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Gastritis Broke My Calculator

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This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

No one could have predicted…

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Trump Crime Cartel

Biden-Warren Opinion Piece in the KC Star

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Former VP Biden and Senator Warren jointly wrote an opinion piece published in The Kansas City Star today. It’s about the lack of coronavirus relief oversight under the current embezzler in the Oval Office.

The piece lays out the glaring issues with disbursement of federal funds now and recommends ways to clean up current and future relief efforts, including addressing conflicts of interest (e.g., profiteering by crooks like Sens. Loeffler and Burr), stopping lobbyists from influencing the direction of the money hose and ending Trump’s outrageous and intolerable refusal to submit relief package disbursement to oversight.

I highly recommend reading the whole thing. I found the conclusion especially compelling because it makes clear to Trump and potential partners in corruption that there will be no “look forward, not backward” bullshit when Trump loses the election:

If Congress and the Trump administration are unwilling to act now, then we will ensure that these changes are made in January 2021, both through new legislation and immediate executive commitments made by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration will appoint an inspector general to review every coronavirus relief transaction currently evading serious scrutiny. Wasteful, corrupt deals and giveaways will be rooted out and undone. Suspicious transactions will be referred to the Justice Department for investigation and prosecution. Every Trump administration official and business executive contemplating such deals should hear us loud and clear. Trump may wink and nod at this corruption. We will not.

Real unemployment in America is soaring. But for many Americans, our economy wasn’t working even before the devastation of the COVID-19 crisis. As we recover, we have the opportunity to create an economy that truly works for everyone. That begins with a government that is accountable to the people — and that is what we will deliver.

Even before the pandemic, Trump and his inept, greedy cronies were running the most openly corrupt administration in history, and now they are flagrantly taking advantage of the worst public health crisis in a century to line their pockets. Rooting the crooks out and restoring faith in good governance should be central to the 2020 campaign, and this signals it will be. Bravo, VP Biden and Senator Warren!

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I’m At My Wit’s End

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I am still a relatively young man, but in my time I have witnessed a large amount of stupidity (much of it my own). But I am really at the end of being able to tolerate it. This virus has been the last straw for me, and I culling a lot of people I have known forever from my life. I just can’t take any more of it.

The proximate cause of my losing it has been the “Yeah but Sweden” shit coming from my barely literate friends on facebook who have spent their entire lives setting out to prove that half an education is more dangerous than no education. “Sweden did nothing and look they are approaching her immunity.”

First off, the United States isn’t fucking Sweden. Sweden’s population density is on par with West Virginia’s, not NYC or Atlanta or virtual most of the urban and suburban areas of the United States. Second, there are far fewer at risk people in Sweden because THEY HAVE ACTUAL HEALTH CARE and are in general healthier. Third, in Sweden, if you get sick, you can stay home and not give it to everyone at fucking Ikea or whatever their equivalent of McDonalds is because they won’t get fired for staying home when sick because they are not imbeciles. Sweden also is a mature socially conscious country, and if asked or advised to maintain distancing, they don’t need fucking red x’s on the ground, and they’ll wear masks and wash their hands, and so forth.

So the United States isn’t Sweden. But even if we were, Sweden’s mortality rate has been fucking awful. WORSE THAN OURS. And there is no real reliable information about herd immunity in Sweden, and they’re not close to it, anyway. So please just fuck off with the “but Sweden” crap.

At any rate, I was at my boiling point, so called up a guildmate to chat, and we both agreed that it is the aggressive, in your face stupidity that is so maddening. Just the refusal to do little things, like wear masks, or stay home when sick, or throw marches to demand the country re-open, or mock others for doing what they think they should. It’s the deliberate, in-your-face assholishness that just drive me insane.

So we talked awhile, and I was tired of driving around checking things out, and I got home, came upstairs, loaded up the old web browser, and what do I find? As if on fucking cue, Vice President Jeebus Humper pulls this fucking stunt:

I'm At My Wit's End

Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday refused to wear a mask during his visit to Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, which requires all staff, patients, and visitors to wear a face covering while at the medical center. In a since-deleted tweet, the Mayo Clinic called out the veep, saying it “had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.” But that apparently didn’t stop Pence from visiting with staff and even a patient in a crowded hospital room without wearing a mask. “Part of our protocol for ensuring your safety is to require all patients, visitors and staff to wear a face covering or mask while at Mayo Clinic to guard against transmission of COVID-19,” the hospital’s website reads.

I fucking hate these people and anyone who gets in the way of replacing them in November can fuck right the fuck off.

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Pandemic Open Thread: Trump Just Likes Killing People

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The governor of Alabama is smarter than the ‘governor’ of Georgia:

Oval Office Occupant is… not:

He can’t be a king, but at least he can have people killed for his whims!

And his party… is fine with that.

