Will republicans use the Coronavirus in another of their socialism for the rich scams?

[neoplacebo]

Peter Navarro says "you can't fix stupid." And he should know this better than anyone. He's never been right yet, and his final statement in this story is "I've got 30 projects on my board across the street." The story does not say if he made it back across the street but I have no doubt that if he does, he will fuck up or misunderstand 30 more things.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-fix-stu ... 28629.html

[billy.pilgrim]

Peter Navarro says "you can't fix stupid." And he should know this better than anyone. He's never been right yet, and his final statement in this story is "I've got 30 projects on my board across the street." The story does not say if he made it back across the street but I have no doubt that if he does, he will fuck up or misunderstand 30 more things.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-fix-stu ... 28629.html

Cleese explains Navarro

https://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU

[neoplacebo]

Peter Navarro says "you can't fix stupid." And he should know this better than anyone. He's never been right yet, and his final statement in this story is "I've got 30 projects on my board across the street." The story does not say if he made it back across the street but I have no doubt that if he does, he will fuck up or misunderstand 30 more things.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-fix-stu ... 28629.html

Cleese explains Navarro

https://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU

Yeah, that reminds me of one of George Carlin's profound observations; "Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are stupider than that."

[Vrede too]

Yeah, that reminds me of one of George Carlin's profound observations; "Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are stupider than that."

Like the voters for these Repugs:

Self-funding QAnon candidate gave own campaign $450,000 after getting PPP loan

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and Republican candidate who is expected to win her House race in Georgia next month, donated $450,000 to her own campaign after receiving a six-figure Paycheck Protection Program loan from the government for her construction company.

Greene, who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and posted videos attacking Black people, Muslims and Jews, won the Republican primary in Georgia's 14th congressional district in August despite opposition from Republican leaders. She is almost certain to take over the seat now held by retiring Republican Rep. Tom Graves, especially after her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race last month in a district President Trump carried by 50 points. Trump has since praised Greene as a "future Republican star."

Greene's bid was partially funded by a super PAC allied with the House Freedom Caucus, which has opposed additional funding to provide coronavirus relief to Americans. Greene has opposed additional spending as well, declaring in a Facebook video that "the best stimulus for Americans is allowing Americans to go back to work!"

... Greene is not the only Republican candidate who has self-funded a campaign while taking PPP loans.

Former Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., received a PPP loan for one of his companies worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in May, weeks before he loaned his campaign $150,000. Issa, who has a net worth of $280 million to $400 million and was the richest member of Congress between 2000 and 2018, is trying to stage a political comeback by running for the Southern California seat recently vacated by convicted former Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican.

Issa's Democratic opponent ,Ammar Campa-Najjar, called for "millionaires like Darrell Issa" to be banned from collecting PPP loans during a debate last week.

Issa said at the debate that he opposed funding the PPP entirely, arguing it would be "foolhardy" and that "paying people not to work has run its course."

Another California Republican candidate, Michelle Steele, also received a PPP loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in April for her family law firm. She donated $500,000 to her campaign in California's 48th congressional district against Rep. Harley Rouda, a Democratic freshman narrowly elected in the 2018 "blue wave."

Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, received PPP loans worth up to $7 million for his auto dealerships before donating $250,000 to his campaign.

[billy.pilgrim]

Yeah, that reminds me of one of George Carlin's profound observations; "Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are stupider than that."

Like the voters for these Repugs:

Self-funding QAnon candidate gave own campaign $450,000 after getting PPP loan

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and Republican candidate who is expected to win her House race in Georgia next month, donated $450,000 to her own campaign after receiving a six-figure Paycheck Protection Program loan from the government for her construction company.

Greene, who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and posted videos attacking Black people, Muslims and Jews, won the Republican primary in Georgia's 14th congressional district in August despite opposition from Republican leaders. She is almost certain to take over the seat now held by retiring Republican Rep. Tom Graves, especially after her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race last month in a district President Trump carried by 50 points. Trump has since praised Greene as a "future Republican star."

Greene's bid was partially funded by a super PAC allied with the House Freedom Caucus, which has opposed additional funding to provide coronavirus relief to Americans. Greene has opposed additional spending as well, declaring in a Facebook video that "the best stimulus for Americans is allowing Americans to go back to work!"

... Greene is not the only Republican candidate who has self-funded a campaign while taking PPP loans.

