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

this may be our last chance to cut the Confederacy loose

I dunno, I think there's a word for this...

ReOpen NC leader says she tested positive for COVID-19 | CBS 17 https://t.co/Os0g2iZjsS

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 27, 2020

what's all this shit about General Flynn being exonerated?

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/flynn-hoping-doj-review-pardon-trump-free-legal/story?id=70375190

Lawyers for retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said they were given “stunning” evidence from a Justice Department review of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s handling of the onetime Trump adviser’s case, but it may not be the total exoneration some anticipate, according to sources familiar with the case.

Some commentators in recent days have been buzzing about documents under protective order in the review of Flynn’s prosecution which they maintain may, if unsealed, be a big step toward clearing the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, whose criminal case stemming from the Russia probe remains in limbo more than three years after he resigned from the White House.

But while his defense lawyers said in a court filing Friday that the not yet publicly released evidence will help show that their client was “set up and framed” by the FBI, they have not shared any specifics.

Oh well hey if the Justice Department says it's so

The ABC story is markedly more skeptical than the bulletins places like the Federalist have been running on this story.

That Justice dept is going to have to be sandblasted and scrubbed down with bleach, or maybe just bruned to the ground, after Trump exits the white house.

My mom got a letter today from Trump telling her about the stimulus check he sent her?

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Monday, April 27, 2020 5:08 PM (yesterday)

The IRS determined they needed to send out letters to people about the stimulus payments as a kinda "double check" to make sure people received them. It's kinda like when banks send you letters saying they are sending you a new ATM card. ... but the letter went from perfunctory "we sent you money, hope you got it, thx" to political grandstanding.

I got a letter from Donald Trump today
Opened it and read it
It said he was a fucker!

Didn't we get a letter from GWB when they gave us checks after 9-11? I vaguely remember that.

I got my letter yesterday. It must have really chapped his ass to have his name on the Spanish version on the reverse side,

how do you say "fake News" in Spanish?

my dog ate most of this letter as it came through the mail slot, and I ripped up what was left and tossed it into the recycling.

i need my question urgently answered, if nobody answers in 30 mins I will reopen another state's economy.

you have 29 minutes.

Chuck Schumer, king of proposing goofy go-nowhere bills for headlines, has announced that he would like to make it a crime to try to associate yourself with doing popular things https://t.co/IDKZbl7Fow

— 'Weird Alex' Pareene (@pareene) April 28, 2020

Morbs, could you chill a bit on retweeting this dude?

Pareene > Perrin

Well, maybe Morbs could take a break if Pareene would stop wasting his time on paid work and start posting here again.

i agree that this is a stupid fucking thing for Schumer to be hung up on. who gives a fuck.

wow @ those eye-watering sentence-paragraphs in the Flynn thing above

could we chill all the motherfucking politics threads into oblivion

i like this alliance

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are teaming up on a proposal to halt mergers and acquisitions for large companies during the coronavirus pandemic, elevating a progressive cause as Democrats and apparent nominee Joe Biden craft the party's platform ahead of the 2020 election.

The “Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act” would impose a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions involving large companies until the Federal Trade Commission “determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress,” according to a summary of the proposal reviewed by NBC News.

Affected firms would include businesses with over $100 million in revenue or financial firms with market capitalization of over $100 million; private equity companies and hedge funds (or entities that are majority-owned by them); businesses that have an exclusive patent on products like personal protective equipment which pertain to the crisis; and other transactions are already required by law to be reported to the FTC.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/warren-ocasio-cortez-propose-halt-big-mergers-during-coronavirus-pandemic-n1193756

Lol

Let’s do this. https://t.co/AhpQQhTauh

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 29, 2020

He's running as an independent?

Today, I launched an exploratory committee to seek the @LPNational’s nomination for president of the United States. Americans are ready for practical approaches based in humility and trust of the people.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 29, 2020

Wow, getting ratio’d on the rollout is hard

Pence visited the testing site at the Mayo Clinic, and defiantly did not wear a mask, galvanizing wingnuts everywhere.

So the Senate is coming back in session next week because McConnell wants to get more judges approved, but the House is not because they believe it is still unsafe as Covid-19 numbers in DC are not going down yet.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also cited a warning from the Capitol physician that bringing roughly 430 House lawmakers back would jeopardize the health of not only the lawmakers, but the staffers, Capitol Police officers, reporters and custodial workers who would accompany them there.

“We had no choice,” she said on a press call. “If the Capitol physician ... recommends that we not come back, then we have to take that guidance.”

Pelosi dismissed the notion that the extended House recess would cause Democrats to lose ground in the fight over the next relief bill, saying public health trumps political expediency.

