God Damn I love this headline:
This (from the linked article) is also excellent:
Senate Republicans want to reduce the $600 payment to $200 until states can implement a new approach that would pay workers 70 percent of the income they collected before they lost their jobs. The states are supposed to phase in the new formula within two months.
As everyone knows, state unemployment agencies had zero issues getting checks out to the unemployed, so this little bullshit rule should be a nothingburger to implement.
There’s some speculation that Moscow Mitch will just pass this bill and leave town, so there’s a take-it-or-leave-it deal on the table for the House, but Pelosi has vowed to keep the House in session, so the optics of Republicans leaving town while Democrats stay to work will occupy the press for the next few days.
Obviously, people are going to suffer if this passes, and there’s no celebration for that, but cutting a really modest unemployment benefit and putting together a Mickey Mouse clusterfuck alternative 99 days before an election is so fucking stupid that I can’t help but to point and laugh.
japa21
Best thing about the headline is it places everything right at the feet of the GOP. In the old days, it would have been just “Senate, WH”
taumaturgo
This is another middle finger solution to people living in poverty who happen to be the most affected by the twin viruses Covid19 and inequality.
trollhattan
That’ll teach those lazy moochers to sit home collecting “their” six-hundred bucks instead of returning to their dishwasher jobs.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
Pure luxury! When I was a kid, we had to …. etc etc
Jim, Foolish Literalist
kind of off-topic but everything is on-topic:
The NBA cancelling its season was a bombshell. If MLB shuts down, it may be a bigger one
ETA: and the announcement about Melania redoing the Rose Garden has “Marie Antoinette” trending on twitter. To think that these morons are propped up by other morons like Susan Collins and Marco Rubio… it’s kind of a wonder the country lasted long enough for this to happen.
Melanie Antoinette
terraformer
This health emergency is so far removed from the Republicans’ one-trick “tax cuts and cheap labor” approach to everything that they just don’t know what to do.
They can’t do (more of) the tax cuts move at this particular moment, but they sure can see that no level of comfort is bestowed upon the serfs.
Betty Cracker
I had a similar thought — how fucking dumb are these people? Also, the White House announced Melania will oversee renovation of the Rose Garden (at great expense, no doubt) three months before the election, in the middle of a pandemic, and while millions of Americans are housing and food insecure thanks to the bungled response to COVID. We need a new word — “tone deaf” doesn’t begin to describe it.
kindness
My dentist is pushing my appointment down the road. I’ve been told their Dental Hygenists refuse to come back to work off unemployment while they are pulling in the extra $600. I don’t blame the employees. My thinking is they didn’t pay their people well enough obviously. My cleaning will just have to wait.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agreed. MAYBE if it’s confined to one team, they’ll keep going, but if another case pops up, all of those people have to quarantine, etc., etc. It’ll be like a preview to what’s going to happen on an infinitely larger scale when schools open, only with fewer resources, less testing and zero coordination.
MattF
Evidence from various quarters is that Republicans are now set on enforcing ideological discipline across the board. The fact that this is occurring 99 days before a national election is, somehow, escaping notice within the enforcement brigades
ETA: This is actually classic ‘cognitive dissonance’ behavior. When the contradictions with reality become blatant, beliefs strenghthen and the believers go out and proselytize.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@taumaturgo:
Actually, it’s a giant middle finger to every restaurant and bar owner who has been lurching along miserably under restriction, eking out what they can from people getting this benefit. It’s an even bigger middle finger to consulting engineers, commissioned sales people, airline pilots, airplane mechanics, flight attendants, hotel concierges, leisure attraction vendors and consultants, physical therapists, small to middle residential landlords, property maintenance companies and the like, many of whom have suffered greatly during shutdowns and most of who were high earners.
Its completely unnecessary, and done purely for ideology.
Mike in NC
99 more days of GOP beatings while they hope for morale to improve.
MagdaInBlack
@kindness:
I would still like to know how one refuses and keeps the UI. I certainly didnt have that option
I have a letter from HR informing me of that.
Baud
@kindness:
As I mentioned the other day, almost all of these stories come from business owners, not employees.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Thank You
Emma from FL
@kindness: That sounds really fishy. My sister was furloughed for two months and she was clearly told she would lose the benefits if the University reported that she had refused to go back to work.
Ken
@Baud: If the stories are true, the business owners are abetting fraud by not reporting the employee to the state unemployment bureau. I would not be surprised if most states required that reporting, and have specific penalties for employers who fail to do so.
Just Chuck
@japa21: Yah, but it’s a WaPo headline, and they’ve been bringing the thunder for a while. NPR will continue to say “Democrats and Republicans continue to clash on Capitol Hill”, and the FTFNYT will probably delegate the headline to Haberman.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Can attest to having my semiannual checkup and cleaning just last week. My hygienist Candy (really) is not allowed to do the polishing bit, but it was otherwise a normal visit, xrays and all. She and the doc wore two masks and a face shield.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
It’s not a new word, but “evil” works for me. Either that, or “craniorectallyinserted.”
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think MLB shutting down will be a bigger bombshell than the NBA shutdown was back in March. The NBA shutdown was sudden and unprecedented, and that gave it a kind of shock value that can’t be replicated. MLB needing to shut down was not just predictable but actually predicted.
Jean
@trollhattan: Same situation for me (although my teeth did get polished). Both dentist and assistant wore double masks, face shield, visor, and hair covering. They also wore gowns.
khead
@Betty Cracker:
At a White House that has a wall surrounding it.
