In the morning thread, valued commenter “bemused” brought up a recent interview by The Times’ Frank Bruni with Laurie Garrett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist who saw this pandemic coming and now foresees a disturbing post-pandemic future. It’s not a happy read, but it’s definitely worth one of your free clicks, IMO.
Garrett doesn’t expect a cure or a vaccine on the immediate horizon (her best-case scenario is 36 months). She predicts the present crisis will persist in localized waves, changing how we think about many things, including travel and mass transit, and possibly reorienting society in unexpected ways.
Garrett accurately labeled Trump an “the most incompetent, foolhardy buffoon imaginable,” but she also expressed shock and dismay about the extent to which the Trump administration has degraded America’s scientific capabilities and abdicated international leadership.
She says she hears from people who work in other countries’ CDC equivalents who have tried to get in touch with our CDC, only to find that the lights are on but nobody’s home. Scary stuff.
Garrett also points out that the country’s indifference to public health (as opposed to medical specialties, pharmaceuticals and devices that can be monetized) long predates Trump, which is true. I thought this passage about possible political fallout was fascinating:
If America enters the next wave of coronavirus infections “with the wealthy having gotten somehow wealthier off this pandemic by hedging, by shorting, by doing all the nasty things that they do, and we come out of our rabbit holes and realize, ‘Oh, my God, it’s not just that everyone I love is unemployed or underemployed and can’t make their maintenance or their mortgage payments or their rent payments, but now all of a sudden those jerks that were flying around in private helicopters are now flying on private personal jets and they own an island that they go to and they don’t care whether or not our streets are safe,’ then I think we could have massive political disruption.”
“Just as we come out of our holes and see what 25 percent unemployment looks like,” she said, “we may also see what collective rage looks like.”
I think the possibility of “collective rage” is widely under-covered, at least by the mainstream media outlets. Nearly a third of renters didn’t pay rent in April — 31%. Think about that for a moment.
And things have only gotten worse since April 1st for people who lost jobs during the shutdown, which is why some governors are reopening even though it’s not really safe to do so. These red state governors lack the funds and the inclination to take care of all of these suddenly jobless, broke people, so they’re throwing them to the free market wolves, even though companies aren’t hiring.
How many years have we been hearing that most American families can’t handle an emergency that costs more than $400? We’re finding out now how many can’t handle an emergency that costs $4,000 and counting. It’s going to be a lot.
What’s going to happen to people? The Trump administration is doing jack and shit to make them whole, other than issue a check that most can’t survive on for more than a few weeks. Dems had to fight corrupt shit-birds like Rick Scott tooth and nail to get something approaching adequate compensation for laid-off workers because Medicare Fraud Bat Boy is “concerned” about the moral hazards of malingering.
The notion of making regular people whole so we can emerge from this crisis and return to some semblance of normal isn’t in the Republican Party or Trump administration’s top 100 list of priorities. Their entire objective is to shield Trump and themselves from political damage and maybe funnel government largess to donors on the side.
It’s a huge opportunity for Democrats, and I say that not as a political partisan — which I definitely am — but as a human being and a citizen who wants the country to survive. I hope smart people in the party see this shit coming and get ahead of it so they can channel all that collective rage in a positive direction. Because if Garrett is right, big changes are coming, one way or another.
Baud
It would be nice to see enough people wake up, but I’m not counting on it. I’m certainly done holding Democrats responsible for not overcoming the various pathologies that have infected large swaths of American society.
satby
The rage has barely even gotten started. Our subterranean civil war is going to boil into the open by summer, and it doesn’t give me any joy to predict that at all.
Omnes Omnibus
This is going to be a fun thread.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
More like the Dems are going to win by default. The GOP as of April means nothing but death and economic ruin.
And if 30% of the population can’t even meet the rent, what economy is there? The Rich don’t get richer if no one is buying what every bullshit they pay a factory in China and put their label on. A lot of people have pointed out that the rich are just poor people with a bigger credit line like Trump.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Another thing that truly stunned me; that self promotion add that Trump did in the Lincoln memorial that Fox News aired for free. They actually were fact checking Trump to his face and called him on him constantly changing the numbers on the deaths, to which Trump gave this insane reply about what ever number of people who die, it would always be it could have been so much worse. Like this pandemic is some kind of lease agreement with the virus or something. I think the fiction about the GOP is started to crack among a lot of conservatives now.
chopper
a big advantage dems have going in to the fall is that trump is going to make this election a referendum on him and the whole GOP is tied to his sorry ass. not because this strategy is a good idea, but because he’s a raging narcissist and can’t help himself.
the recent ads from guys like the lincoln project are already brutal and it’s spring, for god’s sake.
Sab
My maternal grandfather had work all during the Depression and he was happy to take paycuts to keep a job. My paternal grandparents and great-grandparents were wealthy and worried a lot about roving mobs of angry workers. I heard about it all through my childhood and adolescence.
My husband’s family were among those workers. Not in the mobs, but mostly struggling to get by. He and his family haven’t forgotten, and he’s pretty angry. His own kids are in dangerous essential jobs while my oblivious brother prattles on, with conspiracy theories about Fauci being in cahoots with scientists in Wuhan, and defending the alleged brilliance of Pompeo.
Raoul Paste
You have to wonder how many people are going to miss the rent payment in May
Tony Jay
The only thing protecting the Patrician caste is their overwhelming advantage in misinformation-dispersal mechanisms. It’s hard to get a dominant majority of people aiming their pitchforks in the right direction when an entire global industry exists dedicated to telling them that only losers complain/it’s those people’s fault/no one’s fault really/what is ‘fault’ anyway?
And yet, the diversion of wealth has grown so indefensibly stark that they’ve had to turn the ‘Fake News’ siren up to 11 in order to bar even the most milquetoast nibbling around the edges discourse from the ears of the Public. Delegitimising the only things keeping their shit smelling sweet may not turn out to be the best example of long term planning, but I guess it wouldn’t be the first time an inbred ruling class forgot that staying leisurely takes a – little – work.
ziggy
I can’t even begin to wrap my head around how this country is going to change over the coming months. I just hope we can get to a point where we can safely gather in the streets again. We need that.
Immanentize
@Raoul Paste: many more than missed it in April.
Spanky
@Omnes Omnibus: Won’t it though?
I’m so old I remember when Villago Delenda Est was getting pushback for his “wipe them out, all of them” schtick. Now all of us are far past that point.
It’s gonna be a fun summer once the Rambo cosplayers discover their side doesn’t own all the guns.
Immanentize
@Spanky:
Raven has been making this point for years.
MattF
@Tony Jay: It’s an observation that goes back to Tocqueville— when a ruling class becomes useless and parasitical, ordinary people will get… irked. Ancien Régime and all that.
Spanky
It will also be interesting to see how many ways Republicans will use to try to delegitimize the November election. This assumes they already have or will soon have given up on the idea of trying to cancel it outright.
Spanky
@Immanentize: I know! And the only way that’s going to sink into some peoples’ heads is really going to leave a mark.
