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

It's like on ILE and social media a liberal-left WHATABOUTism exists: you can't attack the GOP without also pointing furiously at Schumer, Pelosi, the DNC, etc.

Yeah that essay seems out-of-date already.

this was 12 days ago (feels like 2 years ago) & trump has somehow been crazier than i thought possible in the interim

David Brooks
@nytdavidbrooks
Mar 12
I get the sense that this is not only the low point of the Trump presidency but the low point of the American presidency ever. Has any president ever been this overmatched by a crisis?

has anything passed yet?

Even GW Bush never really lost the support of David Brooks.

Fauci seemed to be on a very short leash right there. "You've got two minutes, here's what you're allowed to say, then we'll get Larry up there."

I thought Fauci wd no longer appear, all the smarties said

pence sez "the task force met again today" like it displaced something more important on his sched

Today I learned not just that the governor of Texas is in a wheelchair, but he is in a wheelchair because he went out running some years ago and a tree fell on him!

And he went on to help dismantle rights for the handicapped* in Texas, so anybody seen Tommy Udo lately?

*Including my father, who was a diabetic amputee that spent the last year of his life rotting in a wheelchair thanks in part to Abbott's work.

(xpost) That was my thought too. I'm sure the calculation is that it's better to have him up there saying very little than absent altogether, which prompts all sorts of questions. I want him to speak up as much as possible, but I also realize that that could prevent him from doing all he can behind the scenes. Bad situation.

I know I get chastised for watching these things, but anyway, questioned as to whether Trump arrived at his Easter 'reopening' in consultation with the two doctors standing beside him, part of his response was "I just thought it was a beautiful timeline."

after three weeks, the economy rolls the stone away from the grave. Mnuchin comes out dressed as the Easter Bunny (Spicer's old costume)

(I feel obligated to thank Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Alexander Mackendrick every time I use the word "chastise.")

Question as everyone exits: "Is is wise to pack churches on Easter?"

the blood of the Lamb will set us free, clem.

"Is it"

I do get the feeling hologram Cecil B. DeMille will be there for tomorrow's briefing.

just going to weigh in here and say mother fuck lawsuit millionaire Greg Abbot who’s absolutely a tort reform guy now. not then, you see. but now.

in a just world that tree would have finished the job.

Obviously it's stupid to allow church gatherings at all let alone during a pandemic, but at least churchgoing types are a little more likely to already be the sort of people who don't socialise much outside of Sunday morning.

you mean the Dems who got the GOP to kowtow?

I don't perceive any negotiation, compromise or agreement reached so far as kowtowing.

It's like on ILE and social media a liberal-left WHATABOUTism exists: you can't attack the GOP without also pointing furiously at Schumer, Pelosi, the DNC, etc.

I've got ten fingers and two arms, keep 'em coming. No proposed responses on either side so far are meeting the scale that will be needed to cope.

the $2 trillion stimulus is pretty astonishing by my lights, and the Dems got Munchkin and the White House to accede to their demands.

churchgoing types are a little more likely to already be the sort of people who don't socialise much outside of Sunday morning.

I know a fair amounf of churchgoers and they don't socialize any less than the rest of us

xpost Seriously. Did y'all honestly think this thing was just going to magic the problem away in one fell swoop? Jesus.

xp amount

I think I just realized it's time to [command +] my screen, that's been my whole problem all this time

Did y'all honestly think this thing was just going to magic the problem away in one fell swoop? Jesus.

― Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch),

Who said that?

Agreeing with you, shaking my head at people grousing that it's too little. Because of course it is, but it's a surprisingly good start.

I mean, apologies for trying to take into account the possibility I'll still be alive and have bills to pay in August?

To quote my favorite benefit track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXGgWf2lacM

get busy Humpty

are y'all seriously thinking that with a Republican majority Senate (albeit a thinner one right now due to people who are quarantined at home and can't vote) that anything better than 100% of your salary for 4 months was possible? I didn't even think THAT was possible.

I sincerely doubt that's the last piece of legislation if this thing continues into September, but...if we're going to constantly feel despair because we can't guarantee everything is going to be roses six months in the future, that's just going to bring you undue pain, and I say this as someone that has been fighting to keep panic attacks at bay for the first time in over a year rn.

no, this bill if it passes as is does not guarantee we will all live happily ever after, but it WOULD guarantee that the hundreds of friends and family members I have who can now feel the tightened ropes around their chest loosen a bit and feel like they might have a fighting chance at coming out ok in the long run. Fuck making me feel bad for feeling happy about that, because it's been keeping me up at night.

gotta take these things a day at a time, or you're going to wear yourself out. I should know, I wound up in the hospital over it once.

the fight doesn't stop tonight any more than it would have had Dems just signed the first shitty bill that was thrown in front of them.

people grousing that it's too little

these were the same people bitching that congressional Dems were getting rolled afaict

are y'all seriously thinking that with a Republican majority Senate (albeit a thinner one right now due to people who are quarantined at home and can't vote) that anything better than 100% of your salary for 4 months was possible? I didn't even think THAT was possible.

