When you order something online versus when it arrives pic.twitter.com/BtQFxGrMPt
— Stone (@stonecold2050) July 24, 2020
Mitch McConnell is a world-class obstructionist, and is competent at accomplishing high priority goals around which his conference is unified, and is otherwise a sub-replacement-level legislative leader. Harry Reid he ain't.
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) July 24, 2020
Headline in the Washington Post‘s Business Section — “McConnell says stimulus deal could take ‘a few weeks,’ putting millions with expiring jobless aid in limbo”:
With days to go before enhanced jobless benefits expire, the White House and Senate Republicans are struggling to design a way to scale back the program without overwhelming state unemployment agencies and imperiling aid to more than 20 million Americans.
The hang-up has led to an abrupt delay in the introduction of the GOP’s $1 trillion stimulus package. The White House and Democrats have said they want a deal by the end of the month, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested Friday that reaching an agreement could take several weeks, a timeline that could leave many unemployed Americans severely exposed.
“Hopefully we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks,” McConnell said at an event in Ashland, Ky.
Part of the problem stems from a push by administration officials and GOP lawmakers to reduce a $600 weekly payment of enhanced federal unemployment benefits. The White House and the GOP disagree about how to do this, and talks remain highly contentious. They hope to release a proposal early next week…
After convulsing in March and April when the coronavirus pandemic shut down large parts of the United States, the economy showed signs of regaining its footing before sliding again in recent weeks. The effects of numerous stimulus programs appear to be wearing off, and the pace of layoffs has picked up again. Layoffs that many Americans thought would be temporary have dragged on and become permanent, particularly as new cases of the novel coronavirus surge in parts of the country.
This has put enormous pressure on state unemployment programs, which typically pay out about 45 percent of a worker’s prior wages. In March, Congress approved the $600-per-week emergency bonus for every unemployed worker on top of that traditional payment, funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to newly jobless Americans as the pandemic hit the country.
That federal benefit, being received by more than 20 million people, is to expire at the end of this month. And the expiry comes as a federal eviction moratorium also is ending, creating a dynamic that could greatly stress cash-strapped families.
In practice, the coming lapse in the jobless benefit means millions of workers are receiving their last enhanced benefit payment this week…
The proposed legislation could come on Monday, a lag that has prompted scorching criticism from congressional Democrats who have been demanding action for months. Congress has not passed any coronavirus relief legislation since approving four bipartisan bills in March and April that pumped around $3 trillion into the economy. McConnell wanted to wait to see how the unemployment benefits and other programs approved in that unprecedented stimulus effort played out before taking additional action.
“This weekend, millions of Americans will lose their unemployment insurance, will be at risk of being evicted from their homes, and could be laid off by state and local government, and there is only one reason: Republicans have been dithering for months while America’s crisis deepens,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a joint statement Friday.…
congrats mitch you did it! https://t.co/4fzknAOR5z
— kilgore trout, new tone haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) July 24, 2020
This will end up being the worst of all worlds for Republicans — a big relief bill will still pass, but they will undermine its political benefits by taking away people's UI benefits as people are starting to think about the election, and get no concessions they couldn't get now
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) July 24, 2020
Nah Trump will sign anything that gets put on his desk. It's getting Senate Republicans on board for a bill acceptable to Democrats that's hard, but waiting until the last minute doesn't actually help with that.
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) July 24, 2020
Cream of the jest (assuming you can disregard all the innocents suffering here): The GOP will absolutely use McConnell as the scapegoat, once Trump has been safely confined to the flaming garbage dumpster of history. Not *our* fault — just that Mitch dude, who didn’t know how to legislate properly!
MCCONNELL: CARES 2 will not waste the American people’s time with go-nowhere socialist fantasies. We aren’t choreographing political stunts or teeing up the same old partisan trench warfare.
— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) July 24, 2020
He is utterly incompetent and deserves to lose the majority. https://t.co/Ry1ao5rt5V
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) July 24, 2020
Baud
Hopefully, Kentucky will do the right thing for once.
Matt
Not really: he gets to monkeywrench the judiciary for the next few decades, and then dump a plague-ridden country in a depression onto his opposition.
Criticizing McConnell for failing to lead is like criticizing the manager of a bust-out for being fiscally irresponsible: the damage is the GOAL.
Derelict
Moscow Mitch made his reputation on one thing: Being obstructionist. That is all he really knows how to do. Block progress on anything and everything. Confirming judges at breakneck speed is a complete no-brainer since neither he nor Trump actually picks the judges and no Republican would ever vote against any Federalist Society pick. But McConnell’s now waaaay outside his abilities, and has been since Trump’s elevation to the presidency. McConnell has to get his caucus to actually think about legislation, to work together to craft something that works, and to move the results forward. Nothing in his experience or their philosophy allows for that. It’s like asking your cat to fix your refridgerator.
Derelict
@Matt: +1
Brachiator
JFC! The Republicans are a bunch of morons. Trump is obsessed with “getting things back to normal.” Right wing plutocrats believe that if you give people an extra crumb of unemployment compensation, they will stay home and roll around on their beds in their “lavish” unemployment benefits and not rush out to take shitty jobs in workplaces that might kill them or their loved ones.
However, this shit is bigger than deciding whether to throw a few coins at the unemployed. The federal government needs to find a way to help support businesses, individuals and state and local governments, re-ignite the economy, mitigate the effects of the virus and find a goddam effective vaccine.
ETA: I think the government goes on recess August 10. They don’t have a whole lot of time to get anything done.
oatler.
From The Guardian:
As Trump continues to stoke the fires of conflict his unidentified paramilitary troops lurch at shadows on Portland’s streets. Trump is hoping to encourage & incite violence in more northern cities from Chicago to New York as he believes his bluster will impress americans enough to deliver him another 4 year term in the white house.
New Deal democrat
@Matt: Disagree. The headline tweet is correct. McConnell deliberately dawdled for the past two months, calculating that he could jam the House Democrats up by passing a Senate bill right at the deadline loaded with poison pills. That way he could force them to accept the RW GOP Senate plan, or else take the heat for the end of the $600/week emergency unemployment benefits.
Instead it backfired, as his own caucus was completely disunited on any plan of their own. So the House passed the benefit, and the GOP has countered with — nothing.
This is going to play out just like the government shutdown did 18 months ago. There will be loud howls of pain from ordinary people, and it will all come down on the heads of Trump and the GOP.
McConnell may be an evil genius, but as they say, even Homer nods, and he did so now. This is likely to cement the GOP losing the Senate. I’d really like to see polling in some of the secondary races, because I suspect there are several competitive seats that we don’t even know about yet.
evodevo
@Baud: I wouldn’t count on THAT lol..outside of Louisville and Lexington, the electorate is pretty solidly fundagelical MAGAt. What we have to do is take the Senate…then Moscow Mitch will be relegated to minority status, and no longer able to obstruct. We did it for two years after the Crash. Maybe we can pull it off now…I sincerely hope so.
And, yes, +10 to Matt – that’s exactly it
Mary G
The media is still bothsiding this even though it’s completely the Republicans’ fault. I’m not sure even the low-info voters are buying that.
Brachiator
@Derelict:
I think you missed when the Republicans passed legislation that significantly re-wrote the tax code from top to bottom and reinforced the advantages given to the wealthy.
The emergency stimulus package also included more tax cuts for the top tier.
