Tuesday, March 10, 2020

The Democrats -not just Bernie- might have a black problem.

Image result for Bernie Sanders blacks  imagesTonight is another democratic party primary. And then there were two. Ironically, even with all the talk of diversity in the democratic party, we are down to two old white men fighting to take on Donald trump.

For a minute there it looked like Bernie might shock the world. But a funny thing happened on the way to South  Carolina. America forgot that us black folks didn't quite have our say as yet. Iowa and New Hampshire were two lily- white states that did not reflect the makeup of the democratic party in America.

Poor Bernie has never been able to capture the black vote, because black folks tend to be a little too pragmatic for his "revolution". We know that the white power structure will not allow the political system that benefits the few and the powerful to stray far from the status quo. And so we vote with our heads and not our hearts. We want to beat trump, and we don't think that Bernie is the man to do it.

Still, I am a little leery of the democratic party that can always count on us, but we can't always count on them. Republicans see our angst, and that's why Donald trump is cranking up his Negro outreach.

The following article by Steve Phillips appeared in The Guardian. 

"Donald Trump understands the importance of African American voters much better than Democrats and progressives do. Trump and his team are making sizable and smart investments in efforts to chip away at black support for Democrats. Yet those who want to oust Trump from the Oval Office are spraying millions of dollars in election spending in every direction except the African American community.

Had African Americans turned out to vote in 2016 like they did in 2012, Hillary Clinton would be the president of the United States. Instead, Democrats overlooked and underinvested in the community, resulting in a cataclysmic drop-off in black voter turnout. The percentage of eligible African Americans who voted dropped to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, allowing Trump to eke out his razor-thin electoral college victory.

I titled the penultimate chapter of my book “Conservatives Can Count”, and Republicans have indeed done the math and are working overtime to reduce the margins by which they lose the black vote. During the Super Bowl, Trump’s re-election campaign spent $11m on a very effective ad featuring an African American woman who’d been released from prison after criminal justice reform legislation. She says in heartfelt fashion to the millions of people watching the ad: “I want to thank President Donald John Trump.”

That ad is not the sole foray into what was once forbidden territory. Trump’s campaign is opening field offices in 15 cities with large black communities. Conservative donors have bankrolled the creation of The Black News Channel, a new 24/7 news station with reach into tens of millions of homes.
On the other side of the aisle, the silence is deafening. Investment in black-focused political outreach is nearly non-existent. While Trump spent $11m on a single television ad, Democrats can’t even cough up a fraction of that for a voter mobilization program targeting African Americans, 90% of whom vote Democratic. (African American voters make up nearly a quarter of all Democratic voters, 23%.)

The largest Democratic Super Pac, Priorities USA, has announced plans to spend $150m on ads trying to convince Trump voters of the error of their ways. Another Democratic Super Pac, American Bridge, has launched a $10m initiative also focused on ads designed to persuade Trump voters to switch allegiances. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Trump, but he has not announced plans to back a major, at-scale, black-focused voter effort. (To his credit, Bloomberg has given $5m to Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight Initiative, which is combating voter suppression across the country and just announced an additional $2m for black voter registration work.)

The consequences of continuing to overlook the cornerstone of the progressive coalition could be catastrophic in November. It may be tempting to dismiss Trump’s efforts to make inroads into a community that regularly, overwhelmingly rejects Republicans; that, however, misses the real goal of Trump’s strategy. Its objective is not to win majority support, but rather to bring down the amount of black support for Democrats just enough to tip a close contest. Lost in all the analytical obsession over white working-class voters is the fact that black male support for Hillary Clinton was 5% lower than that for Obama in 2012.

The other objective of black-specific messaging is to reassure white voters that Trump isn’t racist (which he is). By showing ads with diverse communities and inclusive content to those more moderate suburban Republicans who defected to the Democrats in 2018, it softens the edges of the most repulsive and racially charged components of this administration. The Democrats, on the other hand, completely let Trump off the hook for his attacks on communities of color – putting brown children in cages at the border, banning Muslim travel, etc – by refusing to even bring up the issue of racism, for fear of alienating the chimera of the white swing voter." [Full article]]

Phillips, of course, is correct.  The one saving grace for democrats is that us black folks can spot a con when we see one.

Still, it won't be long before black folks look around and come to the realization that maybe we are being played by both sides.

*Image from nbcnews.com.

123 comments:

Lilacpr said...

"Still, it won't be long before black folks look around and come to the realization that maybe we are being played by both sides."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Umhum!

Anonymous said...

“The other objective of black-specific messaging is to reassure white voters that Trump isn’t racist (which he is).”

I don’t think that is the “other” objective of Trump’s black outreach. It is the only objective. Trump knows he isn’t going to get any black people to vote for him, no matter how much he touts his feeble criminal justice reform efforts. Ain’t gonna happen.

I’ve no doubt Trump does plan to aim messaging directly at black people, but it won’t be positive messaging. It will be propaganda intended to smear the Democratic candidate and demoralize black people into not voting at all.

mike from iowa said...

