Meanwhile while we are pre-occupied with corvid-19 comes this news from Rolling Stone: The Trump Department of Justice has asked Congress to craft legislation allowing chief judges to indefinitely hold people without trial and suspend other constitutionally-protected rights during coronavirus and other emergencies, according to a report by Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan. … The DOJ has requested Congress allow any chief judge of a district court to pause...
Read More »For a Universal Debt and Rental Moratorium
For a Universal Debt and Rental Moratorium Incomes are collapsing throughout the economy, and both businesses and individuals face a crisis in meeting fixed payments they can’t control. The most direct step we can take is to temporarily suspend these payment obligations. Suppose the government were to announce that, starting immediately, all stipulated debt and real estate rental payments were to be suspended for all borrowers and renters. This...
Read More »A Rehash, Stimuli Considered, And ACA Healthcare Insurance Assistance
I am sure by now many of you have read what the gov is and is not doing for us. The later is more prevalent as can be witnessed in the stimuli being offered. I am going to ask you to pay attention to the last item on ACA Healthcare Insurance. Whether you qualified or not in the past, you may be eligible for assistance now. I have broken this out into 4-points of which many of us might find ourselves. If you questions, PLEASE ASK, I will try to answer. The...
Read More »FDA Approves Malaria Drugs for COVID-19 Treatment
It is a start, maybe. Remdesivir is being touted as a potentially more effective drug. The Chinese had reported there were several pharmaceuticals which appeared to work also and in particular drugs for malaria, Chloroquine and HydoxyChloroquine. I had mentioned this earlier in the week in a post and then again in two separate comments. One small clinical test (preliminary trial with 24 -36 patients) in France had positive results recently as reported...
Read More »Moscow Mitch was hoping the fever would break
[embedded content]The closing remarks of Moscow Mitch McConnell statement before the vote to spare Donald John Trump his presidency. He was talking about “factional fever” that the “framers” referred to as a concern for majorities acting in a partisan manor. And yet, here we are.
Read More »Let’s get real about coronavirus testing . . .
We do not know how severe the covid-19 epidemic will be or how much economic and social pain it will cause, but it clearly has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands or even millions of Americans, and the economic consequences could include a deep recession and even a financial crisis that will cause misery to tens of millions of people. Testing is key to getting the epidemic under control, and it is not clear to me that policymakers are being nearly...
Read More »CORONA VIRUS AND SOCIAL SECURITY, ANOTHER GRAND BARGAIN?
by Dale Coberly; CORONA VIRUS AND SOCIAL SECURITY, ANOTHER GRAND BARGAIN? Republicans are showing what they are made of. After claiming that the Corona Virus was not serious, or was well contained, or was Democrat fake news; they are now admitting it is serious and calling it a Chinese virus. Fox News explained to a reporter they don’t expect “turning the ship around” to cause any problem with their viewers. They did not say that is because their viewers...
Read More »In the quaint, pre-coronavirus world of February, the economy was already very weak
In the quaint, pre-coronavirus world of February, the economy was already very weak I have a post up at Seeking Alpha, taking a look at this morning’s retail sales and industrial production reports for February, and briefly considering their implications for employment in the coming months, even before the impact of coronavirus. Here’s a graph that didn’t make it into that post, showing the past 25+ years of real retail sales (red), jobs (blue), and real...
Read More »SCOTUS and the Federal Courts
This is a copy and paste of Dahlia and Mark’s excellent critique of what is happening at SCOTUS and the Federal Court System under Justice Chief Justice John Roberts’ tutelage, McConnell loading the courts with patronage, and Trump’s whatever. I have seen some condemn the verbiage of Senator Schumer calling out Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch as threatening and yet at the same time ignoring the courts’ partisan behavior which will have an impact for years...
Read More »Reporting from Germany: “Welt am Sonntag”
Welt am Sonntag is reporting our honorable President is attempting to bribe lure a German company CureVac to develop a vaccine to be used only in the US. Germany’s Health Ministry confirmed a report in the newspaper “Welt am Sonntag”, which said President Donald Trump had offered bribes funds to lure the German company CureVac to the United States, and the German government was making counter-offers to tempt it to stay. Welt am Sonntag quoted an...
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