Same is true of some of the proposals which will be part of this latest relief bill.
McConnell has also perfected the art of making sure that only Republicans get to draft legislation. Bipartisanship is out the window. The Democrats typically get a small window to react and respond to any legislation. Meanwhile their own proposals are preemptively rejected by the Senate.
Obstructionist Mitch is also happy to let Trump attempt to wreak havoc by executive branch policy and presidential executive orders, bypassing legislative action. This is not always effective, not while there are any rational judges, but the GOP is working on eviscerating an effective and fair court system.
Brachiator
@Mary G:
The media accepts as the new normal that the White House and GOP leadership drafts all major legislation while deliberately excluding Democrats.
And then Democrats are accused of being obstructionist if they do not meekly sign onto whatever the GOP presents to them.
donnah
The GOP sees people on unemployment or SNAP as leeches on society, sucking up their money. Republicans believe that the poor and working poor try to work as little as possible and should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and earn a living, regardless of the circumstances. And although the virus has crippled so many businesses, the GOP feels that those shiftless shop and restaurant employees should open back up and revive their economy.
The temporary protections against evictions expired, too, so those living on unemployment may well be out on the street soon. Republicans believe that the poor folks aren’t going to vote at all, and if they do vote, they’ll vote for Democrats, so starving them or forcing them back to jobs that might kill them is a win/win. They’ll be off the “public dole”.
But Republicans are going to drive away a lot of people who do vote, because they’ll see what the Republicans are doing and recognize that driving the poor out of their homes creates an even bigger disaster. And seeing the disasters unfolding without any efforts to stop them is going to fall squarely in Republican laps, especially Moscow Mitch’s.
Danielx
I commented a while back that it must be exhausting to spend as much time in a rage as Trump apparently does – I mean, seems like two or three times a week there’s an article about how he’s in a rage about something.
If I was in any way capable of sympathy for the miserable bastard, I could sympathize with him. Because being at a simmer (at best) all the time is flat wearing my ass out.
Ken
Half right.
Marcopolo
Good morning folks. I spend a few minutes after waking up looking at Portland protest twitter feeds. The size of the protest there is still growing. In addition to the wall of moms and the wall of dads with leaf blowers there is now also a wall of veterans. This is a pretty good twitter feed to see what happened last night and the 15 second video attached to this tweet is particularly powerful, almost all of the protesters in sight holding up there phones with lit screens in a moment of silence:
Still in belief that none of the surges of federal shadow troops to American cities will work the way the idiots in the White House are hoping for.
Nicole
I laugh (tinged with a bit of frustration) to see Harry Reid get the props now that he deserved, but never got, while he was Minority Leader. He was a terrific politician and we are the poorer for him no longer being in the Senate boxing ring.
mrmoshpotato
LOL stonecold2050!
mrmoshpotato
Dems have the upper hand in the “Not wanting people to suffer” contest.
Hoocoodanoed!
Baud
@Nicole:
Yep. I remember when the conventional wisdom was that Reid was incompetent because he couldn’t turn Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman into flaming liberals.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
That’s usually our Achilles Heel.
Ken
That’s so they can go home and campaign. Wonder what that’s going to look like? Republicans were avoiding town halls before the pandemic because people were hostile.
Course for some, including McConnell, “campaigning” means accepting large checks from out-of-state donors, so they’ll be business as usual.
Amir Khalid
@Danielx:
Let me just throw this out there: frequently getting angry is a sign of depression. There is a lot in Trump’s current situation for him to get depressed about.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: I’m all for beating Upchuck Todd’s nuts with a baseball bat – both (sides) of ’em!
jonas
Vulnerable GOP senators have to just be *loving* this. Maybe they had a chance here to put a little daylight between themselves and Trump by putting together a sensible relief package that they could go back home and campaign on (“I know the president’s a little rough around the edges, but hey, look what I voted for!”), but now McConnell (and whackjob GOP senators in safe seats) are going to screw that up for them, too.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
@Baud:
True
But the Pandemic has changed that.
Same way that Biden’s strength is his inherent decency.
When contrasted against the GOP, it just becomes obvious ?
Kay
@Marcopolo:
The proof that the “violent anarchists” framing of Homeland Security and DOJ is politically motivated bullshit is in what they’ve turned up. They’ve been picking up protesters for days now and they haven’t turned up a single weapon- not one. Not a knife, not a gun, not anything that can be described as an explosive. They’re posting pictures of gas masks and shields taken from protesters because they haven’t found anything else when they detain and search these people. The only thing these people are carrying is gear to defend against the federal troops.
They’re reduced to claiming that “frozen water bottles” are the weapons. I’ll need to see the “frozen water bottle”, BTW. It sounds a lot like the “cement milkshake” nonsense they made up.
If they had ANYTHING on these people they could possibly trump up they would have displayed it on their pro-Trump press releases.
You would find more weapons in a random search of any 100 people in this county than Trump’s thugs have found when they detain and search those protestors. They’re a remarkably weapon FREE, bunch, actually.
mrmoshpotato
Dance (Mosh) Monkey
rikyrah
@jonas:
Reducing Unemployment to $100/week when 51 MILLION have filed for it since the beginning of the Pandemic.
Good luck with that ?
Barbara
@jonas: Any one of them could stand up now and be counted. They deserve a fate as grim as the one they are inflicting on their constituents and their moment of grace and my regret is that they won’t. Fuck every one of them.
Brachiator
@Ken:
RE: government recess
I wonder if there will be any Zoom town halls? Or if GOP politicians will use the pandemic as an excuse to duck out on meeting with constituents.
Collecting their bags full of money from donors is an essential part of the legislative process.
Kay
@Marcopolo:
And, remember, they want to charge these people with something. They’re picking them up, detaining them and searching them hoping to come up with a serious charge. They’re not finding weapons. If they did find weapons they would push it out to every media outlet in the country to promote the “violent anarchist” political framing they’re all reciting like trained parrots.
They’re also surveilling them. They’re watching them night after night hoping to find some evidence of some kind of “anarchist cell” coordination or communication that they could possibly massage and bump up to a serious federal charge and still…nothing.
WereBear
@donnah:
Not just the poor. Casa WereBear was in the middle class, even if by our fingernails. My job has gone away, and I’m not at all sure when it will come back.
I am far from the only one. Unless you are making more money under lockdown (and even with the $600 I’m not) most will be suffering in similar ways.
WereBear
Why he’s hooked on various forms of speed.
Kay
@Marcopolo:
My advice to the protestors (and it’s worth what they’re paying for it) is to go home. Because Trump’s federal police force are going to be under ever-increasing political pressure from their leaders in the Trump Administration to find serious charges to put on these people, to justify this campaign stunt.
That happens with corrupt local police and it will happen here. They announced at the outset that these people are “violent anarchists”. They’re going to be under increasing pressure to make that be true.
Martin
Mitch deserves all the scorn we can heap on him, but Trump is holding up the Covid bill in part because he wants a new FBI HQ across from his hotel, Rand Paul thinks that Liz Cheney is some batshit liberal, and QAnon is primarying them out of office because they refuse to accept that every business in the US is a sex trafficking camp.
Passing legislation with a GOP majority is like trying to defuse a bomb when everyone is on acid. Actually, it might be harder.
debbie
@Brachiator:
A clever strategizer would realize the jobs have to be there before the unemployment benefits can be removed or reduced.