Former Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., received a PPP loan for one of his companies worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in May, weeks before he loaned his campaign $150,000. Issa, who has a net worth of $280 million to $400 million and was the richest member of Congress between 2000 and 2018, is trying to stage a political comeback by running for the Southern California seat recently vacated by convicted former Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican.

Issa's Democratic opponent ,Ammar Campa-Najjar, called for "millionaires like Darrell Issa" to be banned from collecting PPP loans during a debate last week.

Issa said at the debate that he opposed funding the PPP entirely, arguing it would be "foolhardy" and that "paying people not to work has run its course."

Another California Republican candidate, Michelle Steele, also received a PPP loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in April for her family law firm. She donated $500,000 to her campaign in California's 48th congressional district against Rep. Harley Rouda, a Democratic freshman narrowly elected in the 2018 "blue wave."

Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, received PPP loans worth up to $7 million for his auto dealerships before donating $250,000 to his campaign.

I'm pretty sure people are being prosecuted for this.

[Vrede too]

I'm pretty sure people are being prosecuted for this.

While what these pols are doing is abusive and morally reprehensible, I don't know that they've engaged in fraud.

[billy.pilgrim]

I'm pretty sure people are being prosecuted for this.

While what these pols are doing is abusive and morally reprehensible, I don't know that they've engaged in fraud.

Whose $450,000 paycheck was she protecting?

[billy.pilgrim]

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/conten ... e-poverty/

[Vrede too]

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/conten ... e-poverty/

Billionaires Made Trillions During COVID-19 as Extreme Poverty Rises for First Time in 20 Years
The world's billionaires reached a record $10.2 trillion in wealth at the height of the crisis.

We're not only stealing from average Americans to further enrich the fat cats, we're stealing from current and future CV-19 patients:

Trump admin. funds plasma company based in owner's condo

An obscure South Carolina company may be in line for millions of dollars in U.S. government funding to produce a coronavirus treatment after a former Republican senator (Rick Santorum) with a financial stake in the business lobbied senior U.S. government officials.

Plasma Technologies LLC, has received seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology. But as much as $65 million more could be on the way, a windfall for the company that operates out of the founder's luxury condo, according to internal government records and other documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The story of how a tiny business, which exists only on paper, has managed to snare so much top-level attention is emblematic of the Trump administration’s frenetic response to the coronavirus pandemic.

And it’s another in a series of contracts awarded despite concerns over their proposals voiced by government scientists....

[Vrede too]

7 Charged With Stealing Millions In COVID Aid, Using It To Buy Lamborghini, Porsche

[Vrede too]

I heard on the radio that donnie is already crying about the poor hotel owners may need federal (taxpayer) assistance.

Probably more to come; afterall, ask not what the workers can do for the country, ask what they can be do for the rich.

You nailed it.

More than half of the money from the Paycheck Protection Program went to just 5% of recipients

Around 600 large companies "including dozens of national chains, received the maximum amount allowed under the program of $10 million,"according to the Washington Post, which had to file a lawsuit to acquire the data via a Freedom of Information Act request. Law firms and churches also received the maximum amount.

Officials from both the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration have previously said the program had worked the way it was intended, with 87% of loans totalling $150,000 or less. However, the new data shows that only 28% of the $552 billion distributed were for smaller loans....

While the PPP has been estimated to help save anywhere between 1.4 million and 3.2 million jobs, it has been plagued by fraud and other issues....

[Vrede too]

'What did you do?': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez clashes with Marco Rubio on Twitter over PPP loan data

... In her original tweet, she quote-tweeted the NBC News journalist Olivia Solon, who pointed out that Project Veritas, the right-wing sting-op organization, had received $558,900.

The data was released after a monthslong court battle that resulted in the Trump administration having to release information about organizations that received PPP loans over $150,000. NBC News also reported that tenants at Trump Organization and Kushner Cos. properties received over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million.

billy.pilgrim has been consulting for AOC.

Sen. Marco Rubio replied and quote-tweeted Ocasio-Cortez, saying, "Working together R's & D's helped save the jobs of 55 million Americans through PPP. Work more, tweet less & one day you too can make a difference."