Baud
@Spanky:
That’s pretty easy. They’ll say they lost because of the unfortunate timing of the pandemic, but that the American people still prefer Republican values.
bemused
I have hesitated sending Bruni’s interview with Garrett to friends/family because it’s just so damn terrifying.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: Jay Rosen — our sharpest media critic, IMO — sums up the Trump/Republican public health emergency responsibility deflection/reelection non-strategy very well here:
Sounds about right.
Sab
There is a mansion in my town built by the #2 guy at Goodyear back early on. It is still standing and lived in, and it has a secret staircase amd passage so that the owners could escape mobs.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: This depression should finally put to an end the idea that the rich are the “job creators” and drivers of the economy. 25% unemployment and -40% GDP growth should finally focus people’s attention.
The labor of normal people, and their consumption, is what drives the economy. The rich twisting the system to skim monopoly rents isn’t what makes the economy strong.
Do tens of millions have to lose everything, hundreds of thousands literally have to die, for things to fundamentally change toward a sensible balance?
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@MattF: Yeah, but I don’t recall hearing about many ruling elites who funded the spread of propaganda aimed at smearing their own most dedicated balladeers as bullshit artists.
That’s new, isn’t it?
Spanky
@Spanky: And full disclosure: Since I’m a gray-haired white male, I suspect I’ll be one of the first up against the wall when the revolution comes. Revolutionaries tend not to check voter registration while doing their revoltin’ schtick.
trollhattan
Recalling the universal love Obama received across eight years of cleaning up GWBush’s mess I can only imagine the grief Team Biden is going to harvest being associated with putting out the Trump dumpster fires and getting things going again. Going to be ugly. (Or as I used to be instructed, “Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.”)
Benw
@Spanky: I’m installing a flame thrower on my Nissan right now and insisting everyone start addressing me as Immortan
Spanky
@Another Scott: History says “yes” so … rhetorical question?
MattF
@Tony Jay: ‘Enemies everywhere’ isn’t new, although weaponizing and idealizing Trumpian stupidity and incompetence seems novel.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Shock Capitalism.
And consider this; who is really going to profit of this; the high tech blue states because they will have drugs that people need and money to keep the economic damage down inside them.
germy
@Sab:
But surely the workmen who built the secret extras for him would tip off the mobs? Class solidarity!
Jeffro
And sadly, it’s not just with COVID-19…it’s with EVERYTHING. Climate change. Guns. Rising college costs. Paying twice as much per capita for health care as other Western nations. Wealth inequality. All of it – they want people to think there’s no possible way to act collectively to solve these problems.
Why? Because if we act collectively, they quit making money off of oil, guns, etc. They quit having other folks’ wealth redistributed upwards to them like they have for the past 40 years.
Sab
@germy: Not all rich people are strategic geniuses.
cmorenc
If internal GOP/Trump campaign polling across early-to-mid-summer continues to appear ominous (for them) – expect their tactics to try to improve their odds to get more extreme. For example, if you thought their tactics for vote suppression of demographics inclined against them have already been outrageous, you ain’t seen nothing yet – if you thought their tactics to stir up resentment against social distancing restrictions were outrageous and irresponsible, you ain’t seen nothing yet. There is no lever of power or propaganda they won’t use in attempting to stave off loss of control and power. There is no level or type of misdirection or untruth or hardball manipulation they won’t employ.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker: Yup. Exactly the same thing has happened here. The Tories have never swerved from their policy of just letting the infection spread to get it over with quickly and shoving the corpses off-screen, they’ve just had to pretend they dropped it/never intended it because of public opinion. Their refusal to source PPE, rejection of testing/tracking policies, failure to provide accurate counts or meet self-imposed targets, it’s all of a piece with a policy of accepting mass casualties as the price of purging the weak and needy from the body politic.
They’re doing it out in the open, screened only by a wall of millimetre thin glass smeared with ever thinner streaks of bullshit, but so far the Media is refusing to call them out on it.
Come the heat of summer and the predicted 2nd wave of infection following a relaxation in the quarantine, though…..
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: FFS, you import the workers and then depending on how benevolent you are either blind them or just have them killed. It’s quite simple.
Immanentize
@Spanky: Maybe consider dying those silver locks red?
MomSense
@Sab:
My grandmother worked as a domestic (she cooked and took care of the children) for the number 1 at Goodrich. She kept her family and friends alive because the grocery manager at the fancy supermarket, where she picked up her food for her employer, put the bruised produce and expired meat on the back loading dock for her. My mom thinks it was the ACME but I don’t think that was the wealthy supermarket. I think that is the one my mom remembers going to as a kid.
She and her mother prepared meals after she got home from work and they turned the porch light on to let people know they could come by for food.
Eventually they lost the house when her dad died. I asked her what happened to the people who came to her house for food. Decades later, she couldn’t answer this question. She just put her head down.
She moved with my grandfather, my mom and her mom to a tent. They had a cow they called “million dollars”. She used to wink and say “that was a lot of money in those days”. She had a wicked sense of humor. I have been thinking of her so much these last months.
ETA Goodrich should be Goodyear – not sure why autocorrect changed it
Jeffro
@trollhattan: I think the majority of voters that elects Biden and turns the Senate blue this November will stick with the Ds no matter what. The memory of this pandemic and depression, and of trumpov’s daily abuse of our country, will be too fresh. Even if things come back slowly, as they surely will.
I sure hope that the Ds’ first piece of legislation is a massive rollback of all the W and trumpov tax giveaways to the rich. We’re going to need the money, they’ve got it, and the vast majority of this country will support it wholeheartedly.
Tony Jay
You work with the lead-huffing moral zombies you have, not the ones you wish you had. I think that’s how the quote goes.
low-tech cyclist
There’s one part of government that the Democrats control, one place where they have the ball and could run with it. That place is the House of Representatives.
They’ve sidelined themselves for nearly two months now, and have no timetable for returning, not even for a quick vote to enable themselves to conduct their business remotely.
Goddamn motherfuck.
Gravenstone
@germy: A proper despot-in-training has the workmen killed and buried on the property to prevent just such leaks.
Jeffro
OT (and sorry if this has already been mentioned) but I just saw that President Barack Obama is going to address the nation’s 2020 graduates on a number of dates and times in May and June.
SO PSYCHED!! (And I’m not even graduating =)
MattF
@Gravenstone: It’s the established tradition, and if you don’t do it the gods will be angry.
Immanentize
@MomSense: I like that woman.
Jeffro
Unfortunately I take it as a given that there will be armed TCNJ “poll watchers” at many, many voting locations harassing non-white voters. I plan on calling the cops if I see them at ours.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: That is going to make the current squatter in the White House go crazy. Obama should do one while Trump is at West Point.
JMG
I posted this on another board. If the position of the Republican party is “your life means nothing to us” it is inevitable that many people will react by saying exactly the same thing to them.
Betty
@Spanky: The play at the moment is to disparage vote by mail as permitting fraud- by Democrats of course.
Immanentize
@low-tech cyclist: I know, only Democrats have any agency. If only of you were in charge, I’m sure everything would just sail through the Senate and pastt President’s pen. If only you were in charge….
