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Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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Fight them, without becoming them!

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Repub Venality Open Thread: Strangling the Stimulus

Repub Venality Open Thread: Strangling the Stimulus

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I keep starting threads about the stimulus talks, but #MoscowMitch and the rest of the GOP Death Cult keep shifting their goalposts. So the Repubs won’t negotiate and Squatter-in-Chief is worthless, but at least Speaker Pelosi and Money-Head Mnuchin are still talking, per Bloomberg:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made further progress on a coronavirus stimulus package Wednesday, according to Pelosi’s office, but Senate Republicans continued to raise objections.

“Today’s conversation brings us closer to being able to put pen to paper to write legislation,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted after the two negotiators held a 48-minute call Wednesday. “With the exchange of legislative language, we are better prepared to reach compromise on several priorities.”

The two negotiators will talk again Thursday, Hammill said. With the timeframe becoming ever more compressed, both sides on Wednesday floated the potential for final votes after Election Day. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the economy and markets would still benefit from the announcement of a deal between the administration and the House in the next two weeks…

It’s still not clear whether a deal can be reached. Meadows complained that it’s the administration that’s “advancing this negotiation further and further to Nancy Pelosi’s side of the ledger.” The speaker has made only “small” concessions, he said…

“There will be a bill. The question is: is it in time to pay the November rent — my goal — or will it be shortly after,” Pelosi said on MSNBC. “I want people to know that help is on its way. It will be bigger. It will be better. And it will be retroactive.”…



The Nation, supporting Pelosi’s “recalcitrance”:

… McConnell has decided that he will not allow a stimulus bill to pass unless it includes a “get out of jail free” card for employers who, through pure greedy negligence, allow their workers (or customers) to catch the coronavirus.

The issue of liability protection can be difficult to understand as a moral imperative worth fighting for, but it is. Put simply, the fact that companies and businesses don’t currently have the cover McConnell wants to give them is the reason a lot of people are currently alive.

Here’s how the system works right now: Employers and businesses must take reasonable care to make sure that people don’t get sick or injured on their premises. There are entire canons of law centered around what “reasonable care” looks like, and what steps businesses must take while workers or customers are on their premises. Lawyers call this “tort law.” Tort law is generally left to the states, so the principle of “reasonableness” is more-or-less tied to your community and can vary… But there are general principles. If I walk into a business and a piano falls on my head, I will most likely be able to sue that business, even if the business is called “Dangling Pianos Unlimited.”…

McConnell wants to change all of that. He wants to exempt businesses from state tort liability in cases involving the coronavirus, remove all coronavirus tort claims to federal courts (recently stacked with judges approved by McConnell), change the standard for liability from “reasonable care” to “gross negligence” or “willful misconduct” by business owners, and, critically, require people to somehow prove that they got sick from that business and nowhere else.

All of that would essentially exempt businesses from any coronavirus responsibility. It would make it almost impossible for plaintiffs to prove they contracted an airborne virus from a negligent business, particularly in a world where the government does almost no contact tracing. Even if they somehow could prove where they got sick, the willful misconduct standard would be nearly impossible to meet. Consider the case of a restaurant where a waiter tests positive for an asymptomatic case of the coronavirus. A “reasonable” standard would involve expecting the employer to tell that waiter to go home and take care of themselves for 14 days (with pay). A “willful misconduct” standard would require something like ordering the waiter to come to work, and then ordering that waiter to lick all the plates. If McConnell has his way, liability will be functionally out of reach.

That’s unacceptable, because that fear of liability is probably one of the only things keeping businesses from giving in to pure profit motive during the pandemic. If you give businesses liability protection, they will force their workers to come in sick. They will pack too many people inside their storefronts. Liability is pretty much the only thing that is keeping business self-interest and best public health practices aligned…

But then again, is it possible McConnell has more… personal… reasons to be in such a dire hurry over his legacy?

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    Didn’t Mitch bust a shoulder or something recently?  I can only hope that mundane tasks like masturbating and asswiping are still painful for him.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    The other reason Republicans oppose a stimulus, not just before the election but period, is that they figure Joe Biden will inherit a smoking mess of a country in January and that their path back to power lies in keeping it a mess while keening about the deficit.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    McConnell has decided that he will not allow a stimulus bill to pass unless it includes a “get out of jail free” card for employers who, through pure greedy negligence, allow their workers (or customers) to catch the coronavirus.

