Justice Ginsburg's Death Should Mean NO Rush To Fill Her Seat - So Dems Need to Prepare For War (Even Retributional)

Supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday evening.  Her death leaves the court with eight members just weeks before it starts its new term and raises the possibility that the court’s balance of power could shift further to the right.  As messages of grief and gratitude for her life and career swept the country, millions of citizens now realize what the liberal icon’s death means for the Supreme Court and an already jittery nation.  

What SHOULD happen is Mitch McConnell and the Reepo Senate ought to adhere to the late justice's wishes, i.e. no filling of her seat until the new president is seated in January.   That was Justice Ginsburg's wish and it ought to be honored.

But we know the Reeps lack any sense of decorum or decency so no surprise to learn Friday night McConnell said that he would seek to confirm any Supreme Court nominee that Trump puts forward,  We also know last week Trump added 20 more names to his list of potential Supreme Court nominees, all of them with views sharply to the right of Justice Ginsburg.  Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees includes three Republican senators: Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas.  All of them disasters especially Cotton  who not long ago wrote a rabid op ed in the NY Times arguing for use of active military in protests. This is not a guy we want on the highest court.

This is also given the matter of serious long term ramifications.  Some of which we've already seen include repealing aspects of the Voting Rights Act, rolling back union protections as well as making it easier to fire older workers, and going after women's reproductive rights including abortion.  Make no mistake a 6-3 rightist court would be a living grotesque nightmare, not just for people of color, but for women and many other citizens. 

Further, just take a look at the cases looming on the Court's future docket, including: the future of the Affordable Care Act, issues of separation of church and state, and congressional access to grand jury materials. A Supreme Court finalized at 6-3 for the Right could also play a role in litigation of any contested elections, with the potential to give the benefit of the doubt to Trump's lawyers over Biden's.    That is the ultimate near future nightmare scenario.

In any case, any majority conservative Supreme Court could affect the lives of literally millions of Americans for decades, if not generations - on matter ranging from abortion to health care to the role of religion in public life. To put it in blunt terms, this is the outcome the Right has been salivating over for nearly 50 years. 

 We cannot let the bastards win, especially as it looks more and more likely the Dems can take the presidency as well as the Senate. 

 So Dems have to fight like junkyard dogs to ensure McConnell doesn't get to stuff some walking turd like Tom Cotton onto the court before inauguration day.  They need to use every procedural device in the book to delay, and maybe off the books.  (Preventing a vote for extension of gov't funding, as Sen. Mazie Horono suggested on ALL IN.)   If nothing can be done to stop the rush to torpedo Justice Ginsburg's wishes now then a retributional response can be done - assuming Dems win the presidency and Senate. That means killing the filibuster, and packing the court  - maybe up to 15 members, with 9 Dem picks.  As Janice put it: "It's time now we learn to fight like they do!"  Agreed!

What they - or we- can't do, is go quietly into that dark night.

See  Also:

Ginsburg’s death sets off political battle over her replacement, Supreme Court’s future

And:

If McConnell pushes through a nominee, President Biden should pack the court

Opinion by Jill Filipovic

And:

Supreme Court

Murkowski: 'Fair Is Fair,' No Supreme Court Confirmation Before the Inauguration. Who's Joining Her?

And:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Supreme Court

RIP RBG. Now End the Filibuster. Add States to the Union. Expand the Courts.

by David Atkins | September 20, 2020 - 7:12am | permalink

— from Washington Monthly

AND:

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

With the Passing of Justice Ginsburg, Democracy Just Got Harder, Again

Trump Bets On 'Law & Order' And Swing Voters To Grab Another 4 Years? Beyond Unthinkable

"The president and his campaign are trying to project the sense of unease and violence taking place under his reign onto a hypothetical Biden administration—including by using footage of protests not in the U.S., but in Barcelona.   Is this the sign of a failing campaign deeply behind in the polls, responsible for an unprecedentedly disastrous response to a pandemic and a tone-deaf answer to protests against police violence? Yes, certainly. But there’s also a deeper subtext: Trump is implicitly promising a no-holds-barred authoritarianism if he wins a second term."   David Atkins, 'Trump's Message Isn't Confused. He's Promising A Dictatorship', Smirkingchimp.com

"The Republican party claims to be a party of law and order. But respect for law and order does not consist of what you can get away with.  The GOP's cynically illegal acts offend our core principles of democracy." -  Letter writer in Denver Post

Amidst the holocaust of erosion in national honor, unity, truth and decency that has been the Trump criminal cabal, it is unthinkable they could snare another 4 years based on "law and order".    And yet a WSJ article from today (p. A4) poses that as a potential reality, e.g.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-bets-on-law-and-order-message-to-sway-swing-voters-11598673661

Excerpt:

"With Mr. Trump trailing the former vice president in national polls, and by a smaller margin in many battleground states, his team is banking that the chaotic images from places such as Kenosha, Wis., and Portland, Ore., won’t just rally their base, but sway undecided voters and suburban voters who had been moving away from Mr. Trump. “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News this week."