Biden won Mississippi black vote by around 80%. He also won Missouri and Michigan, so far.

Anonymous said...

I mean, I don’t think it’s only black people who are less than excited about the Democratic options.

You’ve got Biden, who seems to not want to not want to change much, just mostly continue with America’s broken status quo. His whole pitch is just: “Obama is my buddy and let’s get that bum Trump out!”

And then you’ve got Bernie, who is running on an inspiring platform that can be reasonably described as FDR liberal — but then he ruins the whole thing by labeling himself a revolutionary socialist (which means scads of people will reflexively not vote for him) and constantly trashes the “Democratic establishment” (thereby also alienating everyone outside his base, because most Democratic voters don’t, in fact, hate the Democratic Party). In truth, his “I am the only principled person in Washington” shtick is majorly off-putting.

So that’s where we are. I wish Liz Warren had gotten the nomination, but she needed the left-wing Dem voters to back her in order to achieve lift-off, and Bernie had most if them in the bag already, with greater name recognition from his 2016 campaign. So we are where we are.

Anonymous said...

One other point about black people feeling like they’re taken for granted as candidates try to pitch suburban white moderates/rural working-class types. It’s undoubtedly true, but I don’t really know what you can do about it. The basic math is pushing the candidates in this direction.

First, the Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging working class whites for several election cycles, and this worsened in 2016 with Trump’s appeal to racism/xenophobia and flogging of fallacies on trade and offshoring jobs. The party has to win more of them to win elections.

But black voters quite literally have nowhere to go. It’s either vote Dem or be stuck with four more years of King Racist. It sucks to feel like your loyalty to the party is valued less than voters who show no loyalty at all, but candidates have to base their logic on what will make them win, not on what is fair.

Second, and this is a grim fact that is not the fault of the Dems, but black people’s votes actually DON’T count for that much in presidential races. Their votes are heavily downgraded by — dun-dun-dun — that famous enemy of democracy, the Electoral College. Most of the black votes in the South, which is a huge percentage of the total black votes, don’t matter. No Dem candidate will benefit from black Mississippians’ votes, for example, because they’ll be swamped out by right-wing white people’s votes and this winner-take-all system will award all the state’s electors to Trump.

So while the black vote is very meaningful in the primaries, in the general election, something close to half the black vote goes straight into the trash can. And the math dictates that black voters aren’t going to get as much attention if they can’t help a candidate get into office.

dinthebeast said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

The Democrats, on the other hand, completely let Trump off the hook for his attacks on communities of color – putting brown children in cages at the border, banning Muslim travel, etc

1. Trump did not institute the family separation policy, Obama did. Children are segregated for their own safety. Many aren't even with their parents. The "babies in cages" lie is one of the most moronic and disingenuous political tropes of all time.

2. Muslim is not a race, it is a religious/political ideology. The travel ban was from seven specific countries, one of which wasn't a Muslim country. The vast majority of Muslim countries were not part of the travel ban.

Democrats always call their opponents racist, because that's their game. Trump has done more the black community than any President in 50 years, and anyone who thinks he is racist is a fool.

dinthebeast said...

I heard an interesting take on Biden's successes tonight, having to do with Fergus' impeachment: Fergus was caught red-handed risking his presidency in a misguided attempt to get out of running against Joe Biden, so maybe we ought to get the guy Fergus is the most afraid of running against if we really want to beat him, and we really do want to beat him.

Sanders did step all over his own dick this time, but not much more so than last time, and his underperformance compared to 2016 in places like Michigan can be attributed to a few factors: one, thirty years of right wing anti Clinton propaganda seeped farther into the Democratic electorate than you would think it could, two, said propaganda was amplified and targeted against Clinton by the Russians (who are busy supporting Sanders again this year), three, good old fashioned misogyny is a much stronger force in US politics than even the misogynists themselves understand it to be, and four, Fergus is real now.

That is, in 2016 things were looking pretty good and people felt that they had the leeway in their lives to take a risk and see what some Trumpian change would look like.

Now there are babies in cages, the air and water are degrading day by day, climate change is progressing apace and devastating large, inhabited chunks of the planet, there's a pandemic loose threatening to crash the economy while it infects and kills large chunks of the population unchecked, our allies can't trust us and autocrats of every stripe have our blessing, and white supremacy is the overt policy of the government.

And all of the other shit that most people are anxious about and just want to see go away.

Biden, right now, is the small c conservative choice.

Warren would have done a better job, but people are getting scared, and they don't make their best decisions like that.

Fortunately, she will still be in the senate, the odds of us retaking control of which have gotten better, and Biden (and Pelosi) will probably support a lot of her legislation, so we may yet get some of her ideas about fixing things enacted.

We need them, badly, so there is work to do.

-Doug in Oakland

Joe Bros said...

The irony for Lefties: A 75% white electorate in the Democrat primaries would be making Sanders the candidate.

Black voters, who now make up ~40% of Democrat voters, are picking Biden.