    Democratic party v Murderous ghouls

  8. 8.

    jl

    McConnell plays the long game. Trump think’s he does too, but he is totally out of it, so, for Trump, the long game is the next few seconds.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    Zoiks!  Sorry, Mitch – hope you and Limbaugh don’t croak on the same day, I’m trying to space out the alcohol intake here.  ;)

    Here’s hoping Nancy Smash grabs the $2T before the week is out, to help keep the country’s unemployed workers going until a new Dem Congress and President can vote in all the detailed things that are needed here.

  11. 11.

    patrick II

    I believe Trump gave meat packing companies exemptions from covid liability via an executive order under the auspices of the presidents emergency powers. Although they have tried to hide it, we have some idea how that worked out for line workers in the meat packing companies. Not well, and those plants have been the major super spreader locations for several states.

  12. 12.

    Shakti

    @Jeffro:

    I never realized blood thinners made your hands look so hideous, which is what it probably is, not like seekrit covid killing him from the inside.

  15. 15.

    Danielx

    Fucking McConnell.

    I can’t decide whether I want to see him defeated or watch him get curb stomped by Schumer every time he raises his ugly head if/when Republicans lose senate majority.

    On further reflection I’ll go with door #1.

  16. 16.

    Kristine

    My dad used to get horrible bruising when he hit his 70s. He’d bump into something, and whatever spot he hit, the blood just spread. Combo of thin skin and fragile vessels, I guess–he wasn’t on any blood thinners.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    TheHill:

    The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to report Barrett’s nomination to the full Senate on Thursday. McConnell has said the Senate will vote to confirm her on Monday, which would hand Trump and Senate Republicans a major victory and morale boost just a week before voters head to the polls. That late surge of momentum could be just enough for McConnell and his team to preserve their fragile Senate majority.

    But while there’s virtually nothing that can stop McConnell from seating Barrett on the high court, a bipartisan stimulus deal around the same time could take the national spotlight away from the GOP’s Supreme Court triumph and refocus it squarely on divisions between Trump and his GOP allies in the Senate in the run-up to the election.

    There’s been little appetite among Senate Republicans, especially fiscal conservatives, for a “big, beautiful stimulus” like the one Trump has called for. They tried to pass a targeted $500 billion package on Wednesday but were blocked by Democrats, highlighting the close alliance between Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the would-be majority leader if the Senate flips.

    […]

    “The quicker we can make a deal the better off it is for all Americans,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Wednesday in the Capitol, where he huddled with Republicans.

    While Pelosi says she’d prefer to vote on new stimulus before Nov. 3, she’s also vowing to act quickly in the lame-duck session if the shrinking calendar — or Senate opposition — prevents it.

    “There will be a bill. It’s a question of, is it in time to pay the November rent, which is my goal? Or is is going to be shortly thereafter and retroactive?” Pelosi told MSNBC.

    That strategy carries risks, however, particularly if Trump falls to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and loses interest in cutting deals as a lame-duck president. Some lawmakers in both parties are already warning of that very thing.

    “If we’re gonna do it this year, I think it’s now or never,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

    I trust Nancy, not Blunt.

    Make the Senate vote. Make them say no to a bill that she draws up. They won’t do it, and McConnell knows it and that’s why he’s sat on the House bill since May 15.

    We have to vote the monster out!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  22. 22.

    The Moar You Know

    Trump won’t sign it after the election.  Time is a factor, but the House cannot permit the coronavirus tort exemption even if that means there is no stimulus at all.  As noted, it’s the only thing keeping businesses and schools from reopening everything and making sick folks go to work.

  23. 23.

    prufrock

    It’s part of his plan to keep his hands from being nailed to the senate doors. That can’t happen if they explode first.

