Government Response to Coronavirus 4: The Reality Show From Hell

[GreyhoundFan]

What an out of touch asshole:

 

[clueliss]

A friend in Louisville KY told posted that halfway through their governor's daily presser a bunch of protesters started in.  

I've stopped watching The moron in charge's daily presser - it makes me ragy.  And in general I'm watching/listening to a whole lot less news.  I've gone through a "I need lots of news and need to know everything' phase and have entered the "I scream and want to throw things less if I read news on my twitter feed" phase.  

My viewing habits over the weekend drifted to Hallmark Mysteries (and I haven't watched Hallmark or Lifetime type movies in a very long time)

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, Treason Barbie doesn't follow the rules. I guess rules are only for the "little people": "Ivanka Trump, Disregarding Federal Guidelines, Travels to N.J. for Passover"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON — Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s eldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, has positioned herself as one of the leaders of the administration’s economic relief efforts and one of its most vocal advocates of social distancing.

“Those lucky enough to be in a position to stay at home, please, please do so,” Ms. Trump said in a video she posted online, encouraging Americans to follow federal guidelines about social distancing, which suggests that people stay at least six feet apart. “Each and every one of us plays a role in slowing the spread.”

But Ms. Trump herself has not followed the federal guidelines advising against discretionary travel, leaving Washington for another one of her family’s homes, even as she has publicly thanked people for self-quarantining. And effective April 1, the city of Washington issued a stay-at-home order for all residents unless they are performing essential activities.

Ms. Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who is also a senior White House adviser, traveled with their three children to the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey to celebrate the first night of Passover this month, according to two people with knowledge of their travel plans, even as seders across the country were canceled and families gathered remotely over apps like Zoom.

A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Kushner returned to the White House, where he has been helping marshal the forces of government for the war his father-in-law says he is waging against the coronavirus. Ms. Trump has continued to work from Bedminster, taking calls and spending time there with her children, the people said.

Ms. Trump has told people that the club is currently shut down, making it more socially distant than her mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, where she had been spotted running on occasion in Rock Creek Park.

On Wednesday, Ms. Trump participated remotely in at least two of the president’s calls with business leaders he is consulting with as he seeks to reopen the country’s economy, according to someone familiar with the calls.

Before leaving for Bedminster, Ms. Trump appeared at her father’s side in the White House’s Roosevelt Room after lobbying top bank executives to commit to the Paycheck Protection Program, a relief effort intended to help small businesses weather the pandemic. Ms. Trump has been focused on helping small businesses become a path to the country’s economic recovery, and at the event, Mr. Trump, as he often does, falsely credited his daughter with creating “over 15 million jobs.”

Ms. Trump has instructed her small West Wing staff to work remotely if possible and not to enter the White House grounds unless necessary. She has also posted pictures of herself building a tent with a bedsheet in her living room as a creative idea for parents stuck at home with stir-crazy children.

“We’re all in this together,” she said in a video message she posted on social media.

“We’ll emerge from this stronger than ever before, and maybe more deeply and profoundly connected with our own humanity and our core values,” she said, adding, “Let’s do everything we can to stop the spread.”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Glitches prevent $1,200 stimulus checks from reaching millions of Americans"

Spoiler

Many Americans woke up Wednesday expecting to find a payment of $1,200 or more from the U.S. government in their bank account, but instead they realized nothing had arrived yet — or the wrong amount was deposited. Parents of young children complained they did not receive the promised $500 check for their dependent children.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has instructed the Internal Revenue Service to get payments out as fast as possible to help offset the pain of losing jobs and shutting down businesses, but numerous glitches — affecting filers who used tax preparers, parents of dependent children and people with 2019 tax returns still to be processed — are delaying payments and causing confusion.

Several million people who filed their taxes via H&R Block, TurboTax and other popular services were unable to get their payments because the IRS did not have their direct deposit information on file, according to the Treasury, companies and experts.

The IRS launched a “Get My Payment” site Wednesday for people to track the status of their payment and enter direct deposit information, but many who used it said they received a message saying “Payment Status Not Available,” a frustration that left them without answers.