Law  and order?  Trump?  This is a guy who's paid hush money to porn stars, used his office to get dirt on political opponents (using other nations like the Ukraine) and openly conspired with the Russkies to toss the 2016 election his way, as a recently released Senate intel report confirms.  This is a dirtbag surpassing all historical dirtbags in degeneracy as well as pathology.  Well, okay, maybe with the exception of Adolf Hitler!

Even given that up to 60 percent of swing voters are known as "low information"  (i.e. get most of their news from Facebook or other social media) it is incomprehensible they would bite on the above Kellyanne Conway dreck and vote the most lawless white trash in U.S.  history back into office for another chaotic, hideous and LAWLESS term. 

A Biden presidency would usher in "more chaos, anarchy and vandalism"? Hello!  That is happening NOW under Trump!  Hence, as Chris Hayes put it on 'All In' Friday night, "the greatest  political Jedi mind trick ever would be to get enough people to believe the chaos we now see under Trump is somehow connected to Biden - or will be."   

To quote Janice: "It would take an especially low I.Q. to believe that!"  Yeah, but no one ever lost money - as H.L. Mencken once wrote - by underestimating the intellect of the American voter.   That includes believing that the social unrest widespread now is somehow the Democrats' fault when pro-Nazi and KKK  prez Trump has fanned the flames of bigotry to the point of encouraging right wing vigilantes to show up at peaceful protests and incite violence - by displaying long guns and even firing them. 

Are undecided voters truly dumb enough to put this infernal maggot back into office when they have to know deep down he will only make things worse? Especially the U.S. response to the pandemic - which I already predicted will see more fatalities than the Civil War deaths (675,000) if Trump gets in again. DO the 'swing' voters really want that, as well as the unending chaos, rage tweeting and FOX TV -watching that marks Trump's existing presidency, far less another term?   Can they really abide another ten million jobs lost and a total cratering of the economy into a Depression because Trump and his cabal still haven't dealt with the pandemic?

Clueless Peggy Noonan, vying for the journalist 'weasel of the year' award, scribbled in her latest WSJ column re: the RNC - (Aug. 29-30, p. A13):

"The Republicans confronted what the Democrats at their convention glossed over: rising crime, looting and rioting in city protests."

Conveniently omitting the vicious right wing elements who've descended on the peaceful 1st amendment protected protests, in order to wreak havoc,violence and even deaths - using the peaceful protests as shields.  The Denver Post drew attention to this in a piece (Aug. 28, p. 5A) noting how in the very minutes after the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, right wing sites were summoning  "militias" to  travel to Kenosha  - and use the ruse of "protecting businesses" to arm themselves and shoot protesters.   Well, Kyle Rittenhouse, a self -professed pro-Trump punk heeded the call to arms, traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, and blew away two protesters (one of whom was attempting to stop him after he'd already fired off a few rounds). 

This deranged right wing imp actually paraded along an avenue in Kenosha with his long gun in the open with nary a cop trying to stop him - and certainly not firing seven rounds into his back like they did with Blake.  


Clearly demonstrating one set of laws for white punk right wingers, another for black men instantly marked as public enemy No.1 for allegedly holding a knife.  How many other KKK'ers, Aryan Nation creeps, Proud Boys, Boogie Bois et al were in Kenosha that night, we have no way of knowing. More than likely, as Janice opined, the others went into hiding or left after the Illinois terrorist (Rittenhouse) fired off his rounds killing two.  But does Peggy Noonan factor in any of this? Hell no.

She also has the nerve to write (ibid):

"Republicans hit on the one shared fear shared equally now by the rich, the poor and the middle: that when you call 911 you have to go to voicemail."

