Economic And Political Apocalypse Is Baked Into Biden-Harris’s Senate-Gated Path Of Business As Usual

 

-by Emorej

Declining Economy And Public Health

Unless there is a massive federal rescue of local governments, and populations dependent on them, quickly after Biden and Harris are sworn in, there will be a perfect storm of rapid economic decline driven mainly by the following:

· More homelessness will hit renters, alongside former homeowners who have been foreclosed upon, and former small business owners who have shut down-- while ownership of real estate (and future rents) will shift even further into a small number of super-rich hands (who are skilled at resisting local government tax increases).
· The increase in homelessness, unemployment and poverty will increase the need for local government services (including those of police and fire departments).
· Most state and local governments, and their employees, will quickly go bankrupt-- as pandemic-deepened revenue decreases, and expense increases, collide with legally and economically constrained borrowing ability.
· Investors who acquire infrastructure from bankrupt local governments (and from bankrupt small businesses) will have no economic incentives to invest in expanding, maintaining or even properly operating that infrastructure for the benefit of people who cannot pay for the services of that infrastructure.
· The healthcare “market,” and especially its “consumers,” which already suffered from the above trends before the pandemic, will continue suffering even more severely until near-universal availability and adoption of vaccine-type solutions (unlikely for at least another year or two), and this suffering will spill over into other markets as people continue to avoid contact with potentially infectious strangers.
· All of the above will, even more than before, (i) increase unemployment, (ii) decrease revenues and profits of most private business, (iii) decrease the tax revenues of all governments, (iv) increase the needs of the populace and the previously mandated obligations of governments, and (v) feed into self-reinforcing feedback loops.

Politics And Procedures

Ensuring occurrence, of the above collapse in the economy and public health, will be Mitch McConnell’s top priority in deploying his Senate veto powers. The only way for Biden-Harris to avoid this blame will be to implement, without the Senate’s consent, major Executive Branch actions including the following:

A. Stop covering up the facts that:

· massive money creation, for the benefit of the investor class, has become routine (and indeed has barely ever been interrupted) over the past 12 years-- as Trump’s Federal Reserve tripled down on the “quantitative easing” (bank and investor bailouts) ramped up by Obama’s Federal Reserve, and
· most of this money has not “trickled down” to 90% of our population because the 90%’s purchasing power has been persistently too low to incentivize investors to invest in employing this 90% to produce more goods or services for this 90% to purchase.

B. Connect the above trillion-dollar dots to admit and explain to voters the facts that:

· taxes don’t “pay for” money creation or for spending by the Federal Reserve or by other arms of the federal government, and
· inflation is caused not by money creation itself, but only by a narrower causation chain: in which, in some economic circumstances, (i) increase in money being spent, (ii) causes increase in demand for particular goods or services, (iii) at times when supply of those same goods or services cannot be quickly increased at similar cost-- by the market or by the government.

C. Increase the purchasing power of the entire population (without most of the “means testing” that becomes largely unnecessary once inflation is demystified) by:

· redirecting the now-routine massive flow of money newly created by the Federal Reserve, and
· exploiting the Treasury Department’s constitutionally-specified power to mint “commemorative” coins, while simultaneously
· increasing the supply of any under-supplied goods and services, (i) primarily, through incentives for private market participants (subject to regulation of unfair competition), and (ii) secondarily, through direct government investment or provision of services (by the federal government or by local governments enabled by flow of the above newly created money).

D. Tattoo the words “market failure” on the forehead of every post-Keynesian economist and, if any of them don’t have pension accounts over-stuffed with bribes from rich ideologues, encourage them to supplement their social security payouts by working as comedians telling jokes with punchlines like:

· “Assume a can-opener,” and
· “That can’t be a $20 bill on the sidewalk because, if it was, then somebody would have already picked it up.”

The joke has been on the 90%, while the investor class has been picking up ever-more dollars from public sidewalks during the last decade-plus, making ever-more obvious the hollowness of the still-ruling ideology of “hard money” (“for little people”).

If Biden-Harris spend even a few months pretending, to still not ‘get’ that this ideology has become a joke, then, without Trump’s personality and pandemic to run against, the Democrats will suffer from the 2024 Presidential election becoming the mother of all anti-incumbent waves.

