DL Open Thread: Friday, May 15, 2020

Trump ‘Demands’ That Lindsey Graham Have Obama Testify About ‘Obamagate’.  Graham says ‘Nyet’. Be careful what you wish for, indeed. I mean, could you imagine?  BTW, a Trump war of words with Graham can only help the D who is running against Graham.  This guy.  He’s raised a lot of money, even outraised Graham in the most recent quarter.  When an electoral tsunami hits…

Meatpacking Plants Vs. Workers. Who Do You Think Trump Will Side With?  Just like with nursing homes, look for meatpacking plants to be declared exempt from liability. Dystopic? Yes.

DeVos Funnels Virus Relief Funds To ‘Favored Private And Religious Schools’.  In an administration run by criminals, Betsy DeVos is pretty high on the organizational chart. 

Reasons To Be Pessimistic Into Investigation Of Ahmaud Arbery Cover-Up.  The Intercept documents the overwhelming historical racism of the Georgia Bureau Of Investigation and its remaining vestiges.  Here’s a taste:

In Georgia, where the Klu Klux Klan once infiltrated every level of law enforcement, racism can play a role in violent crimes and the way they are investigated. Arbery’s case is no different: There are clear parallels to the lynch mobs that routinely chased, tortured, and murdered black Americans from the time of slavery through the 1960s. Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,000 black people in the U.S. — including 589 people in Georgia — were killed in lynchings. The KKK’s stranglehold over Georgia’s law enforcement apparatus decades ago laid the groundwork for a historically deadly relationship between the cops, white people, and black people. The white supremacist underpinnings of U.S. law enforcement continue to echo throughout the country, as shown by the multiple other police-involved shootings and others murders that have taken place since Arbery was killed — and are being covered up and drowned out during the ongoing pandemic. 

Another Mortgage Collapse Imminent?  A different kind of collapse:

Whereas the fraud during the last crisis was in residential mortgages, the complaint claims this time it’s happening in commercial properties like office buildings, apartment complexes and retail centers. The complaint focuses on the loans that are gathered into pools whose worth can exceed $1 billion and turned into bonds sold to investors, known as CMBS (for commercial mortgage-backed securities).

Lenders and securities issuers have regularly altered financial data for commercial properties “without justification,” the complaint asserts, in ways that make the properties appear more valuable, and borrowers more creditworthy, than they actually are. As a result, it alleges, borrowers have qualified for commercial loans they normally would not have, with the investors who bought securities birthed from those loans none the wiser.

With a likely collapse in demand for commercial office property due to the coronavirus, what could possibly go wrong?

Everything Falls Apart, Ctd.  US. Global.  The latest carnage:  1,417,889 confirmed cases and 85,906 deaths in the United States. 1700 more deaths yesterday.  We all know the problem: More tests lead to more cases. Just ask Le Grand Orange.  Teh stoopid, it burns!

How Trump’s Resistance To Vote-By-Mail Could Hurt Rethugs.  His slobbering idiot-followers distrust anything that Trump opposes, so they won’t vote by mail, pandemic or no pandemic. That is their Constitutional right, and I will  not hesitate to defend their right not to vote by mail. In fact, I encourage it.

More On The Reconvening Of The Delaware General Assembly.  Yep, it looks like the legislature will focus almost exclusively on the money bills.

The ‘Committee To Save Christmas’.  Tom Neuberger’s latest fever dream:

Mr. Neuberger did not identify any Committee to Save Christmas members, but said they come from the “legal, religious and political community.”

He would not disclose supporter’s names “for fear of retaliation from municipal, county and state officials,” he said during a phone interview.

Ho-kay.

What do you want to talk about?