Again displaying a cluelessness unbecoming of a journalist.   If she'd done even limited research she might have been able to trace that defect to the lack of funding for public - state and local- emergency and other services.  That was earmarked in the HEROES act, but Mitch McConnell has sat on it, refusing to let it pass.  The lack of action has caused state and local economies - subject to Covid lockdowns - to crater leaving precious little in the 'pot'.  Yet Noonan mentions none of this.  However, I do give her props for at least writing:

"This country is full of law -abiding people of all colors who are appalled by Donald Trump.  It is political malpractice to push them toward him."

Indeed it is.   So that means when writing your op-ed columns to deliver the details of the truth, not the "post truth" Trumpie version of events!

As I wrote in a previous post, "no good thing can really be said of our nation until and unless the Trump interregnum is totally canceled, extirpated." Why is this? It's because Trump and his cabal have turned the state into a criminal enterprise and which promises to metastasize if he's given a 2nd term, out of voter ignorance, laziness (not voting) or indifference.     A core problem also, which resides mainly in the media, is that for decades Western legal thought had viewed the state as the ultimate guarantor of safety.   This is why Obama and other Dem critics of Trump have echoed the same refrain, "A president has one job to do, to protect the American people".  Well, not just the president but the whole infrastructure with which he governs (including agencies like DOJ, FDA, FBI, CIA, etc.)  as well as congress.   

 The problem is that the U.S.  media, as well as many legal theorists (and even some historians),  have problems when a developed state - like the U.S. - itself turns into a criminal entity.   This is beyond their imagination despite the fact it already happened when - under Adolf Hitler- the German state  became the agent of criminality as well as the principal perpetrator of crimes, e.g. the slaughter of 6 million Jews and many others.   Most distressing to read was the opening paragraph of a recent review on the book, 'Hitler- Downfall: 1939-1945', in The Denver Post, e.g.

"The impulsiveness and grandiosity, the bullying and vulgarity, were obvious from the beginning.  If anything, they accounted for Adolf Hitler's anti-establishment appeal for Germany's unpopular conservative elites.  Hitler's energy and theatrics made him an enticing partner when they appointed him Chancellor in 1933.  But anyone who thought Hitler and the Nazis would rise to the occasion were summarily purged from the system as an utter impossibility became indomitable reality: The Weimar Republic had become the Third Reich.

It would take another world war, a genocide and millions of dead before the dictatorship finally collapsed in 1945, a full 12 years after Hitler was invited into power.""

A kind of repeat of history is on the verge of happening again with Trump. if U.S. citizens become too besotted by fear to think clearly, or believe this criminal tyrant in waiting really has their interests - and safety - at heart.   Fortunately, the distinction is we have the chance for a do-over of the horrific mistake that brought Trump to power in 2016.  The Germans didn't once Hitler was appointed Chancellor.  But we cannot afford to fuck this up, not again!

 The fact of over 180,000 dead from the pandemic ought to convince any thinking - hell sentient person-  that Trump is not their friend.  Or their protector. He is their Alpha predator merely waiting for the chance to rip their throats out.

See also:

Donald Trump

Trump’s Message Isn’t Confused. He’s Promising A Dictatorship.

by David Atkins | August 30, 2020 - 6:30am | permalink

— from Washington Monthly

And:

White Supremacists Are Invading American Cities To Incite a Civil War

by David Atkins | permalink— from Washington Monthly

And:

Donald Trump

Trump Desperately Wants Voters to Blame Biden

And:

Peace & Justice

Murdering Democracy in Kenosha

And:

2020 Elections | Donald Trump

Trump Is Campaigning on a Fiction. That Doesn’t Mean He Won’t Stay President.

And:

• Republicans see immediate post-convention bounce...in COVID cases: Attendees start testing positive

If The Fed's Powell Is Ready To 'Print Trillions' To Help The States, Tightwad GOP Should Let Him!

Fed chairman Jay Powell, makes an excellent case for providing a safety net to states, as well as corporations.

"Congress seems to be at war with the states. Only $150 billion of its nearly $3 trillion coronavirus relief package – a mere 5% – has been allocated to the 50 states; and they are not allowed to use it where they need it most, to plug the holes in their budgets caused by the mandatory shutdown. On April 22, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was opposed to additional federal aid to the states, and that his preference was to allow states to go bankrupt"- Ellen Brown, today, 'Crushing The States, Saving The Banks', smirkingchimp.com blog


'Powell Urges Policy Makers To Spend More'  (WSJ, April 30, p. A2)  shows that Fed Chairman Jerome ('Jay') Powell has a much deeper appreciation of the financial straits the nation is in than the Repuke bean counters, Scrooges and austerity clowns. Right now, the greatest imperative is to get money to state and local governments, which the earlier CARES act omitted.  Why infuse  more $$$ for the states and local governments? Well, because they embody the essence of what government is about.   I mean, what citizen in his or her right might wants to see schools, law enforcement, fire departments and utilities shut down - because of lack of funding?  That way madness lies.   