If McConnell Thwarts Trump's Plans For A Pandemic Relief Package, Trump Can Thwart McConnell's Reelection Plans

 

2028 by Chip Proser

In her Sunday NY Times column, Maureen Dowd decided it was time to dunk McConnell into the Potomac, pointing out that he appears to have ditched Donald. It's not too late for Trump to cut a spot for Kentucky television endorsing Amy McGrath. She seems to be saying more nice things about Trump these days than McConnell is. And all Trump would have to do is give a signal to voters in backward bastions of Trumpism, hellholes like Jackson, Casey, Monroe, Leslie, Carlisle, Green, Whitley, Bell, Rockcastle, Harlan, Pike, Adair, Knox, Lewis, Allen, Laurel, Butler, Russell, Owsley, Martin, Clinton, McCreary, Crittenden, Lee, Cumberland, Johnson, Pulaski, Clay... all counties where Trump got more than 80% of the vote and is far more popular than McConnell. That would shake up the zeitgeist!





Maybe Trump is angry that McConnell implied he had cooties, but, as Dowd wrote, "McConnell did more than physically distance himself from Trump. He politically distanced himself as well, throwing cold water on the president’s whiplash-inducing reversal on a stimulus bill. After torpedoing negotiations in a tweet on Tuesday because he thought the Democrats wanted too much, the steroid-pumped president did a triple axel and tweeted to Congress to 'Go Big! I would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either Democrats or Republicans are offering,' he told Rush Limbaugh in a manic two-hour call on Friday (during which he dropped the F bomb about Iran). I’m going the exact opposite now.' Clearly, McConnell does not want to invest whatever capital he has left in reviving Trump when the guy seems doomed. Why bring up an issue that really divides his Republican members weeks before an election that might be a wipeout-- with the Senate in the balance?"

McConnell is all about winning. He knows a loser when he sees one.

As Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, told The Times Trumpworld is at a dangerous pass: “The knives come out, the donors flee and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys.”

Proving once more that there’s no bottom to how low he’ll go, McConnell explained to reporters in Kentucky that he wasn’t ready to push a stimulus deal because “the situation is kind of murky, and I think the murkiness is a result of the proximity to the election and everybody kind of trying to elbow for political advantage.”

So it’s fine to elbow for political advantage and push to replace R.B.G. with an arch conservative who would threaten health care and abortion rights in proximity to the election. But a bill that would help millions of suffering Americans as the economy goes down the tubes? Nah. That’s too murky.

As for helping the public-- and the economy-- through this phase of the pandemic... McConnell feels he's politically bullet-proof and doesn't care what Trump, the Democrats or anyone else has to say about it. He actually appears to be behaving more irrationally than Trump for a change.

Politico reporters Jake Sherman and Burgess Everett wrote that "a significant and important chunk of Senate Republicans hate everything about the package that Mnuchin is negotiating with Pelosi... Republicans aren’t taking issue with a policy or two, they’re taking issue with the entire package, the number, the scope and the policies. There doesn’t appear to be a middle ground here." The two reporters were blunt in their assessment: If Pelosi and Mnuchin come up with something, McConnell will give it-- and Trump-- the same treatment he's been giving everything that comes out of the House: "at this juncture, it has absolutely no chance of even getting brought up" in the Senate!

On CNN’s State of the Union, drug-addled Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said he doesn't "think it’s dead at all. I spoke to Secretary Mnuchin last evening. Look, don’t forget-- Republicans in the Senate put up their own bill a few weeks ago and got 53 votes, I think it was… I think if an agreement can be reached they will go along with it."

Earth To Larry!: That bill was $300 billion and was a very heavy lift for GOP leadership. This bill is six times that. That was also a very different time in the life of this virus, Republicans say.

Ya Can't Make It Up! As Republicans freak out about the high price tag, Kudlow says Republicans are willing to go higher than their current offer!!! “He may. He may. Secretary Mnuchin is up to $1.8 trillion. So, the bid and the offer is narrowing somewhat between the two sides. President Trump actually has always said-- I mean, I have heard him say it in the Oval-- as far as the key elements are concerned, the checks, the unemployment assistance, the small business assistance-- we have got to help airlines out-- he would go further. He’s always said that. He knows that we need as much power for economic recovery as possible. It’s not just recovery in three weeks. It’s recovery to the end of the year and beyond in a possible second term. So, I think Secretary Mnuchin, who is a very good negotiator, will be carrying the president’s message.”

By the end of the day, Mnuchin and Meadows (basically, Trump) were calling on Congress to pass a relief bill using leftover funds from the paycheck protection program as negotiations on a more comprehensive package continue. They sent a letter to Pelosi and McConnell demanding that Congress "immediately vote on a bill" that would enable the use of unused Paycheck Protection Program funds while working toward a bigger package. "The all or nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people," they wrote.