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And Another Thing About Trump

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Trump is looking like an insane person on tv, and most of you are probably thinking “so no different from normal.” And actually, no. He is looking more insane and more unhinged. And it is going to keep getting worse and worse. And there is a simple reason for that.

This is the first time in his life he simply can not bullshit his way through things. The last 75 years, every single time he has been in a pickle, he has been able to buy his way, bullshit his way, or make a deal out of the mess. He and daddy bought his way into schools and bought his way out of Nam. Daddy’s money got him a start in business. He was able to make deals with the mob and pay lawyers to shed liability on his failed real estate bids, he made deals with the Russians to funnel money to him through Deutsche Bank, he’s was able to bullshit his way through the election and bullshit his way through releasing his tax returns and pay off the women.

And finally, he has made it this far through his Presidency because he made a deal with evangelicals and the Republican base, that in return for some judges, shredding the environment, and throwing money at the rich while hating on minorities, they’d just sit quietly by and wear their MAGA hats.

But Trump can’t make a deal with coronavirus, and he has no control over it. No amount of bullshit or Russian money or ginned up racism is gonna keep people from dying. And he is finally starting to realize it.

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It’s Not His Decision to Make

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On top of what Betty said below, the other thing to keep in mind is that not only is it not his fucking decision to make, but it also doesn’t matter what he says because people are not going to “re-open” the country until they feel safe.

All this premature “re-opening” the country bullshit is about is blame shifting to the governors and telling his buddies in big business it’s ok to start firing people for not showing up, and signalling to everyone that there ain’t no more money coming. That is it.

Universities and colleges and public schools are still going to listen to actual medical experts and scientists, and the majority of people will continue to act like this thing can kill them, BECAUSE IT CAN AND WILL despite whatever Trump’s panel of dipshits decree.

Trump simply is not in control of the situation in any way, shape, or form, and that is both good and bad. It sucks that the power of the federal government can’t be harnessed and used to fight this. On the other hand, it is good that the public isn’t going to pay attention to this doofus because we’re not just talking about shitting on immigrants and making hand-signs anymore. This is life or death, and most people get that.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: One More Week Behind Us

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(h/t commentor Jackie)

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Friday/Saturday, April 10/11

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Up to our Necks in Bullshit and It’s Gonna Keep Coming

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In the past few days, we have had an IG replaced, a SECNAV forced to resign, learned that the WH is giving PPE to private businesses to force states to bid against each other, had a rightwing SCOTUS vote against fair elections in Wisconsin, and the Press Secretary, who has never held a press conference, was replaced with a serial liar and fabulist. All of this is during a worsening pandemic and economic crisis.

And I am here to tell you it is going to get worse before it gets better. So get yourself ready, hunker down, keep your head in the game, and any other platitudes you need. Because it is going to get worse. But you need to be ready for it, and ready to fight back, because while you might think we are approaching the absolute bottom, with Republicans it CAN ALWAYS get worse. This November election is the whole ball of wax, so you need to stay healthy, physically and mentally, and be ready for the fight of your lives.

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What they knew, and when they knew it

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We’re starting to find out what they knew and when they knew it. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii calls the Trump administration out:

Axios obtained memos from the economic adviser who sounded the warning, but there were probably similar warnings from other sectors that we haven’t seen yet. Via Axios:

In late January, President Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues the novel coronavirus could take more than half a million American lives and cost close to $6 trillion, according to memos obtained by Axios…

Navarro’s grim estimates are set out in two memos — one dated Jan. 29 and addressed to the National Security Council, the other dated Feb. 23 and addressed to the president. The NSC circulated both memos around the White House and multiple agencies…

The Jan 29 memo set out two stark choices “Aggressive Containment versus No Containment.”

Navarro compared cost estimates for the choices and wrote that the Council of Economic Advisers’ estimates for stopping travel from China to the U.S. would be $2.9 billion per month. If the virus turned out to be a pandemic, that travel ban could extend 12 months and cost the U.S. $34.6 billion.

Doing nothing (the “No Containment” option) could range from “zero economic costs” to $5.7 trillion depending on the lethality of the virus.
On the high end, he estimated a scenario in which the coronavirus could kill 543,000 Americans.

The Feb. 23 memo…was titled as a memorandum to the president via the offices of the national security adviser, chief of staff and COVID-19 task force, and the subject line described as a request for supplemental appropriation.

It began: “There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls.”
He called for an “immediate supplemental appropriation of at least $3 billion” to support efforts at prevention, treatment, inoculation, and diagnostics.

He described expected needs for “Personal Protective Equipment” for health care workers and secondary workers in facilities such as elder care and skilled nursing. He estimates that over a four-to-six month period, “We can expect to need at least a billion face masks, 200,000 Tyvek suits, and 11,000 ventilator circuits, and 25,000 PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators.)”

Trump sat on his ass for weeks after that memo was circulated, tweeting inanities like this:

“Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape!”

The administration didn’t get around to ordering ventilators and masks until mid-March.