They have it ass backwards. It seems like they are trying to alienate as many people as possible while they please their base, but they haven’t realized their base isn’t enough to win elections.
debbie
@Kay:
If they can make them felons, they won’t be able to vote in November.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Actually that would be reducing the additional unemployment from the Feds to $100/ week.
Still stupid.
rikyrah
WereBear
Podcast 556 of The Professional Left (which I highly recommend) outlines “the timing problem,” exampled by Tom Delay. Gosh, I remember when he was A Glorious Leader and David Brooks crafted a “problem” in his name. Because if Brooks blames Republicans, The Candyman will come for him.
The timing problem is upon Senate Republicans now. It’s all going to downhill like a mountain freight train with no brakes or switchbacks, but if they jump too soon, they will be made an example of. If they jump too late, they will go down with the train.
Too bad. So sad.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Wow! I just heard it reported that Portland now has a Wall of Vets. That’ll be sure to eat at Trump.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
Actually, jobs or not, unemployment is capped at a certain # of weeks unless Congress appropriates extended benefits as they did in ’09
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Derelict: Right. It’s easy to say that the Rs are divided, so anyone trying to lead them in either chamber would have problems. Ask John Boehner. But Pelosi manages her House caucus well, and that’s not easy either.
MomSense
I think I miss tan suit Obama the most. It’s no wonder Republicans were mad. He looked damn good in that suit.
Ken
@debbie: Jeez, you beat up one Navy veteran and suddenly you’re the bad guys…
Kay
@Marcopolo:
When the political hack and former lobbyist who heads up Homeland Security announces prior to the invasion that the protestors are “violent anarchists” before a single Trump troop has landed in Portland the protestors should be very concerned that the political hack will make that be true after he lands and starts picking them up. He had them charged, tried and convicted before he ever laid eyes on them. They have to find something to justify that characterization, and they will.
The FBI had to put a statement yesterday that they don’t investigate based on “ideology”, probably in response to Republicans in Congress calling these people “Marxists” in what seems to be a justification for arresting them.
Nicole
Well, in the right wing plutocrats’ defense, that’s all their useless children that have never had to work a day in their lives do, so they’re going from their own personal observation.
Ken
@MomSense: So is that the tan suit that people were fussing about? Aside from the fact that he does look good in it, it doesn’t read as tan to me, more grey. Maybe it’s “The Dress” all over again.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
thanx to MarcoPolo
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Only rank amateurs would have done that. ?
Frankensteinbeck
This is world class damning with faint praise.
Trump is a coward, weak and spineless like no one I have ever seen before. If McConnell gives him a bill and says “Sign it,” Trump will sign it. Congress ignoring what Trump demands in spending bills – almost the only thing that gets passed in McConnell’s senate – is the norm.
This gives McConnell way too much credit.
When a man tells you who he is, believe him. He delayed because he’s an asshole and he hates helping people. If ‘leverage’ was on his mind at all, it was an excuse.
@Matt:
McConnell doing his job right includes him remaining Majority Leader. Everyone who has known him says that is the #1 thing his life is devoted to. If the Senate is in play, he has proven his incompetence. Period. He can’t balance his #1 goal with his #2 goal, fucking over the American people as much as possible.
@Derelict:
McConnell could get at least half his caucus to vote for the Democrats’ bill, just to save their own necks. He could hand Trump a veto-proof majority easily. He’s an asshole and the idea is unbearable to him.
Aleta
@Ken: And Black was what they meant.
Danielx
@WereBear:
And I don’t have a staff spending a significant portion of their time trying to find ways to improve my mood, either! Unfair!
Kay
@debbie:
If you think Bill Barr is corrupt- and I do- well, Bill Barr is the attorney general of the United States. So if you think Bill Barr is corrupt you have to be concerned that the people they pick up and charge in Portland will not be treated fairly. “Bill Barr is corrupt” has consequences in the work that the DOJ does. It doesn’t exist all by itself. The thing is a sum of its parts. It’s only as high quality as the individuals who make it up. “The institution” doesn’t remain the same when you change and cheapen and corrupt the people who make it up. It’s not abstract. It’s a group of people. Worse people = worse entity. Always.
debbie
@Kay:
Always, goddammit.
NotMax
Departing the plane of despair for a moment (it is the weekend after all), this coming Friday The Umbrella Academy 2 drops on Netflix.
So long as they have limited themselves to the number of redonkulous flaws and shopworn cliches of the first series this old fart for one expects to be tickled in the neighborhood of pinkish. Glossy escapism for escapism’s sake.
MoCA Ace
Comparing McConnell to cats? At times like this I’m glad my cat can’t read… Why do you hate cats so much?
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Or Nazis.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
…for a different plain of despair.
(I look forward to it, but bundle of joy, it ain’t.)
Danielx
Note: yogurt kitties approve of peach yogurt!* Who knew?
*Also bacon.
Marcopolo
@Kay:
Back from my morning walk. I’m in agreement w/ almost everything you’re saying except the going home part. Instead, I’d like to see more coordinated protest activity like a mass die in or just folks sitting en masse for fifteen minutes each hour. Hell, I’d love to see groups of protesters do an impromptu square dance or setting up a bunch of tables so protesters can play cards or board games. Anyway, those would be two different approaches: one, just bearing witness; the other, being non Chaka the and having fun in the face of the federal troops.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Portland protests has been an outfit called Riot Ribs. They’ve been cooking & feeding folk, often in clouds of teargas, for almost the entire time. It’s a real show of strength & perseverance.
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
It’s the banter that fuels it. Without that it would sink like a dead shark.
Spanky
@Marcopolo: I agree. There is genius in some of the responses. The dads with leaf blowers is funny as hell because it’s such a dad thing to do, and is effective in both mitigating the gas and in mocking authority. Bring on more like that.
What was it called, the Doodah Parade? bring that to protests.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: Have been thinking how those flash bangs must be especially hard to bear for vet protesters or neighbors who experienced roadside bombs or combat, or people who’ve come from countries at war.
And how the dogs, cats, wildlife in the neighborhood must be suffering. My dog and cat with anxiety would never recover.
The way Portland protesters are fighting for our right to assemble by going out night after night into abusive damaging force to march — words fail.
Gvg
The GOP caucus still does not understand the basic science of the pandemic. They talk about the horror of people staying home and not going out to get a job when that is actually what is best for society at this unusual time. They are not adjusting to the temporary idea that that is a good thing right now because they are afraid it will become a new normal. They are idiots. Anybody who has brains can tell the difference between this crisis and all the others in our lifetime. It is not setting a pattern for other economic times. What is best now, isn’t what would be best in all the other economies I have experienced in my lifetime. Maybe it would help people if they actually said this is virus time, not normal capitalism time, but they can’t adapt.
MoCA Ace
This! The economy of the wealthy is entirely dependent on the masses consuming their cheap imported shit, competing with cheap labor to produce our own cheap shit, and rent seeking. The whole scheme breaks down when we decide to stay home and stop consuming.
It was brave and manly for the shrub to climb a pile of rubble and tell us all to keep shopping. Trumps self-made for TV moment requires him to mount a pile of corpses to deliver the same message. It saddens and amazes me that so many continue to nod along.
