Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[lpetrich]

Then on deficit hawkishness, something that Republicans resort to about anything that Democrats like. For the last 40 years, I've seen a lot of grossly selective deficit hawkishness on the part of the Republican Party.

• 1980-1992: Reagan, Bush I (R): deficits were OK
• 1992-2000: Clinton (D): deficits were horrible, and Clinton and the other Democrats meekly went along
• 2000-2008: Bush II (R): deficits were OK
• 2008-2016: Obama (D): deficits were horrible, and Obama and the other Democrats meekly went along
• 2016-2020: Trump (R): deficits were OK

Notice any pattern?

It really drives me crazy. I think we we are trying to reframe this because it’s not about the deficits — it’s about what you spend the money on. Is it an investment in the future?

Just to talk about deficits is ludicrous because we all do things where we take a bunch of money and we put it into something — whether it’s a kid’s education or a house or whatever — even though it costs us a lot of money, because we believe that it is going to help us in the long run. I think that’s what we have to reframe things to be. We’ve been doing a lot of work to talk about austerity politics. I think coming out of coronavirus, there is a real chance I talk about it. We would be in much better shape to deal with this virus and the effects of it if we had a public health system that had been invested in, if we had universal coverage, if we had, if we had, if we had.

 

[lpetrich]

Replace Trump And Bolster The CDC, A Leading Medical Journal Urges : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Americans should oust President Trump from the White House and elect a leader who will support – rather than undermine – public health experts who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic, British medical journal The Lancet says in a newly published editorial.

The unsigned editorial sharply criticizes the Trump administration, saying it has marginalized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a degree that is dangerous for both the U.S. and the world.

"Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics," the journal says.

noting
Reviving the US CDC - The Lancet - "The Administration is obsessed with magic bullets—vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear."


Green groups wish Democrats had gone bigger with relief bill | TheHill

The environmental provisions in the bill include $1.5 billion in funding for states and tribes to help low-income households pay for drinking water services and another $1.5 billion to help low-income households cover their energy costs.

It also includes $50 million in grants to investigate the disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on communities facing environmental inequalities and $111 million to track species “that could pose a biohazard risk to human health.”

...
Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club’s legislative director, said the legislation has “many important priorities for the country” but it “unfortunately leaves out COVID-19 related assistance that could save clean energy jobs.”

Ideally, one might want to finance the building of large numbers of wind turbines and solar panels, and also power-to-gas and power-to-liquids systems for energy storage, synthetic fuels, and plastics feedstocks and the like.

 

[lpetrich]

House adopts historic rules changes to allow remote voting | TheHill

The House on Friday adopted historic rules changes to allow lawmakers to cast votes and conduct committee meetings remotely during the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to resume legislative work that has been on hold amid safety concerns over gathering in the Capitol.

The vote to enact the resolution fell along party lines, 217-189, with three Democrats — Reps. Rick Larsen (Wash.), Elaine Luria (Va.) and Tom O’Halleran (Ariz.) — joining Republicans to vote no.

...
The set of changes allows proxy voting, in which absent lawmakers can authorize colleagues to cast votes on their behalf, as well as virtual committee hearings, depositions and markups of bills by videoconference. It also authorizes the House Administration Committee to study the feasibility of remote voting using technology.

...
“Convening Congress must not turn into a super-spreader event,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “This is the type of adapting that this House has always done. Our founders did not vote by electronic device, but we do. Constituents decades ago couldn't watch floor proceedings live on C-SPAN or listen to them on the radio, but ours can.”

...
Under the new proxy voting system, lawmakers will have to send a letter to the House clerk designating a proxy and providing exact instructions for each floor vote. A list of designated proxies would be publicly posted on the House clerk’s website.

But a single lawmaker would be limited to serving as a designated proxy for up to 10 colleagues. That means dozens of lawmakers would still have to show up in person, while any who want to cast their own votes can still do so.

Noting PA, NJ, and UK legislatures doing videoconference sessions and EU's Parliament allowing votes by e-mail.

 

[lpetrich]

Gohmert rails against allowing proxy voting over 'wishy washy' fear of dying | TheHill

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) railed against Democrats’ proposal to allow proxy voting in the House amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying the move would violate the Constitution.