Jeffro
@Immanentize: I hope that Biden and the DNC start ‘big footing’ every one of trumpov’s deranged WH afternoon rants. Farm it out – have Buttigieg stomp on Monday’s rant, Klobuchar on Tuesday’s, etc etc.
Don’t even mention the Ill Douche by name or address whatever BS he’s throwing out there in real-time…just pick a Dem policy we’ll implement if/when we throw Don and Mitch out on their asses, take a half hour to explain how it’ll help American families, and thank people for watching.
Sab
@MomSense: That sounds like something the ACME people would do. Their executives are still very active in Open M pantry.They got the glass panels for cashiers in weeks before anyone else did and they encouraged employee facemasks in February.
It might have been Bissons or West Point Market, both sadly now defunct. Oh: My husband says it was Bissons. His family probably partook.
Gravenstone
@Immanentize: Obama should speak on the big screen AT West Point, while Trump is there. Except he’d be above such petty abuses of the military for propaganda.
Mai naem mobile
This is strictly anecdotal but I’ve heard several work related acquaintances I deal with mention how po’d they are at Trumpov. I’d almost bet none of these people voted in ’16 but are now paying attention. Not saying any of them were Trumpers to begin with but the key to winning big in Nov is getting the normally indifferent to vote . Facebook and other social media did a lot of damage in ’16 but this time around they’re scaring the crap out of people with the consequences of COVID19. Also, I’ve only seen 2 Trumpov bumperstickers in the past month. I don’t think Trumpers want to show off that there support any more.
schrodingers_cat
Does this Laurie person and Frank Bruni read Pravda-on-the-Hudson. May before pontificating Bruni can walk right over to MAGA Haberman and Peter Baker and their bosses who enable Rs and played no small part in unleashing the Orange monstrosity so that it could unleash its reign of terror. At the rate we are going more Americans will be dead during his term in office than in any other President’s due to his actions or the lack thereof.
Thanks for fucking nothing Vichy Times and your pampered op-ed writers.
Sab
@MomSense:
@Sab: Bissons died during the Volker recession in the 1980s.
MomSense
@Sab:
Interesting. She could have had multiple sources for food.
My mom is missing Akron if you can believe it. Part of it is her BF passed away and her one remaining (living) friend is now in a nursing home so she doesn’t have anyone left there to visit.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: That is a good idea — kind of goes hand in hand with the shadow cabinet idea. I wish I felt that the Biden camp was that flexible. But it is very early days. Plenty of time (I hope) for those — and other things — to be done effectively.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: Pelosi and the House team have been crafting a relief package, standing up an oversight committee and have agreed in principle to the proxy voting deal — that’s just the stuff I’ve read about recently. But because one Republican fly in the ointment (a Massie, for example) can force everyone to come back to DC to vote on proxy voting, they’re prudently (IMO) waiting until they can take care of a lot of business at once and have been saying all along it would be in May.
The Dems aren’t perfect, and I’m all for criticizing them when the facts warrant it. (For example, why the fuck appoint Donna Shalala to an oversight committee when Katie Porter would be perfect for it and reportedly wanted the job?) But why assume they’re lollygagging?
bemused
@Mai naem mobile:
It will be interesting to see how many trumpers in my area proudly display trump election lawn signs. Those are the people to stay 6 miles away from.
Duane
Trumpov’s response to the meat packing plant crisis says it all. Pork products are more important than people’s lifes to the rich.
Cheryl Rofer
I agree to a large extent with Garrett. I’ve had a post along those lines in mind, but it’s just too depressing to write.
danielx
@Jeffro:
Patriot Polling Place Patrols, complete with AR-15s and suitably red, white and blue accessories.
In all seriousness, spousal unit was talking to one of the neighbors yesterday and she (the neighbor) and her husband are STILL all in for Trump. They are nice enough people; how do you tell someone she is outright defining herself as morally defective and/or a complete fool for believing a word he says? She is all about “opening the economy again”, how do you say fine, go point out the people you are willing to see die? She and her ilk still have not figured out we are never going back to ‘normal’ again, ‘normal’ being pre-pandemic conditions.
I mean, current conditions and what I see coming are making ME want to stockpile food and water plus spending money on firearms and ammunition, and I’m in no way a prepper.
bemused
@Duane:
And yet he is going to visit a PPE factory instead. He’s probably too scared to set foot in a meat packing plant.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Polls out today have Dems ahead by 9 points in the NC Senate race and ahead by 7 points in the Montana Senate race.
A poll out yesterday has the Dem behind by 1 point in Iowa.
tick tock
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: you know what the Dems in Congress are? Tell ’em Betty —
lollygaggers!
Josie
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m not positive, but I don’t think Laurie Garrett works for the Times. Your ire is properly aimed at Bruni. Garrett, however, has been calling out government for poor handling of public health for a long time.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So let’s chat a moment about national economic priorities, our great cultural defect, and what should have occurred.
BobS
@danielx: I work with people (in an especially hard hit Detroit area emergency room) whose support for Trump remains steadfast.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Rick Wilson’s new attack ad on Dump (“Mourning in America”) is devastating. (video)
Spanky
@bemused: Got a couple of them in my neighborhood. New 3’x5′ banners:
Apparently they’re fine putting their “bullshit” out in public. Family values, doncha know.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I like the idea, but don’t think the networks would preempt the POTUS to cover a Democrat’s speech, even though the POTUS is a demented pathological liar who actively makes viewers DUMBER every time he opens his gob.
Also, as partisans, I’m not sure we really want them to stop showing the pressers because Trump looks like the kook and liar he is to all but the brainwashed. There’s a reason his advisers are begging him to stop doing the pressers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
I try not to second-guess Nancy Pelosi, but that and turning down the tests were head scratchers to me. I think legislators are essential workers.
and on the Shalala thing, it was a weird choice, but then the usual suspects started screeching that she was corrupt because SHE SOLD HER STOCKS! (OMG WALL STREET DNC!)… in the weeks before and after the 2018 election. Rose Twitter is going to turn me into Evan Bayh out of sheer annoyance before this election is over.
schrodingers_cat
@Josie: Yes thanks I realized that and have corrected my original commented.
Baud
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
C’mon, Iowa. Get with the program.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Another Scott:
I’m not gay, but that is some truly arousing speech…..
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Same here. May be NP chose Donna S because she was a cabinet member in the Clinton WH. Did she oversee Health and Human services?
waspuppet
It’s — well, let’s go with “ironic” — that the Trump/GOP’s only goal is “Let’s go back to normal NOW NOW NOW” and they haven’t done a single thing to actually maybe let that happen.
“Stupid” is another good word for it, but let’s also not forget — these people are lazy. Recovering from a pandemic takes work, and they do not want to do it. Not just for ideological reasons, but because They. Are. Lazy.
Watch any of them getting interviewed. They really just thought memorizing three or four phrases and voting for tax cuts was all there was to being in Congress. They are PISSED to find out that this is an actual job. And of course they’re led in this by the Hog Emperor (Rebecca Solnit’s phrase), who, let us not forget, said out loud and on the record that he thought being president would be EASIER than his previous — oh, let’s be generous and call it a “job.”
