What The Fuck Happened Over The Weekend?

dragonfly9 · August 9, 2020, 1:24am

Hardball being played by Pelosi…no she will not stand for any short-term solutions, holding the R’s feet to the fire.

Why not try invoking the memory of the late civil rights icon John Lewis to try to persuade Republicans to agree to help the most vulnerable Americans, including “minorities” struggling to weather a pandemic and a recession?

Ms. Pelosi flashed a forced smile. “Perhaps,” she deadpanned, “you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn for what you just described.”

The comment — unusually coarse for Ms. Pelosi, 80, who was educated by nuns — was part insult, part dare and part slogan for a woman who believes she has the upper hand in crisis negotiations and does not intend to lose it. And it reflected how, two weeks into stalled talks over another round of federal assistance to prop up a battered economy, and less than three months before Election Day, the speaker of the House is going for the jugular.

She has publicly heaped disdain on her White House negotiating partners as she plays hardball in daily private meetings in her Capitol office suite, convinced that she has political leverage to force Republicans to agree to far more generous aid than they have offered. She has been unwilling to bow to the Trump administration’s demands for a much narrower bill or a stopgap solution.

“We’re not doing short-term action, because if we do short-term action, they’re not going to do anything else,” she said of Republicans Friday afternoon during an interview in her office, after negotiators blew past their own deadline without a deal. “That’s it — like a sucker punch, you know — ‘Let us just do this little bit,’ and then you know what? We’ll never see them again.”

Instead, Ms. Pelosi is pushing for a sweeping package that includes billions of dollars for state and local governments and schools, food and rental assistance, and additional aid for election security and the Postal Service.

anon95374541 · August 9, 2020, 6:26am

Yeah, the Executive branch just does not have the authority to spend money not appropriated by Congress. Or create new taxes. These are ineffective and down right unconstitutional.

Taxing power in the Constitution

in general - Article I Section 7 Clause 1; Article I Section 8 Clause 1
direct taxes prohibited - Article I Section 9 Clause 4
income taxes permitted - Amendment XVI

dragonfly9 · August 9, 2020, 3:34pm

Responses from Sunday media on Executive Powers which T hopes to usurp any failed negotiations with Dems/R’s who are at a stalemate on renegotiating a Relief Bill.

Dana Bash CNN takes on Larry Kudlow - Economic Advisor/mouthpiece for WH/former Fox guy
and she stops him from saying that evictions can not be halted by President, not ironclad, only suggestions.

And Kudlow trying to explain how the States will add to the unemployment fees from their budgets.

CNN’s Dana Bash sparred with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Sunday over the temporary unemployment plan included in President Trump’s coronavirus executive orders, saying: “We need a bit of a reality check here.”

Bash questioned Kudlow on CNN’s “State of the Union” about the Trump order that commits $400 per week in temporary unemployment benefits, $100 of which the state would picks up.

Kudlow predicted that individuals, on average, will receive $800 from federal and state enhanced unemployment benefits each week.

“But the executive action says 400 dollars and the state would pay 25 percent of this,” Bash replied. “You’re talking about some other money that I don’t know about.”

“We will stand ready to repurpose if states put in a little bit more,” the economic adviser replied.

.@DanaBashCNN presses WH economic adviser Larry Kudlow on President Trump’s latest executive order addressing federal unemployment benefits which says cash-strapped states must pay 25% of $400 unemployment or federal add-on benefit won’t kick in. https://cnn.it/2F7tPgp #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/X489W0j16r

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 9, 2020

Bash continued by saying: “We need a bit of a reality check here. You do agree that the only way any of this could possibly happen is if the states actually ask for it and create a whole new system?”

The CNN host also pushed Kudlow on how the administration knows states have the money to provide $100 per week to each unemployed person.

“I think they’ll be able to make room,” he said. “Our estimates from the Treasury Department in terms of the CARES Act … is that the states have not spent all the money that was allocated to them.”

“Based on our estimates, the states will be able to provide the extra $100 and that will gross up the whole benefit to something on average of about $800,” he added.

Kudlow also said the White House will “probably find out today and tomorrow” which states and territories will be able to afford the payment.

