This is heartbreaking:
This is my choice, but I’m starting to wish that it wasn’t. I don’t feel qualified. I’ve been a superintendent for 20 years, so I guess I should be used to making decisions, but I keep getting lost in my head. I’ll be in my office looking at a blank computer screen, and then all of the sudden I realize a whole hour’s gone by. I’m worried. I’m worried about everything. Each possibility I come up with is a bad one.
The governor has told us we have to open our schools to students on August 17th, or else we miss out on five percent of our funding. I run a high-needs district in middle-of-nowhere Arizona. We’re 90 percent Hispanic and more than 90 percent free-and-reduced lunch. These kids need every dollar we can get. But covid is spreading all over this area and hitting my staff, and now it feels like there’s a gun to my head. I already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school remotely and end up depriving these kids?
I have no problem with places with the virus under control re-opening schools in as safe a manner as possible. My own personal opinion is that we’re being fucking idiotic and we should have spent all spring and summer figuring out how to get all students online until there is a vaccine and doing so in a way that it would not already overwhelm parents who are struggling to keep their jobs and now have to spend five hours every day figuring out how to get their kids homework uploaded.
But this- this is fucking monstrous. Forcing people to re-open schools and sending their kids and loved ones to fucking cruise ships full of infection or having their budgets slashed? Christ almighty, where is the courage among our leaders? At what point will someone fucking stand up to Trump and DeVos.
Perry Mason: Speculation & Spoilers
Elizabelle
Dragon Endeavour is minutes from splashdown. They’ve reestablished comms contact with the capsule.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-splashdown-of-the-nasa-spacex-demo-mission-2-cre
Five minutes from splashdown. Dragon capsule is visible.
dr. bloor
Never. This is who they are.
CaseyL
It’s not lack of courage; it’s lack of interest – or even active malignity. None of the people being hurt by this mean anything to them.
Elizabelle
Beautiful splashdown.
Now: Foo on DeVos and Trump. Trials and criminal sentences for their criminal negligence.
Ohio Mom
At this point, probably our best hope are the teachers’ unions.
scav
That meditation is somehow resonant with thoughts of commanders selecting the next installment of young soldiers out into no mans land for a meaningless action on a stalled front. youpee, we’ve all been drafted as red shirts in a campaign video.
Sab
My city’s school district was going to do a hybrid opening, but now they they’ve chickened out and going only online. They were also giving out bagged lunches all summer. Fortunately DeWine is allowing them to do this.
West of the Rockies
Is Florida lying about its COVID numbers? According to the WP, Florida had 58 per 100,000 cases about ten days ago. Now they’re down to 43, but deaths keep rising. Nor have I heard of any new mitigation measures they’ve taken. It smells of BS to me.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Joy in FL
Florida Senator Rick Scott said his grandchildren will have online education. He said that some parents may have to send their children to school if that is the only way those children would have meals. I read that in the weekly newsletter he sends.
I called his office and left a message about how cruel and inhumane he was and asked him to support online education as the norm for now, etc.
This was about two weeks ago. I have seen no hint of anything different since then.
How does the bottom keep getting lower for the members of the Trump cult?
I’m a retired Florida teacher and I don’t let myself think about how I would have tried to manage in a school year like this one. Everything should be online, and food should never be a reason that a kid goes to school during a pandemic.
Our nation has the resources to do pretty much anything that needs to be done, but the monsters in the Trump Death Cult have power for now.
West of the Rockies
@Elizabelle:
It was excellent. It felt like about 1971 again.
Mary G
That story is just a heartbreaker. Three teachers were doing online lessons together in a classroom, distanced and taking all known precautions at the time, and still got sick, and one died. She’d been teaching at the same school since 1982 and was beloved. This poor man.
rikyrah
@West of the Rockies:
Florida was accused of shady numbers for awhile
BethanyAnne
Not sure if this has made it here, but I loved this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpIkl2QnJeI
“Honest Government Ad: A Message From The White House”
I do wish the audio had been better synched, tho.
VeniceRiley
This is all such a disaster in the making. I am so worried for everyone. EVERYONE!
Starfish
You are right, John Cole. This is monstrous. I have a 9-year-old. Our school district was trying to do a half-open plan where kids are in school two days a week and online another two days. They had a completely online option and gave us less than a week to choose. We chose online only.
Twenty-two percent of the tests in Mississippi are coming back positive. I have friends who are teachers there. They are not allowed to strike. I am so scared for them. I asked if there was anything I could do and sent a little money so one of my friend could buy the $5 calculator app that they use for the kids whose families would not be able to afford it.
Texas also has rules against striking like Mississippi does.
I don’t remember the details but teachers who strike lose their pensions and probably their teaching licenses. In Mississippi, teachers that run for higher office have to give up their pension so no teacher can run for office to fix this stuff if they are not independently wealthy.
Elizabelle
@West of the Rockies: Thinking a bit of Gus Grissom and the term “screwing the pooch” from “The Right Stuff.” (60s, of course.)
First water splashdown since 1975.
Lovely to see it go so well.
rikyrah
They absolutely are monsters??
Joy in FL
If GOP were trying to cause mass deaths and destabilization of a nation, what would they need to do that they aren’t already doing?
rikyrah
@Starfish:
Just awful. When the breakouts happen, then what??
Ohio Mom
Now that I’ve read the linked column, I vote the superintendent doesn’t reopen. His funding cut will eventually be reversed.
Either that, or Biden doesn’t win and then we are a totally failed state and his district wasn’t going to be functional anyway.
West of the Rockies
@rikyrah:
It sure seems like DeRacist turned things around crazy fast.
randy khan
@West of the Rockies:
Deaths trail new cases by a couple of weeks to a month, so it’s not inconsistent to have declining cases and rising deaths, at least for a while. Obviously if the trend keeps going for a long time, there’s something fishy about the new case numbers.
I’m keeping track of the Hopkins numbers (for reasons known only to me) and we had several weeks of rising cases numbers before the deaths began to go up, although now the deaths are up sharply compared to a month ago.
scav
@Joy in FL: Like flies to wanton boys are we to the GOP, they kill us for their sport,
Joy in FL
@scav: Indeed.
germy
@Elizabelle: My local PBS station showed a documentary about the early days of the space race. When they got to Gus Grissom’s mission, they played the cockpit audio. I’d never heard it before and it shocked me.
