Should Businesses That Allow Non-Mask Wearers On The Premises Be Sued When People Contract COVID-19?

The Starbucks in this story was in Paju, Korea but it could just as easily have been at a Starbucks in Spring Branch (Houston), Annandale (Virginia) or Palisades Park in Bergen County-- or in a Stabucks that has nothing to do with anyone with any Korean heritage at all. It's another tragic story from the Age of the Trump Virus. The basics should be all too familiar by now: After a woman with the coronavirus visited a Starbucks this month, more than two dozen patrons tested positive days later. But the four mask-wearing employees escaped infection. "With health authorities around the world still debating the evidence around face masks, the 27-person cluster linked to the air-conditioned coffee outlet adds more support for their mandatory use to help limit the spread of the Covid-19-causing virus."

Mississippi became the 34th state with a mandatory mask policy earlier this month. It's not enforced and means nothing at all. States without mandatory mask policies-- along with how many cases per million residents:

• Florida- 28,192 cases per million Floridians, 2nd worst in America
• Arizona- 27,377 cases per million Arizonans, 3rd worst in America
• Georgia- 24,135 cases per million Georgians, 5th worst in America
• South Carolina- 21,860 cases per million residents
• Tennessee- 21,174 cases per million residents
• Iowa- 18,152 cases per million residents
• Idaho- 16,826 cases per million residents
• Nebraska- 16,567 cases per million residents
• Utah- 15,398 cases per million residents
• Oklahoma- 13,690 cases per million residents
• North Dakota- 13,423 cases per million residents
• South Dakota- 13,005 cases per million residents
• Missouri- 12,520 cases per million residents
• Alaska- 6,575 cases per million residents
• Wyoming- 6,225 cases per million residents
• New Hampshire- 5,247 cases per million residents

Each of these states has a Republican governor who would rather listen to trump than public health experts. And just for comparison's sake, Spain, the European country hit worst by the pandemic, has less than 9,051 cases per million. And in South Korea, where the first cases was reported at around the same time as the U.S.'s first case and where new Starbucks outbreak is causing a national freakout, there are just 350 cases per million residents. 350-- no commas. Compare that number to these U.S. counties' new cases just yesterday:

• Los Angeles- 1,198
• Harris (TX)- 784
• Sacramento- 815
• Riverside (CA)- 800
• Miami-Dade- 773
• Hidalgo (TX)- 675
• Ft Bend (TX)- 606

Meanwhile, the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. all require masks on their premises regardless of state mandates:

• Walmart- 5,355 stores
• Amazon/Whole Foods- 564 stores
• Kroger- 3,003 stores
• Costco- 542 stores
• Walgreens- 9,168 stores
• Home Depot- 1,973 stores
• CVS- 9,909 stores
• Target- 1,868 stores
• Lowe's- 1,727 stores
• Albertson's (including Safeway and Vons)- 2,258 stores

Let me go back to the unwritten GOP platform on the pandemic: "Coronavirus is a much-overhyped problem. It’s not that dangerous and will soon burn itself out. States should reopen their economies as rapidly as possible, and accept the ensuing casualties as a cost worth paying-- and certainly a better trade-off than saving every last life by shutting down state economies. Masking is useless and theatrical, if not outright counterproductive."

On Tuesday, NPR's James Dawson reported that "In Boise, the first day of Idaho's special legislative session erupted into chaos before it began. Dozens of unmasked protesters, some of them armed, shoved their way past state troopers to pack the gallery overlooking the state's House of Representatives. The clash was a manifestation of the anger and frustration from a vocal minority of far-right Idahoans that has been compounding over the last several months as the state has navigated its reopening amid the pandemic. To enforce social distancing, the gallery area above the House chamber was restricted with limited seating. But after the confrontation with state troopers, which resulted in the shattering of a glass door, Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke relented and allowed protesters to fill every seat."

Idaho is in the midst of a COVID-explosion, centered on Boise, the state capital. There were 217 new cases yesterday, bringing the state's total to 30,070, which doesn't sound like a lot-- until you realize that's 16,826 cases per million Idahoans, a gigantic number, more than double the rate in Italy and France combined!

The group of protesters included supporters of a far-right militia and anti-vaccine advocates who were at the Idaho Capitol to demand an end to the current state of emergency and blast a proposal that would limit civil liability for businesses, schools and governments.

The bill would also open up those entities to litigation if they don't follow laws and ordinances, including mask mandates issued by public health districts.

"The insanity of this bill is beyond me," said Boise resident Pam Hemphill, during a committee hearing Monday afternoon. "We don't stop our lives, suspend our civil rights and panic each year for the flu."

These people are like rapid dogs threatening to infect the rest of society because they are mentally intellectually incapable of understanding the most basic tenets of epidemiology and consider themselves experts because they read Q-Anon on the internet. What do you do to a rabid dog? Sorry.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, called the legislature into special session last week to take up civil liability issues as well as election concerns from county clerks. They want to be able to count the massive influx of absentee ballots earlier than they can now under state law and have the option to consolidate polling locations to deal with an extreme shortage of poll workers.

The special session is also the result of months of intense pressure and blowback from Little's own party.

One state lawmaker referred to the governor as "Little Hitler" after he ordered the shutdown of nonessential businesses in late March. His lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, who is elected separately and has ties to militia groups, has openly challenged Little's reopening push by visiting businesses that flouted those timelines and welcomed customers back earlier than allowed.

And legislators pressured Little to relinquish control over the state's coronavirus response to regional public health districts, even threatening to come after his executive authority in the future if he didn't comply.

Still, most Idahoans appear to stand by Little. An effort to recall the governor over the summer failed, and three-quarters of registered Idaho voters polled in May supported his handling of the pandemic.

