Day: December 18, 2020

Closing Thought–18Dec 20

I want to close out the week with some humor.

I know we all (most of us) will be pleased to see the back of Trump and the Gang That Could Not Shoot Straight…..and someone once said that maybe because of their lack of concern and the infection of so many with the virus maybe the White House should be disinfected……or maybe its all those Trump “cooties” that needs killing…..

Is that truly needed?

“Nuking” the White House “with chemicals is not needed” to protect the incoming Biden administration from COVID-19, J. David Krause, an environmental and occupational health consultant, told Stat News, yet that appears to be the plan to disinfect the building before the transition.

Multiple outlets have reported that a Virginia-based contractor has been tapped to spray a disinfectant throughout the East and West Wings before President-elect Joe Biden moves in next month, but Krause — the past chair of the American Industrial Hygiene Association — and many other experts have said that strategy is not only ineffective, but also could be dangerous, both for people and for works of art.

“It’s a huge waste of time and effort,” Krause said. “It probably isn’t as effective as people say it is. And it runs the risk of somebody actually breathing this stuff in where it may be extremely hazardous. You really only need to be treating the surfaces that people have been exposed to or can be exposed to.”

Instead, a deep clean followed by another round of frequently-touched surfaces like elevator buttons and light switches should do the trick, Jason Marshall, the laboratory director of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, told Stat. And both Marshall and Krause agree leaving the White House empty for a week between administrations could be the easiest solution, since studies have found the coronavirus only lasts for a few days on surfaces. Read more at Stat News. Tim O’Donnell.

(the week.com)

I gotta hear some thoughts here.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

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Will There Be Checks?

That is the important question people ask when they hear that a new stim plan is on the horizon.

Most of us mere mortals have suffered more than most from the economic results from the pandemic……what is needed is cash.

The first stim check helped somewhat…..and after a couple of other stim plans….cash has been slowly coming from Congress while cash for those already rolling in money came easily.

It has been a long time coming….and what are the real chances?

It looks like Congress is on track to reach a deal on a COVID stimulus package before the end of the week, one that would include relief checks for Americans, though at a smaller amount than the first ones of $1,200. Coverage:

  • Key numbers: Most Americans are expected to get checks of $600, reports CNN. The unemployed would get an additional $300 per week in benefits as part of the $900 billion measure. Democrats and Republicans continue to wrangle over the aid amounts, however.
  • Georgia factor: Republicans initially balked at a second round of relief checks, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his GOP colleagues in a conference call that the two Republican senators in Georgia’s upcoming runoff races were getting “hammered” on the issue, reports Politico. The races will decide who controls the Senate next year.
  • A concession: McConnell also has budged on a key concession—the GOP will no longer insist on liability protections for business owners whose employees contract the coronavirus. McConnell once called this a “red line,” but he relented when a bipartisan group of senators began pushing for a deal, writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times. “It’s possible this bipartisan deal will end up being a one-time event,” adds Leonhardt. “But it doesn’t have to be. Senators have it within their power to find other areas of compromise next year, during Joe Biden’s presidency—even if McConnell does not favor those deals.”
  • On the other hand: McConnell is still getting most of what he wanted in the emerging deal, reports the Hill. That includes the removal of a large pool of new funding for state and local governments dealing with pandemic-related shortfalls. The AP puts the amount at about $160 billion. “It’s heartbreaking for us,” says Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, referring to his home state.
  • Other help: The package is expected to include money for renters facing eviction, food aid, and farm subsidies, per the AP. The Postal Service may get a $10 billion bailout.

But the checks are not in the mail–yet while you await the decision of Congress here are a few thoughts about stim checks…..

In the blink of an eye, the stimulus package now being negotiated among top US lawmakers (they even have a nickname, “The Four Corners”) went from having no second stimulus check to another direct payment. This time, it could come in at half of the $1,200 sent as part of the CARES Act. The whispers we’ve heard so far suggest the second stimulus check could give you a maximum of either $600 or $700, a rate that reflects the relatively smaller size of the $900 billion stimulus proposal. (The CARES Act cost $2.2 trillion.)

This is the latest in a string of murmured changes to a second stimulus check. Various proposals since May have shifted one qualification or another in ways that could potentially bring a household more money than the first stimulus check. 

Remember, not everyone is guaranteed the full $1,200. And there’s actually quite a complex formula that determines how much money you got in your final check based on your AGI and the number of eligible child dependents in your household. (It gets even trickier when you consider child support situations.)

https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/new-stimulus-check-600-vs-700-vs-1200-every-way-your-final-payment-could-change/

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Executive Order 9835

I know what you are thinking….what silliness as Trump signed into law before he is thrown from the White House, right?

Well you would be wrong….Trump as of August 2020 issued 200 EOs and he s not the all time record….that would be Clinton with 364……this EO is about 70 years old and was issued by President Harry Truman….

So do you think the Trump was being paranoid when he wanted loyalty from government employees?

In response to public fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees.

As the Cold War began to develop after World War II, fears concerning communist activity in the United States, particularly in the federal government, increased. Congress had already launched investigations of communist influence in Hollywood, and laws banning communists from teaching positions were being instituted in several states. Of most concern to the Truman administration, however, were persistent charges that communists were operating in federal offices. In response to these fears and concerns, Truman issued an executive order on March 21, 1947, which set up a program to check the loyalty of federal employees. In announcing his order, Truman indicated that he expected all federal workers to demonstrate “complete and unswerving loyalty” the United States. Anything less, he declared, “constitutes a threat to our democratic processes.”

