Category Archives: Politics
Uncle Sam Blew $3 Trillion on the Virus in Six Weeks
Uncle Sam blew $3 trillion on the coronavirus in six weeks. But the bug is still laying waste to the economy. And the Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $3.7 trillion this year. What to do? Hit it with more money.
Authoritarian Itch Gets Scratched During Pandemic
If you have an authoritarian itch, the Covid-19 pandemic provides a great opportunity to scratch it.
Andrew McCarthy and David Harsanyi write in National Review about authoritarian overreach.
A father in Colorado was briefly handcuffed for playing t-ball with his 6-year old daughter. Meanwhile, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer shut down the sale of fruit and vegetables at garden stores. And NYC Mayor de Blasio threatened to seize churches.
Shutting down church services was a big theme:
Two days before Easter, Louisville, Ky., mayor Greg Fischer attempted to unilaterally ban drive-in church services for the most holy day in Christianity.
David Harsanyi
But U.S. District Judge Justin Walker overruled the mayor. And maybe the judge was scratching that itch himself when he claimed, “On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter.”
But, it’s still best to be king. As President Trump says:
When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.
Theodore Roosevelt Hit Hard by Covid-19 Virus
The Covid-19 virus hit the USS Theodore Roosevelt hard. Over 150 of the aircraft carrier’s crew of 4,800 tested positive. And the symptoms were strange.
The ship’s captain, Brett Crozier, ignored the chain of command and instead blasted out an unsecured email warning to 20 or 30 people. As you might expect, it leaked.
USS Theodore Roosevelt Change of Command
So, at that point, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modley relieved Capt. Crozier of his command.
But Modley didn’t leave it at that. He boarded the ship and ripped the captain in a profanity laced tirade calling the him “naive or too stupid.“
The tongue lashing was apparently too much for Modley’s boss, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. So the next day Secretary Modley kind of apologized, saying he really meant to say the captain was “smart and passionate.”
And then he resigned.
Plenty of FBI Abuse to go Around In IG Report
Eli Lake at Bloomberg thinks the FBI is lucky, in a weird sort of way. That’s because the IG report shows the FBI abuse wasn’t just aimed at the Trump Campaign. The IG also found 39 other defective FISA applications.
In the twisted politics of the Trump Era, some of bureau’s defenders might actually view this report as good news: It shows that the investigation of the Trump campaign was not necessarily politically motivated. The bureau made the same kinds of mistakes with suspects who were not connected to the Trump campaign.
Economy Not Sheltering in Place
The economy isn’t sheltering in place. It’s heading down. Fast.
Goldman Sachs forecasts 15% unemployment and a 34% decline in GDP in the second quarter. And the stock market just finished its worst quarter since 2008.
Goldman Sachs is still predicting a “V-shape” recovery, however, meaning the steep drop-off will lead to a bigger bounce of 19 percent in the third quarter.
The Hill
Economy Not Sheltering
The election is seven months away. Can Trump pull the economy out of its Corona nose dive by then?
Scott Brennan, an Iowa Democratic National Committee member and a former state party chairman, said, “If the economy pops back … it’s hard to know what people are going to think.”
Politico
