It’s omnishambles time in Florida, and it’s no coincidence that Republicans hold every statewide office except ag commissioner. The state’s department of agriculture is probably functioning properly. I don’t know. But Governor DeSantis has made a complete fucking hash of his job during the pandemic. He issued the “stay-at-home” order way too late (it went into effect at midnight). And he undermined more stringent local ordinances to accommodate the crackpot prosperity gospel grifters who want to gather on Sundays to fleece the rubes while they breathe on each other.
Testing has been ramped up, but so far only about .036% of the 22M population has been tested, and most of the testing has been done in metro areas. Every single county has at least one case, but as recently as last week, DeSantis was telling people a statewide stay-at-home order wasn’t necessary because the virus hadn’t spread to “every corner of the state.” As of today, we’ve got more than 9,000 confirmed cases, and experts say the “peak” won’t happen here for another month.
Meanwhile, the bottom has fallen out of Florida’s tourism-dependent and service-heavy economy. As hundreds of thousands flocked to file for unemployment benefits online, the state’s website crashed. Hard. It was deliberate sabotage; during his tenure, former Gov. Scott directed crooks to design that site to keep people from getting the princely sum of $275 a week in unemployment benefits to make Scott’s economic numbers look good. Auditors warned Scott about it, and they warned DeSantis too. Neither lifted a finger.
The director of the department overseeing the unemployment benefits fiasco, who has been on the job since DeSantis appointed him in 2018, apologized and said printed forms are on the way…eventually. He should be fired — not just from his job but also from a space cannon into the sun. Not only can untold numbers of suddenly unemployed people NOT get access to Florida’s stingy unemployment benefits, they can’t get access to the money the feds sent to augment it because that goes through the states.
To sum up, a tidal wave of pestilence is rushing toward the state because the stupid governor followed Trump’s idiotic lead, ignoring the virus until it was way too late to control the spread. And the economy is not only a smoking crater for the foreseeable future, hundreds of thousands or possibly millions can’t access the benefits they’ve EARNED to get them through this time.
The only upside of this horrific situation? If Trump loses Florida in 2020, it doesn’t matter if he hangs onto the Rust Belt. I’m not in the presidential race prediction business any more, but just as a citizen looking around? I think Trump loses this state, and with it the presidency. Sorry about all the dead people and ruined lives, Florida, but the Republican experiment in small government by greedy crooks had to be carried out to its logical extreme, and here we are. Let’s do better next time.
Elizabelle
Florida. Brownback’s Kansas, with seashores and palmetto bugs.
BR
If anyone in Florida knows researchers or scientists or doctors, please ask them to get some genetic samples of the virus sequenced and put into this project:
https://nextstrain.org/ncov
https://twitter.com/trvrb
some guy
I have spent @10 hours attempting to apply for UI. Feh. Tried using Chrome, Mozilla, and IE, but it just keeps looping. Fuckers
Jinchi
Sounds like an echo of the praise West Virginia got for being “the only state without a case of coronavirus”. At the time they had tested a few dozen people total.
some guy
Found out last night my best pal from college is taking care of his daughter because his wife has contacted covid19. They are in NYC, and I feel so sad for them all. He told me he feels bad I am in Florida
trollhattan
Locally, the county has decided name-and-shame was required and ID’d the church whose members comprise a third of total reported cases, 71 so far with one death. While they claim to have halted services they also remain steadfast in their desire to have small meetings in order to continue their mission to get moose and squirrel.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Well the Republicans wanted to drowned competent government that actually got things done and helped it’s citizens in a bathtub. And they succeeded so here we are. They own this. And IF (please Flying Spaghetti Monster) the DEM wins the presidency in November, we get to see another round of ” Why haven’t you fixed everything we broke already???!!!??” Also another round of ” Dems should reach across the aisle and we should have bipartisanship” Yeah, NO screw that I do not want to work with people who never compromised on anything. Yes things like The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) got past due to bipartisanship but many of the people who were willing to actually work together to pass bills that helped people are not in Congress anymore. ANd the voters are just as bad as the reps in some cases. All those programs they love (SS, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP/SCHIP, unemployement insurance, the ACA. Where the hell do they think those came from? I am so damned tired of this.
SFAW
You libtards make me sick. Every non-“real American” will/would JUMP at the chance to sit home, “earning” the equivalent of [checks calculator] ALMOST SEVEN DOLLARS PER HOUR, instead of being a productive member of society, earning … well, never you mind about how much they’d be making, just trust me, they want a “free ride.”
Somewhere, Brian Kemp, Scott Walker, Kris Kobach, and Katharine Harris are saying “Hold my/our beer.”
trollhattan
Heard on the radio this a.m. Iowa is one of the remaining states proudly not stomping on people’s freedoms so no statewide mandates for them, nosir. Unlike other states, localities are constitutionally unable to make any such decrees so the responsibility completely lies with the governor.
You folks might consider that when her term is up. And while you’re at it, time for Grassley to go home and mow the lawn.
p.a.
I hope you’re not giving your fellow Floridians too much credit. Look for a rethug: it was the (((New Yorkers’))) fault defence.
Baud
Sounds pretty bad. But at least for the foreseeable future you’re safe from trans kids using the wrong bathroom.
MattF
The ‘good’ news is that the rally-round-the-flag bump upwards appears to be gone.
p.a.
@trollhattan:
fixt.
e julius drivingstorm
@trollhattan:
My nomination for the all-time winner of the internets.
Betty Cracker
AP article entitled: In time of crisis, Trump-Pelosi relationship remains broken. Excerpts:
Boo-fucking-hoo. Pelosi is a grownup, and she won’t sit around and pout because she has to deal with a rancid haggis to help Americans in the crisis, but not Trump. And yet the article low-key portrays the broken relationship as if both parties were equally to blame if that happens. It’s bullshit.
different-church-lady
Florida is one of the reasons I’m so relieved Sanders will not be the nominee, as there was zero chance for him there.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. It’s just this mysterious situation that came out of nowhere.
Isua
Since you mention the ag commissioner – according to Slate, she’s kicking ass and feeding kids and being sent to voicemail by the governor’s office. Here’s an interview with her. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/nikki-fried-ron-desantis-florida-coronavirus.html
Elizabelle
It’s Cuomo O’Clock. Press conference happening now.
Betty Cracker
@p.a.: I’m not sure how well blaming it on out-of-staters will work in an electorate where only a third of the citizens are native-born Floridians, but we shall see, I suppose.
Soprano2
I’ve been telling everyone who will listen that if they think what’s happening in New York is bad, wait until it fully hits Florida. Not only do they have a large part of their population in the highest-risk groups, they have a completely incompetent government too. A perfect shitstorm, if you will. My sister-in-law’s parents live in Florida, poor them. Of course, I live in Missouri, a state whose governor still won’t issue a statewide order because he’s afraid of pissing off the rubes in the rural counties. I believe many of them are still convinced that this is a disease of the “big bad cities”, and that they won’t be affected.
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: This is true, though if things get as bad as expected, perhaps even Fidel’s ghost could win here.
Baud
I’ll be honest, I’m a little surprised only because I had heard DeSantis has been doing liberal things like recognizing climate change is real.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
I’m still somewhat mystified how Iowa went from a state which typically voted for a Dem President (from 1988 forward), to one which appears to be a den of RWMFs. I expect there’s a semi-reasonable explanation. [“Reasonable” in the sense of “doesn’t rely on nutso assumptions.”]
gkoutnik
GOTV has consequences. Governors in FL and GA, presiding over fatal clustershitshows, elected by razor think margins in 2018. Imagine if…
For that matter, imagine if Hillary were President.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I heard he did a good job improving literacy.
EthylEster
I just found out that my d-bag R BIL is still going out to play golf at the Orlando Country Club.
The one who now thinks Trump is crazy but still claims he will vote for him.
Unbelievable.