  24. 24.

    sdhays

    I have to say – I don’t understand the optimism that there’s going to be a COVID stimulus bill this year. It was virtually unthinkable when they blew past the previous expiry date back in, what July? Now, McConnell has written Dump off – the only leverage Dump has is withdrawing COVID Amy’s nomination before she’s confirmed, and there’s no way Dump will do that. Once that’s done, McConnell doesn’t give a shit, and no matter how much Mnuchin says that he and Pelosi have reached a deal or John Cornyn pleads with him behind closed door (LOL) or Dump threatens him, Moscow MItch is only going to move a bill if he feels like it.

    Maybe he’ll accept a deal agreed to by Mnunich, but whatever the administration has to say on anything becomes more and more irrelevant by the day, and if McConnell determines that his majority is lost already and this won’t save it, he’s completely prepared to immediately go all in on salting the earth before Democrats can start cleaning things up.

  25. 25.

    randy khan

    My first choice – because it’s best for the country – is for there to be a negotiated bill with Pelosi’s priorities more or less intact that passes the House and Senate and gets signed by Trump.  That only can happen before Election Day, as Trump loses all incentive to do something and McConnell really won’t be interested after that.

    My second choice, which I think is  much more likely anyway, is that the negotiations conclude successfully and the Senate doesn’t pass it.  (Ideally, it fails a cloture vote, but it’s fine if McConnell decides he doesn’t want it on the floor at all.)  Then Trump gets no benefit, he probably starts railing against the Senate Republicans, and it’s the worst case scenario for the Republicans all around.

  27. 27.

    The Moar You Know

    My former neighbors hands looked like that after the second fall he took in the nursing home, the one that ended up killing him.  McConnell may be on chemo or blood thinners.  My neighbor had been on both.

  28. 28.

    randy khan

    My first choice – because it’s best for the country – is for there to be a negotiated bill with Pelosi’s priorities more or less intact that passes the House and Senate and gets signed by Trump.  That only can happen before Election Day, as Trump loses all incentive to do something and McConnell really won’t be interested after that.

    My second choice, which I think is  much more likely anyway, is that the negotiations conclude successfully and the Senate doesn’t pass it.  (Ideally, it fails a cloture vote, but it’s fine if McConnell decides he doesn’t want it on the floor at all.)  Then Trump gets no benefit, he probably starts railing against the Senate Republicans, and it’s the worst case scenario for the Republicans all around.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jean: My dad took blood thinners, and sometimes his hands would look a little scarily bruised, never that bad, and he was in his late 80s

  30. 30.

    randy khan

    @The Moar You Know:

    Trump won’t sign it after the election.

    I agree.  In fact, I doubt McConnell would put it up for a vote after the election.  It’s now or January.  (Assuming the FSM listens to our prayers.)

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Frank Figluzzi (Ex-FBI counter-intel chief, I believe) points out on MSNBC that the AG should have been at an announcement like today’s if it were serious. Which raises a question that’s been asked off and on for a couple weeks, it seems to me, when was the last time our nation’s chief mob lawyer was seen in public?

  32. 32.

    West of the Rockies

    I am mystified as to how this bloated yet sagging man stays in power.  That wicked chuckle a week or so ago when he was debating McGrath (how do his voters not see that he doesn’t give a shit about them?) shows how heartless he is.  Homely, without charisma, a shitty voice, he nonetheless retains power.

    I take comfort in the fact that he is a badly-aging 78.

  33. 33.

    Another Scott

    @Geoboy: I’d be more concerned about the puffiness (especially his left in the first AP picture) than the bruising in most cases.  Oldsters often have kinda bony hands with thin skin which is easily bruised and damaged.  Puffiness can indicate fluid retention and all sorts of other things (but IANAMD).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    Citizen Alan

    Look on the bright side. At least Kentucky has a Dem governor to replace the bastard if he gets shipped off to the 9th layer of hell earlier than expected.

  37. 37.

    L85NJGT

    Listen to him. His palate sounds all fucked up. I’d guess some sort of cancer in the mouth\jaw.

  39. 39.

    sdhays

    @Danielx: I’ve given up hoping for #1. It’s much more likely (not likely, just more likely) that Democrats have a 60 vote majority in 2021 than Moscow Mitch losing his reelection, unfortunately.