Kay
@Marcopolo:
I worry about them as individuals. They’re really young and in my experience young people often don’t think about how serious and really perilous it is to be inside the justice system. If we’re saying the Homeland Security troops and/or DOJ are politicized that has consequences for the individuals they pick up and charge. Those individuals. You can’t say the police action is politicized and then assume they’ll get fair treatment and due process. That just isn’t how it works. There’s a reason it can’t be politicized. That’s the reason. The reason it can’t be politicized is individuals won’t be treated fairly. Due process protects an individuals rights. “Politicized” in the justice system is just a polite word for “corrupt”. Corrupted. By politics. It could be “corrupted by bribes” or “corrupted by nepotism”, but it’s all “corrupted” and it all means the same thing for individual suspects or defendants. It means they won’t be treated fairly.
Marcopolo
Going out to mow now, but just wanted to share that my octogenarian mom, for whom I will be in quarantine for through next Spring, asked me yesterday when she could vote for the general election. She wants to vote NOW! Is chomping at the bits. It’s definitely a first. If she is any indication of sentiment out there a whole shit ton of folks want to get out there and cast their votes ASAP—no waiting till actual Election Day. And she is one person who doesn’t trust if she casts an absentee ballot for something to happen to it. So we’ll be early voting the first or second week in Oct. Nine or ten weeks.
Have a good Saturday everyone.
MoCA Ace
@Danielx: Trust me it is. I will never forgive these people for what they have done and what they have brought out in me.
Spanky
@Kay: The upside, such as it is, is that the Trump regime is growing a young crop of human rights activists that will be around for decades.
donnah
@WereBear: I hear you. My husband has his job still, working from home, but all of my workshops have been cancelled and we’re being pinched pretty hard. And if things don’t turn around soon, we will have to make some hard decisions. They don’t call us “starving artists” for nothing.
gene108
Boehner and Ryan had the same problem when they were Speaker, and had to get the most basic legislation passed, like a budget.
Republicans are incapable of governing. They can obstruct the Democrats agenda, they can launch partisan investigations solely for political gain, and make noises about whatever outrage right-wing media promotes.
Otherwise, they are utterly useless.
Like the fact Trump is not a singularly unique phenomenon, but in many ways is the embodiment of mainstream Republican thought on immigration, international institutions, etc., but just does it in a less refined way, McConnell’s current troubles getting legislation passed has been with the GOP since the Tea Party wave of 2010 reversed their losses from 2008.
It does not matter, who the GOP has in charge, because Republicans are incapable of governing
EDIT: I wish instead of only slagging on McConnell, the media figures out and reports about how broken Republicans are and slags on everybody
Kay
@Spanky:
The constant filming they do is a protection for them that comforts me. I watched video of a young woman dancing in front of them yesterday. Ok, beats me why she’s dancing- it’s to get under their skin, I assume, but it’s not illegal to dance in the vicinity of a Homeland Security agent. But they did arrest her and the video is clear as day- she didn’t touch them or threaten them in any way. I think they will charge with her one of the “disobey” offenses- not following an order but that’s all they possibly have on her, even with the trumping up to federal charges that they’re doing.
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
Still maintain they brought Robert Sheehan aboard with instructions to play it as he did Nathan in Misfits – but tone it down about 50%.
;)
JPL
Heather Cox Richardson has a daily update and the latest pointed out that those who are evicted seldom vote.
The NY times has an article about how after promises made by the FBI, they were forced to declassify information which could lead to the unmasking of the Russian who provided Steele with information. Hell is to good a place for those who do Putin’s work. link
lawnorder
wtf is the Trump goon using ? That looks lethal
https://twitter.com/GriffinMalone6/status/1286962235110125569
Dorothy A. Winsor
We got word yesterday that the resident here with COVID is recovering at home with mild symptoms. Everyone who came in contact with that person is in quarantine at home for 14 days. No one yet shows symptoms.
As a fellow old person, I found the “mild symptoms” part comforting.
Kay
@Spanky:
You see the politicized nature of the arrests in the subjective nature of the charges. To disobey an order the order has to be given, and the Trump police decide what orders to give and who to give them to.
So, for example, none of the Right wing protestors at the Michigan statehouse were arrested for not following an order because the statehouse security didn’t give them any. They never ordered them to back up when they were right in police faces screaming at them. No order, no disobeying an order, no charges. In Portland? They’re issuing orders. Hence they can now arrest on disobeying one.
Aleta
@Marcopolo: I saw the images from Riot ribs and a reporter to show that (at least two nights) feds tore up their coolers and supplies, threw food on the ground and coated supplies with pepper spray to make them unusable.
That and the GOP’s need to lie about anarchy, rioting and ‘out-of-control’ shows they know they are losing and are determined to provoke, instigate and fake events that will justify ‘collateral damage’ (that military phrase meant to excuse attacks on civilians or avoid words like war crimes).
WereBear
@JPL:
In normal times.
In Pandemic times that could be anyone who used to work and is now worrying about their unemployment ending.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Good isn’t really the right qualifier – label it decent news.
Aleta
@Kay: Thanks clarifying this and the other things you explain. Really helpful.
rikyrah
JPL
@rikyrah: We are going to have drop off points just for absentee ballots. I think that is what I’m going to do. Since trump took over the post office, I’m no longer comfortable with sending it by mail.
Spanky
@WereBear: Those who are evicted no longer have a fixed address and cannot be a registered voter, amirite?
H.E.Wolf
As a database volunteer, I’ve noticed that men have begun to sign up in significant numbers as campaign volunteers in our state.
They were scarce as hens’ teeth in 2017-2019 – women were about 75% of the volunteers in our state during that interval. The sign-ups in the past few weeks have a male participation rate up near 40%. It’s good to see it!
rikyrah
NotMax
@JPL
Post Office is a royal fustercluck right now. Cigar reorder placed at the supplier in Florida on the 13th and sent Priority Mail made it as far as Sacramento on the 19th. Since then, no information of any kind. It may be headed to Proxima Centauri for all I know.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I keep wondering what happened to the fearful faced girl getting grabbed (the blonde from the photograph from behind the PDX fence).
Is she safe? Why’d they grab her?
JPL
@NotMax: It’s working like the new Post Master General intended.
Martin
Just had to put our dog down. Been a long day. Lost another pet a week ago. This year is breaking me.
NotMax
@JPL
Mom in NY mentioned that she sent her VISA payment out six days before the due date and it took 10 days to get there. She got them to reverse the late payment charge, and I advised her to pay it in person at the local bank branch for the forseeable future, which she agreed was a capital idea.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@lawnorder:
Regarding PDX injunctions, it occurs to me that
1) Judges who mire a beleaguered populace in the pathetic illusion of due process and torturous definitions of standing deserve to have their courthouses burned down, preferably with themselves inside.
2) Portland officials could deny the goons the privilege of forward defense and dispersal of gas/pepperballs beyond the confines of the strict property lines. “Your gas hits the sidewalk or streets, we’re locking your asses up on local charges. You can only pursue specific targets for charges, but we expect you to be carrying your paperwork showing your power of arrest”.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Martin: I’m so sorry, Martin.
JPL
@Martin: Hugs.
Josie
@Martin:
I’m so sorry. So hard to weather these things even in good times.
Salty Sam
The only way change can happen when a system has gotten as bad as ours is when people stand up to it no matter the consequences.
Our government is suffering a crisis of legitimacy, and only when enough people stand up to it and refuse to let fear of consequences deter them can the possibility of change happen.