I’d read about them back in the late ’60s, and saw some photos, but the documentary really brought home the horror of the whole thing.
Elizabelle
It is a tad surreal watching astronauts return safely to earth — science, science, science — whereas in the US, no respect for science and magical thinking about the virus disappearing and putting schoolkids, their teachers and everyone involved in education in harm’s way, so that Republicans can try to win an election.
Surreal. If you had a time machine and could see this from the vantage of the 1960s, and such hope for science and technology and progress. It would be unbelievable.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
Every night on the news, there’s a group of parents demonstrating somewhere, demanding their children be allowed to go back to school in person. Just once, I want the reporter to ask them whether it’s their child’s life they don’t value or it’s the lives of the teachers and staff they don’t give a shit about?
These assholes only want what they want; they never even acknowledge the possible consequences of their demands. Having seen this for a couple months now, I’ve got zero sympathy for them.
Mary G
Dr. Birx is a disgrace:
It takes a lot for me to approve of FTFNYT reporters, but she is just horrid to them here.
rikyrah
???
Brachiator
It is criminally insane for governors to issue blanket orders for school re-opening.
It is also insane for Trump to issue directives concerning schools, especially if there is no federal assistance. But Trump loves playing tinpot dictator, interfering in local issues like police departments and schools.
And conservatives really seem to have this thing for blind obedience to authority. Problem is, they are pulling everyone else closer to the abyss.
I guess parents have to make a hard decision. Easy for me to say, because I don’t have kids. So maybe it’s a doubly empty hypothetical. But if I were a parent, I think my kids would either be doing remote learning or skipping the winter term.
And yes, it is terrible to have to consider sending a child to school because you need to return to work, but the risk of infection does not disappear because of economic necessity.
Elizabelle
@germy: Was the audio from the water landing, or the fire?
Barbara
@West of the Rockies: What source are you reading? WaPo reports that Florida has a case rate of 2365/100,000 and death rate of 35/100,000 as of today, with the death rate being a 21% increase over the last 7 days. It’s simplistic to divide death rate by case rate (death lags cases) but as a snapshot in time, that is a 1.5% case fatality rate.
rikyrah
????
germy
@Elizabelle: From the fire. Screaming “Fire! Help us!”
I also learned one of the widows later committed suicide.
But the documentary then moves on, and shows later successful missions. That particular chapter is very dark, though.
azlib
Ducey is fundamentally a coward. He has the persona of being a “reasonable” business type, but he has never stood up to Trump at any point in time. Given the current rate of infections here in AZ, it is just flat insane to open up schools in person. I am with the Never Trumpers, the Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: So sad.
The mother of Long Beach mayor Robert Garcia died a few days ago. She and her husband had both been on ventilators for a long while; he is still in the hospital.
She’d been a healthcare worker, who we are told took care with precautions. She was 62. Gaby O’Donnell. Her sons established a scholarship in her memory. https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/07/31/gaby-odonnell-robert-garcia-coronavirus/
Barbara
@Mary G: Dear Deborah Birx: Trump’s touch is magic, it exposes, sometimes instantly and sometimes more slowly, the ratio of shit, suckitude, opportunism and just plain cowardice that is native to the organism that is touched. This is who you fucking are, forever and ever and your “forty year career as a scientist” has been incinerated for good.
germy
cope
@Joy in FL: I too am a retired Florida teacher and I too have no idea how I would be doing things if I were still teaching. Also, I coached high school boy’s soccer for those same 28 years I taught and can’t begin to imagine how athletics will be handled.
My daughter lives about an hour away in a different county. She was very active for Bernie Sanders and was elected to be a delegate for him. She has channeled all that energy and rage into getting involved in her local school board and is actively working on the efforts to organize state-wide resistance by Florida teachers to DeSantis’ opening plans. I have never been more proud of her and told her that the other day.
VeniceRiley
Sunday shows blame the Dems, natch. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/senate-republicans-waited-until-unemployment-benefits-expired-sunday-shows
Elizabelle
@germy: Disturbing they broadcast that audio. I remember when that happened; learning about it at dinnertime with a TV bulletin.
I think that is rather cruel to the families and friends.
Kent
I could not believe this could possibly be the case so I looked it up and sure as shit, it’s true. Not just teachers, any municipal or state employees with a government pension so cops and city/county workers as well. Damn. Just when I thought I couldn’t have a lower opinion of MS I discover this kind of shit. But apparently it is being challenged and not though to really be legal.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2018/12/03/ag-opinion-state-retirees-can-serve-mississippi-legislature-jim-hood/2190112002/
Brachiator
@debbie:
I doubt that these people can offer a rational reason for their demands.
It’s insane.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Good for them!
germy
@Brachiator:
These are the same people who spent years scolding childless couples and single people for being “selfish” and now they’re climbing the walls because their little precious ones are “underfoot.”
Chief Oshkosh
@rikyrah:
“Don’t worry, no-one we know.” – Francis Urquhart
m.j.
@Elizabelle:
And some Republican asshole feels the need to drive his freak flagged boat in front of the cameras.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
They never left the launching pad.
I found it on google and am sorry I did.
Kent
@rikyrah: Fucking good for them. Pac-12 rosters are full of some of the best and brightest young POC. I think after this spring and summer a lot of things are never going to be the same again.
The Pac-12 is run by Larry Scott who at $5.3 million/year is the highest paid commissioner in college sports. And they operate out of palatial downtown San Francisco offices with unbelievable perks, all earned on the backs of Pac-12 athletes.
Yutsano
@VeniceRiley: I am proud that every single Dem swatted it back in their faces. Like they didn’t have time for this shit, they already had a proposal, and the Republicans weren’t being serious.
raven
I have one friend who quit his job at Jefferson High School, profiled in the NYT last week, and one who managed to get family leave to take care of his kids and will take leave for the first month.
Mary G
Pretty horrifying small study in JAMA Cardiology(pdf):
There’s a less technical article in Newsweek:
Chief Oshkosh
@debbie: And they are RABID — at least the ones my local news shows. They are absolutely LIVID. They are right out of a horror movie. Hell, one person they had on was so out there that, even if they’d been saying that water is wet, I’d’ve moved to the other side of the argument just to distance myself.