Jerzy Russian
It is surprisingly difficult to fire someone directly into the Sun:
NASA.gov
However, as President Kennedy said, “we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Perhaps the next president can inspire the country to send people to the Sun by the end of the decade (pronounced DEE-cade). “Returning him safely” won’t be needed.
Baud
@SFAW:
Iowa voted for Obama twice. Hillary was just a woman too far for that white working class state.
TS (the original)
@Betty Cracker:
Nancy Pelosi told him the truth – she called him on his lies, she understands the role of the President much more than trump could ever understand and she didn’t tell him he was dog’s gift to the USA.That is why trump refuses to talk to her.
I hope she continues to humiliate him in every possible way & highlight his abject failure in all he does.
catclub
right on. No, tell them how you really feel.
Betty Cracker is a Crackerjack writer. With a bit of Mencken acid.
Mnemosyne
I’m sorry to have to tell you that the Giant Evil announced yesterday that they will have to start putting employees on unpaid furlough in the middle of April, so you have that shitstorm approaching as well. The good part is, they will pay for all furloughed employees’ health insurance in full (both the employer and employee parts), which is pretty fucking important in a global pandemic.
e julius drivingstorm
@Baud:
DeSantis can always take credit for doing his part to curtail sea-level rise by his inept handling of coronaviris. After all, we have the world’s conservative leaders to thank for our drastically reduced carbon footprint.
Bnad
@MattF: I’ll believe it when I see it on fivethirtyeight. Right now every outlier poll that looks bad for Trump is sparking a tweet or news story about how the bump is over.
Brachiator
@Jinchi:
Sometimes you wonder how some government officials can be so stupid.
WereBear
I feel bad for everyone in Florida, and every other state whose Governor doesn’t get it.
But especially Florida. They combine high elderly population with massive international tourism topped with perhaps the worst labor environment in the US.
It IS a perfect storm.
Mnemosyne
@gkoutnik:
It’s not just GOTV. Remember when a room full of mail-in ballots just happened to be found the day after the deadline, so they had to be discarded without being counted?
It’s not a coincidence that Republicans run Florida. It was deliberate and knowing sabotage.
Ocotillo
Mrs. O brought up something yesterday that I had not thought about in regards to these evangelical churches that insist on holding service in person rather than virtually and that was why not sue them? I told her I liked her thoughts on that but I would not be surprised if there is some sort of legal barrier put in place to protect churches from lawsuits. She countered with the Catholic church was sued in regards to the priest abuse scandals so maybe someone who has damages from attending such a service can step up and go get the money. After all, they gots the money.
Baud
@Brachiator: They represent their voters?
catclub
actually, that kind of runs both ways. Whoever was in power in 2008 wa s thrown out, liberal or conservative, in virtually all countries. (putin excepted, somehow)
It is likely that anyone in power now, who will have to face elections soon, will get thrown out. It will not matter liberal or conservative, just throw out the Jonahs. (jonah was unlucky to have on a ship).
So if Hillary were president now, she would be the one thrown out in november – by this reasoning. Just imagine someone like Trump coming IN after a year like this!
pamelabrown53
@Mnemosyne:
By the “Giant Evil” are you referring to Disney World?!
Does anyone know the projections for how bad Florida will be hit by next month?
SFAW
@Brachiator:
Really? I find that having an “R” after their name is a pretty reliable indicator. Same goes for the “corrupt,” “evil,” “un-American,” and “asshole.”
Brachiator
OT. Singer-songwriter Bill Withers has passed away, age 81, apparently of heart problems.
The CBS news radio station reporting Withers’ passing was playing “Just The Two of Us,” as part of the story. The announcer said, “Let’s hear a little more of that,” and played the song out to end the news segment. A sweet gesture.
Ksmiami
@EthylEster: ask him what color coffin he wants.
trollhattan
@SFAW:
Right there with you. If Des Moines and other purported “cities” are blue, if three US Reps are Dems, plus Steve King, why are statewide offices Republican?
Capri
So sorry for those who live in Florida. Like others, I believe that at the end of the day it will the hardest hit area on the entire globe.
Ksmiami
@pamelabrown53: my personal projection having lived there is at least 100k dead in 3 months
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It’s a puzzlement. I’ve heard DeSantis hates Rick Scott’s guts (a very large club), so some of that can be attributed to rolling back Scott policies on climate change and education. Weirdly, both Scott AND DeSantis seemed to push back when Trump was downplaying of the danger early on, then DeSantis reversed course. I’m sure there’s a story there, but I don’t know what it is.
catclub
Does that mean, since they are paying health insurance, that you cannot get unemployment insurance? I have heard of companies encouraging fired workers to quit – so they don’t have to pay UI benefits.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: This is how it is now: I was relieved to hear he didn’t die from COVID-19.
MattF
@Bnad: It’s certainly not persuasive, given that one meaning of ‘random’ is ‘shows every possible pattern of variation’, but I’d bet on it.
SFAW
@catclub:
Your assumption appears to be that Hillary would have handled this whole thing the same way the Murderer-in-Chief has “handled” things. [Yes, I realize that Moscow Mitch would do his damnedest to fuck her over. That’s relatively immaterial, in this instance.] The competence with which she (probably) would have handled this, and the (likely) curve-flattening, and resultant reduction in preventable deaths, and the reduction in the economic impact, would probably have left her in good standing for November.
A similar argument was made re: 9/11: a President Gore would not have made the same mistakes early in his Presidency that Bush did (which in some part helped push Bin Laden toward 9/11) , nor ignored the “Bin Laden determined to strike within US” memo, and so forth.
rattlemullet
Betty Cracker, You’re the best at nailing these nimrods against the wall. This is and has been nothing short of criminal malfeasance by tRump and and republican conservative ilk since he squatted in the Oval Office. I am fully convinced that they should all perish from the face of the earth. I wish no well being to any of them and that they die painful deaths and since they think they’re Christians then may they burn in hell for eternity. Their complete lack of foresight is demonstrably clear and can only see the money. They better start figuring out how they are going to feed an unemployed state and nation as the food lines will be long and ugly. Americans of today have never been asked to sacrifice, not since WWII we will soon learn if we can do so as a nation. Sadly the hollowing out of the federal government has left the US without a government that knows how to function. Remember he alone can only solve everything. Thats where we stand today broken and beaten down by an imbecile.
catclub
India may like a word. Also, many parts of Africa. The rich north (and Florida, though southern US is still part of that) at least has money.
Eunicecycle
@Brachiator: in contrast, I believe Ohio’s governor shut the schools down before the first case was detected. Then gradually shut down everything else. I think it was accepted a little better because it was gradual. At first the schools were only closed for 3 weeks, which was extended until the end of April. For being a red state, I feel it has been accepted pretty well.
Brachiator
It’s sad. Trump once talked about putting New York under quarantine. Has anyone tried to track college students who were in Florida on Spring Break who left the state? Or Florida tourists and other visitors who left the state or the country?
different-church-lady
@Jinchi: I say, this man might be utterly unclear on the purpose of barn doors.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
Gerrymandering?
[Kidding. I know how that works, etc.]
Baud
@SFAW:
A lot of people had a lot of difficulty with rational thought when it came to Hillary.
J.
The spouse and I became Florida residents last year, leaving our Blue State, and look forward to voting Trump’s ass out of office in November — Pence’s, too.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That’s very odd. I hope the story comes out, whatever it is. Maybe it’s as simple as someone convinced DeSantis that Trump would lose Florida if he acted responsibly.
SFAW
@Baud:
Yeah, I know. Misogynists gonna misogy- um, whatever the verb is. But her COVID-response performance would not have been the problem that it should be for the Murderer-in-Chief.