Yes, some will be hurt. Lives will be affected. But that’s the point. Portland gives me hope.
Sab
@Ken: Taupe.
NotMax
@Sab
Taupe is beige with an inflated sense of self.
;)
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Oh, I’m so sorry!
Amir Khalid
@Martin:
That’s hard, to lose two furry members of the family in consecutive weeks. My condolences.
Salty Sam
@Martin: Condolences- one of the hardest experiences to go through. Hope this helps:![]()
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trollhattan
Tan suit comparo FTW.
Aleta
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: She was released I read. Terrorizing protestors in front of cameras seems like a strategy to make people in other cities hesitant to leave their houses .
Sab
@Kay: Thank you for saying this. They just charged 19 people with serious felony charges for basically just protesting. Those folks have huge legal bills and possible felony convictions in their future.
On the other hand, if they don’t protest, then what? Let Trump goons win?
They need to ask themselves if they are as brave and as comitted as John Lewis.
NotMax
@NotMax
Eons ago when was supplementing income by making candles, scored a job of churning out (IIRC) 60 candles of a specific shape for a major event of a Masons dinner, all in beige.
Which is a deucedly hard color to achieve, much less have be consistent across so many to to be on display in one room. Had only the one mold in the specific shape requested (hexagonal on the bottom, tapering to round at top),so each preperatory melting of wax had to be colored individually.
jeffreyw
@Danielx:
Ingredients
Instructions
[sc:a
Uncle Jeffy
Based on that picture of McConnell, I’m guessing that his tailor hates his guts…
Tokyokie
Wow! A quadruple mixed metaphor in a single sentence! The GOP is as bad with English as it is with governance!
WereBear
@Martin: I’m so sorry. Twice in row sucks four times as hard.
Ken
Iä! Yog-Sothoth! Cthulhu fhtagn!
Ahem. Sorry, just fondly remembering my last Masonic dinner.
kindness
My suspicion regarding MoscowMitch’s delay in any Senate Coronavirus bill is Republicans want those programs to end. I bet they figure a few weeks after the programs are no longer there they’ll be able to say ‘What supplemental program?’ and act incredulous that someone would ask about such a thing. Sure Fox would play that up as an appropriate stance for a ‘good’ representative but all the people hurting will see right through it. And this isn’t just those who need unemployment. Lots of businesses depend on people having some money to buy their stuff. Those businesses are hurting too. The economy isn’t dominated by defense contractors after all.
Trump’s toast. We need to concentrate on the Senate. With the Senate Democrats will be able to actually legislate and lead.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Possibly only second to the photo of him getting out of the cards with his shades on, and the photo of him in the water in Hawaii, I believe it was.
Also, I’m not sure I have ever seen him when he didn’t look good.
NotMax
@jeffreyw
OT foodie note: Sometimes make bread which includes applesauce as one of the ingredients. Have through trial and error found that mashed pears generally work out much better.
debbie
@JPL:
I’m thinking about early voting, dangerous or not. I want to see my vote actually get inside a voting machine.
debbie
@Martin:
So sorry to read this.
Calouste
@rikyrah: “In 2015, right after I became a politician”. The shitgibbon also seems to have forgotten about his previous run for President as a Libertarian (?). Most people would remember running for President.
Ken
Back in March when the market took its first covid tumble, I commented that you give a massive tax cut to people making over $250,000 a year, and the economy barely budges. But send home a bunch of hairdressers, fry cooks, sales clerks, and day care workers, and it immediately crashes. Fairly obvious who’s really responsible for prosperity, isn’t it?
CaseyL
@Matt: This. Exactly this. It long past time to recognize the GOP for what it is: an enemy-supported entity deliberately damaging the country as much as it can.
Whether the enemy is Putin wanting to end the US as an international power, or oligarchs wanting to loot&smash, is irrelevant.
Aleta
Concealing the identities of officers at protests is not only about accountability, it’s a tactic to terrorize. Just as the white terrorists in the k +l a +n wore robes and hoods. And Spielberg used to show the Stormtroopers’ fearsomeness.
It’s also permission to the officers to be more violent and break rules. It even removes a protection some might feel to refuse to follow orders to break rules.
Kattails
“The modern GOP couldn’t fix a sandwich.” –Adam Silverman, a couple of years ago. Wonder if he cares to revisit that post.
McConnell’s wife’s family business was socialist enough to take somewhere between $350,000 and $1 mil. in PPP money, which of course neither of them knew anything about of course naturally.
I see that we have Moms, Dads, Vets, teachers, and health workers on the protest lines in Portland. I see that Trump says he’s got 75,000 troops ready to go into American cities. Where’s he getting them? Eric Prince? That’s been floated, but I can’t find confirmation without doing more work. That would be expensive as hell. Jim Wright doesn’t see where we have that many troops sitting around idle unless it’s the actual US armed services. Also, 75,000 spread over several cities sounds like a lot unless you think how many people would be motivated to get out in opposition to them. And how many people are currently unemployed, available, and pissed off.
I take some comfort from this: “You don’t know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You really don’t.” –Fran Lebowitz.
Spanky
@Martin: Shit. I’m sorry sorry, man. Sending my best thoughts, and whatever power I have to help you endure.
Frankensteinbeck
@kindness:
That’s exactly what they want. The problem is, they also want to be reelected, maintain their Senate majority, and be paid by rich people who will get severely pissed when they make the shocking discovery that no one is buying their products anymore. This is the head on collision of ideology they care about vs very personal self-interest.
Tenar Arha
@Martin: My sympathies go out to you, so sorry for your recent losses.
Aleta
@Martin: I’m so sorry. Sincere sympathy to you and your family for your loss.
Benw
@Martin: sorry, man, that completely sucks
Kay
@Sab:
A couple of them are serious. I suspect more than a few will be less serious as they work thru the system and the political stunt is over. Politicized. Part of what that means is they lose credibility. They’re not reliable and can’t be trusted therefore their charges aren’t reliable and can’t be trusted. If the DOJ is politicized then all of their work is suspect. But I knew there would be charges. They pronounced those people guilty of general, group charges before they entered Portland.
They know they stand to lose credibility too. I heard a person from the DOJ defending a (different) surge of federal law enforcement into cities yesterday by going out of his way to distinguish it from the Homeland Security action. Amusing. “We’re not the Trump police! We’re the credible police!”
Calouste
@Kattails: It’s not like border patrol has a lot to do these days, so they’re probably a lot of those 75,000 troops. Still wondering where these goons are staying, they can’t all be locals.
catclub
I come here and regularly state that the Majority leader is a creature of his caucus. he does very little that they oppose. He does NOT have the ability to force them to do things they do not want to do.
WereBear
I love that. And yes, from listening to Mary Trump’s book, it’s the truth.
You have to be raised by a heedless psychopath with enough money for none of it to matter, in a media atmosphere in a social strata that gleefully joins in with the con.
It’s layers of quantum unlikeliness.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
When Trump announced he was sending the FBI and ATF and federal marshals and so on to major cities, I knew it would not be like his goon squad in Portland. The FBI, for all its flaws, does not do that shit. I suspect most of these folks will twiddle their thumbs and it’s just like Trump sending the military to the border. He can’t make them do what he wants when they get there, but he can make them go and feel tough announcing it..