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not even on Twitter and I’m tempted to start DLC II: Electric Boogaloo
different-church-lady
Maybe, but her theory doesn’t take in to account the “sparrows and curtain rods” factor.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
She was Secretary of HHS.
JMG
@Spanky: Kind of an odd message for the incumbent.
different-church-lady
@Spanky: Is it a slogan or a request made to Trump?
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: +1000
@Josie: You are correct. Garrett has never worked for The Times, AFAIK.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am no Shalala fan*, but I assume that Pelosi figures that as the prior head of HHS, she knows best where the bodies are buried and the cash flows are most slippery. Also, her connections in Florida cannot but help the Dems in the upcoming election (unlike Porter’s connection which will not move the map.)
* I do however occasionally enjoy a little Shanana.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: So my recollection was right. Sometimes experience matters more than Twitter and social media celebrity. Good on NP.
Immanentize
@Baud: You have to get Jennifer Grey to play Debbie Wasserman Schultz in that sequel!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Y’know, in the end, Mayor Larry Vaughn signed the voucher to hire Quint, and felt bad because his kids were on the beach, too.
Trump isn’t as good as Mayor Vaughn….
mrmoshpotato
You stupid, stupid Rethuglican fucks. Hold on to your eyes. (Short thread)
Spanky
@different-church-lady: Yeah, it’s ambiguous on its own, but these guys are def RWNJs.
different-church-lady
Perhaps, but her theory fails to take into account the “sparrows and curtain rods” factor.
Note: apparently FYWP hates Blogger, and will eat a comment that links there. Click the first hit on this google search for an explanation of sparrows and curtain rods.
brendancalling
I am already in a state of compartmentalized seething rage.
I had to leave Tennessee, out of a sense of self-preservation.
My calling—playing music—no longer has any chance of becoming a career. I went through that grief once before, and it is very sad to watch my colleagues going through it for the first time, especially the lifers.
The border with Canada is closed, and I have no idea when I’m going to see my teenager in person again.
I have no job. I was dependent on the kindness of strangers until my unemployment came through, and now it looks like the state will try to prevent people from claiming their benefits.
My elderly parents—patrons of the arts, theatre goers, etc—are trapped at home. My stepmom hasn’t seen the grandchildren in North Carolina and doesn’t know when she will be able to see them again.
When I see these selfish cocksuckers with their stupid guns and signs, all I can think is “why won’t someone call out the National Guard and empower them to use lethal force to remove these disgusting anthropomorphized disease vectors.
I feel my own compassion for my fellow humans dripping away. I wonder if I’ll ever get laid again.
I am unfriending and blocking people—some who I have know for years, even decades—for parroting the Federalist or making equivalencies or playing down the virus or celebrating selfishness as some act of “freedom.” It is very hard not to say “i hope YOU get it and someone YOU love dies, then we can talk about your precious little fee fees.”
The only thing that keeps me going is November—and frankly if we don’t win, I don’t know what comes next. I already border on Moe Szyslak levels of misanthropy—”I’m a well-wisher, in that I don’t wish you any SPECIFIC harm”—and the past several months have made that a lot worse.
Right now I am so angry that if you could harness the incandescent rage that’s boiling away in that little compartment I’ve set aside for it, you could probably power the entire United States.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I don’t know much about Shalala beyond her resume, but I’m guessing that the appointment had to do with her administrative chops and experience dealing with inter-branch communications, etc. OTOH, if you’re serious about building the bench, grooming younger leaders, etc, this seems like the perfect opportunity to at least make Porter a co-chair of that committee.
Also, I admire somebody who not only stays in the arena, but actively seeks out an office that would conventionally seen down as a step-down from the previously held job. I’ll always have a soft spot for John Quincy Adams. I should add his diaries to the quarantine reading list I’m not reading because trump has destroyed my attention span.
JPL
@MomSense: What an amazing story, and thank you for sharing it.
HumboldtBlue
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: talkingpointsmemo
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: The fund Shalala will be overseeing doesn’t address public health issues, where HHS experience would have been an asset. The committee will oversee disbursement of funds through fed programs, which requires financial system expertise. Porter has lots. Shalala has none.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Trump’s favorite Republican president on labor and capital.
Immanentize
@Spanky: It would be worth the money to color that sign and put up big billboards that said.
President Trump — Please Stop your Bullshit!
Brachiator
Hah! If anything, she is understating Trump’s abysmal ignorance about even basic science and his incompetence.
He also surrounds himself with fawning idiots. A recent Vanity Fair piece claims that Young Jared reinforced Trump’s early beliefs that the pandemic was fake news.
It’s weird. Didn’t Dubya and his crew seek to emphasize creationist hoo-haw and “faith over science” in some of his policies and directives?
Trump has gone further: asserting the primacy of ignorance over knowledge. And I think that Garrett nails it in her reaction to how Trump’s America First bullshit also results in a wall which deliberately keeps out international co-operation. And Trump’s goober supporters who love this stuff don’t realize that Trump cannot both be “leader of the free world” and selfish asshole autocrat who wants to keep everything for himself.
Another good insight. I found this surprising, but probably should not have. I presumed that scientists and medical researchers found ways to keep channels of communication open.
I need to read more of Garrett’s work. Her insights are fascinating, especially her comments about America’s indifference to public health.
And I think that some of America’s plutocrats are like the residents of Fisher Island in Florida, a wealthy community of 700 prominent families from 40 different countries. They got an early stockpile of Corona Virus tests.
The plutocrats don’t want to oppress the masses. They just want to make sure that things are okay for themselves and their personal servants.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: If public health agency expertise and financial system skills are interchangeable, sure. (Narrator: They are not.)
Luciamia
Chris Christie stuck his oar in. Pleading for opening the Economy cause ” people are going to die anyway. ”
The mind reels.
scav
Sweet little dears fell in love with Melania’s I really don’t care, do you? ethos and cross-stitched it on their little homespun heartland hearts. The more people die around them, the more they are convinced of their innate specialness in the eyes of their personal (all you others don’t count) Lord and Savior. So upping the body count brings a frisson of Holy Pleasure to their big box souls.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Every organization at the top is about spending money. Secretaries are not there to be front line workers in the area of their agency. They are there to manage money. The head of HHS, for example, has to manage and be responsible to Congress for a huge budget that pays for scientists, researchers, lawyers, investigators, staff, etc. Shalala not only was head of HHS, but also ran one of the biggest Universities in the country. She is no financial neophyte. Hell, the FOOTBALL program alone at U of M is a 20 million plus annual operation.
Like I said, for rather individual professional reasons, I am no big fan of Shalala. But does Porter have similar experiences?
What about AOC? She worked at Lincoln Labs once. I love Porter, but let us try to see things as they are and how they likely appear to people who know more than we? I trust Pelosi knows what is best more than my personal glib understandings would allow me to do so.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Let’s not second guess everything. Shalala was HHS Sec, so she probably knows the ground. Also, Pelosi could have something else in mind for Porter.
Gin & Tonic
@Luciamia: I mentioned downstairs, I have no problem with Chris Christie dying to help the economic recovery.