To fix ideas, as reported in The Denver Post (p. 1A,  5/2) , Colorado's state government is now planning some $228 million in spending cuts that could affect everything from police departments, to schools, to health clinics to correctional facilities and even Medicaid.   In Maryland, the state we used to live (before coming to Colo. in December,  2000) 90 days of shelter in place orders are forecast to blow a $3 billion hole in its $90 b annual budget.   That will mean severe cutting of vital services. Other states are having to do the same with no federal lifelines in the pipeline.   Do people in these states really want to do without police, fire depts. and schools?

But this is the gist of the Republican penny-pinching strategy which -  if it succeeds - will see the U.S. end up in a 2nd Great Depression, not just a bad recession.   In fact, while the austerity -minded Repubs have resisted calls for additional funding, citing added debt burdens,  Jay Powell pointed out (ibid.):

"This is not the time to act on these concerns. This is the time to use the great fiscal power of the United States to get through this with as little damage to the longer run productive capacity of the economy as possible."

It's incredible that the Scrooge clones like Mitch McConnell don't grasp this, and would rather put us into another Depression but there it is.  They would rather be chintzy now - especially with the states, local governments-  and pay ten to fifty times later to dig out from the carnage.   Which is why it's good we didn't have these losers in power after the credit meltdown in 2008.

Across the country now there are  massive budget shortfalls  in state and local governments arising from cratering tax revenues. 21 states will have to fill budget gaps of at least ten percent to avoid furloughs of police, firemen and other critical service workers.  And don't even think the existing federal benefits are enough. For example, just applying for and renewing the SNAP (food stamps) requires overcoming a host of bureaucratic hurdles.  And even the fraction who qualify must also rely on food banks given the average monthly SNAP benefit amounts to $134.

In truth, we desperately need not just a $1, 200 one off payment to each American, but a universal basic income (UBI) of at least $2,000/ month for the next 6 months.  (As policy analyst Heather McGee noted on 'All In' last week). So despite the caterwauling and gaslighting from the Repukes, it is clear we need a massive infusion of at least $800 b to help the states, and possibly another $2 trillion more by the end of the fiscal year.  This despite the endless austerity whining of the likes of The Wall Street Journal (e.g. 'The Government Economy',  April 30, p. A14) who bellyache the states "contributed only 0.2% to  the CARES Act".  Well, duh! That's because THEY took the brunt of the lockdown hit ("economy put into the equivalent of a medical coma"), and also they have laws that require balanced budgets -  so must cut if spending exceeds a certain threshold. Also they have no latitude to print money like the Federal Reserve.

Playing into the WSJ editors' hands, Moscow Mitch and his sidekick in stupidity, Rick Scott, blame many blue states for "mismanagement" of their money to explain the predicament and having to cut services, furlough state employees. That is bollocks.  As  NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo  has acidly observed (according to Joe Conason), New York pays $116 billion more than it gets back annually, while Kentucky, the deadbeat home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, gets $148 billion more than it pays each year. By that reckoning, New York has kicked in far more over the past few decades than any of the states whose Republican leaders criticize supposed liberal profligacy.

McConnell, meanwhile, doesn't get the dire straits states are in could lead to a true Depression era, and collapse of remaining demand.   The goober with the mouth of a drunken Guppy blabbed:

"We're not interested in borrowing money from future generations to send down to states to help them with bad decisions they've made in the past, unrelated to the coronavirus."

But this is horse manure. As economist Paul Krugman pointed out Friday on Morning Joe , there is no "borrowing from future generations" since we are  borrowing  internally and in our own currency - not from outside creditors like the IMF or other nations. The truth is there is almost no limit to what can be borrowed given we are borrowing  from ourselves, and also interest rates are effectively zero.   Other nations like Great Britain and Japan have done it, and the U.S. can do the same. As Krugman has recently  written in the WaPo:

"Deficit obsession was deeply destructive in the years that followed the global financial crisis, helping conservatives push for austerity measures that held back economic recovery for years." 