And, as a general comment: I have sometimes ruminated on whether “Murderer-in-Chief” is maybe too over-the-top. But when he makes it clear that he’s going to deny PPE (etc.) to Blue states, because they won’t kiss his ass, the it moves the needle (in my opinion) from “negligent homicide” to “premeditated.”
realbtl
Brings a whole new meaning to the R mantra of the states as the laboratories of democracy.
Mandalay
Some little person is having the temerity to ask DeSantis to do some splainin’:
The lawyers for DeSantis have an interesting argument: you can only depose the FL Governor in “extraordinary circumstances”, but since these are “extraordinary circumstances” the FL Governor is way too busy, so piss off.
Matt McIrvin
@MattF: Rasmussen? Their numbers are notoriously bad and often show up to pump Trump in a crisis. They probably just made a decision to start cutting him loose, which is interesting in itself.
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
Grassley
Sen. Grassley, Sen. Ernst, and Rep. Steve King absolutely deserve to be chucked out, but the proximate cause of Iowa’s recalcitrant refusal to lock down is the ideological rigidity of Governor Reynolds and the entire Iowa Republican Party that supports her.
AnonPhenom
Assuming we have a national election, of course.
What happens if all the Republican Governors decide, with furrowed brow deep in thoughts and prayers, that out of respect of all our dearly departed fellow Americans that “now is not the time…”
Do the Democratic Governors go ahead anyway?
Baud
@AnonPhenom:
Yes.
Gremcat
@Baud: Also while the outcome, with Hillary as president, would be many times better than what we will see, that is only in comparison to the POS. If Hillary had won, no one could have even imagined what a shit show Dump is.
MoCA Ace
How about pounding about ten pounds of corona virus infected steel up his ass and using a green energy powered rail gun? you know, to save on greenhouse gasses.
I’m no physicist but I think you need to insert the steel so the electromagnets have something to grab onto… better do it just to be safe.
WaterGirl
Probably a better fit for the morning thread, but it’s nearly dead and I don’t want to wait until the Monday morning thread.
I heard back from Kay today!
Heywood J.
DeSantis and Kemp are a real matched pair of assholes there. Kemp looks like he was born in a set of Junior Samples’ worn-out overalls. Ah shore din’t know, I say, I din’t know y’all could get sick thru tha ayr! How the fuck does someone that stupid get to be dog-catcher, much less governor of the state that has the, um, national Center for Disease Control?
DeSantis, on the other hand, always has that slightly bemused look of some slapdick rube who suspects he may have inadvertently impregnated a farm animal, and intends to get the money to make restitution by heading to the Piggly Wiggly and pulling a sixty-pound bag of dog food on himself.
Either way, they really showed us, I guess.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Glad she’s safe. Thanks for reaching out.
EthylEster
@Ksmiami: I don’t talk to the guy anymore. I’m worried about my sister getting infected.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
well, all this ‘it’s the fault of new yorkers who come down here to florida’ is true at least with regard to one person, namely, donald fucking trump.
Mandalay
You may be right, but I’m not so sure about that.
One of my kids is stuck in India right now, and she may be there for months, since nobody can leave the country. She can’t even leave her hotel. She says that cops are patrolling constantly, and beating people on the streets.
Tough love I guess.
Mary G
Eolirin
I saw some climate modeling that suggests this may be a really bad hurricane season too, so there’s that. :(
Baud
@Gremcat:
Yep. No doubt we would have taken her for granted.
trollhattan
@joel hanes:
It’s so weird to watch Iowa embrace The Other Missouri as state slogan.
Citizen Alan
@gkoutnik: Correct me if I’m wrong (and I might well be), but wasn’t Andrew Gillum, the Florida Dem who won the primary by 3 points in a 7-way race and then lost narrowly to DeSantis, the preferred candidate of Bernie Fucking Sanders? Because it would be totally in keeping with my views on Bernie’s own version of “Shit Midas” if his candidate (who has since gotten mired in a meth scandal) cost us a close race that could have been won by Bill Graham’s daughter Gwen.
louc
@p.a.: Yup. My RWNJ cousins living in Fla, who post Soros is evil memes all the time, are already on it.
Ohio Mom
(Waving) Hi Kay!
Mandalay
@Baud:
That’s because the folks who write him checks have ten million dollar beachfront homes in Florida. They’re not exactly enlightened, but they definitely know what is in their own interests.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: good to hear
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
Bernie endorsed Gillium in the primary.
Mike G
As long as the Social Security checks keep coming, Florida geriatrics don’t care. Most of them enjoy performative cruelty against “welfare moochers”, with no irony at all.
If you voted Republican, this is what you voted for. The leopards are chowing down.
CaseyL
@Baud: “We” might not have taken a President Hillary for granted, but for sure the MSM would.
While Hillary’s response would have been galaxies – nay, universes – better, it would not have been perfect. And because it would not have been perfect, both the GOP and the MSM would have been hammering at her every day for slights perceived and real.
T*’s election, and the GOP lining up like dashboard doggies behind him, have had one and only one benefit: Making it obvious to all but the brain-dead just how corrupt and vile they are; how every accusation is a confession; and how they have at their centers a complete moral vacuum. As individuals. As a Party. As a political phenomenon.
Citizen Alan
@SFAW: I have often opined that if Gore had become President, 9/11 would have been averted. At which point, the Republicans would have openly mocked the idea that anyone could possibly have succeeded in a crazy scheme to hijack airliners and fly them into buildings. They would have claimed that the whole “9/11 hoax” was just Gore’s effort to “wag the dog” and distract from their effort to impeach him over that one time he called a Chinese American donor and used the wrong phone.
Mary G
@catclub: CNN Business has an article about Disney furloughs:
Cameron
I moved to FL from Philadelphia a few years ago, and have been wondering if I made a bad decision. A buddy who lives in Center City Philly called me this morning and indicated it’s hitting the fan in his area. I guess I’m better off down here in a 55+ development where everybody seems to have gotten on board the social-distancing train. Buddy says there are cops all over Center City, trying to enforce…something, but I’ve seen a lot of sheriff’s deputies around here, too, so maybe more vigilant policing is trending nationally now.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: Just a guess but I would say that someone from Shytegibbon L’orange’s camp got on the horn and told DeSantis to fall in line or get primaried without backing. Until Trump parachuted into the Repub primary, Adam Putnam was slated to be the next governor. The closeness of the general election I think was a combo of Dem GOTV and Putnam backers staying out or in some cases voting for Gillum
pamelabrown53
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, WaterGirl,
Kay, really, really miss your intelligent comments.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Citizen Alan: I forget which never-trumper the other day dismissed the pre-9/11 warnings to Bush– when Richard Clarke’s hair was on fire and the CIA (or somebody) sent a briefer down to the Lazy Potemkin ranch to reiterate the warnings in the 8/15/01 PDB and was told with a smirk, “okay, you’ve covered your ass”– as “one line in a daily brief”
MoCA Ace
@Heywood J.:
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Please! I’m trying to ration my bleach for corona virus disinfectant.
MattF
@WaterGirl: Glad to hear that Kay’s doing well.
Suzanne
My “father” aka “Biodad” aka “sperm donor” aka “deadbeat” lives in a country club in Florida. He tried to friend me on Facebook. I looked at his page. He is exceedingly Trumpy, and not even in a clever or funny way. His page was full of little bon mots such as, “Hillary sucks, but not like Monica!”. HILARIOUS. Anyway, he’s apparently over 80. I wonder if he is social distancing.
L85NJGT
@Mnemosyne:
I saw China has back tracked on re-opening cinemas, and the big cash flow generators are closed for the duration. OTOH hand they are still buying land around the central Florida campus. So….
MCA1
@trollhattan: These states bordering mine (IA and MO) that refuse to act like fucking grown ass adults are really ticking me off. Because they’re the ones prolonging this crappy halfway lifestyle for the rest of us. They’re gonna get sick later and then start showing up in Chicago this summer and we get to do this all over again. Selfish fuckers.