    If the Democrats hold all of their seats (and there’s at least some reason to believe that’s not crack-smoking crazy with recent polling in Alabama), Democrats would need to pick up 13 seats to get to 60. And there are polls showing Democrats leading or with reason to hope in 13 states: GA (2), SC, NC, ME, IA, MS, KS, TX, CO, MT, AR, AK.

    Several of those are still quite a heavy lift, and it’s highly unlikely that the Democrats sweep them all, but none of those individually would be completely out of nowhere based on recent polling. Moscow Mitch losing Kentucky would be completely out of nowhere, unfortunately. The last I saw, his Democratic challenger was polling in the mid(?) 30’s.

  41. 41.

    sdhays

    @Citizen Alan: I think Kentucky has a law that requires the governor to appoint someone from the same party as the person leaving the seat. But that doesn’t mean he has to appoint someone who was a Trumper.

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    Whatever it is that’s ailing McConnell, I think we’ll find out soon enough because it’s too serious a condition to hide.

    It’s one thing to bruise easily but it’s his entire hand — if you bang the back of your hand, you don’t bruise the palm and every finger from top to bottom. And in one photo, his lips are purple.

  45. 45.

    sdhays

    @mrmoshpotato: If Moscow Mitch snuffed it, say, this weekend, I wonder what that would do to COVID Amy’s nomination. I don’t pretend to understand Senate procedure, but I wonder how fast Republicans could replace him as Majority Leader and get the nomination scheduled. Or would the previous schedule by the (deceased) former Leader just keep moving along?

    It would certainly amp up the absurdity of this year if his ill-timed death ended up thwarting his exploitation of RBG’s ill-timed death.

  46. 46.

    CaseyL

    McConnell wants Barrett on the court to wreak havoc with the election. He’ll get that. Maybe a decision to stop counting votes at 11:59 PM election night; maybe a post-facto decision nullifying votes from “anarchist jurisdictions.” (Barrett is on record that the only people who should be allowed to vote are “people of virtue.”)

    He might also be dying – one can hope – and the decision to rush through Barrett’s nomination is he wants it done before he dies.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @CaseyL:

    He might also be dying – one can hope – and the decision to rush through Barrett’s nomination is he wants it done before he dies.

    Yertle could be at death’s door and would insist on staying on the floor of the Senate long enough to ram through Amy Covid Barrett. That’s how badly screwing the country is to him. Hell he would have his deathbed there just to make sure that happened. Choosing a new Speaker would not only narrow the calculus to decide (only three now instead of four) but the Speaker election would push the nomination past the election. Yertle would rather be barely alive but present for that to happen.

  50. 50.

    MisterForkbeard

    Honestly, I just can’t believe that Barrett might be confirmed on Monday. Because everyone (literally everyone) knows the whole thing is a farce, but it’s happening anyway because McConnell and every Republican in Congress is a corrupt gaslighting asshole.

    It’s surprising how bad they are. It really is.

  51. 51.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @CaseyL:

    McConnell wants Barrett on the court to wreak havoc with the election.

    ….Wouldn’t that make her and the other conservatives on the Court targets in the subsequent chaos?

    And honestly? That would absolutely destroy the SCOTUS’ reputation and legitimacy as an institution. I have to imagine a lot of down ballot Republicans wouldn’t like having their own elections fucked with either

  53. 53.

    sdhays

    @Yutsano: Assuming he gets away with it (for now), I hope he lives at least long enough to see his life’s work completely destroyed by one court unpacking bill passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by a Democratic President.

  54. 54.

    Calouste

    @Another Scott: I think he hasn’t been asked about it because the journalists have already been told that his days are numbered. So they’re hiding this out of “ concerns for his privacy”.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T from the topic of McConnell’s hands, but that lovely video clip that made the rounds today of Joe Biden comforting the grieving boy? BriWi just showed it with the backstory (which I hadn’t seen reported anywhere) this was at a memorial service for the coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, the coach who tackled the gunman and attempted to disarm him and was shot dead. The boy was the coach’s son.

