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

a facial for the poor

Rubio tweet continues to deliver

gotta hand it to marco rubio for making me smile on this shitty shitty day

what a moron

it's actually spelled moran

my bad

Justice Department Moves to Drop Charges Filed by Mueller Against Two Russian Firms accused of financing schemes to interfere in the 2016 election

He certainly has made the Justice Department his plaything. That would be really bad in a second term.

Dutton meeting Barr might be our best hope at the moment

Barr dying would be evidence that there is a God, but that he's bored and doesn't intervene much, but that his occasional contribution is appreciated

The President was asked today about his empathy for American people who are scared under the pandemic, and how he communicates that to his family, especially his youngest son - the only current child amongst his progeny. He replied, with reassuring feeling:

"I think they are very scared, I think they see that we are doing a very professional job, we are working with the governors, and frankly with the mayors, the local government at every level. We have FEMA totally involved, you know usually we see FEMA for the hurricanes and the tornadoes, now we have FEMA involved in this and they’ve been doing a fantastic job locally, working with people that they know, because they work like as an example in California, in the State of Washington, and they work with them a lot on other things, and they’re very familiar, so they’re working on it, uh, what you can do, and all you can do, is professional, totally competent, we have the best people in the world. We have really the greatest experts in the world, and uh, someday soon, hopefully it’ll end, and we’ll be back to where it was, but this came up, it came up suddenly and we were so surprised, we were all surprised, and we heard about it, we heard about reports from China that something was happening, and all of a sudden, we did make a good decision and we closed our borders to China very quickly, very rapidly and that was a — otherwise we would be in, as Tony has said numerous times we’d be in a bad position, much worse than we would be in right now. You look at what’s happening in other countries, in Italy’s having a very hard time — and I think, I think that what we do and I’ve spoken actually with my son, and he says "how bad is this?" and I say it’s bad, it’s bad, and we’re going to, we’re going to uh, be hopefully a best case and not a worst case, and that’s what we’re working for."

it's almost as if he doesn't know we're on the exact same case trajectory as Italy. maybe worse cos who knows how many we really have.

it's almost as if he doesn't know we're on the exact same case trajectory as Italy. maybe worse cos who knows how many we really have. anything at all

hah correct

I am hoping the fact that the population is not as dense in the US prevents it from getting that dire, but then again all indications is that this has spread rapidly already and we're about two weeks away from getting demolished

idk some of it seems pretty dense to me

Fauci is so calming right now (in a good, level-headed way)--and the expression on Trump's face as Fauci speaks is unintentionally comical (you can almost see the thought bubble: "Is this what they mean by 'expertise'?).

Weird thing is, I remember him as a villain in And the Band Played On. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

looks like they're floating the idea of sending checks to everyone, how in the world did the Dems get outflanked on this

Did they? Mnuchin mentioned Pelosi more often than any Trump person has, well, ever.

"I've always viewed it as very serious"--lots of before-and-after clips on that one.

God, even by the standards of VPs, Pence is some kind of toady.

If your job is lead generation, I would strongly suggest plugging the word "outflanked" into this website's search function. You'll have a huge raise inside of a month

— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) March 17, 2020

btw Trump just mentioned during this presser that he's always taken this "very seriously" and got no pushback, the press corps are worthless

Schumer is not great but this is gratifying

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) is pushing back on President Trump’s anticipated request for economic relief for the airline industry, which has been hit hard by the spread of coronavirus and waves of flight cancellations.

U.S. airlines on Monday requested a $50 billion bailout to make up for the precipitous drop in air travel amid the coronavirus emergency. But Democrats are saying that priority should be placed on ordinary Americans who miss work instead of multibillion-dollar companies.

“If we’re going to follow up the House bill with another major economic stimulus package, which we must, our major focus cannot be based on bailing out airlines, cruises and other industries,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “We must first prioritize economic solutions that are focused on workers and their families.”
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Schumer urged Congress to instead focus on legislation to “fix our broken unemployment system,” shore up the public health system and get money to small- and medium-sized businesses facing a shortage of cash.

