All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Tami]

Tami here is a video for masks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmd4D5Ogepk

Thanks, but I don't have a sewing machine. I do have some scarves that will work, so I'll manage. I don't go out that often.

[Tuck]

rather than really try to electrify educated folks and get minorities and the disenfranchised out to vote.

Are there no homophobes, transphobes, or racists among those groups?

I wouldn't be surprised to see that there were maybe less, but this kind of thing could get hairy pretty quickly.

[TheDarman]

Are there no homophobes, transphobes, or racists among those groups?

I wouldn't be surprised to see that there were maybe less, but this kind of thing could get hairy pretty quickly.

Nah. I mean, there certainly are. Coalition building is difficult. But I’d say it is less likely to find them among those groups who might’ve sat out the election because they didn’t like either candidate than it is to find them among folks who thought Trump was appropriate.

I mean, I don’t care to generalize too much. Trump definitely spoke to some economic anxiety and those who didn’t feel heard, for one reason or another, by the Democrats or Hillary Clinton in a way that they did feel heard by Obama. Those people are probably folks we want to get back. But I think Sanders’ pre-occupation with them ignores why support from the “white, working class” has evaporated since FDR was president. It isn’t because they don’t feel like they are listened to for the most part. It’s because the Democratic Party was threatening to get a certain segment of Americans, who were the only ones whose status could be considered beneath theirs, elevated from their artificially low status.

[Tami]

The rightwing Christian preachers in deep denial over Covid-19's danger

But Howard-Browne is just one of the most prominent religious leaders on the Christian right who are endangering their flocks and the rest of America by claiming the virus is a hoax, or that it can only be defeated by supernatural means, rather than solid healthcare policy.

A sometime guest on Infowars and at the White House; a multi-level marketing kingpin who has alleged that Hollywood celebrities sacrifice children and that New Zealand’s Christchurch mosque attack was a so-called false flag event; Howard-Browne described Covid-19 as a “phantom plague” on 15 March.

In the same sermon, he claimed the public health response to the virus was part of a plot involving the Rockefeller Foundation and World Health Organization, whose goals were forced vaccinations and mass murder.

Howard-Browne has repeatedly refused to call off services in the interests of social distancing. In fact, in recent weeks he has insisted that his congregants embrace and shake hands, exhorting them that they were “revivalists, not pansies”.

Roy Moore, a pastor, former Alabama supreme court judge and failed Trump-backed Alabama Senate candidate who lost amid allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls, told Facebook followers he would write a letter to his fellow pastors on what he called their “duty to continue church assemblies, even in the midst of these trying times”.

Moore added: “Our faith requires it, our duty demands it, and no law or government can prohibit it.”

Kenneth Copeland, a Texas-based “prosperity gospel” preacher who once defended his ownership of three private jets on the grounds that commercial flights would require him to “get in a long tube with a bunch of demons”, told viewers of his Victory Channel in early March that coronavirus was a “weak” strain of the flu, and that fearing the pandemic was a sin.

“Fear is a spiritual force. Fear is not OK. It is sin. It is a magnet for sickness and disease … You are giving the devil a pathway to your body,” Copeland said.

He also criticized pastors who had suspended in-person services and moved to online streaming.

[Gray Lensman]

Self-isolate. Or else.

[PwrdOn]

It would be great if American Fiscally-Focused Progressives would stop proving me right. But even AOC has claimed that she wants the party to return to “our roots” regarding FDR in the same speech that she (rightly) vilified Reagan for being a racist. We see people whitewashing FDR’s record which shows a fundamental ignorance of how those programs were accomplished. They were only politically possible because you had folks like Rogan on board—those who were happy to get programs that benefitted them, but wanted systemic harms in place for minorities. The fact that Bernie was willing to tout that it was Rogan’s campaign too sings of that early progressivism. This is in addition to saying that the Democratic Party needs to reach out MORE to white voters who went for Trump rather than really try to electrify educated folks and get minorities and the disenfranchised out to vote. These are alarming patterns that I think people who like Bernie are all too happy to ignore.

But see, this is where the brain worms come in, are you really trying to say that FDR's policies failed minorities because they were TOO progressive? That somehow adopting a more fiscally conservative approach would have allowed minorities to outcompete whites without relying on government assistance, and that the New Deal programs prevented this from happening? What the hell is Joe Biden going to do to help minorities?

[shooshoomanjoe]

The Trump administration issued a new rule that blocks guaranteed paid sick leave for 75% of American workers

Go ahead trump supporters, keep on propping the party that's not looking out for you.

