US Politics, May 2020 — I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.

here’s the other question and this is unprovable

Sen. Rand Paul, just a guy asking questions about things where no matter what you think the answer is, and however stupid his own answer is, he will claim that, "y'know, actually I could be right, and you can't prove me wrong."

the other question i have, and this is unprovable, is that if ron paul and his son would have never existed, the butterfly effect of the lack of their cosmic stupidity in the world would have prevented covid19 from happening at all

The House Dem bill establishes a Fed credit facility for debt collectors, tied to forbearance on debt collection payments. How about that. pic.twitter.com/WZ3X8jljpw

— graham steele (@steelewheelz) May 12, 2020

I didn't watch today, but this is a good exchange. Paul sounds sort of reasonable here, then Fauci completely knocks him down in a way that simultaneously gives lies to Paul's caricature of Fauci--no, actually I don't claim to know everything, which is precisely why I'm advising caution.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/05/12/fauci-rand-paul-coronavirus-senate-committee-testimony-vpx.cnn

mookie, explain the debt collector tweet? I'm too dense to follow what that meant.

it means debt collectors will get paid by the government during this time because heaven forbid they don't have money flowing into their coffers.

is that bad? I have no love for banks and landlords, but I have to imagine we'd see less illegal self-help evictions being imposed on civilians who can't defend themselves, if these assholes were getting their money from somewhere else. I thought the idea was to increase cash flow?

Otherwise, what's to stop major rent hikes when this ends?

But idk... I'll see what those who are better versed have to say

If you want debt collectors to renounce debt collecting, it makes sense to pay them off for doing so. They are used to skirting along the edges of the law to make their collections already, so compliance was sure to be an issue without this kind of payoff.

Sen. Paul leaves coronavirus hearing and tells cameras: “here’s the other question and this is unprovable. I think New York would have lost the same amount of people whether we did anything or not”

“A lot of what happens with the virus is independent of what government does”

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) May 12, 2020

In much the same way that I content that Rand Paul would've eventually gotten the shit kicked out of him by his neighbor whether it had been that particular guy or any other human being who happened to be living next to him.

Xpost I just see liberal Twitter exploding angrily about it, and maybe rightfully so, but...

People pausing their mortgage payments are facing huge balloon payments when mortgage payments resume, which for many is just kicking the foreclosure can down the street.

And eviction moratoriums don't absolve the tenants of that rent, just their being removed from the property. As soon as any moratorium was lifted, the landlords can just demand you pay all back rent or evict you.

If this bill WON'T help with that (and from reading it, I'm not sure how much it will), then I'm curious what proposal could help with this issue (seriously asking, not snarking? We know "the goodness of their hearts" is not an option.

Forbearance is not forgiveness - the bill isn’t asking collectors to renounce collecting, it’s paying them off to not do it temporarily.

Which is a handout because they’d just go under when people couldn’t pay their collections anyway.

I know it's not forgiveness, but no debt forgiveness bill for civilians would make it out of committee in the Senate.

I guess my question is, what alternatives are there that will protect consumers from adverse action or financial ruin that McConnell wouldn't immediately use to wipe his ass?

I support continued stimulus payments, but that may not still be enough to stop foreclosure or eviction, particularly for those whose unemployment has been held up for two months.

So there's got to be something else. This bill might not be it!

But right now, there are news reports of multiple landlords in Florida illegally locking citizens out of homes in a way to try to squeeze people into paying or illegally replacing them with someone who can. These tenants can call the cops who will force the landlord to let them back in, but the people impacted don't always know this, or might be rightfully scared to continue living in that home for fear of what other illegal things the landlord can do.

I hate landlords and the real solution is to banish landlords forever to the depths of Hell cos I hate them all, but short of that i want to find some way (if not this way) to leash the fuckers

icymi

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXdU2ypXkAARPfO.jpg

an acquaintance said the bill's pretty good: Aside from the financial stuff, the most striking thing to me is the amount of detail on the public health side. It has tons of detail on various things like invoking the DPA for PPE, funding for testing and contact tracing, requiring the CDC to develop a plan for testing and contact tracing, requiring states to list testing sites, guarding against shortages of medical supplies etc. Some of these thing seem so basic, they have an implicit tone of "You stupid motherfuckers never thought to do any of this shit? Really?" Obviously Congress can't administer anything but it looks like the House is basically trying to take on the role the administration is supposed to be playing.

I know it's not forgiveness, but no debt forgiveness bill for civilians would make it out of committee in the Senate.

Right, which is why forgiveness and consumer interests are an irrelevant lens through which to view this. A bailout of debt collectors is about... bailing out debt collectors. Forbearance is a smokescreen to make it more palatable - but these are debts in collection. People have already had their credit ruined or been sued, not paying now hurts the collections agency much more than it hurts them.

ok, through that lens, this bill looks less rosy to me, so I get more now why the "meh" reaction.

