Turning Farmers Into Welfare Queens: Will it Ever End?

Trump was already spending double his predecessor to spare farmers the cost of his trade war. Now the price is reaching unsustainable levels.

Direct farm aid has climbed each year of Trump’s presidency, from $11.5 billion in 2017 to more than $32 billion this year — an all-time high, with potentially far more funding still to come in 2020, amounting to about two-thirds of the cost of the entire Department of Housing and Urban Development and more than the Agriculture Department’s $24 billion discretionary budget, according to a POLITICO analysis. But lawmakers have taken a largely hands-off approach, letting the department decide who gets the money and how much.

Politico

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020

Trump’s Solution to Record Unemployment? “Find Something New”

As businesses shut down, declare bankruptcy, and lay off or fire employees, the Trump administration offers a solution: Find a new job.

Led by “genius” daughter Ivanka Trump and Sleepy Wilbur Ross:
The campaign is a product of the White House’s American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, which President Donald Trump created in 2018. The board is co-chaired by Trump’s daughter and White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

With 22 million unemployed Americans, Ivanka and Wilbur offer a solution that, apparently, nobody else has thought of: Find a new job.

NBC News

Related:
From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Number of unemployed persons per job opening:

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020

Orange County, California: Let’s Sacrifice the Kids

Orange County votes to reopen schools without masks or increased social distancing.

Orange County education leaders voted 4 to 1 Monday evening to approve recommendations for reopening schools in the fall that do not include the mandatory use of masks for students or increased social distancing in classrooms amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

The Board of Education did, however, leave reopening plans up to individual school districts.

L.A. Times

[Orange County has long been a Republican stronghold, although thanks to the madness of the GOP it now has more registered Democrats.]

July 8, 2020

Coronavirus May Cause Brain Damage (Which Undoubtedly Doesn’t Include Trump Supporters)

Doctors may be missing signs of serious and potentially fatal brain disorders triggered by coronavirus, as they emerge in mildly affected or recovering patients, scientists have warned.

Neurologists are on Wednesday publishing details of more than 40 UK Covid-19 patients whose complications ranged from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke. In some cases, the neurological problem was the patient’s first and main symptom.

The Guardian

July 6, 2020July 6, 2020

Conspiracy-Promoting Mother Takes 16-Year Old Daughter to Church “COVID Event”. Teen Dies of COVID-19.

Floriduh: Church-goers gathered without masks. The teen was immuno-compromised. She fell ill with coronavirus and later died.

Raw Story

[How can people be SO damned dumb? The mother must watch only Faux News.]

July 5, 2020

False Rumor of Antifa Flag Burning — White Supremacist & Militia Madness Ensues

Here’s a story that’s very humorous to read. It seems somebody using a fake name made posts to facebook about a flag-burning gathering at Gettysburg.

The rumor spread amongst the white supremacists and militia, and they showed up in force.

Nobody else showed up. No Antifa. No flag burning. Just a lot of RWers holding their guns.

Well, there was one incident: A RWer accidentally shot himself in the leg.

Washington Post

July 1, 2020

There Can be No Justice When Judges are Corrupt, Incompetent, Prejudiced

In the past dozen years, state and local judges have repeatedly escaped public accountability for misdeeds that have victimized thousands. Nine of 10 kept their jobs, a Reuters investigation found – including an Alabama judge who unlawfully jailed hundreds of poor people, many of them Black, over traffic fines.

Reuters

[If you’ve ever been involved with the “justice” system, you know it is seriously flawed.]

June 27, 2020

Sheer Stupidity and Greed: Deregulating the Banks

The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in the establishment of new rules for banks–to help protect against another crash.

Now, those rules are being loosened…as we’re in possibly the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The changes, set to take effect on Oct. 1, will make it easier for big banks to devote more of their resources to investments in venture capital funds and other vehicles—the kind risky of speculation that sent the entire U.S. financial system into a tailspin in 2008.

Regulators on Thursday also eliminated a requirement that banks set aside a certain amount of financial cushion to protect against trading losses. The rollback could free up tens of billions of dollars for Wall Street banks.

Common Dreams

June 27, 2020

Coronavirus: Trump’s Massive Failure and Lack of Leadership

As Trump and Republicans have pushed “reopening”, other countries have been more cautious. Now, coronavirus cases are again on the increase in the U.S., as it’s on the decline in the EU. This is disastrous:

Bloomberg

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

More Evidence that Exposure to Right-Wing Media Rots Your Brain

In recent weeks, three studies have focused on conservative media’s role in fostering confusion about the seriousness of the coronavirus. Taken together, they paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others.

“We are receiving an incredible number of studies and solid data showing that consuming far-right media and social media content was strongly associated with low concern about the virus at the onset of the pandemic,” said Irene Pasquetto, chief editor of the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, which published one of the studies.

…those who relied on conservative sources, such as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories or unfounded rumors, such as the belief that taking vitamin C could prevent infection, that the Chinese government had created the virus, and that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was exaggerating the pandemic’s threat “to damage the Trump presidency.”