Black voters are unswayed by Bernie's promises of free healthcare and free college, because they already have those things. Extending them to white people would break the bank, and there go the Gibs.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ESO1m9sX0AAQx19?format=jpg&name=medium

The irony for blacks: The Dems open borders policies will make black concerns irrelevant, and there go the Gibs.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever heard the tragic story of Corn Pop the Bad Dude?

Anonymous said...

The man got called Esther Williams.

Esther Williams.

Damn.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1173257303476396032

Anonymous said...

He who has the toilet paper makes the rules.

PilotX said...

Fox is working overtime to paint Biden as the racist. Well.......as the kids say "keep that energy". The thing is Black voters are the key to any hope the Dems have and everybody knows this. For Biden to win he has to take Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and N. Carolina and without heavy Black votes he won't. To make the point clear if anyone would have said there would be a Dem senator from Alabama a few years ago you would have been hauled off to the looney bin. Also important is the senate and Biden's coattails are longer than Bernie's. There will be plenty of Black outreach when our forever president stomps for his number two in a few weeks. Just wait. He still may choose Kamala or Corey as his running mate. I think things look good for Joe.

Hotep said...

Biden has already decided on Klobuchar.

Black people decide nothing.

Anonymous said...

Bernie would be a better match up with Trump. Now you have Biden versus Trump, which will not be pretty. Trump will win in a landslide. The best part will be the debates. Imagine Biden threatening to take Trump outside or Biden dropping to the floor for a push up contest. I can see it now. LOL

mike from iowa said...

Field, iowa is too white to suit me, however, we were the first state to legalize same sex marriage and the iowa supreme court confirmed that. iowa is more tolerant of different nationalities than other states close by.

otoh, we could do much better.

mike from iowa said...

Biden won the votes of rurals in michigan that went to drumpf in 2016. Voters are mad and disgusted with drumpf. If wingnuts don't cheat, and Bernie voters support Biden, I see a Biden bigly win.

mike from iowa said...

Family separation was not Obama's policy. It belongs to drumpf.

from Fact Check NYT.......Under Mr. Trump, the Justice Department announced its “zero-tolerance policy” for illegally entering the United States in April 2018, describing it as “new” and in response to an increase in unauthorized border crossings that spring.

The policy called for the criminal prosecution of everyone who enters the country illegally. As a result, nearly 3,000 children were forcibly separated from adult family members who were detained under the new policy, which multiple top Trump officials have characterized as a deterrent.

mike from iowa said...

https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/aug/01/donald-trump-said-hes-done-more-african-americans-/

What drumpf did for blacks was just an extension of policies Obama started, like the long economic recovery which ran through 7 of Obama's 8 years in office.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm,which left wing nutball billionaires manipulated the stock market the other day???

Anonymous said...

Hotep said...
Biden has already decided on Klobuchar.

Black people decide nothing.

2:50 AM


Trump wins

mike from iowa said...

So, according to anymoose @ 2:50 AM whiteys decide which blacks get shot by other blacks. Nice to know.

It's okay to be white said...

mike from iowa said...
Field, iowa is too white to suit me,
--------

Is South Carolina too black for you?

Why do you feel the need to signal negativity towards whites?

If you are trying to prove you are not racist, that's not how to do it.

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

I think some one should conduct some focus groups with black voters and ask them what they think. Speculation comes easy, truth not so much. Finding out what Black voters are thinking and how they will vote takes some effort.

mike from iowa said...

Anonymous It's okay to be white said...derp.

Us wadicus have, for the most part, skated through our lives, with no racial worries solely due to white privilege. It infects all wasicus, no matter how they deny it.

In America, wasicus are at the top of the pecking order only because of skin color and no other reasons. Ignore it at will, it is still there. Soon, American POC will take over and your white privilege won't save your pastey white ass anymore. I may not live to see it. My sons and their children have been raised in a more multi cultural society than I was. They will get along just fine.

I harbored racist thoughts before I had ever met any POC. My whole perspective changed in the early 70's when SE Asian refugees were resettled in iowa.

mike from iowa said...

ps never been to South Carolina. Never been out of the white Midwest. I am not a person that cares to travel, even when back problems and finances allowed it. And at 67, on disability/SS it is not likely I will ever travel.

mike from iowa said...

Sweinstein got 23 years for his sexual peccadilloes. drumpf will likely get life on top of life for his crimes as Czarina under Putin.

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous said...

Bernie would be a better match up with Trump. Now you have Biden versus Trump, which will not be pretty. Trump will win in a landslide. The best part will be the debates. Imagine Biden threatening to take Trump outside or Biden dropping to the floor for a push up contest. I can see it now. LOL

5:58 AM
-------------------
Since you can see the future, check your crystal ball and tell us who Joe will pick for his running mate. LOL!

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hotep said...
Biden has already decided on Klobuchar.

Black people decide nothing.

2:50 AM


Trump wins

9:47 AM
-------------
Seems to me that black people had quite a lot to do with Joe' delegate numbers. And Trump will not win. Too many people are now aware of his incompetence.