... Rep. Ocasio-Cortez hit back, saying, "Yesterday I recruited 5,000 volunteers to train and tutor kids in my community who are struggling with remote learning, and that was after investigating the Treasury Secretary's rationale for stopping CARES Act funding and voting on House legislation. What did you do?"

Ocasio-Cortez mentioned her Homework Helpers drive to recruit tutoring volunteers in her district, as well as yesterday's hearing with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, where representatives grilled him about his plan to end federal lending programs enabled through the passage of the CARES Act at the start of the pandemic.



Rubio's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Vrede too]

Tenants of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner companies receive $3.65m in PPP loan money, report says

More than 25 PPP loans were given to businesses located in properties owned by Trump Organisation or Kushner Companies, and paying rent to those landlords, NBC News reports.

The SBA released data on Tuesday night about every small business that received either PPP loans or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans after months of litigation.

These loans, created by the federal government, were intended to give small businesses emergency relief in order to pay employees, rent, and mortgage expenses.

The loans to the president and his family’s tenants included one to Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City for the sum of $2.14m. Additionally, two tenants in Trump Tower in NYC received $100,000 each but only kept three jobs, which went against the requirements of receiving a PPP loan.

Four tenants at a Manhattan building owned by Mr Kushner each received more than $204,000, but they only kept six jobs.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and her family also benefited from the program. Her parent’s Florida roofing company received $2m from the program....

The SBA argued that 87 per cent of loans went to small businesses prior to the data release, but a majority of the loans actually went to larger corporations, The Washington Post reports.

More than half of the $522bn given out went to large businesses and corporations, and only 28 per cent of toast funds issued to businesses were for $150,000 or less. About 600 large corporations, including the parent company of Boston Market and dozens of other large chains, received the maximum loan amount of $10m from the program.

Also, more than 100 loans given out to were made with no business name listed. Instead the information showed up as “no name available” or as a potential data entry error, NBC News reports.

“Many months and broken promises later, the court-ordered release of this crucial data while the Trump administration is one foot out the door is a shameful dereliction of duty and flagrant mismanagement of a program that millions of workers and small businesses needed to get through this pandemic,” Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, an accountability watchdog, said in a statement to the news organisation....

The SBA was required to disclose the data after several news organisations filed a federal lawsuit against the organisation over its refusal to follow the Freedom of Information Act. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that SBA had to release the data, and the organisation did not appeal the ruling.

[Vrede too]

The Fine Print in a 5,593-Page Spending Bill: Tax Breaks and Horse Racing

Tucked away in the 5,593-page spending bill that Congress rushed through Monday night is a provision that some tax experts call a $200 billion giveaway to the rich.

It involves the tens of thousands of businesses that received loans from the federal government this spring with the promise that the loans would be forgiven, tax free, if they agreed to keep employees on the payroll through the coronavirus pandemic.

But for some businesses and their high-paid accountants, that was not enough. They went to Congress with another request: Not only should the forgiven loans not to be taxed as income, but the expenditures used with those loans should be tax deductible.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

“High-income business owners have had tax benefits and unprecedented government grants showered down upon then. And the scale is massive,” wrote Adam Looney, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Treasury Department tax official in the Obama administration, who estimated that $120 billion of the $200 billion would flow to the top 1% of Americans.

The new provision allows for a classic double dip into the Paycheck Protection Program, as businesses get free money from the government, then get to deduct that largess from their taxes.

Moscow Mitch, no doubt.

And it is one of hundreds included in a huge spending package and a coronavirus stimulus bill that is supposed to help businesses and families struggling during the pandemic but, critics say, swerved far afield. President Donald Trump on Tuesday night blasted it as a disgrace and demanded revisions.

“Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,” he said in a video posted on Twitter that stopped just short of a veto threat.

Wow, finally something to agree with him on. Someone must have changed the TV channel to MSNBC when he wasn't looking.

The measure includes serious policy changes beyond the much-needed $900 billion in coronavirus relief, such as a simplification of federal financial aid forms, measures to address climate change and a provision to stop “surprise billing” from hospitals when patients unwittingly receive care from physicians out of their insurance networks.

... “Members of Congress have not read this bill. It’s over 5,000 pages, arrived at 2 p.m. today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in two hours,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on Twitter on Monday. “This isn’t governance. It’s hostage-taking.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, agreed — the two do not agree on much.