The Congressional Republicans Are Getting What's Coming To Them-- In Fact, Many Of Them Deserve Much Worse Than Just Losing Their Jobs

 

Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer noted what they termed a remarkable fact in their Politico column yesterday: Señor Trumpanzee and Pelosi haven't spoken since she ripped up his State of the Union speech last October. Suddenly, though, "their incentives are aligned: they both want a massive Covid deal in an unthinkably quick timeframe. This may happen, it may not, but both sides seem to be rowing toward the same goal at the moment. Washington has never negotiated on a package of this magnitude this late into a presidential election year."

Sherman and Palmer reminded their audience that Trump is an unpredictable, self-serving, dysfunctional sociopath-- they referred to it as "unreadable and unplayable"-- and "has no governing theory. But, in recent days, he has apparently decided that it is in his political interest to spend trillions of dollars. Pelosi has always wanted a big deal, but she’s hung on negotiating with Washington’s most eager man, Steven Mnuchin. She wanted a deal, and Mnuchin was her only option. (She has no patience for Mark Meadows, and the administration has no one else who knows what they’re doing.)

Sherman and Palmer claim a deal "isn’t all too close at this moment" and they may or may not be correct. It's as close as Trump wants it to be. All he has to do is give in to Pelosi. She sent a letter to the House Democratic conference and told her colleagues that "the $1.8 trillion offer from the administration was 'one step forward, two steps back.' The letter explains where Pelosi finds fault in the GOP offer. State and local funding is 'sadly inadequate,' she said, and the two are still $200 billion off in unemployment insurance. This could be a negotiating tactic, but even if so, these are real issues that need to be solved. It's in Pelosi's interest to hold out for every last thing, given how eager the Trump administration is for a deal. Pelosi wants this too. On Thursday, during a private phone call with her leadership team, Pelosi revealed another one of her incentives to getting a deal: she thought it would be better to do it now so she didn’t have to do it early in a Biden administration."

Sherman and Palmer got to a blockade to any deal: McConnell, who are already in the head-space of opposing any big spending deals (after running up the biggest peacetime deficit in history). Later in the day Sherman teamed up with another Politico writer, Burgess Everett to dig a little deeper into the scope of McConnell's and his cronies' opposition to a relief package the whole country-- meaning the voters, if not the donors-- are demanding. "Senate Republicans," they wrote, "lashed out at a potential framework for a new coronavirus deal between the Trump administration and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a conference call Saturday, warning that there was little support for a big spending bill right before the election. At least two GOP senators warned White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that spending as much as $2 trillion on a big bill could backfire at the ballot box. The administration has floated a large spending deal to Pelosi but is trying to get her to back down on some spending levels, but senators said even the White House wants to spend too much, according to multiple sources briefed on the call."

“There’s no appetite right now to spend the White House number or the House number,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), according to two sources briefed on the call.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said that giving into Pelosi on anything seen as expansion of Obamacare in the next recovery bill will be seen as “an enormous betrayal by our supporters,” according to people familiar with the call.

The pushback from Senate Republicans shows just how difficult it will be to assemble a spending bill that can garner support from enough House Democrats and Senate Republicans to satisfy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The stern response prompted Meadows to say that he would take their concerns back to President Donald Trump.

Incumbent GOP senators and House Democrats are eager for a deal before the Nov. 3 election, as is Trump, who wants negotiators to “go big” now after previously telling them to pull the plug. The administration officials said no deal was done yet, but even the framework discussed on Saturday produced plenty of skepticism among the Republican ranks.

This would be “the deal knell for our majority if Pelosi gets this win,” warned Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), according to one source. Both she and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) warned Republicans could lose support in the election if they accepted this.

Lee offered this analogy, according to two sources briefed on the call: "This bill makes sex look like church.

Lee added that the GOP’s efforts to highlight Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who is on track to be confirmed before the election, could be hampered by a large spending deal with Pelosi. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) alleged that any such a large spending bill could deflate the economic recovery from the coronavirus devastating economic effects.

“I don’t get it,” Scott said of a potential massive spending bill negotiated by Pelosi and the administration. Scott and other conservatives are eager to attack what they see as wasteful spending proposals that would go to state and local governments.

Several Republicans also criticized Federal Reserve Board chairman Jay Powell, who has pushed for more stimulus.

