Bored Yet?

Senate Down, House To Go: After a day spent screwing around and pontificating, late last night the Senate passed the $2.3 trillion emergency package by a vote of 96 to 0, with the four missing votes due to the forced absence of the few under quarantine.  Though the outcome of the vote wasn’t in doubt, it took all day because of concerns raised by four Republicans, the South Carolina duo of Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse and Florida’s Rick Scott, that some of the bill’s unemployment insurance payments were too generous and would incent people to stay home instead of work.  Apparently the gruesome quartet missed the point that the whole package is about so many people being prohibited from working right now.  After some shenanigans, including a failed vote on an amendment to fix the problem that only the quartet were concerned about and an impassioned speech from presidential candidate forever Bernie Sanders in which he threatened to hold the package up if the four didn’t get onboard, the Senate went ahead with its vote. By the way, Bernie seemed unusually pleased to have the opportunity to show off his public speaking chops.  The legislation now goes on to Speaker Pelosi’s house where it will be up for a vote tomorrow. That whole unanimous consent thing appears to be off the table.  It’s now expected that Pelosi will allow her crowd to air their grievances on the inadequacy of the emergency package, a concern shared by New York Virus Hero/Governor Cuomo who wants more for the state and NYC, but that’s mostly so that they can say that they voiced their concerns as it’s doubtful any changes will be made before the package is put up for a final vote.  Trump is ready to sign off as soon as the bill crosses his desk.  Some of the House crowd including Congresswoman Katie Porter won’t be present for the final vote, the California newbie who has won lots of accolades for her sharp interrogation skills is now among the COVID 19 positive.  Despite the Senate’s action, don’t expect the markets to be up today.  Futures are currently down awaiting unemployment figures, obviously the days of Trump’s much heralded super duper low unemployment are behind us.

Another Day, Another Rally:  Trump took to the podium again for another one of his interminable daily virus updates/campaign rallies.  In case you missed it, no one has reacted to the threat of the virus better than him, under his brilliant guidance the USA has tested more people with higher quality test kits than any other country even South Korea, we have the best medical equipment in the universe, so awesome that those nasty Europeans won’t even allow any of it onto their continent, that if anything his efforts were hindered by the obsolete system handed him by that other president, the black guy from Kenya, and no one could have anticipated that a pandemic could hit our shores. He also went into an America first trade rant, but I’ll save that for another day.  If any of what he said sounds wacky it’s because none of it is true.  We’re still way behind on virus testing although the Trump/Pence team insists that anyone who wants to be tested can be, regardless of the quality of our medical equipment we clearly are short a lot of it and while its great that the auto companies are stepping up to build some breathing apparatus we all know that’s a long term rather than instant solution.  Well, I say we all know, but sadly some in Trump’s fan base and, if recent polls are to be believed, some very hopeful middle of the roaders are hanging on his words too, eating them up and crediting him with his awesome leadership skills.  As to anticipating a pandemic, lots of people in the government did anticipate that one could hit our shores, Politico reports that in 2016 the National Security Council prepared a 69 page playbook with the catchy title: “Early Response for High Consequence Emerging Infection Disease Threats and Biologic Incidences.”  That handbook, that apparently few if any of the remaining members of the Trump in circle ever looked at, details tactics and key policy decisions to be followed to fight pandemics.  Recommendations include that the federal government ‘move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out”  Sadly their incompetence is not shocking but the consequences of their disdain are.

He Said What? Now for some more priceless Stable Genius comments, when informed that Senator Mitt Romney, one of the guys who got a little too close to Typhoid Mary AKA Senator Rand Paul, had gotten back his coronavirus test results and that he had tested negative, Trump sarcastically tweeted “That is great news, I am so happy that I can barely speak” before adding Romney was a terrible presidential candidate, an even worse Senator and a RINO (a Republican in name only), ironically that term that used to be applied to Ivanka and Jared before we knew better.  You get the distinct feeling that Trump very much wanted Romney to test positive.  And because throwing shade at Romney wasn’t enough for one day, Trump also slammed the mainstream media again, saying that the “lamestream media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed for as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success.” He still wants to open up by Easter because “The real people want to get back to work ASAP.”  No doubt real people everywhere want things to get back to normal, but by real people he probably means those people in his inner circle who, despite some of the aforementioned polls, are concerned about what all this means for his campaign and those people in corporate America who are more concerned about their bottom line than anything else, and to be fair to corporate America, that desire to get back to work too early is not a sentiment shared by many of them.   And remember Tuesday when Trump told us not to malign Chinese people, well apparently that message only goes so far.  Secretary of State Pompeo caused serious agita at a video conference G 7 meeting  of industrialized country ministers yesterday, one that replaced a previously scheduled physical meeting.  He did that by insisting that COVID 19 be referred to as the Wuhan Virus so though the participating ministers agreed on the need for joint efforts to halt its spread  they were unable to issue a planned joint statement.  To quote James Comey, Lordy!

        

Et Cetera:  One of my readers asked me to share a video from a Midwest health professional on how to treat food packages and other items that you bring into your home.  Instead, I’ve decided to share the message.  Clean everything, throw out bags and outer wrappers, then clean the surfaces and counters they may have touched and WASH YOUR HANDS Again and Again!  Now, on a more positive note, The New York Four Seasons is now providing free accommodations for health care workers.  Nice!  Stay safe.