Anonymous said...

Ah, now it all makes sense!:

Tulsi Gabbard Named Democratic Nominee After Discovery Of Obscure Rule That Grants Nomination To Whoever Wins 0.7% Of The Vote In Missouri

Anonymous said...

"In America, wasicus are at the top of the pecking order only because of skin color and no other reasons."

If whites assert privilege against other groups, why do Indians, Southeast Asians, and Jews make more money, have more wealth, and have political influence far above their proportional populations?

Why do all other groups receive statutory advantages in education, employment, and government contracts?

Why are whites the only group that can be legally discriminated against?

Why do all other groups receive protected class legal status?

Why are whites the only group for whom ethnic chauvinism is not encouraged?

Anonymous said...

"Soon, American POC will take over and your white privilege won't save your pastey white ass anymore."

My white privilege seems to be that I get to pay full price for everything. America has more protections for racial and ethnic minorities than any society in history. Despite it being such a seething hellhole of racism, millions of non-whites do whatever they can to get in and start being oppressed.

The message from white America has been "We know it's hard being a minority, here's a bunch of advantages to help you with that".

The message to white America is "It sucks to be a minority, and by the way, you're going to be a minority soon and then we are really going to start putting the boot on your neck".

Do you see why a mentally healthy white person might take pause at that?

People like you seem to have internalized self-hatred and embrace the glorious future of race-based punishment. Lucky for you, it will be your children who pay the price, not you.

Anonymous said...

Gee, the democrats are down to two old white guys, that is a winning strategy for progressives. You just handed the 2020 election win to Trump.

Anonymous said...

And Trump will not win. Too many people are now aware of his incompetence.

12:39 PM

You were wrong in 2016 and you are wrong in 2020.

TRUMP 2020!!

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Trump strikes again.

The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in theUnited States and infected more than 1,000 people.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-coronavirus-classified-meetings_n_5e69175ac5b60557280f95ca

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous said...

And Trump will not win. Too many people are now aware of his incompetence.

12:39 PM

You were wrong in 2016 and you are wrong in 2020.

TRUMP 2020!!

2:34 PM
-------------------
No, you are wrong. I did not predict that Clinton would win in 2016, but I am now predicting that Joe will win in 2020. The majority of voters are revolted by Trump and are sick of his incompetence.

mike from iowa said...

23,360.98 −1,657.18 (6.62%)
Mar 11, 3:24 PM EDT · Disclaimer

Clinton did win in 2016, irrespective of electoral college. Too much manipulation by Putie and pals. Just like they are doing this election.

Bernie won the North Dakota caucus, so there is that.

mike from iowa said...

Anyfuckingmoosepussy deliberately dis-describes white privilege because he was told to by Fake Noize. The shit he is ejaculating about others making more money than wasicus is irrelevant to white privilege. Same goes for his lies he pays full prices because minorities get bigly discounts.

Anyfuckingmoosepussy has to be a paid russian troll.

dinthebeast said...

Fergus wants a $700 billion payroll tax holiday until after the election in November. Since he'll never get funding for it, he's essentially proposing a massive Medicare cut during a pandemic that targets old people. All to help him get elected.

He's also said to be considering bailouts for the shale oil industry and the hotel industry, his own business and that of his campaign donors.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have a dramatically different direction in mind, focused on paid sick-leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, improved food security, and expanded medical treatment options.

Which approach do you think Mitch McConnell will favor, and how helpful to the actual pandemic do you imagine it will be?

-Doug in Oakland

dinthebeast said...

In his desperation to not lose Michigan, Fergus trotted out a new batch of lies last night: 1) Dems all want to ban cars, 2) Dems have a one car per family policy, and 3) Fergus is opening up new plants all over Michigan.

Guess his internal polling is showing him getting his flabby ass kicked in Michigan by Biden.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

Fergus has moar problems......https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trumps-company-paid-bribes-to-lower-property-tax-bills-report/

Paid bribes to lower tax bills. Good business Or tax cheating again?

Anonymous said...

"The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information"

Absolutely not true.

Anonymous said...

"Fergus wants a $700 billion payroll tax holiday until after the election in November. Since he'll never get funding for it, he's essentially proposing a massive Medicare cut during a pandemic that targets old people."

Trump wants to temporarily cut the most regressive tax in America, and Doug's response is "Trump wants to kill old people".

Take a good look at yourself, man.

field negro said...

Actually, Anon@4:12, it is true.

field negro said...

So we are officially now in a Bear market. Just thought I would put that out there.

mike from iowa said...

Payroll taxes are SS and Medicare/Medicaid taxes. The system needs more payees in, not taxcuts. Drumpf has made it abundantly clear he is going to cut entitlements for poor and elderly, one way or another.And don't start the bullshit that all immigrants get these benefits because they don't.

NCAA just announced they will hold March Madness w/o fans.

mike from iowa said...

