PLAYPEN: Covid-19 Everything Political

[Alan Klein]

And another news clip:

The state of Maryland on Saturday terminated a $12.5 million contract for personal protective equipment with a firm started this spring by two well-connected Republican operatives.
State officials said the company, Blue Flame Medical, failed to deliver masks and ventilators as promised and that the matter has been referred to Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) for review.
Blue Flame received a down payment of nearly $6.3 million from Maryland in early April — after promising to provide within weeks desperately needed PPE for front-line medical personnel dealing with the novel coronavirus.
Ethan Bearman, the Los Angeles attorney for Blue Flame, said Saturday he was unaware the state was unhappy with the firm.
<snip>
The Wall Street Journal first reported the contract’s cancellation Saturday.
Blue Flame was started in late March by Michael Gula, a Republican fundraising and lobbying consultant in Washington, and John Thomas, a California political consultant.

The swamp at work. $6 million are crumbs.  Think about all the fraud with the $6 trillion?  Do you think  anyone's going to check?  All that money going bye-bye.

[Craig Lamson]

Truly stretching it Craig...but then again I've come to expect no less from you. Total Trumpism thinking...brain washed and incapable of self thought. Yep, a mixmaster can kill as well...probably the number one choice of weapon.

Logic flys out the window.

And yet my firearms have not killed a thing, as do the vast Majority of those in private hands.  You are void of real logic, so lost in the liberal fog.

[chez]

And yet my firearms have not killed a thing, as do the vast Majority of those in private hands.  You are void of real logic, so lost in the liberal fog.

And yet guns continue to kill every year. Having no facilities for the mentally disturbed and booting them onto the street combined with guns available on every corner...guess what you get.

[Alan Klein]

And yet guns continue to kill every year. Having no facilities for the mentally disturbed and booting them onto the street combined with guns available on every corner...guess what you get.

Street people don't mass kill people.  Where do they keep all their guns? Plus they can't afford them.  Most of the nuts who did mass killing lived in homes, had money, and weren't obviously nuts but otherwise disturbed individuals.  We use to have mental hospital.  But they were shut down when drugs came out to handle their problems.  Of course, manyu of them stop taking their medication and that creates problems.  But these are not the mass killers I don't believe. 

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Trump tweeted that doing the lock down was the right thing compared to Sweden. Now your Trumpateers must agree with your herder right.

I do not agree with Trump on this one.

[JoeKitchen]

Why is that? Are people stupid, selfish, indifferent, generally opposed to authority ...?

But, either getting or spreading, a life-threatening condition for which there is no cure (not talking about injecting oneself with bleach ...)?

You totally misread what I wrote Bart.  The overall change in mentality from this will be more of an effect on what businesses will fail then what the government tells what to do.

[James Clark]

I do not agree with Trump on this one.

Not to worry.  He’ll tweet the exact opposite soon and you can agree with that one

[Robert Roaldi]

Trump happy to see Kim Jong Un back on his feet, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/495820-trump-says-hes-glad-to-see-kim-jong-un-is-back-and-well. So sweet. I feel a group hug coming on. Until the next missile test anyway.

Help me out. Which is more fake, the tweet or the reporting of the tweet?

[Craig Lamson]

And yet guns continue to kill every year. Having no facilities for the mentally disturbed and booting them onto the street combined with guns available on every corner...guess what you get.

So do hammers and other blunt force objects, in fact they kill far more often than long guns.  I guess putting hammers in the wild and having them available on every street corner, well you know the rest of your silly drool.

BTW, th biggest problem with guns and street corners has nothing to do with mentally disturbed folks, but rather gang bangers and drugs.  You really should get up to speed before you psot.

[William Walker]

I do not agree with Trump on this one.

Thanks for posting this Slo, I appreciate your honesty and I'm sure most of us (lefties) have seen this post by now, but I'm worried about you.

In the best interest of you not being kicked out of the cult, perhaps you should remove this before the other cult members report you and you end up in the dogbox with John Bolton, Cohen, Sessions and the rest of the gang?