I saw a perfect tweet encapsulating this today. Paraphrasing: these states not implementing stay at home is like having a “peeing allowed” section in a swimming pool.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
Glad to hear Kay’s OK. I don’t know if she still checks in here (to read), I’m guessing not, but in any event please tell her I miss her.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Speaking of Florida, and good for Stephanie Ruhle
Is there anybody who lived down to his trupmian nickname like Little Marco? What fucking weasel.
Xenos
@Baud: Hillary could have done a flawless job of leadership through this crisis, and would still be blamed, quite bitterly, for every death and tragedy.
The howling in the media would be endless, to the point that she would be voted out by a public desperate to make it all stop.
Van Buren
@SFAW: They looked north to Minnesota, and south to Kansas, and decided Kansas looked a lot better. Some people prefer Cheetos to cheeseburgers.
zhena gogolia
Come back, Kay!
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan:
Counterfactual history is a very sad pastime these days.
I agree with those who say that even if Hillary had kept US deaths to under 100, she would have been pilloried.
MattF
@Xenos: I agree. Of course, Hillary would do an excellent job, but that wouldn’t matter.
mrmoshpotato
And now the shitbag is a US Senator! Wheeeeee!!!!
A Ghost to Most
Floriduh is the perfect shit storm. While my aversion to the state would normally turn my attention elsewhere, my 85 yo Trumpist stepmother lives alone in Ruskin, probably hitting the Eagles club daily, if private clubs are still open. Some people can’t take a hint.
mrmoshpotato
Does the Space Farce have any of these space cannons?
Betty Cracker
@Citizen Alan: It’s true that Sanders backed Gillum in 2018, but Gillum isn’t/wasn’t a Bernie acolyte. He was a Clinton campaign co-chair or something like that in 2016.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
republicans are involved, when isn’t it bullshit?
My rep when I was in the navy was a republican. And not just any republican, a member of the John Burch Society. CA was a pretty republican state 50 yrs ago. But he understood politics and he’d do what he could do if you needed assistance from the federal government, which was to make sure they did their job. Mom prefaced my meeting him by saying “He’s a republican but he does his job.” Tell me that republicans haven’t been the obstruction to good government at least my whole life.
Shalimar
@Brachiator: There was a graphic last week that showed cell phone usage on an area of I think Palm Beach weeks ago and then showed those same cell phone numbers disbursing back to their local areas. Heavy concentrations to the midwest and northeast.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Soprano2: Ah yes, the “clean, moral, godly, rural living” will save them…not unless they literally live in a bubble
Shalimar
@Ruckus: That story actually sounds like your mom knew that guy was an exception for Republicans, even then.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: Yay! Glad she’s doing o’kay (ha).
Kay, if you’re lurking and read this – we miss you! :)
trollhattan
@Xenos:
We could have had ebola galloping through the States during Obama’s administration and I can’t begin to imagine the response that would have harvested. Crisis averted has a news halflife of days, at the most. Remember the freakout when active cases were being treated here? Certain folks probably wanted those hospitals catapulted into the sea.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus:
Constituent services. I think every article I’ve read on how Susan Collins survives mentions that– phone calls to her office get returned.
Immanentize
@Baud: But, the Dems would likely have lost a lot of ground in both the house and Senate in 2018 leading to the likely impeachment of Clinton for mmmumph a bumphim.
Shalimar
@zhena gogolia: Wasn’t it 2 deaths Obama was pilloried for in the Ebola crisis? 2 is bad for a Democrat. 200,000 is good for a Republican.
germy
Bragging rights…
Brachiator
@Shalimar:
Wow. This information may be useful. We will see what happens.
Maybe a lot of college students who subsequently went on lock down at home and elsewhere.
Ksmiami
@EthylEster: could she quarantine him in another area of the house?
BCHS Class of 1980
@J.: Put in for your mail ballots yet?
BTW I was curious about how the local megachurch was handing the “get into service free” card handed them by our idiot governor. Not a fan at all, but actually pretty well; check out the Pastor’s Blog:
https://www.idlewild.org/
Maybe that comes from being a very Trumpy church in a county that really isn’t any more. I’m sure that if they were building that church nowadays, it would be in Pasco.
MCA1
@Van Buren: 2 reasons why Iowa went from moderately progressive place, where people realized functional government (esp. one that cared about agriculture) was their friend, to Unbearable Whiteness of Being, MAGAville.
1. Brain drain. Just as in other midwestern, formerly nice polite Democratic leaning states with no urban centers like South Dakota and Nebraska, the well-educated, not afraid of the world outside the reach of their own shadow, Iowans moved away to Minneapolis and Chicago and Denver (or further). There were always embittered, resentful folks who found it easier to wallow in their anger at the rest of us than joining the modern economy in places like this, but there are more now than there were 20 or 30 years ago.
2. Fox News. Reinforces #1.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: yay!
Frances Perkins
It doesn’t matter how Floridians vote. The legislature can nullify the vote and send a Republican to the electoral college.
jl
I like to be positive. So, I’ll focus on two hero states: CT and AL.
CT has been very aggressive and looks like it’s good work is preventing the epidemic from being one huge mess from Boston all the way down to Philadelphia.
AL is more ambiguous. From their history, a very competent and aggressive public health department, but odd herky jerky approach. Maybe problems with political leadership? They probably will get hurt badly because they live in a ‘bad public health neighborhood’, but their efforts may put some kind of barrier between MS and GA (which is a mess).
Key to success is keeping outbreaks and local epidemics separate as possible so can be knocked down one by one. We do this with other diseases with similar transition dynamics as covid-19: TB, bacterial meningitis, others. We can do this, or at least for those lucky enough to live in states that have done a good job.
Immanentize
Kay, Paul Young captures my feelings perfectly:Why don’t you come back? Please hurry.
I think the water here has cleared out a bit. Not quite entirely, but politics, complete with troll visits, is back on the menu!
sdhays
@Citizen Alan: I don’t think it makes sense to blame Bernie for that. Democrats have been losing what should be winnable races in Florida for a long time. Bill Nelson lost too, and I remember reading during the campaign that his campaign was not taking the election as seriously as it should have. If anything, Gillum was carrying him, not the other way around (as it really should have been with a long-term fairly popular Senator). If the Nelson campaign hadn’t been such a fuck up, that might have saved both his seat and Gillum.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
A hundred? That’s [checks notes] twenty-five Benghazis. Trey Gowdy and his hair would come out of retirement.
Nicole
Betty, I’m another NYCer, in the heart of it right now, who feels TERRIBLE for you and the other excellent Floridians I know. I’m so sorry. As an NYCer, I think Cuomo is a jackass, but he’s the capable, lifelong bureaucrat jackass we need right now and I’m grateful every day that he’s NY’s governor during this crisis, because, as bad as it will get, I genuinely believe he wants what’s best for the citizens of the state. But I’m hopeful with you that this will mean Florida rejecting Trump in November, and also some other GOP candidates for lesser offices there, too.
sdhays
@Citizen Alan: I think about this a lot too. I don’t know if Gore would have been able to prevent 9/11, but I think the chances are better than 50/50. Because he would have TRIED.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Of course you are being sarcastic….. But I’m not. I’ve dealt with the public. One on one they can be reasonable, in a group, that is a lot rarer. And as a group, republicans have been building to unreasonable for ever. They think that government is the entire problem towards everyone being rich. All the government meddling and giving away money is what has held back the country. They have little to no idea how anything works and don’t want to know. I think that’s why they like trump, he knows nothing and he’s supposed to be a billionaire. Well trump does know something, he knows how to lie. Of course he’s not all that good at it, he gets caught all the time.