And on 'Morning Joe' last week Prof. Krugman made it clear deficit spending was the primary way to alleviate hardship for the 30 million now unemployed, as well as the states.  As he told Joe Scarborough, who mentioned his abiding concern over the deficit for 25 years and asked why we shouldn't be concerned now:  

"If  you ask what is the future burden on the budget by the borrowing we're doing now, it's negligible, a rounding error.  It's just not going to matter.   Yeah, the headline numbers will be large and debt as a percentage of GDP will be as larger or larger than during World War II.  But everything we know about advanced nations that borrow in their own currency - like Great Britain and Japan - shows they are able to carry very high debt loads without crisis.  Even when interest rates aren't as low as they are now they are consistently below the growth rate of the economy.  So the debt will erode over time relative to GDP so long as you aren't totally irresponsible.   

Yes, there must be some limit but looking at the historical record it's very hard to find it. Look at Japan, its debt is 200 percent of GDP and no problems.  We came out of World War Two with debt at 100 percent of GDP and which everyone thought was terrible, but it turned out to be no problem at all.  And by the way we never paid that debt back, we just grew out of it.  Britain had debt that was 270 percent of GDP and they grew out of it too, after a few years down to 50 percent of GDP.

If there is an upper limit it should be so far from where we are that it shouldn't  bear on our policy decisions now."

The  responses to deficit worries given above also comport with what Krugman wrote for the Guardian not long ago:

In such an economy (with zero interest rates) the government does everyone a service by running deficits and giving frustrated savers a chance to put their money to work. Nor does this borrowing compete with private investment. An economy where interest rates cannot go any lower is an economy awash in desired saving with no place to go, and deficit spending that expands the economy is, if anything, likely to lead to higher private investment than would otherwise materialize...  

Why does deficit obsession and pandering to austerity work, say in the public debate sphere? Krugman again:

"Part of the answer is that politicians were catering to a public that doesn’t understand the rationale for deficit spending, that tends to think of the government budget via analogies with family finances."


The point Krugman is making is that while family finances are limited by the family income, and hence a family cannot spend more than it earns (unless it uses credit cards and runs up debt and a greater likelihood of delinquency), the federal gov't can print as much money as it needs to. Yep, debt is generated but in its own currency.  Also the debtor here is also the creditor so there's no problem. But the family has to answer to outside banks, credit card issuers, collectors etc.  So the family debtors are not the same as the creditors.   Nor can the family just print money to pay off its outside obligations, whether an auto loan, mortgage or medical bill.


Bottom line? If we measured national debt and deficits in the standard ways other nations do, i.e. to external  nations, or agencies like the IMF (like Barbados, when it needs loans)  there wouldn't be  half the kerfuffle about it.  Rather than wasting time fretting over an increase in the national debt that amounts to a "rounding error" we need to help the states and 30 m suffering citizens get the money they need.  And in the process help the whole nation avoid an economic calamity.  

All the Fed needs is the green light from congress (namely the GOP run Senate), since it cannot lend or provide money to states on its own, only to businesses. 

   See also:

Economic Policy | Mitch McConnell

As McConnell Tries to Hold Aid to States and Cities Hostage, Mass Layoffs of Public Employees Begin

Excerpt:

"People like having their garbage collected, their roads plowed, and their 911 calls answered. They want their cities to function. They like their kids' teachers. They know all these people in their communities. That's the fire Mitch McConnell is playing with, and you can bet more than one vulnerable Republican senator recognizes that."

And:

Economic Policy

Republicans Are Indulging in a Nasty Gambit — but They Won’t like the Final Endgame

Terrified Of "Statism" - Skinflint GOP Prefers 26 Million Americans Go Back To Work Prematurely Rather Than Get More $$$

"Diabetes almost killed me two years ago, but if it comes down to insulin- or food for my kids - I'm getting food for my kids. Those kids are gonna get meals until Dad is laying in the ground." - Stressed, jobless worker this a.m. on CBS.

"I just want everyone to know I am not against the medical providers fighting this virus.  But at the same time there isn't enough financial assistance from the government to pay rent or buy food."  - A bystander (interviewed last night on NBC News), watching a Virginia protest against a state lockdown

"Those who are agitating to reopen everything are knowingly or unknowingly doing the bidding of conservative groups tied to Republican megadonors and the White House, all of whom want us all back to work so they can start making money again. They don’t care about us. They never, ever have.