“It’s ABSURD to have a $2.5 trillion spending bill negotiated in secret and then — hours later — demand an up-or-down vote on a bill nobody has had time to read,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

They should get a room.

... But the tax provisions — including extending a $2.5 billion break for race car tracks and allowing a $6.3 billion write-off for business meals, derided as the “three-martini lunch” expense — have prompted the most hand-wringing.

The bill also lowers some taxes on alcoholic beverages.

No break is bigger, however, than the deductions that will soon be permitted under the Paycheck Protection Program. Businesses had been lobbying the Treasury Department and the IRS since the spring to deduct spending from PPP loans, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was firmly opposed, saying deducting expenditures from funds not considered taxable income violated “Tax 101.”

Former PINO and Mnuchin making sense - it's an Xmas miracle!

... Although there had been discussion of limiting the deduction to PPP recipients below a certain income threshold, the final provision was made available to anyone, regardless of income.

The Small Business Administration this month released data showing that just 1% of the program’s 5.2 million borrowers had received more than a quarter of the $523 billion disbursed.

That 1% included high-priced law firms like Boies Schiller Flexner and the operator of New York’s biggest horse tracks, which received the maximum loan amount of $10 million.

“The year 2020 is going to be one of the most unequal years in modern history,” Looney said. “Part of the inequity is the effect of COVID, which hammered service sectors the most and allowed rich, educated people to work on Zoom. But the government totally compounded these inequities with their response.”

Yet in the end, only six senators, all Republicans, voted against the coronavirus relief package and spending bill, mostly citing fiscal concerns about runaway spending, while 85 House members — a mix of Democrats and Republicans — voted against its military provisions. The bill increased military spending by about $5 billion.

Feed the Pentagon and merchants of death, nothing else ever matters.

... That said, there was plenty for lawmakers to cheer for. They sent out news releases promoting preferred provisions like the ban on most surprise medical bills, the restoration of college financial aid for incarcerated people, and the restrictions on the use of powerful planet-warming chemicals that are commonly used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The bill also creates new museums honoring women and Latinos....

Cool.

More on former PINO's reaction:

Pelosi responds to Trump's request for $2,000 stimulus checks: 'Let's do it!'

Put up or shut up.

One take on the matter:

Trump shows up too late to his presidency

[Vrede too]

GOP blocks $2,000 checks as Trump leaves COVID aid in chaos

Of course they did.

[neoplacebo]

I bet two thousand dollars they conspire to keep fucking this whole thing up. It's the kind of thing that contributes to the rise of nuts like trump and Patriot Boys and other misguided fucktards like those at LNF. Tuck frump and tuck everything about him.

[billy.pilgrim]

Has anyone figured out yet that his $2,000 was a very intentional passive-aggressive veto.

[Vrede too]

Has anyone figured out yet that his $2,000 was a very intentional passive-aggressive veto.

Former PINO's amendment demands were rejected, as predicted by everybody, but I don't think he's vetoed the bill yet.

[Ulysses]

Has anyone figured out yet that his $2,000 was a very intentional passive-aggressive veto.

Former PINO's amendment demands were rejected, as predicted by everybody, but I don't think he's vetoed the bill yet.

Most likely Trump will not veto the so-called covid relief bill, nor will he sign it. He'll just sit back and let the chaos ensue, resulting in a government shutdown. That's because there's a 10 day wait between when he receives a bill, and when Congress absent a veto or signing, can override the veto and make it law. I suspect this is his ploy; to let everyone know how vexed he is; not that the bill doesn't contain an upgrade to a $2,000 stimulus payment to every American, but because the parallel NDAA legislation doesn't contain repeal of Section 230, which has allowed Twitter to flag his more gross disinformation tweets for what they really are. He's basically throwing a major tantrump, kicking and screaming and disrupting everyone's days.

Fortunately when the 10 days are up, Congress can override his veto and government can re-open. I understand that will be around Jan. 4.

And on Jan. 6 Congress is expected to confirm that Biden won the election. Of course, Trump is going to try to delay that as well, with bullshit procedural delays, but from what I understand, that will be at most a day more to wait to see his sorry ass given the boot.

1-20-21 cannot come soon enough.

[billy.pilgrim]

The bill was ready for him to sign.
He didn't.
He intentionally fucked it up.
Same as a veto, but he comes out looking like a man for the people.

Get it?