Some parents told The Washington Post that they received a $1,200 payment for a single head of household or a $2,400 check for a married couple but that the IRS left out the $500-per-child-under-17 payments.

IRS and Treasury officials acknowledged they are aware of these issues and are working to fix them. A Treasury spokeswoman noted that the IRS processed nearly 80 million payments in less than three weeks. That’s just over half the 150 million payments expected to go out under the Economic Impact Payment program.

Social Security recipients will automatically receive the payments later this month. Paper checks will have President Trump’s name on them and are expected to start going out in the coming days. Low-income Americans who do not normally file a tax return, including the homeless, are also eligible to receive the $1,200 check, but only if they enter their information in a new non-filers tool on the IRS.gov website.

Below is a rundown of the most common issues preventing people from getting the payments and what steps the IRS recommends to rectify them.

Millions of H&R Block, TurboTax and Jackson Hewitt customers didn’t get their payments

Angry customers who use popular tax preparation services such as H&R Block, TurboTax and Jackson Hewitt complained on Twitter and to The Post that they didn’t get their stimulus payment on Wednesday.

Up to 21 million tax filers could be affected, said consumer law expert Vijay Raghavan, because the IRS does not have these people’s direct information on file if they received an advance on their tax refund from these companies or had the fee for tax preparation taken out of their tax refund.

The tax preparation companies received these people’s tax refund first, deducted their fees and then distributed the remaining refund to the customers. Because of that, the IRS had a “temporary bank account” on file that the tax preparer created for the 2019 tax season, Raghavan said.

Matt Sielen of Chino, Calif., who recently lost his job, was shocked to discover that he would not be receiving the payment on his H&R Block Emerald Card, the debit card on which he received his tax refund. Sielen and his wife, a nurse who cares for homebound people, have two young children and were counting on the $3,400 payment to pay rent and other bills. The couple had H&R Block take their tax preparation fee out of their refund earlier this year, which means the IRS didn’t have their bank details.

“I’m not happy with H&R Block. I probably won’t be doing business with them ever again,” Sielen said.

After he was unable to get through to anyone on H&R Block’s phone line, Sielen went on the IRS website and was told to enter the couple’s bank information. He did that but wishes H&R Block had been clearer about what to do. The company’s website says that “we are still waiting for answers from the IRS regarding the majority of Emerald Card holders.”

The Post spoke with six other people in a similar situation who did not get the IRS payment. A Treasury spokesperson said they are aware of the problem.

\

‘Payment Status Not Available’

Frustrated taxpayers also took to Twitter to vent about their inability to track when and how they would be getting their money. Some posted a image of the message they received after entering their information: “Payment Status Not Available.”

There are a number of reasons the tool can’t check the status of a stimulus payment, the IRS said.

• You aren’t eligible for a payment.
• Your payment is based on your status as a Social Security, disability or railroad retirement beneficiary. In this case, the IRS will use your SSA or RRB Form 1099 payment information. Your payment information isn’t available on the Get My Payment website.
• You have not filed a 2018 or 2019 federal tax return.
• You filed your 2019 return, but it hasn’t been fully processed.
• You used the non-filers tool, but the information you entered is still being processed.
• There’s a problem verifying your identity when answering the security questions.

Information on the site is updated only once a day, so checking more than once in a 24-hour period won’t yield a different result.

Receiving the wrong payment amount or no money for dependent children

A number of people indicated that they received the incorrect payment amount. Five people contacted The Post saying that they didn’t receive any money for their children or that they received only one child payment when they have three kids.

People whose adjusted gross income qualifies them to receive a stimulus check are supposed to receive an additional $500 for every dependent child under 17. But one reader from Kentucky with three children under age 15 said she received only $1,200 on Wednesday. She double-checked her 2019 tax return and verified that all three children were listed as dependents.

Individuals who receive Social Security retirement, survivors or disability (Social Security Disability Insurance) benefits or Railroad Retirement benefits will automatically receive the $1,200 stimulus payment if they are eligible. The IRS announced that it has added to this group Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. The automatic payments for SSI recipients will go out no later than early May, according to the agency statement.