Idaho's rabid dogs have a leader: Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin (R), who is badly in need of psychiatric intervention. When she began her anti-mask crusade last spring, Idaho only had 1,374 cases per million residents. McGeachin, a militia lunatic, should be held responsible for her part in mass murder. But... hey, it's Idaho and if she's on the ballot in 2022, she'll probably be elected. She owns a bar in Idaho Falls, the Celt Pub and Grill which doesn't require masks. I asked one of the employees to describe it to me in terms of the pandemic and he told me the employees where masks but most of the customers don't and acknowledged that most of them are "conspiracy folks" who are hostile towards mask wears who wander in. He said it wasn't specifically McGeachin's fault as much as it is about the people who live in Idaho Falls, which is Idaho's second largest city the county seat for Bonneville County. Hillary only took 20.2% of the vote there in 2016 and the "blue wave" of 2018 didn't reach the county at all. The Little/McGeachin ticket won with 66.6% and the county performed at an R+46 level for Rep. Mike Simpson.

And speaking of idiots, remember the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota a couple of weeks ago? Forbes reported that "More than 70 coronavirus cases diagnosed in seven states across the West and Midwest have been linked to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which attracted more than 460,000 vehicles over a 10-day period earlier this month, and at least one state health official expects this is just the start of cases linked to the event." Over two dozen were in neighboring Minnesota and the state's director of infectious diseases, Kris Ehresmann said that "Unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning of the cases we will see from Sturgis." I thought it was interesting that the Republican-controlled city council approved the event, even though 60% of the residents of Sturgis opposed it. So far this week (Monday and Tuesday) South Dakota has reported 229 new cases, brining the state's total to 11,505 or 13,005 cases per million South Dakotans.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, classic idiot

Eventually We'll Be Forced To Do Something About Anti-Maskers

Having spent years in Asia and having adapted to mask wearing on airplanes decades ago, I was an early adapter to masks for dealing with the pandemic sometime in March when the government was still urging people to not wear masks. I detected the disconnect between, "masks won't help" and "we need masks for our frontline workers." My doctor is an internationally acclaimed cancer researcher who told me the N-99 I had from use in Nepal was perfect and would protect me but needed to be discarded if I came down with COVID-19 because it would increase the viral load. That was in early March.

Around that time I took great delight wearing my mask (plus wrap-around shades-- since replaced with surgical goggles-- and latex gloves) to the grocery store, while I stocked up on all the essentials for a 6 month siege. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. The cashiers hadn't hear about a pandemic yet and no one was stocking up on pasta or toilet paper yet. People saw me coming down the aisle and ran away-- better yet. Roland was embarrassed to be seen with me. "You'll be wearing a mask soon too, I told him. "Everyone will." He laughed and said I was crazy. Today he still asks how I knew, even though I've told him over and over again exactly how I knew (months of this).

By April, the tide had turned. People in L.A. were masking up and stores will starting to observe social distancing strictures. In April I saw two guys refusing to wear masks get the crap kicked out of them in upscale Los Feliz within a week of each other. I'm not into vigilantism or violence but I have to admit I wasn't sorry to see each of the victims run away, one with a bloody face.

One of the unintended consequences of the internet is that everyone's brother-in-law is as stupid as mine-- and now thinks he knows better than experts. It's certainly why we have Trump in the White House and why we're likely to have more Trump-like figures elected to leadership roles. Conspiracy theories and ignorance rule!

Marc Fisher's Washington Post mask update yesterday, shows how fed up normal people are getting with the anti-masker lunatics, who are, after all, endangering society in a way anti-seat belt kooks never really did-- since they were mostly just killing themselves not, like the anti-maskers-- the rest of us. Fisher pointed out that not only are masks effective weapons against the spread of the contagion but that "Three-quarters of Americans favor requiring people to wear face coverings in public to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, including 89% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in July. So far, 34 states and Washington D.C. have adopted mask requirements. Now, mask advocates want police to enforce those orders, a move some police chiefs have said they are reluctant to make. They are seeking legal protection for retail workers put in the awkward position of enforcing mask rules. And they are lobbying for a coordinated federal mask policy."

Politicians, most of them Democrats, have adopted increasingly sharp rhetoric to push for compliance with mask orders and recommendations. Masks were highly visible throughout the first night of the Democratic National Convention. The party showcased masked health workers risking all to save victims of covid-19, presented multiple images of Joe Biden wearing a mask, and topped off the evening with Michelle Obama’s lament that the nation’s children “see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe.”

Biden has said that, if elected, he would use his executive power to mandate mask-wearing nationally. Until then, Biden put the onus on the nation's governors, calling on them last week to require mask-wearing in public for at least the next three months.

Well it's good he used the phrase "at least," since hopes and wishes aren't determining the timetables; the cold hard reality of when we find and distribute an effective virus is what determines when we can stop wearing masks, eat in restaurants, travel safely, vote in person, stop tempting inflation, etc.

"The battle over masks," continued Fisher, "like earlier faceoffs over requiring seat belt use in cars or banning smoking in public places, pits defenders of science against defenders of personal liberty-- a classic American faceoff of the collective good against individual rights. But unlike those earlier debates, the mask battle has become politicized making masks one more weapon in a national tussle over values and factional power." He forgot the mention the word idiot:

Nor did he get into a discussion of the mental illness of the people refusing to wear masks, something that will launch papers and books for decades. Some people just have to be contrarians-- even if it endangers others. Some people are persuaded that their is no pandemic but that the Deep State and that guy from Microsoft want to inject a chip in everyone to control them but mass vaccinations. Maybe these folks, if they make it impossible to control the spread of the virus, will need to be, humanely, put down at some point. "[M]any of Trump’s fans," wrote Fisher, "have latched onto his objections. While 94 percent of Democrats said in a July Gallup poll that they’d worn a mask 'always' or 'very often' when outside their homes, only 46 percent of Republicans said the same."

