US Politics, April 2020 -- Where's the Vax Returns?

Seriously. Plus, Trump used his losses at the Taj Majal to avoid paying paying taxes for years. taxes are bonkers. If you’re rich you’re basically covered no matter what happens to you

this is normal, this is fine

https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2020-04-02/u-s-suspends-passport-services-except-for-emergencies

So there's a lot of speculation here, but this thread is worth reading. Very ugly if true.

Reporting tonight it’s clear that there are huge, huge fortunes being made now on the COVID Crisis. We keep hearing that states and cities are having to bid against each other to purchase lifesaving goods. But who are the counter parties? Those folks have a product ...

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 3, 2020

I saw a message being spread about a recall on a lot of Chinese masks so hoping that isn't a widespread thing.
Also hope it isn't just negative propaganda which is far from useful.

so apparently Shithead is finally using the Defense Production Act

Arguments like this miss the point. Asian Americans proving their "Americanness" isn't going to stop racism. Respectability politics isn't the solution. https://t.co/KPrnGzAEiW pic.twitter.com/9f3Kjz7UWm

— kat chow (@katchow) April 2, 2020

this is a remarkably bad take from Andrew Yang. like Candice Owens-level shit

theres a v good reason why he picked up 4chan trolls

yikes. pretty creepy to read after viewing The Plot Against America ep 2 last night

yeah that's weird. only racists blame asian or asian-american people for this crisis and you'll never prove anything to them.

Yang was shamefully model-minority-ing during his campaign, but that is an appalling step up

i want to know more about these profiteers.

why is the US giving the airlifted supplies from foreign countries to private contractors and not directly to states?

"run government like a business"?

i suppose the alternative idea is that private companies really could be more adept at distributing things than the federal government (like fedex vs usps, or whatever)? i don't know.

is this just a weird trump thing or is it what would be done? that's my question. i know that people here might not have the answer. then again, some ilxors know stuff.

My understanding is these are companies that have traditionally distributed this type of supply, but there's a lot of questions around how they are forcing the states to bid against each other, which runs up prices to ridiculous levels. At the very least, it is being coordinated badly, but there's some shady profiteering that appears to be happening too.

my chinese next door neighbors who run a laundromat have hung american flags out their windows. shades of 9/11.

State governments (the federal government too, actually) don’t have a bunch of logistics workers who hang around for years waiting for urgent DISTRIBUTE THE SUPPLIES contingencies. Hence the contractors.

if they're really smart they'd hang a confederate flag xp

The Trump administration just changed its language about the Strategic National Stockpile on an HHS website to jibe with Jared Kushner's claim that this isn't for the states.

(h/t @LEBassett)

Before vs. After: pic.twitter.com/yD4O2b1IEw

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) April 3, 2020

lol Florida:

The staggering unemployment exploding on President Donald Trump’s watch would worry any incumbent running for reelection, but troubles in Florida are injecting an added dose of fear into a jittery GOP.

Already anxious about Trump’s chances in the nation’s biggest swing state, Republicans now are dealing with thousands of unemployed workers unable to navigate the Florida system to apply for help. And the blowback is directed straight at Trump’s top allies in the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.

Privately, Republicans admit that the $77.9 million system that is now failing Florida workers is doing exactly what Scott designed it to do — lower the state’s reported number of jobless claims after the great recession.

“It’s a sh-- sandwich, and it was designed that way by Scott,” said one DeSantis advisor. “It wasn’t about saving money. It was about making it harder for people to get benefits or keep benefits so that the unemployment numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about.”

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/04/03/its-a-sh-sandwich-republicans-rage-as-florida-becomes-a-nightmare-for-trump-1271172

https://i.imgur.com/O1wN66k.jpg

Good thing Kushner has more spare time now that the whole Middle East thing got sorted out

Two Scoops negotiating w/Russia & Saudi to lower oil production because that's totally what we need right now.

Trump said Medicare for All apparently?

We don’t agree on much, but this isn’t the time for politics. We must come together to take bold action to prevent more people from getting sick & dying. Immediately expanding Medicare is the best way to do that. We're ready to work w/Trump & others to get it done. pic.twitter.com/kUqjw5IjKe

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) April 3, 2020

lol OUTFLANKED!!!

Trump did not say Medicare for All

this is getting v tiresome, what universe do you guys live in

President Donald Trump said he is considering using federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid to cover the rising ranks of the uninsured after his administration decided it would not reopen the Obamacare insurance markets to address the coronavirus crisis.

it's a good letter Brent

I mean I know he can't read but you never know when you might bamboozle him

even in the letter they note that he only referred to "expanding Medicare and Medicaid to include uninsured Americans, including those who have lost their employer-based coverage due to COVID-19."

This is not Medicare-for-All.

idk who Brent is

could be! Why not?

because Trump (and esp McConnell) will not hand the Dems a major legislative victory

it's 2020 and we're still not ready to lie and distort and take things out of context to score rhetorical points as much as the other side is, smh

idk also who is this karen i keep hearing about?

I could see some expansion getting through, one with a lot of caveats and poison-pills attached to it that limits the expansion well short of "All"

xps

I know Brent and Karen, but I have to admit I don't get who Rhonda is?

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/theyre-good-dogs-brent

"celebrated Twitter exchange"

i hope trump signs onto this medicare expansion

it was his idea!

to the extent he is capable of "having" "ideas"

Trump's Katrina will be a deadly pandemic. https://t.co/e4rMUQOAqs

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) May 5, 2017

who could have foreseen this?

even in the letter they note that he only referred to "expanding Medicare and Medicaid to include uninsured Americans, including those who have lost their employer-based coverage due to COVID-19."

This is not Medicare-for-All.

It's what a lot of Americans who don't follow politics closely think Medicare-for-All is, though: a public option that works like Medicare and that's available to everyone alongside more expensive private competitors.

It's probably what Trump thinks Medicare-for-All is!

where does silby fall on that axis

I don't get who Rhonda is?

Help me

gonna steal it any way they can

This is good one: Trump campaign wants to send no request absentee ballots only to voters 65+. https://t.co/tF4d6SZHCb

— Richard Yeselson (@yeselson) April 3, 2020

Trump said he is considering... etc.

A few days ago he "considered" slapping a quarantine on NY, NJ and part of CT. He's just churning the news cycle again to keep himself in the center of it.