However, the IRS says that if you fall into one of those categories and have children under 17, you have to use the non-filers tool at IRS.gov to claim the $500 payment per child. You’ll need a valid Social Security number or Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number for each dependent you want to claim the stimulus payment.

Jamie Jones, a Virginia widow and mother of three receiving Social Security survivor benefits, said she received her $1,200 payment, but her deposit did not include the extra $1,500 for her children. Because she filed a tax return for 2019, she couldn’t use the non-filers tool, she said. She listed her children ages 8, 10 and 12 on her tax return, so the IRS should have made the additional payment.

“I’ve never been one to look for handouts, and work hard to try to keep my family afloat,” Jones said. “My oldest daughter currently has outgrown her tennis shoes and even though the stores were shut down, I had planned to allocate some of this money to an online purchase to get her a new pair of shoes.”

A spokesman for the IRS wasn’t sure why Jones’s payment didn’t include the money for the children. Jones may have to wait for the letter in the mail to correct the underpayment.

People who receive what they believe is an incorrect amount will have an opportunity to let the IRS know. The agency is required to mail a letter to your last known address 15 days after sending your payment. The letter is supposed to explain how the payment was made and provide instructions on how to report any issues.

The IRS website locks you out if you try too many times

To thwart fraudsters, the IRS tool locks out people who try multiple times a day. This has become a problem for people trying to give the IRS direct deposit information.

Andrea Tasan and her husband were eventually locked out of the Get My Payment site after trying to check the status of their payment.

The Maryland couple filed tax returns in 2018 and 2019, each time requesting that their refunds be applied to pay the following year’s taxes. Because of this, the IRS has no direct deposit information for them. The Get My Payment tool confirmed they were eligible for a stimulus payment based on their 2019 return, but they couldn’t get any more information.

“The system returned with the response that our information did not match their records,” Tasan said.

They tried again using their adjusted gross income and refund amounts for their 2018 return. Again they were told the information doesn’t match the IRS records. The system then locked them out because they made “too many attempts” to access the tool.

They now have to wait a day to try again. The IRS is also preventing people from changing the bank account information already on file as a measure to prevent fraud.

People who owed $0 in taxes can’t check their payment status

Others complained about a glitch in the tool that won’t allow them to move forward because they neither owed any money to the IRS nor received a refund for 2018 or 2019. Typing in zero didn’t work.

“I could not give an affirmative answer to any of these questions since I owed no tax and did not receive a refund,” one reader wrote. “Submitting the form returned an error so I tried again and answered ‘yes’ to owing tax and ‘zero’ to the amount. Error again.”

“We are aware of the problem and are checking into it,” IRS spokesman Eric Smith said.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

What a surprise. Not. "White House says new small business loan program is out of money, leaving many firms grasping for lifelines"

Spoiler

A new lending program for small businesses maxed out Thursday morning and stopped accepting claims, but a bitterly divided Congress looked unlikely to address that growing problem as the nation plunged into unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression.

The Small Business Administration said on its website that the agency “is unable to accept new applications … based on available appropriations funding.”

Republicans and Democrats say more action is needed to build on the massive $2 trillion economic rescue law passed just three weeks ago, but they cannot agree on what to do. The economy continues to weaken but lawmakers are scattered all over the country advancing conflicting proposals and bickering.

The impasse has become so heated that President Trump lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday morning, just one day after he threatened to adjourn Congress because he complained nothing was getting done.

The $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program was a central piece of the coronavirus rescue law. Overwhelmed by demand from the moment it launched April 3, the program has now essentially run dry as small businesses around the nation beg for relief. The program is aimed at helping businesses with under 500 workers and keeping people employed by extending loans that are forgivable if businesses keep workers on payroll.

The SBA reported Thursday morning that more than 1,637,000 loan applications valued at “over $339 billion” had been approved. It is not expected to disclose who the recipients of the taxpayer funds will be, as the $2 trillion bailout law did not compel the agency to make this information public.

The government has not released data showing how much of that cash has been actually disbursed and given to the small businesses, however. Anecdotal reports from lenders and small business owners suggest only a small portion of it has been released so far, with many banks overwhelmed with applications. It is also unclear how many firms have secured new loans, though it appears to be just a fraction of the 30 million small businesses in the United States.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked Congress to agree to $250 billion more for the program, but a GOP attempt to approve that increase failed in the Senate as Democrats demanded more money for hospitals, cities and states and food stamp recipients.