Kattails
@Kattails: Sorry, “Federal Agents” not troops, the question being what exactly does Federal Agent refer to.
The Moar You Know
@Martin: I’ve watched two people die in front of me and put down more cats than I want to remember, but the first, and so fat only time I’ve had to put down a dog broke something forever in me. You have my uttermost sympathies.
Fair Economist
@Martin: Oh, Martin, I’m so sorry. Losing two pets now is just heartbreaking.
Kay
@Sab:
It’s really bad. Whatever you think about Cohen, this is what happened here. They sent this man back to prison in retaliation for not agreeing to not publish a book critical of the President.
You don’t have to ask if it’s politicized. It’s politicized. The one and only question is how systemic it’s become. Because if it’s systemic than the Portland defendants are relying on whether or not there are individual prosecutors who are ethical enough to resist the Trump politicization (corruption). You’re no longer relying on due process. You’re hoping there are some good people left and those good people will be brave enough not to go along. You can count the people who risked careers to go against Trump on two hands. There aren’t a lot of them. That’s a mighty thin reed to cling to.
jeffreyw
@NotMax:
If I remember correctly you have been trying out some rather exotic bread recipes in a machine?
WaterGirl
@Martin: Oh, Martin, I’m so sorry. So very sorry.
MoCA Ace
@Martin:
So sorry, I still find it hard to think about putting down my dog nearly 10 years ago. It’s not fair that pet lovers have to do this so many times in our lives.
Jinchi
No. Homeless people can vote. It’s just a lot harder to do it.
Martin
Thanks everyone. He had a great run, and was a great corgi. It was time. And while I will miss him, my daughter is inconsolable, and that hurts me even more.
Sab
@Kay: I guess that is heartening. Also to expensive. I very much admire good lawyers. But y’all ain’t cheap. I tried lawyering in my youth. It is not for the faint of heart. Bless you rhinoceri
Kattails
@WereBear: Enjoying the book! I need to skip forward to the part where you can figure out the food issues. Like, they ate Chicken Pate X for a long time, wouldn’t touch anything else, then went off it. So you try same brand different meat, then different brand same meat type. They wolf down one kind so you cautiously buy two more cans, they eat that just fine, so you buy 6 more cans which they look at like it’s maggot-ridden toxic waste, grudgingly eat three bites, then go off to nap and starve. 8-) aaaaarrrggggghhhhhh
Chris Johnson
@Kay: I think they are there because they understand the justice system is broken beyond any hope of repair. That’s the whole POINT. I applaud ’em.
Of course the federal government is fixing to throw them in vans and/or out of helicopters. That is the POINT. That’s why they’re there. Nobody said it was going to be easy, in fact they’re being told and shown the literal opposite.
If there was justice they wouldn’t need to be there.
Spanky
@Kattails: Wait a minute.
Trump says? Am I the only one who sees a problem here?
Woodrow/asim
@Kay: This is a…frustrating set of debates to engage in.
One: By the very existence of these Portland Walls — Moms, Dads, vets — these are nto all young people protesting. So I’m unclear why this is being used as a baseline — aside from anything, based on my observations of the BLM organizers at the center of these efforts, they certainly are older people who have years of experience in this work.
And yes, there’s a CNN article from the start of the Wall Mom movement that verifies they are working in concert with the extant Black protest movement in Portland, and have been since jump.
To align them to youthful disturbance alone feels…dismissive of the efforts at hand.
Moreover — Jim Crow, and politicized incarceration, is within living memory in African-American communities.That it’s the “feds” instead of the State is troubling, yet does not, and should not, in and of itself deter the movement. Indeed, to do so — to stop protesting — just allows the Trump people to “win,” and would only imply that, push comes to shove, the BLM and allied movements are as cheap and thin as these assholes think.
That would be a massive mistake, on every level.
sdhays
There’s another aspect of McConnell (and Dump’s) failure here: they were also counting on COVID-19 being more under control by now and thus the crisis would seem less pressing. They thought that that would give them a better bargaining position with the House.
Of course, the Republican Party then did everything it possibly could to make COVID-19 worse, so…oops!
AWOL
Bruce Levell, Trump’s diversity liar, is a walking Dumpster fire. I can’t believe MSNBC has this sociopath on.
japa21
@NotMax:
Well, that is One way of doing it. By the way, what’s in your wallet?
NotMax
@jeffreyw
Yuppers.
WereBear
@Kattails: If I could figure out ALL the food issues, I would crown myself Empress :)
Jinchi
Likewise, dressing them up as soldiers with full face masks, heavy weaponry and wearing camouflage which serves no purpose in an urban setting other than to suggest they are a hostile military occupation force.
Ladyraxterinok
@Martin:
My sympathies. Lost 2 dogs that way years ago.
Hang in there. Your comments have been very helpful these last months
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Martin: I’m so sorry for what you and your family are going through. Words fail.
Sab
My cat iis so bored with people at home. He needs 20 hours a day of sleep and he is just not getting that. Makes him cranky.
NotMax
@Sab
“Just lay out the food and then skedaddle. Is that so hard to understand?”
:)
Josie
When you’ve lost Jake Tapper…..
“Their silence is criminal.”
written by Jake Tapper
https://www.facebook.com/pe…
“I have no forgiveness left for the Republican party.
We all knew. When he first rode that golden escalator to a paid crowd to announce his candidacy, we knew. His speech tinged with racism and misogyny was only a precursor of what was to come. He told us who he was.
The Republicans have been sucked into the black hole of Trumpism and they are pulling the nation into the abyss. Silent, passive, weak.
While I blame him, I hold most of my contempt for the Republican Party, they had the power to stop him, but didn’t.
They have the power to reign him in, but won’t.
They stand on the sidelines flush with power and watch him destroy our democratic norms. They watch him violate the Constitution they all swore an oath to defend.
Today in the United States, children are torn from their parents’ arms to languish in squalid conditions, caged, alone and afraid. Families remain in a semi-permanent limbo arrested and unable to seek redress.
Today in the United States at least 70,000 Americans will be
diagnosed with Covid19. On July 17 it was 74,987, nearly 3 times the
number diagnosed only a month ago on June 17 when it was 26,257. The
death toll now tops 140,000 and projections are that a quarter of a
million Americans will likely be dead by 11/1/2020. Just days before the
election. We still lack adequate PPE, we still have inadequate testing,
hospitals in some areas are running out of ICU beds, the data is being
subverted, a document produced by the task force that shows 18 “red
zones” was withheld, witnesses are not being allowed to testify, and the
Republicans remain silent.
laura
Martin, I’m so sorry for your pain and the loss of two boon companions.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Woodrow/asim:
Thank you. I’m floored by the bravery of the people of Portland who have rallied in resistance to Trump’s lawless acts of state terrorism against the city, and against the entire State of Oregon. We’re being targeted because of our liberal majority and outspoken Democratic politicians. We must fight back. Other cities and States will be next. We cannot simply allow this to go unchallenged.
I’m too chicken to drive up to Portland and participate myself, so I’ve got to do something different to help. I’m so proud of the brave people who are putting their lives on the line in Portland, and I want to help them. Oregon ACLU? Other legal defense fund?
Ksmiami
@Sab: Joe must be elected and pardon these people day one.
Kay
I’m grateful to the NYTimes for this:
“Videos show how Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland”
Because that’s exactly what they’re there for and exactly what they’re doing. Call it what it is.