[David] Canepa, who serves on the board of supervisors in northern California’s San Mateo County, said he has heard enough from science-deniers, especially in light of new evidence showing that masks appear to protect the wearer as well as people who might breathe in their exhalations.

“People need to rely on the science and not on their high school buddy who took science with them,” Canepa said. “I didn’t get into elective office to tell people what to do, but this is a health emergency, and we have a silent majority that’s doing the right thing. We’ve done the education, we’ve tried to work collaboratively. Now we need to enforce.”

Earlier this month, San Mateo’s board voted unanimously to fine anyone found in public places without a mask. Police, park rangers, building inspectors and other county workers will hand out both masks and summonses. Fines are $100 for a first offense and up to $500 for further transgressions.

“Small business owners don’t want to confront customers. I understand: We’ve all seen those ugly confrontations on YouTube,” Canepa said. “Now we’re giving them a way to say, ‘Hey, it’s the county making me do this. If I don’t enforce it, they’ll fine me.'”

Businesses and their employees have good reason to be wary of acting as mask enforcers. The most vehement mask opponents have occasionally turned violent.

In Lansing, Mich., when Sean Ruis entered a convenience store last month without a mask, a store employee asked him to cover his face. Ruis reacted angrily-- and stabbed a 77-year-old customer. A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Ruis outside his home a half-hour later.

More often, though, anti-maskers pose a more prosaic threat.

In Caldwell, Idaho, when the local health board voted last month simply to recommend-- not require-- masks in public, bare-faced residents packed a local courtroom and loudly booed all mention of masks, infection tracing and virus hot spots.

That same week, hospitals in the area reported that their intensive care units were at capacity, filled almost entirely by patients suffering from covid-19.

On Tuesday, Idaho reported 384 new confirmed cases, bringing the state's total to 28,326, which seems pretty small. It isn't. Idaho now has 15,851 cases per million residents. That's worse than any of the dozen hardest hit western European countries, even the ones that are experiencing a second wave now:

• Sweden- 8,431 cases per million residents
• Spain- 8,218 cases per million residents
• Belgium- 6,772 cases per million residents
• Ireland- 5,561 cases per million
• Portugal- 5,342 cases per million
• U.K.- 4,715 cases per million
• Switzerland- 4,438 cases per million
• Italy- 4,212 cases per million
• Netherlands- 3,732 cases per million
• France- 3,389 cases per million
• Denmark- 2,736 cases per million
• Germany- 2,721 cases per million

Remember when we were all shuddering at the mere thought of getting into a situation as dire as Italy's or Spain's. On a per capita basis, Idaho-- a politically backward and primitive state loaded with Trump supporters, pandemic-deniers and anti-maskers-- now has it over three times worse than Italy.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

In Trump They Trust! Or, what does a death wish look like? You can find examples of idiots and fools declining to wear a mask anywhere, but burning them? That takes a special kind of stupid and inconsideration, especially when you could send them to a hospital or senior center. But, hey, that's Repugs for ya. It's all about being a sociopath at every opportunity.

The photo for this meme was taken in Boise, Idaho but it could be anywhere that groups of Trumpies congregate. It could be outside Moscow Mitch's house. It could happen in the White House Rose Garden. It could be anywhere in Flor-i-duh. It could be Jim Jordan's house. No, wait. He's never owned a mask, but I bet his parents burned Beatles albums! One thing's for sure, this country is in grave danger due to such protesters and anarchists! Call them NLM for No Lives Matter.

I will say, though, that the Corona Beer carton is a nice ironic touch. I'm guessing that they poured the beer out on the ground thinking it would give them the virus. Then they drank a nice tall, cool glass of leaded water instead. Way to go, Boise! What's next on your schedule? Russian Roulette Night at the Elks Club?

America's Looming COVID-Civil War

Opening up

Illinois' entire northern border-- 6 counties-- is right up against Wisconsin, whose own governor, Tony Evers, described it as the "wild west" and chaotic in regard to confronting the pandemic. He said it is a "freighting place to be." Evers has been trying to have his state follow the White House guidelines but the Republican-controlled legislature and Supreme Court-- and a vocal extremist fringe of confirmed idiots-- are determined to kill as many cheeseheads as possible. Wisconsin's caseload has been spiking dangerously. On Sunday the state's steadily increasing confirmed caseload was 2,154 per million. Today it is 2,179 per million.

Illinois is in much worse shape-- 7,614 cases per million, but, unlike the Wild West to the north, Illinois is serious about confronting the pandemic and beating it back. Unfortunately for Lake, McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson and Jo Daviess counties, their proximity to Wisconsin makes that pretty much impossible. They face 6 Wisconsin counties along that state's southern tier: Kenosha, Walworth, Rock, Green, Lafayette and Grant.

These are the northern Illinois suburban and rural counties that border on Wisconsin with the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19:

• Lake- 6,489
• McHenry- 1,179
• Boone- 290
• Winnebago- 1,490
• Stephenson- 150
• Jo Daviess- 18

On Sunday, the NY Times reported that Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, has enacted an order that would see owners of restaurants, bars gyms, barbershops and other establishments in his state who open too early charged with a Class A misdemeanor. On Friday Pritzker filed an emergency rule "intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as a growing number of businesses defy stay-at-home orders across the country." A Class A misdemeanor carries a punishment of up to a year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine.