“We can’t be bothered about whether we’re disadvantaged to the Senate,” she said. “What we have to be bothered about is the health and safety of the workers in the Capitol.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/495148-house-reverses-but-senate-to-return-despite-covid-threat

Here is that Washington Post article Morbs mentioned

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/were-basically-ill-prepared-hobbled-house-majority-frets-about-its-effectiveness-amid-pandemic/2020/04/25/1b3c1c5e-85b7-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html

Yet amid the biggest national crisis in generations, the one branch of government where Democrats hold power has largely sidelined itself, struggling so far to adopt remote voting, Zoom video hearings or any of the other alternative methods that have become standard for most workplaces in the age of covid-19. No administration official has appeared at a congressional hearing in over a month. Committees have been unable to meet in person to debate and advance bills. There is no firm date for when the new oversight panel will start its work....

Questioned about the Post story, Pelosi acknowledged the exasperation within her caucus. She said she backs remote voting but bipartisan support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was crucial before moving ahead with any changes.

“I share the frustration that they have about the committees,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I’m all for doing the remote voting by proxy. I want it to be bipartisan. The Republican leader, Mr. McCarthy, has assured me that he will consider this. He’s not there yet. He could be there.”

Please Amash, run as a conservative independent candidate. Perot this election for us.

The Mormon CIA guy tried that in 2016 IIRC

Mormon CIA=Best GBV Song

Someone tell me why I do the assassinations I don't wanna do

Amash could do well enough out west to make an impact of some kind, but don’t ask me what impact

Like if they launch him across the Grand Canyon?

I’m looking at my QWERTY keyboard here and AMASH is only one letter away from

Amash get smashed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRCZLzn5pM

He did the monst amash

Questioned about the Post story, Pelosi acknowledged the exasperation within her caucus. She said she backs remote voting but bipartisan support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was crucial before moving ahead with any changes.

At this point I am going to assume she brings up bipartisanship as an excuse because she actually agrees with the Republicans.

havent parsed it enuf but trump finally invoked dpa, not to promote provision of emergency equipment but to order meatpacking lineworkers back to work in the face of catastrophic safety conditions _for those workers_. i mean it’s not to bridge across economic supply chain barriers, it’s to bridge across pure physical safety constraints for both workers and the american ppl.

i cant think of a more gop + trump atrocity.

*“meat is murder” refrain*

Pelosi requiring bipartisanship does seem like her excuse for killing things progressive Dems advocate for.

God, this story:

Florida was a test case of his magical thinking about the novel coronavirus: That it was temporary, that warm weather would make it disappear. But eight Florida residents had already died from COVID-19 and more than 400 had been diagnosed. “Given the elderly population, if that took off, it would be a nightmare,” a person close to Trump told me. At an adviser’s urging, Trump called DeSantis to tell him to shut down the beaches.

“Ron, what are you doing down there?” Trump said, according to a person briefed on the call.

“I can’t ban people from going on the beach,” DeSantis snapped, surprising Trump.

“These pictures look really bad to the rest of the country,” Trump said.

“Listen, we’re doing it the right way,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’s intransigence backed Trump into a corner. The 41-year-old governor was a Trump protégé and a crucial ally in a must-win state. “Trump is worried about Florida, electorally,” said a Republican who spoke with Trump around this time. Trump did something he rarely does: He caved. He told DeSantis the beaches could stay open.

“I understand what you’re saying,” Trump said, and hung up.

lol he caves all the time, nice try vanity fair

disenfranchising thousands of Floridians: easy peasy

banning people from going on the beach: woah, slow down there buddy, let's be realistic here.

There's a lot of wild White House insider stuff in that Vanity Fair article. Behind the scenes they are every bit as ghoulish and incompetent as you would imagine.

Another former West Wing official told me: “Trump is like an 11-year-old boy waiting for the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill.”

This characterizes what I see from abroad as the USA mindset in 2020.

(a person close to Kushner denies this)

(The White House and Treasury Department deny Mnuchin and Kudlow were against closing flights.)

("In no way shape or form did Jared provide a list to Johnny McEntee on people to be fired," a source familiar with the matter said).

(A source close to Kushner says he has no recollection of making the comment.)

(Bossert denies this.)

(Bossert denies this.)

(A person close to Kushner denies this version of events.)

(A White House official responded: “This is just another false story focused on rumors about palace intrigue instead of the actual aggressive measures President Trump has implemented to keep the American people safe and healthy.”)

So when pressed about not wearing his mask, Pence essentially revealed that he, Trump and the White House staff are effectively getting tested daily? Cool, cool, cool.

so the fuck what? wear a mask as an example to all the dipshits who aren't taking it seriously still.

Have to imagine this is happening a lot.

State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida’s medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state’s published count.

The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners’ death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted.

Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/29/florida-medical-examiners-were-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-the-state-made-them-stop/