TONIGHT: @JudyWoodruff interviews @SpeakerPelosi as Congress takes up an economic aid package to blunt the fallout of COVID-19.
Watch at 6 p.m. Eastern:
? Online at https://t.co/H64jnT5hAz
? On your local @PBS station: https://t.co/o66B9JhDqQ pic.twitter.com/VLpyxPVYcd— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) March 25, 2020
She’s been working the media all week. I missed tonight’s PBS interview, but there’s a full transcript here.
Finale:
Judy Woodruff: But you’re saying it could be done within a few days?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Yes.
And it’s no use having a conversation about what might happen later. What is in the here and now — and I thank you for asking — is that we are ready. We hope that they would freeze the design, and whatever the difference is on the Republican side.
Please don’t resent our lowest-paid workers in America for getting $600, so that they can meet the needs of their families, spend the money. It’s immediate. Spend the money, inject demand into the economy, grow the economy, and, at the same time, give people a little more confidence and less stress as they deal with the important health issue, health challenge that this is.
We pray for those who have lost their loved ones and those whose are — whose family are affected by all of this. We pray and thank God for our health care workers, our first responders, our firefighters, and police officers, and emergency services people.
They are our heroes in all of this, and we’re grateful to them.
Further explanation, from The Hill:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that Democrats will press for another wave of direct payments to Americans as Congress begins weighing the next round of emergency relief in response to the coronavirus crisis.
House Democrats had proposed a $1,500 cash infusion for all Americans in their stimulus bill, up to a certain income level — a $300 increase over the Senate package, which is expected to reach the president’s desk in the coming days.
Pelosi suggested Wednesday that neither figure is high enough, calling for another round of checks in the next wave of stimulus — the fourth since the crisis began — to be considered in the weeks and months ahead…
A short time later, speaking to reporters in the Capitol, Pelosi offered a broader preview of some of the provisions Democrats will seek in a phase four package, including more funding to protect pensions, tougher work safety provisions under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and funding to provide free medical care — not just testing — to coronavirus victims.
“There are a number of issues that are not holding up this [Senate] bill … but that we need to do,” she said…
House Democrats, who have been on recess for more than a week, have complained of being shut out of the negotiations, which were conducted primarily between Senate leaders and the White House. Many are up in arms that Democratic priorities — including an expansion of paid leave, a larger increase in food stamps, vote-by-mail provisions and stronger work safety protections for medical workers — were largely left out of the Senate bill.
To ease those concerns, Pelosi and a number of Democratic committee heads conducted a series of conference calls on Wednesday with rank-and-file members to field concerns and provide policy details contained in the Senate bill. As part of that effort, Democratic leaders are reminding lawmakers that provisions excluded from the third round will be revisited in the fourth…
Pelosi had been hoping that, after the Senate passes the $2 trillion package, the House could move it through the lower chamber by unanimous consent, a procedure for advancing legislation without the need to call lawmakers back to Washington.
On Wednesday, however, she ruled out that option, citing warnings from GOP leaders that some of their members, wishing to debate the mammoth bill and have some record of how they voted, would block a unanimous consent request…
TL, DR: People aren’t gonna be able to pay their April rent because Lindsey Graham thinks nurses are lazy moochers, Tom Cotton is running for the 2024 GOP primary, and the House Repubs are morons or true believers or both. Come with us Dems, if you want to live…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Oh, but the Dems are feckless and preemptively surrendered on the Senate bill and the US is so fucked, DailyKos lefties told me so! /s
Patricia Kayden
Adam L Silverman
Someone needs to explain to Lindsey Graham how the unemployment insurance benefit system works. If you quit your job, like he suggests nurses will, you are NOT eligible for unemployment benefits. If only he had a degree and a job that would help him understand how this law works.
dexwood
Stay well, Nancy, stay strong. Fuck that Orange Asshole and all his ass-nibbling remoras.
Martin
She should add that anyone who dies of coronavirus will be removed from the census. That might get some governors to get their shit together.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: (Looks at Cole’s Twitter feed at the right sidebar)
“you’re about to be Italy you dumb fuck”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Ya mean like some kinda law degree?
ETA: As a warning to Sen Graham, he should talk to The Governator about what happens when you piss off nurses.
Mary G
People were praising Lindsey Graham a few thousand years ago on Sunday or Monday for pushing back against Twitler’s beautiful feeling that America would rise from the Covid19 on Easter like Jeebus and pack the churches. The voters of South Carolina knew better, ad Jaime Harrison informed me that he is 4% up over Lindsey in the latest poll. Fool is trying to swerve back to the right by attacking nurses, ffs. Not a good choice of target.
Another Scott
TheHill:
Ctrl-F “Sanders” – nothing found.
Ctrl-F “Democrats” – nothings found.
Hmmm…
AFAIK, Democrats still have a say in what happens in the Senate, especially if 60 votes are still needed…
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Heh, dat true.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: As I noted in my ETA above you, remember what happened to Arnold when he went after the nurses?