Litlebritdifrnt
There is a story coming out in dribs and drabs and no one seems to be connecting the dots. Early on in the crisis (when the shitgibbon was calling it a hoax) the US shipped a bunch of medical PPE and equipment to China. China then sent the same type of equipment to Russia. Russia has now “sold” the equipment etc., to the US. Did the US Government just buy back its own equipment in order to line Putin’s pockets?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan:
Remember when Chris Christie tried to make that nurse live in a tent? Rs were loons on epidemics then too.
BCHS Class of 1980
@Citizen Alan: My utterly-unbacked belief is that Gillum could have won had he done what DeSantis did and selected a Cuban as a running mate. I hope we’re over the Tim Kaine/Chris King thing of “milquetoast white guy to balance the ticket.” If a voter is not willing to vote for you because of lack of pallor or lack of danglies, adding one to the ticket will not help. Hell’ even a Gwen Graham unity ticket probably would’ve done it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@trollhattan:
And that after years of Missouri Republicans trying to out-Kansas Kansas.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sdhays: Gillum was hella charismatic and it was IIRC a three-way race between him, Graham and a bag of money with human form and ambition. And people across the political spectrum say Nelson and FL Dems in general are remarkably incompetent at reaching out to non-Cuban Hispanics, especially newly arrived Puerto Ricans. Scott made (again IIRC) half a dozen trip so Puerto Rico in the wake of Maria.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Nicole: anybody else hear Cuomo on the radio and think, just for a second, that they’ve broken into an interview with Christopher Walken?
Nicole
@WaterGirl: Thank you for the Kay update! Glad to hear she’s hanging in and helping people apply for help. Exactly what I would expect she’d be doing during something like this. :)
gene108
@SFAW:
You can’t prove “Trump would have been worse”, if Hillary were elected. Republicans and the MSM would have given her no room for error. One death would receive 1,000,000 times more negative coverage, than Trump has received in three years.
I feel the same, if Gore were President, on 9/11/01 and the WTC fell. Republicans would not have rallied around a Democratic President. They would demand his resignation, and the House would be voting on Articles of Impeachment, before the end of September.
The rules are different for Democrats.
Chyron HR
@Citizen Alan:
Oh, no, after Gillum lost Bernie retroactively denounced him as a liberal identity politician oppressing the noble white working class with his blackness.
SFBayAreaGal
I miss seeing Kay comments. Is there a reason why she’s not commenting?
Nicole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ha! Yeah, that Queens accent has a rhythm all its own, for sure. I initially said “musicality,” but I’m not sure I’d call it musical (even though Walken can certainly sing and dance).
I’m glad, too, that the Governor is from one of the outer boroughs, as I can rest assured that he’ll remember that NYC is more than just Manhattan.
scav
Republicans In Power?
R.I.P.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember seeing Walken on some talk show (Leno?) Where he said (memory version):. “The good thing about being Christopher Walken is that whenever any director wants a Christopher Walken character, they have to call me.”
James E Powell
That right there is what I recommend as the universal Democratic message for the year – with local names & details added for emphasis.
My previous recommended message “Hey white people! Everything they’re telling you is a lie!” never worked as well as I thought it should.
MoCA Ace
Don’t forget economic insecurity /////.
This goes a long way to explaining the lack of young progressive voters but here in Northern WI I have seen many middle aged and older folks turn to the Rethugs as well. Some in my own family :(
BCHS Class of 1980
@sdhays: And don’t forget Yet Another FL Supervisor of Elections who designed the ballot in Broward in their own style, leading to 30,000 non-votes in a race lost by about 12,000. Probably not enough to save Gillum, but I remember the word at that time being that Nelson didn’t have his heart in the race. If true, then he had no business in it.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
Have a pic of a Portland, OR hair salon’s sidewalk reader board saying “We take Walkens” lettered over a picture of Christopher.
Nettoyeur
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: After Herbert Hoover (a good man who listened too much to private capital) blew the response to the Great Depression, FDR and the Dems pretty much took over the govt in the 1932 elections. While the America Firsters did go on to hold up the response to fascism, the reality of WWII eventually won out. The GOP didn’t get back into the WH until they nominated the the moderate war hero Ike. The Corona Crisis is the Depression with WWII level casualties all at once. I hope the Dems get it together to burn the Trump GOP down to the ground and salt the earth so it doesn’t grow back for 100 years to never.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Ha! That is a hard haircut to duplicate
Ruckus
@SFAW:
The only reason I have a difficult time with trump and premeditated is that it’s trump, the most of the moment person ever. Planning? Prior thought? Seeing the big picture? He responds like pure evil and is always wrong but that is always a response, forethought requires the ability to actually think, even if it’s evil thought, not just react. trump is reactive not premeditated. He’s not smart enough to be premeditated, to form even irrational thought.
BCHS Class of 1980
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That was what I heard: that the Nelson campaign was way late to the game with literature in Spanish. WTAF?!? Honestly not having stuff in Haitian Creole for a statewide race here should be a fireable offense, but Spanish? Unfathomable. And yeah, actually visiting your constituents occasionally probably helps. The State Reptile is evil but scary smart.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
Eeeenteresting… I watched Cuomo’s briefing today and wondered why he took some time to mention he’d been talking with Pelosi and how capable he thinks she is. Heh. He’s doing what he has to for the state, sucking up to Trump, but the Queens boy is going to throw some Queens shade where he can. ;)
MoCA Ace
Had and aunt and uncle who lived in FL in sight of the Space Center on the Cape. I remember my namesake uncle liked to go fishing. When I was young he would regale my brother and I with stories of catching huge grouper and show us pictures of rays and shark that he caught. Is it wrong that I’m glad they passed years ago? I would hate to be worrying about them too.
Take care of yourself and the whole Cracker Clan… I always look forward to your “insightful” posts.
Origuy
@pamelabrown53: Since no one has replied to your question, Mnem works for Big Mouse in southern California in an office, not a theme park. I’m not sure of the exact capacity.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
There is more to it than that. I’ve known Republicans who have had their heads up their asses in terms of political ideology, but these people believed in science. But we have a crop of conservative politicians who do anything to hang onto their political power, and think (thanks to Fox) that they can bullshit their base without fear of repercussions. And sadly, their base often proves them right.
It’s strange. These dopes certainly know how to use the government to get bailouts, kickbacks, special credits and all kinds of goodies even as they bash the government for being wasteful and inefficient. And the worst of their base not only applaud this, they dream of being rich and powerful and able to sit at the table with the other grifters.
They believe in the government, all right. They just believe that the government exists to help the “right” people.
KrusherKing
A neighbor posted on the Nextdoor website that she and her husband went for a drive up to Tarpon Springs because they were going stir crazy. They got up to the sponge docks and she said restaurants were open, owners were waving people inside, and there was an empty Tarpon Springs PD cruiser parked on the street. Maybe he was telling the restaurants to close down. Maybe.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KrusherKing: the other night Rachel Maddow asked the mayor of LA if it was true he had ordered electricity shut off to non-essential businesses that weren’t complying. He didn’t deny it.
Fair Economist
@jl:
Yes, the Governor Kay Ivey has taken a slacker approach but other politicians in the state, including the Republican Lt. Governor and the statehouse Democrats, have pushed to actually fix things. Typically Ivey drags her heels and then gives in relatively quickly to the outcry. So on the whole a better job than their neighbors, reflected in their relatively less bad numbers. I wouldn’t call it a “hero” state, though.
Jinchi
Yup. They started blaming Obama for the economic collapse the day after he won the election in 2008.
TriassicSands
Or stupid Floridians could once again step up and help put Donald Trump back in the “dump” that is the White House. The thing about stupid people is they don’t learn and they keep making the same mistakes over and over and over.
Since both the most recent gubernatorial and US senate races were very close, maybe the Trump-DeSantis’ clown show will be enough to flip just enough not quite terminally stupid Floridians.
Hope springs eternal.
MRJ
@SFAW: I can’t tell if this is satire, or real comment. Just sayin’.