Galahad Threepwood
This is 21st century Republican governance distilled to its purest form. Remember the equally hapless clusterfuck that occurred when they were trying to gut Obamacare back in 2017? This was supposedly their biggest policy goal, they had plans in the works already, they were going to push it right though, and they fell flat on their faces. They’re a bunch of fucking incompetents, composed of equal parts malice and stupidity.
Baud
I hope the new Rose Garden has a symbolic grave for the Unknown COVID victim.
Citizen Alan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I honestly can’t wait to see it. Considering Melanoma’s ghoulish approach to Christmas decorations, I assume it will end up looking like the topiary garden from the Overlook Hotel.
Jon Marcus
And don’t forget it gives employers liability shield. So long as they comply with something vaguely like what Dolt45 (or anyone else in his administration) has recently brayed about, they’re covered.
ellenr
@Baud: It depends on the industry. If there are safety/health issues/dangers, the employee has the right to refuse. Massage and physical therapists, for example. Anyone public-facing. And this will vary from state to state.
Another Scott
Testing for me and not for thee.
Pretty soon other countries won’t even let in US government officials on official travel.
So much winning…
:-/
We have to vote these monsters out.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
“Dear Penthouse Letters, …”
(Do they even exist any more? Nowadays the Internet is for p*rn, or so I’ve heard.)
waspuppet
I didn’t need to know the fonts to know that was the Post and not the FYNYT.
Roger Moore
@kindness:
And when they continue to refuse to come in after the $600 is cancelled, they’ll come up with some other BS reason. That people might actually be afraid for their lives and not want to risk them for the paltry wages they’re being offered never seems to cross people’s minds.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@kindness:
Uh, that isn’t how unemployment works, if they’re called back they lose unemployment.
HinTN
Madame Speaker should appoint the Conference Committee, which should consist of ALL the chairs of the relevant committees, and pitch that to Mitch.
raven
@trollhattan: I think I paid an extra $100 for ppe.
debbie
Absolutely appalling. Will they also be similarly reducing the risk of eviction, foreclosure, credit card default, etc.?
Galahad Threepwood
@Ken: I think they’re still out there, but I also think the wide availability of pron on the Internet makes them irrelevant.
Hungry Joe
@Just Chuck: Headlines are written by copy editors, not reporters; I rarely saw headlines on my stories before the paper came out. Usually the headlines were good. Sometimes, well …
James E Powell
@japa21:
Agreed. I’d like them to go further, drop the metonymy, and say it straight. Trump & the Republicans.
Kristine
@kindness:
That’s been my thought, too. This may be the first time some folks have been able to get their heads a bit above water, pay down bills, maybe even save for a large purchase, but this is seen by the GOP as a bad thing.
There’s a disconnect between consumer and worker that some in the financial world seem reluctant to discard.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My old manager stormed off the job and took a job as a tech with a pay cut because he thought he wouldn’t survive the pandemic (less because of the risk of infection and more because his doctor told him his health couldn’t take the stress). I bet even if the Great and Good force the poor back to work many will bail for safer jobs Money don’t help in a coffin.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think Jennifer Rubin is never goin’ back again
Jinchi
Yeahhhh, I’m skeptical that they’re staying home for the unemployment checks. Even with the cool extra $600, they’re probably taking a pay cut. More likely they’re trying to avoid getting the plague.
Just Chuck
@Hungry Joe: I think it’s a tad over-generous to imply Habs is a reporter.
James E Powell
Off-Topic, but a topic that should never be off.
I just got an email from the California Sec’y of State advising me to check my voter status to make sure I’m registered and that I will receive my mail-in ballot.
Everybody should be checking this every so often as we approach election day. We should be organized to contact our voters and get them to check their status several times in advance of election day.
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I suggested that when MLB rolled out their reopening plan, it would fail due to outbreaks. I somewhat optimistically gave them 30 days from Opening Day before they had to pull the plug. They might not even make it 10.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also from the paper of record not run by Dean Baquet
someone holding a very high rank in the White House said that out loud to a reporter, a human being said that out loud to another human being. The quote would indicate that the source used the phrase “our people” when discussing a pandemic with a reporter. Odds are that person is someone who has, or would have, a cross or the word “Christian” or “follower of Christ” in their twitter bio
MagdaInBlack
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I am curious what those jobs might be. It appears ( to me) that anyone who cannot work remotely is not safe.
Certainly any service industry related job dealing with the public is not safe.
I have been an office manager in the collision repair industry for 20 years. Im relatively well paid. I am getting out, Im done meeting and greeting every day. BUT I cant find anything that pays what I make. At this time, under these conditions, there are no other jobs.
randy khan
So I’m considering the question of how this bill gets through the Senate so that McConnell can try his stupid trick of passing it and leaving town. It’s subject to cloture, so McConnell needs 7 Democratic votes to get it to the floor for a vote to pass it. I’m pretty confident that he doesn’t have 7 votes; I’m not sure he has 1.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“We need Trump to do his job because Jesus failed to protect us.”
randy khan
@Gravenstone:
You might be right, but I think I’d wait a bit to make a pronouncement. One thing MLB has done is create 30-player taxi squads – which are separated from the major league players – so it’s literally true that the entire Marlins roster could test positive and they’d be able to replace it completely.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rubin estimates the likelihood of debates at 50-50.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I’d just go with “maliciously evil”, even with regard to Melanie Antoinette. She’s no better than the rest of them.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Repubs can’t bring themselves to admit that the only thing negatively impacted by us having a decent safety net is their tax rate (which would go from ‘ridiculously low’ to ‘approaching reasonable’)
@MattF: I think she is launching an anti-GOP broadside about every two hours at this point, it’s hard to keep up but worth the effort. =)
go Jen, go!