Why are we listening to these people?
Elizabelle
@debbie: Some things you cannot unsee or unhear.
About to open the hatch. (ETA: delay. Some burn marks around the hatch and they’re checking for gases.)
germy
@debbie:
In 1968 I bought a paperback “We Reach The Moon” that chronicled the missions. There’s a chapter on the fire, so I was aware of it from an early age. But the documentary shows interviews with the doomed crew, and they’re asked if they’re worried about a mishap, etc. It really is heartbreaking.
Every mission, even today, requires incredible bravery.
Alex
In essence this is what the Senate is doing to the whole country with its refusal to bail out state and local government. Only the feds can do deficit spending. If you want to keep the lights on at the county health department and pay unemployment checks, you have to open bars and restaurants because you need the tax revenue, and the fiscal year ends 9/30. To staff those, you need either child care or schools, pretty similar from an epidemiological risk standpoint. And without extended unemployment aid from the feds, landlords and homeowners will walk away from properties and you won’t have that revenue either. So everyone has to stay open and keep dying because Republican senators are allergic to helping people even when interest rates are so low it’s basically free money.
Robert Sneddon
@Barbara: Britain’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) from confirmed cases of COVID-19 is about 15% (304,695 cases and 46,201 deaths). Saying that the excess deaths total in the UK is something like 60,000 compared to an average of the past five years so the CFR is actually more like 20% — either that or we missed a lot of cases that never got reported.
We lost a shitload of older vulnerable folks, often in care homes, during April when the death rate was something like a thousand a day, about what the US is experiencing right now with six times the population of Britain.
Phylllis
@germy: Michael Collin’s autobiography discusses the accident in detail. Also, Michael Collin’s autobiography is a great read overall.
germy
debbie
@germy:
Oh, I remember it very clearly too. Grissom was my favorite because my father’s first name was Gus.
p.a.
‘Courage’ for the tRump demographic is the Portland (et. al.) brownshirts.
Brachiator
@germy:
This obviously is not true of all people with children, and hard decisions still have to be made.
I am lucky enough to be able to work from home. But if I had to consider returning to work to a potentially unsafe environment, I don’t know what I would do. Schools. Work. Similar problems.
And if I were a teacher or school employee, I would be mad as hell about the dumbass governor.
debbie
@Alex:
You gotta wonder about the twisted logic involved in ending unemployment and eviction moratorium at the same time.
germy
Starfish
@Brachiator: We are lucky in that our jobs are possible to do remotely. However, the kids in early elementary school to mid-elementary school are not self-directing their learning so parents have to go help them out with stuff.
Some district staff were doing food deliveries to some of the poorest families, and many have lost their jobs. Some people are afraid to come get food for fear of ICE. Some can’t come get food due to active COVID-19 cases at home. It is an entire mess.
The entitled mommy brigade writes entitled notes to their principal about “this schedule is inconvenient to me” and “no I have not considered how food services works” or “how bussing works.” And I am thinking “lady, you have just told the principal that his plan is inconvenient to you and that you do not care about the poorest kids in the district.”
germy
@Brachiator:
Of course not. I didn’t mean all people with children.
scav
@germy: Spelling and prepositions, always soooo tricky. That’s right Evangelical Freedom Fighters, Prey on America! Prey on!
Starfish
@germy: Perhaps this is not the moment for “let me hold grudges against people who have children?”
Half my friends have kids and half don’t. People who choose to have kids and people who choose not to are both accused of being selfish by people who don’t know how to mind their own business.
MagdaInBlack
@germy:
As a recipient of some of that scolding, I’ve been noticing that too.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Dumb ass governor, for sure. But this is a situation with no good solution. Even if remote learning became an awesome thing, you’ve still got children suffering from loneliness and not being with their friends, teachers, etc.
Elizabelle
@debbie: My dad is buried rather close to Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. Dad was in Viet Nam when the Apollo One fire occurred. Several astronauts are buried in one small section.
And — even closer to the astronauts — near the end of Dad’s row is a gravesite for a Tuskegee airman, who is nearing 100 and still alive and kicking. (His wife predeceased him.) I hope it is a long time before he needs that grave
germy
germy
@Starfish: I have two children, actually grown now.
Both have college degrees. One is unemployed because of the shutdown. The other found work in a sandwich place.
Elizabelle
@germy: Laughing. Pitchbot perfect.
Elizabelle
@Starfish:
That sounds like an ACLU lawsuit that needs to happen. Isn’t that a complete abrogation of the teachers’ first amendment rights?
I know that our service members are not allowed public political comment, but applying it to teachers??? And taking away the pension? We don’t even do that for convicted congresscritters. WTF?
ProPublica: if this is true, do a big story on it, please.
Chief Oshkosh
Here’s more outrage, in case you were dozing off on this fine Sunday afternoon (trigger warning, this is male on female violence):
https://www.tmz.com/2020/08/02/white-supremacist-punches-woman-florida-fight-hate-rant/
Notice how the subduers don’t stoop to the racist’s level of violence, no matter how richly deserved.
Alex
@Brachiator: for a lot of parents, the choice is between school and some kind of child care, because if they can’t work there will be no home for the kids to stay home in. Depending on the details, school might actually be less risky than childcare, and a hybrid model with childcare plus school a couple days a week doubles the risk for everyone.
MagdaInBlack
@Chief Oshkosh:
He nailed her pretty good, I want to know about her condition.
Brachiator
@Starfish:
It’s nuts. And even more angering when you have a governor who is more concerned about keeping Trump happy than he or she is concerned about the citizens in the state.
VeniceRiley
@Yutsano: Hey you. How are you? Recovered from whatever flippin’ Nora befell you?
Good to hear about Dem pushback. I can’t watch those shows anymore. Too enraging.
germy
@Brachiator:
If everyone had worn masks and social distanced back in May, maybe we wouldn’t be worrying about opening schools in August and September.
But I see people in my own neighborhood who are aggressively anti-mask. I got honked at and yelled at from a passing car one afternoon when I was walking home with a mask on my face.
