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

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/

the COVID coins are here

There's a lot of wild White House insider stuff in that Vanity Fair article

There always is and it never really adds up to anything. I wouldn’t particularly trust anything Sherman writes.

he looks like Joey McIntyre.

I’m hearing the administration is in chaos and Trump is increasingly isolated

dang, gotta be tough for him

goddamn Pelosi is terrible

"small business... broadband... heroes!" just rambling, incoherent, utterly useless.

Watch as Nancy Pelosi struggles to answer a question from CNBC host Jim Cramer about what he described as “two societies” developing; one society that has to be out there risking themselves -- and another, safe at home, very rich. pic.twitter.com/sqUj7qSA5X

— Majority Report (@majorityfm) April 29, 2020

That's quite a thumbnail. She looks like she just had a stroke, and he looks like he's in the middle of one.

incredible tidbit from the replies - Jim Cramer claims he was a member of the Spartacist League in college

please, you have to understand, when I overleveraged myself to create a now-flailing airnbnb empire, I was only trying to get rich quick at the expense of everyone around me

— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) April 29, 2020

She looks like she just had a stroke, and he looks like he's in the middle of one.

We've all been there I'm sure. First, one of those sleepless nights, then a hard day at work, and then on top of everything you get interviewed on a major cable network. Comes a point in the day that coffee doesn't cut it any more.

I propose we line up all the women accusing Joe on one side of theLaker’s court at StaplesCenter, & line up all thewomen accusing the FAKEPRESIDENT, the infamous PUSSYGRABBER, on the other side.Let ‘em stare each other down with Joe and the FIRST LIAR in the center #mamievandoren

— Mamie Van Doren (@Mamievandoren) April 30, 2020

Mamie Van Doren might just get me through all this.

So, uh, why are you allowed to bring guns into the Michigan state capitol?

What’s wrong with that? Seems allwhite to me.

if you're dressed as military, even if you obviously never served, you're allowed to bring a gun anywhere. NRA Semper Fi do or die hut hut

the real question is why *can't* you bring guns into the us capitol

a fun tidbit about that Michigan thing is that protest signs are NOT allowed in the capital

capitol.

Because they might be used as weapons.

Happy May Day! Burn the motherfucker down.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/rent-is-due-today-but-millions-of-americans-wont-be-paying

The White House is preventing Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying before the House next week, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee said on Friday.

Top Democrats on the panel had wanted Dr. Fauci to testify as part of an in-person hearing led by Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, who oversees the subcommittee responsible for funding health, labor and education agencies and programs. But when the committee asked for Dr. Fauci to appear, the Trump administration denied the request and the committee was told by an administration official that it was because of the White House, according to Evan Hollander, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee.

At the first official briefing by a White House press secretary in 417 days, Kayleigh McEnany promised journalists, "I will never lie to you."

McEnany proceeded to say a bunch of things that weren't true.

Beginning with "I will never lie to you." I'm not even sure why she'd feel it was worth saying that--who is she speaking to? Not anyone in the room, and not to herself.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics/mcenany-first-briefing-fact-check-may-1/index.html

Good morning!

I will never lie to you, as a new feature of this Presidency.

she proceeded to do it afterwards anyway though.

"I will never lie to you," she lied.