“You can’t pass a bill on this floor with proxies and have it upheld unless you change the Constitution, and this doesn’t do it. Now some here say, ‘But if it saves one life, it’s worth it.’ How about the million Americans who laid down their lives not for a wishy washy ‘Oh maybe we should be afraid we might get something and die.’ They didn’t do that in the Spanish flu days, they didn’t do it in the Civil War, but now we’re going to do it? Come on,” Gohmert shouted from the House floor Friday.

...
“Across our nation, Americans of all stripes are making sacrifices and doing their part to defeat this virus – and they expect Washington to do the same,” top Republicans wrote in a joint statement Wednesday. “Unfortunately, far from being ‘captains of this ship’ as Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] recently proclaimed, the Democrats’ proposal calls for the House of Representatives to abandon ship – potentially for the remainder of the session.”

White House adds new members to coronavirus task force | TheHill
So it's still in action.


Progressives to buck party by voting against $3T coronavirus relief bill | TheHill
but
House passes massive $3T coronavirus relief package | TheHill

 

[bilby]

Replace Trump And Bolster The CDC, A Leading Medical Journal Urges : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Americans should oust President Trump from the White House and elect a leader who will support – rather than undermine – public health experts who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic, British medical journal The Lancet says in a newly published editorial.

The unsigned editorial sharply criticizes the Trump administration, saying it has marginalized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a degree that is dangerous for both the U.S. and the world.

"Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics," the journal says.

noting
Reviving the US CDC - The Lancet - "The Administration is obsessed with magic bullets—vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear."


Green groups wish Democrats had gone bigger with relief bill | TheHill

The environmental provisions in the bill include $1.5 billion in funding for states and tribes to help low-income households pay for drinking water services and another $1.5 billion to help low-income households cover their energy costs.

It also includes $50 million in grants to investigate the disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on communities facing environmental inequalities and $111 million to track species “that could pose a biohazard risk to human health.”

...
Melinda Pierce, the Sierra Club’s legislative director, said the legislation has “many important priorities for the country” but it “unfortunately leaves out COVID-19 related assistance that could save clean energy jobs.”

Ideally, one might want to finance the building of large numbers of wind turbines and solar panels, and also power-to-gas and power-to-liquids systems for energy storage, synthetic fuels, and plastics feedstocks and the like.

Ideally one might want to do something rather less environmentally harmful and rather more valuable to the nation and its people in the long term - say, build a bunch of multi-gigawatt nuclear power plants that will still be producing 24x7 carbon emissions free electricity in five or six decades (three or four decades after the solar and wind facilities have become landfill waste).

 

[lpetrich]

H.Res.967 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Providing for consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 965) authorizing remote voting by proxy in the House of Representatives and providing for official remote committee proceedings during a public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 6800) making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, and for other purposes; providing for proceedings during the period from May 19, 2020, through July 21, 2020; and for other purposes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

A resolution to go ahead with two other things.

The vote: Final Vote Results for Roll Call 106

• Yes: 207 = D 207
• No: 199 = D 14, R 184, I 1

Democrats who voted against it: Axne, Finkenauer, García (IL), Jayapal, Khanna, Lamb, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pocan, Porter, Pressley, Spanberger, Stevens, Tlaib

The progressives, Jayapal, Khanna, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pocan, Porter, Pressley, Tlaib, did so because they wanted to improve the HEROES bill before voting on it. The others because they were in close contests with Republicans.

 

[lpetrich]

The proxy-vote resolution:

H.Res.965 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Authorizing remote voting by proxy in the House of Representatives and providing for official remote committee proceedings during a public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus, and for other purposes. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Since any Rep can serve as a proxy for at most 10 other Reps, that means that to cover all 435 Reps, 40 of them must serve as proxies. Instead of packing the chamber, they can sit 3 or 4 rows and 3 or 4 seats apart, allowing some social distancing with simultaneous attendance of them.