“At the moment, we know the money – probably a good $80 [billion] to $100 billion – was not spent so we think that’s distributed across the 50 states should be ample,” he added. “We’ll find out the exact specifics today and tomorrow.”

Best explainer here…from this daily newsletter from Heather Cox Richardson

Today’s announcement that Trump was providing economic relief through executive action after Congress failed to pass a coronavirus bill was an attempt to drive a narrative that will give Trump an issue for the upcoming election.

The story is this: On May 15, the House of Representatives, controlled by Democrats, passed a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, known as the HEROES Act, short for Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act. It provided relief for workers, protected renters, shored up cratering state budgets, funded emergency changes to the 2020 election, and supported hospitals and schools.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to take it up. In an interview on the Fox News Channel, he said "We will let you know when we think the time is right to begin to move again.” That time was apparently not until the end of July, just as federal funding for a supplement to unemployment benefits ran out and a moratorium on evictions ended.

Then, with unemployed Americans facing a wall and the economy facing a cliff, Senate Republicans began to negotiate their own coronavirus relief package, but it became clear quickly that they could not agree. Senators up for reelection wanted popular measures that would help their constituents; others opposed further federal spending. Unable to come up with a plan, McConnell bowed out of further negotiations.

That left House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The administration officials proposed $1 trillion in aid, and cutting out state support and election funding, among other things. When the Democrats yesterday offered to compromise on a $2 trillion bill, the White House rejected it out of hand.

This opened the way for Trump to step in.

This evening, from his golf club at Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump signed three memorandums and one executive order that bypass Congress to provide the relief the White House wanted. Trump said these measures would provide economic relief for struggling Americans by providing temporary benefits, deferring taxes, and by ending evictions.

It is not clear the measures will do any such thing.

The Constitution establishes that only the House of Representatives can initiate a revenue bill, so Trump cannot come up with new money. Tonight’s memo on relief relies on Trump’s emergency powers. It calls for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to use about $70 billion from the Department of Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) to provide an additional $300 of unemployment benefits weekly. But since the law requires states to kick in 25% matching funds for expenditures from the DRF, the memo also calls on states to use their allocation of the $80 billion still unspent from the earlier coronavirus CARES Act to put an additional $100 weekly into relief, for a total of a $400 weekly supplement to state unemployment benefits. Trump has also told states to identify funds they can spend if the DRF falls to $25 billion.

States are struggling from the collapse of tax revenues due to the pandemic. They are facing major layoffs and program cuts. Republicans oppose shoring them up apparently with the hope of forcing the states into a restructuring that will cut social benefits. The requirement in this memo will stress them more.

It is also unclear how long the DRF’s money will hold out, since more than 30 million Americans are currently collecting unemployment benefits.

Another of Trump’s memos relies on the law that gives the Treasury Secretary leeway to delay tax filing and collection in case of disasters. Trump directs the Treasury Secretary to defer payroll taxes for workers making less than about $100,000 a year, starting on September 1. Members of both parties disliked this idea, but it has long been one of Trump’s favorite provisions. He insists it will inject money into the economy, although there is argument over that.

The taxes would still be due, just not until next year. But Trump appears to want to end them altogether. Trump’s lawyer Jenna Ellis tweeted “This is actually the biggest news of the day: President Trump said that if he is re-elected, he will look into terminating the payroll tax permanently!”

It is the payroll tax that funds Social Security and partly funds Medicare.

Another memo extends the deferral of student loan payments set up under the CARES Act until December 31. Under the earlier act, it expired in September.

Like the payroll tax memo, the “Executive Order on Fighting the Spread of COVID-19 by Providing Assistance to Renters and Homeowners” starts by noting that the coronavirus began in China and from there reiterates some of Trump’s favorite claims about the success of his administration. Then the memo notes how hard-hit people of color have been by Covid-19, and points out that POC are at most danger of eviction. But the memo does not, in fact, provide anything to stop that process. It simply asks various administration officials to consider whether anything can be done to help.

So what’s the story behind these four executive actions, announced late Saturday, just in time to make it onto all the Sunday talk shows?