Brachiator
@kindness:
This is bullshit on so many levels. Most dentists have deeper priorities and problems than worrying about this $600 thing.
Dentists lost all their business in states with lockdowns, and then had to spend considerable amounts of money on equipment to make their facilities virus-secure. And this was the second time they had to absorb major costs to do this. The other time was during the AIDS epidemic.
Also, in some places, dental hygienists are self-employed people working in a dentist’s office, not direct employees of the dentist, so there is no issue about UI claims.
Not too long ago, NPR ran interviews with dentists in which some talked about possibly having to sell their practices because of the economic impact of the pandemic. Nobody mentioned the issue of the $600 UI boost.
Gravenstone
@randy khan: As the ESPN report on the Marlins outbreak pointed out, it’s not just the Marlins. Every service person, ballpark staff member, flight crew member they had contact with, any of whom in turn might have contact with members of other teams travelling through either directly or through exposing others in their industry who then have the contact. This is likely to snowball in a giant fucking hurry. And the two week window waiting for symptoms will just make it worse.
And if they have to resort to wholesale use of taxi squad members, you are now basically asking your AAA franchise to play MLB level players. Not sustainable
ETA: they just cancelled Yankees/Phillies because that’s where the Marlins just were playing.
different-church-lady
Well, there’s 30 million votes they can kiss goodbye…
MagdaInBlack
@Brachiator:
This is nothing more than “OMG the peons had enough money to live their lives without fear of economic ruin> Cant have that, how will we control them”
This whole bs argument really pisses me off, as you may have noted.
different-church-lady
@randy khan:
Yeah, but you can only pull that trick off once. What are the odds nobody on the taxi squad will come down with it?
Skepticat
Perhaps these are the same people who, with tears in their eyes, begin a conversation with “Sir … “
Miss Bianca
OK, open thread?
My county’s Board of Health is voting THIS AFTERNOON on whether or to allow a “Trump Re-election Rally” here.
I can’t.fucking.even.
In the spirit of “good troublemaking”, I have alerted every single liberal I know in the county, as well as our local Democratic party brass.
There will be blood (metaphorical certainly, literal possibly) before this call is over.
Mallard Filmore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The thread downstairs says the team is trapped in Philadelphia.
First prize: a 1 week vacation in Philadelphia
Second prize: a 2 week vacation in Philadelphia
Roger Moore
@randy khan:
OTOH, if you replace the whole team with backups, it loses a lot of its claim to be the top level of the game. If this happens to more than one team, it’s the roll of the COVID dice rather than baseball skill that’s going to determine the champion, which undermines the sport. Even if they can pull it off, it will be a bullshit season.
HumboldtBlue
As much as I’d like to point and laugh it’s rather difficult to find the sunshine here, it’s not as if the GOP hasn’t massively failed in handling a pandemic leading to the deaths of more than 100,000, but to fuck over the living just because means it’s going to be harder to eat and pay bills.
I’m a lot better off than most being single and I’m used to being a broke motherfucker and working poor but this ain’t a laughing matter for anyone.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mallard Filmore: counterpoint: “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia”
Captain C
I wonder if Moscow Mitch is, like Bill DiBlasio, just sick and tired of his job and has stopped giving a fuck about anything. If he wins this race, he’ll be in his 80s by the end of his next term, probably with little time left to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. Of course, he seems to live for using his power to make people suffer, so…
Eunicecycle
@Brachiator: My dentist for over 30 years decided to retire because he has an underlying heart condition that is dangerous with Covid-19. I was surprised to find out he is 72, because he seems much younger.
Roger Moore
@Gravenstone:
Yeah, this is where it gets bad. Teams moving from city to city are just asking to spread the virus. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Old School
@Jinchi:
My sister-in-law works as a dental hygienist and while she is back at work now, she did receive more through the extra $600 unemployment benefit than she normally makes.
Roger Moore
@Mallard Filmore:
Last prize: a 2 week quarantine in Philadelphia
azlib
And it is even dumber fiscally when the 10 year T-Bill rate is 0.59%. Money is essentially free right now.
MagdaInBlack
@Old School: I did as well. Many people did.
leeleeFL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am confused by the ability to refuse to come back while still able to collect unemployment. If there is some allowance for health conditions or child care issues, i heard nothing about it here in Sunny Floriduh. As far as I know, it was come back or lose your unemployment. Am I mistaken?
azlib
FYI, $600 per week is exactly $15/hour. Coincidence?
Roger Moore
@Captain C:
IMO, the Republicans are acting like a party that expects to lose in November and is doing its best to sabotage everything on the way out. They want to leave the Democrats with so many urgent problems they can never get around to implementing their program.
The Thin Black Duke
The GOP is counting on their voters fear of queers, bitches and coons to keep them in line. It’s always worked before.
rikyrah
@James E Powell:
Amen
Betty Cracker
@Miss Bianca: My county went 70-30-ish for Trump, and the shitgibbon will carry it again in November. There’s not a single elected Democrat in this county. I just filled out a primary ballot (by mail!) that didn’t have any Democrats on it, so I had to choose the least-worst Republican.