Humdog
@brendancalling: I am very sorry you are in the middle of such a shit tornado. I hope you can find a moment’s peace, maybe a little time in nature in solitude? Best of luck, brendon.
Emma from FL
@schrodingers_cat: Whatever else Shalala might be, she’s a damn expert on health issues. Longest serving secretary of Health and Human Services. I’m not particularly fond of her on many issues, especially some of her environmental-related decisions at UM. But what she knows, she knows well.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus:
New here?
bemused
@Spanky:
As I said, I plan on diligently avoiding those people. I already know merchants, small business owners who are diehard trumpers that I will never give business to but they are the ones too dumb not to be out and proud trumpers. It’s the somewhat smarter trumpers who try to keep on the down low with their putrid politics that I need to identify and never use their services.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I agree building the bench is critical, but this is not that moment.
Pelosi got one pick. One. Not several. It is not a House Committee, but a five member commission set up in the first relief package.
I understand the conservative* choice in this case.
* By conservative, I do not mean idealogicaly, rather: experienced. At one time Shalala was considered a true liberal icon
scav
@Gin & Tonic: The more rich people die, the better for the GDP and shareholders! Poor people just die, whereas the hospitals get to pull out all the stops and big machines and drugs for the moneyed corpses. No common pit & cheap pine box neither. Lawyers crawling over all the wills and settlements. Profit Profit Profit!
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
As far as I can determine, this was not an address to Congress, as often noted in memes. Nor did it necessarily reflect Lincoln’s personal opinion. He was citing different theories about production, work and labor, in an address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, in 1859.
The speech is long and kinda tedious, and appears to be more about the values of “free labor” and education than economic analysis.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Ok Boomer.
Mai naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: where did you see the list? The list I saw was from a CBS story was
I think Pelosi has bigger things in mind for Katie Porter. I heard her on a long interview and she mentioned that she thinks members(sounded like she was really talking about female members) should have as part of their CV, some experience on the Intel Committee so as to a higher position. Wonder if Porter will end up being on the Intel Committee next year.
Immanentize
@Baud: at one time, Hillary Clinton was considered a true liberal icon.
Is that better for you, Boomer Too-mer.
Baud
@Mai naem mobile: Different committee.
patrick II
Three things bother me about any long term democracy movement out of the ashes of covid crisis: First, the brain dead or corrupted media, second, the constitution’s historical protection of slave owners through the senate and electoral college, and third, the judges, which McConnell correctly sees as a veto on any democratic legislation that is passed. And I will add a fourth, the coming depression will kill small business owners and put more money, and therefore power, in the hands of large corporations.
There will be rage, but how much of it will come from propagandized right-wing lunatics?
I place the best chance for constructive rage in youth, but I don’t have a feel for how they will organize and assert power without overthrowing the systemic structures that stifle democracy now.
Baud
@Immanentize:
She got better.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
I tried to edit my earlier comment but got timed out. Lincoln re-used this text in his address to Congress.
Apologies.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not second-guessing everything; I’m second-guessing this one thing because Porter is objectively more qualified. It makes no sense to put a person with no financial system or Fed expertise on the bailout oversight committee instead of a person who has that experience in spades, plus sits on the other relevant House committees: financial services and oversight.
I trust Pelosi more than I trust almost any other politician, but she’s not infallible. This is one of her rare fuck-ups, IMO.
different-church-lady
@Immanentize:
No true Scotsm… uh, liberal!
Central Planning
@Immanentize:
That’s my new favorite… boomerism?
RobertDSC-Work
@brendancalling:
Same.
BobS
@Betty Cracker: Should have been Porter (who I hope will fill Feinstein’s senate seat- Democrats can do a lot better than her in California).
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
No problemo. I do try to vet stuff before posting. As Lincoln himself said, “Not everything you see on the Internet is true.”
Immanentize
@Baud: ?. Hopefully some of us did, too.
Mai naem mobile
@Emma from FL: you can say whatever you want about Bill Clinton but the vast vast majority of his appointees were smart, qualified and suited to their jobs. They definitely did not get their jobs solely because they supported him. Unlike Orange Dbag.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, Shalala has no experience running huge organizations. I’m sure she will be out of her depth and overwhelmed. Again, have you considered the possibility that Pelosi has something different in mind for Porter?
Duane
@bemused: The owner of Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, Johnny Morris opened the flagship store here. That Trump- humping prick has a huge on-line system and would continue making money piles if his stores never opened again. Boycott him and the other 1%’ers. Money is all they care about.
rp
@Betty Cracker: HHS oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I believe those are the biggest distributors of federal funds outside of the defense department.
BobS
@Duane: Opening the store was for symbolic purposes, not financial.
sherparick
John Cole, is this tape of your Governor real?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1257701739098226688
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: what are you talking about? Shalala has huge fed experience. She’s not an accountant, so what. Staff does that.
It looks like Schumer and Pelosi got together and decided on a really good pair with complimentary experiences with their two picks. Pelosi chose the federally experienced, and large organizational leader in Shalala. Schumer chose ex-Watren staffer Bharat Ramamutri, who is definitely a financial wiz, but not an elected official. So a very experienced and respected woman House member and a POC Democratic party rising star.
The Republicans picked two old white dudes — Toomey of Pennsylvania and French Hill (who?), congressman from AR.
I think our side made the much Better choices.
rp
@Betty Cracker: Shalala is more qualified. What does financial or fed expertise have to do with overseeing the distribution of federal funds? HHS and CMS spend a huge chunk of time thinking about the false claims act and people taking federal money unlawfully.
Patrianakos
@Jeffro: I like this. A lot. Too bad we don’t have a False Noise . . .
Wait a sec.
Mr. Bloomberg? You own a news channel. 5 PM Eastern is a dead spot in the daily business news cycle anyway. How about it?
Another Scott
@low-tech cyclist: They’re working, they’re just not in session.
Warning: Politico (from yesterday):
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@chopper:
Basically the whole GOP willing tied itself to shit for brains. And is sucking his ass like it’s free candy.
I don’t think a lot of the GOP that isn’t/didn’t attach itself to him will become democrats but I do think they will just be lost and looking for a new “better,” GOP, one that won’t say the bad parts out loud. Just like the one they thought they left.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: And the idea that how money is spent on a CORONA VIRUS RELIEF BILL has nothing to do with Health Care is plain nutso. 30 Billion of the CARES Act went quickly to health care providers. Then there is HHS Medicaid and Medicare divisions…. Think nursing homes. Think disability placements. Etc.
Steeplejack
@sherparick:
Har-de-har-har. It looks more like he glitched on “follow/can follow” as he was reading.