McConnell may have sat out the negotiations because he knew he could never get Republican senators to agree on a bill. But by pulling Republicans out of negotiations, he set up a narrative that pitted Democrats against the Trump White House. The White House refused to negotiate, cut off talks, and now Trump has declared that he has the power to fix the problem himself.

But it is not at all clear that he does have the power to reallocate funds as he has. Under the Constitution, Congress controls spending, and the president is supposed to execute the laws Congress writes. Congress allocated the money that he now wants to use for pandemic relief for other purposes.

So there will almost certainly be pushback on Trump’s actions on legal grounds. But, with Senate Republicans out of negotiations, Republicans can frame legal pushback as Democrats objecting to the relief Americans so desperately need, even though the Democrats have been pushing for a relief bill for almost three months, and it is the Republicans who have been unable to produce one.

Her sources

Memorandum: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-authorizing-needs-assistance-program-major-disaster-declarations-related-coronavirus-disease-2019/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-continued-student-loan-payment-relief-covid-19-pandemic/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-fighting-spread-covid-19-providing-assistance-renters-homeowners/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-deferring-payroll-tax-obligations-light-ongoing-covid-19-disaster/

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-sign-executive-orders-coronavirus-relief/story

payroll tax: https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/HowAreSocialSecurity.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/07/23/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

state revenue: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/893190275/states-are-broke-and-many-are-eyeing-massive-cuts-heres-how-yours-is-doing#bottom

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/26/895480905/millions-face-housing-crisis-after-federal-moratorium-on-evictions-expires

dragonfly9 · August 9, 2020, 3:41pm

Too little, too late, ineffective suggestions/EO’s and more of the bungled administrative response. Relief in name only. And an election ploy, right?!

The executive actions President Trump took on Saturday were pitched as a unilateral jolt for an ailing economy. But there is only one group of workers that seems guaranteed to benefit from them, at least right away: lawyers.

Mr. Trump’s measures include an eviction moratorium, a new benefit to supplement unemployment assistance for workers and a temporary delay in payroll tax liability for low- and middle-income workers. They could give renters a break and ease payments for some student loan borrowers. But they are likely to do little to deliver cash any time soon to Americans hit hard by the recession.

Even conservative groups have warned that suspending payroll tax collections is unlikely to translate into more money for workers. An executive action seeking to essentially create a new unemployment benefit out of thin air will almost certainly be challenged in court. And as Mr. Trump’s own aides concede, the orders will not provide any aid to small businesses, state and local governments or low- and middle-income workers.

If the actions signal the death of a congressional deal to provide that aid, economists warn, the economy will limp toward November without the fiscal support that hastened its recovery after its quick dive into a pandemic-induced recession.

The federal government’s aid to small businesses through the Payroll Protection Program was set to expire on Saturday. Executives, trade groups and business lobbyists had pushed hard for a second round of lending — along with new programs to get money to the businesses and industries hit hardest in the crisis — to be included in any congressional stimulus deal. Mr. Trump’s actions do nothing to help those companies.

Low- and middle-income families’ spending power was bolstered in the spring by direct payments of $1,200 per adult that were included in a relief bill Mr. Trump signed into law in March. Lawmakers were pushing for a second round of those checks in a legislative deal. Mr. Trump’s measures will not provide them.

Windthin · August 10, 2020, 4:23am

Portland protesters set police building on fire and clash with authorities

Situation declared a riot as police use flashbang munitions and smoke canisters to force hundreds away

A fire lit inside a police union building by a small fraction of protesters in Portland overnight led the authorities to declare the situation a riot and then use flashbang munitions and smoke canisters to force hundreds away from the area.

The flare-up in the Oregon city marred demonstrations that took place across Portland this weekend as part of protests that have continued daily, calling for police restructuring and systemic anti-racism reforms, since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.

Portland protests had been in a calmer vein since federal law enforcement agents withdrew in late July, but early Sunday saw a clash at the scene of the arson attack.

It was the second time such a fire has been set in recent days. Though both fires were quickly put out, the incidents brought criticism of individuals who have been provoking police by damaging property and other belligerent tactics, in contrast to much wider, calmer protests, according to a report by the Oregonian.

