Trump And Republicans In Congress Are Making The Pandemic Worse For Everyone But Their Campaign Donors

Cone of Shame by Nancy Ohanian

On the Senate floor yesterday, Elizabeth Warren reminded her colleagues that the country is "just days away from a housing crisis that could be prevented if Mitch McConnell stopped stalling and the Senate act. This is about our health, our economy, and our values. Forcing thousands of people out of their homes during a pandemic will make a public health crisis worse. Wide spread housing disruptions will also affect essential workers and others who are keeping our economy going. And a wave of evictions will hit communities of color the hardest, further deepening racial inequities in our nation. So first, how bad is this problem? More than 30% of all renters say today that they have little or no confidence they can make their next housing payment. More than 40% of Black and Latinx renters aren't sure they'll be able to make their next rent payment. Nearly two thirds of renters who are not confident about making their rent earn less than $35,000 a year. And more than a quarter of black and Latinx renters couldn't pay last month's rent, or had it deferred. Think about that. That's 1 in every 4 Black or Latino renters who are already behind on their rent. And to add to that, the high unemployment rate, the numbers of workers across the country who have had their hours and income cut, and the number of small businesses that have shuttered and may never reopen, and it's clear that the number of evictions will continue to rise. Experts are predicting an avalanche of evictions if we don't institute new protections. We are already seeing a rise in evictions in cities where local eviction bans have lapsed. This is a crisis we can avoid. Instead of further delay and denial, the Senate can step up now and prevent this catastrophe before millions of people are forced out of their homes."

She and Chuy Garcia, in the House, introduced the Protecting Renters from Evictions and Fees Act which would prevent renters from losing their homes if they lose their job or have their hours cut during the pandemic and can't make their housing payment. Their bill would extend the federal eviction moratorium to last until until March of 2021 instead of expiring this week. Republicans oppose the bill.




The pandemic is horrible enough on its own without the GOP and Trump making thing worse on every front. On a smaller scale, ABC New reported yesterday that Trump's properties aren't enforcing local mask mandates. They are hosting gatherings in cities and counties with mask mandates without enforcing the mandates for guest or employees. And even with Señor Trumpanzee finally being forced by his new campaign manager to say good things about masks and social distancing, his utterances are still, at best, mixed messages.

A Morning Consult poll for Politico shows that a bipartisan majority of registered voters strongly support (that's 53%) state mandates that would fine or jail individuals if they fail to wear a mask in public. Another 19% "somewhat" support the mask mandates-- so 72% overall. And that includes support from 68% of independent voters and 58% of Republicans. Republican statewide elected officials are still sabotaging efforts to stop the spread of the contagion-- governors in states with huge problems-- like Florida, Iowa and Georgia for example-- are being very aggressive in their opposition to mask mandates, Brian Kemp of Georgia and Kim Reynolds of Iowa suing cities that order mask wearing and in Louisiana where there's a Democratic governor, the Republican attorney general, Jeff Landry, has declared that the Louisiana mask mandate are social distancing rules are unconstitutional, encouraging law enforcement officials not to enforce them and citizens not to obey.

Finally-- just the right mask for Trump!

You know that old Abraham Lincoln speech, "A house divided against itself, cannot stand.?" He was talking about slavery in the South. Today the phrase is also applicable mostly to southern states and could be used to the mask problem. By encouraging the spread of disease, right wing politicians like Trump, Ron DeSantis (FL), Brian Kemp (GA), Bill Lee (TN), Henry McMaster (SC), Tate Reeves (MS), Mike Parson (MO), Kristi Noem (SD), Kevin Stitt (OK), Doug Ducey (AZ), etc. negative the efforts the rest of us are making to beat the pandemic.

It's hard to imagine that anyone will believe the Trump regime's and Trump campaign's new attempt to reset their disastrously failed approach to the pandemic-- especially not Trump himself who can't admit a mistake, still claims everything was done right and exhibits support that is, at best, very half-assed. His followers seem to be ignoring the whole thing. The media seems interested... and no one else. The reaction from the Lincoln Project was to add a laugh track to Trump's deceitful bullshit:





Meanwhile, instead of approving the rescue package passed by the House over a month ago, Senate Republicans and Trump Regime officials are discussing a short-term extension of unemployment insurance just to get them through the election. As Beto O'Rourke put it on MSNBC, the Texas Republican Party is a "death cult" that wants to allow people to die. And these are the states that reported the most new cases from Thursday and ---> yesterday (keep in mind today's new cases lead to September's new deaths).

• California +10,278 ---> 12,137
• Texas +9,992 ---> 10,528
• Florida +9,440 ---> +9,785 (back over 10,200 today)
• Arizona +3,500 ---> +1,926 (back over 2,300 today)
• Georgia +3,413 ---> +3,314
• Tennessee +2,190 ---> +2,473
• South Carolina +1,892 ---> +1,705
• Oklahoma +1,714 ---> +918
• Louisiana +1,698 ---> +2,764
• Mississippi +1,635 ---> +1,547
• North Carolina +1,626 ---> +2,306
• Alabama +1,467 ---> +1,455 (back over 2,300 today)
• Missouri +1,328 ---> +1,249