[Robert Roaldi]

Thanks for posting this Slo, I appreciate your honesty and I'm sure most of us (lefties) have seen this post by now, but I'm worried about you.

In the best interest of you not being kicked out of the cult, perhaps you should remove this before the other cult members report you and you end up in the dogbox with John Bolton, Cohen, Sessions and the rest of the gang?

It's a long list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trump_administration_dismissals_and_resignations.

[faberryman]

B&H lays off 400 of its staff:

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/ny/bh-photo-lays-off-400-employees-waited-as-long-as-possible/2020/05/02/

[Alan Klein]

Here's a special news-note for Alan, from a website run by that commie-loving Wall Street Journal:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sparked a political firestorm last week when he said U.S. states should file for bankruptcy, if need be, rather than taking federal aid, which could amount to states scaling back or pulling the plug on their pension obligations.
“There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations,” McConnell told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt last week. “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he added.
So, the big retirement news of the moment is that the top Republican in Congress would prefer that public pensions default on their obligations to retirees. What’s more, he made the remarks on exactly the same day that Social Security and Medicare trustees warned their funds are going to be depleted before most middle-aged people ever see a nickel.
But the state pension systems are small potatoes compared with the real retirement story: Social Security and Medicare.
And McConnell was speaking just as the trustees of those two systems warned that they, too, are running out of money and will need a lot of extra cash. Just don’t call it a “bailout.”
Without extra money, Social Security will exhaust its trust funds in 15 years, the trustees warn. Medicare’s Hospital Insurance fund will be exhausted in just six.

Regarding Social Security, never mind increases due to COLA cost of living adjustments.  That won't compare to the negative news of the government going broke.  I would have said a couple of month ago before Covid 19 that at our ages we don't have much to worry about.  But considering how much more broke the federal government is now that they printed another $6 trillion, we may be facing this issue next year, if we live that long.    Add to that the possible loss or reduction of public pensions, and we're talking big problems for many people including myself.

Who's Ready for a 24% Cut to Social Security Benefits?
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2020/05/03/whos-ready-for-a-24-cut-to-social-security-benefit.aspx

[chez]

Regarding Social Security, never mind increases due to COLA cost of living adjustments.  That won't compare to the negative news of the government going broke.  I would have said a couple of month ago before Covid 19 that at our ages we don't have much to worry about.  But considering how much more broke the federal government is now that they printed another $6 trillion, we may be facing this issue next year, if we live that long.    Add to that the possible loss or reduction of public pensions, and we're talking big problems for many people including myself.

Who's Ready for a 24% Cut to Social Security Benefits?
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2020/05/03/whos-ready-for-a-24-cut-to-social-security-benefit.aspx

Come on Alan. Don't you realize the virus is a Trump plan to wipe out the pensioners and save the federal money issues.

[Robert Roaldi]

There seems to be some stress about how much government is paying out in relief. It might help to look at it in a different way. If San Francisco were levelled by a big earthquake, or a large part of Manhattan laid to waste by say, a terrorist attack, or Miami flooded by a wall of water from the sea, or New Orleans destroyed by a hurricane, how much money would be appropriate to spend on those unexpected disasters? Think of Covid-19 as a nation-wide disaster.

If you don't spend tax money on rebuilding your society after a disaster, then what's the point of being a country.

[Alan Klein]

Come on Alan. Don't you realize the virus is a Trump plan to wipe out the pensioners and save the federal money issues.

It's more likely a Chinese plan to wipe out American hegemony and allow them to become #1.  It seems to be working.

[Alan Klein]

There seems to be some stress about how much government is paying out in relief. It might help to look at it in a different way. If San Francisco were levelled by a big earthquake, or a large part of Manhattan laid to waste by say, a terrorist attack, or Miami flooded by a wall of water from the sea, or New Orleans destroyed by a hurricane, how much money would be appropriate to spend on those unexpected disasters? Think of Covid-19 as a nation-wide disaster.

If you don't spend tax money on rebuilding your society after a disaster, then what's the point of being a country.