The vote: Final Vote Results for Roll Call 107

• Yes: 217 = D 217
• No: 189 = D 3, R 185, I 1

The Democrats who voted against it: Larsen (WA), Luria, O'Halleran

 

[lpetrich]

H.R.6800 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): HEROES Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Introduced in House (05/12/2020)

Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act or the HEROES Act

This bill responds to the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) outbreak and its impact on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.

Among other things, the bill

• provides FY2020 emergency supplemental appropriations to federal agencies;
• provides payments and other assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments;
• provides additional direct payments of up to $1,200 per individual;
• expands paid sick days, family and medical leave, unemployment compensation, nutrition and food assistance programs, housing assistance, and payments to farmers;
• modifies and expands the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides loans and grants to small businesses and nonprofit organizations;
• establishes a fund to award grants for employers to provide pandemic premium pay for essential workers;
• expands several tax credits and deductions;
• provides funding and establishes requirements for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing;
• eliminates cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatments;
• extends and expands the moratorium on certain evictions and foreclosures; and
• requires employers to develop and implement infectious disease exposure control plans.

The bill also modifies or expands a wide range of other programs and policies, including those regarding

• Medicare and Medicaid,
• health insurance,
• broadband service,
• medical product supplies,
• immigration,
• student loans and financial aid,
• the federal workforce,
• prisons,
• veterans benefits,
• consumer protection requirements,
• the U.S. Postal Service,
• federal elections,
• aviation and railroad workers, and
• pension and retirement plans.

It's stuffed with goodies, and I don't know how many of them will survive the Senate. But if they don't survive, then they can be reintroduced again.

 

[lpetrich]

For the HEROES Act,
On Motion to Recommit with Instructions:
The vote: Final Vote Results for Roll Call 108

• Yes: 198 = D 13, R 185
• No: 209 = D 208, I 1

The Democrats who voted for it: Axne, Cunningham, Finkenauer, Golden, Kendra S. Horn, Lamb, Luria, Malinowski, McAdams, Pappas, Peterson, Slotkin, Spanberger

All relatively moderate Democrats who won seats from Republicans.

AOC once Instagrammed about being stuck in Congress for a late vote, and she mentioned this sort of maneuver as a last-minute effort to add poison-pill amendments.


For passing the HEROES Act:
The vote: Final Vote Results for Roll Call 109

• Yes: 208 = D 207, I 1
• No: 199 = D 14, R 184, I 1

The Republican who voted for it: King (NY)
The Democrats who voted against it: Axne, Cunningham, Finkenauer, Golden, Kendra S. Horn, Jayapal, Lamb, Luria, Schrader, Spanberger, Torres Small (NM), Wild

Pramila Jayapal was the only progressive to vote against it.

 

[lpetrich]

Ilhan Omar on Twitter: "Preach! https://t.co/VKKZGEiq2y" / Twitter - the HEROES Act ends a $100-billion tax cut for rich people that was snuck into an earlier aid bill.

Public Citizen on Twitter: "Here for @AOC’s Medicare for All mask. https://t.co/isN8UUwYCv" / Twitter
with response
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "@Public_Citizen Grassroots supporter @lexibenavides made it" / Twitter

The maskmaker: lexi (@lexibenavides) / Twitter

Another wearer of this mask:
Rashida Tlaib on Twitter: "#MedicareforAll is needed now more than ever. https://t.co/8O6MrfRgOC" / Twitter
with response
Farhana Khera on Twitter: "Nice mask!" / Twitter
and response
Rashida Tlaib on Twitter: "@farhanakhera .@AOC got it for me!" / Twitter

AOC stated in an Instagram story picture that she also got some "Medicare for All" masks for Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and some others.

She also Instagrammed about how one of her staffers got herself a mask with sparkles on it. Good to have some beauty in one's life, she commented (IIRC).

 

[angelo]

Who do you think was doing anything about covid-19 but China back in the day. So who do you think WHO should be paying attention to back then. Certainly no US. US had dismissed it's pandamic group by then. Anerica was totally unprepared. We were mostly nodding our heads to China's tune like bobblehead dolls back then.

