April 26, 2020

Does "state going bankrupt" equal "federal takeover of state"?

Did I misremember or have there been governments in USA that DID go bankrupt and had the state take over?

With that logic, then going bankrupt amounts to having the federal gov't take over your state.

Is that the import of this? Am I missing something e.g. in charters for municipalities maybe there is a state takeover clause?

Comments are appreciated...

April 25, 2020

4/24 briefing: that was short! Question on junk tests -- anyone got thoughts on it?

The new doctor -- the one who spent a lot of time yesterday talking out his thought process to decide that the critter that causes COVID-19 is a virus -- today he answered a question about "junk" tests by saying that there were many tests out there, under self-certification.

Self-certified sounds nice but I am not sure I trust it. A lot of people will think they are being tested but are doing no better than what they can find in a horoscope. Those of you who have been around the labs -- am I sneering unnecessarily at these tests?

April 20, 2020

Corp of Engineers & WH live -- did DT just ask about the [expletive] wall ??

Watching today's how-DT-will-screw-up-the-USA show on WH Live but late (usually prefer to wait & watch reruns, because I can run at 1.75x speed).

DT asked the Corps of Engineers about the "southwestern wall" which I think is The [expletive] Wall.

Weren't we working on a pandemic? Wasn't the CoE guy just talking about bed shortages in detail for 10 minutes? Did I hear correctly that DT is asking about progress of the [expletive] wall??

Gotta run -- mow the lawn & refill the gas can and the car before something happens to gas supply. Oh and I live in TN so have to start making some better masks.

Hope I didn't actually hear this. Thanks for letting me vent.

April 16, 2020

fyi - interesting twitter thread on DT adjournment threats for Congress

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1250556486297812992

Describes that these days, the sessions run to the end of Congress i.e. Jan 3, 2021 (in the old days sessions did NOT run to end of Congress so there might be disagreement). Further replies in the tweet discuss how many votes would be needed to overturn that decision in the Senate & concluded it would be unlikely. Well worth a read.

Edited to give you this information so you can actually see the thread:

add twitter . com to the front of this in order to see the thread:
/steve_vladeck/status/1250557679963123714

The tweet's author is a law professor at Univ Texas so no wonder it's so clear!

April 14, 2020

WH's 1600 daily title "The media can't rewrite history" - Gallup

Of course, the whole WH post is another display from this miserable administration. I expect that.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600daily/

Funny that they are using (1) media sources to say the (2) media sources are unfair. Of course all of (1) are Fox and friends sources. Oh I forgot: Fox is entertainment so their friends must be so also.

Anyone got a comment on Gallup? First link in the WH post is to Gallup. But it's not a link to Gallup -- it's a link to RW rags. When you get to the actual Gallup report, at the end of that article, you get this:

Coronavirus Response: Hospitals Rated Best, News Media Worst
BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY March 25, 2020
https://news.gallup.com/poll/300680/coronavirus-response-hospitals-rated-best-news-media-worst.aspx

So I think Gallup's title is perhaps misleading. Thoughts?

PS-
Looks like they erase these gems from whitehouse.gov (no way to look back that I can see) so I made myself a PDF. The other entries on today's 1600daily are FLOTUS and Easter.

April 8, 2020

2016 discussion questions for you...elections & job-offer behavior

Thinking back on 2016...sounded as though folks thought employers were holding back job offers until election was over i.e. if Clinton won companies would not offer jobs. Had one person directly thanking DT for giving her spouse a job. Over the years others expressed the happy that DT was in office regarding jobs. BTW - I live in an area with heavy Fed employment and Fed related via contracting.

Question - do expectations about employer growth plans nudge voters? Government jobs vs others? Is it a permanent lean of one party over the other?

Given the present situation with CV -- what do you think people might say about companies for 2020 election (i.e. for which party would people spread positive word with respect to jobs)?

Thanks for your ideas on this.

PS - not discounting other 2016 drivers -- Comey and media circus and internal matters...just wondering about this one aspect

April 3, 2020

COVID - an interesting way to think of the social distance (knife analogy)

I was reading a live blog from WaPo today. I hope they don't mind if I share it because it is a very compelling image, and might help someone:

April 3, 2020

What if...building codes said your building must be pandemic-ready

Could some of the heartache been prevented by allowing permits for convention centers only if the building could be reconfigured for pandemic? That would've created a network of available spaces with negative pressure, adequate piping, etc. As long as we taxpayers have to support these white elephants, should we not get some benefit?

Ain't hindsight great?

Your thoughts will be appreciated, DU...

April 3, 2020

TN Exec Order 23 today

Gov Lee updated Order 22 (closes down nonessential/new restaurant protocol) with Order 23 which requires all TN to stay at home unless performing essential.

Naturally, the first comments I heard was "they can't enforce that!" which completely misses the point of the Orders. Effective through Apr 15.

Edited to provide link: https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-lee23.pdf for 23 and https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-lee22.pdf for 22