The Thin Black Duke
@Patricia Kayden: “It’s only a flesh wound,” said Tate Reeves, the Governor of Mississippi. “You’re a loony,” replied everybody else.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: I just woke up from a nap in a panic from a dream that you were missing because you had been at a party with Prince Charles! My subconscious has been throwing these up about all sorts of different people and I’m happy to see you post so quickly.
Mary G
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I saw that; I had forgotten how terrible he had been, but you’re exactly right. It pushed a lot of moderate acquaintances of mine firmly to the left.
randy khan
@Another Scott:
Graham clearly knows nothing about unemployment insurance. Employers constantly push back against claims when they say employees quit. And, in any event, that’s really not an issue right now.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I can neither confirm, nor deny whether I am 1) currently missing, 2) have been partying with Prince Charles, or 3) am actually even me at this time.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: More seriously, I’ve been socially isolating since middle of February with the exception of going to the grocery store once a week for fresh items like bananas and strawberries and oranges and apples for myself and the Mominator (she’s out there, right now, she can’t be negotiated with, she can’t be stopped!) whom I’m shopping for as she is also self isolating since just about the same date.
Martin
Anyone seen M^4 recently?
sdhays
Holy shit, is that for real???
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: How’s Camilla holding up?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Patricia Kayden:
He looks like every doughy douchebag conservative ever. Only in a state like Mississippi could a dude like that be elected to the state’s highest office because he has an R after his name
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
He commented on a thread earlier today. It was the one that provided a bunch of podcasts to listen to
WaterGirl
@Martin: Yesterday, I think. And in this post today:
https://balloon-juice.com/2020/03/25/open-thread-coronavirus-related-podcasts-for-aural-learners/
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I am not authorized to disclose that information at this time.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
R’oh uh! Looks like it’s self-quarantine time! Come clean, did you infect Prince Charles? //
sdhays
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I seem to recall something along the lines of if 30% (the exact number escapes me, but it’s embarrassingly low) of white people in MS voted Democrat, Democrats would win state-wide offices.
But they don’t because…
debbie
I believe I heard there will even be funding for the NEA and CPB! How did Nancy work that magic?!?
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I feel for Charles. He probably thinks, OK, she’ll check out from this and I’ll finally be King…
…and now this.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Cool. Thanks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
Pissing off nurses, and nurses’ family and friends, and people like me who have seen up close the difference good nurses can make when a loved on is in the hospital… It’s like Lindsey saw what happens when people go after teachers and said, “Hold my beer…”
Duane
@The Thin Black Duke: Tate Reeves is what happens after generations of in-breeding.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He looks like Pete Ross, the manager of the Smallville IHOP, from Man of Steel.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: That man is waaayyy too dashing to be Tate Reeves.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
What do you think of Ohio now holding it’s primary on April 28, no in-person voting, and the SecofState will mail postcards to registered voters instead of absentee applications let alone ballots?
Brachiator
This kind of stuff is vitally important in the long run, but (except for protections for medical workers) is really not key to reacting to the enforced shutdown of the economy. I also note, with extra emphasis sauce, that most of the Senate GOP bill was worse. Much worse.
The emphasis should have been on keeping workers employed and paid. Corporations should have had their arms twisted, no bailouts without employment protections, supplemented with payments from the government. Shit, we pay farmers not to farm. We could temporarily subsidize workers who we told to stay home.
But I applaud the legislation big time in light of a couple of objections being leveled against it.
I don’t give a shit if “lower wage” employees get a little boost, especially in light of GOP tax cuts that deliberately shovel more benefits and credits to the upper classes. And no one is means testing the proposed check to other groups.
Companies will lay people off because it works for them, not because they think that anyone has a few extra dollars in their pockets.
And lastly, not enough is being done to help the self-employed. The economic contraction so far has severely impacted many self-employed people, or drove them out of business. And industries may die just from this short shut down. People need incentives and access to capital to rebuild and to create new industries and jobs.
The House bill is creaky and not forward thinking, but it provides a better groundwork for really digging out of this thing than the crap the GOP is serving up.
TS (the original)
@Another Scott:
And yet again they add complications to a bill that will delay payments and allow red states to keep money aside to comfort their wealthy who have no need of same.
Zelma
OK, I’ve been dying to say this somewhere and I’m sure it isn’ original with me. But everybody asks why Drump hasn’t implemented the Defense Procurement Act. I think the answer is not all that complicated: THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT! They have so decimated the bureaucracy that there is no one in the White House who has any idea what to do and they don’t have any idea who to ask.
sdhays
@TS (the original): The amendment will fail. It’s just performative art and wasting time, which is pretty much the only thing that Republican politicians are capable of nowadays.
ETA: Remember, these are people who claim support for hospitals in a 100-year pandemic is concession to Democrats.
Redshift
Lindsay’s asinine comments remind me of a news story I read years and years ago that perfectly encapsulated the conservative mindset. The state legislature in Texas was debating a bill cutting public assistance. One legislator explained her vote for it by saying “they’ll just have a little less to leave to their children.”