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/truman-orders-loyalty-checks-of-federal-employees

That was Executive Order 9835…..

Read the EO for yourself and see if there is nay difference in 70 years……

Click to access 6Executive-Order-9835.pdf

For more information……https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/executive-orders/9835/executive-order-9835

Let us not forget about the Sedition Act of 1918….

The Sedition Act of 1918, enacted during World War I, made it a crime to “willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States” or to “willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of the production” of the things “necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war.” The act, along with other similar federal laws, was used to convict at least 877 people in 1919 and 1920, according to a report by the attorney general. In 1919, the Court heard several important free speech cases — including Debs v. United States and Abrams v. United States — involving the constitutionality of the law. In both cases, the Court upheld the convictions as well as the law.

Read the transcript and then tell me it does not sound familiar.

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/sources_document1.html

Just change a few words here and there and these could have been issued in the 4 years since the election of Donald Trump….

If you read and would like to give your thoughts….I am listening…..(should I have said ‘reading”?)

Ain’t history grand?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Medicare For All Update

By now we have heard all the lies and accusations about Medicare For All (M4A)…..especially those pieces of CRAP that call it socialism (I would argue this point and I will as soon as the critics learn what the Hell they are talking about)….one of the biggest lies would come from the radical Right think tank, Heritage Foundation, and it would be too damn expensive to cover absolutely everyone with health care.

I have been writing about M4A extensively…..

https://lobotero.com/2019/03/04/medicare-for-all/

https://lobotero.com/2019/10/28/can-we-afford-medicare-for-all/

https://lobotero.com/2020/03/04/medicare-for-all-again/

(I realize there are redundancies in those posts but some times the reader needs to be bombarded to get the point through)

Well the CBO under the Trump thumb has contradicted the lies spread about the costs of implementing M4A…..

The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released a report examining the costs associated with universal healthcare proposals that are based on Medicare’s fee-for-service program and found that implementing a single-payer health insurance program in the United States would not only guarantee coverage for every person in the country but would also reduce overall healthcare spending nationwide.

In the words of researcher Matt Bruenig—founder and president of the progressive think tank People’s Policy Project who called the CBO’s working paper (pdf) on the topic “more exhaustive than any other recent study on the subject”—the new analysis shows that administrative costs under a single-payer healthcare system “will be lower than what even the most rabid Medicare for All supporters have traditionally claimed.”

According to Bruenig, “Modeling the cost of a single-payer program is relatively straightforward. You begin with the status quo healthcare system and then make educated guesses about the following questions:

  1. How many more units of healthcare services will be demanded and supplied when price barriers are removed?
  2. How much more efficient will health insurance administration be after the enrollment and payment systems are radically simplified?
  3. How much money will be saved by reducing the payment rates for healthcare providers and drug companies?”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/11/seems-good-policy-cbo-shows-medicare-all-could-cover-everyone-650-billion-less-year

This program would not be so bad if we diverted the cash from our endless wars to a program that would benefit everyone….not just the slugs in the M-IC….but I know that will not happen as long as YOU keep elected Centrists that owe their position to the wealthy toads on Wall Street and in the depths of the Pentagon.

M4A is the ONLY answer to covering the American people…regardless what people like Biden/Harris say.

And yet the American people had rather be scammed by the industry than look for a option that will protect them all the way….all from the use of an obsolete term.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden And Nukes

I have been writing a lot about the policies that the president-elect, Joe Biden, will most likely pursue once he takes the oath of office….I admit that there are not many of the policies of his that I can say I agree with…….all I can say is that at least he is not Trump….

I have tries to cover all policies that he would likely attempt….many of them are not what the American people need…..like the idea of nuclear power….

Then there is the offer of ‘clean energy”….something the Biden/Harris team will probably push…..

Although possibly a sad comment on his predecessors, incoming U.S. president, Joe Biden, is offering the most progressive climate policy so far of any who have previously held his position.

As Paul Gipe points out in his recent blog, the Biden-Harris climate plan uses the word “revolution” right in the headline — a bit of a departure from the usual cautious rhetoric of the centrist-controlled Democratic Party.

But ‘revolution’ is proceeded by two words which let us know we are still lingering in conservative ‘safe’ territory. They call it a “clean energy revolution”, which Gipe rightly refers to as “focus-group shopped terminology.” He goes on:

”Clean energy is a term forged by Madison Avenue advertising mavens in the crucible of focus groups. It ‘polls well,’ as they say. It means one thing to one interest group, something else to another. So it’s perfect for politics in America.

“To environmentalists, it means wind and solar energy, often only those two forms of renewable energy, and sometimes only solar. It also means good times to the coal and nuclear industry. (Ever hear of ‘clean coal’?)

“So clean energy is one of those misleading words that party leaders and, importantly, fundraisers can use to elicit money from donors of all stripes. Why say renewable energy, when you want to raise money from the coal and nuclear industries?”

In Promoting New Nuclear Power, Biden-Harris Back Fiction Over Science

Just like the lie of “clean coal” the lie of “Clean nuke energy” will do nothing but create a bigger problem from the waste it will generate….

Another fine mess the Centrists will get us into.  Go Team!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”