And I saw the big protest in Germany, so the stupid isn’t confined to this country.
leeleeFL
@Elizabelle: I was telling my younger co-worker about Gus and how they found the capsule and proved he did not screw the pooch at all. Gave NASA a middle finger salute for him. I’m in the Space Coast these days, so I figured I owed it to him
Brachiator
@Alex:
There is no way you can make this assessment in a vacuum. None.
And the states which clearly bungled re-opening show every indication of bungling school return as well.
Returning people to social spaces where they will congregate for extended periods of time is risky and problematic. We have already seen this for bars and restaurants, for workplaces and for other areas.
One Balloon Juice person noted that in her community, returning students would wear masks, but be allowed to remove them in the classroom. Insanity!
And a classroom in the winter, when you close things up to keep warm, double insanity.
Aside from idiotic edicts, I haven’t seen much about what schools are doing to mitigate risk. But there is a lot of “get back to normal” chatter.
leeleeFL
@Elizabelle: I was telling my younger co-worker about Gus and how they found the capsule and proved he did not screw the pooch at all. Gave NASA a middle finger salute for him. I’m in the Space Coast these days, so I figured I owed it to him
Yutsano
@VeniceRiley: So far so good. Dad is grousing that I’ve been in their house too long (it’s only been a month!) and legs are trying to bounce back although I’ll get a couple different opinions next week. I work with my main therapist on Tuesday and the guy I had in the pool two days ago I work with him in full gravity on Friday. So I’ll be getting some good feedback there on what they think my main therapist and I should be focusing on. I just want to get cleared for short walks at home.
I didn’t watch the actual segments (I probably will a bit later) but reading the transcripts it was clear neither of them were willing to swallow the Republican line here.
Another Scott
@Starfish:
How is this legal. It’s monstrous. :-(
Where’s Steve in the ATL when we need him!!
Biden and Nancy Smash need to fix this, and similar horrible restrictions come January.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@germy:
I think that people who do not wear masks are total fools. But I also wish they would keep their stupid opinions to themselves.
Goddam, honking or yelling at people is bullshit.
I live in Southern California and think that the only time it is acceptable to honk at pedestrians is when a local team wins a world championship.
Phylllis
@Chief Oshkosh: Interesting that he made no effort to assault any of the men who confronted him. And by interesting I mean he’s obviously had lots of practice cold-cocking women.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: Seemed like that could have been a concussion level smack in the face. He hit her HARD.
Yutsano
@WaterGirl: I’m in the I Want a Report on Her Condition camp. That wasn’t a slap. That was downright forearm to the face chop. That can cause some serious damage.
Brachiator
@debbie:
It’s gotta be tough. But first you have to do what you can to keep everyone safe. Then you do what you can to try to make things more comfortable.
debbie
@Chief Oshkosh:
Chivalry lives. :/
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: And he was drunk on his ass
Elizabelle
@leeleeFL: Yea! Gus approves.
Have you been able to see any of the launches?
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Someone (actually several people) needs to slap Matt Schlapp.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I loved every minute. It’s not often that I miss my (late) ex-husband, but in the ‘60s and early ‘70s he and I shared countless wonderful moments watching launches, orbits, moon landings, and successful reëntries. I can never see or hear about any NASA-type event without briefly yearning for those happier, simpler days.
rikyrah
I watched the documentary ‘ Good Trouble’ about John Lewis. Had to cry some watching it. Should be part of the U.S. History Curriculum nationwide. Saw it on Amazon. Mad that I could only rent it and not buy it.
Elizabelle
The white supremacist who punched the woman? Per TMZ, his name is Nicholas Arnold Schock.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
The “logic” is cruelty.
sdhays
How on earth is that legal??
Lyrebird
This.
Even David Anderson’s colleagues, brave as they are, didnt sfaik say anything like, “gee if there are this many kids who only get a hot meal if they come to school,” maybe there are too many gotdam fricking households without enough food, and maybe we should seek additional ways to address that without reopening schools?
AAAAAAGH.
ETA: in no way is this the superintendent’s fault, or the public health researchers.
MomSense
Ugh. So many people are facing the worst choices. Go to work or school and risk getting sick and infecting your family. Quit work, lose your home and then end up in a shelter where you risk getting sick and infecting your family.
We are in this mess because of selfishness, greed, and too many Republican sociopaths in government.
I’m facing a decision now to quit my job and face god knows what financially because I really don’t want to get sick and bring it home.
My son is starting his junior year remotely. Even if his school opens, he is not going.
Ruckus
A little respite for those of us who think that shitforbrains has to go…….
jackmac
My far west suburban Chicago K-12 school district announced on Saturday that they’re starting the year with remote learning. This was after three in four teachers expressed objection to in-person education.
My wife, who works as a elementary school teacher’s aide in said district, was terrified about the prospect of returning to school and exposure to COVID-19.
“Yay, I don’t have to die,” she said after learning of the decision.
MomSense
@mrmoshpotato:
I’ve been saying for a long time now that the Trump administration and GOP are actively trying to kill us. Given the recent reporting in Vanity Fair I do not think I am exaggerating.
Phylllis
Our district is starting a week later than originally planned and beginning remotely for everyone. The plan currently is to resume face-to-face on the Tuesday after Labor Day with no more than 10-12 kids in a classroom and limiting how much they move around the building throughout the day. No visitors beyond the front office, meals delivered to the classrooms, and lots of cleaning throughout the day. I’m still very nervous about it.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
No. Not an exaggeration at all.
MagdaInBlack
@MomSense: I’m right there with you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
guy wearing padding and a Colin Kaepernick jersey while demonstrating attack dog training at the The Navy Seal Museum, which has no official connection to the Navy or DoD, as Naveed Jamali points out, but between this and Eddie Gallagher and Greitens and…. There seems to be some issues with civilian and military relations these days.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Could you send me an email message? There’s something I wanted to ask you about but I’m not sure I still have the best address for you.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
I always wanted to see a launch live and in person.
I have seen a shuttle landing. Very cool.
Martin
@sdhays: It’s to deal with the kind of problem CA has with double-dipping.
There’s a better solution – you accrue benefits in all public pensions, but you cap benefits at say 100% salary of your highest paid position and forfeit the rest. That allows you to accrue benefits across multiple pensions (UC and CSU have different pensions for instance) without any real penalty. But it also prevents you from getting 100% out of 20 years inside one pension group (like being a police officer) and then switch over to the elected pension and getting another 20. There are people here in state that would be earning 200% salary or more just by stacking pensions.