They are absolutely incapable of putting themselves in someone else’s shoes.They think people who are poor just have a used car instead of a new one, or eat out at chain restaurants instead of nice ones, so they’re just mooching when they claim they can’t afford to pay rent or feed their families.
Lindsay’s “who wouldn’t just quit their job and take free money?” comment is of a piece with that.
Elizabelle
@Zelma: That is not a crazy observation. Although I worry that Trump is listening to his crazy ass “conservative” brain (!) trust. Or maybe Sean Hannity doesn’t like the idea
Those experts.
The Thin Black Duke
@Duane:
“Why is it the greatest champions of the white race always turn out to be the worst examples of it?”
― Garth Ennis, Preacher, Volume 7: Salvation
cain
If he fucks the vote.
Step 1: Let Corona Virus infect shithead Lindsey Graham
Step 2: Wait till he ends in the hospital
Step 3: Nurses look him in the eye in his hospital bed, “if I stopped treating you right now, you’ll die motherfucker.”
Step 4: Walk away, the fucker deserves to die.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Problem with the senate “plan” is it’s a rebate on your 2020 taxes for 1,200 usd. That means next year, your owe the goverment 1,200 usd.
worthless idiots.
Another Scott
The 880 page Senate bill is out. TheHill has a copy. HR 748 (since funding bills have to start in the House).
I haven’t seen an official summary yet.
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@Redshift:
It’s likely because that’s what poor conservatives do.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh my god he does! lol
It’s the white middle manager archetype from central casting
Brachiator
@TS (the original):
Payments will already be delayed. And some people will be missed. From a recent CNN story:
Also, a little thing that has been ignored. A lot of government workers, including IRS employees have been sent home because of the virus. So, government agencies may be trying to process these payments with staff shortages.
joel hanes
As I observe every once in a while:
Just think. We could have had Seth Moulton.
hueyplong
@Brachiator: So they want payments to start after Trump has “opened the economy.”
Trump supporters are grumbling, Needz moar cruelty.
Japa21
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Only if you make above certain amounts this year.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Nobody was ever going to just send out totally “free money.” But you will have to include the money in your income. You will not necessarily be repaying the full $1,200.
At least that is not the way that I am reading summaries of the bill.
joel hanes
@Zelma:
why Drump hasn’t implemented the Defense Procurement Act.
Because if he does not, the companies he “talked to”, the companies that according to him urged him not to do it, can charge whatever the market will bear, and some of those monies from profiteering can be quietly redirected to the Trump organization businesses, or those of his allies, or donated to his campaign fund, etc. Quid pro motherfucking pro.
He’s a mobster. He’ll allow lesser wise guys to operate, but only if he gets to wet his own beak. He thinks that makes him smart, and is proud of operating the US government as an extortion racket in the middle of a pandemic.
ETA: I think he honestly does not understand morality at all, nor other people, and believes that everyone is purely transactional in their relationships, as he is. “What’s in it for me?”, and that he thinks that genuine morality is just posturing, of the kind he does when he pretends to be a Christian.
Brachiator
@hueyplong:
It’s not just what they want. It is not possible to magically send out payments immediately. See CNN story.
Another tidbit. They may try to identify people based on who has already filed a tax return (not me, by the way):
HumboldtBlue
I spoke earlier with a close friend who participated in a Poynter Institute online conference with journalists from around the world today.
Specifically mentioned were comments from journalists in Russia and their growing fear — “they sounded fucking scared”.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Staff shortages will also affect tax return processing times as well. Poorer people also tend to rely on tax returns too. I wonder if it would be unrealistic to expect a tax return check from the treasury around the same time. I remember I got mine last year around April 11th, as I’d filed a few weeks earlie
Edit:
Wait, I thought they were already using 2018 tax return info if a 2019 tax return has not been filed? What difference would that make?
Mary G
@The Thin Black Duke: Example no. 1,264,859: Matt Gaetz is on Twitter bitching about Howard University getting $13 million in the bill and all his commenters are claiming they have billions in their endowment blah blah blah. I don’t usually take the bait and argue with the goobers, but I did link to an article about HBCUs are grossly underfunded and point out their excellent medical school, call him a racist, and told him to put his gas mask back on and STFU. I know it’s useless, but sometimes I can’t resist.
hueyplong
@Brachiator: My point relates to the absurdity of Trump’s “economy opening” date, not how long it takes to send the first checks
I could have worded it a lot better.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
You should tell the trolls Howard University doesn’t have billions in it’s endowment. It has close to 700 million
Mary G
Moscow Mitch is recessing the Senate until April 20 as soon as they get this bill done. He says they are nimble and can come back quickly if needed. Words fail.
CaseyL
@HumboldtBlue: They should be scared. It’s a deadly pandemic, and authoritarian governments care more about losing face than citizens. Plus Russia has, last I heard, hardly any working social/medical infrastructure, possibly even less than during the Soviet Era. “A third-world country with nukes.”