Another bullshit meme takes flight.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@danielx: You say it by saying that, make it into a math problem. It they are OK with 1or 3 or however many percent of the U.S. population dying ask them which people they know they are OK sentencing to death, you? your husband? Their kids? their parents? Their family doctor? And if the rate of deaths goes up and the people in essential and public facing jobs get sick, who exactly do they think is going to pick up their trash, stock the grocery shelves, drive the buses and trains that get people to work? work in the hospitals (there are a LOT more people working in hospitals than Drs and Nurses. My brother is a respiratory tech in a VA hospital, my nephew is an EMT in deep red TN, my friend is an EMT here in the Tri-State, my niece is a nurse in deep red Mississippi, my Sister in law is a nurse)
I have next to no patience left for supposedly good people who are so anxious to sacrifice others…
Duane
@BobS: Missouri’s empty-suit Gov. Parson made an appearance there today. The symbolism is what makes it so disgusting. Their ideology kills.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe because Donna Shalala oversaw HHS for Clinton? She knows the entire agency from the FDA to the CDC to CMS to the OIG very well.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
The most remembered instance here of the last time the wealthy forgot that while they have money, they don’t have the numbers was the French, and how well that worked out for them.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: Most of HHS’s responsibility is the disbursement of funds to federal programs. I don’t understand the distinction you are making. There are public health components, like the CDC, but CMS is almost totally about disbursing funds to private parties.
Emma from FL
@Mai naem mobile: Indeed. Not to mention that when it comes to running large organizations, including searching out waste, Shalala has definite expertise.
Gravenstone
@mrmoshpotato: I personally volunteer to walk up to each and every Republican WI Supreme Court justice and cough in their face for a full five minutes.
AFAIK, I am not contagious but I’d probably scare at least a couple of them to death.
Immanentize
@Central Planning: Thank you. I thought of it myself. Being an end of the boom baby, one must make the best of the situation we find ourselves in.
Immanentize
@different-church-lady: just fyi, we were discussing you a bit in the morning thread expressing concern and amazement (at the testing question).
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t say Shalala has “no experience running huge organizations;” I said she has no Fed experience or financial expertise. As to whether Pelosi has something bigger in mind for Porter, who knows? I hope so because Porter is excellent, especially at oversight.
@Immanentize: “Fed” as in “Federal Reserve,” i.e., the entity (along with the US Treasury) that this committee will oversee as it disburses trillions in taxpayer funds, not “fed” as in “federal government.” Not sure that it’s relevant that some of the funds will be disbursed to healthcare-related concerns; the committee’s remit is to study the economic impact, transparency in fund application and taxpayer costs and benefits — all functions that would seem to require financial expertise rather than agency operation or public health skills.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@brendancalling: Come sit 6 feet from me. I have withdrawn into re-reading books series I enjoy and trying to donate small amounts of $ when I can to try to flip the Senate. I never watch the news in real time anymore as I will either yell at the TV or throw something. I have withdrawn in to TV shows and old movies to distract myself. I go to work, come home, and I try to help my friends with food or money or what I can offer as they are way worse off than I am financially. But I can not believe I live on the same planet with people who think well of Trump or would even think of voting for him after all this.
Another Scott
@brendancalling: Hang in there. It will get better. You are not alone.
We know how to solve these problems, and we will.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@BobS:
This is sad and sobering. You would think that these people would know better, or be able to look at the evidence.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/41720-1
She’s a great pick, especially for such a small but so very important panel.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
BobS
@Another Scott:
So, if I understand correctly, the scoundrel’s plan is to only give money to people who’ve actually suffered a financial loss?
Bastards.
BobS
@Brachiator: Did I mention that they’re white?
germy
They must have been lying to her.
germy
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: The Fed does not distribute relief funds. Ok? That is why your point was so odd and easy to misunderstand. the “Fed” that you are now saying you were talking about is involved in monetary policy, not fiscal policy. Actual money, not Congressional budget decisions. They set monetary lending rates for the government, buy up US Treasury bonds as needed, and guarantee loans. They also infuse cash into the financial systems when needed to keep the banking/lending system from freezing up (hello banking holiday!). That is their power. They can print or tighten money flow.
What the relief bills do are aspects of fiscal policy, which the “Fed” intersects with but does not manage. The funds that have been allocated by Congress do NOT go to the Federal Reserve. Rather, they are earmarked for distribution by executive agencies. Like, for example, HHS.
The Commission that Shalala is on has little or nothing to do with or say about monetary policy which is the work of the still, thankfully, mostly independent Federal Reserve.
So by this misunderstanding of yours, I think we can say you have just argued that Katie Porter is not better suited to be in this group than Shalala.
Brachiator
@BobS:
Even so, this level of blindness is almost up there with an officer on the Titanic saying, “No, I don’t think that’s an iceberg.”
Immanentize
@Another Scott: I am worried that this panel will end up as so many blue ribbon commissions end up — doing nothing. Until January 2021!
I have not heard that McConnell and Pelosi have yet agreed upon the Chair. I nominate (no more am not kidding) Chief Justice Roberts.
BobS
@Brachiator: I don’t disagree about the (willful) blindness, but it’s probably more like holding the guy who hit the iceberg blameless.
Another Scott
@Immanentize: The Fed is doing stuff as well. See #150 above.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Jay: That is cool.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: FFS, she picked someone who is qualified for the job. She did not pick the flavor of the month among Internet liberals. I really don’t see any cause for complaint.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus:
Katie Porter = “flavor of the month”?
Yeah, okay.
Immanentize
@germy:
my very surprised, so very very surprised face:
?
Another Scott
@Brachiator: If they did say that, they weren’t blameless for thinking so.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/did-the-titanic-sink-because-of-an-optical-illusion-102040309/
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: The Fed is doing LOTS of stuff, but as I said it intersects with the relief monies, it does not manage them.
That release you site says the panel will report on the adequacy of the Fed. actions. They have little power to do anything else. In fact, an attempt to criticize Fed policy during the middle of this crisis would just give Trump a large excuse to fire the Chair and further stack it with know-nothings. Which I think will be dangerous. But the panel could have lots of power over distributions of Congressional allocations. Right? And perhaps procurement? That is my hope.
PS and way OT — last year I recall you gave a link to an outdoor umbrella place? Wasn’t that you? If so, could you please post it again? Thanks
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Er, “not blameless” is a bad phrasing there. “Not obviously to blame” is probably better.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Katie Porter is a lawyer, I checked her Wikipedia entry she does not have any experience in monetary policy or the Federal Reserve.
She is an expert in regulatory finance as it pertains to consumers like her mentor EW. I don’t see why she is better suited for this appointment than Donna S.
Immanentize
@BobS: I heart Katie Porter! And I hope that she does big things in her career, including join the Senate (although California has so many good possibilities, there, including Adam Schiff). I really like AOC and Davis and Pressley, etc. But let’s remember that all of them have been in the House for less than two years.
Jay
Another Scott
@Immanentize: My take is that they’re supposed to be watch-dogs. They don’t have the power to tell the Fed or anyone else what to do, their job is get information to report to Congress.
Yeah, it was me, talking about our California Umbrella in that thread.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Jay:
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: In this context, yes.
Jay
Immanentize
@schrodingers_cat: She has fewer credentials, IMO than Ramamutri (also a Warren mentee) in terms of how the government itself functions.