Conservative legislators are barking already. As The Times reported, state Senator Dan McConchie (R) tweeted that the governor's new rule to protect the citizens of the state "an affront to the separation of powers. Legislatures make laws. Governors enforce them. Period."

In Texas this month, a salon owner in Dallas was jailed for defying state and county orders for nonessential establishments to remain closed. The state Supreme Court ordered her release two days later. And last Sunday in Colorado, a restaurant that reopened for sit-down dining on Mother’s Day was shut down and had its license suspended.

The pain of the coronavirus shutdown, in terms of wrecked economies and shattered lives, has been unmistakable. Now, governors across the country are contemplating the risks of reopening, particularly if it produces a surge of new cases and deaths.

“This is really the most crucial time, and the most dangerous time,” Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, said on the CNN program State of the Union on Sunday. “All of this is a work in progress. We thought it was a huge risk not to open. But we also know it’s a huge risk in opening.”

...[G]overnors also acknowledged concerns about a fresh resurgence of the coronavirus, and they are haunted by images of restaurants and stores packed with patrons with uncovered faces.

“This is a virus we’re still learning a lot about,” Mr. DeWine said.

These are cases per million in the states mentioned in this post:

• Illinois- 7,614 per million
• Colorado- 3,855 per million
• Ohio- 2,437 per million
• Wisconsin- 2,179 per million
• Texas- 1,713 per million
• Idaho- 1,374 per million

McGeachin is certifiably insane and needs psychiatric treatment... badly

Idaho's numbers look relatively decent, but maybe not for long. The state's governor, Brad Little (R), hasn't done a bad job. Too bad he's burdened with a sociopath as his Lt. Governor, Janice McGeachin, who has now gone rogue. Cynthia Sewell reported last week that while Little was following the science and issuing statewide orders to curb the spread of the pandemic in Idaho, McGeachin, a bona fide crackpot extremist (note the belt-buckle-- has defied Little and his administration throughout the pandemic.

She left the Legislature’s 2020 session early-- the lieutenant governor presides over the Senate-- to attend to her family business, a restaurant and pub in Idaho Falls. She has attended or supported rallies opposing Little’s stay-home order and has been urging him to let businesses re-open. She defied his state order earlier this month to attend an event at a North Idaho brewery that re-opened despite Little’s order. 
This week she wrote a guest opinion challenging Little’s decisions.

Her opening salvo served to remind Little how powerful she is: “As lieutenant governor, I am one heartbeat away from the governor’s chair,” McGeachin wrote.

“I lose sleep at night because the heavy hand of our government is hurting so many Idahoans,” she continued. “The effects of the executive branch’s unilateral decisions will impact us for years.”

The governor campaigned on a promise of imposing the “lightest hand of government” on Idahoans, she wrote.

“To me, this means getting out of the way and letting Idahoans get back to work,” McGeachin concluded in her tome sent to media organizations around the state.

She and the governor haven't spoken in at least 3 weeks.





Trump Has Utterly Failed His Test-- Guess Who Suffers (+ Bob Dylan's 17 Minute Song)

The GOP death cult is super-duper strong in Alabama, where the moron governor has challenged the coronavirus to come and kill all her citizens. Still, Nazis, fascists and assorted racists from all over the U.S. head up to their idea of an Aryan Nation-- Idaho's panhandle. The state voted or Trump in 2016 by a massive margin-- 59.25% to just 27.48% for Hillary (who won just two of the state's 44 counties.) The panhandle counties were even Trumpier than the rest of the state:

• Benewah- 74.0%
• Bonner- 60.8%
• Kootenai- 67.1% (the neo-Nazi capital of America)
• Shoshone- 64.4%

And even though Trump's net approval has decreased by 10 points since he first occupied the White House, 58% of Idaho voters still approved of the job he is doing, compared to just 39% who don't. None the less, Idaho's very conservative Republican governor, Brad Little, just issued a statewide 21-day stay at home order. Like most states, there is a long list of exceptions to the shutdown:

• Healthcare operations
• Grocery stores including liquor stores
• Food cultivation such as farming, fishing, and food processing
• Businesses that provide food, shelter and services for economically disadvantaged individuals
• News media services
• Gas stations, auto supply and repair facilities
• Banks, credit unions and financial institutions
• Plumbers, electricians and landscapers
• Hardware stores and firearm businesses
• Businesses providing mailing and shipping services
• Educational institutions to provide distance learning resources
• Childcare providing services that enable employees exempted in this order to work as permitted
• Laundromats and dry cleaners
• Restaurants can stay open but can only provide take out or drive-thru services
• Hotels, motels and shared rental units
• Businesses that supply people products to work from home
• Shipping businesses that deliver food, goods or groceries
• Airlines, taxis and private transportation needed for essential travel
• Home-based care for seniors, adults or children
• Essential tribal operations
• Legal or accounting services when necessary

Yes, even Idaho. And even Fox News. Their website carried a warning from the Surgeon General that the U.S. could be worse than Italy if 15-day guidelines are disregarded. Who's stupid enough to disregard them?

Jerome Adams explained his divergence with Trump by noting that the non-leader in the White House "is trying to be optimistic for Americans with his Easter timeline and also asked those not taking the coronavirus seriously to understand there is a possibility America could reach a worst-case scenario if residents do not follow the guidelines."

And optimistic for himself? I mean, Pope Francis asked the faithful to stay out of churches on Easter Sunday; Trump wants them filled with people celebrating his own resurrection. That's some step from "Hoax!"