There has been scant progress since. Talks finally started Wednesday with aides to Mnuchin, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), but they seemed unlikely to yield results in time for action at a Senate “pro forma” session scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Any deal would have to advance by voice vote or “unanimous consent” that any individual lawmaker could block.

The need is only deepening on all sides, as new figures out Thursday showed unemployment claims once again surged over the past week, with 5.2 million people filing for unemployment insurance. More than 22 million Americans have now filed for unemployment aid since Trump declared a national emergency four weeks ago.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), principle author of the Paycheck Protection Program, lashed out at Democrats in an appearance Thursday morning on Fox Business, accusing them of standing in the way of increasing its funding.

“in just 12 days this program has approved over $300 billion in aid and now it’s frozen, it stops, and it’s ridiculous,” Rubio said. “It’s being held hostage for things unrelated to it.”

Trump attacked Pelosi viciously over Twitter, apparently responding to a scathing letter she released earlier this week accusing him of weakness and lies.

Democrats have blamed Republicans for the impasse, accusing them of refusing to negotiate over their demands for targeted assistance, such as more relief for state budgets that have been hammered by a drop in revenue. Governors of both parties have been begging Congress to approve $500 billion more in stabilization funds to help them weather the economic catastrophe.

On Wednesday, the Democratic governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania wrote to Trump calling on him to work with Congress and telling him, “Without this leadership, the damage to our state economies will be exacerbated by the cuts we know we will be forced to make."

The Paycheck Protection Program is a major component of the Trump administration’s efforts to blunt the economic effects of the coronavirus, which has been especially devastating for small businesses.

It is meant to offer loans for small businesses totaling up to $10 million at very low rates. Borrowers get an interest rate of just one percent and can have the loan entirely repaid if they keep paying their employees.

Under PPP private banks handle the work of accepting applications, evaluating borrowers’ needs, setting the precise terms of the loan, and transferring the cash. The SBA and Treasury Department are responsible for approving lenders and establishing the rules.

The program got off to a rocky start with big U.S. banks, including Citigroup, taking several days to launch and many only accepting applications to their existing customers. But within days, bank officials began to warn that the $349 billion would not last long.

Earlier this week, JPMorgan Chase said that it has funded $9.3 billion of the loans so far and was still processing 300,000 applications seeking $36 billion. Bank of America says it has received applications seeking more than $40 billion in loans.

The Federal Reserve eased restrictions it had put on Wells Fargo’s growth after the San Francisco-based bank said it had received applications worth more than $10 billion in loans in just a few days.

The banking industry is calling on Congress to increase the program’s funding. “Additional funding for all lenders is needed now to ensure there are no breaks in service to small businesses seeking assistance as a result of the coronavirus outbreak,” said Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association. In the next round of funding, 25 percent of the $250 billion should be set aside for small community banks to make these loans, according to the Independent Community Bankers Association.

The PPP program is reaching its funding limit while a separate program, called Economic Injury Disaster Loans, is also running short on funds. The funding shortfall has already caused that program to slash the size of loans it gives to small businesses, SBA officials say.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza warned that a lapse in appropriations threatens to further disrupt the loan programs.

“By law, the SBA will not be able to issue new loan approvals once the programs experience a lapse in appropriations,” Mnuchin and Carranza wrote. “We urge Congress to appropriate additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program — a critical and overwhelmingly bipartisan program — at which point we will once again be able to process loan applications, issue loan numbers, and protect millions more paychecks.”

In the statement Mnuchin and Carranza defended the two loan programs amid criticism from members of Congress and industry groups. They said they SBA has processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less that two weeks, and said the program is already “saving millions of jobs and helping America’s small businesses make it through this challenging time.”

 

[clueliss]

It's out of money because banks and the rest of america have different definitions of 'small business' - money went to larger businesses (I saw a story about Ruth's Criss steakhouses getting one because it was allowed for all restaurants and small one couldn't get one)

 

[fraurosena]

One of these is an intelligent, smart and cognisant leader, the other says he's a stable genius.

