June 10, 2021

Why doesn't anyone talk about a COVID-19 tax?

This thing cost us trillions.

Responsible people pay their bills.

After 9-11, airlines increased security measures and passed along the cost to the passenger.

Why don't we look at ways to recoup the costs?

Possible ways:

Temporary VAT tax, food excluded. Like the EU

Temporary re-alignment of the top tax brackets

Temporary "per transaction" Wall Street fee (after all, they got RICHER during C19)

Wealth Tax

I think we're up to $6-7T right now because of C19...

June 8, 2021

Maybe the best thing you'll read all day!

As a longtime Brookings donor, I can't recommend their work highly enough.

It's an amazing group of expert researchers.

Read Brookings and you'll be the most well informed person in the room 99/100 times.

No worries about correct data for arguing with your opposition... the Gold Standard.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/social-and-economic-impact-of-covid-19/

The link is to a summary, the entire paper can be d/l right there too.

This paper presents a succinct summary of the existing economic literature on the economic and fiscal impact of the pandemic, and a preliminary estimate of the associated economic cost. It documents the incidence of initial conditions (with a particular focus on the role of the labor market channel) on the transmission of the shock and the speed and extent of the expected recovery, summarizes how countries attempted to attenuate the economic consequences and the international financial institutions assisted countries, reports preliminary accounts of medium-term COVID-related losses, and concludes with some forward-looking considerations based on the lessons learned in 2020.

June 6, 2021

Every last DU'er should wake up in the morning and thank Heaven for Joe Manchin...

He's the fine BLUE line between Majority Leader Schumer and Majority Leader McConnell.

Think about the prospect of a McConnell Senate for the next 2 years the next time you want to shitpost about Manchin.

June 5, 2021

The history of the Filibuster on the chopping block... and the cost.

In the last 20 years, the filibuster has been targeted for destruction.

https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/15/if-you-dont-like-the-supreme-court-blame-harry-reid/

Btw, roll call is rated at neutral bias for those about to call it a RW piece.

Let's start:

It's 2005. Majority leader Bill Frist (R) was frustrated by Democratic filibusters of 7 Federal Judge nominations. Frist considered "going nuclear" to break the gridlock but decided that doing so would damage the institution of the Senate, thus damaging the nation.

In 2013, Majority Leader Reid (D) was also frustrated by Republican efforts to block Federal Judge nominations. Reid decided that at least on the topic of Federal Court Judges, not including SCOTUS nominees to abolish the filibuster.

It was a good move for Reid. The Obama administration placed a tone of Judges in 8 years...

Fast forward to 2017... Majority Leader McConnell (R) gladly took the reins of Reids Federal Judge fast lane and began pushing Trump judges into courtrooms. In fact, Trump put nearly as many Federal Appellate Court judges on the bench as Obama in half the time in office.

Oh... and then McConnell recognized the move Reid had made on Federal Court Judges and killed the filibuster for SCOTUS nominations.

Say hello to GoodHair, Barf and Handmaiden.

Quick note: Congress has NEVER placed the "genie" back in the bottle after expanding its own power.

So today... some Democrats want to kill the filibuster again, albeit for seemingly good reasons.

But at what cost?

We DO NOT have one-party rule in this country. The White House changes hands, the Congress changes hands more frequently.

What will the GOP do with a filibuster-free Senate in '22, '24 or '26??

THIS is what the 5-7 DEM Senators against killing the filibuster are concerned with.

AND read this:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/donald-trump-kill-the-filibuster-677151

President Donald Trump had a simple message for Senate Republicans during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday: "Kill the filibuster now, before Chuck Schumer and the Democrats do."

McConnell refused.

June 2, 2021

Seems to be a lot of confusion about Trump's blog going *poof*

If you read Axios and the WSJ and others...

Apparently, Trump and surrogates have reached out to those in the digital domain about the creation of a platform, possibly even quizzing Peter Thiel and others.

The answer has been "it takes time" and "you'll need to find people who won't plant Easter Eggs or sabotage the software".

So... they're turned to an acquisition or merger of an existing social media enterprise with little to no followers or app downloads.

Enter CloutHub and FreeSpace.

They have the platform, the app and infrastructure in place. They need users. Trump can bring users.

Trump has previously announced the desire to do a 4th of July rally and many have speculated that the new social media collaboration will be launched then.

There. Now you know more than 99% of the general public, beyond the news.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-considers-contenders-to-be-his-new-social-media-outlet-after-big-tech-crackdown-11621013567

June 2, 2021

Here we go again... China reports first H10N3 virus transmission to humans.

https://www.livescience.com/first-human-case-bird-flu-h10n3.html


A man in China caught the first case of H10N3 bird flu ever reported in a human, China's National Health Commission (NHC) announced Tuesday (June 1).

The H10N3 strain of avian influenza normally causes mild disease in birds, and until now, no cases of the viral infection had been reported in humans, according to a statement on the NHC website, as translated by Reuters. But on April 23, a 41-year-old man in the city of Zhenjiang developed a fever that progressed over the following days, and on April 28, he went to a local hospital for treatment.

(Although H10N3 only causes mild disease in its natural hosts, that may not hold true when the strain jumps to people.)




fuck.