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that a record-breaking 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits. The Washington Post put it like this: "Last week saw the biggest jump in new jobless claims in history, surpassing the record of 695,000 set in 1982. Many economists say this is the beginning of a massive spike in unemployment that could result in over 40 million Americans losing their jobs by April. Laid off workers say they waited hours on the phone to apply for help. Websites in several states, including New York and Oregon, crashed because so many people were trying to apply at once."

“The most terrifying part about this is this is likely just the beginning of the layoffs,” said Martha Gimbel, a labor economist at Schmidt Futures.

The nation’s unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in February, a half-century low, but that has likely risen already to 5.5 percent, according to calculations by Gimbel. The nation hasn’t seen that level of unemployment since 2015.

...“We may well be in a recession,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in his first appearance on morning television on NBC’s Today show. “The first order of business is to get the virus under control and then resume economic activity.”

...Both the scale of the layoffs and the speed at which they are happening are unprecedented. During the Great Recession, for example, the worst week for jobless claims was 665,000. Last week the nation saw five times that amount.

The Trump recession has begun and now what we have to hope for is that it doesn't become the Trump Depression. With him at the helm, we could be looking at 40 million unemployed by Easter. Read any independent economist and the words "it’s going to get worse" are always in their analysis. Writing for HuffPo, Zach Carter and Amanda Terkel reported that Mnuchin is basically in his own delusional world and that everything will be fine after he gets his hands on the half trillion dollar slush fund. After the unemployment spike was announced yesterday, he told CNBC's audience that "I just think these numbers right now are not relevant, and you know, whether they’re bigger or smaller in the short term. I mean, obviously, there are people who have jobless claims. And again, the good thing about this bill is the president is protecting those people. So you know, now with these plans, small businesses hopefully will be able to hire back a lot of those people. Last week, they didn’t know if they had protections. They didn’t have any cash. They had no choice. Now with this bill passed by Congress, there are protections."

This is wishful thinking, to put it mildly. Despite its big price tag, economists believe the legislation passed by the Senate on Wednesday is far too modest to meet the scope of the coming economic crash.

The $349 billion the legislation sets aside for small businesses will be exhausted quickly, but experts also believe that it will take months for the aid to reach most small firms. During that time, many of them will simply fail, and you can’t rehire workers if you don’t have a company.

The key provision of the bailout bill is a $454 billion program overseen by Mnuchin that can be leveraged 10 times over by the Federal Reserve to do essentially anything Mnuchin and the Fed want to do with it. But firms that receive this money will still be allowed to lay off up to 10% of their workforces over the next six months-- and that figure would be calculated based on this week’s employment. The 3.3 million people who were laid off last week wouldn’t count.

The coronavirus crash isn’t a simple shortage of cash. It’s a crisis on several different economic fronts that will require months, if not years, of aggressive government action to combat.

Global supply chains are breaking down as companies that manufacture goods in other countries find themselves unable to access factories and materials that they have relied upon for years. The collapse in U.S. consumer spending won’t simply return to normal.

The legislation’s protections for people who are laid off or struggling to pay the bills are simply too paltry to restore the plunge in purchasing power from unprecedented layoffs, not to mention the fear that most families are now experiencing. Every household in America will be pinching their pennies for the foreseeable future, and that loss of spending translates into a loss of revenue for businesses, and lower payrolls. The loss of American purchasing power will resonate both at home and abroad. This may well culminate in a shock to the financial system akin to the meltdown of 2008.

Thursday’s unemployment number is likely undercounting how many people are without work as well. Some people who have tried to apply for unemployment benefits have reported phone lines and websites frozen and jammed up by the crush of applicants. And people who are self-employed, undocumented, students or gig workers are ineligible to apply and therefore not counted.

Don Beyer (New Dem-VA), vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee: "These numbers are far worse than anything we saw during the Great Recession. We need to move quickly to help those that are getting hurt. It not only protects those families but it protects the economy-- so everyone benefits. That is why the bill passed by the Senate to increase unemployment insurance by an extra $600 a week for four months and make billions available for small business grants and loan payments is so important-- only Congress can make sure that those who are out of work right now, and the small businesses that employ them, do not go broke. It is vital that the federal government continue to follow the directives of medical professionals and public health experts, and not yield to the urge to 'reopen' the economy too soon. Doing so could cost lives and drastically deepen and prolong the damage to the economy. Stopping this pandemic and protecting human life is the most important thing we can do, and it is also the best thing we can do for the economy. I continue to urge all who can to please stay home."

As Chris Martenson says every single day in his podcast-- not to mention Erasure-- it didn't have to be this way. Obama made it look so easy that even a brainless blowhard-- who assured us he only hires "the best people"-- could be president. Turns out, he only hires the worst people. In yesterday's NY Times Jennifer Steinhauer and Zolan Kanno-Youngs noted that "Of the 75 senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security, 20 are either vacant or filled by acting officials, including Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary who recently was unable to tell a Senate committee how many respirators and protective face masks were available in the United States. The National Park Service, which like many federal agencies is full of vacancies in key posts, tried this week to fill the job of a director for the national capital region after hordes of visitors flocked to see the cherry blossoms near the National Mall, creating a potential public health hazard as the coronavirus continues to spread. At the Department of Veterans Affairs, workers are scrambling to order medical supplies on Amazon after its leaders, lacking experience in disaster responses, failed to prepare for the onslaught of patients at its medical centers. Empty slots and high turnover have left parts of the federal government unprepared and ill equipped for what may be the largest public health crisis in a century, said numerous former and current federal officials and disaster experts. Some 80 percent of the senior positions in the White House below the cabinet level have turned over during President Trump’s administration, with about 500 people having departed since the inauguration. Mr. Trump is on his fourth chief of staff, his fourth national security adviser and his fifth secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Between Mr. Trump’s history of firing people and the choice by many career officials and political appointees to leave, he now finds himself with a government riddled with vacancies, acting department chiefs and, in some cases, leaders whose professional backgrounds do not easily match up to the task of managing a pandemic."