Some of the Dems approach has been rejected by McCTurtlefuckface.

mike from iowa said...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive/exclusive-white-house-told-federal-health-agency-to-classify-coronavirus-deliberations-sources-idUSKBN20Y2LM

Meetings and necessary info have been classified since January, anymoose.

mike from iowa said...

https://www.ccn.com/this-is-why-the-dow-jones-just-suffered-one-of-its-ugliest-crashes-yet/

DJI down 20%. Millions of Americans are losing 401k value as drumpf golfs and fiddles around.

Fake Noize is still pushing the hoax bullshit. That oughta really help.

Anonymous said...

The majority of voters are revolted by Trump and are sick of his incompetence.

2:57 PM

Classic example of alt left delusion.

mike from iowa said...

A majority of stoopid fucking wingnuts are turned on by drumpf's incompetence.

mike from iowa said...

To moar American and one British soldier killed in rocket attacks in Iraq. hey are dead so I guess headaches isn't the cause.

mike from iowa said...

drumpf doesn't want to declare a national emergency because thAt would clash with his earlier message he is not concerned people are getting deathly sick and dying, cool calm reserve of a total fucking moron.

mike from iowa said...

dumbfuck Alex jones is peddling toothpaste he claims will kill c-virus, and probably, 6 year old crisis acting grade schoolers.

mike from iowa said...

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/alex-jones-telling-his-viewers-toothpaste-he-sells-kills-coronavirus

goes with above post.

mike from iowa said...

https://the-immoral-minority.com/russia-is-trying-to-stoke-racial-tensions-in-the-run-up-to-the-election/

Russkies are targetting white scumacysts and blacks. I guess they aren't discriminatory like white scumacysts who post here.

PilotX said...

"The majority of voters are revolted by Trump and are sick of his incompetence.

2:57 PM

Classic example of alt left delusion."

Sounds pretty true. Record turnout in Dem primaries.

PilotX said...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2020/3/1/21159319/south-carolina-2020-democratic-primary-turnout-record

PilotX said...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.masslive.com/politics/2020/03/massachusetts-voters-set-new-record-for-voter-turnout-in-2020-democratic-presidential-primary.html%3foutputType=amp

PilotX said...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.freep.com/amp/5019250002

PilotX said...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/what-do-virginia-democrats-like-more-than-obama-showing-up-to-beat-trump/2020/03/04/2c0d1f48-5e29-11ea-b29b-9db42f7803a7_story.html%3foutputType=amp

PilotX said...

DOJ says most crime is white on white.

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv18_sum.pdf

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous said...

The majority of voters are revolted by Trump and are sick of his incompetence.

2:57 PM

Classic example of alt left delusion.

6:40 PM
----------------
We will all find out in November who the deluded ones are.
And by the way what the hell is the alt left? What is you definition?

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...



Trump strikes again.

The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in theUnited States and infected more than 1,000 people.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-coronavirus-classified-meetings_n_5e69175ac5b60557280f95ca

2:53 PM

Anonymous said...

Tom Hanks tested positive for coronavirus.

Trump strikes again.

dinthebeast said...

So going by what has happened in Italy, are we looking at needing ten million hospital beds really soon?
What are we gonna do when we need them and we don't have them?
Who will decide who gets care and who doesn't?
Shouldn't we be testing everyone in rest homes and assisted living facilities? How about prisons?
The NBA has suspended the season.
Even Fergus has suspended upcoming campaign rallies.
Is it time to take this seriously yet?

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

"So going by what has happened in Italy, are we looking at needing ten million hospital beds really soon?
What are we gonna do when we need them and we don't have them?"


Worry about the ten million hospital beds later. That's an ultra-worst-case scenario and it's many steps down the road, so let's try to avoid that, shall we?

For now, there are more immediate questions:

1) Why don't we have free, drive-thru Covid-19 testing? For that matter, the government should be guaranteeing any medical treatment related to Covid is free. If people don't get treated because they can't pay, that's not going to reduce transmission rates.

2) What about forcing employers to grant sick days during the crisis? Republicans recently blocked a bill that would have done that. Isn't that, like, super dumb? Unless you actually want sick people coming to work and spreading their undiagnosed diseases.

3) What about ensuring stores take action against panic buying? Hoarders and profiteers will make things worse for everyone else if there's nobody there to tell them no.

The main problem is that Republicans are so married to free-market ideology that they stand there dumbfounded and don't know what to do in situations where capitalism completely falls apart.

And as with everything else, Trump is resorting to blaming foreigners (getting the people in his party to refer to it as "Wuhan virus" and "China virus") and closing borders. That's not going to get the job done, at this point. Remember that horror movie premise? "The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House!" We're there. The bad guy is already inside the house, so you'd be foolish to devote all your efforts to barring the door.

Anonymous said...

I want to point out that Covid-19 is clearly beatable. China is now beating it. In another couple of weeks, their country will be close to clear of the virus.

Of course, being an authoritarian country, it's easier for them to enforce measures to deter disease transmission. They can just chuck civil liberties out the window. We have to find a different route.

And warmer weather may also help reduce transmission on its own. This remains to be seen.

dinthebeast said...