"If social distancing is lifted before a national testing regimen has been undertaken, before a free vaccine for everyone is as available as fast food, COVID-19 will come back again and again until the precious economy these industrialists want us to die for will be nothing but dust and ashes." - William Rivers Pitt, 'Governor Kemp Is Lubricating the Economic Machine With His Constituents Blood'

 "All of us are being stalked by this virus, and though some of us may see poetic justice in the likelihood that lots of these "protesters" will likely be dead or dying of it in a month because of their belligerent bullshit, we surely know that they have put the rest of us at risk, too.  So, you bet your sweet ass it could be worse. Plan for it. As the saying goes, hope for the best; prepare for the worst. Get your affairs in order. It's entirely possible you won't be here to celebrate the 4th of July, nor be able to thank all those patriots who were so willing to sacrifice your life for their "freedom."  - Could It Be Worse? Fuckin' A!  - Jaime McNeill, smirkingchmp.com

If perverse conservative opinion -  such as we see in the WSJ (e.g.'Paying Americans Not To Work', April 23, p. A14) - becomes the norm in dictating new legislation, we can expect not one more cent will be enabled for the 26 million Americans now unemployed.  This follows the latest job report (WSJ, today, 'Jobless Claims Swell By 4.4 Million', p. A1) that showed an additional 4.4 million workers  - out of work from the shutdown - have now filed claims.

This is amidst an antiquated unemployment insurance system, literally creaking from decades-old software and slow speeds, not designed to meet such demand.  This is why many of the newly unemployed are sometimes having to call their state offices up to 50 times a day to try to file, too many with zero results.  As we learn from the WSJ "regular" (not op-ed) pages ('State Funds for Jobless Drained', April 21, p. A6):

"States have struggled to process an unprecedented number of claims applications.  States also face added coronavirus-related spending while shutdowns of much of the economy - along with delays in income tax filings- have threatened to crimp state budget revenues."

Further, we learn (ibid.):

"No state has run out of money but state officials are already planning for the possibility".

The takeaway?  According to most economists, the states could run out of money in the coming weeks for paying regular unemployment benefits.  The rational solution in this time of crisis would be for a new federal rescue spending package to replenish state trust funds to pay the unemployment claims.

I mean, you only need to check in with the nightly news to see how many Americans are struggling to even make basic payments, and for whom the $1200 "stimulus" just barely pays the rent and maybe the water bill and a few groceries. One guy interviewed on ABC two nights ago said his check was going to barely cover his overdrawn account at his bank.

And what "solutions" do we find from the skinflint GOP who'd rather give massive support to the corporations than workers? Well, nothing but cheapo, ridiculous proposals.  For example, instead of the states getting any more money from the gov't they can instead apply for  "interest free loans from the Treasury".  This advice from Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.  (Misbegotten for sure, but not as nutso as Mitch McConnell's proposal that all the Democratically-governed states just "declare bankruptcy" - instead of "getting another  blue state bailout".  Of course this would be unconstitutional and violate the Contracts Clause.)

The loan thingie, of course, has been beaten to death the past few weeks. Recall last month WSJ contributor John Cochrane ('How to Treat the Financial Symptoms of COVID-19')   had this to say on the superiority of loans:

"Loans are better than gifts. Rather than give each of us $1,000, allow us to borrow a fraction of last year's income from the Internal Revenue Service  and repay it when we file our taxes."

So the BK, Target or KFC worker has to go cap in hand to the IRS to beg for a $10,000 loan to pay back when he has to file taxes in 2021?  When he already will likely be in hock for back rent, utilities, etc?  But this kind of "let 'em suck air"  thinking pervades the reactionary Wall Street Journal op-ed pages.(E.g. March 18, ('The Fiscal Stimulus Panic', p. A16):

"The checks no doubt will be popular....but they won't come cheap, running at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars for the first round.  What happens if the pandemic lasts into the summer?  The clamor will be for another round and then another."

Well, uh yeah! DUH! Because people ordered to stay locked down, no work, no paychecks coming in, will still need some moola to buy food, pay off utility bills etc. How hard is this to get into your noggins?  


Then we also see, on April 21, the advice from Peter J. Wallison ('Americans Need Forbearance Not More Stimulus', p. A16)  that the solution is simple. The mass of jobless folks, as well as small businesses struggling. ought to just take care of their priorities (like food) and pay off other debts and obligations later. Just cite the need for "forbearance" to any creditors.   Well, good luck with that!

We've also beheld other crackpot, skinflint suggestions from these cheapskates like workers ought to raid their 401(k)s for extra money to live on.  Ask the IRS to think of it as a loan or ask congress critters to beg the  IRS to suspend any tax penalties.