Nicole
@Brachiator:
I was listening to a podcast on Slate today discussing Christian Nationalism, which is basically the current form of the GOP- it’s not based in actual Christianity, what with its obsession over small government, but it does definitely eschew science. Took it decades to take over, but it managed it.
L85NJGT
@MCA1:
They’ll be attending Covid-Con at McCormick Place.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Oddly enough, UK prime minister Boris Johnson appears to be equally bad at this. Johnson has horribly mismanaged the UK response to the pandemic.
yellowdog
@SFAW: Aside from Massachusetts and Maryland, Trump will not lose any state with a Republican governor. With no election security, even in normal times the fix would be in. Now it will be even easier to screw with the elections. Trump will also lose Wisconsin, because the leg has taken away powers from the governor and they are controlling elections.
jl
@Fair Economist: OK, quasi-semi-hemi-demi hero public health dept and leg, given the situation and constraints.
mrmoshpotato
PSA – email from the CSO
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is pleased to announce the launch of a six-program CSO radio broadcast series on WFMT, set to begin on Tuesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. CDT. From the CSO’s Archives: Maestro’s Choice—For All Music Lovers in These Difficult Times will be available to listeners on WFMT (98.7 FM), and streaming on wfmt.com and the WFMT app (wfmt.com/app). The broadcasts will also be accessible for on-demand streaming on csosoundsandstories.org.
Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2010, curated the programs featured in the six-program series. Selections include CSO concert programs from Muti’s tenure as music director, CSO Resound recordings led by Muti and other conductors, as well as archival CSO concert performances and commercial recordings.
The Tuesday evening broadcasts of From the CSO’s Archives: Maestro’s Choice—For All Music Lovers in These Difficult Times will take place weekly from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. beginning April 7 and continuing through May 12, 2020
Kent
Mexico says “hold my beer”
Ksmiami
b@Nettoyeur: Short definitive trials then Hang them
Another Scott
@Mary G: Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: (probably the eleventyth person to say this), but I think the “you’ve covered your ass” comment was about the levees in New Orleans before Katrina.
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
The same phenomena applies everywhere. If Portland were the size of Boise then Oregon politics would be more or less identical to Idaho. The only thing that saves a state from the red jaws of hell is to have a sufficiently large metro area. I expect that is also the difference between MN and WI. The Minneapolis metro area is what….2.5x larger than Milwaukee?
That is also why GA has a slight chance of turning blue but AL does not.
catclub
So tell me what nations did not throw out whoever was in power in 2008 and try someone else? Am I wrong about that?
catclub
@Kent: i heard also Brazil and South Africa may be in the running.
Is that beer a Corona?
Kent
He did use that reply regarding a Bin Laden briefing. Just not the famous “Bin Laden determined to strike the US briefing”. On the other hand, chances are that Shrub used the same line more than once.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
Steeplejack (phone)
Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
sdhays
@Another Scott: No, that was the CIA briefing in August 2001. If the country hadn’t been so traumatized and unwilling to grapple with the depth of failure in his leadership, that comment should have forced him to resign
ETA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
sdhays
@Steeplejack (phone): I love that song.
Kent
These counter-factuals are really difficult. If Hillary had taken office in 2016 then it is much less likely that Dems would have taken the House in 2018 as that blue wave was largely Trump-inspired. So we would be walking into this crisis with Co-presidents McConnell and Paul Ryan. SCOTUS would be bluer but maybe not much so with a solid GOP majority in the Senate. And the GOP would have been spending the past 3 years doing everything under their power to make Hillary a failed 1-term president. Chances are they likely would have succeeded and we would be looking at GOP takeover of the White House in 2020 and potentially holding all 3 branches of government for 2020 and beyond.
smedley the uncertain
@Shalimar: https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361
Another Scott
@Kent: Thanks. I shouldn’t rely on my wetware for things like that – it was a long time ago!
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@sdhays: Thanks to you too.
Cheers,
Scott.
smedley the uncertain
@Brachiator: https://twitter.com/TectonixGEO/status/1242628347034767361
Kent
From news reports, Mexico is uniquely bad at this point, due largely to its president.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/26/21193823/coronavirus-mexico-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-health-care
James E Powell
@Xenos:
Can you imagine what kind of flames would be shooting out of the NYT building if President Hillary Clinton appointed Marc Mezvinsky to any government post?
catclub
@Kent: good points
MCA1
@Kent: Indeed. The MSP metropolitan area has a little over two times the population metro Milwaukee has. Perhaps more important than the raw population numbers of the urban areas, however, is their relative size within the states. Wisconsin actually has more people in total than Minnesota, so whereas the Twin Cities comprises almost 2/3 of MN’s population, Milwaukee is just over a quarter of its state’s population.
Minnesota doesn’t have the equivalent of Madison as a separate liberal enclave, but Madison’s demographic importance is far less than its reputation – there’s only a quarter of a million people there.
Interesting point about how this is playing out across the Southeast. In all those traditional blood red states down there, the only two metro areas with over 2 million people are Charlotte and Atlanta, and sure enough, NC and GA are the purplest of the former confederate states.
LuciaMia
Does he think a virus simply stops for no reason?
NotMax
@LuciaMia
“Think” is doing some Olympic scale heavy lifting.
Tom Q
It’s pretty late in this thread, but let me weigh in on “if Hillary were president”:
Hillary would no doubt have listened to good advisors from the start, and have taken action in December, or January latest.
She would have done this knowing full well that Fox Nation would have hit her with all barrels. Every state with a GOP governor would be resisting shutdowns. The “socialist” propaganda would be at staggering levels.
The states that are Dem-controlled would be persuaded to perform the sort of lockdowns we have now. And it would do to the economy exactly what we’re seeing now: throw it into deep recession.
The best possible outcome would have been a serious reduction in deaths/cases. You can’t be assured of that, because even countries that have adopted best practices are suffering pretty hard. But let’s say an early, rigorous response would have limited deaths to what now seems a dream outcome: maybe 50,000 or less.
This would lead the right-wing brigade to shout, See: we didn’t need to do this damage to the economy. In the same sense that no one gets credit for all those who don’t die from a foiled terrorist attack, no one but experts would understand the dystopian result we avoided.
And the economic damage would be real. Probably as bad as we’re seeing today. For which President Hillary would be held fully responsible (the way Jimmy Carter was held responsible for Iranian/oil price events beyond his control). The GOP candidate would kill her in November.
Just as Dems probably dodged a bullet by not winning in ’04 and thus pinning the inevitable ’08 meltdown on Bush…it’s likely there was a small amount of luck in avoiding blame for this unstoppable, party-killing event. (Whether it was worth Gorsuch/Kavanaugh and the many other horrors of the Trump term is another debate.)
Zinsky
Another great post, Betty! I almost wet myself over the “space cannon into the sun” quip. Good one. Florida has been a laboratory of bad government since the 1980s.
Geminid
@MCA1: except for confederate state Virginia, which went from red to purple to blue since 2000. Demographic changes have played a part, of course but another factor is the rightward lurch of the new “populist” republicans. The Chamber of Commerce/ Country Club republicans who used to call the shots are now standing back and watching the train wreck. I live in the 5th Congressional district- Culpeper to Danville- and the Tea Party cranks and church people are going to roll the republican incumbent in a convention and run a Liberty U. fundraiser in November. We have two strong candidates competing in a primary. The republicans might as well kiss that seat goodbye.
Dave
Nationally, and in red states, we now have clear pictures of what government looks like after it’s been drowned in the bathtub.
Jinchi
True. And more seriously, Trump hasn’t actually taken any action yet. All the real work has been done by the states, with mixed results. He’s wielded the DPA like a bludgeon to punish upstart companies like GE, but not to ensure nationwide supply chains. Fauci is publicly appealing to him to call a nationwide shelter-in-place. And Kushner is hoarding all the national stockpile while scolding the states for not having planned ahead.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Who coulda known that anyone trying to conserve stupidity would be unable to know how to put together any cognitive thought more than “hey babe, would you like to fuck?”
