How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Veritable Quandry]

There is no Covid Relief Bill. The $900 billion is added into the omnibus spending bill that funds most of the government.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Covid conga: maskless Republicans do pandemic danse macabre

City council candidate Vickie Paladino among those in conga line at 9 December event at restaurant in Queens, New York

www.theguardian.com

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Covid conga: maskless Republicans do pandemic danse macabre

City council candidate Vickie Paladino among those in conga line at 9 December event at restaurant in Queens, New York

www.theguardian.com

Grrr...one of my favorite songs horrifyingly abused by Republicans. Yes, I'm a proud disco lover, so much so that just hearing the song got me up and dancing. How is it that not a single one of them has a lick of rhythm? Ah well, some of them may be flat on their back in bed before too long. Some of those folks aren't exactly spring chickens. Republican Christmas party dance of death.

 

[Casey Pelous]

...How is it that not a single one of them has a lick of rhythm? ...

Having rhythm requires having a heart and a soul.

 

[danielravennest]

Having rhythm requires having a heart and a soul.

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

The Leader

www.the-leader.com

Crystal Knihinicki is 33 years old. She's a registered nurse, working with COVID-19 patients in the medical ICU at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo.

In March, she planned her own funeral.

She sought out a funeral home, wrote the obituary, re-assigned her health care proxy to a trusted nurse practitioner she works with.

"When we got our first few patients, I had been on the phone doing union stuff, and we had people come on from New York City talking about what was happening there and the nurses that were dying," Knihinicki said, stoic and unwavering in her explanation.

"And so I thought that it would be unfair to ask my husband, while he's taking care of two young kids, to plan my funeral if I did die," she said. "It's overwhelming."

 

[Free]

I suspect we have very different meanings for "return to normal."

 

[Free]

Busy busy.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I suspect we have very different meanings for "return to normal."

Hopefully we can start to get back towards normal January 21.

 

[Free]

Black Doctor Who Died of COVID Said Racism Impacted Care

Susan Moore, MD, said she had to beg for proper care: 'This is how Black people get killed'

www.medpagetoday.com

A Black doctor who has since died from COVID-19 said she wasn't treated properly by hospitalists and believed racism played a role in her poor care.

It's a pretty damning story.

 

[Free]

Also, Tony Robbins is an asshole. But that's not new news.

Tony Robbins claims he saved his employee from COVID — she says that’s a lie

Behind the self-help guru’s dangerous approach to the pandemic.

www.theverge.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

It's beginning to look like Trump's opposition to the "pathetic" $600 stimulus checks is a stunt.

I mean, we know it's a stunt of course; but it looks like it really was an intentionally manufactured thing. Some Republican congressmen are vocally criticizing his aboutface on the bill:

Calling into radio's Joe Piscopo Show, the New York Republican [Peter King] said he agreed with those who think the $600 stimulus checks approved by lawmakers Monday aren't enough but criticized the president for threatening to not sign the legislation.

"Why didn't the president say this before? Why did his administration say it had to be $600?" King asked. "They were the ones driving this."

The retiring congressman added: "Nancy Pelosi wanted $2,000 all along, and I'm not a Pelosi fan. Bernie Sanders wanted $2,000. The president and his administration refused to give it, and now he's trying to somehow double back. He's leaving Republicans out there hanging out to dry after signing off on an agreement and asking us to vote for it."

"You think all of the Republican senators wouldn't have voted for it if the Trump administration didn't tell us to?" King asked. "So I'm really disappointed in the president."

King said that it was the Trump administration that "led the negotiations" and that they knew about the compromise bill "from beginning to end."

Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) criticized Treasury Secretary Mnuchin for his role in the negotiations after Trump came out in opposition to the bill. According to The New York Times, Mnuchin had 190 calls about the package between December 14 and 20 that included the president.

"Were you just making stuff up during the Covid relief negotiations? If you weren't speaking for @realDonaldTrump, then who were you speaking for?" Lieu tweeted, addressing Mnuchin.

Republican Anthony Gonzalez from Ohio also took to Twitter about it:


Gonzalez said Trump was misleading the public when he criticized the bill earlier this week, suggesting it was funding too many overseas projects and that it did not provide large enough stimulus checks to American families.

"If @realDonaldTrump didn't want money going to foreign countries, he shouldn't have asked for it. 100% of the items he complained about last night were either a lie (i.e. illegals aren't getting $1800) or things in HIS budget (all the foreign aid)," the Ohio Republican tweeted.

"Finally, people are conflating 2 things. The covid deal had none of the pork that is being discussed. It was, however, combined with the omnibus. The omni had tons of pork. Again, though, this was Trump's pork," he added.