It’s a worthwhile problem to solve, but that’s a wildly punitive way to try and solve it.
BruceJ
@Ohio Mom: His funding cut is coming from AZ Repugnant-an Governor “Il Deuce” Ducey. Who is not up for re-election this year.
“Schools Vill be Open! Or there VILL be consequences!”
The Universities are also opening back up: employees are to be back in the office full time August 17th. Class teaching mode is up to the individual professors: Online, Live online, Hybrid, or butts- in-seats.
(Which latter are pretty well required for laboratory classes…cannot very well just send a Junior Scientist Home Chemistry Set to everyone :-/ )
Martin
@Elizabelle: One of the best things to happen in 2020. Not only do we have a return to space, but it’s not half-assed. We aren’t yet back to Shuttle levels of aspiration toward the future, but SpaceX is doing a bang-up job of getting us back there, and in a more sustainable way as well.
Shuttle was a bit too ahead of its time such that it could never deliver on its promises. Wonderful idea and execution considering what was possible in the 60s and 70s, but they needed 90s tech to really make it work.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: We have to win big in the elections. Blue tsunami.
We have to prosecute Trump and all the bad actors in his administration to the fullest extent of the law. They have a body count of unnecessary deaths.
We have to cull the national media of the quislings who enabled this. They have a body count, too.
We have to work to rid ourselves of the Electoral College — its dangers are clear. And to pass all manner of legislation to protect us from a repeat. Although laws do not deter a Trump or Banning or Miller, but they’ve shown us the limits of institutions in place to supposedly prevent their malfeasance.
And I am good with Biden packing the Supreme Court. We are not safe with the Roberts 5 — ie. the McConnell court — in charge. They gutted the Voting Rights Act. Were fine with Citizens United. All sorts of other bad decisions, but without those two, you do not have Trump.
I want to see long criminal sentences and heavy restitution, that will bankrupt some parties, on the way to justice.
Bill Arnold
@Mary G:
See also this one, also in JAMA. This one is an autopsy study.
Association of Cardiac Infection With SARS-CoV-2 in Confirmed COVID-19 Autopsy Cases (July 27, 2020, Diana Lindner, Antonia Fitzek, Hanna Bräuninger, et al)
Results Cardiac tissue from 39 consecutive autopsy cases were included. The median (interquartile range) age of patients was 85 (78-89) years, and 23 (59.0%) were women. SARS-CoV-2 could be documented in 24 of 39 patients (61.5%). Viral load above 1000 copies per μg RNA could be documented in 16 of 39 patients (41.0%). A cytokine response panel consisting of 6 proinflammatory genes was increased in those 16 patients compared with 15 patients without any SARS-CoV-2 in the heart. Comparison of 15 patients without cardiac infection with 16 patients with more than 1000 copies revealed no inflammatory cell infiltrates or differences in leukocyte numbers per high power field.
sdhays
@Martin: Somehow I’m skeptical that that’s the reasoning behind the law in Mississippi.
A Ghost to Most
Courage? Not a commodity available in useful quantities these days. Self-interest, on the other hand…
zhena gogolia
@Ruckus:
That one never gets old.
polyorchnid octopunch
FWIW this is the same basic plan that they’re running here in Canada in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta.
I don’t think it has occurred to the people running those systems that when the inevitable happens they will have to face never showing their faces in public because people will spit on them.
Not a metaphor. If as I expect we start seeing dying in earnest around Halloween and I see Drug Fraud on the street I’m spitting on him. It’ll be worth the assault charge. I’ll plead temporary insanity: “sorry your honour, but when I saw that fat fucking smug self-satisfied face and thought of all the dead teachers I just reflexively ptuied.”
Elizabelle
@Martin: Silly question, but that capsule is so scorched from re-entry. Take it they will be able to clean and resurface it and reuse it? Or not?
And yes, we get so much benefit from meeting scientific challenges like this.
So bipolar, a country that can innovate a reusable launch vehicle to the space station, but cannot cope with a pandemic, or even insist on the measures that worked in 1918.
Thank dog Trump and his lowest of the low had nothing to do with this program.
Paul Krugman’s column last week: NY Times:
The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing AmericaThe right has made irresponsible behavior a key principle.
Me again: You can’t be selfish on a huge endeavor like a successful space program, or the medical advances to fight COVID and develop a vaccine. Or to educate all our children, safely and successfully.
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense: Yup. Let’s work for a Biden administration come 12:01 on January 20, 2021, and I hope at least orange face and pasty face are brought up on charges.
dnfree
@Joy in FL: wow. That is all too true.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: Yay kitty!
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Ghost to Most: Well, we’re glad you are here to be brave for all of us. Oh mighty Miles Gloriosus.
JMG
Not a single member of the Trump administration, let alone Trump, will be charged with anything at all.
Elizabelle
@JMG: I hope you are wrong. What is the point of telling us that?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JMG: Thank you. The pardons have almost certainly already been drafted, if not signed. The beast itself, the Large Adult Children, Jared, Flynn, Stone, Manafort…. The goal should be public hearings, committees with subpoena power. And those will get a lot of pushback with the economy still in the dumper and a vaccine still in in the offing
ETA:
realism, and heading off the “BIDEN DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO PUT TRUMP IN JAIL!” echoes of Obama and “banksters”
zhena gogolia
Lincoln Project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwaklEmDn_0
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
Facing reality.
senyordave
I saw this online:
Ann Coulter’s one of Peter’s best friends, and he kind of does whatever she tells him to.
They are talking about Peter Thiel, a billionaire. Can you imagine how much of a piece of shit you must be to best buds with Ann Coulter. When Thiel kicks off the whole world should have a party. What a sorry excuse for a human being.
I love the idea that Thiel is such a wuss that a hatemonger like Coulter tells him what to do. Why not just take your cues from David Duke.
BTW, I believe Coulter used to call John Edwards f****t. I guess Thiel is okay with slurs against OTHER gay people
mrmoshpotato
Fuck this fucking timeline and everyone responsible for it.