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
YEAH!!!
Glad to hear from Kay :)
Nettoyeur
@yellowdog: WI has a Dem governor.
louc
@Shalimar:
It was tracking college spring breakers returning home from Fort Lauderdale beach.
Ken
@trollhattan: I don’t have an answer for you, but we used to do that in California too.
Ken
Thread’s probably too old, but maybe someone will answer. Wasn’t it in Florida a couple of years back that they passed some special exemption for religious institutions, and a strip club promptly rebranded itself as a church? What would keep any business in Florida from doing the same thing and remaining open?
Similar to Hobby Lobby trying to remain open because they now stock hand sanitizer and typing paper – “essential business”, you know.
Mowgli
@Betty Cracker: “rancig haggis” is my new Scottish Bagpipes Punk Fusion Band.
This is an amazing phrase all around.
Another Scott
@Ken:
https://www.hobbylobby.com/covid-19
“Hobby Lobby will, after careful consideration, close the remainder of its stores, and furlough nearly all store employees and a large portion of corporate and distribution employees, effective Friday, April 3rd, at 8:00 p.m. The stores will remain closed until further notice.”
FWIW.
Dunno about the FL law stuff. Adam might be your guy about that.
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@catclub:
You mean, outside of the US?
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc much?
SFAW
@Ruckus:
I understand your point, but look at it this way: he’s made it clear, since January, 2017 (or earlier), that he wants to make his political enemies suffer. That typically means Demon-craps, but sometimes he goes after Rethugs. [Note: My assessment is that any Rethug who dares NOT to kiss his ass becomes his enemy. For Dems, it’s just baked in, of course.]
Just because he’s not a planner on a par with various brilliant (or even moronic) murderers in literature, it doesn’t mean that it’s not premeditated.
moops
Yup. I’m scorched earth for “conservatives” and “Republicans” and “Independents” This is you. You did this, to all of us. We hate you and you have to stop being racist anti-intellectual idiots if you want me to cooperate or engage with you politically.
SFAW
@catclub:
But to answer your question more completely:
Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Canada (parliamentary), Dominican Republic, a few more, but you get the point. Or don’t get it, no me importa.
J R in WV
@EthylEster:
Hard to vote if you catch the Trump Plague. Just sayin’~!!~
Mark's Bubbie
@e julius drivingstorm: “Moose and squirrel” — ha! — must be spoken with Russian accent.
Marcelo Mainzer
@SFAW: Florida’s minimum wage is from $8.46 to $8.56, so if people stay home and make, “$7:00” to stay home and not risk infecting people, some of whom will die, then it seems like a good deal to me.
If you want people working and being productive members of society insure they have food and shelter security, and are doing work they beleive in not slave labor they are forced to do by an outdated; 19th century, economic system.
J Dog
The Fed Gov knew that dumping the task of stimulus distribution onto State unemployment agencies would result in long delays in paying out benefits, and it’s almost certain that many benefits will never be paid out. This allowed the Fed Gov to create the perception that they did something bold and beneficial for U.S. citizens, relieving themselves of the responsibility and dumping it on State agencies. The fact is, what the Fed Gov did will likely prove to be of little benefit, as by the time the benefits get paid out, it will be too late for most small businesses and households that hung on as long as they could, but the money didn’t come in time.
Millions of lives will suffer grave consequences and many will never recover. What many don’t understand or consider is the domino effect. Recovering or rebuilding from financial ruin requires far more than the sum of what was lost. Your credit rating will fall dramatically, which may disqualify you for housing, loans, etc., and if you are able to finance anything, you will pay more due to a bad credit rating. The last thing you need at that moment is an even higher cost than what you were paying before the crisis, and it may prevent you from being able to finance anything.
Every utility will be more difficult and expensive to turn back on. You may lose your phone number and need to contact everyone to let them know the new number when you eventually can afford phone service again. You may still be on the hook for any payments not made to entities (mortgage, phone, utilities, etc.), which may lead to lawsuits and garnished wages if/when/as soon as you’re earning again. You’ll likely acquire penalties and fees for non-payment to credit cards.
A particularly sinister hit is overdraft fees on your checking accounts. When you do get some money to deposit, those fees will be deducted right off the top. Again, the last thing you need in that moment. Banks are looking forward to that additional revenue that cost them nearly nothing to earn.
Those are just a few of many examples of what you will likely suffer in addition to the obvious individual financial hardships. Don’t blindly believe the message of optimism coming from the Fed and State reps. Getting your life back to financial zero or balance will require far more than the sum of what was lost, and some will never be able to recover even after years of focused effort and doing the right thing. For many, American life as they knew it will change for the worse and their quality of life will never return to what it was.
In 2020, considering the technology that’s available, there is absolutely no excuse for the inability of Fed and State Gov agencies to distribute funds. We put a rover on Mars, people. The problem is not the virus nor the volume to be distributed. The problem is that these agencies did not spend the money to keep their systems up to date and robust so that they could handle fluctuations or special conditions. After 30 years in IT, I assure you the capable technology is readily available. You, the citizens of your state, just aren’t important enough to be a high enough priority to spend the money on apparatus that serves you. It’s that simple. The level of incompetence of those elected into positions of power is stunning, especially against the backdrop of all the flag-waving and chest-beating about “American exceptionalism”. There is nothing exceptional about how the Fed and State Govs are handling the stimulus package – a critical determiner of whether businesses, families and individuals will or will not plunge into financial ruin.
It’s possible, or even likely, that much of the money sent from the Fed Gov to State employment agencies will never be paid out or distributed at all. What do you think will happen with all of that money? Will the Fed Gov ask for it to be paid back? Doubt it. The status of that leftover money will become ambiguous and fall into a grey area – the perfect status for theft to occur. It will stay with the State and almost certainly, ultimately, be allocated to other projects or end up in the pockets of politics, politicians, and/or further laundered through unknown individuals close to those who are in control of the money.
Keep in mind that there’s little incentive for states to pay out all of the money, but a big incentive to retain as much as possible, claiming that you, for one bogus reason or another, didn’t qualify.
Keep that in mind every time your effort to complete the application, or progress through the myriad of incoherent, inconsistent pages to request a payout, is blunted for one reason or another, including kicking you out of the system after all the time spent to get that far into the process.
Keep that in mind when considering the lack of, conflicting, and inconsistent guidance and instruction among those pages. Some have attempted to get through the process by trying every possible combination of selections, just to test to see if it’s even possible. While some have reported success, most report that the process is packed with confusing, conflicting, ambiguous, inconsistent questions that require choosing answers that don’t apply to the applicant. This starts a domino affect and builds-in reasons to deny the applicant in later pages of the process, making it actually, factually, impossible to satisfy the process and receive any benefits.
Although completely justified, it’s doubtful that complaining on social media will be enough to change that outcome. Those in State Govs are counting on you to eventually tire, give up, and turn your attention to other things so they can quietly repurpose the money that is due to you, for their own self-interests. When Fed Gov officials are made aware of what’s going on, they simply deny it and boast about what a great job they’re doing, so don’t expect any help from them. They’ve washed their hands of it and just refer you back to the same entity that’s the source of the problem.
They’re all asking you/us to be patriots and stand strong, do the right thing, tough it out, and show what we’re made of. Maybe the same should be applied to how we respond to the unpatriotic, disgusting, shameful denial of benefits that were promised and due, but intentionally or recklessly or irresponsibly or unlawfully made impossible to collect.
If most of our protest is going to be through social media, at the very least, we need to quadruple the volume and focus it on those with their hands on the levers. Make it clear that we’re not letting up and not going away until every last dime that is due is paid out.
Let’s hope several law firms file a NOTICE OF CLAIM and pursue other legal remedies if all that is due is not paid out by the end of May.