I think the Shalala/Ramamutri combo is really good and I cannot think of a better or more progressive one if Pelosi started with Porter. Who could Schumer then send from he Senate? It would have to be someone with some seniority to balance the Republican picks. But, there are no POC like that in the Senate…. So, all white people on a panel in a pandemic so harshly falling on POC? Bad look for the Democrats.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: I know they have a watch dog function. But they will always have way less power and influence over the Fed’s monetary policy (which I think is how it ought to be) than they will over a corrupt distribution of funds under their own institution’s fiscal policies.
And thank you! For the link and for not making me once again doubt my memory.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@BobS:
Have they said how their justifying still supporting Trump?
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Rosen’s observations on how the Trump regime effectively broke the media are amazing because he diagnoses the problem so precisely. We can’t have a functioning democracy if nobody even agrees on a baseline reality. And that’s exactly what Trump wants.
Is coronavirus real? Is it a hoax? Who knows? Go with what you feel!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@germy:
Uh, isn’t there some dispute on the legitimacy of Venezula’s “elected” government? Like, not just Trump flunkies but much of the international community? Still, a very bad timing and the wrong move
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: Right- not exactly what you wrote, but walk the affront back however makes you comfortable.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@jonas:
But there is a baseline reality that most Americans agree on. Polling bears this out. Most people say they don’t watch the coronavirus briefings w/ Trump because he’s not reliable
Jay
@germy:
it doesn’t appear to have been “supported” at all, and it was no “Bay of Pigs” Op.
Sadly just another delusional ex-SF clown enabled by the National Security Theatre to the point he thought he could be another William Walker.
The guy’s previous grift was “ex- SF, ex- PMC’s, ex-SWAT” to “advise and train” School Boards on al-Quida attacks and”active shooters”. Got bankrolled, then the money got pulled, stillgot Red State Contracts,
training facility was a filthy warehouse with no cots, no hots and portapotties, tactical weapons gear consisted of broomsticks.
BobS
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): China, the state government fucked-up, the hospital administration fucked-up (true), China, the CDC fucked up (probably true, with respect to the political appointees), we’re overcounting COVID19 deaths (really, as unbelievable as that is), ‘it’s not as bad as it could be’, China, etc.
It’s their tribe and they’re delusional.
Elizabelle
To remind: the South by Southwest films are on Amazon Prime, through tomorrow night. Link here.
I am going to watch the documentary about Johnny Cash’s first wife, Vivian, mother of Roseanne. 1 hour 30 minutes.
My Darling Vivian
Lot of good content to check out.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Okay, we get that, but if you start talking about the need to control entitlements we are going to reel you back in.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: Affront? Cry me a river.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
And just like that, my description of Dump was forever changed – he’s now a Soviet shitpile mobster conman who’s been sucking the Kremlin’s asshole like free candy since at least 1987.
Thank you sir.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: Describing Katie Porter as just “the flavor of the month” isn’t disrespectful?
If you say so.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@BobS:
Ok. Do these geniuses not understand that Trump appointed those in charge of the CDC? That in January, February and March was not only downplaying the virus as “just the flu”, but was praising China’s efforts? And what about injecting disinfectant into people?!
James E Powell
@different-church-lady:
I agree with you and it worries me. I haven’t seen anything to show that white people won’t continue to blame non-white people for all their problems. And FOX, Sinclair, and RW radio are certainly not going to allow white people’s rage to be directed at the rich.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James E Powell:
It doesn’t have to be all white people. Just enough.
Matt
@cmorenc: I’d guess 70% chance they have the Red State legislatures announce they’re skipping the popular vote for President and directly pledge their Electoral College votes to Dear Leader.
The Pale Scot
@germy:
Who do you think is buried under that staircase?
The Pale Scot
@Tony Jay:
And more so than here, the Tory’s voting bloc is going to be decimated in the classic, literal sense.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: No. Not in context. For example, if I randomly call you a fool that could be seen as disrespectful, but if I call you a fool in the context of this thread that is just an understandable response. Make sense?
BobS
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I know (and I forgot to mention the WHO, and also, China)- what makes it even more puzzling (and disheartening) is that most of “these geniuses” are in fact bright and kind and empathetic and talented people who work very hard at their (sometimes difficult) jobs.
FelonyGovt
I woke up at 5:30 this morning thinking about the Electoral College and realizing that our future depends on enough people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida (!) and a few other states realizing what a disaster Trump has been and being willing to get out and vote for Biden. Scary.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: You seem to have some experience with foolishness- I’ll defer to that.
Kent
Regarding Shalala vs Porter:
This sort of thing isn’t just about resume. Pelosi and her staff have access to a lot more information than we do. They know and keep track of which members are most engaged and productive. Which ask the most insightful questions and most dogged. Which are the best managers of committee staff. I expect they have lots of short-lists of members for a whole long list of duties based on criteria of which we are unaware. If Porter is a rising star and talent the Pelosi no doubt has plans for her.
She did a pretty damn good job with Schiff during impeachment and picking the House Managers. I trust her to know what she is doing until proven otherwise.
In any event, for this sort of oversight role, I’m guessing that 99% of the nitty gritty dirty work is going to be handled by staff attorneys and experts not the primary committee chairs. They will just provide direction, not comb through financial reports.
BobS
@Matt: That prospect is troublesome and not unrealistic given their disdain for democracy (we’ve seen it with the Republican legislature in Michigan).
Betty Cracker
@Immanentize: As implied by my earlier description of the committee’s remit (see #146), Fed expertise is absolutely relevant. Here’s a more official description of the committee and its oversight function:
@schrodingers_cat: As Wikipedia also notes, then-CA Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed Porter as a bank watchdog in a multi-billion-dollar mortgage settlement. As noted previously, Porter also sits on the House financial services and oversight committees; the former reviews programs and legislation related to the Fed, and the latter provides oversight. Sounds like super-relevant experience to me.
Tony Jay
@The Pale Scot: My uninformed guess, based on nothing more than my low opinion of their morality and cynical calculation, is that they think the tribulations of Brexit will intensify their racism-fueled hold on formerly traditional Labour voters across the North, while the return to power of the ‘moderate, centrist’ Right within Stamer’s Labour Party will repel many of the Left Wing voters who don’t much fancy playing whipping boy to the Blairite Bourbons who spent the last four years making sure Tories got elected.
Tight margins, but allied to their dominance over the Media and huge funding advantage, enough to give them a grip on enough seats to control Parliament in perpetuity…. Or at least until the remnants of the country are sold off to a consortium of billionaires as a fully-stocked theme park/hunting preserve.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think that Porter would have been a bad choice. OTOH I don’t think that Shalala was a bad choice either. As a result, I don’t see why anyone would call it out as a bad decision.
cmorenc
@Matt: @cmorenc:
While the precedent that would set if only states with hard-red electorates did that would be troubling enough in principle, in practical terms specific to the 2020 election, such a move would only have any potential substantive effect on the electoral vote if they attempted to implement it in purple swing states where the GOP only has the ability to do so because of gerrymandered state legislatures + either a GOP governor or a D governor lacking the power to effectively veto the legislature.
Wisconsin and North Carolina were, at least until recently, prime examples of states where this sort of maneuver could have been pulled off – both now have D governors, and in NC the GOP lost its veto-overriding supermajority in 2018. However, Arizona (moving quickly toward becoming a new swing state) still has both a GOP-majority legislature and governor.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus:
“…she picked someone who is qualified for the job. She did not pick the flavor of the month among Internet liberals.”