It's all one big game for them. They're all in their own Beltway bubble world of crooked millionaires and don't feel the pain most Americans-- including most Republican voters-- are feeling. This morning. on CNN's State of the Union, Trump economics coke-freak Larry Kudlow said Señor T may out-bid the Democrats' $2.2 trillion proposal (that was cut down from a $3.2 trillion proposal by good-faith Pelosi compromise with Mnuchin by the way). Will Trump then endorse McConnell's opponent in his Senate race back in Kentucky? None of the senators quoted by Sherman and Everett are facing the voters 3 weeks from tomorrow. John Katko isn't a senator-- he's a congressman from a D+3 district in central New York-- and he is facing the voters on November 3. The district, which gave Hillary a 48.9% to 45.3% win over Trump, has been very tolerant of Katko. But that about to end. Independent voters in the district aren't happy that he's been a shill and enabler for Trump.

One of the local papers noted that a recent poll showed Trump losing badly to Biden-- 53-34% in the district and the progressive Democrat taking on Katko is riding on Biden's coattails-- on the way to a 45-42% win over Katko.

The pollster, Steve Greenberg said that "While 0% of Balter voters are supporting Trump, 13% of Katko supporters say they're voting for Biden. These are voters that Katko needs to hold onto and likely increase if he wants to win reelection. And it is a group that Balter likely needs to try and woo back to her side if she wants to hold or increase her narrow lead."

Biden has endorsed Balter and "as Democrats hope Biden can provide a boost to Balter's chances in the 24th district, Katko is being affected by Trump's low numbers in the district. The president is viewed unfavorably by 60% of voters, according to the Siena poll. That includes 30% of Republicans. An example of GOP dissatisfaction with Trump came in late August when former Republican Congressman Jim Walsh endorsed Biden for president."

Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, thinks the main factor in how the presidential race affects the 24th district campaign is the negative view of Trump and how that hurts Katko.

"Trump has become a millstone around Katko's neck," Reeher wrote in an email to The Citizen. "Clearly the main campaign strategy of the Balter campaign is to associate Katko with Trump as much as possible. In this regard, the president's performance in the first debate probably hurt Katko by proxy. That might have been the last straw for some independent and even Democrat voters who were previously willing to split their ticket in order to vote for Katko. Katko will need a large chunk of split tickets in order to win, and those might be harder to come by now."

In 2016, Katko didn't endorse Trump. He chose to write in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president instead of casting a vote for Trump, the GOP nominee.

Four years later, Katko opted to endorse Trump for reelection. The endorsement was announced in January-- before the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than 210,000 Americans and sparked an economic crisis. Katko maintains his support for Trump, despite the likely effect it's having on his own campaign.

"I imagine that if Katko could have seen into the future back when he said Trump was the better choice, in comparison with Biden, he might have decided differently," Reeher wrote. "But he's in a tough spot. Trump is the de facto leader of his party, and Katko has been effective in getting money for his district by not alienating him too much."

  Democrats are hoping that the results will be similar to 2012 when the party last won this congressional seat. That year, Democratic candidate Dan Maffei won the election and Barack Obama won reelection as president with 57% of the vote. The polls, including the Siena College survey, suggest that Biden could come close to matching Obama's 2012 total.

Republicans, though, believe Katko can repeat what he did in 2016: Win reelection by outperforming the GOP presidential candidate in the district. Katko finished 16 points better than Trump in the 24th district four years ago.

The difference for Katko in 2020: He's facing a tough reelection fight. It's likely that he will outperform Trump in the district, but he may lose his bid for a fourth term in Congress. 

Please consider clicking on the 2020 Congress Needs More Progressive Women thermometer above and contributing what you can to Dana Balter's campaign.

Trump Is Mentally Unbalanced-- Where Are His Doctors When He And The Country Desperately Need Them?

 

Before moving to L.A., I had lived in New York, Amsterdam and San Francisco. In L.A. I discovered something unique to this city. People ask you to invest in their films. It's insane because "invest" is the wrong word. It means you give them money for the film and then you write it off as a tax loss. I avoided that ugly world for the whole time I lived here. Then I got cancer. The doctor takes care of fighting the cancer. The patient takes care of fighting the side-effects. One of the side effects, it turns out, is that you become extremely impaired in every day, including mentally. Some unscrupulous hustler/movie producer figured out I was suffering from the side effects and tricked me-- easy in my state of mind-- into investing a very large sum of money in his absurd film, Cold Moon. I'm listed as a producer. Needless to say, I lost all the money. Lesson: Don't make important decisions when you're on strong drugs.