I’m so sorry for the hardships you parents and teachers are going through with this “Re-open the schools! Maybe no one will get sick!” irresponsible-to-the-point-of-homicide bullshit.
And I see from Cole Twitter feed that someone else decided to go all “I made queso.” Fuck them too!
Mary G
Canada doesn’t want us Americans coming to their country:
From the article in the link:
People who got stuck here without their partners are deciding to get married in the Peace Arch border crossing so Canada will let them in.
catclub
relevant! sane Billionaires versus insane Billionaires
joel hanes
@Starfish:
people who don’t know how to mind their own business.
De 100 problemas tienes
10 son por pendejo
90 son por metiche
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: When even the Canadians go “Eh. Fuck you guys!”
rikyrah
Watching AM JOY. One of the doctors that regularly comes on MSNBC. Capehart asked him if schools should open. He’s like ONLY VERMONT Parents can actually have a debate about it. Parents in the other 49 states – THE ANSWER IS ABSOLUTELY NOT.
We continue to not find out anything but BAD NEWS ABOUT THIS DISEASED
Then, the doctor said something that absolutely terrified me:
Research on whether or not children are vulnerable to the virus.
THEY ARE
And…………..
CHILDREN HAVE THE GENETIC MATERIAL THAT ENCODES THE VIRUS AT HIGHER LEVELS THAN ADULTS!
Which makes them….POSSIBLE SUPERSPREADERS!
THE EVERLOVING PHUCK!!
catclub
Oh come on, Lynndie England went to the slammer for torture in iraq.
… of course, none of her superiors did.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle:
Dragon is reusable.
Kent
Yep, not coincidence that most Black professionals in many communities are the teachers. And white teachers are probably also the most likely whites in MS to be Democrats.
West of the Rockies
@Elizabelle:
I hope he loses his job. I hope his wife leaves him and that he shunned by everybody except his racist incel buddies, that he becomes homeless, sick, and suffers. These people produce no good effects on this battered world and troubled country.
rikyrah
@Mary G:
PROTECT YOURSELF, CANADA.
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
The first step is to win the election. The voter suppression is going to be off the charts. Right now there is so much speculation about will the asshole accept the results and leave that there is hardly any mention of the suppression tactics that are already in effect. Due to Covid and fuckery a lot of bureau of motor vehicle offices are closed or have reduced hours. Where will people register? How far will they have to travel? Can they travel?
Will we have money for mail in ballots, drop boxes, working voting machines? What is going to happen with the sabotage of the US Postal Service?
Even if vote by mail happens without much interference, it will take longer to count the votes and I betcha a million dollars I don’t have that the GOP will use that limbo period to create chaos and challenge the results.
We have to be prepared for a fucking battle. This is not going to be a normal election.
catclub
@Another Scott:
I think fixing the Voting rights act and the post office, and the EPA, and DHS, and State and DOJ will be enough to start with. I just want Mississippi to rename the counties they have now that are named after Traitors.
Just One More Canuck
@Martin: you say that it’s a worthwhile problem to solve, but I’d like to know why you say that. I’m not sure that I see a problem, or that it would affect so many people to make it an issue that’s worth devoting much time to solving.
And agree with sdhays. I doubt that Mississippi was thinking about actuarial effects when they did this
Jeffro
@Ohio Mom:At this point, probably our best hope are the teachers’ unions.
Amen. And it looks like the already-bad national teacher shortage is finally having a slight upside: it’s impossible to tell the teachers “F.U.”, ’cause no one else is waiting in line for those jobs. No one.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
We don’t fully understand this virus and what it does to children. Jesus Christ why are we experimenting on them this way?
Bill Arnold
This recent CDC document is very relevant. Not looking good for schools opening without masking of students and/or with vigorous singing and cheering. (From AL’s COVID-19 dump this AM.)
SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Infection Among Attendees of an Overnight Camp — Georgia, June 2020 (CDC, July 31, 2020)
Camp A adhered to the measures in Georgia’s Executive Order* that allowed overnight camps to operate beginning on May 31, including requiring all trainees, staff members, and campers to provide documentation of a negative viral SARS-CoV-2 test ≤12 days before arriving. Camp A adopted most† components of CDC’s Suggestions for Youth and Summer Camps§ to minimize the risk for SARS-CoV-2 introduction and transmission. Measures not implemented were cloth masks for campers and opening windows and doors for increased ventilation in buildings. Cloth masks were required for staff members. Camp attendees were cohorted by cabin and engaged in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, including daily vigorous singing and cheering.
A total of 597 Georgia residents attended camp A. Median camper age was 12 years (range = 6–19 years), and 53% (182 of 346) were female. The median age of staff members and trainees was 17 years (range = 14–59 years), and 59% (148 of 251) were female. Test results were available for 344 (58%) attendees; among these, 260 (76%) were positive. The overall attack rate was 44% (260 of 597), 51% among those aged 6–10 years, 44% among those aged 11–17 years, and 33% among those aged 18–21 years
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense:
Not up to the Soviet shitpile mobster conman to “accept the results.” I’m not saying that’s not reason to be pissed about the shit they’ll pull in the lame duck (Let’s make it happen) session, but Dump can’t just go “I’m not leaving!”
Jeffro
@germy: that is just so perfect…
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: co-signing onto all of this…imagine how much good would happen/how much future bad would be avoided by taking just these three actions?
Bye, EC!
Hello, 11-justice SCOTUS!
And perhaps best and most important of all: prosecutions, jail time, and massive fines for the US’ most criminal administration, ever.
Jeffro
@JMG: You’re wrong
@Elizabelle: You’re right
Gvg
@West of the Rockies: probably, but we are also having test result problems. I never got mine at all from my county which was using LabCorp. After 3 weeks of no response, I found a way to get re tested by the University of Florida. My nephew in the next county results took 11 days. We are in north Florida, which isn’t hit as hard too. Deaths are easier to count. Infections are harder to count correctly. Right now, I don’t think we are very accurate, even if the governor wanted to be.
Uncle Cosmo
@Phylllis: Just FTR, some recent research identifies the primary route of contagion as aerosol (i.e., fine particles that hang suspended in the air) rather than “droplets” (which fall to the ground ballistically in a few feet). If that is borne out, all the cleaning in the world won’t help much – one asymptomatic kid in a mask-free classroom will infect the bulk of the rest, & maybe a whole bunch in other classrooms on the same circuit of air distribution.
