US Politics, March 2020 — There’s a very good chance you’re not going to die.

welp so...the gillum thing

https://nypost.com/2020/03/14/man-busted-with-andrew-gillum-in-hotel-room-with-meth-was-gay-escort/

https://www.slotsexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/jackpot-slot.jpg

Amash apparently didn't think it went far enough so this was a protest vote. Dems voted for it but many were unhappy with the negotiations:

This is what I’m talking about. https://t.co/Lwws2q8lx8

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 14, 2020

Dems presented a much stronger bill. GOP/WH held it hostage for ~two days and chipped it away.

These negotiations were closed door so it is tough to say who demanded what, but Dems presented their original version so the tracked changes shows the result of GOP/WH negotiation.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 14, 2020

ugh. i'm hoping that most of my friends are under the 500-employee range, but that is brutally insufficient.

xp Yesterday i thought “man, the worst thing for everyone is if he gets it and lives. but then of course, in a year he will claim that he DID get and lived, of course, and every gop douche will kiss his ass to get a bit of sun.

Then i saw gbx already posted pt 1 like, days ago.

Lemieux:

Look, I guess that House Democrats could have just keep holding out on this until next week. Maybe Republicans would have caved in growing desperation. On the other hand, this may be the first bill but it is certainly not the last. Each of the bills will by necessity have to expand the safety net so long as Democrats control the House. But each will probably also include some kind of additional compromise with a political party that is completely fine if you die, so long as they don’t have to pay the cost. It’d be nice if this reality was recognized. But no, all the blame just belongs to Democrats.

on the other hand,

Wasn't a bug but a feature https://t.co/860xwqSLGq

— David Dayen (@ddayen) March 15, 2020

i keep thinking i'm misunderstanding what she's saying, but if she's saying what she seems to be saying - mcdonalds and amazon should already be providing paid sick days, so we're not going to provide money for it either - then wtf

well, a different way to put that would be to insist that the corporations suck it up and eat the cost

but they're not required to, right? doesn't the new legislation exempt them from the requirements?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday night celebrated the coronavirus legislation that passed early Saturday as providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the pandemic.

She neglected to mention the fine print.

In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any paid sick leave, while companies with fewer than 50 employees can seek hardship exemptions from the Trump administration.

“If you are sick, stay home,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon. “You’re not going to miss a pay check.”

But that’s simply not true. Sick workers should stay home, but there is no guarantee in the emergency legislation that most of them will get paid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/coronavirus-pelosi-sick-leave.html

if it ends up leading to mcdonalds et al feeling socially pressured to pay for sick leave, great i guess, but from where it stands on early sunday morning, it looks like they're being asked, not required to do so. and also, maybe more importantly, who cares if it saves money to exempt the big companies? make it a $100B bill! it's going to end up being way, way more than $100B by the end of this mess

we're putting all of our effort and money into keeping the stock market's erection half-inflated, sorry poors

vmic

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag has reported that US president Donald Trump has sought exclusive rights to a vaccine for the coronavirus which is being developed by a German-based company, CureVac.

The report, which quoted unnamed sources, said Trump had offered large sums of money to German scientists working on the vaccine, and that the Germany government was working to prevent the US procuring it on this basis.

And meanwhile the leaders of the Dems have just e posed themselves to known covid carriers. Lovely.
Political world is filled with hidden and rather obvious dangers. Not sure how you work around that with the current incumbent.
Just hoping it might lead to some of the older members of the Senate no longer being there. But is that pollyannaing?

clip on NPR of Schumer saying bill will be "good for the economy" bcz "people will have money in their pockets"

UNFUCKINGREAL

people will be in the fucking hospital

or in a tent in the parking lot

On the other hand, this may be the first bill but it is certainly not the last. Each of the bills will by necessity have to expand the safety net so long as Democrats control the House. But each will probably also include some kind of additional compromise with a political party that is completely fine if you die, so long as they don’t have to pay the cost. It’d be nice if this reality was recognized. But no, all the blame just belongs to Democrats.

"This may be the first bill but it is certainly not the last" is some depressingly hilarious "you'll get them next time, tiger." That the Republicans will cave NEXT time after the Dems already showed they don't have the stomach for a real fight is wishful thinking.

I'm not sure how far the Dems can keep pushing as the bill gets delayed tbh

Trump is going to own this crisis no matter what. There seems to me there is more wiggle room between a bill that will pass the house with 40 Republicans voting against and one that will pass with minimal Republican support and still get Senate approval and Trump's signature.