Trump rules by chaos, fear, personal loyalty and whim. No American president was ever less prepared for something as catastrophic as this pandemic as Trump was. There is no part of the federal government functioning adequately.





Last night, Bob Dylan alerted his fans, via tweet, that this previously unreleased 17 minute song, "Murder Most Foul," is now available. Alexis Petridis for The Guardian: "People have mooted that it’s a standalone release, appearing now because Dylan understandably thinks it’s timely, March 2020 being a pretty apropos moment to release an epic song filled with death and horror and apocalyptic dread ('The age of the antichrist has just begun... it’s 36 hours past judgment day'), or perhaps to give his diehard fans further incentive to stay indoors. You rather get the feeling some of them will still be self-isolating months after the coronavirus all-clear has sounded, delicately unpicking its manifold knotty allusions-- the line about playing it for Carl Wilson down Gower Avenue requires the listener to know that the late Beach Boy sang backing vocals on Desperados Under the Eaves, the concluding track from Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 album, which ended with the line 'look away down Gower Avenue'-- and arguing on message boards as to whether the Susie mentioned midway through is just a reference to the Everly Brothers, or to Suze Rotolo, the girlfriend with whom Dylan watched the aftermath of Kennedy assassination unfolding, holed up in their New York apartment... The point is clearly the lyrics, which are dense and intriguing enough to hold your interest, and give the listener plenty to digest. Quite aside from all the cultural references, there’s a narrator that keeps switching from Kennedy himself to Dylan, who in turn seems to keep switching from firebrand mode to the grimly resigned old grouch of Things Have Changed and It’s All Good ('I hate to tell you Mister but only dead men are free') and a plethora of details about the assassination itself: 'Don’t say Dallas don’t love you, Mr President' is a mangling of the last words spoken to Kennedy by Nellie Connally, the first lady of Texas."

There's Even Good News For Hillary And The Democrats In A Red Hellhole Like Idaho

Idaho is one of the reddest-- and whitest-- states in the country. In 2008, Obama won just 36.09% of the votes there. Only Utah, Oklahoma and Wyoming gave him less support. In 2012 Obama's vote in Idaho fell to 32.62%, lower than Oklahoma's and beaten out in the race for the bottom just by Wyoming and Utah. The state's whole congressional delegation is Republican, as are all the statewide elected officials. Only 7 out of 35 state senators are Democrats and of the 70 members of the state House, only 14 are Democrats. In some of the more neo-Nazi counties, Obama had his lowest support anywhere in America-- Franklin- 6%, Madison- 6%, Oneida- 10%, Bear Lake-11%, Jefferson- 11%, Caribou- 13%, Cassia- 13%, and Fremont- 14%. This year Hillary isn't polling as badly as Obama did. She's even winning (narrowly) in Teton County, where Obama lost to Romney 54-43%. She's also essentially tied Trump in Shoshone, Ada and Valley counties. And in the two Utah counties that Obama won-- Blaine and Latah-- Hillary is eviscerating Trump by even bigger margins, up by 34 points in Blaine for example.

The biggest newspaper in the state,the Idaho Statesman asked every legislative candidate in the southern half of the state that the paper covers if they support their party's presidential candidate. Remember, neither Trump nor Hillary came out ahead in primary season. Bernie won every county but Lewis and took 78.0% of the caucus votes (18,640 to Hillary's 5,065) and Trump came in a district second to Ted Cruz, 100,942 (45.4%) to 62,478 (28.1%).

In state legislative races, candidates bobbed and weaved around giving a straight answer on the endorsement question. The rundown in 48 Southern Idaho contests:

• Of 36 Democrats running, 21 said they supported Clinton, some with glowing praise, others with reservations.
• Of 45 Republicans, 16 said they supported Trump. Most cited even stronger reservations or said they backed him only out of party loyalty.

Reading through the responses by the Democrats, they almost all seem pretty enthusiastic about Hillary's qualifications and preparedness. The Republicans were generally not enthused about Trump at all. Most said he's better than Clinton or something like what state Senator Patti Anne Lodge said: "He was not my first or second, third or fourth choice, but he is our nominee" or what State Rep Gary Collins said: "Donald Trump is not my first choice or second choice. But I will not vote for the Clintons." GOP Rep Robert Anderst was one of the few to go a little further: "Trump "hasn't earned my support... Will I vote for our nominee? If I do it will be for the platform of my party not the candidate." Republican state Senator Lori Hartog went further: "I have never been a supporter of Donald Trump because I do not believe he truly embodies conservative principles and what the republican party stands for including limited government, personal responsibility, and constitutionally protected freedoms.... I will be voting for a third party candidate."


Newesla polled over 384K US students across the country in all 50 states about their presidential choices and it was a Hillary landslide, taking 57% to Trump's 32%. She even won in deep red strongholds like Texas, Georgia, Alaska, Louisiana, South Carolina and... yes, Idaho. It was very close there but, it bodes well for changes in the future.

Other state results:

Lawrence Lessig vs Mike Simpson (R-ID)-- What It Means To The Rest Of Us

It's almost a truism of today's politics that "one man, one vote" has been replaced with "one dollar, one vote." We'll know we've recaptured our democratic form of government when that changes, when we no longer have a Supreme Court-- not to mention the two other branches of government-- made up of corporate whores whose idea of "balance" involves balancing the rights and privileges of corporations and Big Business against the rights and privileges of American citizens. Hillary Clinton is no more a part of the solution than her husband was or than Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan or Jeb Bush would ever be. Before I slip into another plea for an Elizabeth Warren candidacy, let me share a letter that came with the video up top, both from Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who's has just motivated 47,506 Americans to chip in a total of $5,033,232 in 30 days to confront the problem head on.