Guess who's on very, very strong drugs after his treatment in the hospital for COVID? Hint: Donald Jr, Thinks Sr. is acting insane. Gabe Sherman on Monday: "Trump's erratic and reckless behavior in the last 24 hours has opened a rift in the Trump family over how to rein in the out-of-control president, according to two Republicans briefed on the family conversations. Sources said Donald Trump Jr. is deeply upset by his father’s decision to drive around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last night with members of the Secret Service while he was infected with COVID-19. 'Don Jr. thinks Trump is acting crazy,' one of the sources told me. The stunt outraged medical experts, including an attending physician at Walter Reed. According to sources, Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner to convince the president that he needs to stop acting unstable. 'Don Jr. has said he wants to stage an intervention, but Jared and Ivanka keep telling Trump how great he’s doing,' a source said. Don Jr. is said to be reluctant to confront his father alone. 'Don said, I’m not going to be the only one to tell him he’s acting crazy,' the source added. One area where the family seems united is over the president’s manic tweeting early Monday morning. After Trump sent out more than a dozen all-caps tweets, the Trump children told people they want Trump to stop. 'They’re all worried. They’ve tried to get him to stop tweeting,' a source close to the family told me. The Trump family’s private concern about Trump’s behavior could raise questions about his fitness for office. Trump has been prescribed drugs that medical experts say can seriously impair his cognitive function. Last night the New York Times reported that steroids, which Trump is reportedly taking, specifically dexamethasone, are known to 'affect mood, causing euphoria or a general happiness.'"

Uh... yeah... to put it mildly. The state Trump is in now is what the 25th Amendment was passed for. And the insane tweeting has only accelerated. Yesterday Michelle Goldberg tweeted that Señor Trumpanzee's "Twitter feed is always nuts but right now it really seems like he’s suffering some sort of psychological implosion." Well, yes, he clearly is. Earlier, Wisconsin Republican icon Charlie Sykes tweeted "Trump’s Twitter feed is extra-deranged tonight." That super-derangement spilled over into the next day, when the whole country-- world-- could watch Trump falling apart mentally and emotionally. He should be aware from electronics and in the care of physicians-- and I have nothing against osteopaths at all.

What if he decides to order the U.S. military to attack someone? Who's going to stand up to him? Certainly not Republicans! When he ordered them to break off negotiations with Democrats on the desperate needed pandemic relief package that he has held up, McConnell and McCarthy both said, "Yes, Your Highness," screwing over the country-- and their own constituents. "Trump pulled the plug on ongoing bipartisan coronavirus relief talks in an abrupt move that jolted Wall Street and surprised lawmakers of both parties," reported the Wall Street Journal but hours later called on Congress to approve a bill providing another direct check to many Americans." Hours later he was tweeting that Congress must pass the package IMMEDIATELY. The Washington Post: "First, he says he won’t pursue a package until after election. Then he demands Congress immediately pass bills." No one knows what to make of his erratic behavior-- other than scholars of King George III and fans of Hamilton.

And... Judd Legum who's Wednesday morning newsletter was devoted to a close look into Trump's Drugs. He wasn't treated by a quack he's been pushing, Stella Emmanuel, and he didn't take hydroxychloroquine, Legum wrote about what he did take:

• Regeneron's antibody cocktail, a promising experimental drug that has been made available to fewer than ten people outside of clinical trials.
• Remdesivir, a drug administered by IV that was found to shorten hospital stays for patients with serious cases of COVID-19.
• Dexamethasone, a steroid that was found to increase survival for patients with severe cases of COVID-19 and require supplemental oxygen.

Legum pointed out that "hydroxychloroquine is not an effective treatment for COVID-19 [and that] Trump foisted an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment on the American public for months. But when his own health was on the line, Trump unwilling to follow his own advice." (No one know if he drank any bleach or shoved a UV light up his ass, though.)

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, hydroxychloroquine boosters are disappointed that Trump has abandoned the drug. Dr. Emmanuel, the conspiracy theorist that Trump promoted in May, said whoever convinced Trump to stop taking hydroxychloroquine should be "punched in the face."

She offered to prescribe hydroxychloroquine to White House staffers.

Steve Jalsevac, a hydroxychloroquine fan who co-founded the far-right website LifeSite News, urged readers to "contact the White House to ask why the president and Melania are not immediately being given this well-proven-in-practice medication protocol for COVID infection.”

Others, like former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka, were in denial. "I’m sure he’s taking his hydroxy this morning just like I did this morning," Gorka said. 

Most people who have heard of Mona Charen, I suspect, know her as an outspoken, partisan and very conservative Republican. She's written 3 books and you can figure out from the titles, who she is: Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First (2003), Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (and the Rest of Us) (2005) and Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense (2018). She worked as a speechwriter in the Reagan White House and for Jack Kemp. I gather she's not supporting the fascist candidate next month but the institutional conservative: Joe Biden. About a month ago she wrote The Coming Biden Landslide for the #NeverTrump site, The Bulwark. In her mind, Biden is the Republican saint, Ronald Reagan, and Trump is 2020's Jimmy Carter, detested by Republicans to this day.