The government can't save the economy.  They are the ones that screwed it up.  All their printing and low interest rates over the years especially since 2008 has created bubbles in the stock market, real estate market, and elsewhere.  The inflated dollar has allowed huge debts in college tuition, cars, and credit cards as people spend spend spend. All that's about to blow up and the recession may turn into a depresssion.  Spending or rather printing another $6 trillion is throwing gasoline on a fire.

Now, the problem is the government is trying to save zombie companies that should be allowed to fold. They're throwing good money after bad trying to prevent the inevitable.  Why should the public save failing companies?  The public didn't share in the profits when they were making them.  So why should we pay for the shareholder's loses?  Let the shareholders take the hit.  That's what risk is all about.  Capitalism isn't only about making money.  It's about losing it as well. You who complain about how government bailed out the banks etc, should be very opposed to this.  If we feel that people need some help through the transition, that's what unemployment insurance is about.  But to give billions to the airlines when no one is flying is stupid.  Let them consolidate and some will go out of business.  The remaining companies will be stronger.  They will hire the employees fro the failed companies. Allow free market forces to work.  That will set us up for a healthier economy in the future.  Letting government pick winners and losers distorts the free market and misallocates investment capital to losers.  All we're doing now is going further in debt.  That will prevent better times tomorrow as all that debt is going to sink the economy.  It has to be paid back. 

[John Camp]

The government can't save the economy.  They are the ones that screwed it up.  All their printing and low interest rates over the years especially since 2008 has created bubbles in the stock market, real estate market, and elsewhere.  The inflated dollar has allowed huge debts in college tuition, cars, and credit cards as people spend spend spend. All that's about to blow up and the recession may turn into a depresssion.  Spending or rather printing another $6 trillion is throwing gasoline on a fire.

Now, the problem is the government is trying to save zombie companies that should be allowed to fold. They're throwing good money after bad trying to prevent the inevitable.  Why should the public save failing companies?  The public didn't share in the profits when they were making them.  So why should we pay for the shareholder's loses?  Let the shareholders take the hit.  That's what risk is all about.  Capitalism isn't only about making money.  It's about losing it as well. You who complain about how government bailed out the banks etc, should be very opposed to this.  If we feel that people need some help through the transition, that's what unemployment insurance is about.  But to give billions to the airlines when no one is flying is stupid.  Let them consolidate and some will go out of business.  The remaining companies will be stronger.  They will hire the employees fro the failed companies. Allow free market forces to work.  That will set us up for a healthier economy in the future.  Letting government pick winners and losers distorts the free market and misallocates investment capital to losers.  All we're doing now is going further in debt.  That will prevent better times tomorrow as all that debt is going to sink the economy.  It has to be paid back.

Alan, I'm happy to see you come around to a more leftist position. A very very liberal fund CEO has argued exactly the same thing. He says that the airlines for years have paid huge salaries to executives and have bought back huge quantities of their own stock, which is a backhanded way of giving themselves even more money, and also insulating the current board from outside challenges, all of that instead of creating a rainy-day fund. So why shouldn't we let them go bankrupt? The stockholders and bond holders may be wiped out, but so what -- the airline itself won't go anywhere. It may be combined with another, or may simply be lifted out of bankruptcy after some reorganization, but the planes and the employees will still be there, less a few top executives who'll still have their former bloated salaries tucked away. 

[James Clark]

Alan, I'm happy to see you come around to a more leftist position. A very very liberal fund CEO has argued exactly the same thing. He says that the airlines for years have paid huge salaries to executives and have bought back huge quantities of their own stock, which is a backhanded way of giving themselves even more money, and also insulating the current board from outside challenges, all of that instead of creating a rainy-day fund. So why shouldn't we let them go bankrupt? The stockholders and bond holders may be wiped out, but so what -- the airline itself won't go anywhere. It may be combined with another, or may simply be lifted out of bankruptcy after some reorganization, but the planes and the employees will still be there, less a few top executives who'll still have their former bloated salaries tucked away.

Even simpler - why not force any public company to sell off any stock they bought back with the LAST bailout before they get any additional funding.  This has seemed like an obvious solution from the start.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Alan, I'm happy to see you come around to a more leftist position....

How is that a leftist position boggles my mind.