But! I’ve noticed some heartening signs recently that people are starting to connect the Trump administration’s catastrophic failures with the local party’s shitty performance. Just a few green shoots — a letter to the editor here, a caustic comment there. Still, it gives me hope.
scuffletuffle
Show of hands in the House of everyone who could survive 6 months on $200.00 per week. Let’s see how many takers we get (and I use that term advisedly).
trollhattan
@Jinchi:
Here at least they make good bank. $2400/mo+whatever the state maximum is (a lot less than that) doesn’t begin to replace a hygienist salary. And, for folks who have been lucky enough to have never drawn unemployment, there’s a “surprise” tax hit next year because it’s income but there has been no withholding.
Elizabelle
@kindness: RE the dental hygienists: many of these presumably have children as well, and are without the childcare and schooling options they had before the pandemic.
The hygienists are not lazy moochers. They have lives outside of work too, that have been thrown into disarray.
James E Powell
@azlib:
If that’s the case, giving me $3 million shouldn’t cause anyone any problems. Please forward at once!
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
How are the gators and herons leaning? Could Biden at least flip them?
James E Powell
@scuffletuffle:
That’s not even enough to live in a van down by the river.
Elizabelle
@Skepticat: You’re right.
“I’ve been told” is a tell.
Kay
Ugh. One of our larger manufacturers here laid off 50% of their hourly employees Friday. Not a furlough- they were already furloughed since March. It’s a lay off.
Plastic injection molded and chrome electroplated grilles- autos.
They should keep pumping the 600 per in not because they love low wage workers, but because it was working beautifully as stimulus and if they cut if off the economy will tank more than it’s already starting to tank. It literally benefits EVERYONE. I don’t care what business you’re in- them having money to spend benefits you.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nancy Pelosi and the House passed their bill, what 2-3 MONTHS AGO?
And, when push came to shove, Moscow Mitch didn’t even have something to shove onto the table.
BECAUSE HE NEVER EVER INTENDED TO PASS ANYTHING.
The entire GOP
and, I do mean the ENTIRE GOP
has been under the phucking delusion that ‘ opening up’ all these Red States would ‘ boom back the economy’ and show those ‘stupid Blue states’ what it was all about.
But, Ms. Rona didn’t give two shyts, and now, we have Death Panels and Refridgerated Morgue trucks in TEXAS.
We have Florida bypassing NY as having the most cases – and it’s not slowing down.
Arizona has more cases than the entire European Union.
They HONESTLY thought that it was going to stay in Blue States, and so, they could blow it all off.
But, now, with FIFTY ONE MILLION PEOPLE HAVING FILED FOR UNEMPLOYMENT since the pandemic began…
They will actually have to do something.
Cacti
Was there a front page post on Tom Cotton going full slavery apologist yesterday?
scuffletuffle
@James E Powell: You know that and I know that, but does anybody in Congress know that? They sure don’t give the impression that they do.
Marcopolo
Here in St Louis if I had a primary ballot with no Ds on it it would be because I did not choose the D primary ballot. Do primary ballots in FL really include candidates from both/all parties? Sounds strange to me but since you are in FL who knows?
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We’re doomed as long as Trump is in office. Neither he nor the GOP leadership can rise above thinking like two-bit petty criminals: “what’s in it for us?”
If Trump were to be told that an asteroid was about to crash into the planet, he would probably ask “Is it going to hit Mar A Lago? Is it going to hit any red states? Will Ivanka and I be safe?”
Behold the Orange Nightmare at his man-child worst: he wants to avoid all responsibility for doing anything to stop the virus, but also wants to be praised and take credit for the efforts of others. This is who he is. This is who he always will be.
Any number of people have noted this infantile aspect of Trump. But he simply cannot change, no matter what the crisis.
And the insane thing is that his staff and the GOP will continue to indulge this no matter what, no matter how many people are harmed.
Trump has absolutely no grasp of the concept of “the general welfare.” Worse, he will fight off any effort by others to do better.
He must be voted out of office.
Ken
@Cacti: Like that’s news.
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke:
Harsh. But true.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, it may be starting to happen here. At least I sure know what that “voting for the least bad Republican” feeling is like.
This is why I get so mad when lefties start bitching about voting for Democrats as being “the lesser of two evils”. I’m like, “mofos, please. You don’t even KNOW for ‘lesser of two evils’.”
trnc
@Gravenstone: Can’t help but notice Japan appears to be having a busy baseball season.
https://npb.jp/bis/eng/2020/calendar/
Hmm, what could the difference be?
These should be in a Biden ad.
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Especially since the MLB “season” got off to such a tepid start. But it could be a leading indicator for the NFL season. And is there even going to be college football this season? I haven’t kept up.
rp
@The Thin Black Duke: Didn’t work in 2008. That’s what the press missed in 2016 (intentionally or otherwise): Trump’s naked appeals to racism and sexism worked in that election largely because the economy was in excellent shape and things were pretty stable. The deplorables had the luxury of spending hours on FB stewing about Mexicans and Benghazi because they weren’t worried about their jobs or healthcare. They didn’t have that in 2008, and they won’t this year.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan: I predict pea gravel and tombstones, with some fake silk flowers thrown in here and there
This sudden Rose Garden re-do makes me wonder if either the Dumpster or someone on his staff doesn’t want him in the Rose Garden in the run-up to the election. I can’t, however, imagine why that would be.