Bravo- an 8.5 on the Full Walkback.
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: Were you born stupid or have worked at it?
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: Were you born a waffler, or does it depend on the prevailing wind?
Omnes Omnibus
@BobS: Dude, I didn’t waffle. There is no inconsistency between thinking that Porter has flavor of the month popularity on the Internet and thinking that she is competent at her job.
Barry
@MomSense: “She could have had multiple sources for food.”
That’s an important thing. It could have been that the upscale store let her ‘glean’ because she was a good customer, buying a lot of expensive stuff for her employer. She also probably took every remotely edible leftover home.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
I’m a white people, an old one at that, and I rage against the wealthy all the time.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
Never said I wasn’t crude and rude, but I call em as I see em
Kent
@cmorenc: The problem is that in every state the November general election is about far more than just the president. Also, most red state legislatures are not in session. Some only meet every two years.
If we skip the November general election then many governors and entire state legislatures will cease to exist as their terms expire and there are no newly elected legislators to replace them. Most states don’t have any constitutional provisions to extend the terms of governors and legislators indefinitely if they cancel elections. Their terms of service will run out and they will become ordinary citizens again if they don’t get re-elected.
I expect they will try every voter suppression tactic in the book and many we haven’t though of yet. But there is no practical way to entirely cancel the election. The House of Representatives also has to certify the results of the electoral college and it is in Democratic hands.
BobS
@Omnes Omnibus: (Dude), you’ve convinced yourself, and that’s what’s important.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Maduro and his Congress changed the Constitution enough to “rig” a win under the new rules which gave the “poors” more representation. Not illegal. Then the ususal South American Strongman shenanigans along with a Plutocratic boycott was pulled during the election.
Maduro has the support of the Military, the Police, the Crony Capitalists and the poors to stay in power. That last group disqualifies Maduro for the traditional American/Western Support for Latin American Dictators.
The “other guy”, Guadio, has the support of the Llutocrats, some of the Middle class, but mostly American Wingnuts who love “Their Dictator” du jour.
To sum up, Maduro is pretty much as “legitimate” as every other South/Central American Strongman, except that he’s not pro-American and espouses support for the “poors”.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve explained in detail why I think Porter is obviously a better choice for that particular role. You didn’t find my arguments persuasive: shruggies. I do want to note I have nothing at all against Shalala.
low-tech cyclist
IOW, because the Dems can’t do everything, they should throw away what agency they have, do nothing, and be as invisible as they can make themselves.
Fuck you, and fuck that attitude.
low-tech cyclist
@Betty Cracker:
I assume they’re lollygagging because they’re practically invisible, as far as I can see. There’s a shitload of stuff to be mad as hell about right now, starting with 70,000 corpses and working from there, but to the extent that one hears from Dems at all, they’re being their usual bloodless selves.
Take the PPE profiteers, just for one example: Dems should be screaming that these people should spend the rest of their lives in the skankiest prison in the United States.
And if they’re going to vote on the proxy deal, why do they need to take care of a lot of business in one day? They could have voted on that weeks ago, and been passing bills and holding hearings ever since.
(I think they blew the opportunity to actually *pass* another relief bill, since the only thing Mitch still wants from the Dems is to exempt employers from liability, which they’d better not give him. But that’s water under the bridge now. All they can really do with legislation is pass bills and do their best to embarrass the Senate for its failure to act. But they should do that much. You use the agency you’ve got, even if you don’t have the agency you’d like to have.)
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: I just found your comments in Spam. I released the first one and deleted the other two.
Not sure what caused you to be thrown in there. Sorry!
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: We must peruse different news sources because I see plenty of Dems denouncing Trump, calling out the admin’s stupidity and corruption, righteously blaming Trump & Co. for letting the pandemic get out of control and causing tens of thousands of needless deaths, etc.
As for the proxy deal, I don’t have any special insights into the timing of the return, but from what I’ve read, they reached that agreement fairly recently and have been working on another relief bill for weeks prior to that, with a plan to return to the Capitol in May.
We’ll see what happens with a relief bill, but I suspect there will be another one whether McConnell wants it or not because Trump wants to get reelected and knows he’s screwed if more Americans don’t get help. I think it’s the right move for the Dems to come out with their own bill to serve as the starting point of negotiations. YMMV.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
you beat me to it. I just saw that Nancy Pelosi is going to be on the Ari Melber show later today– I hope someone sat Ari down and told him to severely limit his attempts to be funny and hip-hop hip (What did Adam call him? Grand Master /something Yiddish-speaking grandmothers call their five year old grandsons/…. anyway). I don’t watch CNN and I swear I’ve seen Pelosi on MSNBC at least every other day. Adam Schiff, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Sheila Jackson Lee, Angus King, Tammy Duckworth, Eric Swalwell, Jamie Raskin, Elizabeth Warren… off the top of my head these are the Dems I’ve seen on my (admittedly limited) TV watching in the last couple of weeks. And that’s focussing on Congress, not counting the various governors. This doesn’t include stuff I’ve seen on-line or heard on the radio
As is often the case with complaints about “WHY AREN”T THE DEMS SAYING X”, is that the Dems are saying X, and voters aren’t responding the way the complainers think voters should respond. I agree with the should, I just don’t blame the people who led the horses to the water.
karensky
@Betty Cracker: I am with you and Jay Rosen. I worked in community organizing and retail electoral politics for years and the level of the use of propaganda and the mushy response of the press since Obama was elected are certainly new to me.
I often say to my friends and relatives that I am “feeling pitchforky” but today I am ready to buy one at my local hardware store. All this chaos around “models” related to Covid 19 death tolls has made me feel like a lab animal as I am in the expendable cohort, I.e. 75 years old and living in a very Blue city. Of course there are many of us expendables in Philly, a majority minority municipality.
I know I will snap out of this in a couple of days but $35 for a pitchfork sounds good to me. I will leave the torches and tar to others and be my shabby self.
MoxieM
Welp, I’ll say this again where nobody will read it (takes me a loooong time to get the dog fed, the trash out and all the necessaries of life.) Anyway:
My dearly beloved daughter lives in Germany, on the permanent. She has a white collar job, but no permanent residency card ( =green card) … yet. Still she’s been there 6 years so it’s coming. She has been working from home 1 or 2 days a week for the last year anyway, but when the plague hit, she’s all from home. However, her hours got cut to 50%. The German Government makes up the difference to 80% of her regular salary. She has her full health benefits (extraordinary), subsidized transit, etc. So, not a citizen, not even a “permanent resident” as such, and she gets 30% of her salary from the State.
Oh, there’s more, so much more, but I think that’s enough to indicate what humane (how weird, right?) nations do for their workers because they want people to be, you know, productive!
Andrew Johnston
I am very late to the party, but there’s something I really should point out:
This is incorrect. If you read the article a little more closely, you’ll see that the 31% of people didn’t pay rent between April 1st and April 5th. 91.5% of people paid rent in April.