Yesterday another Bulwarker, #NeverTrump Republican Tim Miller, wrote that when he looks at Trump’s "Twitter-centric negotiation over the possibility of a second COVID-19 stimulus package in the past 24 hours, I just gotta say, I think he might be fouling this up. He is the Great Negotiator. He 'wrote' a whole book on the subject, you may have heard of it. And here I am, a liberal arts major. A person who did not not go to Wharton Business School while pretending that I did... But speaking as a novice, this stimulus negotiation looks like an epic self-own on par with bankrupting a casino or selling steaks in a home electronics store. For those who aren’t juiced up on steroids or slamming dexamethasone, it might be hard to keep up...

For the last few months, Democrats and Republicans have been-- slowly, distractedly-- fighting over the details of a supplemental COVID stimulus package that would address the severe economic hardships brought upon many families and businesses by the pandemic. On Tuesday, the president, who had been largely absent from these discussions previously, crashed through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man in an attempt to demonstrate his mediation prowess.

First, around 2:30 p.m., he executed one of his patented gambits straight out of Art of the Deal:

The “economic populist” timed this power move on the heels of a conversation with Austerity-for-Thee Cocaine Mitch, blindsiding his own advisers (element of surprise!) in a series of tweets announcing that he will end negotiations on the stimulus package until after the election. As part of the tweetstorm, he also kindly ensured that people are aware that Nancy Pelosi wanted to pass a munificent $2.4 trillion in aid for people still struggling through a once-in-a-century pandemic.

Here-- within half an hour after his tweeting began-- is how the stock market responded to his announcement:

So, as an opening bid, it left a little bit to be desired, I would say. Jonathan Chait, another non-businessman mind you, called it “the worst political blunder in history.” A tad dramatic maybe, but not a great sign.

Regardless, it seemed like the dire reaction in the markets left Trump in a bad negotiating position vis-à-vis Speaker Pelosi-- and she agreed, firing off a single tweet about how the president’s ploy exposed his heartlessness.

This sense was confirmed five hours later when the president took a new/old tack, recanting his earlier contention that Pelosi’s offer was overly generous and adding a dollop of his trademark schoolyard misogyny:

With balance restored to the negotiating table, you might think he would wait to see how Pelosi would respond.

Not this president.

No he needed to further demonstrate his position as the alpha.

So in between IVs, presumably during commercial breaks from the shows, possibly wearing his preferred nightgown, he began to unleash a torrent of tweets negotiating against himself like a person suffering from a bout of psychosis due to a corticosteroid therapy.

First he did a complete 180 on his earlier position that Congress should pass no stimulus legislation, retweeting a news story about the Federal Reserve chair that implied Congress should spend even more!

Then he retweeted the esteemed Paul Sperry of Investor’s Business Daily-- not once, not twice, but twenty-two separate times-- on matters ranging from #Obamagate to the “disgraceful” moderator of the debate that Trump totally won to a not-all-that-veiled attack on Joe Biden for being concerned about health care when his wife and child died in a tragic car accident.

Trump followed that up with eight retweets of Fox News analyst Gregg Jarrett, calling for the jailing of his former opponent Hillary Clinton and disparaging Speaker Pelosi’s looks.

He then tweeted a meme depicting the late Chris Farley—in character as the thrice-divorced homeless motivational speaker Matt Foley from the classic SNL sketch-- berating Attorney General Bill Barr for not arresting enough political opponents.

It’s unclear to me if any of these missives were part of the gamesmanship of the ongoing negotiations but I wanted to make sure that everyone had a clear picture of the state of play.

Around 10 p.m., on day five (we think) of the experimental drug regimen he is taking for combating the coronavirus, the president then launched back into the stimulus negotiations that at this stage are taking place only between himself and his earlier tweets.

No longer wanting to walk away completely, the president demanded that Congress pass two pieces of standalone legislation, the first bailing out the airline industry, the second sending a round of $1,200 stimulus checks out to our “great people.”
In the final tweet at the time of writing, he tagged Nancy Pelosi-- whose visage he had insulted hours earlier and who has been silent as he dickered for hours-- presumably in an attempt to reopen the line of communication with his counterparty.

Whew.