But nothing is ever for the reason they say, that much I know for sure.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
That it’s not tone deaf is the problem. Tone deaf implies that they don’t understand. They understand just fine. I had a long screed about heads in asses but the bottom line is republicans want us to pay them to tell us how wrong we are to want – security, health, sufficient income from actually productive working, that we don’t starve and can have a roof over our heads. They would rather starve millions than one “undeserving” person possibly getting $.05 a week more than not enough. Christian? The devil doesn’t even want them.
dmsilev
I’d say there’s a reasonable chance that whatever shit sandwich he rolls out won’t even pass the Senate. There are enough don’t-give-a-fuck maniacs in the Senate GOP to torpedo anything unless it also has Democratic support.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@scuffletuffle:
Wife had earned roughly 80-90 per hour consistently the last several years, and has a 30 year sales career. Our household expense and debt load reflects that. Now she’s making under 15% of her former pay on restricted hours, and has doubts on the survivability of her company.
As Ivanka giggles, though, “Find Something New!”
Reading local wingnuts in comment boards, that $600 per week is huge, huge money and she should take a job with Uber Eats, as an Amazon stock picker or some $10 an hour assembly line thing.
Ruckus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Its completely unnecessary, and done purely for ideology.
Well to be honest, their ideology is to fuck over the most people for the least effort and the most reward.
randy khan
@Gravenstone:
Like I said, you may be right.
But understand that a lot of what you’re saying isn’t relevant to the question of whether they could keep playing in this particular instance. For instance, this was the first series of the year, so previous teams traveling through aren’t really an issue and I’m not sure why they’d be anyway, if nobody on the previous team tests positive. (Also, we now know that COVID-19 doesn’t really spread via surface contact and, in any event, they’re cleaning the locker rooms between teams AND the players aren’t showering or changing in the locker rooms anyway.) Teams take their own planes or buses from city to city, so there’s no cross-contact with the people who are responsible for the travel. Again, yes, it could be the start of a real problem for the season, but given how it’s actually transmitted and that baseball players spend very little time close to their opponents (and even less close to their teammates), I wouldn’t make any assumptions.
Also, if you’ve seen the Marlins the last couple of years, you know that the drop off to the taxi squad won’t be that significant. (This is a dig at Derek Jeter’s management, not at you – remember that the Christian Yelich trade turned out to be more or less a future superstar for a guy who keeps getting sent down because he’s not that good.)
The Thin Black Duke
@Ken: Cotton is getting ready for his 2024 presidential run.
randy khan
@Roger Moore:
So what you’re saying is that with the Marlins it makes no difference, but with a real team it’s a problem.
Ruckus
@Galahad Threepwood:
And here I thought they were 110% malice and 110% stupidity. Yes I know 220%. But they are massive fucking assholes so……..
Lyrebird
I don’t know what word would do, but it seems to me like she’s jealous that Ivanka got an ad all of her own, Meidas Touch or Project Lincoln, I forget, and needs to get into the limelight.
Anyhow, agreed: “tone deaf” goes in there in the inadequate word bin with “irony” “venality” and “shamelessness”
Brachiator
Further confirmation that Trump is a petty criminal who only cares about himself. From Forbes and the NY Times about delays with the next stimulus bill.
It’s all about the grift with Trump.
Ruckus
@Kristine:
I’ve heard that it is rather difficult to get rid of crap when the exit orifice is blocked by one’s own cranium.
Steeplejack
@Captain C:
For people like McConnell, being in power is what they enjoy. And they can still enjoy their ill-gotten gains at the same time.
trnc
Is that true even with the loss in state revenue and state constitutions that don’t allow for annual debt? Seems like the federal govt is the only entity that can pay for the bulk of this.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: All the roses will be relocated to MaraLoco at taxpayer expense.
Brachiator
@MagdaInBlack:
Yep. Wealthy plutocrats and their minions in the GOP leadership are obsessed with the idea of getting the economy up again with minimal intervention from the federal government. They don’t care who’s hurt, and they keep acting as though the virus doesn’t exist.
And some of these fools really think that a $600 UI supplement is the main thing holding up everything.
Insanity.
Roger Moore
@rp:
This has been my theory for a while. There’s a critical group of swing voters for which racism is effectively a luxury good. When things are going well, they can afford to spend their vote on racism, but when things are going to hell they need to spend it on good government. As long as this is true, we’re going to go through cycles of Republicans inheriting good times from the Democrats, wrecking them, and getting replaced when people vote for the Democrats to fix things.
Brachiator
@trnc:
RE: As everyone knows, state unemployment agencies had zero issues getting checks out to the unemployed, so this little bullshit rule should be a nothingburger to implement.
Ultimately, it may come down to this. The federal government will have to come to the aid of state and local governments.
For example, California recently passed its state budget. In theory it must be balanced; there cannot be a deficit. The state legislature got around this by identifying but deferring future revenues. And there is an assumption that future federal age will help make up for state revenue shortfalls. Of course, if Trump is re-elected, this will never happen and the state will have to go back and slash projected spending.
Danielx
@Baud:
Joke going around (apologies if you’ve heard this one):
Scene: major American city struck by hurricane, massive destruction and flooding. White evangelical Christian male sitting on roof of his house.
Guy comes by in a rowboat, hollers “c’mon, hop in” to the guy on the roof. Guy shakes his head, yells back “thanks, but I have faith my lord god will save me”. Rowboat guy shrugs and rows on.