Few bills are.

at what point is congress going to address education funding? my district (berkeley) already had to trim 2 million before all of this happened because the state is so stingy with money despite having had a surplus. Now they're looking at 6 million in cuts, which is frankly, going to be ruinous to the point where I feel like ditching public education for my incoming High Schooler now, which also makes me wonder why I fucking stayed living in this city for this long for the 'good school district'. There needs to be billions, if not trillions, flowing from the federal government to states earmarked for education.

t/s:

Were done playing by the rules.

vs.

Our entire lives, we've spent on buying some properties to feed our families, we don't see a profit leave be most of us are on a loss with the vigorous laws NYS passed last year.

why are you feeding properties to your family?

akm: it's all tied up in this red/blue Congress bullshit right now, where Republicans (half of them, at least) don't want money to flow out to blue states for being "irresponsible", ignoring the fact that that's where the pandemic tended to hit. Of course, bailing out airlines was the priority and not things like education, hospitals, essential services, and so on.

to paraphase Cuomo, just give us our fucking money back, you assholes.

i was reading the bill because i had questions about some of what Neanderthal was saying about the foreclosure forbearances. i did not read about rent payments. but with respect to forbearances it appears that the lender will be required to offer that the missed payments be tacked to the end of the loan, and that they not be reported as delinquencies to credit bureaus.

There will probably never be a COVID-19 vaccine, but it appears that a vaccine against bothsides-ism is being tested in the offices of the Washington Post.

As coronavirus roils the nation, Trump reverts to tactic of accusing foes of felonies

Read the whole thing. It's astonishing, for a "respectable" daily paper.

Lol

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/12/politics/michael-flynn-case-judge/index.html

Bill "Skip Lipari" Barr probably shidding rn

ugh at the co-opting of "I can't breathe" by fucking LANDLORDS

Just saw a commercial for this on TV--it's quite real. Where to begin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgvzUeEe9Bo

Where to begin?

by providing your credit card info! I WANT THAT

Good morning!

Like clockwork, even the NYT reporting on Kushner's comment about "postponing" the election as if he is actually someone responsible for that decision, thus giving it legs. The predictability is infuriating.

tbf John Roberts has yet to cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision whether or not Trump has to actually do what the Constitution says

My COVID posting has been minimal as of late--ran out of things to say--but I genuinely don't get this.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/wisconsin-supreme-court-strikes-down-stay-at-home-order/index.html

I don't get it in a broad more than a specific sense: it seems that they're essentially saying no public health emergency can ever be serious enough for government-enforced regulations.

executive orders != laws passed by the legislature

xp the wisonsin supreme court is extremely right wing, the justices were ranting about tyranny during the hearing

really happy wisconsin voters elected jill karofsky to the supreme court april 7 to replace daniel kelly

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/497697-fbi-serves-search-warrant-on-sen-richard-burr-amid-stock-trading-scandal

that's an la times story, the hill is an absolute trash website that makes the world a worse place, and the la times just furloughed a bunch of reporters and needs subscribers. here's the la times story https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-05-13/fbi-serves-warrant-on-senator-stock-investigation.

it seems that they're essentially saying no public health emergency can ever be serious enough for government-enforced regulations.

You have to understand that some members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court see their job as adjunct to the leadership of the state GOP and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. They are not taking seriously the idea that they need to respect precedent, nor do they intend to treat their present ruling with any respect if a future Republican governor is in a similar position. What I've learned is that you have to stop treating their arguments as if they are arguments.

funny how they didn't distinguish between tyrants and dictators, i thought those judges were supposed to be highly educated

Sad little detail there at the end of the LA Times sorry that I didn’t know about:


Under the STOCK Act, lawmakers are required to disclose their stock market activity but are still allowed to own stock, even in industries they might oversee.

The law passed the Senate in 2012 in a 96-3 vote. Among the three senators to oppose the bill was Burr.

Busy night. Lots of happenings on the Flynn case as well. Looks like the DOJ withheld information from the judge pertaining to interviews they held in their search for a justification to drop the case.

Today's shower thought: The only language some people understand is violence... and I don't speak that language. This is very frustrating to me.

BREAKING FROM LAT:https://t.co/XSEeESGrXp

— Kimbriell Kelly (@Kimbriell) May 14, 2020

It’s happening?

Burr has stepped down from his position of chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. i'd like to say that should be expected, but honestly, these days, it's kind of surprising when the GOP is shamed into admitting mistakes

haha, xp

I'd bet McConnell's language & position toward Burr is going to get much harsher after Labor Day, which is when Burr's resignation would no longer trigger a 2020 special. At that point, it's an "the earlier he's out the better" situation for the GOP heading into 2022. https://t.co/LKleo2rROo

— Taniel (@Taniel) May 14, 2020

This is the result Trump wanted.

Burr at least feigned objectivity in that role, wasn't a Nunes-level idiot, was *relatively* sober

no doubt his replacement will be yet worse

what's the deal with a Repub winning Katie Hill's old congressional seat in CA?

Expected, I think.