On May 1, we announced a one-month goal of raising $1 million for our "Super PAC to end all Super PACs." We achieved that in 13 days.

Since then, we've aimed to raise $5 million more by midnight of Independence Day. We're at more than $3.3 million now with donations rushing in every minute.

If we reach our $5 million goal, generous donors will match it dollar for dollar-- bringing our war chest up to $12 million. $12 million will allow us to make campaign finance reform a huge election issue in 2014.

On his website he explains what he's doing in greater detail:

Campaigns for the United States Congress are privately funded in America. Eighty- five percent of that funding comes from large contributions. Candidates and political parties target the especially large contributors in their fundraising efforts. But the number of such contributors is tiny: No more than .05% of the American population gives even the maximum amount to one candidate for Congress. The number giving $10,000 or more is less than .01%.

This concentration gives the funders of political campaigns enormous power, either directly (as direct contributors) or indirectly (through the funding secured by lobbyists and other intermediaries). As Members of Congress become dependent upon these funders-- spending anywhere between 30% and 70% of their time raising money-- the influence of these funders grows. A trivial number of large contributors have the capacity to block reforms that are relatively invisible to the general public. A small number can affect the agenda of Congress or even block reforms that are generally popular. As a recent study from Princeton concludes, “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. governmental policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

This dynamic is not partisan. Instead, it blocks reforms on the Left and Right. It blocks substantial legislative initiatives-- such as climate change legislation, or meaningful health care reform. It also blocks efforts to simplify taxes or shrink the size of government: All things being equal, complicated taxes and a more extensive government increase the ability of Members of Congress to raise money. As Robert Kaiser details in his book, So Damn Much Money (2010), that fact interferes with the legislative agenda of the Right as much as of the Left.

The founders of the MaydayPAC believe that this dynamic has destroyed the capacity of the United States government to govern. We believe it is critical to find a way to change the way elections are funded, to free legislators to pursue the reforms that motivate the voters to support them.

We have therefore established this superPAC with the objective of electing a Congress committed to fundamental reform of the way campaigns are funded. Based on the analysis by one of America’s most prominent political firms, we believe we can achieve this objective by 2016.

Our plan for reform has four stages:

1. In 2014, we will pilot the idea of a superPAC intervening in elections to support candidates who favor reform. The objective of this pilot intervention will be to both (a) convince Congress of the salience of this issue to voters, and (b) determine how best to intervene to move voters on the basis of this issue.

2. Based on what we learn in 2014, in 2016 we will engage in as many races we need to win a majority in Congress who have either cosponsored or committed to cosponsor fundamental reform legislation.

3. In 2017, we will then press to get Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation that fundamentally reforms of the way elections are funded.

4. After a Congress has been elected under this new system, we will push for whatever constitutional reform is necessary to secure the gains from this reform.

I suppose if you've never visited DWT before, you may have no idea how serious the issue of money in politics has become. There are stories popping up about how it is destroying our democracy, our country, our families… even mankind, every day. This week, for example, Michigan Public Radio singled out just one random crooked congressman, Boehner ally Michael Simpson of Idaho. Short version: arsenic special interests are paying off Simpson to make sure Americans are poisoned from arsenic. Sounds like Simpson should be drawn and quartered? Yeah, but instead he just won de facto reelection by beating back a populist opponent in a primary in, effectively, a one-party state.

David Heath is a senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, and he investigated why a health assessment on arsenic from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been delayed.

Why does this health assessment matter?

Heath said when the EPA first wants to determine how dangerous a toxic chemical is, they first do the science. These assessments can take a long time and the arsenic assessment has been going on for more than a decade.

"It's not until they have done the science to figure out exactly how dangerous a chemical is that they can really take action on it," Heath said. "So it really does come down to 'this is how they protect your health.'"

A single member of Congress, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, was able to intentionally delay the EPA's health assessment for years.

Heath wanted to know why.

He pored through documents he had already collected and traced campaign contributions, but when asked directly, Rep. Simpson said he was concerned about whether the EPA's science was good. He also cited concerns about how much it would cost water companies to meet new EPA standards.

A ban under scrutiny

In 2001, the EPA set a new standard for arsenic, and all water companies had to meet that standard by 2006.

"Typically they met it well below that standard, so that if there were a new standard a lot of companies that already made these changes probably wouldn't have to do it again," said Heath.

Heath interviewed an executive at a pesticide company that sells a weed killer with arsenic in it.

"Their product was slated to be banned at the end of last year… so they had been aggressively criticizing the EPA’s science, trying to delay any new regulations that would come from it," said Heath.

The delay from Simpson forced the EPA to lift the ban on this weed killer and it remains on the market.

"It had quite a huge financial impact on this company," said Heath.

What the delay means in Michigan

In the U.S., city water systems must meet the federal limit for arsenic, but if you're on a private well, there are no limits that have been set.

According to Heath, states rely on the EPA for guidance on how toxic certain chemicals are because they don't have the resources to do the analysis themselves. Michigan had to do a lot to meet the 2001 standard change.

"But the attitude, I think, was that once they did that, that was sort of the end of it. Until the EPA comes out with its new findings, I don't think you're going to see the state of Michigan really doing a whole lot," Heath said.