Three officers were hurt during efforts to clear a crowd of several hundred people outside the Portland Police Association building, police said in a statement.

Rallies had been held earlier in the afternoon and evening throughout the city.

Seneca Cayson, a black business owner who helped lead peaceful gatherings in downtown Portland, worries that incidents of vandalism and taunting of law enforcement by a tiny minority of the many thousands of white protesters turning out distracts from the main aims of the Black Lives Matter movement.

But he speculated that such clashes also draw more attention to racial injustice and said of white rebels: “We are fighting alongside them to … be equal.”

Many cite competing voices and the harsh glare of a national spotlight, which has reduced the situation to a culture war when the reality is much more complex.

“It happens so much that the things that we care about get hijacked and get put on the back burner. And that just gets put into a big barrel with everything else,” said Neil Anderson, another local Black business owner. “We all want the same thing. But so often we get drowned out.”

For many, part of breaking down racial barriers means taking funds from and restructuring the police entirely.

Portland’s population is less than 6% black but people of color have been disproportionately stopped by a city program that created a gun violence reduction team.

An analysis of police use of force published last month found that in 2019 officers were much more likely to use force against black people and particularly young black men than other groups, despite overall trends towards less use of force.

“It is the entire culture of the Portland police bureau that is fundamentally unmanageable and must change,” said Jo Ann Hardesty, the city’s first black councilwoman and an activist who has pressed for police reform for three decades.

“Thirty years is a long time to be asking for the exact same reforms. The difference now is there are tens of thousands of Portlanders who want the exact same thing,” Hardesty said.

Police said demonstrators broke into the union building late Saturday, set the fire and were adding to it when officers made the riot declaration.

Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler said violent protesters are serving as political “props” for Donald Trump in a divisive election season where the president is hammering on a law-and-order message.

Meanwhile, Oregon state politicians will discuss on Monday in a special session passing a broader ban on police use of chokeholds and further restricting other use of force, the Oregonian reported on Sunday.

MissJava · August 10, 2020, 7:41pm

A post was merged into an existing topic: Coronavirus (Community Thread)

dragonfly9 · August 10, 2020, 2:17pm

Day 1299: The Latest.

Updated 8/10/2020 5:15 AM PDT

Improve this article Revision history 1 Contributor

Welcome back @jamditis - Hope you had a good break and thanks for all you do here.

Both @matt and you have your hands full with the whiplash of news now and upcoming. Big thanks.

Buckle up…we’re fired up and ready to go for the countdown to Nov 3rd, and the most important day Jan 20th, 2020.

dragonfly9 · August 15, 2020, 1:29pm

You gotta love Sen. Angus King (I - ME) who calls out this DC situation with walking away from the Relief Bill as an imbroglio, fiasco, roadblock, stalemate and another example of how T n’ Co can demonstrate their wish for power and result in a willful manipulation of the voter’s rights.

anon95374541 · August 16, 2020, 4:45am

Robert S. Trump has died.

Windthin · August 16, 2020, 3:24am

And Trump was out golfing, after using his little brother to try to stop Mary Trump’s book.

dragonfly9 · August 16, 2020, 3:32am

Yes, as T likes to do. DJT did visit him yesterday in nyc…
I am reading rumors ( from T ghostwriter) that the cause was neurological. (Wondering what that might be…)

Now only 1 Trump male left of the original 3 and 2 women of that generation.

And Robert would do whatever was needed to save the Trump name and did that ‘hail mary’ lawsuit which had no major legal teeth to it.

dragonfly9 · August 16, 2020, 3:39am

T’s ghostwriter Tony Schwartz on Robert Trump’s illness

anon95374541 · August 22, 2020, 5:12pm

I feel this is appropriate for the office of the President. If this had happened under any other administration, I don’t think there would be much criticism. What do you all feel, appropriate or inappropriate for the office to host a family memorial in the White House?

dragonfly9 · August 22, 2020, 5:53pm

I can say pretty unequivocally that everything T does is repugnant. I am sorry he lost his brother…and he will have the funeral anywhere he damn well pleases.

