DL Open Thread: Tues., April 21, 2020
Trump Seeks To Ban Immigrants Under Cover Of Covid-19. Trump’s replaying his hits seeking to earn the nostalgia vote in November. Most of the impacted immigrants already have family in the US.
Stoopid Rethug Governor COVID-19 Tricks. Liberty over life. Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Look for a new spike in 3-4 weeks. It’s inevitable. Atlantans are not impressed with Kemp’s plan to reopen. BTW, how do you maintain social distancing in a tattoo parlor?
Everything Falls Apart, Ctd. Global. US. The latest carnage: 787,960 confirmed cases and 42,364 deaths in the US. That’s another 1700 deaths over the past 24 hours.
How Ruth’s Chris Steak House Grabbed Small Business Millions. The JP Morgans of the world taking care of its largest customers while mom-and-pop businesses get screwed. Who could have imagined that tasking the huge corporate banks with disbursing these funds would go so wrong?
Yep, Milwaukee Voters Test Positive For Coronavirus. Tell me again how Rethugs can call themselves the pro-life party?
Kushner’s So-Called Shadow Coronavirus Task Force Rife With Conflicts-Of-Interest. He’s only in it for the money. Great reporting from Mother Jones. A must-read.
‘Another Nail In An Almost-Closed Coffin’. Administration officials say that, if Trump doesn’t solve the testing problem, and soon, he’s toast.
Corporate America Seeks Protection From Lawsuits. Will Corporadems Roll Over For Them? Chris, Chris?
Delaware Revenues Plummet, Will Impact Budget. Time to make the wealthy pay their fair share. If not now, then it’s never gonna happen. Here’s an idea: a one-time 5% wealth tax on Delaware’s wealthiest 5%.
What do you want to talk about?
“The JP Morgans of the world taking care of its largest customers while mom-and-pop businesses get screwed. Who could have imagined that tasking the huge corporate banks with disbursing these funds would go so wrong?”
Nancy should have had some smart accountants read the bill and find these weaknesses before she told her caucus to vote for it. Moscow Mitch would have been frothing at the mouth, and Dems would have taken a beating in the press, but it would have been worth it.
Like usual the people with money and power take the lions share of a program that supposedly was to help the little guy, somethings never change, that and we all should have known a trillion dollar bill would be loaded with pork and stealthy attempts at feeding their friends. As noted the bill was poorly prepared and thought out like usual. Question, are we nearing the end of Reaganite deficits and the feeding of the rich? Is the stimulus the straw that breaks the governments back with crushing debt, at this point we’re merely abusing our credit cards on a massive scale.
Whatever economic deprivations people are suffering now will pale next to what is coming after “the economy reopens.” All the bills that are now being deferred will come due – back rent, overdue mortgage, utilities, etc.
The upward transfer of wealth will be unrestrained. People will drain their 401(k)s to make bank payments, and those stocks will be bought cheap by rich investors. Our foreclosed homes will fall to speculators for pennies on the dollar.
When historians ask how the middle class went extinct, the answer will be “Two ways. First gradually, then all at once.”
Our only chance out of this is to declare debts for back rent, mortgage, or utilities null and void. Let the banks and their investors take the hit, and not us.
“Our only chance out of this is to declare debts for back rent, mortgage, or utilities null and void. Let the banks and their investors take the hit, and not us.”
As an economics knowledge nobody, my belief is that this will be the end game. One way or another, short term or longer term. Sort of a “they can’t put us ALL in jail or out on the streets” condition. Since it will potentially be much much larger than the housing crisis, and no one will be able to buy at market value anyway, lenders will realize sticking with their debt holders will be the best play. It may be a rocky road to get there, but they will probably realize that having a little now and more later will be better than nothing at all.
Much to the chagrin of gun-toting “no step on snek” zealots, this will probably also include mandatory full-lockdown (or else) quarantine with weekly food box deliveries in exchange for not having your house taken away. Fair trade in my book if that’s what it takes to get past this once and for all.
RE: DEFAC.
I hope our lawmaking class can now see the idiocy of passing laws that hamstring the legislature on budgetary matters.
This projected shortfall is going to get much worse before June. But thanks to Carney’s imbecilic “budget smoothing” law, they’ll still have to set aside 2% of whatever revenue comes in “for a rainy day.” Nothing in that law about a tornado.
Tell me again how much better Democrats are than Republicans. If Republicans had done this we could at least throw them out in favor of something better.
Wells Fargo is already being sued for processing only the largest PPP applications to get the biggest profit on what was supposed to be a first come first serve basis.
I dunno…it’s almost like, if we had some people in govt. who’s job it was to keep watch over how things are doled out and how business is conducted. People who aren’t beholden, sycophantic ‘yes men’. Inspectors of some kind….
Nah
From the Kushner article: “…..there’s less insight into whether or not they are using their positions to make money for themselves or their companies.”
I know the writer is trying to be objective here but come on. The absence of transparency (“insight”) is a reliable indicator of corruption – especially with this group. They know they could improve the public trust in this process by being more transparent, they don’t care. The only reason Kushner is there is to steal money. Otherwise there are thousands of people more qualified. Lack of transparency is a feature, not a bug. This shit makes my blood boil.