Sheriff’s deputy in a motorboat comes by, yells at roof guy to get in – same response, and now water is rising pretty quickly. Deputy says you’re on your own, got other people to pick up, and goes on his way.
Coast Guard helicopter comes by, lowers rescue diver on cable who says “come on, we’ve got you”. Roof guy says “thanks, but I have complete faith that the lord my god will save me, go on”. Rescue guy looks at water, looks at roof guy like he needs a brain transplant and says “I hope so, ‘cause we are outta here” and they fly away.
Time passes, water rises, eventually roof guy is swept away and drowns. Overall and in general he’s a good guy so he gets to the pearly gates and is personally greeted by god in his/her avatar as an avuncular-looking gent with a white beard. Roof guy says “my lord god, I had and showed complete faith and trust you would save me, why did you let me drown?”. God does the palm-against-forehead thing and says “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat and a helicopter – what more did you want?”
Gremcat
After many, many times of having to endure the fallout of the trickle down economics that the R’s tax cuts for the rich were suppose to provide, they can pull up their big boy pants and try out the trickle up effect for a change.
I believe this will have a way better outcome, since the people getting the extra money are putting all of it back into the economy.
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
I work in a machine shop, so less exposure. But, and it’s a big round firm but, 2 of the 5 people I work with have spouses who work in businesses dealing with the public. I would imagine that most anyone working will have situations like that. The world is not simple, clean and concise. Right now, if you are working, IOW not staying home and being exposed to anyone, you are at risk. The fact that we require money to exist and the vast majority only have 3 ways to get some, work, government, theft. And 1 and 3 are risky and 3 is a fools game – also if no one has money 3 is not very effective.
Eunicecycle
@Lyrebird: it also seems kind of dumb to redo a garden in a heat wave/drought. Especially roses.
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
There are so many of us in the same boat that 6 ft spacing is almost impossible.
patroclus
I don’t understand the Senate Republicans’ strategy at all. It takes 60 votes to overcome cloture and they haven’t even begun talking to the Dems yet. So nothing is going to pass the Senate even remotely close to what they may or may not announce today. As before, the real negotiations will be between Mnuchin and the Dems and the Senate Republicans’ role will merely be to advise Trump/Mnuchin on what they will or will not vote for. So why go through the kabuki of coming up with a Senate Republican plan? What good will come of the effort? And why is the media treating whatever they come up with in the way of a proposal as in any way meaningful?
Kent
If you are still dentisting at age 72 then you did something wrong like supporting 3 ex-wives or something.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I’m still looking for explanations as to why we even had to try for a bullshit season. This is a once in a hundred year event, a pandemic. People could have sheltered in hard for a couple of months and the downside would have been far, far less, there would have been probably enough PPE to then be effective and the overall effect would be far less disruptive. Are we as a society too fucking stupid to see the obvious answer – or is the obvious answer that as a country we are too fucking dumb?
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Yep. Right on the money. Also, despite all the needless fury about it, the bottom line is that sending kids back to school and college is risky as well. Same problems as the workplace.
Crime is an economic activity where markets have been disrupted, but which still continues. For example, in Los Angeles:
Also, from an NPR report:
Crime will find a way.
Gravenstone
@patroclus:
That is the strategy. They’ll blame the lack of Democratic cooperation for the aid bill failing. They have been doing this bullshit constantly for years now. And the press will go along with all of it, again.
Ken
No one ever accused the media of learning from past mistakes.
danielx
@Ruckus:
That would be all of the above.
Kent
From what I have read, the Rose Garden renovations they have planned are actually designed to make it into a better TV studio which will make it easier to conduct a sort of Rose Garden political campaign of the sort that Carter tried to pull off in 1980 during the Iran hostage crisis. I’m not sure why Melania wants to get her fingerprints on it though. I guess just ego. She probably wants to be Jackie Kennedy who famously did all manner of White House renovations.
Eunicecycle
@Kent: lol, yeah you’d think so, but he has had 1 wife, college sweetheart, and 2 kids. He just loved what he did and wanted to go out on his own terms, not forced by the situation. Plus no “wind down”. He had to abruptly close in March as the state health department required, and it was over.
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
Not sure if one should admire their consistency. Not that they aren’t predictable, stale, and just plain wrong but still, just because something isn’t working doesn’t mean one shouldn’t double or triple down in one last shot of, what’s that word, can’t quite put my finger on it…..desperation, ignorance, hate… Pick any three.
Brachiator
@Kent:
I know CPAs, attorneys and others who are still working in their 80s and later, with fairly good and stable lives. Strange as it may seem, they actually enjoy their work. They are also, thankfully, still good at it.
WaterGirl
@trnc: I thought that was sarcasm when I read it up top. ?♀️
patroclus
@Gravenstone: But that’s a strategy to do nothing. And Mnuchin/Trump at least have said that they want and expect a 4th bill. What I’m saying is the Senate Republicans appear to have no legislative strategy to actually get a bill passed. So far, since May, it’s all been a waste of time. If they really want a bill by 8/8, they’re going to have to start negotiating with the Dems soon. Until that starts, all this posturing is meaningless.
Kent
Money of course. There are TV contracts to honor. If the league doesn’t put a product on the field they give up billions in TV contracts. Doesn’t matter really if they are putting up AAA players, as long as there are games. And it will give the younger players a chance to put on major league uniforms.