"That's an ultra-worst-case scenario and it's many steps down the road, so let's try to avoid that, shall we?"

It's kind of a middle of the road number. The attending physician for the white house and congress today estimated that between 70 and 150 million people in the US can be expected to contract the virus, and if 15% of them can be expected to become seriously ill, that's more than ten million right there at the low end.
The experts are saying that we are about two weeks behind Italy in the progression of the epidemic, and we have about a million hospital beds total, for everything and everyone.

But Jared is now taking a lead role in the response, so everything will be fine.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

China also controls the media so it is easier to pretend the problem is over when it ain't. That is what drumpf hopes he can pull off in America.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the media is in Trump's pocket and will do everything they can to minimize this crisis.

Anonymous said...

"China also controls the media so it is easier to pretend the problem is over when it ain't. That is what drumpf hopes he can pull off in America."

I really don't think the Chinese authorities are lying. In the long term, it would not serve their interests to pretend their epidemic has gone away when it hasn't. When their pronouncements were revealed to be false, it would destroy relations with other countries .

And they've made every effort to share whatever knowledge they have internationally, such as the DNA sequence of COVID-19, as soon as they had it.

I don't really think any national governments are lying. I think some of them have not come to grips with the problem, and are unaware of many cases of infection in their countries. I fear the US may be one of them. Right now, our response sucks, compared to China's or S. Korea's. We are the wealthiest country in the world (if you don't count weird exceptions like petrostates or tax havens), so there is really no excuse for the anemic response.

mike from iowa said...

Arizona wingnut sinator and all around piece of shit wished the Notorious RBG a heartfelt relapse, saying he'd like to share his covid-19 with her.

That would be another way to steal another spotus seat.

mike from iowa said...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,900 points, or 8%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were each down about 7%.

Those indexes are now down at least 24% from record highs set just last month.

mike from iowa said...

drumpf and dummies ought to think about setting up rich, white only bread lines.

Anonymous said...

3 shootings occurred within an hour of each other in Philly
Three black men were injured after mid-afternoon shootings across the city.


https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/philadelphia/3-shootings-occurred-within-hour-each-other-philly

Anonymous said...

More people in Chicago will be murdered due to negro violence than from the COVID-19 virus:

March to Date 2020
Shot & Killed: 14
Shot & Wounded: 59
Total Shot: 73
Total Homicides: 15

Anonymous said...

“More people in Chicago will be murdered due to negro violence than from the COVID-19 virus:”

No.

Chicago has ~500 homicides each year, not all of which are committed by black people.

To reach that death rate from Covid-19, you’d need around 50,000 infections, maybe less. And 50,000 infections works out to like 2% of Chicagoans getting infected. We could easily hit that.

And by the way, due to RACISM, black people are poorer, in worse health, and have less access to health care than white people. A disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths will be black.

Foreigners did it! said...

The GOP are already engaged in Trumpish xenophobic spin about the pandemic. Wingnut Senator Tom Cotton just uttered this embarrassing nonsense: “We will emerge stronger from this challenge, we will hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world."

Got that? We’re gonna get you, China, for what you did to us with this virus. That’s some real statesmanship right there. I feel such a sense of confidence in our leaders right now.

A couple days ago, I joked that Trump’s idiotic COVID-19 response will involve building internment camps to punish the Asians. It’s looking like I wasn’t far off the mark.

mike from iowa said...

NHL, NBA and MLS have suspended their seasons due to dumbfuck drumpfuck virus.

mike from iowa said...

You knew this was coming..... https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/12/trump-coronavirus-travel-europe-resorts-126808

Ireland and Scotland are not affected by travel ban, even though there are numerous cases of dumbfuck drumpfuck virus in the UK.

mike from iowa said...

Big 10 and other Power 5 conferences cancel post season tournaments.

Dow was down to 21495 at one point today. Down 2057 points from yesterday.

When Obama left the WH the market was 18589. So drumpf's super duper smoking economy is less than three thousand points from Obama's. And the damage is likelyn not done because of refusal to act by one fucking pig person by name of drumpfuck the dumbfuck.

Anonymous said...

"Chicago has ~500 homicides each year, not all of which are committed by black people."

Over 500 a year, about 80% of the homicides involve African Americans (blk/blk).

mike from iowa said...

drumpf virus death toll at 38 as of Wednesday. Expect moar. Many, many moar.

Anonymous said...

Great. Similar xenophobia is running wild in China. Conspiracy theories are circulating on social media, saying the US actually originated COVID-19.

Dumbassery isn’t confined to American wingnuts.

Conspiracy theorists blame U.S. for coronavirus. China is happy to encourage them.

mike from iowa said...

https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-gun-sales-asian-california-washington-1491891

Asians are buying moar guns so the next time stoopid fucking wingnut gets in some Asian's face and tells them to go home, stand yer ground saves the gene pool from another wasicu wastey or a dozen since wasicus run in packs.

D-Wil said...