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Tort Actions Against State Officials.
In Tindal v. Wesley, the Court adopted the rule of United States v. Lee, a tort suit against federal officials, to permit a tort action against state officials to recover real property held by them and claimed by the state and to obtain damages for the period of withholding. The immunity of a state from suit has long been held not to extend to actions against state officials for damages arising out of willful and negligent disregard of state laws. The reach of the rule is evident in Scheuer v. Rhodes, in which the Court held that plaintiffs were not barred by the Eleventh Amendment or other immunity doctrines from suing the governor and other officials of a state alleging that they deprived plaintiffs of federal rights under color of state law and seeking damages, when it was clear that plaintiffs were seeking to impose individual and personal liability on the officials. There was no “executive immunity” from suit, the Court held; rather, the immunity of state officials is qualified and varies according to the scope of discretion and responsibilities of the particular office and the circumstances existing at the time the challenged action was taken.
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“The safety and security of the American people is my #1 priority”.
For decades we’ve heard that proclamation directly from the mouths of Presidents, Governors, Mayors, and others voted into positions of power whose salaries are paid by the citizens. They are correct. That is their #1 priority. Some of those same politicians and those who now occupy those positions have replaced that proclamation with, “No one expected this”. “No one saw this coming”. “Who would have ever thought this would happen”? “This is unheard of”. They are desperately hoping that the citizenry will find those to be acceptable excuses for why few of them, very few, prepared in any significant way for the possibility of a pandemic.
When the excuses first started to fly, it seemed in poor taste to be cracking jokes considering the carnage that was unfolding. Of course, they weren’t joking, but 320,000,000 Americans are now able to clearly see that those in office are a joke. Tens of thousands of Americans are now dead and the country is on the verge of a complete economic collapse because of their incompetence. If the economy collapses, the carnage that follows will make the current situation and inconveniences seem like paradise.
To be clear, I don’t affiliate with any political party because … dignity.
And anyway, there’s decades of blame to be cast for both parties with regard to the current scourge that could very well be the country’s death knell as a result of failing to prepare. Those in power are hoping you will register their excuses as acceptable.
Do you? Before you decide, read their excuses again, then click this link (that took less than 5 seconds to find) and read the first sentence above the first photo.
https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html
Now read their excuses again. How ’bout now?
Let’s refresh on the context. We’re talking about the people that citizens elect, pay, and grant power to in exchange for ensuring the safety and security of the American people as their #1 priority. The longer they’ve been in power and have done little or nothing to prepare, the more culpable. They have access to nearly everything anyone could possibly need with regard to identifying the risks or potential risks to “the safety and security of the American people”, including the possibility of a pandemic. Challenged with the question of whether pandemics are a current and serious threat to American life, a fifth grader with an internet connection and an hour of web browsing could answer the question with the obvious “yes”. It’s a matter of when, not if, so count your intelligence insulted along with the tens of thousands dead and potential full collapse of the economy.
To accept their excuses, you have to believe that, over the past many decades, no one on the teams of best-in-the-world specialists, scientists, historians, etc., had any (or enough) concern about the potential of a pandemic, despite the population densities of cities all over the world where the majority of eight billion people live.
I’m confident that nearly everyone reading this, regardless of demographic, would quickly identify “pandemic” among the most urgent significant threats to “the safety and security of the American people” were they charged with the task.
Still not sure about the validity of their excuses? Does this help?
“No one expected this”. “No one saw this coming”. “Who would have ever thought this would happen”? “This is unheard of”.
Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic: 1793
Flu pandemic: 1889-1890
American polio epidemic: 1916
Spanish Flu: 1918-1920
Asian Flu: 1957-1958
AIDS pandemic and epidemic: 1981
H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic: 2009-2010
West African Ebola epidemic: 2014-2016
Zika Virus epidemic: 2015-present day
When further pressed, they qualify the excuses with, “This one is more contagious than those ones”. Oh, ok. Now I think I get it not at all.
Little to nothing was done to prepare for ANY type of pandemic, therefore/so/but/and considering that COVID-19 pandemic is more contagious than the pandemic that little or nothing was done to prepare for, little or nothing COULD be done to prepare for COVID-19 pandemic or for the pandemic that little to nothing was done to prepare for because this is unheard of and who would have ever thought this would happen?
No help. Nonsensical qualifiers for nonsensical excuses still resolve to unacceptable excuses. To be fair, their excuses would be valid if dinosaurs suddenly appeared after 65 million years. This isn’t that.
Simplified and summarized, politicians did not do what they were charged to do. The direct result is tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths from the virus; thousands or tens of thousands of deaths over the next few years as a direct result of the economic damage; hundreds of thousands or millions bankrupted and will never fully recover for the rest of their lives; and the real potential of a complete economic collapse that would likely end the most successful empire in the history of the world, its people the most innovative and generous to ever walk the face of the earth.
Hyperbole? Don’t think it could happen? Nor did the citizenry of every empire in history until the moment it did. Ironically, as their world was falling all around them, unsure of what to do or where to go, they wandered about repeating to themselves and others, “No one expected this”. “No one saw this coming”. “Who would have ever thought this would happen”? “This is unheard of”.
As for those who fail to fulfill their charge, most of them wealthy, the worst-case scenario is the loss of their position of power. Let that sink in for a minute. Where is the accountability commensurate with the magnitude of potential damage that may occur as the result of incompetence? If this degree of failure would result in a lengthy prison sentence, all of the Fed and State warehouses would have been overflowing with ventilators and PPE when this pandemic arrived, regardless of where it originated or how it traveled. Call it a hunch.
Wake up America!
This would be a good time for everyone to break their focus on which Kardashian has the nicest ass and pause binging on other reality shows intentionally self-deluded to believe they’re real.
This may be your last chance to save the country and yourselves if it’s not too late already. A shift in priorities will be required regardless of all else, and most of the population will need to be onboard. Then, it has to be sustained. Both possible, neither likely, but it’s the only way. I’ll kick it off with an example that should be a no-brainer to a healthy society, but American society hasn’t been healthy for decades.
Read this list over and over until it’s permanently burned into your consciousness. It’s a subset of the professions and industries listed as “Essential” during this crisis. Everyone in every position on the full list is important, but this subset is of those who are risking their lives every day every time they go to work, and many have and will lose their lives, and they are the only thing standing between you and a virus that would otherwise end you, everyone you know, and most of the population of the country.
Healthcare, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Grocery, Transportation.
Noticeably absent from the full list and certainly this subset are professional sports figures and Hollywood actors. And at last check, the number of people from either industry that have walked into a healthcare facility bursting with Covid patience, geared up with complete PPE or a patchwork of DIY PPE due to the incompetence of political leaders, and volunteered to help, is somewhere around zero.
Now, consider the average and range of income of those in the subset compared to sports figures (game players) and actors (pretenders). Not counting medical doctors who make up a small percentage of the whole, annual income is roughly $30K – $90K.
American citizenry allows, even supports sports figures and actors earning hundreds of thousands at minimum, with many or most earning a million, ten million, even 100 million dollars during a career or even a short contract. None of them will be coming to save you. None of the sports figures will care how many games you’ve attended or tattoos of their logo you have, or that you dipped into your kid’s college fund to buy their merch. Actors won’t care how many of their films you’ve seen or how many times you’ve quoted their lines or used their likeness in a meme. They all will and are preoccupied with saving their own and themselves along with their fortunes. If things get bad enough, while you’re struggling to survive one more day, they and theirs will be on their private jets heading to lavish underground bunkers on an island they or their peers own.
Nice job America. Send your single-mom nurses earning $50K/yr in to save your asses and possibly die in the effort, while making heroes of adults who never grew up and play games for a living, and others who hone their craft of deception to play characters that allow your fantasies of what you might have been or become if you weren’t so YOU, come true for 90 minutes.
It’s no sign of good health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.