Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[lpetrich]

Can't flip the senate this way, though.

Wait - aren't there any GOP Senators from States with Dem legislatures?

Elixir, why don't you research this issue?

I know of one: Susan Collins, R-ME. The Maine legislature has a Democratic majority in both houses. I must say that I'm surprised that she was re-elected, because the state went for Biden and not Trump.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Can't flip the senate this way, though.

Wait - aren't there any GOP Senators from States with Dem legislatures?

Elixir, why don't you research this issue?

I know of one: Susan Collins, R-ME. The Maine legislature has a Democratic majority in both houses. I must say that I'm surprised that she was re-elected, because the state went for Biden and not Trump.

Didn't you hear? The Dems fixed the election so they didn't pick up the seat in Maine.

 

[ZiprHead]

Can't flip the senate this way, though.

Wait - aren't there any GOP Senators from States with Dem legislatures?

This was actually raised as a way for the Dems to retake the senate, Have Biden appoint Republican senators from states with Democratic governors to cabinet positions. In most states, the governors choose the replacements. And Biden would know which senators would be interested in what positions.

 

[lpetrich]

Like appoint Susan Collins to some position. That strategy has been mentioned as a difficulty for appointing Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to Cabinet positions -- the governors of their states are all Republicans.


NYC to Close Public Schools Again as Coronavirus Cases Rise - The New York Times - "In a big setback for the city’s recovery, the schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, said the nation’s largest district would return to all-remote learning."

How Iowa’s Governor Went From Dismissing Mask Mandates to Ordering One Herself - The New York Times - " President Trump has largely ceded the pandemic response to governors, and the states where the virus is emerging at the highest rates — North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa — are all Republican-led."

Minnesota - Walz to close bars, restaurants and fitness centers for 4 weeks - StarTribune.com

Michigan is 6th for highest COVID-19 cases in nation, 5th for deaths

 

[Elixir]

Can't flip the senate this way, though.

Wait - aren't there any GOP Senators from States with Dem legislatures?

Elixir, why don't you research this issue?

I know of one: Susan Collins, R-ME. The Maine legislature has a Democratic majority in both houses. I must say that I'm surprised that she was re-elected, because the state went for Biden and not Trump.

And ME isn't all that Democratish, tending to the "both parties are bad". They don't even have one Dem Senator, since Angus King identifies as independent. Susan Collins seems to operate in as similar a space as she can while siding with Republicans, no matter how extreme the position, when things actually matter. I think that her visceral appeal to "Mainuhs" has to do with her glacial rate of delivery. I actually have (had) relatives there, and even at a young age my impression of them, their culture, their speech, body language - all of it was very laconic, deliberate and energy-efficient. Maybe she resonates...

Can't find any real low-hanging fruit; Senate prospects look fairly dismal. GA might be the only chance for a long time!

BallotPedia
NCSL

 

[lpetrich]

Erik Wasson on Twitter: "MEADOWS just entered Senate GOP lunch to discuss “year end planning “" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Does that year end plan include stimulus checks and UI extension?

Or did Meadows & McConnell forget the part where millions of people desperately need help right now?" / Twitter

I think that they are hoping to do to Biden what they did to Obama -- relentlessly obstruct him in the hope that he will look bad.

Trump officials clash over coronavirus precautions for Thanksgiving - POLITICO

Senior Trump administration officials sent starkly different messages on Wednesday as they prepared Americans for their first pandemic Thanksgiving — with the federal government’s top health official urging deference to local coronavirus guidelines and the White House press secretary describing those same directives as “Orwellian.”

 

[lpetrich]

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany:

“The American people know how to protect their health. We’ve dealt with Covid for many months,” she continued. “But it’s Orwellian in a place like Oregon to say, ‘If you gather in numbers more than six, we might come to your house and arrest you, and you get 30 days of jail time.’ That’s not the American way. We don’t lose our freedom in this country. We make responsible health decisions as individuals.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced last Friday that the state would enter a two-week “freeze,” suspending in-person dining, shuttering certain businesses such as gyms, and limiting social gatherings to six people. Violations of the order could result in a citation, fine or arrest.

Does KME also want to abolish military and police forces because everybody is a virtuous anarchist?

 

[ideologyhunter]

South Dakota positivity rate: 56%
New York positivity rate: under 3%
Guess which state had the anti-mask mandate governor?

 

[lpetrich]

Second stimulus check update: Mitch McConnell attacks giving aid to state governments, a key sticking point to passing relief bill - masslive.com

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday launched a new attack on Democratic demands that any coronavirus stimulus bill includes help for states and localities whose revenues have bottomed out due to the pandemic.

“Democrats still want coronavirus relief for the entire country held hostage over a massive slush fund for their own use,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Is that something that he would want to tell his constituents back home in Kentucky?

“It’s a joke to claim this is some sort of blue state giveaway,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist. “The whole country is facing a crisis right now.”

He's from New Jersey.

 

[Ford]

The US death toll from this has officially passed a quarter of a million people.

If another country had attacked us and caused this many deaths, under any other administration, we would fucking nuke them. Full stop.

