Add calamity, to crisis, to disaster, to catastrophe

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reports the Supreme Court ruled on two cases having to do with the nasty guy’s tax returns, which he’s been hiding from us Americans for five years now. In the first case a criminal investigation wanted the records. The Supremes said that the Chief Executive could be subject to subpoena – as long as it doesn’t interfere with his constitutional duties. Note loophole #1.

In the second case the justices agreed with Democrats that Congress has the power to subpoena a president’s financial records – as long as they take account of separation of powers, the legislative interests of Congress, and the unique position of the president. That’s loophole #2.

Both those loopholes mean the cases go back to lower courts. And the nasty guy has a chance to come up with another reason. In the second case that means we’re not likely to see those financial records before the election.

And in the first case… Sarah Kendzior tweeted:

In 2010, Ivanka and Don Jr were nearly indicted for felony fraud. The district attorney who dropped the case -- after a hefty donation from Trump's lawyer -- was Cy Vance.

SCOTUS ruled that Vance, not Congress, can access Trump's tax returns.

According to Google, this is not the Cyrus Vance who was Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter. He died in 2002. This Cy Vance is the son of that one and serves as a District Attorney in Manhattan.

In the reply thread Kendzior added:

The same ones bleating "SCOTUS will save us" believe that Cy Vance will take on Trump, ignoring that Vance has spent his career protecting money-launderers and sexual predators -- among them Don Jr and Ivanka, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Dominique Strauss-Kahn...

Wanderer tweeted a photo of a t-shirt that says:

Vote as if
Your skin is not white
Your parents need medical care
Your friend is a missing indigenous woman
Your spouse is an immigrant
Your land is on fire
Your son is transgender
Your house is flooded
Your sister is a victim of gun violence
Your brother is gay
Your water is unsafe
Your daughter is a sexual assault survivor

Yesterday I wrote about the nasty guy wanting to kill us off through the coronavirus. Today Mark Sumner of Kos posted a summary of all the things the nasty guy did wrong to get us to this point. In his summary he wrote:

But now Trump isn’t just dealing with his failings in the bedroom or boardroom, he’s serving up national disasters. The scale of everything is larger. The cost is unbelievable. But Trump’s tactics are the same—pile it on. Add calamity, to crisis, to disaster, to catastrophe. Make things deliberately worse. Get the guns in the street. Put fear in the air. Create a blood-dimmed tide rising so fast that people are unable to see where one horror ends and another begins.

That’s the kind of situation where people might turn to anyone in search of a solution. Even the person who created the situation in the first place.

In another post Sumner wrote about how the pandemic would have been handled under President Hillary Clinton. One detail: there would have been 9,000 deaths instead of 130,000 and rising.

The purpose of this extended sigh is simply this: Trump wants to declare a “win” by comparing the current results of the pandemic against simply allowing the virus to run wild. But that’s not the right measure. The measure is competent leadership. Could anyone have really held the numbers in the United States this low? All the evidence says yes. A rapid response on testing, a coordinated national effort, and a system that ran on evidence rather than spite could have identified the areas where COVID-19 was circulating in the community before emergency rooms filled up. South Korea’s response limited the cases there to just 12,000 and kept deaths down to 285.

Compared to the virus running wild… Isn’t the virus running wild?



Andy Slavitt, an ex-Obama health care head, testified before the Minnesota House Committee on the Pandemic. He offered five pieces of advice for the public.

1. Learning about the virus is messy and we’re watching the discovery process. That they change their minds should give us more faith they’re doing it right. So select 2-3 reliable sources. Have a family meeting every 2 weeks [commenters suggest every week] to discuss what was learned and how that affects family decisions.

How to find your best sources?
-People who say “we don’t know” a lot
-People who give the source for their data & the type of study
-People who acknowledge their biases & experience
Even then they will be wrong on occasion & to keep your trust they should acknowledge it.

2. Wear a mask in public.

3. Decide which sacrifices to make. Example: going to a bar may mean having to home school your triplets. Reminder: proud people are going to food banks.

4. There has never been a better time to be a nice person.

5. If you need to blame someone the only real bad guy is the virus.

On this last one I disagree. We should also blame the nasty guy and the GOP in Congress. However, Slavitt is correct that it does no good to blame each other. We’re all doing the best we can.

Backing up my point the Washington Post tweeted a link to one of their articles. I read the tweet, not the article.

Americans gave up a lot to stop the pandemic. Our leaders wasted that sacrifice.

Paychecko replied:

Not “our leaders.” It was Republicans at all level of government. Don’t make this some “both side are bad” story. It’s not. Republicans actively f***ed this up, esp in Florida Texas and AZ, to please trump.