I mean, it's obviously the Democrats' fault for not using the only chamber they control to pass a bill that keeps the GOP from inserting exemptions. I do wish Pelosi had said, "This is all these fuckfaces will agree to" in public though.

And I am not suggesting the Dems hold up the bill indefinitely, because it is an important bill that will actually help people, but they have way less to lose on this stuff than Republicans.

And they should let the Republicans know that.

can't violate comity while she's bumping elbows with Mitch xxp

The White House and the Senate each has a sociopath at its head. This was inevitable. And negotiating with sociopaths is one helluva way to sully your soul.

I may not fully blame the Dems but i am depressed at the thought of many friends filing for bankruptcy or becoming homeless over this.

Or... suicide. Only bring up cos one of my friends has me severely worried.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/15/trump-is-increasingly-irrelevant/

isolated too from what i've been hearing

maybe he'll have this read to him

Gov. Andrew Cuomo writes for the New York Times:

Dear Mr. President, The coronavirus pandemic is now upon us, and data from other countries shows us clearly where we are headed. Every country affected by this crisis has handled it on a national basis. The United States has not. State and local governments alone simply do not have the capacity or resources to do what is necessary, and we don’t want a patchwork quilt of policies.

States cannot build more hospitals, acquire ventilators or modify facilities quickly enough. At this point, our best hope is to utilize the Army Corps of Engineers to leverage its expertise, equipment and people power to retrofit and equip existing facilities — like military bases or college dormitories — to serve as temporary medical centers. Then we can designate existing hospital beds for the acutely ill.

We believe the use of active duty Army Corps personnel would not violate federal law because this is a national disaster. Doing so still won’t provide enough intensive care beds, but it is our best hope.

isolated too from what i've been hearing

Is he stalking the halls of the White House, yelling incomprehensibly at interns, potted plants, and wall hangings?

If so, situation normal, carry on.

if cuomo wants to reach the president he probably shouldn't put it in the NYT (or in print. like morbs said, perhaps a video version would be more understandable for trump)

this thread title aged poorly

r/agedlikemilk

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/15/trump-offers-large-sums-for-exclusive-access-to-coronavirus-vaccine

president martin shkreli

president crime boss

(p)resident evil

jfc, that story. when i read the headline/URL earlier this morning, i assumed trump was trying to buy the licensing/distribution rights so that he could claim the US had come up with the vaccine, like a hail mary at the end of the game that saves the day.

but THIS?

The Trump administration has offered a German medical company “large sums of money” for exclusive access to a Covid-19 vaccine, German media have reported.

The German government is trying to fight off what it sees as an aggressive takeover bid by the US, the broadsheet Die Welt reports, citing German government circles.

The US president had offered the Tübingen-based biopharmaceutical company CureVac “large sums of money” to gain exclusive access to their work, wrote Die Welt.

According to an anonymous source quoted in the newspaper, Trump was doing everything to secure a vaccine against the coronavirus for the US, “but for the US only”.

The German government was reportedly offering its own financial incentives for the vaccine to stay in the country.

WWII all over again

when i saw it i assumed it was the trump organization doing it, not the administration

what's the difference

let's get some trump university med students on the case

If the cov isn't sufficient in meeting our desperate need for the president to no longer exist, I'm increasingly convinced that some governor or another will step up and beat the life out of him before long. Perhaps several, in tandem.

Unsurprisingly, this is not impacting trump’s poll numbers fwiw

I suspect it might once people actually start to die & encounter financial hardships but who knows

His polling has gone down a few points in the last few weeks and few polls have been taken this week

I wouldnt bet on ot. Those things will be the Demmycrats fault

Bet on it

some governor or another will step up and beat the life out of him before long. Perhaps several, in tandem

Well, it IS the Ides of March today.

Unfortunately I don't have much faith in the stabbiness of the current Senate.

Didn't watch the debate but the need to make every single crisis a "national security" issue reminds me that NYC's public hospitals are expected to operate in the black while treating a disproportionate number of uninsured people and the NYPD has a whole foreign intelligence arm https://t.co/bzniwhhM1J

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) March 16, 2020

Please stop spreading stupid rumors about marshall law.

COMPLETELY FALSE

We will continue to see closings & restrictions on hours of non-essential businesses in certain cities & states. But that is NOT marshall law.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 16, 2020