The Trump administration diminished the scope of a coronavirus aid law that went into effect Wednesday.

The law, which guarantees paid leave, ensures coverage for 25% of the workforce, according to Department of Labor guidelines published Wednesday.

Lawmakers criticized the Labor Department guidelines, saying they "violate congressional intent" and "contradict the plain language" of the law.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Trump administration issued a new rule this week that lets small businesses choose whether to give workers paid sick leave, undercutting Congress's new law that sought to guarantee it.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act sought to protect workers and families from losing income if they fell sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It gives workers two weeks of paid leave, 12 weeks if their children are home from school or require child care, and reimburses employers with tax credits.

It came with some carveouts, though: The law exempts businesses with over 500 employees, and companies with fewer than 50 employees could ask the Department of Labor for an exemption if they believed the rule could bankrupt them. Nearly 75% of workers are employed by companies with under 50 employees or over 500, according to the New York Times.

Now, the Department of Labor has issued a rule that lets small businesses choose whether to give workers paid sick leave, rather than apply for a waiver.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees, according to the guidance, do not need to pay workers for child-related leave if the worker's absence would "cause the small business to cease operating," if it would create "a substantial risk" to the business, or if the company cannot find a replacement "able, willing and qualified" to work.

The exemptions 'violate congressional intent,' lawmakers say
The exemptions even apply to medical workers, first responders, and some government employees, some of whom are already facing layoffs.

Some lawmakers rebuked some Labor Department guidelines, they "violate congressional intent" and "contradict the plain language" of the law.

In a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, and Rep. Rosa Delauro, of Connecticut, urged the Labor Department "to provide the maximum flexibility for workers during this crisis — not restricting their leave to when employers grant their consent."

On Wednesday, Scalia praised the legislation, which he said included "unprecedented paid leave benefits to American workers affected by the virus, while ensuring that businesses are reimbursed."

[TheDarman]

But see, this is where the brain worms come in, are you really trying to say that FDR's policies failed minorities because they were TOO progressive?

Nope. This seems like a willful attempt to misunderstand my point. They failed minorities because they directly and explicitly excluded them. FDR’s Administration created the new neoliberal world order in which many European countries today are the result of. In this world order, governments were encouraged to have robust social safety nets and the like. Our country ultimately fought back against it, but only after fights were fought to include minorities in the project were Republicans successful at finally pushing back at programs they had long hated for other reasons.

The issue is that there still isn’t a lot of evidence that there is a solid coalition of people that are fiscally progressive AND socially progressive. People aren’t neatly packaged that way. Never in American History, frankly, has such a coalition actually existed. FDR had to create a coalition of Southern segregationists and Northern Democrats eager for new programs to get his ideas through. He threw minorities under the bus to get his programs. LBJ was eager to do the same until Martin Luther King Jr. pushed him. And then that lost the Southern Democrats and it basically prompted them to have to form a new coalition—one more focused on social justice.

That somehow adopting a more fiscally conservative approach would have allowed minorities to outcompete whites without relying on government assistance, and that the New Deal programs prevented this from happening?

Nah. But they were excluded. And, suddenly, when minorities were included, support for the programs, even among those who benefited from them, collapsed and Reagan was elected on a platform that promised to destroy them. Now, I think you have a ton of people that wonder what good it is to have these programs without the social reforms necessary to ensure they work for everyone first.

What the hell is Joe Biden going to do to help minorities?

The same things Sanders said he’d do—such as criminal justice reform, a new Voting Rights Bill, and more oversight against local abuses of power. But Biden has shown something else that Sanders has failed to demonstrate. Biden has shown that he will listen. He tied himself to the first African American nominee in American History when it was still considered a gamble to do so. He has gone to communities and talked to African American leaders and asked what they need from him. He’s shown up to events like the anniversary of the March on Selma. Where was Sanders? Sanders was talking in platitudes about economic plans, which have always come at the expense of working for social justice for African Americans. He has not made efforts to reassure them that he can be the first president to “walk and chew bubble gum” with those two priorities. He consistently belittles the community into proscribing particular things he thinks it needs without ever asking what they actually need.

[PaulBullion]

Rogan isn't a swing voter. He's a right wing hack.

The hot takes on how it somehow makes Biden bad that he cannot win over a homophobic, transphobic racist are something else. Something. Else.