Another choice proposal is to "suspend the payroll tax", the latest iteration of that nonsense appearing four days ago (WSJ, 'Suspend The Payroll Tax', by Steve Forbes and Arthur Laffer, p. A17).  These two bozos argue -  presumably while not on opioids or MJ candy- that the objection that this will drain the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds is misplaced.  According to this dense duo:

"The Treasury will just transfer money from the general fund, fully making up the shortfall."

Right, and pigs fly and Capuchin monkeys speak Chinese.  Let's remind ourselves here that both of these clowns for years have pumped the bollocks that no Social Security Trust funds actually exist, nor are the T-bonds to back those Trust funds real. 

Given all of this austerity codswallop one is led to ask what is driving this incredible parsimonious  conservo attitude to the plight of millions, struggling to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads.   Janice's  response as usual is brusque and to the point, e.g. "They were all born cruel, with cruel DNA and a brutal, hateful nature!"   Well, maybe. It certainly explains a  lot,  such as the cynical. nasty attitude displayed in yesterday's WSJ editorial ('Paying Americans Not To Work').  The overriding concern in that piece is not that millions may not be able to keep a roof over their heads, or food on the table, but rather that given the increase of $600 / week federal bonus in unemployment insurance, "Why would anyone take a pay cut and go back to work?"

I.e. so when the bonus expires on July 31, too few 'Muricans would be willing to go back for a $416 a week job, say if they can hold out for a further extension in the bonus benefits. Blithely ignoring that millions of higher wage workers would be taking a pay cut - even with the $600 weekly "bonus". But see, these cranks think like this because they are ensconced in their own little ivory tower condos, gated community apartments or high rises, so have absolutely no idea of what it's like to be an ordinary wage earner now stuck with mounting bills and too little money to pay them, as well as get food. 

Interestingly, another fiscal "Scrooge", Kim Strassel  ('Congress' Coronavirus Mess', p. A13, WSJ today),  wasn't too thrilled that all the Dems know how to do is "spend, spend, spend".  The WSJ witch then cited Kurt Huffman, the owner of ChefStable,  who insisted he "can't get his employees back on the job" - in the wake of the last CARES package and its enhanced unemployment benefits.  Perhaps a more pressing issue is how he expects to get reluctant customers back into his place.  I suppose he might use the tactic discussed on CBS this morning:  have all customers sign a waiver form, then if they get the COVID-19 they disavow filing any lawsuits. I.e. admit they were too dumb to attend to state lockdowns.

This is the other side of the cruelty coin:  to deny the gravity of the pandemic while preventing more money reaching Americans trying to survive. The goal? To attempt to crank up the pressure for them to demand to return to work early, never mind the risks.  Or the polls that now show the "silent majority" of Americans (not the yahoos shouting and flouting lockdown rules) would not go out to eat, to the cinema or any other things - even if the economy opened up fully.  (48 percent in a recent NBC poll indicated no inclination to leave their homes until the outbreak is over, or a vaccine is available. Well, that's a long time!)

 Never mind, the game of the GOP and conservative skinflints is to try to ratchet up the economic and political pressure to get the millions of unemployed to take to the streets - just like the loud, knuckledragging Trumpie buffoons. The ones who've had to be stopped in their tracks by the unsung, overworked medical heroes, e.g.

 Doing their level best to get the low IQ screamers and apes off the streets and back into their homes.  (Incredibly, to see how inflated the Right's rhetoric can be, Steve Forbes - the nut proposing the payroll tax cuts- compared these protesting losers to Rosa Parks - who refused to give up her seat to a white cracker on an Alabama bus. The total failure of any analog is, of course, lost on Forbes - who was not long ago denied a seat on the Federal Reserve on account of his abysmal lack of knowledge, experience.)  To quote economist Paul Krugman ('The Right Sends In The Quacks')

"Moore's a quack with a long history of inventing facts to support his ideological agenda."

Well, we already saw that earlier when I pointed out his balderdash that  it's no problem to raid the payroll tax.  The Treasury will just "replace the shortfall".  Well, not in any Republican administration, that's for damned sure!

  But again, as we watch these scenes play out on TV news it is always well to bear in mind that these protesters are only a loud minority, nowhere near a majority. But the cynical GOP Scrooges are betting they can shut off the government money spigots long enough so that more citizens will crack and take to the streets to demand businesses open, jobs return. Putting their own welfare- and their families' - on the backburner.

