They did plan for the pandemic

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued revised executive orders. The stay at home order continues to May 15. One should wear a mask in an enclosed public building (like a grocery store). On the other hand, garden stores may reopen and lawn services may resume work (I won’t tell her my lawn service came on Monday). Golf courses may also open, though a golfer is not allowed to rent a cart.

In response the GOP majority legislature hastily met to pass a couple bills on party line votes. One was to rescind the law that gives the governor emergency powers. The other was to create a COVID-19 oversight committee. Both bills will, of course, be vetoed by Whitmer. The GOP doesn’t have enough votes to override. So, good job guys, in getting all these legislators together so they can infect each other and send the virus back to their home districts.

Michigan’s official death count from COVID-19 has now passed 3,000.



I did a grocery run today, mask in place. I guess uneventful. The weather was warm enough I could do some work in my garage.



Moscow Mitch got his Senate to pas another rescue bill. It was necessary because the $350 billion in the previous bill to provide loans to small businesses ran out of money in two weeks. It probably has goodies for rich people even as Democrats got help for hospitals. The House has now passed it and it’s on to the nasty guy.

Shortly after the Senate passed it Moscow Mitch started saying, that’s it. No more rescue bills. The federal deficit is getting too big. Democrats and business leaders said that a great deal more money is needed to keep the economy going.

Hey, Mitch, the deficit is bothering you? Gosh, this is certainly a curious time for your sense of bother to kick in. There’s an easy fix. Rescind that tax scam bill you pushed through a couple years ago.

But Moscow Mitch, senator from Kentucky, didn’t stop there. He started talking about no longer wanting to fund a “Blue State Bailout.”

Nikki Haley of South Carolina piled on tweeting that states should have planned for a rainy day such as this. She disagreed that states should be bailed out. Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for mismanaged states.

That prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (and many others) to observe:

Let’s talk about fairness, Mitch.

NYS puts $116 billion more into the federal pot than we take out.

Kentucky TAKES $148 billion more from the federal pot than they put in.

But we don't deserve help now because the 15,000 people who died here were predominately democrats?

So in normal times blue states are bailing out red states. And when the crunch comes in a few blue states, red states refuse to help them out. Thanks for the explanation.



Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reports that Bill Barr, head of the department formerly known as justice (I like Sumner’s phrase!) has said that if states don’t relax public restrictions on the nasty guy’s timeline Barr will take them to court.



Back in 2016 a group of students in the Detroit Public School Community District sued the state saying they have a right to a basic minimum education. Which they were not getting. At the time the state controlled the district through a financial manager.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has finally heard and ruled on the case. Yes, students do have a right to a basic minimum education. It will be interesting to see what the GOP state legislature does with that ruling.



Jenn Budd is a Senior Border Patrol Agent turned immigrant rights activist. She tweeted:

Don’t think for one moment this Administration did not prepare for a pandemic. They did, just not the way you think they should have. They planned how to eliminate immigration, bankrupt the states, line their pockets and usurp the Constitution. THAT’S THE PANDEMIC PLAN!

If it was incompetence or error, they would have changed course by now. They have not. This is the plan. It is exactly what they want to happen. Including sending more of your tax dollars to their rich friends, letting those in detention and prison die of #COVID19, etc.

When challenged that the nasty guy didn’t want to have an economic depression Budd added:

I don’t think Trump did, but he is not running most of this show. The intent is to dismantle the institutions, which is what they are doing. Trump is not smart enough to do any of this on his own.

Helen of 5Calls tweeted in response to a comment that the poor, mostly people of color, are hurt more by this combination of pandemic and economic collapse:

Yes! To accomplish these objectives, it will take all of us/citizens working alongside the Democratic leaders. We must work diligently (& now) to end citizen united, break up our state's ALEC groups, educate voters about AND eradicate ALL KOCH network ppl from every level of gov.

Then she quotes from How to Sweep Dark Money Out of Politics:

The right recognizes something that few on the left recognize: that campaign finance law underlies all other substantive law. In other words, no matter what you care about – climate, women’s rights, abortion, taxes, healthcare – it all comes back to who pays for elections.

Helen then tweeted tips for resisting the Trump regime:

* Stay aware and engaged. Don’t wait until events directly affect you. They will.

* Stay united. Don’t turn on other Americans, avoid Us v. Them. Ally with other groups.

* Keep recording and sharing facts. Don’t let reality be rewritten. Share, save, and archive.

* Join a group or movement. Show that we outnumber them.

* Keep going. They will keep going to wear us down and convince us they are the good guys. Don’t give up or give in.



The nasty guy is making sure there aren’t enough tests for the virus to allow reopening public events. Testing is *much* worse in Brazil. That prompted David Perry to quote from a Washington Post article and comment on it:

“The ones who know the truth are the gravediggers.”
Well that is going to reverberate in my ears for a while.

Some good news: Publix grocery store chain has pledged to step in to help the food supply chain mismatch. Many food producers are geared to selling to restaurants which aren’t buying much anymore. Shifting to sell to grocery stores and food pantries is difficult. So many farmers are using milk as fertilizer and not harvesting crops. Publix has promised to step between farmers and food banks in a big way – helping with 43,000 gallons of milk and 150,000 pounds of produce in the first week.



And a laugh:
The governor of Georgia says restaurants will reopen next week. So here’s a brief video of a waitress practicing the skills she’ll need in this time of distancing.