Anonymous
1. Trump did not institute the family separation policy, Obama did. Children are segregated for their own safety. Many aren't even with their parents. The "babies in cages" lie is one of the most moronic and disingenuous political tropes of all time.

2. Muslim is not a race, it is a religious/political ideology. The travel ban was from seven specific countries, one of which wasn't a Muslim country. The vast majority of Muslim countries were not part of the travel ban.

Democrats always call their opponents racist, because that's their game. Trump has done more the black community than any President in 50 years, and anyone who thinks he is racist is a fool.

1. You commit to this type of crap because it sounds good.: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jun/21/donald-trump/donald-trump-again-falsely-says-obama-had-family-s/

2. Jewish isn't a race, either... until Donald Trump felt the need to attempt to, despite his xenophobic jibes at Jews, garner more Jewish support.

3. Truth: two sides of a coin. Both are racist. Also truth: at least there are a few non-racists within the democratic party. To say Trump has done more, blah blah blah black people, is a bald-faced lie. You surely know this, but like I said in #1, you commit to this this type of crap because it sounds good.

Anonymous said...

Trump has spent his entire time in office pandering to blacks and jews. There is absolutely no objective evidence of him being racist or anti-semitic. For Christ's sake, his daughter and his grandkids are jews. He can't go five minutes without saying "lowest black unemployment ever". 90% of people let out of jail from his Criminal Justice Reform have been black.

None of this is based on reality. It's just a reflex of the left to call every one racist.

mike from iowa said...

Just received Census notification in the mail. Actually they sent 2 identical notifications. Online and done in no time. Be sure you fill yers out, unless you be a stoopid fucking wingnut. You don't count in real America.

Anonymous said...

"A disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths will be black."

Not a single black person has died of coronavirus anywhere in the world.

mike from iowa said...

drumpf has proven over and over he is racist and anti-semitic. You have been provided reams of evidence that it is so and you choose to completely ignore the truth and reality.

I suggest you go fuck yerself and stop insulting people who actual exist in the real world.

Anonymous said...

"The GOP are already engaged in Trumpish xenophobic spin about the pandemic"

We should all ignore we the virus came from. It's better to die than to be accused of racism.

mike from iowa said...

And, for yer edification, drumpfuck is still and shall remain impeached.

PilotX said...

No need to worry Dr. trump said it'll go away soon. 15 down to five to zero. Also accirding to Dr. trump if you have coronas just go to work.🙄 Four more years!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Trump speech: “we need to put aside politics, help each other-we are one family.”

Media: “RAAAAAAAACIIIIIIIST!

Anonymous said...

Rudy Gobert mocked Coronavirus by touching all the mics, as a joke. Two days later, he’s tested positive, and the entire NBA season has been canceled.

Trump strikes again.

Anonymous said...

“We should all ignore we the virus came from. It's better to die than to be accused of racism.”

No, we should spend all our efforts plotting how we will take revenge on the Chinese. That will obviously guarantee Americans stay healthy.

Or, at least, that’s how science appears to work inside Republicans’ pointy little heads.

dinthebeast said...

"New York Federal Reserve injects $1.5 trillion into markets amid coronavirus chaos for stocks. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Thursday took steps to inject more than $1.5 trillion into the markets in a bid to calm investors who are fearful of the economic impact of the coronavirus."

The next time some Republican goon yawps "How will you pay for (insert program here, M4A, etc.) the answer should be two fold: 1) Mexico will pay for it, and 2) we'll just conjure it out of thin air, like the fed just did to bribe Wall St. to stop shitting the bed.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

Market Summary > Dow Jones Industrial Average
INDEXDJX: .DJI
21,200.62 −2,352.60 (9.99%)
Mar 12, 4:20 PM EDT · Disclaimer

Anonymous said...

"Or, at least, that’s how science appears to work inside Republicans’ pointy little heads."

Thanks for another glimpse inside your pointy little head.

mike from iowa said...

Africa reports over 100 cases of drumpfuck virus. Sooner or later a POC will succumb. One dead in Egypt, but he was a German tourist who got sick but refused intensive treatment and died.

Anonymous said...

“New York Federal Reserve injects $1.5 trillion into markets amid coronavirus chaos for stocks.”

Sadly, what would boost investor confidence most is not a question of what must be “injected” but what must be removed: Trump.

The oaf in the Oval Office does not exactly project the sense that he knows what he is doing. Whenever he opens his mouth, markets are dismayed, not reassured.

You're a moron said...

Yeah, we need Breadline Bernie to declare rising stock prices a human right, or Quid Pro Joe to fix, you know, the thing.

dinthebeast said...

So Fergus is still too butthurt to be in the same room with Nancy Pelosi, and will not negotiate a virus response bill with her.
Can you imagine, say, LBJ, being too afraid to negotiate with the speaker of the house?

-Doug in Oakland

dinthebeast said...

Thank the cutoff switch in Dodd-Frank for the fact that the market isn't in total freefall right now.
Obama is still saving the country, including Fergus and his felons.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Pelosi trying to sneak in a bunch of crap that has nothing to do with the response to the virus.