(Which the US is also rapidly becoming, thanks to the GOP.)
JaySinWA
@HumboldtBlue:
Well yeah, their lives are on the line, virus or no virus. Loose lips sink ships or get them to fall off balconies.
Duane
@sdhays: Anything that pays workers is socialism, but billions for corporations is good business. Republicans have played that card for years. Fuckem. Now’s a great time to create that socialist utopia Republicans fear. Go get all you can Speaker Pelosi, then go back for more.
Elizabelle
@joel hanes: Seth Moulton and his wife are in self-quarantine. They are experiencing COVID19 symptoms.
Please dog protect Nancy Pelosi. And Joe Biden. And Elizabeth Warren and all our necessary people.
TS (the original)
@Brachiator:
approx 1mill unemployed people tried to use our (Australian) gov website to apply for the unemployment & extra benefits the govt passed late last week. The web site crashed, the phone lines either were engaged or had 2 hour+ wait times – the queues at govt offices were down the street forever. The minister in charge said
Now they are expecting 2 million applications for help and are still trying to work out the process. Folks can now simply register online that they want to apply. They will be paid as of that day but it is going to take 2-3 weeks to get them the money.
We have a population of 24 million. The US has over 300 million – do they ever need a level of planning that the trump admin can no-way provide.
Another Scott
@joel hanes:
USAToday (on the 24th):
It’s clear that Donnie shut the use of the DPA down. They can’t even get their story straight weeks after people have been screaming for it to be done, and a week after he told everyone he was invoking it.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Logan Brown
https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1242997884129284104
Yeah, I’m not that impressed right now. I understand it might be the only thing to clear through those sociopaths, but it’s not what is being sold to the public. There are going to be a TON of pissed off people when they find out they don’t qualify.
debbie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I think it’s not enough time (though I voted early). I think they should compromise and hold a mail-in only primary in May
ETA: Postcards. I think that’s just to mail back to request a ballot, not to vote on a postcard.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Elizabelle:
All these people experiencing symptoms and those testing positive such as Prince Charles go to show how widespread the virus already is (maybe not in absolute numbers, but spread out across society)
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: The stuff people are complaining is left out will be in the bill that Speaker Pelosi is having her team draft in the House. My guess is that she will either 1) strip the text from the Senate bill once it reaches the House and replace it with her caucus’s legislative language or 2) she’ll merge them so that the bill the House votes on has everything in the Senate bill and everything the Democratic majority in the House thinks needs to be included but isn’t right now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
I agree. As I understand it, the postcards are just reminders/instructions on how to request an absentee ballot, not the actual request forms themselves
debbie
@Zelma:
Trump was asked that a couple of days ago, and he said (paraphrasing) it would be “socialist.”
Another Scott
@JaySinWA: Vlad must be worried, since he canceled/delayed the vote to make him (effectively) President for Life.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Trump lied, people died
Adam L Silverman
@Zelma: It isn’t that. It is a combination of being lobbied by business interests and the reality that if he actually uses it, then he owns this. If he doesn’t use it then he can ultimately blame the governors for not being good at doing deals with the suppliers.
Kelly
@TS (the original): US unemployment payments are managed by each state. Level of service varies widely but at least there isn’t a single point of failure.
Adam L Silverman
@The Thin Black Duke: As I often post here.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
A lot of lower income people file early because the IRS already adds delays for returns with certain refundable tax credits. The IRS looks out for fraud and identity theft, and also will apply credits against prior year tax debts.
A lot can happen from 2018 to 2019. People move, get married, have kids. They might even change banks. You don’t want to send checks out that might not get to people.
Bill Arnold
@Mary G:
Matt Gaetz is a stochastic murderer. And that’s being unreasonably polite and specific.
Matt Gaetz Wore a Gas Mask to Mock Coronavirus Concerns. Now He’s in Quarantine. (March 9, 2020, Abigail Weinberg)
debbie
@debbie:
Similarly, on the local Fox affiliate’s newscast, their political reporter (Scott Thuman or something similar) was interviewing Pence and twice he cut in, interrupting Pence’s canned responses and asked whether the public’s health mattered less than the economy. I thought I was hallucinating.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: My understanding is that she’s still trying to get unanimous consent in the House for the Senate bill. To get some money and help out as quickly as possible. Then, in a month or so, when the House and Senate are back (in some form or other – maybe they’ll see the light and do it virtually), they’ll pass the Stage 4 (and 5) bill(s) that will fix the bad things in the Senate 3rd-stage bill.