And not sure if this is real news, manufactured etc…but afterwards there was a dinner locally and one of the funeral goers punched a waiter…and broke his nose.

Mourner from Robert Trump’s funeral ‘punches restaurant worker in the face’

Again, it is being reported…but not sure.

A lot of bad behavior accompanies T.

anon95374541 · August 22, 2020, 6:12pm

I was asking about the office of the President not specifically Trump. Ignore Trump for a minute, let’s discuss the appropriateness for the office.

dragonfly9 · August 22, 2020, 6:53pm

I would say NO to having a funeral for a family member, unless they lived at the WH, for the Office of the President.

The protocol is not firm though for a family member who does not live there but it is not something that has been done. I read about the children of Abe Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge who lived at the WH, and had funeral services there. The WH was not used for any former president, ie GHW Bush, after they had left.

Article on WH funerals

There are plenty of weddings at the WH, and other special events like HS graduations. Why wouldn’t T use it for his brother’s funeral?

Trump just uses the WH as his VIP card, his pedestal and extends it to all his family. And now will use it for the RNC event. So it is just the best address in the whole wide world, and T needs that adulation.

anon95374541 · August 22, 2020, 7:49pm

Yeah, that’s not above board at all. Agreed, there are no hard a fast rules for weddings and funerals at the White House. I will say though, the funeral doesn’t bother me, the RNC event, however is blatant corruption.

dragonfly9 · August 22, 2020, 10:39pm

Push back…now a House bill to go to the Senate to block USPS’s actions and give them some funds.

The House interrupted its summer recess on Saturday for a rare weekend session to approve legislation blocking cost-cutting and operational changes at the Postal Service that Democrats, civil rights advocates and some Republicans fear could jeopardize mail-in ballots this fall.

The measure, put forward by Democratic leaders, would also require the Postal Service to prioritize the delivery of all election-related mail and grant the beleaguered agency a rare $25 billion infusion to cover revenue lost because of the coronavirus pandemic and ensure it has the resources to address what is expected to be the largest vote-by-mail operation in the nation’s history.

Democrats were joined by a small group of Republicans in voting yes, but the bill, as written, appeared unlikely to move through the Republican-controlled Senate. President Trump opposed the bill in last-minute tweets, calling it a “money wasting HOAX” by Democrats.

Democrats framed Saturday’s action as an emergency intervention into the affairs of an independent agency to protect vital mail and package services that have seen significant delays this summer as the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, moved swiftly to cut costs to close a yawning budget gap. They said it was also necessary to instill confidence in American voters that the agency would safeguard their ballots despite near daily attacks by Mr. Trump on mail-in voting.

“This is not a partisan issue,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the lead author of the bill, said, as she released Postal Service statistics documenting the slowdown in delivery since early July. “It makes absolutely no sense to impose these kinds of dangerous cuts in the middle of a pandemic and just months before the elections in November.”

Most Republicans in the House opposed it after Mr. DeJoy, facing intense backlash and with the vote looming, announced this week that he would temporarily halt the removal of blue mailboxes and sorting machines, as well as changes to post office hours and to mail delivery operations until after Nov. 3 out of an abundance of caution.

dragonfly9 · August 23, 2020, 2:19am

WOW…Mary Trump get’s her aunt on tape (probably illegally, oh wait * there is another angle - see below) but it is out there…She rants against him.

Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.

“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”

Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”

…

adding

Chris Bastardi, a spokesman for Mary Trump, said that she began taping conversations in 2018 with Barry after concluding that her relatives had lied about the value of the family estate two decades earlier during a legal battle over her inheritance, in which she received far less than she expected.
*
Under New York law, it is legal to tape a conversation with the consent of one party, which in this case was Mary Trump.

The inheritance dispute was settled privately in 2001, but Mary Trump has said she was duped into an agreement because the family said the estate was worth $30 million and she later believed the value was closer to $1 billion.

anon95374541 · August 23, 2020, 2:14am

“What has he read?” Mary Trump asked her aunt.

“No. He doesn’t read,” Barry responded.

Oh snap!