JMG
@Elizabelle: To prepare for it. So as to be ready for the anger and despair. This isn’t like Watergate. The criminal conspiracy involves just about every elected Republican in Washington. Prosecution would involve basically outlawing the party, because you know they’d all give each other up in a heartbeat when the FBI comes calling.
Starfish
@catclub: Forrest County
Uncle Cosmo
Wants to be able to rub I told you so in everyone’s face in the case that statement is correct. Hopes to slink away unnoticed in the case that it’s not, banking on the readership’s inability to remember who said it.
Elizabelle
@JMG:
If it ends up outlawing the Republican party because it’s been one long criminal conspiracy enterprise, so be it. Knock it back to the county or local level. Give them a reason to want to rebrand.
I don’t see how you leave that level of criminality in place. Tear it out by the roots. We are not safe with a whole party devoted to money, period.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: No question. We have to prevail though, or that is it. End of the American experiment. Period.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If they get pardoned, no more 5th Amendment rights
rikyrah
@MomSense:
No lie told
rikyrah
@Bill Arnold: the
Been reading about the Georgia camp situation. It is a phucking nightmare??
Uncle Cosmo
Dragon is designed to be reusable. That doesn’t mean that any particular Dragon can be reused after surviving reentry. It is not at all a “silly question” to ask whether this particular Dragon sustained sufficient damage in reentry (as evidenced by the scorch marks) to render it unable to be reused.
I’d guess that it depends on whether the scorching only affected superficial layers like paint, which can be repaired or replaced, or whether the heat of reentry in fact weakened layers underneath more critical to structural strength, in which case maybe not.
James E Powell
@Chief Oshkosh:
I expect we will see more incidents like this. The racists thought they won the war in 2016 and they are not going to go down easy when their hero is rejected.
James E Powell
@Mary G:
They are going to build a wall and make Trump pay for it!
Chris Johnson
@JMG: Bollocks to that.
This is not like when Hillary ran for President, and everyone was so certain that our institutions and norms were going to prevail.
This is NOT like that. It is starkly obvious to everybody that everything is super fucked.
Nobody is naive anymore. Not after months of pandemic. Do you not think the Republicans doing things like lashing back against Trump wanting to delay elections with a tweet, won’t want to stake out their claim to being the true, real, Eisenhower-grade Republicans, and Trump as the interloper?
Bollocks. They are not going to go down with that ship. I’ve heard one of the Lincoln Project guys on a podcast. If you believe they are all part of the conspiracy of Trump, you are wilfully failing to understand the position of what Republicans used to be, and grossly underestimating how pissed off some of them are at what Trump has done to the name of their party.
Uncle Cosmo
Sure he can – it just won’t do him any good.
As of 12:01 PM on 20 January next, Orangecandyass can expect to be removed from the White House grounds (and perhaps arrested) as a trespasser, by Federal LEOs who no longer work for him because his term as President has expired. And he can further expect to be handled in accordance with whatever physical resistance he offers to removal/arrest.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: Cargo Dragon capsules have been used at least 3x.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_C106
NASA had to be convinced to allow them to reuse the crew Dragon, but they did give that approval (in principle). Presumably there are all kinds of inspections and refurbishment processes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris Johnson
@James E Powell: And even in Florida they can’t carry on like that in public without getting swarmed by Americans.
Object lesson in how the needs of Trump and the fascists are not actually achievable in America. All they will get is a tall, tall stack of bodies… and if they’re lucky, the Hague. That’s if they’re lucky.
RSA
@rikyrah:
Yet another JAMA piece (pediatrics):
My emphasis.
Phylllis
@Uncle Cosmo: Yes, I call it ‘cleaning theater’, sort of like requiring clear bags at sports events. It makes people feel better. Transmission from surfaces is not happening.
The Moar You Know
@Uncle Cosmo: Won’t matter with this one. It’s going to the Smithsonian.
Elizabelle
@RSA: They can’t drive cars, but they can drive pandemic infection rates.
Le sigh. Let’s protect our young children and all of us.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: Cool. The Air and Space Museum? Good to hear.
@ Uncle Cosmo:
Since they can remotely control the capsule, maybe they will refurbish one and test it without humans on board. And then test it again. The issue is the re-entry, right?
Elizabelle
@Uncle Cosmo: My great hope is that, at 12:01 p on January 21, Mr. Trump is delivered from his Secret Service detail into the waiting arms of NY State law enforcement. To be arraigned and held without bail, for months and months and months.
That Mr. Trump end up with a hair style that makes Phil Spector’s prison ‘do look glamorous in comparison.
Of course, that can happen before January 21, too. Not a stickler on the date.
matt
Maybe we should figure out a way for the most stupid, monstrous, evil people among us not to have power over the rest of us.
catclub
@Starfish: also Jefferson Davis County.
Not sure on Pike County
Eunicecycle
@Elizabelle: I thought the same the other day when Perseverance was launched. We can send a vehicle to another planet that will transmit info back from that world for years. Yet we can’t produce or process enough tests to help us beat a pandemic disease.
J R in WV
@Eunicecycle:
Yet we aren’t allowed to produce or process enough tests to beat a pandemic disease. Fixed that for you.
leeleeFL
@Elizabelle: only on the TV, just like when I was a kid in NY. But the manned launches should always be watched. Like my Dad said, they’re willing to sit in top of a bomb for us, least we can do is watch. CHALLENGER killed me. I knew they were dead right away, and her poor Mother’s face haunts me still!
Cried like I lost family when Gus was killed. He was my favorite Mercury Astronaut. I always liked the underdogs!
leeleeFL
@MomSense: WE AREN’T. Rich assholes whose kids are not involved are doing it. My GrandBabies are homeschooling for the foreseeable future, maybe permanently. I am changing my work schedule to be home so my Daughter can work. We will be working with another working Mom. Her twins are my Youngest’s Best Buds.
tony in san diego
@scav: I use that quote all the time!
Elizabelle
@leeleeFL:
I remember talking with my dad at the dinner table, shortly before the Challenger’s launch date. That shuttle flights were becoming so routine that we barely heard about them.
