All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Louis Gohmert tests positive for COVID-19.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...navirus-386076

I just saw that. I wonder how many others will after him?

[Tami]

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is searching for new political allies. He’s found one in Kansas.

At his Park Avenue penthouse — 62 floors high and with a sparkling nighttime view of the Manhattan skyline — billionaire Peter Thiel last fall introduced to his friends an immigration hardliner who he would back with over $1 million to try and transform the Republican Party.

The guest of honor was not President Donald Trump. It was Kris Kobach.

Thiel, a California venture capitalist, and Kobach, who is running in Kansas for the Republican nomination for the US Senate, were quite far from Kansas that evening. But the alliance between the two iconoclasts has reshaped the race in that state, giving Kobach a puncher’s chance to beat the GOP establishment — possibly upsetting Republicans’ hopes to hold their Senate majority.

In the months since that fundraiser, Thiel has pumped $850,000 into a super PAC behind Kobach — and that could be just the start if he wins. The investment in Kobach is Thiel’s most significant political bet since he risked his standing in Silicon Valley to support Donald Trump in 2016. And the wisdom of that bet will be tested just next week, when Kobach faces the voters of Kansas in a race that polls show to be tight.

If Kobach is elected, it could give Thiel a loyal ally in the Senate because of how powerful he is proving to be in the race. That alliance becomes all the more key if Trump loses this fall, which would weaken the Washington influence of Thiel, a board member at Facebook and a founder of Palantir, which has deep ties to the government.

Patrick Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas who is closely following the primary, told Recode Thiel’s money was “absolutely critical to Kobach being a viable candidate.”

“I don’t want to overstate it and say that Kobach wouldn’t have a campaign without him. But I think the money that that super PAC is putting into the race — primarily through this one rich guy — is absolutely the lifeblood of the pro-Kobach campaign at this moment,” Miller said. “You take that money away and Kobach doesn’t have a lot of campaign left.”

[Joker]

Louis Gohmert tests positive for COVID-19.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...navirus-386076

Zero sympathy. My only hope is he didn't infect a lot of people. Hopefully no one.

Imma leave it at that...

[Kirby101]

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is searching for new political allies. He’s found one in Kansas.

This GOP scumbag.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/202...ch-2020-Update

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Zero sympathy. My only hope is he didn't infect a lot of people. Hopefully no one.

Imma leave it at that...

Oh, yeah, Loopy Louie was supposed to have been on Air Force One with Trump for a trip to Texas this morning. I'm sure Dolt45 was sweating bullets when the news came out about Gohmert, and that's on the heels of his National Security Advisor having tested positive just last week.

[Tami]

Okay.....this is not a Kodachrome moment

Kodak surges 1,900% in 2 days after securing a $765 million government loan to make drug ingredients

How does a company known for cameras and film switch over to making pharmaceutical chemicals?

Kodak stock soared as much as 1,900% in two days after the camera company secured a $765 million government loan to produce generic-drug ingredients in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kodak shares more than tripled on Tuesday, then jumped as much as 570%, to at least a seven-year high, on Wednesday. The group's market capitalization ballooned more than twentyfold, to about $2.2 billion at one point.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday described the Kodak agreement as "one of the most important deals in the history of US pharmaceutical industries."

The US International Development Finance Corporation said it would lend the cash to Kodak under the Defense Production Act, which requires companies to accept and prioritize government contracts for national security and other reasons.

Kodak said it planned to use the loan to launch a pharmaceuticals division to make essential drug components in "chronic national shortage," as defined by the Food and Drug Administration.

Pharmaceutical ingredients could eventually account for 30% to 40% of Kodak's business, CEO Jim Continenza told The Wall Street Journal.

Kodak dominated the photographic-film market and boasted a market cap of nearly $30 billion in 1997. But it filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after the digital camera rendered many of its products obsolete — even though it invented the digital camera, according to The New York Times.

Kodak's revenue fell 6%, to $1.2 billion, in 2019, widening its pre-tax loss to $60 million.

The US International Development Finance Corporation said it would lend the cash to Kodak under the Defense Production Act, which requires companies to accept and prioritize government contracts for national security and other reasons.

Kodak said it planned to use the loan to launch a pharmaceuticals division to make essential drug components in "chronic national shortage," as defined by the Food and Drug Administration.

Pharmaceutical ingredients could eventually account for 30% to 40% of Kodak's business, CEO Jim Continenza told The Wall Street Journal.

[Tami]

Rep. Louie Gohmert thinks that it’s possible that wearing a mask gave him COVID.

[skyvolt2000]

How does a company known for cameras and film switch over to making pharmaceutical chemicals?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak

1970: Kodak scientists disclose the continuous wave tunable dye laser. This becomes a product for several high-tech companies but not at Kodak.
1975: Steven Sasson, then an electrical engineer at Kodak, invented a digital camera.

1976: The Bayer Pattern color filter array (CFA) was invented by Eastman Kodak researcher Bryce Bayer. The order in which dyes are placed on an image sensor photosite is still in use today. The basic technology is still the most commonly used of its kind to date.

1978: Kodak introduces the Ektachem clinical chemistry testing system. The system employs dry film technology, and within 5 years was being used by most hospitals in the country.

It's possible in terms of technology. Maybe they can make a film that can look deeper into a virus or something.

I mean who would have thought so much of the stuff we use today came from a failed tv show called Star Trek?

[InformationGeek]

Rep. Louie Gohmert thinks that it’s possible that wearing a mask gave him COVID.

Yep. Sounds like Louie.


Also, Trump being racist and removing Obama's legacy. It's double the amount of BS!

JUST IN: Trump claims move to repeal Obama fair housing rule will boost home prices, lower crime

And the tweets themselves.

I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood...

...Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!

[Tami]

Chaos in the hearing. Everyone starts shouting. Someone yells at Jim Jordan to put on a mask

"You want to talk about masks?" Jordan says, before mentioning the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn

Twitter Link

[shooshoomanjoe]

Now I have that damn song stuck in my head.

"Who lives in a state of perpetual bankruptcy?

SpongeDon WhinePants!

Thin skinned and hateful and or-ange is he!

SpongeDon WhinePants!"

Your welcome.

the Ballad of donald trump.

[Tami]

LAPD ‘SWAT Mafia’ encouraged excessive force and retaliation, officer’s suit claims

A longtime Los Angeles police SWAT sergeant is suing the LAPD, alleging the unit is run by a “SWAT Mafia” of veteran cops who encourage the use of deadly force and ostracized him for revealing its behavior.

Sgt. Tim Colomey, who spent 11 years as a SWAT supervisor until last November, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging retaliation for revealing how a group of veteran officers controlled the tactical unit’s operations and membership and punished him and other enemies for speaking out.

Colomey says in the suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court that those leaders “glamorize the use of lethal force, and direct the promotions of officers who share the same values while maligning the reputations of officers who do not.”

Colomey claims that those who don’t use deadly force in the tactical unit rather than seek other means to end standoffs and other situations are pushed out.

[Tami]

Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID"

[BeastieRunner]

Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID"

Freudian slip.

[Tami]

TEXAS REP. KAY GRANGER — who is 77 — will self quarantine

“Ranking Member Granger was seated next to Representative Gohmert on a flight from Texas Sunday evening. At the direction of the Attending Physician, and out of an abundance of caution, she is self-quarantining.”

Twitter Link