I’m actually not really all that worried about baseball. If a team has an outbreak they quarantine the players for 10 days or so while the AAA boys play a few rounds. Then most of the original roster will be cleared to come back. They have far more advantages than say an ordinary high school.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
I agree. I’ve literally been the guy with the van and $200 bucks. When your entire world smells like desperation……. It’s not a good smell BTW.
Ruckus
@Kay:
You are obviously making too much sense.
Soprano2
A thousand times this. I keep saying that the reason the Republicans diddled and piddled for two months is that they honestly though opening the economy was going to mean they didn’t have to do anything else.
I’ve seen quite a bit of griping from people on FB about the $600, how those lazy bums are getting too much money and need to be made to do something for it. Dialing it back might be more popular among the electorate than we all think. I think it’s suicide myself, because all that money is what’s propping up the economy right now. I know some of my employees at the pub used that money to buy what I would consider frivolous things, but I figure it helps the economy no matter what they buy (they’re mostly in their early 20’s, single with no kids). Oh, and not one of my employees said they wouldn’t come back because of the extra money. Most of them were ready to come back, because they were bored. I think most of the stories about people not coming back to work because of the extra unemployment are bullshit.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
And they won’t, because they are willfully blind. They work at the blindness, they honor it, adore it, they worship the blindness.
They know they are going to lose so they are going out with a bang. If they can’t have their milk and cookies, no one else is even getting one or the other.
Shana
@Eunicecycle: And especially 100 days before you need to start packing to move out. And won’t see the fruits of your labor (metaphorically).
Skepticat
Now there’s an oxymoron for ya.
Kent
Poetic justice if true
How Fox News May Be Destroying Trump’s Re-election Hopes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/27/how-fox-news-may-be-destroying-trumps-reelection-hopes/
LuciaMia
Good Lord. But going beyond the ‘clueless’ aspect of the whole thing, one can only imagine what bad idea she’ll come up with. The Rose Garden is a pretty simple, straight forward space.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: The Trump Rose garden campaign strategery.
Kay
The rural county east of me in Ohio just turned red on the state map. “Public emergency, very high exposure and spread”. Trump 65% in ’16.
I read the Trump Administration didn’t do any work to address the virus because they thought it wasn’t “their people”. Oops. How incredibly stupid does one have to be not to realize that people travel between counties?
How do they picture our lives? We conduct our entire lives in one county?
catclub
@Kent: I think Trump’s federales plan is high risk/high possible reward.
Like pulling the goalie. You are more likely to lose by two goals, but you increase your chances of tying the game. Losing by two goals is just as much of a loss as by one. For Trump, I can still imagine old white people getting scared of riots in the streets. More likely is people seeing Trump as the problem, but not certain.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Well people do have more time on their hands….
One of the fellas I work with had someone try to steal his truck, obviously unsuccessfully, he got it fixed and someone tried again.
I know crime will never end, unless we get rid of these humans…..
Ruckus
@Ken:
Not once in all of recorded time I believe.
Brachiator
@Kent:
I don’t follow the economics of sports closely, but apparently many sports teams owners could actually weather the storm of a season shut down. However, you are right that they benefit from TV revenues, and apparently the NFL, among all sports, might make out the best with the resumption of their season.
Good USA Today story on this.
And with the movie industry and other entertainment venues shut down, sports could make out like bandits for TV broadcasts, and increase what they charge advertisers.
And some of their stadium related costs would decrease.
The big downside, of course, is that many people whose jobs depend on working in sports stadiums would be hurt tremendously.
Shakti
@Betty Cracker: My first thought was she is letting it be widely known so fresh piles of dirt do not look out of place, should anyone be able to see over the newly installed fences & high walls surrounding the White House.
Richard Guhl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rubin has not only burned those bridges, she’s dynamited them to everlasting hell.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I’m still working at 71. It’s not that I want to be working or am working full time, but still working, in a machine shop. Same kind of work I started at 60 yrs ago. OK I’m a bit more skilled now than then and actually earn something. My mom still had a job at 84. It wasn’t her life’s work but it was something to do part time. Not everyone can or do work but it also keeps some people interested in living. For me it’s making up for the not so great recession this century. I’d actually like to retire but that eating thing and not sleeping on a street corner next to my stolen shopping cart is not an option.
RSA
That’s a good question, but it also points to one of the current problems in the U.S. political system. The median member of Congress (House and Senate) is a millionaire. They’re totally insulated from a crunch that affects most Americans.
Anotherlurker
@Brachiator: That would be me and many others in sports broadcasting.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I would like to continue working after my official retirement age, not just for the money, but to keep active and involved. And on the maternal side of my family, people tend to be long lived. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
I hope that you are able to work as long as you find it rewarding, aside from necessity.
ETA: a note on the business of crime. For weird reasons, I would take some UCLA extension classes, some business related, and some for fun. I became fascinated with the economics of crime. One little nugget I discovered was that during Prohibition, the price of illegal booze did not go up that much, because people were used to paying a certain price based on pre-Prohibition habits. Markets are real, and they have observable impact on behavior.
There is a market for the fruits of crimes. Humans are sometimes shitty.
Later on I learned that a great deal of Adam Smith’s work involved looking objectively at illegal activities because so much money was involved, and because he did could more easily adjust for lies that the government would put out with respect to “official” economic activities.
Since then, I’ve seen that some of the best business reporting often deals honestly with crime and illegal activities, and the insights can easily be applied to traditional economics.