Mike in NC
Went to the post office this morning to mail a few packages. There’s a little gun shop nearby where they were conducting a GOP Voter Registration drive. An old white guy holding up a sign and three white girls not wearing masks sitting at a table outside the store. Didn’t appear to be attracting any takers. I gave them the finger as I drove past.
Mike in NC
Catching up on Saturday e-mail. Senators like Rand Paul and Ron Johnson seem to be dead set against any more relief for the moochers and looters across America who are reluctant to “try something new”, as Princess Ivanka chirped. the other day.
Calouste
@Kay: Actually, that headline is still a lie. They instigated violence. “Escalating” means that there was violence they made worse, but the protests have been peaceful. The goons all started it.
Calouste
@Mike in NC:
So no more tax cuts for billionaires? Or are we talking about some other moochers and looters?
Kay
@Woodrow/asim:
I worry about them getting arrested on trumped on charges and entering a politicized justice system 3 months before an election where one candidate controls the executive branch and is blatantly running a political campaign using federal officers as enforcers in that city.
I’m afraid for them because once you’re IN the big criminal justice machine it is hard as nails to get out of it.
A federal judge found last week that they returned a man to prison because he threatened to write something critical of the president.
They launched this bullshit “war” in Portland and they now have to find an after the fact justification for it. Those people are going to be caught up in that. The pressure to find “crimes” is immense and despite all the screeching they’re doing about “violent anarchists” they haven’t found shit. None of them are even carrying anything that can be construed as a weapon. I know what you’re saying but if one of them asked me? “Am I going to be treated fairly if I’m picked and charged?” I would say “no, you will not be- you are in real peril and could be imprisoned for your politics”.
Sab
@Kay: Yes. That is where we are. I love my step kids and I hope to hell they are not that brave. I also hope other people’s kids are braver.
Another Scott
+1.
And he doesn’t care. He never did.
We have to vote them all out.
Next week is going to be the start of another epic disaster. Hang on everyone, and channel your anger into voting all the monsters out.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Danielx:
So yesterday I was up at the neighbors house on the ridge above our house talking about visibility of the Big Dipper and potentially seeing the comet. Mentioned that my sleep patterns have been hosed since end of October, 2016, and he glumly said “Me too.”
So lots of people aren’t sleeping well, and worse since last December when the virus became an obvious world wide threat. The latest criminality on the part of Trump and his minions is no help either.
Gvg
@Sab: my shy cat loves it. When I got sent back to work, she misbehaved by getting on tables and counters for a week. Then I got sick and was sent back home again, and she wants to help me at working, I had to put a cat trap (Box)on my desk to see the computer.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
vote all of them out?
germy
J R in WV
@Kay:
This is true, and will likely still be largely true of organized demonstrations in many other cities. But if they get into patrolling around in some cities, like Chicago, St L, Memphis, cities where people go armed for their own safety, and these camo-ed up asses try to dominate things, the nazis are in for a surprise.
Untrained assholes gonna get themselves killed or wounded if they go off on people in their own neighborhood. They aren’t going to be dealing with people already put down hard, like border crossing refugees, they’ll be dealing with gang-bangers, former gang-bangers, bikers, etc. Guys thrown out of the Marines for being too violent…
Kelly
A significant number of Republicans believe the unemployment insurance is paying leftist radicals to protest so cut them off!
Kattails
@Spanky: Well yeah, I see that (from Mark Hertling via Stonekettle) we have about: 8600 US soldiers in Afghanistan, 11,000 soldiers in 82nd Airborne, 30,000 soldiers serving in all of Europe. So who are these people? Google tells me we have 1.3 million active duty military in this country. But the vets showing up in Portland are expressly talking about their oath to defend and protect the Constitution from all enemies “foreign and domestic”, they are saying that they proudly wore their name and insignia, and seem none too happy about nameless faceless goons acting in the name of the US military. This is another layer of the pushback.
BUT we “can’t afford” to extend unemployment during a monster pandemic, and oh BTW there’s a hurricane headed towards a COVID epicenter.
rikyrah
@Martin:
So sorry for your loss?
Another Scott
@Martin: Donnie is not holding up the bill. He has no leverage – he will sign what’s put on his desk.
He’s been whining about the Hoover building being torn down and replaced by a hotel for years. He’s been whining about cutting payroll taxes for years. Nobody in the GOP Senate caucus cares.
Moscow Mitch has been sitting on a relief bill since May 15 – along with hundreds of other House-passed bills. His caucus doesn’t care, either.
As Adam says, the only way out is through. We have to roll over them in November.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kattails
@germy: Wait, it’s the re-tweets that get you in trouble? “You see something that looks good”… So stuff like “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” or “White power” looks good to him at first glance?
Another Scott
@Gvg: The GOP doesn’t care about the science. They only care about finding the magical incantation to scare their voters to turn out. Remember when Ebola was going to kill us all in our beds? It’s the same thing here. Since their guy is in power, they are determined to tell everyone that everything is fine, except for those lazy moochers who only want to sit at home playing video games and eating Cheetos while you pay them with your taxes. Oh, and those evil scheming government bureaucrats who are destroying the economy and spreading plague (that they imported from China) in red states so that the bestest God-Emperor ever won’t get re-elected. Are you going to let them get away with that??!
Grr…
tl;dr – SSDD.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Very sad news about your pets.
My sympathies to you and your family.
Kristine
@Martin: Heartfelt sympathies.
raven
@Martin: Oh man I’m so sorry to hear this.
jonas
Lol. Great pic. I’ll also note that Moscow Mitch is not even wearing an American flag lapel pin, which you can clearly see Obama sporting. I’m old enough to remember when foregoing even the smallest flag flair was a not-so-subtle signal that you hate America and probably weren’t even born here.
Another Scott
@Kay: Doesn’t it have to be a “lawful order” though? I haven’t followed this closely, but a few stories I saw indicated that people being rounded up were being released after they were searched and interrogated for a few hours.
Normal people going home isn’t going to stop these abuses. People have to stand up and say NO, NOT IN OUR NAME, and all the rest. Silence == Consent.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Dave
@Spanky: Right I’d be shocked if it was a 1/3 of that and wouldn’t be surprised if they couldn’t scrape up more than a few thousand.
jonas
Completely intentionally engineered to be so. The goal is to drive it into the ground before November and Hey! No mail-in ballots can be processed!
Yutsano
@Martin: Oh no. This is never easy even with the shitty timeline we’re in. And I’m really sorry for your daughter since it sounds like the corgi had more than one best person in the house. All my love to you and your family.
rikyrah
@Kay:
then they should be cleared out..all of them ?
J R in WV
@Kay:
But do citizens exercising their First Amendment right to assemble have any responsibility to follow orders from random people in camo that probably are not legal orders in any case?
The whole point of the First Amendment is to establish that the government can’t stop people from assembling, or speaking freely.
The fact that Chad Wolf has ordered these camo fools to stop the people from assembling doesn’t make it illegal to assemble. It just makes it clear that Chad is a dork with no legal training and an inherent inability to tell whether the legal advice he is getting is good or not.
Another Scott
@Martin: I’m very sorry, Martin. Be strong. Remember the good times.
Best wishes,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Sorry, but taupe is an entirely different color. I hate beige, it’s totally unappealing. But certain tones of taupe can be quite attractive.
