are using it as an opportunity to push through one of their key issues which is the funding of abortion.
Leahy: Yes! Again this is totally inappropriate in my view. But that’s what they are doing.
Cunningham: It’s beyond inappropriate. It is the worst kind of political corruption and that’s why people elected Donald Trump because they are so freakin’ tired of this kind of thing.
Leahy: Yeah, exactly. I want to get one point of fact here that you were talking about. And that is the following, you were asking about what the coronavirus test consists of. And this is from an article published Wednesday at Fox News. The COVID-19 test requires three culture swabs.
One from the nose. One from the throat. And one from the lower lungs. The test requires a person to inhale deeply, cough, and spit-up saliva and mucus into a sterile collection cup. So that’s the lower lungs thing I guess.
Anyways, the one from the nose is apparently an unpleasant brief experience. So there’s that. Ed from Nashville wants to weight in right now on the coronavirus. Ed thanks for calling.
Caller Ed: This is something that really bothers me. I’m a high school biology teacher and so far nobody under the age of 50 has died. And I just think a lot of this is overreach. One of my own children is a college athlete and now she won’t get to compete in the NCAA this year because they canceled it.
A lot of people don’t realize she’s a senior and now she can’t compete. She won’t have that opportunity again. I just want to know why they’re taking such extreme measures when the kids under 50 aren’t even impacted. They may get the flu, but they’ll recover.
Leahy: I have seen reports that there are some people in their 40s that have passed away from this. I don’t know if that was the United States or China.
Cunningham: Yeah, Ed. I think you are right. There are a lot of disappointed folks at the end of the year you are right. Lots of senior trips have been canceled. What do you think would be the appropriate response as a biology teacher and scientist? What do you regard as the responsible approach?
Caller Ed: Most of the people that are affected have previous illnesses or diabetes. But those people need to definitely take precautions. My mother is 81 and I want her to take precautions because 75% of the people who are 80 or older die.
But the people that are infected, this is total panic. And they are going to get sick. The quicker they get infected and get it over with, the better we’re going to be. There have been no children under 10 years old that have died yet.
Leahy: Yes. That’s actually true from all of the reports that we’ve seen on this. I’m gathering Ed when you look at this your assessment is that the experts that are saying as many as 480,000 Americans could die from this in 2020. I guess your assessment is that it is way beyond the pale? Is that correct?
Caller Ed: After watching some CNN, I think this has turned political. I know it’s turned political and it just makes me sick to see this. We’re going to look back at this and say, this was really an overreach. I’m convinced of that right now.
Leahy: Do you teach in Davidson County or one of the outlying counties?
Caller Ed: Yes, outside county.
Leahy: Are classes being conducted in your school today?
Caller Ed: Yes. Our kids are fine. They joke about it. And sometimes this could be really easy to manipulate but they basically kind of joke about it. You are not going to die from this. You’ll get sick probably.
You are not going to die. You are young. As long as you are healthy and doing the right things you’re going to be OK. I don’t want them to be alarmed. I just think this is a big overreach. I hate to see all this…
Leahy: And yet, everything is being canceled. So the economy is being hurt by all of this. That is for sure.
Caller Ed: Oh absolutely. I would encourage people to go online and email the president of the NCAA and these other organizations because (Inaudible crosstalk)
Leahy: Ed, we’re out of time here. Let me use a cruise analogy. That ship Ed has sailed. (Chuckles) NCAA is canceled and that’s a firm decision that they’ve made. Thank you, Ed, for your call.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
In a response that defies capabilities of words to describe it, the ACLU sues to release the IAs in captivity into the U.S. populus to protect the IAs from the coronavirus.
From Daily Caller News Foundation 3-17-2020
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), demanding the agency release all detainees deemed to be “at risk” of health complications, should they contract the COVID-19 virus.
The ACLU, working alongside the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, sued ICE on Monday, the progressive group announced in a press release. The lawsuit — which was filed on behalf of aliens being detained at the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington — is asking that senior individuals and those with underlying health conditions be released from ICE custody.
“Immigrant detention centers are institutions that uniquely heighten the danger of disease transmission,” said Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project.\
“Public health experts have warned that failing to reduce the number of people detained — and in particular, failing to release those particularly vulnerable to the disease — endangers the lives of everyone in the detention facility, including staff, and the broader community,” Cho added.
So one wonders if ACLU’s Ms Cho is handing out “Visit the USA” invitation cards to people in Wuhan?
“Never fail to take advantage of a crisis.” This is from the Democrat playbook made popular during the Obamanation days. Nancy has already been caught trying to get the $8Bn bill out of the house without the Hyde amendment cover…so she could redirect funds to abortion clinics?
What else have the Dems (who just wanted to make a few technical adjustments? ? ?) added to the bill at the 11th hour? Louie Gohmert wants the “technical adjustments” read aloud before he releases his hold on the bill. I don’t blame him one bit. Do you think the Dems scheduled these changes at the 11th hour, so they could leave town and avoid any questions about odd rabbit holes in the bill?