And then ….
Elizabelle
Finally read the article John linked above. WaPost: ‘I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy’ Jeff Gregorich, superintendent, on trying to reopen his schools safely
I kind of think Superintendent Gregorich has made his decision. He cannot keep his teachers safe. He cannot keep his students and their families safe. He knows it. Yes, the kids will fall behind further and the district is threatened with the loss of 5% of its budget. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in a poor community. But he knows. We will have to watch for the follow up.
Andrew Cuomo would have some words for Mr. Gregorich. In fact, I hope he phones him.
Because Gregorich is looking at death. And a terrible, novel disease, whose longterm effects are unknown. Death hurts more than more months of education loss.
Words fail me in thinking of how depraved Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration, and Republicans are for putting Mr. Gregorich and his school community in this peril. It is criminal.
debbie
@Mary G:
There was a report this morning on NPR about rich Americans trying to sneak into Canada on their yachts. Canadians are getting pretty exercised about it.
debbie
@MomSense:
This is why I’m leaning toward early voting in person. Just to make sure my vote isn’t messed with.
Just One More Canuck
@debbie: @Mary G: Except maybe someone from Alberta, it would be political suicide for any Canadian politician to suggest loosening the border restrictions right now. Albertans are the murder hornets of Canada
smedley the uncertain
@m.j.: Right between a recovery vessel and the capsule. Interfering with a recovery is a big time crime. I’m surprised NASA didn’t enlist the CG for security. Or, maybe they didn’t anticipate the existence of such an idiot.
Annie
@germy:
Hey, ease up a little. I have coworkers who are trying to work from home while teaching their children and looking after them when they aren’t doing schoolwork. My coworkers are not agitating for schools to reopen, but they are having a really hard time. I get emails from them timed late at night because it’s the only time they have to do any work. I had to phone one colleague with a question because her late night email didn’t make any sense. she was so exhausted she broke down crying on the phone.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Still don’t understand why the managers who overruled the engineers to launch with temperatures outside the deisgn specs were never prosecuted for that so bogus decision! I know, I know, can’t throw shade on NASA, brave astronauts, blah, blah, blah.
The brave astronauts depend upon the engineers to design those launch engines and vehicles correctly to specification, and then to only launch when conditions match the design specs the vehicle was built to. This obviously did not happen.
Same for the Columbia, launched without adhering to the design specs, so too much ice built up on the liquid gas tanks, which broke off the launch vehicle, and fatally damaged the heat shields, so the Shuttle melted on re-entry.
Body parts shredded all across Texas, with search parties combing through the Texas brush for parts. Despicable, would not have happened IF the previous criminally culpable MANAGERS had been held responsible for the first exploding Shuttle.
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
Can you tell I’ve had some shitty managers in the past? Not paying attention to what they’re told about requirements and what’s being delivered?
Original Lee
@Brachiator: My family was fortunate enough to get tickets to see a launch. Like an eclipse, the reality is so much more than watching a video. The NASA videos are terrific, BTW, but because they are so close (relative to what ordinary folks can see), you miss some details. For instance, the launch we watched took place with some clouds over the area, so when the engines fired up, a whole area of sky lit up, too.
Matt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have zero doubt our special forces are as shot-through with outright Nazis as Germany’s were recently discovered to be.
leeleeFL
@J R in WV: I bet there is still archived film at CNN. The launch was a go because Ronnie Raygun wanted the Teacher in Space as a photo op for the SOTU that very night. Still intended to give the speech, but was dissuaded by someone(Nancy?) at the last minute.
The “slipped the surly bonds of earth, and touched the face of God” piece was on the fly. Always wondered who gave him that.
I disliked him before that, but afterwards, pure hatred, to this day.
leeleeFL
@Matt: My surprise would be if it weren’t. There has always been a strong strain of reactionary authoritarianism in elite military eschelons, methinks.
jonas
That’s the plan. Count. On. It.
jonas
It hasn’t always been that way. I think the War on Terror and the whole “S.O.’s are gods” mentality from Iraq and esp. the Bin Laden operation, American Sniper, etc., has attracted a certain type of roided-up asshole to the field over the past two decades.
leeleeFL
@jonas: You may be right, but I remember the DI- types and how my friends were trained during Vietnam. I have been protesting for a very long time. I just don’t get out in the street like back then. Couldn’t afford to leave my kids without a Mother, and now, a Grandmother. I fight differently
James E Powell
@leeleeFL:
Back when I was in college, the local stations still signed off after 1 or 2 PM. One of the Columbus stations, right before playing the national anthem with flags photos, had short film of a pilot’s view flying high in the clouds while someone intoned the poem “High Flight” – Reagan took parts of the first and last lines.
Portions of the poem are on the headstones of many airmen buried in Arlington Cemetery. That was likely where his speechwriters got it.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
My standard about kids falling behind is cold.
It won’t make any difference if they are up to date school wise and dead or broken enough that they can’t actually live a normal life.
The part that their parents have to work and has no other place to put them but school is a problem with or without a virus.
The assholes politicians in the republican party that can only think of their bank account or the bank account of their owners and are unwilling to do anything to help are obviously the problem and should be hung up by their genitalia for not even attempting to solve an issue that effects so many, some of whom actually voted for them. mitch goes first. Not too hard to figure out why so many people spat on Mussolini when he was hanging out at that gas station.
low-tech cyclist
By what means?
I see only two. One is to refuse to pass appropriations bills that are important to Trump, but that wouldn’t affect the lives of most Americans.
The House has already passed all the FY 2021 appropriations bills except for Homeland Security. If this was a deliberate choice on Pelosi’s part, this would be the right one. But has there been any indication that Pelosi intends to either cut the Homeland Security budget, or use it as leverage elsewhere (e.g. getting the Senate to pass something that isn’t all that far from the HEROES Act)? Or did it come last just by random chance? (In which case it’ll sail right through the House today or tomorrow.)
This is Nancy’s last chance to SMASH, short of a second impeachment (the only *other* means for anyone to stand up to Trump), which ain’t gonna happen. Holding up an appropriations bill is traditional, standard hardball politics – stuff that should be right in her wheelhouse. We’ll find out in the next day or so if she still has any SMASH left in her.