The 3rd Stage bill in the Senate is what is going to be enacted. That’s why they’re fighting so hard to make it acceptable.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Not that you’re claiming otherwise, but I doubt that will be an effective and convincing strategy to folks who have lost one or more family/friends to this virus. They will blame Trump. It doesn’t matter what Fox says. They can’t spin tens of thousands of deaths. This isn’t some foreign war where most Americans will never be touched personally. This of course doesn’t take into account the economic effects from mitigation measures. You can only hold off reality for so long
hueyplong
@debbie: Maybe you were.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: It goes beyond that. 1) HBCU’s are purely Federal creatures, they have to be funded every year through an appropriation, they aren’t covered under the various Department of Ed funded “Title (insert Latin numeral here)” lines. 2) Howard has a Tier 1 trauma center, if an ambulance is called to the Capitol, and the patient, even if a member of Congress who would normally be taken to Joint Base Andrews, has to be treated immediately, they’re taken to Howard University Medical Center. And that’s why the funding is in this bill.
Brachiator
@TS (the original):
Thanks very much for this. I am sorry that this happened, but appreciate learning how other countries are dealing with the virus.
The only other popular news stories I saw was about people going to the beach and ignoring social distance recommendations.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: He’s trying to jam Pelosi.
mrmoshpotato
@The Dangerman: Damn. you. ?I just can’t wait to be king? :P
Another Scott
Reuters says the Senate just passed the bill unanimously.
Cheers,
Scott.
smintheus
I wrote to urge my congresswoman to oppose the Senate bill. It’s a huge giveaway to corporations, many of them bad actors, and it gives just a pittance to the Americans who are in immediate need. Also, it does nothing much to address the health crisis. It should be a non-starter. The House should insist that the Senate vote on the House bill.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: She has planned this out and is working it.
Jay
Rode my bike to work today, practice for if/when they shut down transit. First time riding a bike again in 15 years. Had confirmation that I am out of shape. Also had confirmation that a 25 year old hardtail, no suspension mountain bike, designed for minimal weight and serious shredding, is not an ideal commuter bike. For example, the tiny Italian saddle, is fine off road because one almost never sits, and quite often, your butt, ( if I may be so bold) is hung out behind the seat for weight balance on downhills and jumps.
The microgram, smaller than a ferrets head, hard as nails saddle however, is not kind to the behind on the commute. Some other tuneing and tweing issues arose, but they too, will get sorted. And 20 minutes after getting to work, my upper, right lung, was finally working again.
and at work, I got to school a moron. He bitched about the lines, the enforcement, the inconvenience, asked “how long is this bullshit going to go on?”
I said, “September, if we are lucky”.
He said “lucky?”
I said, “Yeah, lucky. We get a Covid19 case amongst the Staff and the store will be closed. No if’s ands or buts”. “Then, in October, when the fall wave of the epidemic hits, all the protocols will be put in place until May, June or July next year, when there is a proven vaccine and enough people have been vaccinated”.
He left in utter shock. It would appear that venturing out into the real world during a pandemic was somewhat different than what he was consuming from Facebook.
Fair Economist
@Mary G:
Moscow Mitch doesn’t want to die. DC’s epidemic is underway and he wants to run. Cowardly given how Congress is needed, but he *is* a Republican.
Kelly
@Adam L Silverman:
The most severe national emergency since WWII and Mitch McConnell is doing all he can to what!! … arrgghh
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
So tax refund checks won’t be severely interrupted?
That makes sense. I didn’t think of that. Thanks!
Mary G
Senate just passed the bill! Run away, Mitch.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
The Senate has passed the bill and will send it to the House. It is expected that the House will vote on it Friday and send it on to the president.
Then work will begin on additional stimulus bills.
The cynic in me says that McConnell will try to retain the upper hand with respect to future legislation to guard against any shift in Congress that might come with the November elections.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
interesting– I saw on Bernie twitter that he was ranting and railing at “everyone”… then he voted for it?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
Yay! I think. It’s better some relief out now as soon as possible
Rama
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-bailouts-tradition-unlike-any-other/
Mary G
Fucking around until the end:
In the immortal words of Beto, WTF, media?
guachi
So the House got nothing and didn’t participate in the negotiations at all. Whose failure is this?
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Isn’t he still holed up in Vermont, tossing telecrumbs to the faithful?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Rama:
So that story makes this sound like an absolutely terrible bill
Adam L Silverman
@Kelly: What everyone needs to remember is that until today McConnell has only ever moved one major piece of legislation in his entire career in the US Senate. That previous piece was Paul Ryan’s tax cut, which was also, coincidentally, the first major piece of legislation that Paul Ryan had ever moved in his entire career. All McConnell has ever actually done in his career as a legislator/senator is work his committee assignments, accumulate power, work his way up to Republican caucus leader allowing him to be first the Senate Minority Leader and now the Majority Leader, slow roll and/or block everything President Obama proposed legislatively and in terms of executive branch and especially judicial nominees as minority and majority leader, allow or allow to move continuing resolutions to keep the government open, and pack a bunch of young Federalist Society chosen extremists on to the Federal courts. That’s it. He has never been made to legislate before this week. He doesn’t know how. He doesn’t know how to write any legislation more complex than a continuing resolution because he’s never had to. And he’s never had to because doing so either wasn’t part of his plan to attain power, to use that power for his own ends, or to retain it.
oatler.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-donald-trump-coronavirus-bill_n_5e7b77a6c5b62a1870d62d83
Doesn’t mean I believe it, but it scratches my rage itch.