 

[clueliss]

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley added to Corona task force (economic) (color me - not surprised) - he's been tweeting stupid crap about suing the CCP.  (Trivia - he clerked for the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts)

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Don’t leave anything unsaid.’ Massachusetts governor chokes up during coronavirus briefing."

Spoiler

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is not the touchy-feely type. He’s more of a technocrat than a glad-hander. He’s dry, not dramatic. That’s been his formula for success as a moderate Republican in a deep-blue state, and it was his demeanor for the first 45 minutes of a coronavirus briefing in Boston on Wednesday.

But Baker’s cautious composure cracked when asked about the Bay State’s death toll from the contagion, which now numbers more than 1,100.

“My best friend lost his mom to covid,” Baker revealed.

Then the governor paused for 10 full seconds, searching for the right words.

“He and his mom had a great relationship,” Baker continued. “And because they had a great relationship, they never left anything unsaid. You just knew that about the two of them. … When you talk about where the numbers are going on this, what I’m really thinking about is all those people who aren’t going to have a chance to say goodbye.”

Choking up, Baker explained from the State House on Beacon Hill that “one of the more brutal consequences, just psychologically,” of his stay-at-home order is that funerals cannot take place for people like his best friend’s mom. He spoke about the importance of the “critical ritual.” Then he disclosed that he has started to open up more with his own father.

“My wife gives me a hard time all the time about the fact that Baker men never really say what they think about anything to anybody when it comes to personal things,” the governor said. “Even on these goofy phone calls I have with my dad, I try to say more because you just don’t know anymore what the future is going to hold.”

Baker encouraged others to do the same. “I really hope people have a chance to make sure that they don’t leave anything off the table with respect to their loved ones,” he added.

These comments offered a timely reminder that politicians are people too. Like most human beings, they tend to be moved more by stories than statistics. President Trump also seemed truly affected on a personal level, for example, by the death of his friend Stanley Chera, a New York real estate mogul whose condition deteriorated rapidly after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. “He’s sort of central casting for what we’re talking about, and it hit him very hard,” Trump said at his daily briefing on March 31. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Massachusetts, with about 30,000 confirmed cases, has the sixth-highest number of deaths per capita from the coronavirus, behind New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana and Michigan. Baker’s spokeswoman said she does not know the name of the friend the governor was referring to or the identity of his mother.

“Those numbers, to me, are about lost opportunities and the significance and the importance of loved ones putting it all out there and making sure they don’t leave anything unsaid,” Baker said.

For many people, apparently including the governor of Massachusetts, this pandemic has put in particularly stark relief what matters most in life. It’s people. It’s relationships. It’s about sticking close with the ones we love, even if the closest we can get right now is a phone call or a letter. It’s about squeezing a loved one’s hand tightly when, or if, you get the chance. 

The faces of the fallen offer reminders of our own mortality. There’s no better time than the present to do everything we can to right the wrongs of the past. Or, as Baker put it, to leave nothing unsaid.

...

 

Very touching and a good reminder.

[GreyhoundFan]

About damned time: "More news outlets are bailing on Trump’s coronavirus briefings"

Spoiler

Kayleigh McEnany, the new White House press secretary, is paid to believe in the complete and unalterable newsworthiness of the coronavirus press briefings that her boss convenes each day. News outlets that don’t heed that principle come in for bashing. “It is shameful that CNN did not take the first part of the briefing. They’ve made that a trend,” said McEnany in an appearance Thursday morning on “Fox and Friends.” “It is shameful that MSNBC cut away from the briefing yesterday as President Trump praised American workers for making ventilators.”

“This is the best way for the American people to hear directly from the federal government, directly from their leader during a pandemic,” she said.

McEnany’s judgment, of course, isn’t binding on news organizations, some of which have reached conclusions sharply at odds with her spiel about the “best way” to inform the country. As she herself told Fox News, CNN has made a “trend” of skipping the president’s preambles — good! And MSNBC has also dipped in and out of the proceedings — also good! Picking and choosing which parts of these interminable sessions to broadcast requires skill and agility, in large part because propagandistic and false statements from Trump alternate with newsworthy pronouncements from members of his coronavirus task force, particularly coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci.