“Let’s remember, corporations are not people. People are people,” he said.

Weird thing is, I remember him as a villain in And the Band Played On. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly.

i don't think you are remembering this correctly. I crossed paths (briefly) with Fauci in one of my first jobs working for an HIV/AIDS non-profit, I trust him 100%, he is a standup guy.

I think the single good thing about having Schumer in this situation is that airlines are the one corporate interest he actually hates.

And FWIW, former Obama adviser Jason Furman actually proposed similar idea (on cutting checks) during a private House Dem Caucus meeting last week and Pelosi got up after and essentially shot the idea down.

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) March 17, 2020

slaaaaaaaay kween

and got no pushback, the press corps are worthless

Okay I get this, but you should realize their job is to shout questions that subsequently get responses. Their employers want them to shout out questions that might get (however evasively) answered. Which means they need to get called on. They know perfectly well how often the president lies. They also know that if they begin with "hey, you lying motherfucker, why did you just transparently lie about this thing that you always lie about?" then they won't get called on in future.

Xpost When last week?

Just curious cos we pivoted to "everything's closed" rather swiftly

I am hoping the fact that the population is not as dense in the US prevents it from getting that dire, but then again all indications is that this has spread rapidly already and we're about two weeks away from getting demolished

I live in the most densely populated state in the US. Are you in Montana or something?

Wisconsin, but they have cheese barriers that catch the disease

yeah I think about my small hometown, out in the prairie, might be 15,000 people in the whole county, so less likely but if they by chance got it their medical resources are for shit

Broward is the county in FL that has the cluster infections. My county SEEMS milder but who knows for sure.

Probably going to explode statewide thanks to Clearwater Beach inexplicably staying open

They also know that if they begin with "hey, you lying motherfucker, why did you just transparently lie about this thing that you always lie about?" then they won't get called on in future.

Agree. You can't really argue in the middle of the press conference for the reason YMP spells out. There will be ample follow-up later, when that clip gets played a thousand times on CNN tonight side-by-side with stuff he said two weeks ago. At yesterday's briefing, I was pretty sure that's what that one reporter was up to when he asked Trump to rate his performance (the final question, I think)--just getting that on the record, to be used endlessly.

(Whether it ultimately matters, that's always an unknown with Trump.)

so long, fucker

BREAKING: Former Congressman Duncan Hunter was just sentenced to 11 months in federal prison. Read the CREW complaint that kicked off the investigation: https://t.co/HAJcYqj5J8

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) March 17, 2020

and we all pantomime blowing vape smoke in his face.

my nameshame fury is irrational but so fucking real at that evil bastard.

That's fuckin right:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/488061-mcconnell-says-senate-will-pass-house-coronavirus-bill-without-changes

rmde @ Blobfish takin a weekend break before caving though. Although I suppose the events of the last few days are probably what forced his hand.

Senate GOP pushing back against airline bailout (good) and check payouts (bad - fucking Huckleberry thinks it's just "throwing money away" cuz no one actually needs money to buy, like, food and pay rent and shit)

If deaths climb through November, no one will remember a symbolic bill written by Dems with no chance of passage. However!

Sens. Michael Bennet (CO), Cory Booker (NJ), and Sherrod Brown (OH) drafted a letter to Senate party leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer calling for immediate $2,000 payments to all adults and children in the US below a certain income threshold ($90,000 for singles and $180,000 for couples is one number I’ve heard floated by sources familiar with these discussions). You can read their whole plan in the appendix to the letter here.

Under the plan, if the US is still in a public health emergency in July, Americans would get another $1,500 each. If the same is true in October, everyone would get another $1,000. If the public health emergency is over in either July or October when the Treasury secretary does his quarterly check-in, but unemployment has increased by a single point, the checks still go out. If unemployment rises by half a point, the checks are cut in half, but they still go out.