    And typing this just now, it occurs to me that Joe had been out of office for over a year at this time. There was no official reason for him to be there. I guaranfuckingtee that Trump didn’t reach out to him to attend on behalf of the American people, and I don’t recall that anyone from the Trump administration was there. This was Joe Biden, private citizen (not yet even a candidate himself), just being … Joe Biden. I like him more every day.

  56. 56.

    Anya

    Someone trolled me by registering me with Trump email list. It’s like they’re getting desperate. They sound more like a Nigerian prince scam email rather than a campaign fundraiser appeal. And every Trump, except Barron is sending those emails (or their names used). I have not received an email from any prominent republican, except the other dude on the tucked. Not to be dramatic but if we lost to these grifters again, we might as well give up on America.

  57. 57.

    CaseyL

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If this election is stolen, blatantly stolen, I honestly don’t know what will happen.

    People in other former-democracies tend to decide to keep their heads down and just live their lives as best they can.

    40% of this country would be ecstatic if the election was stolen.

    Of the other 60%, maybe 10% would be willing and able to fight an actual insurrection, a civil war.  Demonstrations won’t accomplish anything, marches and chants won’t accomplish anything.  It would require an insurrection that spreads across the country and makes doing business impossible.  That would be the key: stop the economic engine.

    I don’t know if we get there with 10%.

  61. 61.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @CaseyL:

    It doesn’t necessarily have to be full-blown civil war or insurrection. I think massive demonstrations shutting down the whole country could bring down the GOP and the Trump admin.

    Personally, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary, given current polling in the states Biden needs to win the EC as well as several Senate races for control of the chamber

  64. 64.

    Anya

    @L85NJGT: I must’ve missed that one. I keep deleting it their emails now go to my spam.

    there is a huge difference between the ones I receive from DNC, Biden/Harris campaign, and every freaking candidate I donated to. Trump campaign’s appeals don’t seem like they’re coming from a major party candidate.

  65. 65.

    cain

    @Shakti:

    Why can’t we give it to him and then put a hold or something and then add a poison pill? Weren’t these asshole Republicans doing that all the time with the bills? Sticking shit into it that people all mad?

    I mean once the bill is introduced they have to deal with it right? I figure there must be some rules of the Senate that we can exploit?

    Not that McConnell has any rules at all – the asshole literally is ignoring all of it.

  66. 66.

    Benw

    You guys they’re turning back into evil flippers, and he’s only got to hold on for a few more days

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @mrmoshpotato:

    That [Coney Barrett rush job], the Kavanaugh hearings and the Gorsuch hearings all stink to high heaven.

    Yup. As do the circumstances of Kennedy’s retirement (which, of course, enabled the Kavanaugh appointment). That’s really the story I want to know about, with details.

  71. 71.

    West of the Rockies

    @Calouste:

    Do such niceties exist anymore between journalists and a Republican party that calls them the enemy of the people?

    Maybe the press should refer to Trump as “the enema of the people.”

  73. 73.

    Kent

    @CaseyL:

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If this election is stolen, blatantly stolen, I honestly don’t know what will happen.

    People in other former-democracies tend to decide to keep their heads down and just live their lives as best they can.

    40% of this country would be ecstatic if the election was stolen.

    Of the other 60%, maybe 10% would be willing and able to fight an actual insurrection, a civil war.  Demonstrations won’t accomplish anything, marches and chants won’t accomplish anything.  It would require an insurrection that spreads across the country and makes doing business impossible.  That would be the key: stop the economic engine.

    I don’t know if we get there with 10%.

    What happens in other countries is generally things like death squads and car bombings.  When leaders can’t be removed by democratic means, that is all that’s left.  Does SCOTUS really want to live in a world where they have to fear suicide car bombers taking out their families and that sort of thing like happens in Iraq and Colombia?  The president might be pretty well protected, but not every single legislator or judge is.   I lived in Guatemala during a time when death squads were running amok.  It is not what you want.

  76. 76.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I can only assume that the Conservatives on the Court believe that Americans will go on still following the laws even with increasingly absurd outcomes from clearly crooked elections/court decisions because that’s what has happened all the other times. But there’s always a breaking point imo. I think we’re just about there; given all we’re seeing with enthusiasm for early voting, the SCOTUS would be fools to fuck with the election. There will come a time when Trump is no longer around. Trump himself is not worth it

  77. 77.