Since the Trump administration’s natural state is chaos punctuated by palace coups and the president is a lazy-ass retiree who watches TV all day, it’s possible Trump himself was in the dark about what was coming. It’s also possible he knew and was moving behind the scenes to secure a personal advantage.

Regardless, it’s clear Trump was derelict in his duty to protect Americans. We’re going to need a bigger select committee.

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Sunday/Monday, April 5/6

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British report (Sky Media):

… With no consistent federal policy, local officials have been left on their own to decide when to enact control measures, Most should assume it is already here, she said.

Over all, the study finds, 70 percent of all counties in the United States — making up 94 percent of the country’s population — are likely to have epidemics. The study defines an epidemic as an outbreak that grows exponentially instead of fizzling out on its own, eventually infecting a large fraction of the population…

People who have been infected and have mild symptoms, or none at all, can pass the disease to others. Those cases, often undetected, are a prime driver of the outbreaks, Dr. Meyers said. Even in counties with no reported cases, there is roughly a 9 percent chance that an undetected outbreak is already underway, she said.

For those reasons, social distancing should be practiced across the United States, whether an outbreak now is visible or not, Dr. Meyers said…

… A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.

By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile. That federal cache of supplies was created more than 20 years ago to help bridge gaps in the medical and pharmaceutical supply chains during a national emergency.

Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.

“We basically wasted two months,” Kathleen Sebelius, health and human services secretary during the Obama administration, told AP…

When an AP reporter attempted to ask Trump about the issue on Sunday, the president cut off the question.

“FEMA, the military, what they’ve done is a miracle,” Trump said with a flash of anger. “What they’ve done is a miracle in getting all of this stuff. What they have done for states is incredible.”

Trump then ended the briefing and walked off the podium…

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Thieves & Grifters All the Way Down: Trump & His GOP Cronies Confront A Pandemic

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Saturday/Sunday, April 4/5

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One small good thing:

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Friday/Saturday, April 3/4

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Trump’s a two-bit thief who aspires to be a mob boss. Robert Kraft is a personal friend of his — and, more importantly, a friend of Putin — so Trump graciously ‘permits’ his friend to make a grand gesture, even as Trump’s stealing PPE shipments right & left to stockpile for… well, ask his son-in-law Jared…

Trump’s already killed more Americans than Osama bin Laden. He’ll be lucky his corpse isn’t disposed of the same way.

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Florida Fiasco

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It’s omnishambles time in Florida, and it’s no coincidence that Republicans hold every statewide office except ag commissioner. The state’s department of agriculture is probably functioning properly. I don’t know. But Governor DeSantis has made a complete fucking hash of his job during the pandemic. He issued the “stay-at-home” order way too late (it went into effect at midnight). And he undermined more stringent local ordinances to accommodate the crackpot prosperity gospel grifters who want to gather on Sundays to fleece the rubes while they breathe on each other.

Testing has been ramped up, but so far only about .036% of the 22M population has been tested, and most of the testing has been done in metro areas. Every single county has at least one case, but as recently as last week, DeSantis was telling people a statewide stay-at-home order wasn’t necessary because the virus hadn’t spread to “every corner of the state.” As of today, we’ve got more than 9,000 confirmed cases, and experts say the “peak” won’t happen here for another month.

Meanwhile, the bottom has fallen out of Florida’s tourism-dependent and service-heavy economy. As hundreds of thousands flocked to file for unemployment benefits online, the state’s website crashed. Hard. It was deliberate sabotage; during his tenure, former Gov. Scott directed crooks to design that site to keep people from getting the princely sum of $275 a week in unemployment benefits to make Scott’s economic numbers look good. Auditors warned Scott about it, and they warned DeSantis too. Neither lifted a finger.

The director of the department overseeing the unemployment benefits fiasco, who has been on the job since DeSantis appointed him in 2018, apologized and said printed forms are on the way…eventually. He should be fired — not just from his job but also from a space cannon into the sun. Not only can untold numbers of suddenly unemployed people NOT get access to Florida’s stingy unemployment benefits, they can’t get access to the money the feds sent to augment it because that goes through the states.

To sum up, a tidal wave of pestilence is rushing toward the state because the stupid governor followed Trump’s idiotic lead, ignoring the virus until it was way too late to control the spread. And the economy is not only a smoking crater for the foreseeable future, hundreds of thousands or possibly millions can’t access the benefits they’ve EARNED to get them through this time.

The only upside of this horrific situation? If Trump loses Florida in 2020, it doesn’t matter if he hangs onto the Rust Belt. I’m not in the presidential race prediction business any more, but just as a citizen looking around? I think Trump loses this state, and with it the presidency. Sorry about all the dead people and ruined lives, Florida, but the Republican experiment in small government by greedy crooks had to be carried out to its logical extreme, and here we are. Let’s do better next time.

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update (Domestic) – Thursday/Friday, April 2/3

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It’s FUBARs all the way down!

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