Editorial agonizing isn’t confined to cable-news networks, however. When the briefings began in late February, a number of non-TV news organizations streamed them live on their websites. “It’s a story of huge importance and interest to every member of our sizable audience,” says Daniel Klaidman, editor in chief of Yahoo News, one of the sites that streams the briefings. In the early going, says Klaidman, the briefings “were providing absolutely vital information and context for a country that was trying to, in real time, understand this pandemic.”

Such utility, however, had a finite shelf life. A turning point, says Klaidman, came on April 1, when Trump assembled Attorney General William P. Barr and various military officials and announced a drug-interdiction initiative at the outset of what was billed as a coronavirus briefing. CNN and MSNBC cut away from the announcement, which they struggled to connect to coronavirus. Klaidman and his team had the same misgivings. “I think that was the first time that we decided just to cut away from it,” says Klaidman, noting that his outfit cannot break into the live stream to provide analysis, context or fact-checking chyrons, as can the cable networks. “That leaves us with really one choice: continue taking the feed or cut away, and we made the decision to cut away and that was the moment that began the larger conversation for us.”

From that point on, Yahoo News monitored the sessions with an eye toward cutting away during moments of acute non-newsworthiness. Then came Monday, when Trump played a video to shame the assembled media and tout his own work. That prompted another shift: “It was at that moment that I decided in consultation with my bosses that our default position ought to be: Don’t take the feed, monitor it closely and when we deemed something newsworthy, cut back in,” says Klaidman.

Newspapers have reached similar conclusions. As we reported last week, the New York Times weeks ago made the same decision after spotting the same trend. “We stopped doing that because they were like campaign rallies,” Elisabeth Bumiller, the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, told the Erik Wemple Blog. In a statement to the Erik Wemple Blog on Thursday morning, Post managing editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said the newspaper “began live-streaming the briefings for their critical informational component during a public health crisis. Although they became significantly longer recently, these sessions now contain far less health information and substantially more politics. Given that, we’ve decided to discontinue live feeds and instead use key portions with pertinent stories.”

A survey during Wednesday night’s briefing revealed that the Hill, Politico, Mediaite and websites for the major news broadcasters (ABC News, NBC News, CBS News) were providing at least partial live-streaming of the session. The Erik Wemple Blog asked these outlets about their considerations in streaming the briefings. Aidan McLaughlin, editor in chief of Mediaite, responded that his outlet fact-checks the president and others. “Our position is that it would be odd for our website to shield our readers from potentially vital information delivered by the president and public health officials. Particularly when they are regularly followed by questions and fact checks from the reporters we follow most closely on this site,” noted McLaughlin in an email.

Through a spokesperson, Politico Editor Carrie Budoff Brown tells the Erik Wemple Blog, “We cover the President. We cover his meetings and sprays. We cover his briefings. We cover and fact check the President’s actions and words all day, every day. We will continue to do so.”

And then there’s C-SPAN, the king of unfiltered official proceedings. “We’re not making editorial decisions everyday about whether to show the briefings or how much to show,” notes C-SPAN spokesman Howard Mortman in an email. “We just do it, with our unblinking eye, as a matter of course, part of our mission. We let Americans think for themselves about what they’re seeing. Folks get that.”

 

[clueliss]

When you do one of these every.stinking.day with the same shenanigans - everyone grows tired of them.  Even the folks who may actually like you.  

[GreyhoundFan]

WTAF?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

A lovely video:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

More states working together:

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

34 minutes ago, clueliss said:

When you do one of these every.stinking.day with the same shenanigans - everyone grows tired of them.  Even the folks who may actually like you.  

Idk - I accidentally clicked on a right wing stream yesterday to view and my God, the praise for him was through the roof and just vitriol at everyone else.  There are many, many people out there who love the sound of his voice even more than he does.

[ADoyle90815]

7 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Idk - I accidentally clicked on a right wing stream yesterday to view and my God, the praise for him was through the roof and just vitriol at everyone else.  There are many, many people out there who love the sound of his voice even more than he does.