J R in WV
@Martin:
So sorry for your loss. The stress is literally at killing level for some people. Losing a beloved companion fur baby is worse yet.
Take care, keep in touch!
Another Scott
@Ken: +1
March-April 2020 was a clear mark-to-market moment for so much economic pontificating. We can’t forget it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
@Another Scott: And yet…the stock market itself is back to exuberant highs. This isn’t sustainable. And no one in the market is even thinking about that it seems. There’s going to be a crash (October?) and when that happens…the market will be about where the economy is. And Dolt45 loses another talking point.
LuciaMia
So….exactly when is Congress supposed to go on recess
Edit: I see Brachiator mentioned it earlier.
trollhattan
RIP Peter Green. This loss hits hard because he was my favorite guitarist out of the British blues scene that produced so many iconic players. His journey became an odd and difficult one and he never got the recognition he warranted. Thanks for the music.
germy
LuciaMia
@Martin: Oh, Honey. Im so sorry.
The Pale Scot
@Martin: Ah Fuck man, that sucks
Nicole
@Martin: I’m so, so sorry. Sending virtual hugs.
Another Scott
@Yutsano: The overall market is about where one would expect it to be – especially if you think it should be looking 6-9 months ahead.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/07/the-stock-market-is-pretty-normal/
We know that Nancy’s/Chuck’s/Biden’s budget is going to be vastly different than this one. Mountains of money are going to be spent in the next 4-8-20 years.
The way I try to look at it is:
There’s a vast mountain of money out there (much bigger than the federal budget) that is looking for returns. Where is it going to go? Bonds? When interest rates and inflation are going to be low for years/decades? Gold? See above. Old Masters? Not enough of them. Stocks (ownership in companies)? Yeah, it’s going to continue to go there for a long while. Especially in large multi-nationals that are not totally dependent on the USA.
Of course, the bugaboo is – which stocks and when? That’s why one should buy a low-cost, broad, index fund. And leave it alone.
/Free-Financial-Advice-Is-Worth-What-You-Pay-For-It
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Pale Scot
@Calouste:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/boycottmarriott?lang=en
Kent
McConnell is going to crash the stock market himself when Aug rolls around with no relief bill and millions start going hungry and getting evicted.
And all those retirees and soon to be retirees who keep checking their 401(k) balances daily? That will be the last straw for those few who haven’t already reached their last straw about 189 straws ago.
Calouste
@The Pale Scot:
Thanks. Marriott and Enterprise go on the “don’t spend money there” list.
Kent
They are already in every major city. There are FBI offices and federal marshals all across the country. No one needs to send them anywhere. We don’t have battalions of FBI and ATF in barracks in Washington DC waiting to get deployed to the heartland. The notion is absurd.
Ken
I’m sure Judy Shelton will do what she can to keep the price up. Or is she one of the gold bugs who think the only possible price of gold is $35 per ounce?
Zelma
@Martin:
So sorry Martin. It is so hard to lose a pet, but this must be doubly hard.
Another Scott
I blame English.
(via HelenBranswell)
Cheers,
Scott.
The Pale Scot
@Sab:
America Needs to Get Back to Work
By a Cat
Why Not Work at Home Forever?
By a Dog
Cameron
@J R in WV: Yoyoyo, big guy! They’re not going to take on those people! A man could get hurt, y’know?
James E Powell
@J R in WV:
I think Trump & Co – along with the press/media – would like nothing more than for some African Americans to open fire on law enforcement.
JPL
This is the ad that I want on TV.. . link
J R in WV
We have stayed at Marriott hotels in the past, I guess that’s over now. Screw those folks for accepting Nazis into their house.
I suppose it was possible they didn’t know what was up with the reservation, but they surely knew after they saw them pull out in their camo get-up, then saw the news, and saw them come back very late at night, stinking of tear gas. Right then the manager should have told them, “We can’t have
fascistsyou staying here, it will ruin our reputation, and reputation is everything in our business!” I suppose they could be changing out of civvies at their fascist meeting house…StringOnAStick
@Kent: My friend the annuity agent is extremely busy from all her clients that were mostly in annuities but still had some $ in stocks; they’re taking the recovery from the first Covid crash as good enough and getting out. There may be a bunch of money going into rebuilding once we hopefully overcome all the dirty tricks and voter suppression coming our way, but none of us know how bad the pandemic damage will be and neither do the traders either. We humans are so amazingly good at convincing ourselves that our baseline normal is set in stone and can never be too badly altered. We’ve all been terrified for so long now that it feels normal. It’s anything but.
StringOnAStick
@J R in WV: Isn’t Mitt Romney associated with the Marriott chain?
I’m the local front, my hairdresser is calling it quits, between the chair rent and the costs of PPE and fewer customers, she’s barely breaking even. The stress too, but the old unmasked guy who barged into her room telling about no front desk people and who refused to leave until she went nuts on him was the last straw.
Aleta
Roger Cohen, NYT
Just Chuck
@Aleta: No mention of the Nazi party that enables him?
Aleta
@Just Chuck: very good point
Aleta
J R in WV
@Cameron:
I sure hope not… hope and expect are two different things. If they stick to the bright lights and big buildings, everyone will probably stay safe. I hope so.
If they cruise around neighborhoods though, and are known to be picking random people up?
Another Scott
@StringOnAStick: I had my first haircut in 5+ months at my stylist’s kitchen last Saturday. She went to see her family in Iran in Februrary – just in time to be locked down there for a month. :-/
Her husband has Parkinson’s so she can’t go back to her normal place of business (too risky), so she’s working out of her kitchen for the foreseeable future. Being very careful, we were (we were both masked the whole time except for a couple of minutes when she had to work around my ears)!
Good luck, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
I actually think the stock market (at least the S&P 500) will be fine long-term. It will be small and medium-size business that will be crushed in the aftermath of this pandemic. The giant multi-national firms will just absorb even more of the economy. So 2022 I expect to see more things like Panda Express and Olive Garden popping up backed by deep corporate pockets while all the local family-owned Thai and Mexican restaurants vanish into bankruptcy. More Starbucks and less local coffee shops. More Kroger and Wal-Mart, less local grocery chains. And so forth multiplied across the economy.
The stock market which measures the strength of corporate America, and the local main street economies have always been separate. But I expect them to diverge further in the aftermath of this pandemic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@StringOnAStick: IIRC the Willard comes from J. W(illard) Marriott, founder of the company who was a close friend of old George. I don’t know if he has a stake in the company
Anotherlurker
@Martin: Please accept my condolences, Martin. I lost my boy, Buddy, on January 20th. I cry for him, a little bit, everyday.
Ruckus
@JPL:
I’ve been on permeant vote by mail in CA for a very long time and voted my first time by mail, 50 yrs ago when I was in the navy. I’ve voted at a polling location only a few times in my decades of voting. CA started putting deposit boxes in many places 4 yrs ago, and that makes it even easier.
TerryC
@Another Scott: yep. At age 72 I still find words I mispronounce, in my head, because I’ve never heard people say them. Although, whose fault is it that until I was in my sixties I thought “misled” was pronounced “myzeld”.
Another Scott
@TerryC: It was kinda backwards for me growing up.
“What’s this word ‘naked’?? Oh, you mean ‘neckid’!!”
Cheers,
Scott.
eddie blake
@J R in WV:
you want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and methodists?