Americans could get as much as $4,500 per person, or $18,000 for a family of four, if all the payments outlined in the plan go out.

But, sure, Tom Cotton outfoxed them.

In a 27,000-member private Facebook group for first responders who support President Donald Trump, firefighters and paramedics have posted thousands of comments in recent weeks downplaying the coronavirus pandemic that they are responsible for helping to handle.

Posts in the group, which is called IAFF Union Firefighters for Trump and has been endorsed by Trump, scoffed at the seriousness of the virus, echoing false assertions by Trump and his allies comparing it to the seasonal flu.

“Every election year has a disease,” read one meme, purporting to be written on a doctor’s office whiteboard. “This is a viral-pneumonia being hyped as The Black Plague before an election.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-firefighters-corona

someone light them all on fire

how long until Trump says he deserves his term to be extended cos his 2020 was wasted by a "foreign flu"

China has kicked out the entire prestige press corps (NY Times, WaPo, WSJ) because of Trump's 'CHINESE FLU' comment apparently.

Yeah. Which will force Trump to come potentially really funny/awkward "they may be fake news/worst press/liars but they're OUR fake news/worst press/liars" twisting and turning.

come=some

I probably dropped this in the primary thread, but Dan Lipinski here, a DINO if ever there was one, at last lost a primary challenge from the left, Marie Newman. She's pretty much guaranteed that seat. I am curious if and hopeful that Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten hang in there come November. Underwood is facing Jim Oberweis, a professional asshole whose family runs a prominent dairy/ice cream company. He's run for various offices over the years - Governor, Senate, he's currently a state senator. Fingers crossed he does not get into the house, because he has been nothing if not consistently horrible.

This is how it's supposed to work: knock someone out who's more conservative than the district

coronavirus and trump: wild speculation

in speculating wildly, i am making these assumptions:

- i assume cv is going to proceed more or less as most expect it to, now - an ongoing crisis for the next several months, at least, with a vaccine not readily available until early 2021 at best.
- i assume that the general public is going to get fed up with this situation very quickly
- i assume that conservative voters are going to be even more fed up, even more quickly, due to their long-ingrained resistance to taking global problems and institutions seriously.
- i assume that conservative voters are now, and have been, totally bad and crazy and very susceptible to disinformation campaigns, and also have a ton of guns and ammo

if this is the case, it seems like there are two likely scenarios for November:

1) trump will continue his posture of the past few days - trying to take the virus seriously, or at least as seriously as he can manage, using his weird hypnotizing monotone sleepy serious voice and following consensus guidance and advice on how to handle the pandemic. he will get crushed in november. half of the country or more already hates his fucking guts for eternity. the support he gets from his base would be frayed by the constant drumbeat of bad news, recession, and most importantly, the feeling that trump isn't standing up to the international community and putting america first. trump only makes sense when he's trying to be loud and dominate everyone and everything else around him. a sober, normal response to coronavirus, working closely with experts and the international community, etc, would not play to his strengths.

2) trump is going to get frustrated and fed up with his inability to do much beyond serving as a daily bearer of bad news and warnings. he will turn his rage against his perceived enemies. in his first sentence in the press conference that just started, he referred to it as "the Chinese Virus". i expect more of that. he also just predicted "a complete victory, total victory", over coronavirus. what does that even mean? what is a total victory over coronavirus? regardless, i expect more of that, along with disinformation campaigns aimed at his own voters, to convince them that we are winning, or at least doing better than everyone else. *godspeed you black emperor music fades in* i think this could lead to violence and chaos. it's hard to imagine trump NOT choosing to side with those who are fed up with the situation and their lack of agency, especially when the rightwing doofuses of the world start spreading disinformation and putting pressure on him to align. honestly i have dark thoughts about this. but in the end, i think it leads to an absolute crushing defeat for trump in novemember, OR...uh, civil war pt 2. just throwing that out there

this has been your pointlessly wild speculative political fiction post of 3/18/20