Never let a crisis go to waste!

dinthebeast said...

Fergus' new travel ban conveniently exempts his own properties.

-Doug in Oakland

Sum Ting Wong said...

Joe Biden opposed the China travel restrictions wisely put in place by President Trump in January – restrictions that health experts credit with slowing the spread of coronavirus and saving lives.

If Biden had been in charge, more Americans would have contracted the virus faster.

But at least no one would have called him racist.

mike from iowa said...

What went Wong is full of prunes about travel restrictions. Like most wingnuts that post here he isn't even in the same zipcode as the truth.

A Travel ‘Ban’?
For starters, health experts say Trump was wrong to refer to the travel restrictions as a “travel ban,” as he did in a telephone interview on March 4 with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. During a town hall on March 5, Trump said he “closed down the borders to China and to other areas that are very badly affected.” That’s not accurate.

As Azar explained when he announced the travel restrictions on Jan. 31, the policy prohibits non-U.S. citizens, other than the immediate family of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, who have traveled to China within the last two weeks from entering the U.S.

At a House subcommittee hearing on the coronavirus on Feb. 5, Ron Klain, White House Ebola response coordinator under the Obama administration, took issue with the characterization of the travel restrictions as a travel “ban.”

“We don’t have a travel ban,” Klain said. “We have a travel Band-Aid right now. First, before it was imposed, 300,000 people came here from China in the previous month. So, the horse is out of the barn.”

“There’s no restriction on Americans going back and forth,” Klain said. “There are warnings. People should abide by those warnings. But today, 30 planes will land in Los Angeles that either originated in Beijing or came here on one-stops, 30 in San Francisco, 25 in New York City. Okay? So, unless we think that the color of the passport someone carries is a meaningful public health restriction, we have not placed a meaningful public health.

Once again, another drumpf bot falls on his own sword to spew misinformation.

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous said...

Pelosi trying to sneak in a bunch of crap that has nothing to do with the response to the virus.

Never let a crisis go to waste!

5:53 PM
-----------------
Just what crap would that be? Can you name one crap in the bunch? Bet ya can't.

mike from iowa said...

Wingnuts held up bill because they wanted to insert the HYDE amendment in there to make sure no federal monies were spent paying for abortions. Fuckers never quit. They'd rather attempt to save a clump of cells but not living human beings. Vote them fuckers all out.

dinthebeast said...

Fergus, in a speech meant to calm the panicky markets, couldn't help himself and ad-libbed the bit about freight and trade, which sent the markets he was trying to calm into a real-time tizzy, resulting in the worst one day losses since 1987.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

All hale drumpfenNero....https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/investing/stock-futures-bear-market/index.html

11 year run of bull market killed by one worthless, do nothing fucking orange assed moron.

sdrumpf is single handedly killing Obama's economy.

mike from iowa said...

Ohio's government spokesman says Ohio could have 100000 coronavirus cases now.

dinthebeast said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
dinthebeast said...

Azar fought off the Trumpkins to try and get Fergus to start a massive testing regime in January, but Fergus thought that admitting there was a problem would hurt him politically.

Now it is on us, for the sake of all of those needlessly dead people, to make damn sure that not admitting there was a goddamn pandemic brewing fatally injures his political career.

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Thank Doug for more of his usual BS.

Anonymous said...

"Azar fought off the Trumpkins to try and get Fergus to start a massive testing regime in January, but Fergus thought that admitting there was a problem would hurt him politically."

Complete fiction.

When Trump tried to do anything, they called him racist.

Anonymous said...

Keeping sick people from entering the country is racist.

The Left can never admit they are wrong about open borders, because it invalidates every action they've undertaken for decades as morally wrong.

melanie said...

Joe Biden is advocating for open borders during a pandemic.

I am so grateful for Trump.

Gambler2 ASKA White Woman said...

Anonymous melanie said...

Joe Biden is advocating for open borders during a pandemic.

I am so grateful for Trump.

10:22 PM
------------------
Get a clue, girl. No Democrat is advocating "open borders." This is just another right-wing talking point that is a blatant lie. And by the way, the Obama-Biden administration deported record numbers of undocumented people. You know what undocumented means don"t you? Those are the people you call illegal immigrants.

Will you continue being "grateful for Trump"after someone you like or love dies needlessly from the virus do to Trump's incompetence?

The stupid, it burns.... said...

Many Democrats, including Sanders and AOC, have called for abolishing ICE and decriminalizing border-jumping.  ALL Democratic candidates held up their hands when asked if Obamacare should cover illegals.  Biden said, per the debate transcript, "Obamacare has to be expanded. It can be, in fact, cover everybody."

This is why YOU, not Trump, are the most dangerous people America has ever seen.  You lie incessantly to everyone, starting with yourselves.  Without any mooring in reality, you are nothing but saboteurs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/immigration/abolish-ice/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/full-transcript-ninth-democratic-debate-las-vegas-n1139546

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