Trump wanted 'good trade' not 'shut our trade down' talk. He was going to ride it to re-election. When Europeans blew up myths from China,Trump was shocked. Business had to remain good. After all it was his ticket to election. He didn't deserve it since he was riding Obama's coattails of good government ship. But americans don't pay attention to such as that. They look at what is happening now right in front o f their lying eyes.

Now Trump's paying the piper and squirming out blame for everyone but his own self. Lovely for us to see from the other side.

Trump's death numbers are his alone.

I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughter and almost choked on my beer when I read " Obuma's good government" responsible for the pre COVID US economy. Just a reminder that the reason the economy was buzzing along just fine pre COVID was because of the Trump reducing corporate taxes which not only halted US corporations shifting to lower taxing nations, but actually resulted in some of these same corporations shifting back to the US creating much needed jobs and boosting the overall economy. Of course, that's the last thing the Dems wanted.

 

[lpetrich]

Has a clip from C-SPAN: AOC on the HEROES act, the bill the House is voting on today: "It's a tough bill. It's a mixed bag...we need to do more...there's some good, some bad, like much legislation." : AOC
Plus: state and local funding, protections for prisoners. Minus: lack of recurring payments.

As to the bill's being dead in the Senate, AOC is more optimistic, describing it as a bargaining position.

Instagram video by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Weighing a vote - it was a difficult decision for her.

It had another $1200 one-time payment, and not a recurring one, as AOC had wanted as a starting offer. Although it doesn't have student-loan forgiveness, it suspends student-loan payments for about a year -- plenty of time to negotiate forgiveness in. Also has subsidies for COBRA, an existing program where one buys continued coverage by one's former employer's insurer. AOC preferred expanding access to Medicare or Medicaid.

Has provisions to help immigrants, even undocumented ones. The House is "conservative", she says, with many Democrats being like Republicans in not wanting to do much for immigrants. A bill like this is preferable to a bill that is likely worse, but it does have some good features. The "iTunes" is something called ITNS, Indiividual Tax Identification Numbers, a substitute for Social Security numbers for immigrants and guest workers and the like.

Some bad things in it, like bailouts for lobbyists and dark-money groups. Some of that was reduced, but it nevertheless has lots of money for states and localities that they need to get.

But though she rejected voting for it right away, because she wanted a chance to improve it, she nevertheless voted for it. It was Pramila Jayapal's turn to feel lonely.

 

[Elixir]

Who do you think was doing anything about covid-19 but China back in the day. So who do you think WHO should be paying attention to back then. Certainly no US. US had dismissed it's pandamic group by then. Anerica was totally unprepared. We were mostly nodding our heads to China's tune like bobblehead dolls back then.

Trump wanted 'good trade' not 'shut our trade down' talk. He was going to ride it to re-election. When Europeans blew up myths from China,Trump was shocked. Business had to remain good. After all it was his ticket to election. He didn't deserve it since he was riding Obama's coattails of good government ship. But americans don't pay attention to such as that. They look at what is happening now right in front o f their lying eyes.

Now Trump's paying the piper and squirming out blame for everyone but his own self. Lovely for us to see from the other side.

Trump's death numbers are his alone.

I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughter and almost choked on my beer when I read " Obuma's good government" responsible for the pre COVID US economy. Just a reminder that the reason the economy was buzzing along just fine once Obama took over from Bush and ended the Bush depression with stock market growth of 258% over the next 8 years and unemployment reduced by over 50%

Fixed your falsehoods for you angelo. You can thank me later.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Trump has a vaccine event today... and the press is scrambling to figure out what is to be announced. Trump loves that shit. Part of the problem of his presidency.

Well, he was talking about using sunshine.

Maybe this is about using bottled sunshine. It would work, after all--just ignore all the collateral damage.

View attachment 27723

I meant in the context Keith would have used it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Who do you think was doing anything about covid-19 but China back in the day. So who do you think WHO should be paying attention to back then. Certainly no US. US had dismissed it's pandamic group by then. Anerica was totally unprepared. We were mostly nodding our heads to China's tune like bobblehead dolls back then.