Anyway, a little side trip.
mad citizen
@Shana: I hope that in November First Lady to be Jill Biden announces a return of the Michelle Obama vegetable garden, etc.
As far as Rubin’s 50-50 odds of debates, I’ve been thinking they will be a no-go since last year. Nothing in it for either side but a spectacle. No reason at all for Biden to share a stage and possible allow trump to do something that moves the needle trump’s way, or for Biden to have a gaffe. Wish Hillary had never done the debates.
Anotherlurker
@Ruckus: I’m still working at 68. I take pride that I can still cover the 3-5 miles of walking and navigate the sports venues that are part of my work. My tech skills and troubleshooting skills are finely honed by my 40+ years as a broadcast tech.
I moved to the East Bay and I really need to keep working 4 days/month to fully enjoy my beautiful new home.
Jinchi
Considering that one of the rightwing’s top priorities in 2016 was tearing out Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden, the renovations might be as simple as salting the ground and paving it over.
kindness
@Elizabelle:
“I’ve been told” is a tell.
???? What is this ‘tell’ of which you speak? Are you saying my dentist is lying to me or that I’m making it up?
I’m on the employee’s side on this one.
Jinchi
So Trump’s all for it.
I agree. There is absolutely no reason to have any debates this year. We all know who Trump is. We have a pretty good idea who Joe is, but it really doesn’t matter. Trump needs to be thrown out.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: hey! If pea gravel is good enough for Versailles….
Doug R
@trnc: To be fair, Japan is back to daily numbers close to the peak in mid April. 927 cases this past Friday.
Roger Moore
@patroclus:
The basic Republican strategy is to present the Democrats with Hobson’s choice. The Democrats want to do something, and the Republicans want to do nothing. That means the Democrats should treat doing anything at all as a major concession by the Republicans and be happy to accept whatever they have on offer.
WaterGirl
@Shana: I’m guess this is a bit of psyops – we’re so confident that we are not going anywhere that we are going to undertake something one would never do if you were going to be leaving.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@kindness: Your dentist’s office can tell the unemployment office that they asked the hygienists to come back and their benefits will be curtailed. Your dentist is either dumb or full of it.
Edited: I see others got there before me.
Brachiator
@Anotherlurker:
I’m in Southern California, and while I am not a big sports fan, I have some sense of how big that total market is.
And whenever I hear or read stories about the economy, and getting back to normal, I think about how much of the larger economy is still in suspended animation, especially sports, movies, leisure, travel and entertainment. And all the jobs affected.
Sports broadcasting has to be affected big time.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I think a lot of them truly believed that COVID was punishment for the sinful lifestyles of big city dwellers, or some equivalent twaddle. They thought the places hard hit early on were being hard hit because they were doing something wrong, and their prighteous small-town living would protect them. It’s not at all surprising, since this has been Republican doctrine for decades.
rikyrah
@Kay:
People like you never visit cities that contain People like me, Kay.
Another Scott
@The Thin Black Duke: Speaking of Cotton…
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/24/relative-not-mahony-ill-lawyer-states-2/
The GOP cannot win fair elections. Even in Arkansas.
We have to vote the monsters out.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@catclub:
I will say this again…
The Seniors KNOW WHY THEY ARE NOT SEEING THEIR FAMILIES.
They know it.
And, they know it’s not because of Antifata.
leeleeFL
@Gremcat: Anyone who knows Keynes already is aware of this truth. Regular people spend pretty much all their income on living, because they have no fucking choice. Better-off and/or richer people can save and still have a nice life. It isn’t magical, it’s math. Repubs have always known this, they do no give a flying shit.
I expect them to continue on their merry ride to hell and OBLIVION. I just hope the rest of us survive it.
leeleeFL
@Eunicecycle: She isn’t all that bright, she married him, didn’t she?
leeleeFL
@Gravenstone: They want to HAVE TO GIVE INTO THE DEMS, then blame them for all the expense. No surprise here, but I can repeat it often.
Eunicecycle
@leeleeFL: She married for his money, of course. My mom used to say when you do that, you pay for it with your dignity. From all I’ve seen, that is true for her.
E.
@Baud: I haven’t read all the comments yet but in my tiny right-wing tourist town (750 people, two brew pubs, one micro-distillery, one very French bakery, a wood-fired pizza place and so on) there is a very limited pool of employees and they are most assuredly not returning to work when asked. They are open about the reason. Employers can’t really do much about it. We could turn them in but what would that accomplish other than generate lifelong ill will? I support the program but I think many BJers are in the dark about how poor these people are, how much that money is worth to them, and how miserable and meaningless their jobs are. They see the well connected ranchers getting massive EQUIP subsidies that are orders of magnitude of orders of magnitude larger than angry they will ever see and they are getting what they can while they can. I don’t blame them one bit.
StringOnAStick
@kindness: Your dentist’s hygienists are refusing to go back to work because Covid has made their job extremely risky. It’s now a “not if, but when” job as far as being exposed goes; I retired early rather than go back and I worry everyday about my former co-worker who is far too young and has too much school debt to be able to bail out of such a risky job.⊥
I didn’t have a choice about going back to work or not, it was either go back or quit. Most dentists are RW assholes and his “my hygienists are refusing to work” sounds like another RW asshole boss ‘just so’ story
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
Hell muthaphuckin’ no.
brantl
Cannon-deaf?