[PaulBullion]

And to insist that Joe Rogan, known racist, transphobe, and homophobe, is a more tolerable person to have in the party and as an endorsement than someone who might not agree 100% with tax policy is obscene on every level. I don’t like this kind of progressivism—one that is a purist on economic policy alone and will leave minorities out to dry the second it is convenient. This is precisely why I prefer Obama’s Democratic Party to FDR’s Democratic Party.

And I already saw the “...but Mike Bloomberg” tweets. No one is saying that he is good. I would’ve had serious trouble reconciling a vote for him. But I didn’t have to. And Mike Bloomberg, at least, is going after Trump and trying to take him down. The fact Rogan would say that Trump is better, in itself, proves he is worse than Bloomberg.

Essentially, Bloomberg is the disagreeable ally who has said and done really terrible things. Joe Rogan is the conditional ally, who will only support the candidate who isn’t racist provided that he, himself, feels comfortable—all racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation minorities be dammed.

Very well put. I'd vote for you.

[PaulBullion]

Thanks, but I don't have a sewing machine. I do have some scarves that will work, so I'll manage. I don't go out that often.

No-Sew Pleated Face Mask with Handkerchief and Hair Tie

[mathew101281]

The rightwing Christian preachers in deep denial over Covid-19's danger

The vast majority of preachers have shut down their churches and went digital. The relative few that are making a big deal about this aren’t a significantly large number.

[PaulBullion]

Rand Paul was diagnosed with the Coronavirus on March 22, 13 days ago. We haven’t heard a word since about his condition. Remember, Paul lost part of his lung in that earlier attack from his neighbor. The silence about his condition is odd.

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1246558546969407492

I wasn't aware that the beating Paul got damaged his lungs. This could be more serious.

[worstblogever]

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1246558546969407492

I wasn't aware that the beating Paul got damaged his lungs. This could be more serious.

I thought that from the minute his dumb ass tested positive.

Also, we're either lucky him putzing around the Senate didn't infect more people, or it did and they're hushing that up.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. Speaker of the House and U.S. House Representative for Wisconsin’s 1st District, Paul Ryan, and in that breakdown of the 2012 Vice-Presidential candidate, we covered everything from his bizarre fascination with the P90X workout system, to his immense hard-on for the philosophies of Ayn Rand, to the fact that he was literally in bed with a lobbyist, who he ended up marrying. His voting record was laid bare, from his support for fetal Personhood bills, to his staggeringly anti-gay voting record, to the budgets he's written that favor the rich over the poor so much that nuns are willing to follow him around to deal a heaping dose of Catholic guilt in his direction for ignoring Christian values (while purporting himself to have them). Paul Ryan may have been the "ringer" that conservatives were clamoring for to save the presidential aspirations of Mitt Romney, but all they did was shine a spotlight on the Congressman who used to be content fading into the background and grinding out budgets and trying to keep a low profile. That went out the window when he was forced into a position of leadership after the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, because the Plan A to Boehner’s successor, Eric Cantor, got beat in a primary election and the Plan B to be Boehner's heir apparent that the establishment GOP picked, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, completely botched his step out into the limelight. The GOP's "House Freedom Caucus" at that point was refusing to accept any establishment candidate as House Speaker, save one... Paul Ryan. Begrudgingly, Congressman Ryan agreed to take the worst job in Washington and hope he could herd cats better than Speaker Boehner did. But he did so only after making a demand that the gig wouldn’t get in the way of his family time. Which is hilarious, because this Randian disciple has previously voted against family leave when the issue’s come up in Congress. (Classic conservative hypocrisy… the people should get no entitlements, BUT I SHOULD!) But yeah, we’re talking about the GOP’s THIRD pick for a job that he didn’t even want. And boy, has he been terrible at it. Barely a few months into the job, he was already fighting with the House Freedom Caucus, too. Hell, they already hated his guts seven weeks into the job, when he first tried passing a budget.