Trump wanted 'good trade' not 'shut our trade down' talk. He was going to ride it to re-election. When Europeans blew up myths from China,Trump was shocked. Business had to remain good. After all it was his ticket to election. He didn't deserve it since he was riding Obama's coattails of good government ship. But americans don't pay attention to such as that. They look at what is happening now right in front o f their lying eyes.

Now Trump's paying the piper and squirming out blame for everyone but his own self. Lovely for us to see from the other side.

Trump's death numbers are his alone.

I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughter and almost choked on my beer when I read " Obuma's good government" responsible for the pre COVID US economy. Just a reminder that the reason the economy was buzzing along just fine pre COVID was because of the Trump reducing corporate taxes which not only halted US corporations shifting to lower taxing nations, but actually resulted in some of these same corporations shifting back to the US creating much needed jobs and boosting the overall economy. Of course, that's the last thing the Dems wanted.

The economy was turning down from the upward trend left by Obama.

 

[lpetrich]

I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughter and almost choked on my beer when I read " Obuma's good government" responsible for the pre COVID US economy. ...

Because the numbers show a continuous curve, without a giant jump in the Trump years, let alone reports of huge labor shortages and grumbling about wage inflation.

Financial Times on Twitter: "FT View: Unlike Covid-19, the world has had ample evidence of the damaging effects of global warming for decades. Governments today still have a chance to mitigate these — they should do so as part of the effort to rebuild after the virus https://t.co/H5xRgNwspY" / Twitter
then
Alex Jacquez on Twitter: "the radical left financial times says do a green new deal https://t.co/4zw7qZyT6B" / Twitter
clipping out

New Deal used state-funded infrastructure and employment initiatives to push the US economy out of the Great Depression. Today's governments should use their spending power to help stimulate a recovery from the virus that does not lock in a fossil-fuelled economy.

Then this absurdity: Trump’s Absurd Claim ‘If We Didn’t Do Any Testing, We Would Have Very Few Cases’ | Deadline | MSNBC - YouTube - "President Trump continues to downplay coronavirus testing and draws backlash from a prominent medical journal. Aired on 05/15/2020."

So shutting down the medical profession will make everybody completely healthy? Disbanding police forces will end crime? Closing one's eyes will make one's surroundings stop existing?

 

[Keith&Co.]

So shutting down the medical profession will make everybody completely healthy? Disbanding police forces will end crime? Closing one's eyes will make one's surroundings stop existing?

Well, this IS the same party that thinks if homosexuals went back into the closet, we wouldn't have as many gays in society.
Ignorance of the 'problem' cures the problem.

 

[ZiprHead]

Tony Schwarz, Bonespurs ghostwriter of Art Of The Deal.

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/7qaqOgUZsms[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Elixir]

Ignorance of the 'problem' cures the problem.

If so, he is the greatest problem solver in history.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughter and almost choked on my beer when I read " Obuma's good government" responsible for the pre COVID US economy. ...

Because the numbers show a continuous curve, without a giant jump in the Trump years, let alone reports of huge labor shortages and grumbling about wage inflation.

Financial Times on Twitter: "FT View: Unlike Covid-19, the world has had ample evidence of the damaging effects of global warming for decades. Governments today still have a chance to mitigate these — they should do so as part of the effort to rebuild after the virus https://t.co/H5xRgNwspY" / Twitter
then
Alex Jacquez on Twitter: "the radical left financial times says do a green new deal https://t.co/4zw7qZyT6B" / Twitter
clipping out

New Deal used state-funded infrastructure and employment initiatives to push the US economy out of the Great Depression. Today's governments should use their spending power to help stimulate a recovery from the virus that does not lock in a fossil-fuelled economy.

Then this absurdity: Trump’s Absurd Claim ‘If We Didn’t Do Any Testing, We Would Have Very Few Cases’ | Deadline | MSNBC - YouTube - "President Trump continues to downplay coronavirus testing and draws backlash from a prominent medical journal. Aired on 05/15/2020."

So shutting down the medical profession will make everybody completely healthy? Disbanding police forces will end crime? Closing one's eyes will make one's surroundings stop existing?

That tops Ed Meese’s claim that “If people weren’t guilty, they wouldn’t be suspects.”