Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We always knew what they were, but the "debate" over the coronavirus relief bill has flushed out those hypocritical, sociopathic Republicans:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Friday that more than a third of Republican senators will not vote for any coronavirus relief package, underscoring division with his caucus.

"I think there are 15-20 of my guys that are not going to vote for anything. ... It's a statement of the obvious that we will not have everybody on our side," McConnell told WHAS, a Kentucky radio station.

McConnell's estimate comes as congressional Democrats and the administration are struggling to reach an agreement after days of talks about a potential fifth coronavirus package as cases climb across the country and an economy bludgeoned by the pandemic. [snip]

McConnell, asked why a sizable portion of his conference is opposed to another bill, noted the growing size of the country's debt after Congress has already appropriated nearly $3 trillion in the previous four coronavirus bills.  (our emphasis)

The "debt"!?!?  Where was their concern when they were shoveling a trillion dollars into the pockets of their oligarch donors in 2017?

Peter Principle princeling Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner and Princess Ivanka have done quite well for themselves while performing botching their White (Supremacist) House duties.  Seems a little swampy:

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner earned at least $36.2 million as they served in the White House last year, reporting a boost in income from some companies they own that hold residential and commercial properties, new disclosures released Friday show.

President Trump’s daughter and her husband, who serve as top advisers to him, reported a minimum combined income that was at least $7 million higher than in 2018, when they reported making at least $29 million, according to their personal financial disclosures, which they are required to file annually.

Their minimum income was lower last year than it was in 2017, the year they entered government service, when they reported earning at least $82 million, the disclosures show.

However, it is impossible to determine the exact amount that the couple earned or their net worth, because documents they are required to file with the Office of Government Ethics require administration officials to only report the worth of assets and liabilities in ranges.

Still, the filings, which were submitted last month and released Friday, show that the couple continue to collect huge sums from their outside businesses even as they work inside the administration. Their combined income last year ranged from $36.2 million to $157 million, according to a Washington Post analysis of the disclosures.  (our emphasis)

Not that any of this accumulated wealth resulted from their practice of leveraging their names or positions to get bailouts or favored treatment.  Oh, no, no!

Paul Krugman writes about the "nightmare boss" Trump is for the country, and why he'll be "fired":

Thanks to Republican inaction, millions of unemployed workers have seen their last checks from the Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which was meant to sustain them through a coronavirus-ravaged economy; the virus is still raging, but their life support has been cut off.

So Trump has completely botched his job, bringing unnecessary pain to millions of Americans and unnecessary death to thousands. He may not care, but voters do. So he should be trying to turn things around, if only as a matter of political and personal self-interest.

But here’s the thing: Even if Trump were the kind of guy who could learn from his mistakes, it’s too late. If we had found ourselves in our current situation a year ago, there might still have been time for Trump to get the virus under control and turn the economy around. But the election is just around the corner.

Suppose that the numbers on deaths and jobs were to get somewhat better over the next three months. How much would that improve voters’ views of the denier in chief? How much credence would the public give, even to genuinely good news, after the false dawn this past spring? At this point Trump is simply a failed president, and everyone except his die-hard supporters knows it.

But as I said at the beginning, Trump is one of those nightmare bosses who can’t do the job but won’t step aside.  (our emphasis)

ProPublica explores the problems with reporting coronavirus data, especially after the Trump regime decided to intrude in the process:

In mid-July, the Trump administration instructed hospitals to change the way they reported data on their coronavirus patients, promising the new approach would provide better, more up-to-the-minute information about the virus’s toll and allow resources and supplies to be quickly dispatched across the country.

Instead, the move has created widespread confusion, leaving some states in the dark about their hospitals’ remaining bed and intensive care capacity and, at least temporarily, removing this information from public view. As a result, it has been unclear how many people are in hospitals being treated for COVID-19 at a time when the number of infected patients nationally has been soaring.

Just as under the guise of "reform and streamlining" the Trump regime is bollixing USPS mail delivery to impede mail- in voting, so too are they attempting to bottleneck data medical professionals need to address the spread of the pandemic for the short- term, self- defeating purpose of downplaying the threat of the virus.

As always, Infidel 753 has compiled a link round-up of scores of interesting topics from around the Internet.  Additional prodding should not be necessary at this point.