He really is a cult leader, and his followers would gladly take that pill of his just like Jonestown.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

19 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

More states working together:

 

I came here to post this.  I'm officially mad at Iowa and Missouri for not grabbing a seat at the cool kids table.  I would just feel better if every state that touched my state had joined this little cabal.

 

[clueliss]

I'm in Missouri and I'm disappointed.  Not surprised.  And truly not surprised since Iowa Gov. refuses to issue a stay at home.

[Ozlsn]

6 hours ago, clueliss said:

It's out of money because banks and the rest of america have different definitions of 'small business' - money went to larger businesses (I saw a story about Ruth's Criss steakhouses getting one because it was allowed for all restaurants and small one couldn't get one)
 

Surely this is a definition that should have been included in the eligibility criteria given to the banks? I just took a quick look at the eligibility criteria for the Jobkeeper program, and definitions of what a small business is are there in black and white. I know in the general chaos of this administration's mismanagement and corruption it's a relatively small thing... but really???

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

One of these is an intelligent, smart and cognisant leader, the other says he's a stable genius.

Heh. That second transcript was part of the live press conference I saw, and part of why my mouth was hanging open. Even as a dodgy salesman.. he sucks. 

[Cartmann99]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Ms. Trump has told people that the club is currently shut down, making it more socially distant than her mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, where she had been spotted running on occasion in Rock Creek Park.

That implies that no staff is present, and that's bullshit. There's no way in hell that Ivanka is doing the laundry, cooking for her and the kids, washing dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, and taking out the trash.

Honey, I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.

 

 

 

[JMarie]

4 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Idk - I accidentally clicked on a right wing stream yesterday to view and my God, the praise for him was through the roof and just vitriol at everyone else.  There are many, many people out there who love the sound of his voice even more than he does.

You just described my neighbor.  About two weeks ago she sent me a text about how awesome Trump is.  How he banned travel from China, and if he hadn't done that, MILLIONS would be dead by now.  The MSM won't tell you that, she claims.  His awesome work was overshadowed by the fake impeachment hoax, so most people don't know how awesome he is.  Then she tells me how her entire extended family are super pumped Trump supporters, four more years, MAGA, American flag emoji. It was quite nauseating.

[clueliss]

And there are planned protests for Kansas City, Topeka and Jefferson City

 

[Ozlsn]

5 hours ago, clueliss said:

And there are planned protests for Kansas City, Topeka and Jefferson City

 

There is part of me going "look, if you guys want to have pro-covid-19 protests then have at it. It will invalidate your medical insurance though."

[Smee]

I look at what’s happening in the US and my heart just breaks. It‘s so sad and messed up that I don’t even know where to begin  commiserations to you all.

Over here in NSW, Australia, our Premier has effectively said schools will start to open after week 3 of term 2. We’re currently in the two-week holiday between terms 1 and 2, so that’s around May 18. As far as I‘ve heard, other restrictions on things like businesses and restaurants haven’t got an expected end date yet. These statements about schools are making people nervous, some think it’s premature, others point out the hypocrisy of reopening schools long before they’re prepared to reopen parliament (I.e. we’ll risk teachers but not politicians). It’s tricky because Australia IS flattening the curve - we’re testing at a comparatively high rate but for the past week, we haven’t reported more than 100 new cases each day and many days have been under 50. We now have 1000 more people recovered from the illness than we have active cases. That’s obviously happening BECAUSE of effective social distancing, but also because we have low population density and implemented measures early on, so gradually easing stuff is both a logical step and terrifying because with if it’s too soon or the next spike is too big? We’re so lucky to be in the situation we’re in and I don’t want to disregard that, but the feeling that it might be the calm before the storm (especially as we come into winter) is unsettling.

[clueliss]

@Ozlsn I actually want to say - go forth and protest but only  if you willingly have known covid patients in your midst so we can thin the herd out a bit (yes this is the evil part of my brain).

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/17/dr-phil-fauci-coronavirus/

FFS Fox News.  Really - your go to when you don't like what Fauci is saying is Dr. Schill?  Really?