    SmallAxe

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): nothing will happen til the election. MCConnell holds the keys. Used to work on the hill, this is pointless and Lucy (McConnell) has already told us literally every day that he’s not going for it. It’s theater.

  78. 78.

    jl

    Apparently, Trump is so unimaginative, he wants an exact replay of 2016 in terms of a last minute scandal to take down his opponent. Tomorrow is 12 days until the election. HRC was accused of BS 11 days before the election… dhumm dhum DHUMMMMMM!!

    FBI seems like it is not playing this year. And Barr seems to have gone into hiding. Maybe good signs. Barr at least seems to be weighing probabilities.

    See Josh Marshall thread
    @joshtpm
    “The big story here, of course, is that the President and his top advisors appeared to relying on a strategy in which a brazen act of corrupt and possibly criminal conduct by top appointees saved his campaign. But there’s another point to consider.”
    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1319118736226422784

  81. 81.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @jl:

    Are you worried about the laptop hard drive being in FBI custody now? Or that more could come out? Even if it’s BS (and it is), I’m worried the media is going to run with this. My Ogden-owned rag is already pushing this crap

  82. 82.

    jl

    @SmallAxe:

    I saw a man who did nothing at his work today

    And he did it yet it again today.

    He’ll do it again, every day.

    He does nothing yet always figures out how to stay.

    (except ram though crazy reactionary judges)

  83. 83.

    jl

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): I don’t know. Above my pay grade. Adam or Cheryl probably have a better idea.

    IIRC, the laptops seem to be random, and the hacked stuff is emails put into a huge pdf. If that is it, not much to find.

    if anyone knows more, please let us know.

    OTOH, I like everyone else who doesn’t know very much how this IT stuff works, always archive my emails by collecting them into a big file, and then scanning that as an image into a giant pdf file. That’s how everyone does it. It’s so quick easy and convenient. And easy to find important stuff later.

    As above, if I got anything wrong please correct me.

  84. 84.

    artem1soo

    isn’t there a condition related to COVID that presents like frost bite? I think it due to poor circulation and usually happens on the feet? Maybe diabetes? Whatever it is looks worse than any normal bruising I’ve ever seen. Maybe he touched one of Trump’s horcruxes?

  87. 87.

    Ian

    @West of the Rockies:

    At this point McConnell’s corruption is literally the only thing left going for the state of Kentucky.  I think a lot of his constituents know it, his popularity has been underwater for a decade or more.

  88. 88.

    Bill Arnold

    @Kent:

    Does SCOTUS really want to live in a world where they have to fear suicide car bombers taking out their families and that sort of thing like happens in Iraq and Colombia?

    This is America, and we have the Right To Bear Arms:
    20 of the Best Sniper Rifles For Sale in 2020 (USA Gun Shop, April 4, 2020)
    Arms that can kill at 1000 meters (or more). Dates in American narratives back at least to Kentucky Rifles, then the snipers((sharpshooters) in the Civil War, and later.
    We do not want to go down those very bloody paths.
    Though frankly, the power of the Supreme Court is Just Another Norm. States could tell them to fuck off. And the Executive and Legislative branches could limit their power etc.

  89. 89.

    Kent

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):Are you worried about the laptop hard drive being in FBI custody now? Or that more could come out? Even if it’s BS (and it is), I’m worried the media is going to run with this. My Ogden-owned rag is already pushing this crap

    I’m not worried because I trust that Joe Biden is not corrupt.  So no matter what bullshit they might manufacture about Hunter Biden, it isn’t going to implicate Joe Biden in any sort of wrong doing whatsoever.  The best that they could do with all this bullshit is try to show that Biden had a meeting with someone?  The VP meets hundreds of people per week.  So what?

    There’s no underlying corruption here.  If there was they would have dug it out long ago.  As fucked up as the FBI is, they aren’t going to manufacture evidence against a presidential candidate.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @CaseyL:

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If this election is stolen, blatantly stolen, I honestly don’t know what will happen.