And no, Simpson hasn't actually broken any laws, laws carefully crafted by crooked politicians just like himself expressly so that they can behave this way. So he won't be going to prison-- and he won't be drawn and quartered. A little postscript I didn't see coming when I started writing today. Simpson has a Democratic opponent to his reelection. He'll be facing former Congressman Richard Stallings again. He beat Stallings, a conservative, anti-Choice Mormon Democrat, in 1998 when Mike Crapo ran for the Senate and the seat opened up. Previous to Crapo's tenure there, Stallings had been the incumbent. He beat Republican George Hansen after Hansen, who went to prison, was reprimanded by the House for failing to report criminal campaign contributions he solicited. Stallings beat him before he was arrested and held the seat for 4 terms (1984- 1992). He's been in the House race since mid-March and isn't being supported by the DCCC which is allowing Simpson-- and almost all close Boehner allies-- a free reelection pass.

Republican Civil War Devastates One Party Politics In Red, Red Idaho-- Bad News For Labrador

Earlier today we poked around a little in the silliness around the House Republicans quest for an Eric Cantor replacement, a very key job in their obstructionist m.o. We thought the absurdity of Idaho libertarian Raúl Labrador would be the best palate cleanser after Cantor… but not one with even the vaguest of chances to beat the Kevin McCarthy wind-up doll. And whatever chance he may have had-- say one in ten thousand-- was further reduced as reports are an eruption of full scale civil war in Moscow leaked out today. Moscow, Idaho-- the site of this year's Idaho Republican Party convention.

Let's be clear, the last time a Democrat got elected to a federal office in the blood red state-- which elected just 13 Democrats out of 70 in the state House and gave Obama just 33% of its vote in 2012-- it was Blue Dog Walt Minnick in 2008, a former Nixonite who became a "Democrat" in 1996 and who was so far to the right that he almost never voted with Democrats on anything other than naming post offices. He was handily defeated (41.3% of the vote) by Labrador in 2010, after one pathetic term, which did help him get another job he was better suited for-- as a lobbyist for one of Washington's sleaziest firms, the Majority Group. Minnick was the only Democrat to ever receive a perfect score from the Club for Growth and the only congressional Democrat endorsed by the Tea Party, having voted against the Affordable Care Act, against Obama's Stimulus bill and against the clean energy act.

Labrador isn't an improvement, but he has been more interesting, not being part of the corrupt corporate Establishment that has rotted out the core of both Beltway-centric political parties. And he's very popular back hime-- or at least he was until yesterday, when he chaired the state convention.

Idaho’s state Republican Party convention degenerated into a fiasco Saturday after attempts to disqualify up to a third of the delegates attending appeared to be succeeding – and the convention ended up adjourning without electing a chairman, setting a platform or doing any of it scheduled business.

“For three weeks I’ve tried to broker a deal to prevent what happened today,” 1st District Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador told Idaho Public Television just after the convention adjourned, but he failed; Labrador was the convention chairman.

“It’s hard to blame all this on Raul Labrador, but on the other hand, this does not strengthen his credentials for a national leadership position, either,” said BSU professor emeritus Jim Weatherby, a longtime observer of Idaho politics.

Far from uniting the deeply divided party, the gathering in Moscow degenerated into dysfunction-- though it’s the party that holds every statewide office in Idaho, every seat in the congressional delegation and more than 80 percent of the seats in the state Legislature. It also proved not to be the finest hour for Labrador, whom many looked to as the healer for the fractured party just a day after he announced that he’s running for Majority Leader of the U.S. House; instead, he ended the convention facing jeers and walkouts from his own party members.

Weatherby said the only comparable event he could think of was Nevada’s GOP convention fiasco in 2008, which was canceled before delegates to the national convention had been selected. “And again, Ron Paul forces or libertarian forces were involved in that fiasco as well,” Weatherby said.

Libertarian and tea party forces had lost badly in most parts of the state in the May 20 Idaho GOP primary-- though they were ascendant in North Idaho-- but geared up to keep control of the party anyway at the state convention.

“There’s always been disagreement on platforms and things like that, but to go to the level they went to this time to disqualify people,” Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said wonderingly as he hit the road home after the convention Saturday. “People that have been around a long time don’t remember anything like this. … One person files a complaint, keeps 102 people from voting for no real grounds.”

The state Senate assistant majority leader said, “It was basically the ultra-, ultra-conservative, tea party libertarian type people basically flexing their muscle in the way the thing was organized.”

State Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, made the motion to adjourn at 3 p.m. on Saturday; a challenge to the move failed, as many delegates walked out.

Melissa Davlin, an Idaho Public Television reporter who was in Moscow covering the event, said, “Both sides were just so fed up-- they were done.” She noted, “They had been through hours of parliamentary procedures and confusion over rules and all of these things, and they still weren’t getting anywhere.”

“I heard people on both sides say that this is the last time they’re going to come to a state convention,” Davlin said.

The failure of the convention means a full day of laboring Friday over resolutions, rules and platform planks was for naught. Committees had recommended resolutions to repeal Idaho’s state health insurance exchange, encourage Bible study in public schools and oppose Common Core state standards for student achievement, among others.

The platform committee had agreed on one major change in the party platform: Doing away with its current clause calling for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires direct election of U.S. senators. Repealing the amendment would return that choice to state legislatures, instead of voters.

State Rep. Brandon Hixon, R-Caldwell, who made the motion in the committee to remove the plank, said, “Idahoans want their voices to be heard. … I can’t imagine taking the voting power away from all 1.6 million people in Idaho and giving it to just 105 people in the Idaho Legislature to elect our United States senators.”

However, that plank will now stay in the state GOP platform for the next two years.

Who better to preside over the Republican descent into this kind of chaos and vitriol on a national basis than someone who already has in his own red hellhole of a state? Labrador for Republican Leader! Or Mayor of Moscow.