Gonzalez noted the confusion comes as some House Republicans have said they will challenge the Electoral College vote in Congress in January.

"The @HouseGOP has stood by him for 4 years. If he thinks going on twitter and trashing the bill his team negotiated and we supported on his behalf is going to bring more people to his side in this election fiasco, I hope he's wrong, though I guess we'll see," he said.

 

[Beebo Brink]

It's beginning to look like Trump's opposition to the "pathetic" $600 stimulus checks is a stunt.

I thought so too, until I saw this. Honestly, it would not surprise me if he trashes this entire deal because he and Jared Kushner are so dependent on shell companies.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I thought so too, until I saw this. Honestly, it would not surprise me if he trashes this entire deal because he and Jared Kushner are so dependent on shell companies.

The NDAA and the omnibus budget (which includes the COVID relief provisions) are different bills though. Trump has said all along that he will veto the NDAA (though you're right that he may not have been truthful about why).

Congress has enough votes on the NDAA to override Trump's veto. On the COVID relief, I'm not so sure.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I'm getting a bit confused here.

Over the last few weeks and months, it seems to me, I've kept on seeing how there's some deadline bill that enjoys bipartisan support in the senate, and Trump is threatening to veto it because of something or other -- military bases named after Confederate generals, or legal protection for social media companies, and now this -- is it all the same bill as the Covid relief bill or several different ones?

 

[Beebo Brink]

The NDAA and the omnibus budget (which includes the COVID relief provisions) are different bills though.

I could have sworn that the discussions of this in the news (such as Maddow last night) said that the bills were combined for a more efficient and expedient passage through Congress. So Trump can't just stop one and not the other. Am I wrong in this understanding?

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I could have sworn that the discussions of this in the news (such as Maddow last night) said that the bills were combined for a more efficient and expedient passage through Congress. So Trump can't just stop one and not the other. Am I wrong in this understanding?

The COVID relief was combined with the omnibus budget bill to get them all passed together. That's the bill that funds the whole budget for the Federal government aside from military spending. The Defense bill is still separate; Trump vetoed it yesterday and the House plans to hold the override vote next week.

 

[Free]

I'm getting a bit confused here.

The COVID relief bill is part of an omnibus bill, meant mostly as stopgap funding for a great number of diverse things, and exists because government sucks. Then there's the NDAA bill (the one with bipartisan and veto-proof support), meant primarily for military funding for 2021.

 

[danielravennest]

I'm getting a bit confused here.

Over the last few weeks and months, it seems to me, I've kept on seeing how there's some deadline bill that enjoys bipartisan support in the senate, and Trump is threatening to veto it because of something or other -- military bases named after Confederate generals, or legal protection for social media companies, and now this -- is it all the same bill as the Covid relief bill or several different ones?

There are two large bills on the table. The National Defense Authorization Act covers the $760 billion military budget, plus misc stuff thrown in. The other is the Omnibus 2021 budget bill that covers all the other agencies. This year the Omnibus has the COVID relief package added to it, because it modifies the spending of many agencies.

The federal government's fiscal year starts on Oct. 1st. So when Congress isn't finished with passing budget bills, they pass a "continuing resolution" that does a mass "find and replace" for every instance of "2020" and substitutes "2021". The budget amounts and other details don't change. Effectively it says "keep doing what you did last year, at the same rate". The continuing resolutions have an expiration date because legislators always procrastinate/negotiate to the last minute. If they didn't have a deadline they would never finish. If you go past the expiration date, non-essential agencies shut down, because our system requires congress and the president to authorize spending before it can happen.

The NDAA passed 92-8 in the Senate, after previously passing the House by a similar large margin. They sent it to Trump, and now he's objecting to signing it, because there is stuff in there he doesn't want (renaming military bases) and stuff not in there he does want (protection from liability for online forums be removed). Congress can override his veto by a 2/3 vote, which if they vote the same as the first time they can do.

After ignoring the negotiations all year long, now he's objecting to the Omnibus/Covid relief bill because it doesn't have a big enough cash payment to people. What he's really doing is throwing a tantrum because Senator McConnell congratulated Biden for winning the election after the Electoral College voted on Dec 14th. This puts a crimp in his fundraising scam to "overturn the election", which is actually going to a family-run slush fund.

Worst case is we get a government shutdown for the next four weeks, and the new Congress (which gets seated Jan 3rd) passes the bills again and Biden signs them. For the government to shut down when we are trying to distribute vaccines and people are hurting is of course the worst possible time, but Donnie doesn't care about that.