    Demonstrations won’t accomplish anything, marches and chants won’t accomplish anything.  It would require an insurrection that spreads across the country and makes doing business impossible.  That would be the key: stop the economic engine.

    The pandemic lockdown pretty much shut down the economic engine of the country. Not much happened.

    I don’t know what would happen if the election got well and truly stolen, but I don’t know why some want to indulge in dreams of romantic insurrection and revolution.

    Let’s just concentrate on winning this thing come November. The alternative might unleash monsters that no one can imagine (e.g., once you nullify the Constitution, all bets are off and there are no good guys restoring order, just a scramble for power).

  92. 92.

    Kent

    @Bill Arnold: Sniper rifles?  Hell, we have self driving cars today.  Which are easily made into self driving 2,000 lb. bombs.  One of those can blow up an entire neighborhood.

    That is not the kind of shit you want to unleash on American streets by taking away democracy.

  94. 94.

    hitchhiker

    @JaySinWA:

    Here’s what the Rs would do:

    1. find a willing Dem and have that person switch parties.
    2. appoint them to the Senate.
    3. once they’re sworn in, let them switch back.

    And if people howled foul, laugh in their faces. Seriously, we’re watching them laugh at us right now because they got away with stiffing Obama on hundreds of judges, including the one now occupying Merrick Garland’s seat.

  96. 96.

    jl

    SCOTUS might be able to shut down the counts in some states, but even if they try, they can’t keep the ballots out of the public record, even if they tried. A stolen election will result in all hell breaking loose if even one state is forced to count all the ballots that arrived, and found an obvious Biden win, but went to Trump because the counting was stopped for some BS reason.

    Would be into mass demonstrations and demands, and in MI, WI and PA to Democratic governors and secretaries of state (IIRC) who would have no reason to stall. Hard evidence of a stolen election through corrupt court actions would probably end up in mass civil disobedience, maybe a general strike in some places, It would be a huge fuss, and rightly so.

    Some of he reactionary justices are evil and insane, and would go for it if they have a chance. I hope not enough of them are.

    best thing would be for AZ, FL and NC to go for Biden, then it’s all over election night. They start counting ballots before the election and should have results the same day.

  98. 98.

    Kattails

    @SiubhanDuinne: I watched that several times. At first you see Joe talking with the adults, then he turns and starts to walk away and you hear the boy. At first I focussed on the boy but later noticed how quickly Biden turned, and the look on his face as he did. It looked like the concern was instant.

    In ref to McConnell’s hands, working retail there were a couple of old men with a lot of bruising on hands and arms but these look really awful. And those men were not healthy specimens by any stretch.

  99. 99.

    SmallAxe

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t find the politics tiresome, I find the theater of it thus. I apologize, again I used to work on the Hill I’m just jaded af and long for the old days when we used to get shit done. I get why she has to do it, just hate MCConnell with the fire of a thousand suns for what he’s done. My bad

  100. 100.

    Kent

    @hitchhiker: Yeah, and some court would throw that out if Dems tried it.  You don’t think SCOTUS would toss that out as a bad faith violation of the statute?  Which it actually would be?

    In some states a governor of the opposite party has to pick from a slate of candidates put forward by the state party of the senator being replaced.  I don’t know how it works in KY.

  101. 101.

    MomSense

    Mitch’s face appears to be discolored and bruised as well.  Don’t  the people of Kentucky have a right to know before they vote?

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    @a hrefr=”https://balloon-juice.com/2020/10/21/repub-venality-open-thread-strangling-the-stimulus/#comment-7915858″>Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    Canceled my subscription to the island’s paper, which had been locally owned since its founding in 1900, the day following the announcement of Ogden purchasing it in 2000. No regrets over my decision since.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    Reply fix.

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    Canceled my subscription to the island’s paper, which had been locally owned since its founding in 1900, the day following the announcement of Ogden purchasing it in 2000. No regrets over my decision since.

  104. 104.

    Delk

    Looks like Mitch fell down and had to go to the hospital and the nice democratic nurses had fun digging in the IV’s. Oops… let’s try that again.

  106. 106.