Bill Arnold
@Logan Brown:
Looking at that thread and assuming truth to the reading, I’m not sure the GOP Senators understand the degree of anger (fury) that will be leveled against them and how many people will be angry.
This is a mistake on their part.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
And the White House will issue a diktat that whatever is published immediately be stamped as classified.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Right now he’s got a two vote majority because of self quarantines, which is why he’s planning on recessing for a month so that hopefully the entire Senate, but especially the Republican majority caucus, is passed the two week quarantine period that started ticking when Rand Paul didn’t bother to self quarantine while he was waiting for his test results. My guess is that several members of that caucus are likely infected. And McConnell doesn’t have a big enough margin of majority to keep the Senate if four or five of them have to be absent for a prolonged period because of COVID-19 infections.
Uncle Jeffy
@Adam L Silverman: Waaaaay too many orders of pancakes down that dude’s pie hole…
Mary G
Go Gov, Gavin:
something fabulous
@Zelma: Interesting! Like they literally couldn’t turn the lights on at the White House when they first arrived. It all fits! Good a possibility as any, honestly.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bernie voted for it. the 4 senators who are in quarantine are Romney, Lee, Thune, Baby Doc.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
A pretty harsh indictment. What does BJ think? Am I missing something? Will the House actually be able to fix this in a “phase 4” stimulus bill
Link
Mary G
FDA says it “does not plan to object.”
Darkrose
@NotMax: The Guardian had an…interesting take:
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): David Dayen (FireDogLake) is to the left of Sirota.
Kelly
Possible testing breakthrough
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/game-changer-britain-days-away-from-releasing-millions-of-coronavirus-finger-prick-tests-20200326-p54dyy.html
The Dangerman
Dear TV People,
Fuck you very much.
So, I coulda used an hour of escapism watching kinda braindead TV, but, instead, every commercial break is a reminder about the virus. We’re all in it together (oh, bullshit, your ratings are gonna tank; live with it). Oh, and a special fuck off and die in a fire to Hyundai, where the spokesman says buy a car now and if you lose your job … I don’t recall the rest of the commercial as I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Seriously, what marketing asshole came up with that idea? Do they realllllly think that it will sell cars? Guess again, buckaroos, I wouldn’t drive a Hyundai right now if you gave it to me free. Try again.
It’s possible I’m a wee bit stressed.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I know what FireDogLake is (or was rather) and so you’re saying he’s a firebagging moron, which may be, but why is he wrong?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: but without the easy-going charm and talent for building coalitions
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): 1) I haven’t read the bill. That said: 2) Schumer isn’ the Senate Majority Leader, he has leverage right now, but only so much. 3) McConnell is very good at getting the news media, especially the political reporters, to report his spin on everything the Senate does or does not do and they largely ignore Schumer. 4) McConnell has made it clear all along that unless the President assures him he’ll sign it, McConnell will take no action on any piece of legislation, whether he and his caucus are proposing it or if it is coming from the House. 5) So these people who yell and scream and always blame Schumer or Pelosi or “the Democrats” have no actual idea of how things work in the Senate, nor do they ever seem to hold Republicans accountable for what they do. For them, the Republicans, whether in the House or the Senate or the President or any of his appointees have no agency and are never to blame. The only people deserving of blame are Pelosi, Schumer, and “the Democrats” for not stopping the Republicans in the House, the Senate, the White House, or the executive branch who are actually doing the things that has these people so riled up.
Darkrose
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Read the article, and he’s a victim of Murc’s (LGM) Law: Only Democrats have agency. It’s not clear what he wanted them to do, except I guess refuse to vote on the bill until it was perfect, regardless of how many people died in the meantime?
Adam L Silverman
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Sirota isn’t really on the left, so that’s not actually saying much.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Dangerman:
All things considered Hyundais/Kias are good cars, but yeah, this isn’t the time to buy a fucking car, even if 90-120 days monthly payments are deferred
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I trust Elizabeth Warren
Kelly
@Mary G: Seems there are several fast test kits out in the world. Now if we can purchase and import them in the millions. Key is to find some way for Trump to wet his beak…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
@Darkrose:
That’s fair enough re: Dems getting blamed for something that couldn’t be helped. That wasn’t what I really wanted to know (because that’s BS), which I should’ve been clearer about. Is it actually true that this is largely a corporate giveaway that will entrench inequality for a generation and that the oversight committee and the inspector general secured as measures to prevent misuse of relief funds are meaningless? Or is it hyperbolic bullshit?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I really hope you’re right. If EW voted for it, I’ll guess I’ll wait and see
JaySinWA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): To add to what others are saying, don’t be a sea lion. David Dayden names no one from his progressive sources. He has a history of being wrong. Don’t waste your time or ours on him.
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s half bad. Mitch tried to pass an all bad bill. Nancy and Schumer played hard ball. We have one of two houses.