Given that I have never been “in a boardroom” for a high-stakes parley like this and that I cannot take the full measure of Donald Trump since he spent the day hiding from the cameras as the novel coronavirus infection consumed him, I can only turn to a celebrity negotiator for his expert analysis on what transpired:

"The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead."
—Donald J. Trump.

Hard to argue with that.

Trump, Mentally Impaired From COVID-19 Treatments, Orders McConnell And McCarthy To Stop Negotiating With Democrats About A Pandemic Relief Bill

 

Active Shooter by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday, Democrats on Congress' Joint Economic Committee put out a statement reminding people that "In the early months of the coronavirus crisis, prominent former officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations released a public letter stating that 'saving lives and saving the economy are not in conflict right now; we will hasten the return to robust economic activity by taking steps to stem the spread of the virus and save lives.' A new JEC issue brief explains how America has failed and why full economic recovery remains far off."

Let's face it-- and more and more Americans now "get it," Trump "has done more to spread the coronavirus than to stem it-- telling Americans it isn’t dangerous, refusing to lead efforts to contain it, defying public health experts, discouraging the use of masks, pressuring governors to prematurely lift social distancing guidelines, holding super-spreading political rallies, attempting to restrict testing, and recently telling the public not to fear the virus. Now more than 210,000 Americans are dead and it is projected that the number will reach 400,000 in early January."

The weak economy is a direct result of this failure to contain the coronavirus. There are almost 11 million fewer jobs than there were in February, over 26.5 million workers are receiving unemployment benefits and temporary layoffs are becoming permanent as businesses close for good. Economists predict that the failure to fight the coronavirus will have a serious economic impact well into the future. As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said recently, “until the public is confident that the disease is contained, a full recovery is unlikely.”

An unheeded message to Congressional Republicans

Yesterday, in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics, Powell urged Congress to move rapidly to inject more stimulus into the economy. "Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste. The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods." NPR reported that "He also warned the group that without additional support, the economy could slip into a downward spiral 'as weakness feeds on weakness. A long period of unnecessarily slow progress could continue to exacerbate existing disparities in our economy,' Powell said. 'That would be tragic, especially in light of our country's progress on these issues in the years leading up to the pandemic.'"

Over the weekend, Trump seemed eager for additional relief, tweeting, "OUR GREAT USA WANTS & NEEDS STIMULUS."

But by Tuesday afternoon, the president had changed course, rejecting Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call for an additional $2.4 trillion in aid.

"I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business," Trump tweeted.

The president's move sent the stock market tumbling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index, which had been up before Trump's tweet, both closed in the red, with the Dow losing 375 points or 1.3% and the S&P down 1.4%.

Powell credited the "extraordinary" relief measures passed early in the pandemic with helping to avoid a deeper recession and setting the stage for a partial rebound.

But recent indicators have shown the economic recovery is starting to slow as infections continue to spread. The labor market also remains under stress: Almost half the 22 million jobs lost in the spring have not been replaced.

Powell said Tuesday it may be some time before people whose jobs require a lot of in-person contact can safely return to work.

"While the combined effects of fiscal and monetary policy have aided the solid recovery of the labor market so far, there is still a long way to go," the Fed chairman said.

"The right thing to do and the smart thing to do is to continue to support those people as they return to their old jobs or find new jobs in different sectors of the economy," Powell added.

..."The longer it goes on, the more likely there is some lasting damage," Powell said. "For many people, and it's a lot of women, it's winding up being in the home with young children who really should be in school and you would much prefer to be working. So it's a real issue."

Several of the progressive congressional candidates were actually shocked that Republicans are letting this happen. Michigan state Rep. Jon Hoadley is taking on multimillionaire Trump-enabler Fred Upton. He told me this morning that "Upton and his Republican Party have failed to deliver, again, for people across America. At a time when southwest Michigan families need just a little help, Mr. Upton's 34 years in DC can't produce results. Problem not solved."

In a message to her supporters yesterday, Marie Newman wrote that she has "come to expect carelessness and cruelty from the Trump Administration, but this level of disregard for Americans’ pain is truly astounding. Millions are out of work and many more will lose their jobs, and even lose their lives, without the economic relief our country desperately needs and deserves. I’ve spent the past five months meeting with community members, small business owners, and first responders across Illinois’ Third District. They desperately need relief. Now. Working families need additional federal support as they struggle to find work and keep food on the table, small businesses need continued relief to stay afloat and pay their employees, and states and municipalities need immediate assistance to continue providing essential public services. Trump and his allies in Congress see these negotiations as a political game, but in reality, American lives are on the line. I’ve had enough with politicians who ignore the needs of their constituents. Vote them out."