This is clearly the bet of another WSJ  hack, Dan Henninger (April 23, p. A13, 'How We'll Live With Coronavirus')  who insists:

"Millions of years of human behavior are going to overwhelm the state lockdowns"

Clearly betting that eventually, i.e. when no more money gets into citizens' accounts, the rest of the 26 million will crack and join the Trumpie protests and push for reopening. Never mind it risks a second wave which could shut things down much much longer.   The biggest lie spouted by Henninger, after he admits flattening the curve was achieved to an extent - via the lockdowns - is:

"That suppression strategy accomplished its goal. Hospital capacity is returning in most major cities."

But don't believe it. Hospital capacity is still literally overflowing or at the margins of doing so. It would only take another wave - say from premature reopening - to overrun the system. Hell, don't take my word for it. But do pay attention to Trauma nurse Amy Pacholk,  from Stony Brook University Hospital, New York:

"All I keep hearing is that the curve is flattening, the curve is flattening. That may be true but all the ICUs are still full. The sickest are still there. People are waiting to be intubated.  We're full and we can't handle anything more. We can't open this country. If you want to live you stay home. My God,  don't open up this country. It needs to be closed until at least June."

The message for Americans is not to be caught in the trap being laid by the GOP's skinflint brigade: whether politicos, FOX blowhards  or WSJ pundits.   Citizens (sane ones)  ought to be especially terrified given the downward spiral in response to the pandemic after Trump removed Nancy Messonnier from her CDC post, i.e. as head of the coronavirus response. Why did he do it? Because she chose to level with the American people and told them to "expect significant disruption to their lives from severe illness."  That was back on Feb. 28th .  Dotard was enraged because this scientist was messing up his PR bullshit happy talk, and trail of lies to get re-elected.  Not only was she removed from her post but all independent CDC briefings were halted, and Drs. Fauci and Birx were forced to become part of Trump's daily Moron rally - passed off as "briefings" to the hoi polloi.

 Who did Trump's top asswit at HHS (Alex Azar)  replaced Dr. Messonnier with? Well, Brian Harrison, former head of 'Dallas Labradoodles" - a dog breeding outfit. The twit has no medical education, and from all accounts fits Janice's profile of somebody who got a degree in dog poop collection.   Be afraid, be very afraid. These are the morons we have running the pandemic response.  You should not believe a word any of them say, and also any justification they try to invoke -including the "need" to halt any more "bailouts" (transl. Essential monies for people to feed their kids, pay their bills.) 

Put pressure instead on congress critters- especially the quartet of Repuke Senators still pushing for more austerity in any future bills - to try to make it so the struggling citizens can't meet their basic needs. These four punks are more terrified of "statism" . Conveniently the same 4 anti -bailout "heroes"  were named in that WSJ editorial:

Lindsey Graham (SC)

Ben Sasse (Nebraska)

Tim Scott (SC)

Rick Scott (Florida)

Want to do something? Get their telephone numbers from a congressional directory and blitz them into passing another CARES act that delivers more money  - not in interest free loans- to those who desperately need it.  How much more $$$ ought to go out in the next relief package? Given the next rent payment for those locked down is due May 1st, and the previous $1200 is already spent,  I'd say at least another $2400 per each adult.  This is no time to go cheap, or to appeal for Americans to take on more personal debt and hope for creditors' 'forbearance'.  We are in a "war" as Mnuchin puts it, and we need war-scale deficit spending on a level earlier used for WWII.  In an earlier post, I predicted that $6 trillion -odd bucks will be needed to get through this crisis, and I haven't budged from that! 

 The fiscal hawks  and austerity freaks need to suck it up and stop whining about "statism" and "expanding government".  Now is when Americans desperately need that government, as they did in the 1930s.

See also:

Republicans

Governor Kemp Is Lubricating the Economic Machine With His Constituents’ Blood

And:

Covid-19

Could It Be Any Worse? Fuckin' A

And:

Donald Trump

Trump Doesn’t Know How to Be President — so He’s Drafted Us All into the Reality TV Show in His Mind

And:

Donald Trump

Trump's Bored. That's Why He and His Lackey Republicans Are Trying to Kill Us All.

And:

Worker's Rights

America's Backbone Under COVID-19: Blue-Collar Workers

And:

Covid-19 | Donald Trump

Take Care of Yourself and Your Family. Do Not Listen to the President.