Archive for March, 2020
If the last recession is any guide, it will take 16 months & election of a Democratic President
A correction from yesterday. I think I said the stock market took 13 months to bottom out last time. It was a jiggety-jaggity 16 months full of false starts and stops.
October 8th 2007: DJIA 14,000
March 2nd 2009: DJIA 6,626
You’d have to be a fool to think that the Trump brain trust has any answer for this.
DL Open Thread: Tues., March 10, 2020
RWNJ’s Self-Quarantine. Well, not Le Grand Orange and the terminally-stoopid Louis Gohmert, but newly-named WH Chief Mark Meadows, that gas-mask wearin’ Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, most of whom attended the CPAC Conference where virtually everybody made fun of those who were warning about the […]
Trump Proposes Fighting Coronavirus With Tax Cuts – tells Americans to take cruises to “certain locations” but not “other locations”
Here is what economists were saying about Coronavirus three days ago:
Leadership is key in a crisis. In order to avoid a recession, information should be clear, transparent, and accurate. Action should be proactive. My sense is the administration will slow track a fiscal response and try to embrace ineffective policies. For example, enacting corporate tax cuts would be bad policy – it would take many months to have an impact, and the cuts would target the wrong segment of the economy.
Here is Trump yesterday, saying Coronavirus is “not our fault”:
Song Of The Day: Mudhoney-Touch Me I’m Sick
As Senor Al winds up his European vacation, I felt the need to share this pandemic anthem with you. This song from these Seattle reprobates has been described as a song about ‘disease, self-loathing, angst and dirty sex’. In other words, good ol’ rock ‘n roll:
The New Poll Tax? Long Lines, Closed Polling Stations Hurt Black, Latinx & Student Voters in TX, CA
Closing polling places in order to create long wait times is voter suppression. It is by design. Long wait times plagued polling places in Texas throughout Super Tuesday, especially in districts with high numbers of black and Latinx voters and college students. Many voters reported waiting in line for more than three hours to cast […]
538 projects Biden winning a majority of delegates on April 28th – With Delaware putting him over the top
It now looks like Biden will have the nomination locked up by the end of April. Of course, this is a dynamic forecast model that changes as events (primary results, endorsements, etc) come in.
April 28th is Delaware’s primary day (along with 5 others). It would be catnip for the DC crowd for Delaware to be the state that clinches it for Joe.
…anybody that needs a test gets a test. We — they’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful
These are trump’s actual words directly from a WH transcript:
THE PRESIDENT: But — but I think — I think, importantly: Anybody right now and yesterday — anybody that needs a test gets a test. We — they’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test.
If there’s a doctor that wants to test, if there’s somebody coming off a ship — like the big monster ship that’s out there right now, which, you know — again, that’s a big decision. Do I want to bring all those people on? People would like me to do that. I don’t like the idea of doing it.
But anybody that needs a test can have a test. They’re all set. They have them out there.
In addition to that, they’re making millions of more as we speak. But as of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test — that’s the important thing — and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect, right? This was not as perfect as that, but pretty good.
…
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re considering different things. But we’re also considering the fact that last year we had approximately 36,000 deaths due to what’s called the flu. And I was — when I first heard this four, five, six weeks ago — when I was hearing the amount of people that died with flu, I was shocked to hear it. Anywhere from 27,000 to 70,000 or 77,000. And I guess they said, in 1990, that was in particular very bad; it was higher than that.
As of the time I left the plane with you, we had 240 cases. That’s at least what was on a very fine network known as Fox News. And you love it. But that’s what I happened to be watching.
And how was the show last night? Did it get good ratings, by the way?
Q I — I don’t, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, really? I heard it broke all ratings records, but maybe that’s wrong. That’s what they told me. I don’t know. I can’t imagine that.
…
Q What should be done about that cruise ship that’s docked (inaudible)?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s a big question. So I was just on the phone with the Vice President, and they’re trying to make a decision. I mean, frankly, if it were up to me, I would be inclined to say, “Leave everybody on the ship for a period of time, and use the ship as your base.” But a lot of people would rather do it a different way. They would rather quarantine people when they land.
Now, when they do that, our numbers are going to go up. Okay? Our numbers are going to go up. The 240 is going to go up. And I assume that, perhaps, you know — it’s a very big ship with thousands of people on it, including the sailors and the crew. It’s — you’re talking about a massive number of people. That is a big ship. If it were up to me, I would do it that way. A lot of people think we should do it the other way. They’re Americans, or mostly Americans. And we have to take care of Americans.
DL Open Thread: Mon., March 9, 2020
World Markets In Free-Fall. This is shaping up to be a key day as one trader predicts ‘pandemonium at the open’. Who will Trump blame? I’m going with the media, the CDC for telling at least the partial truth, and whatever fall guy is facing the axe. Trump Officials Disagree On How To Protect Economy. […]
Corona, and corona, and corona. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
This is a crazy pandemic. Nobody is bleeding out the ass and eyes, so it doesn’t seem that bad, and yet each day it gets a little close. It’s just killing old people, right? Today I see that there is a case in Harford county MD. That’s only one county away, so it must […]
REV is gone for good this time
I was wrong to put up with all the nihilism for so long. I don’t comment on behind the curtain stuff, but I want to publicly apologize to EL Som and Alby for letting it go so long. Nobody needs this. My bad.
DL Open Thread: Sun., March 8, 2020
Blackwater ‘Prince Of Darkness’ Employing Spies To Infiltrate Liberal Groups. Somebody must have read a J. Edgar Hoover biography or two: Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor […]
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