And that’s not Paul Ryan’s only headache. All through the 2016 GOP Presidential Primary, Donald Trump, for a lack of a better term, said a lot of stupid, crazy s***. Comments from Trump that were so outrageous that Speaker Ryan was left with no choice but to condemn him when the Beltway media asks him to comment on it. And while he is forced to distance his party from the frontrunner of the presidential primary, he also went out of his way to still say he’d have to support Trump if he is the nominee. Meanwhile, at the first perceived sign of disloyalty, Donald Trump was threatening to support Ryan’s own hard-right opponent, Phil Nehlen, in his primary for his seat. That’s how insane things are right now, the GOP candidate for president was backbiting and chafing at their Speaker of the House and nearly sabotaged his own chances at re-election as late as AUGUST of a campaign. Spoiler alert, though… Paul Ryan was re-elected rather easily. But maybe he’d be happier if he’d lost, after all, his daily routine has become… the Beltway media throw a Donald Trump quote, or read a Twitter post from him at Paul Ryan, and he has to pretend like it’s not the ravings of a lunatic, even if it’s straight up tinfoil hat paranoia about having his phone tapped by President Obama himself. Meanwhile, these days any perceived disloyalty or failure Ryan might display trigger Trump and his lackeys at Fox News to lay the blame at Ryan’s feet, with vultures like Judge Jeanine Pirro calling for his resignation.

As the GOP gained control of the House, Senate, and White House… they were finally set to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a wet dream of Paul Ryan’s that isn’t Ayn Rand for almost seven years now… to take access to healthcare away from poor people. He didn’t even flinch after meeting a man from his own district at a town hall who is a Republican who hated the ACA at first, but had to admit it saved his friggin’ life. Paul Ryan was so jacked up to give tax breaks to rich people by yanking insurance coverage from the filthy poors that he decided to hype his ideas with a PowerPoint presentation, but in the process, showed he didn’t seem to even understand HOW INSURANCE WORKED. But has Paul Ryan actually learned anything, and realize he might have wanted to work across the aisle with some Democrats if changes are to be made to the ACA? Of course not! He refused to work with any of them, either.

We might feel bad for him if he wasn’t an elitist ****sponge, or y’know, if Paul Ryan actually did his job and properly led an investigation into the fact that the Trump campaign is believed to have colluded with the Russian government and the oligarchs running their country to sway the election in their favor. Or just have enough of a spine to say Trump is, y’know, WRONG when he says things like voter fraud allowed over 3 million people to vote illegally and cost him the popular vote. Or condemn Trump and abandon him for admitting he’s a puss-burglar who commits sexual assault. (To say nothing of the number of members of the House who have been accused of sexual harassment, who Ryan wistfully remembers positively when they’re forced to resign like Trent Franks or Tim Murphy.)

How did repealing the Affordable Care Act during the Trump administration go? Well, after hypocritically doing everything he accused Democrats of doing to pass the ACA (he was lying in ’09, of course), thanks to GOP Senators Murkowski, Collins, and McCain defecting from the cause, it failed in the Senate, likely leaving Paul Ryan with the worst set of blue balls since he didn’t get to completely f*** over poor people. That dull ache had to bother Speaker Ryan something fierce as he GOP, despite having a majority in both branches of our legislature and their own demented puppet in the White House managed to go almost a full year without any legislative successes to tout. That is, until December of 2017, where Ryan finally got what he always wanted for Christmas to celebrate Republican Jesus, a tax reform bill that created the opportunities for the richest to find even MORE tax breaks while placing the long term burden of American taxes on… its poorest citizens. It’s a tax plan that’s so s***ty for the poor that even the “up front” savings it gave the poorest Americans amount to about a buck and a half a week, which Paul Ryan managed to try to boast about, as if it was impressive, only to be openly mocked on social media. (He’s so cruel, and has given the needs of others so little thought that he’s completely out of touch with what real people need to survive.) That’s been it for legislative achievements for Ryan and his cronies, but he doesn’t care, as his Koch Bros. masters sent him a check for half a million dollars the day after it passed.

And that’s his only legislative achievement. But when it comes to dragging his feet? If that were an Olympic event, Speaker Ryan would be draped in more medals than Michael Phelps by now. Let’s just start with Ryan’s inaction on gun violence… For 3 years, he’s pretended that people haven’t been dying in mass shootings, and still wants the American people to believe when they inevitably happen that it’s an isolated incident, and not a HUGE pattern going on. Any move to prevent further ones? That’s a “knee jerk reaction”. Never you mind that people’s knees are jerking because the bodies they’re attached to have been riddled with bullets. Hell, after the largest mass shooting in modern American history took place in Las Vegas, Paul Ryan was too craven about angering the NRA to even call for definitive action to be taken against bump stocks (the device used by the shooter to effectively turn his rifles into automatic weapons). The absolute motherf***ing invertebrate is content to let people keep dying while he sits back and just sends his “thoughts and prayers” because “they work” (clearly they don’t as 10-20K people die a year) and continued to cash those NRA checks without losing an iota of sleep every night.