I wish they’d been able to get more done on absentee ballots for all in November, but Republicans would rather burn America down.
Adam L Silverman
Very interesting thread. Amazing when Congressman Amash, who is now an Independent, is to the left of almost everyone on this stuff.
joel hanes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Believers in Green Lanternism we will always have.
Pelosi got the best deal possible under the situation.
Time was of the essence, and fucking McConnell held a gun to the head of the nation in a ten-day hostage situation. This is better than the original Senate bill, and far better than nothing. It’s sausage-making, which is always ugly, and which purists who hate politics think can be done away with, somehow. They are always wrong, declaring themselves willing to starve rather than accept half a loaf.
There will be more bills. There will be new developments that require different bills. Republican Senators could die of COVID-19. An effective remedy might be found. Trump could die. Tomorrow is another day.
FDR had it right: do the possible now, and then tomorrow, if that doesn’t work, try something else.
Adam L Silverman
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My guess is its hyperbolic bullshit.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: The horse could learn to sing.
JaySinWA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
My guess is yep.
Look, nobody knows yet what the overall bill will do. Yes there is a large corporate giveaway. It has some strings attached now, but it was probably required to get the R support it needed. Will it be the downfall of the Republic. No, not of itself. The Plutocracy is real and will fight to rule, but one bill doesn’t make it so.
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes: Or to quote bedouin wisdom:
joel hanes
@Mary G:
This is one of the tests we’ve been waiting for, one that can tell us the extent of herd immunity, which will allow rational decisions about easing or ending the lockdowns.
Another company, a multinat, also has an antibody test, and is offering it free to residents of Breckinridge because that’s where the husband-and-wife owners of the company live in winter.
A week from now, we’ll have a much better idea where we stand.
joel hanes
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
dday used to front-page at digby’s Hullaballoo, too.
There’s a reason that you don’t often see “What digby said” anymore, and he’s one of them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Probably better than the Romanian classic: Burn the crops, poison the wells, and run for the mountains.
Mary G
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): My general rule is that anyone screaming that something is all terrible and we’re doomed is that it’s coming from an actual Russian agent or useful idiot. Putin wants us to despair and throw our hands up. Don’t buy it.
joel hanes
@Adam L Silverman:
nor do they ever seem to hold Republicans accountable for what they do
Murc’s Law: only Democrats have agency
subtext: Republican intransigence is a force of nature, like gravity.
ETA: or what Darkrose said
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@joel hanes: didn’t he bring his reverse-Midas touch to the Washington Monthy blog too?
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes:
But only if we’re standing in Breckenridge.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m particularly fond of:
joel hanes
@Kelly:
Be careful to distinguish between infection tests, which look for the presence of the virus itself in someone who is sick, and antibody tests, which look for the presence of an immune response to the virus. The former is useful for answering the question “does this sick person have COVID-19 (the disease)”. The latter answer the question “has this person ever mounted an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus)” and thus will tell us if a person has had had COVID-19 and recovered. That second question is important, because it looks as if many people who are infected never get seriously ill, may have thought they had a cold, and are immune and don’t know it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: One really shouldn’t run with a knife.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: It’s the Democratic Establishment, man.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@joel hanes:
@Adam L Silverman:
@JaySinWA:
@Mary G
Thanks for that, guys. Makes sense. I read that article and I got this sudden feeling existential dread
Mary G
Not who I expected lead the rent strike, but OK. Now I want green corn tamales and that brown bread.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Dayen was part of the “Kill The Bill” crowd. He was more interested in killing private insurance than saving lives of the uninsured.
joel hanes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t remember him there.
Perhaps you’re misremembering Steve Benen, who now blogs at Maddow’s place? I thought he was pretty good, and he often cranked out four or so front-page pieces a day.
JaySinWA
@joel hanes: It isn’t clear to me if the second test shows that they have recovered or are in the process of fighting the infection. So kinda like the are you now or have ever been a commie test or the have you renounced the devil and all his ways test.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mary G:
A lot of small businesses are going to be in that boat too if they aren’t already
joel hanes
@Adam L Silverman:
I kinda think that company intends to make a metric ton of quatloos by offering it elsewhere, too.
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes:
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: As long as it is sheathed, you’ll be fine.
Jay
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Congressman Clymer and those perfidious African American voters in South Carolina are behind everything…//
Honestly, the shitbird left is on my last nerve.
The Thin Black Duke
@joel hanes: That’s true, unfortunately. Digby fell victim to Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and it appears to be incurable.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
That would be the same Amash who voted Present on the Families First emergency bill less than two weeks ago.
363-40-1. He was the 1.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Out of curiosity, Adam, you don’t happen to recognize the Avatar that YouTube channel is using do you?
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: And cheesecake!
I will make one tomorrow. Sweetened only with agave. The last one came out AMAZING!!! I even made a sweetened only with agave chocolate syrup, which I whipped into the cheesecake batter for a sweetened only with agave chocolate cheesecake.