I've held my fire hoping sic and others aren't obtuse enough not to see this.

Neanderthal otm

that said, until this thing is passed, I am going to be a bit on pins and needles worried about shenanigans. but I'll take that over wondering how $2,400 was going to somehow keep my parents afloat. or worrying that my best friend, who has told me she's had suicidal thoughts on more than one occasion in recent months prior to the crisis, and in the last week alone, is going to finally be pushed over the edge by all this and leave me with a giant hole inside me.

everybody keeps pointing to the "well evictions are suspended now, so they're fine", but all that means is that when the crisis is over, your landlord can say "cool, well, now the moratorium on evictions is through, you now have 3 days to pay me for the five months of rent you couldn't pay while it was going on".

like, FUCK YOU dudes. I know people now whom this legislation will keep them from being on the streets. I'm SO sorry legislation is dirty. How would Sanders as presumptive nominee made it less so?

And I assume, by the way, Sanders, without any evidence, was involved in making this the biggest example of liberal largesse in 50 years if it emerges intact.

I briefly visited my FOX-sustained mom a couple hours ago and she was livid the Dems held this up. I had to explain a couple of the provisions; she understood, but I saw in her eyes she thought I'd been duped. I mention this gross anecdote only to show how FOX News already sees this bill as a surrender to liberalism.

could be worse, they could be giving Trump credit for it

and uh guess what -- if this bill passes, the poor service industry employees and POC will benefit most.

the reaction to Democrats "delaying" the bill is understandable from idiots on the right, but I heard various screams about it from my own mother (who voted Warren ffs), and one of my good friends, who is a liberal History teacher, who thinks this will 'cost us in November'. he actually suggested we should have rushed this bill through and then tried the ambitious stuff on another bill next week, as if the best bargaining moment wouldn't have been lost by doing that.

nevermind the fact that voters have shitty memories and will not even remember that it happened, Murc's law, et al, at some points you have to fucking quit thinking "how many points will this cost us in November" and do what's right. because otherwise, I know a lot of people who won't give a shit about November because they're suddenly in poverty.

like I really want to ask all of these people what was permanently lost by delaying the bill, what undoable damage was done? None. Republicans wanted the optics of passing the bill, and wanted to take credit for crafting the bill themselves and having Dems take it as is. that's all they cared about. the stock market rebounded immensely today in reaction to the bill.

Thanks, Neanderthal.

xp -- again, no, I don't think it was possible, but that still doesn't mean it's going to make everything better

this isn't me arguing some kind of purity argument or that compromise is bad or whatnot, it is just the mathematics of four months' safety vs. the much longer than four months remaining in my life

of course it's not. it's not meant to make everything better. it's meant to make the next four months better.

that's a start. it'll have to do for now. prior to today, I was struggling to think about how even the stimulus checks were going to be enough for a lot of people.

I don't blame anybody for worrying. but a lot of good is coming out of this for the near future. that had to be solved first.

I've held my fire hoping sic and others aren't obtuse enough not to see this.

I'm not arguing against what's been achieved, I think there should be much bigger messaging outside of it that much more will be needed, and soon, to set up how much of a stop-gap the first measures will be. As you noted, the GOP are much better at messaging / throwing the whole Overton window open, instead of lifting the shade a bit and hoping people adjust to the light before raising it some more.


(In my own personal policy, I reckon nationalising Boeing, jailing its CEO, and sending everyone $2000 tax-free a month would have been a very very moderate first proposal, but I don't expect that to have been signed this week.)

I agree 100 percent w/you and katherine, but it's the grossness of our political system and our undemocratic Senate.

obviously much more would be needed, but it's difficult to achieve more if the country descends into unresolvable chaos in the first month of the crisis in the States.

the House is already talking about another bill after the one they haven't signed yet, for example.

it's just like how you can't think clearly when someone is chasing you, so you get to safety before you can think about anything further downstream than 5 minutes from now.

I don't understand how it's "obtuse" to be fucking terrified about the future, where "the future starting August" is really not that much smaller a span than "the future starting April"

I mean, you do you, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but for all I know I can wake up and have a bus drive through my bedroom and run me over tomorrow.

also, I can celebrate the victories and still be simultaneously concerned about the future (which..guess what? I am!).

I mean there's a non-zero chance I could be laid off by summer, if that happens...I'll deal with it, as scary as it might wind up being.

Alfred wasn't referring to you k

like obviously I would love it if I lived in a country where a crisis like this happened, and I didn't even have to worry about anybody's financial ruin as a result and could be confident that they'd be taken care of, but sadly, this is the country I was born in, one where people inexplicably think taking care of other people is a bad thing.

maybe this is finally the moment we see that we have to adapt the economy to the 21st century and the decreased demand for labor or people will needlessly die, but I've said "maybe this is finally the moment" more times than I can count.