"The decision to postpone a pandemic relief package until after the election is a disaster for thousands of West Virginia families struggling in this economic depression," WV-02 congressional candidate Cathy Kunkel told us this morning. "Congressman Mooney has never been an advocate for relief for working families, voting against the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and expressing more concern about the federal deficit (except when it comes to military spending) than his constituents who have lost jobs or whose small businesses are struggling to survive. The reality is that our economy will not recover as long as this virus continues to impact our daily lives, and working people need monthly economic relief checks to avoid evictions, foreclosures, and utility shutoffs."

The Chamber Of Commerce Dems From The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party Just Undercut Pelosi's Pandemic Negotiations With Mnuchin

 

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Pelosi anticipates striking a pandemic relief deal with Mnuchin, who the Republicans have tasked with keeping the package as small and mean as possible. Erica Werner and Jeff Stein asserted that Pelosi thinks that now that Trump is dying sick, it will be easier to get a bipartisan deal. The vote in the House on Thursday for the $2.2 trillion package was supposed to strengthen her hand in the negotiations. Instead, as we explained earlier a pack of mangy Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, screwed it up by voting with the Republicans against the package, giving Mnuchin a bit of an edge in cutting down the amount of money that goes to state and local governments and to working families directly.

Democrats had sought a $2.2 trillion package, while the White House’s most recent offer was closer to $1.6 trillion. Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke Friday afternoon for 65 minutes and plan to continue their discussions, according to Drew Hammill, a spokesman for the House speaker.

The pace of talks-- and the possibility of a deal-- have picked up markedly in recent days. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters Friday that Trump had inquired about the status of negotiations Friday morning, shortly after the president announced his positive coronavirus test.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sounded a positive note at a news conference in Kentucky.” I’m trying to figure out here whether I should predict another bill quickly or not, but the talks have speeded up in the last couple days,” said McConnell, who is not directly involved in the negotiations but is regularly briefed by Mnuchin. “I think we’re closer to getting an outcome.”

With the talks picking up steam, Pelosi released a statement Friday calling on airlines to delay imminent furloughs of workers whose jobs are at risk after payroll support included in the Cares Act expired Wednesday. Pelosi said a six-month extension of the Payroll Support Program would be included in any deal or passed as a stand-alone bill. American Airlines and United Airlines this week announced they would be furloughing a combined 32,000 employees because federal aid expired and the travel industry remains battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Both airlines released statements pledging to reverse the furloughs if Congress acts, but urged lawmakers to move quickly.

The U.S. economy plunged sharply into a recession earlier this year when the coronavirus pandemic led many companies and employers to lay off workers and temporarily close. The economy recovered a bit during the summer, but it has shown signs of lagging in recent weeks, particularly as several large companies have announced new plans for layoffs. That emerging head wind has helped revive talks between the White House and Democrats, but numerous significant issues remain unresolved.

Pelosi outlined some of them in a letter Friday afternoon to House Democrats that pointed to unemployment insurance, money for cities and states, and tax credits for children and families as among the areas where she had yet to reach agreement with Mnuchin.

“We are expecting a response from the White House on these areas and others with more detail,” Pelosi wrote. “In the meantime, we continue to work on the text to move quickly to facilitate an agreement.”

In a sign that a deal could be emerging, Mnuchin told at least one Republican senator in a phone call on Thursday night that the agreement with Pelosi would include a substantial amount of money for state and local governments, a provision numerous conservative Republican senators have strongly resisted, according to one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the private conversation. The call was interpreted as designed to prepare conservatives for the White House to give more on state and local aid than they had previously expected.

Although Pelosi was cross as the garbage Democraps, her own House Majority PAC and the DCCC have already started spending immense amounts of money to save their worthless hides. Neither the DCCC or Pelosi's PAC spends much on progressives, making sure to keep the number of progressives down to a bare minimum, but they spend millions and millions of dollars protecting weak Blue Dogs and New Dems who don't generate much enthusiasm from woke Democrats.

Most of them will win in the November anti-Trump tsunami and will go on to be defeated in 2022 after two years of nothing consequential coming out of the Biden White House or the Schumer Senate. These garbagecrats all voted against the pandemic bailout package. The number next to their names is how much the DCCC and the House majority PAC have already spent independently on behalf of their campaigns-- and they're just getting started.

• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- $1,159,950
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- $2,252,284
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- $1,600,047
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- $1,601,567
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- $1,171,949
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- $1,509,849
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- $1,154,442
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- $1,514,655
• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)- $420,500
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- $1,656,318
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- $1,336,672