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes: I was being a smartass. I expect they will do exactly as you say.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
How’s life in Wisconsin? Any cases nearby?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I am aware. He is who he is. In this case he is right.
JaySinWA
@NotMax: In the end there can only be one.
Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Nope. I do not. I was just looking for that clip. I really don’t care who posted it.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
If that’s the thing in Colorado, good segment on Maddow today about that and what the data can reveal. Free antibody testing to be instituted for every resident of the county (about 6000 in all), and repeated 14 days later.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Do you ship to California?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Will await seeing how he actually votes.
joel hanes
@Adam L Silverman:
I was being a smartass.
I’ve grown accustomed to your nym, and would expect nothing less. Conversely, I’m an engineer, and tend to give excruciatingly straight answers to wry, rhetorical, or joking questions. Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Adam L Silverman
@joel hanes: Just wanted to make sure.
Anne Laurie
He checked in near the top of my ‘Podcasts for Aural Learners’ post, around 3:45pm today.
Suspect the new all-virtual office regime at his job is keeping him busy!
Mary G
These updates from the Chief of Surgery at Columbia are a good insight into New York hospital life:
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Unfortunately I don’t think now is a good time to be shipping perishable food stuffs across the country.
I am amenable to posting the recipe tomorrow night so you can make your own, though it is the same recipe I’ve posted here in the past.
Anne Laurie
Not a big Royals watcher, but I get the impression he’s more than prepared for the crown to go straight from his mother to his son.
After what he went through with the whole Diana deification scenario, and again when he wanted to quietly marry the woman he’s been in love with forever… not to mention how well the paparazzi have treated Megan Markle! — I doubt the man has any illusions about being welcomed to the throne.
Also, y’know, he probably does have generally positive feelings about his mum, considering.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: I got there 10 years ago with the “Kill the Bill” crowd.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They’ve been on my last nerve for a while.
Jay
Anne Laurie
Who is — no lie! — currently self-quarantining after coronavirus exposure.
Just for that added, signature, Murphy-the-Trickster-God fillip.
Anne Laurie
Sanders couldn’t resist an excuse to wag his finger at the cameras from the Senate floor.
Which, meh — except that some of his less clueful supporters are now demanding So why wasn’t Biden down there, too?
Anne Laurie
So say we all!
In Hyundai’s defense, IIRC, the company has already paid for the commercial time block, and they have to run something. if they didn’t update their ads, it would look like they weren’t paying attention, which is even worse.
As it is, so many companies are not advertising around here, there were repeated instances during the local news when the same ads ran twice in the same interval… and nine or ten times during the same half-hour.
Ruckus
@Zelma:
Easier answer.
Does implementing the DPA require the president to do anything? Because if it does he won’t do it, and I’m basing this on the fact that he has to be in charge, even when he doesn’t have a fucking clue. His disease does not allow him to give anything to anyone. And this is a law that only he can do. So he gets to make people suffer, people who might not like him. And yes not doing this makes people not like him but his tiny, shitty little brain doesn’t work past me, Me, ME, Fucking MEEEEEEEE!
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
Is it BECAUSE the are the champions of it?
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Probably not.
It’s BS. These purity progressives see both the Democrats and Republicans as servants of the plutocrat elite so, by definition no oversight could ever be effective.
Darkrose
@Anne Laurie: His more whacked-out supporters are busy accusing Biden of rape.
TS (the original)
@Jay:
I watched that – what an a.hole – and she spoke to truth. People are dying because of this guy’s attitude.
Barbara
@joel hanes: Booman (Martin Longman) and Dante Atkins are why I stopped reading Washington Monthly. Too many fact free screeds. I go back occasionally to read Nancy Le Tourneau.
Logan Brown
@Bill Arnold: Actually it’s the Democrats who have the most to lose as they run around screaming that everyone is getting money. If I’m a swing voter and you are beating your chest that I have a payment coming and the result is I got nothing, why would I trust you any more than that other lying scumming sunofa on the other side?
This is how you lose.
Bill Arnold
@Logan Brown:
Because this plays out in the media and on social media. The screw-ordinary-people language is always written by Republicans. If it gets through as a compromise, it’s still owned by the Republicans. And their narrative machine is getting really really creaky. The “COVID-19 is no big deal” narrative they were pushing for 2 months is a case in point. It will kill a lot of people and epidemiologists will line up for time on TV to explain exactly how.
These are not ordinary times, is what I am saying. There is a lot of chaos and there are many opportunities to be seized and changes to be baked in. For good and ill.
J R in WV
@Mary G:
They are nimble and can run away run away!! from the Trump Plague fast~!!~
Now they’re scared… should have been scared two months ago!
J R in WV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, no, he’s still in Vermont, hiding from the Trump Plague. One of the 4 no vote recorded folks. 96-0, he was one of the 0s… I don’t know this for a fact, but I would bet a large amount on Bernie still being in his VT hideaway.
J R in WV
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I’ve been wrong before, won’t stop me from opinionating, tho!
ETA: Glad I didn’t actually bet any money on that…