Yet Fragilego Mussolini is instead spending his time on the golf course and whining about the election results.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Remember: too much testing killed those people.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Can't flip the senate this way, though.

Wait - aren't there any GOP Senators from States with Dem legislatures?

I was referring to Grassley, not all communist senators.

 

[lpetrich]

Jeff Stein on Twitter: "WH economic adviser Stephen Moore on stimulus: "I don't see Republicans budging on the blue state bailout, and the economy is doing fine -- much better than anyone expected. We think the economy is strong because Trump didn't go along with a deal"" / Twitter

Jeff Stein on Twitter: ""Between the end of September and the end of October, the number of Americans saying it was “very difficult” to pay their usual household expenses rose by more than 2.3 million, to 34.8 million" @davidjlynch https://t.co/QhyKQckxSL" / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "30 million people in this country are at risk of eviction.

Millions of people are unemployed or underemployed from cut-back hours.

The economy is not the stock market. We are NOT doing fine. People need help in red states and blue, & our job is to help everyone. This is basic." / Twitter

I think that Mitch McConnell deserves a big share of the blame. He ought to be grateful that his state is full of yellow-dog Republicans.

 

[Angry Floof]

Anyone watching this WH briefing??? Holy moley. Biden and Harris spoke a bit, and then Pence and some health experts, including Fauci! And wearing masks!

And so far, no Trump. What a fucking breath of fresh air, in spite of Pence standing there lying through his teeth about their "efforts" to fight covid.

Is this desperation? What is the point of acting like adults all of a sudden at the last minute? Was it seeing Biden's briefing where everyone wore masks and mentioned facts and stuff? (Also had a sign language interpreter, which Trump & Co. have not bothered with very often, if at all, at least not in any covid briefing that I've seen, but now they have one

Holy cow, now they're talking about how the CDC is the best at dealing with pandemics.

 

[ZiprHead]

This is now a new charge being bandied about for Trump:

In United States law, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is a type of murder where an individual acts with a "depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death, despite that individual not explicitly intending to kill. In a depraved-heart murder, defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to a person. If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a "depraved indifference" to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought.[1][2] In some states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder,[3] while in others, the act would be charged with "wanton murder,"[4][5] varying degrees of manslaughter,[6] or third-degree murder.

If no death results, such an act would generally constitute reckless endangerment (sometimes known as "culpable negligence") and possibly other crimes, such as assault.

 Depraved-heart murder

Thoughts?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Thoughts?

Yes.

defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to a person

How would you convince a jury Trump "knew" there was a high or unusually high risk of death or serious bodily harm?
Line up forty-eleven experts who detail the briefs they gave the President about the known and suspected risks to other people, he could still convincingly claim "i don't remember being told th at."
By which i do not mean that he is an accomplished liar, i mean that his indifference to any conversation going in a not-Trump direction could preclude any of that information lodging in his thoughts long enough to be called "knowing."

 

[ZiprHead]

Thoughts?

Yes.

defendants commit an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to a person

How would you convince a jury Trump "knew" there was a high or unusually high risk of death or serious bodily harm?
Line up forty-eleven experts who detail the briefs they gave the President about the known and suspected risks to other people, he could still convincingly claim "i don't remember being told th at."
By which i do not mean that he is an accomplished liar, i mean that his indifference to any conversation going in a not-Trump direction could preclude any of that information lodging in his thoughts long enough to be called "knowing."

His interview with Woodward where he admitted knowing how deadly and dangerous the virus is would be prime prosecution material, I would assume.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Yes.

How would you convince a jury Trump "knew" there was a high or unusually high risk of death or serious bodily harm?
Line up forty-eleven experts who detail the briefs they gave the President about the known and suspected risks to other people, he could still convincingly claim "i don't remember being told th at."
By which i do not mean that he is an accomplished liar, i mean that his indifference to any conversation going in a not-Trump direction could preclude any of that information lodging in his thoughts long enough to be called "knowing."

His interview with Woodward where he admitted knowing how deadly and dangerous the virus is would be prime prosecution material, I would assume.

Meh. He always exaggerates in interviews. Show that he knew the same thing when he was at The Big Desk, making decisions.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Yes.

How would you convince a jury Trump "knew" there was a high or unusually high risk of death or serious bodily harm?
Line up forty-eleven experts who detail the briefs they gave the President about the known and suspected risks to other people, he could still convincingly claim "i don't remember being told th at."
By which i do not mean that he is an accomplished liar, i mean that his indifference to any conversation going in a not-Trump direction could preclude any of that information lodging in his thoughts long enough to be called "knowing."

His interview with Woodward where he admitted knowing how deadly and dangerous the virus is would be prime prosecution material, I would assume.

Further he admitted that he purposefully “played it down” to avoid “panic”. Why would he think knowledge of the ease of transmission and deadliness of the disease would cause panic? Hmm... seems he understood fully.

 

[bilby]

If this is the same criminal charge that is laid against parents whose children died after they decided that prayer was an efficacious alternative to insulin or antibiotics, then it would seem that the accused need not be aware or of the belief that their inactions were harmful, as long as a "reasonable person" in their position would have known that their inactions were harmful.