    Elie

    No way blood thinners make your hands look like that. Something bad is wrong. It will be known soon enough

  108. 108.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Yes, and who paid off Kavanaugh’s 200k of credit card debt and 1.2 million mortgage?

    i suspect all the things are related. Really hope some enterprising investigative journalist (or historian, once there’s more access to documents than there is now) can and will dig in and write this story. It needs to be told.

  109. 109.

    ballerat

    @tinare: No need to apologize. He’s as responsible as Trump, if not more, for the covid deaths and kids taken from parents and the encouragement of white domestic terrorism and the beat-down of the poor, of minorities and of decency in this country.

    Trump is president and free to kill more people and commit more crimes only because of McConnell allows him to.

  110. 110.

    hitchhiker

    @Kent:

    I’m just saying, it’s what the Rs would do. And if some court threw it out, they’d shrug and try another tack.

    Because they’re shameless and they simply don’t recognize “bad faith” as a concept.

    These people held a SCOTUS seat open for 10 months on the spurious grounds that because primaries were underway (barely), it was an election year. Everyone knew that was a bad faith argument, but hahahaha, so what?

    They’ve turned our system into a sick joke. If we have the votes to do it, my solution to the imbalance in the Senate and the EC would be to admit DC and Puerto Rico as states immediately. And then I’d put 18 yr term limits on judges.

    Enough is enough.

  111. 111.

    ballerat

    @Steeplejack: If that was Nancy Pelosi the beltway media, not just Fox, would have been all over it. Always different rules for republicans, esp republican men.

  112. 112.

    lumpkin

    Please stop calling it “stimulus”.  It’s pandemic disaster relief. It’s an important distinction.

    Stimulus sounds like feeding caffeine laced cotton candy to children. I don’t understand why liberals keep accepting conservative framing. Same with “court packing”. These things really matter.

  113. 113.

    Mary G

    I am not a doctor and could be completely wrong. I  have a patch maybe 3 inches square of skin on my left shin that turns purple and black like Mitch McConnell’s hands when my RA is flaring and my immune system is going haywire. I can’t remember the Latin name of it, but it’s caused by severe inflammation of surface blood vessels that causes them to split open from inside and cause hematomas. And pain. Lots of pain.

    I imagine he’s on the evil dex if it’s covid. He should be resting his hands if that’s what it is.

  117. 117.

    briber

    @lumpkin:

    Stimulus isn’t a conservative framing so much as it is a technical term used by economists.

    I agree that using such technical terms creates more misunderstanding than would otherwise be the case. That misunderstanding is the reason that conservatives adopt the word in their public discourse.

    A good example of this phenomena is in the usage of the words strong and weak when describing the behavior of currencies. If you ask a man on the street if he favors a strong dollar he almost certainly will say yes. Now then if you asked him if he prefered a dollar that favored exports , he might say yes to that, especially if he works in a sector that is tied to exported finished goods. The fact that an export favoring currency is seen as weak in the parlance of economists is lost in the discussion.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @lumpkin: “Counter-cyclical spending” is too abstract and technical, although in practice it is appropriate in this situation. “Deficit spending” does have negative connotations, though I hope the next Congress spends plenty. I think “stimulus” is a good word for what we talk about, at least as good as the alternatives. But anyway, that horse is out of the barn. Scores of millions of people have received “stimulus” checks already, and will be glad to get another one. Some may gripe about stimulus being another word for deficit spending, but they will still deposit the checks. And keep griping, because that is what they do.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    Tom Scocca
    @tomscocca
    ·Oct 18
    The theme running not-so-quietly through the Hunter Biden leaks is that Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and Rupert Murdoch are all toxic monsters as parents

  121. 121.

    evodevo

    @Kristine: Yeah, it’s called senile purpura… I’ve got it to some extent and my father did too for quite a few years before his death.  He used to have to stick pieces of kleenex on the bloody spots till they clotted…he wasn’t on anti-coagulants.  HOWEVER, even my/his hands never looked like  Mitch’s….there are several different meds that can produce widespread lesions like that…

  127. 127.

    Keith P.

    @MisterForkbeard: I was hoping that RBG’s curse-from-the-grave would overtake McConnell in time, but it looks like he’s going to be able to hold himself together with bubble gum and makeup.

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