Today In Moscow Mitch -- Mrs. Moscow Mitch Edition

Swampy!

A shipping business started by Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao's family received at least $350,000 in loans set aside for companies struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data published Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Chao's parents launched Foremost Group in New York in 1964. The company is currently run by her father and sister, according to the company's website. Its application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan was approved on April 15, the SBA's data shows. While the exact loan amount was not included in the report, the SBA said a loan between $350,000 and $1 million was approved, enabling the company to save 20 jobs. [snip]

The SBA said it approved about 4.9 million loans through the PPP program. The loan amount approved for Foremost Group is part of the second group of loans—those valued at $150,000 and above—that account for nearly 75 percent of PPP loan dollars allocated by the SBA. The SBA's news release said some loans reached values as high as $10 million.

The PPP was built into the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, a bill President Donald Trump signed into law in late March to provide Americans and business owners with financial assistance as states across the U.S. shuttered temporarily to prevent further spread of the virus. Though $349 billion was allocated for distribution through the PPP, the program ran out of money less than two weeks after it launched, frustrating small business owners who were unable to receive loan approval before the funds dried up. Though additional funding was later directed to the PPP—with the application deadline extended as recently as last weekend—reports of large businesses receiving loan approvals from a program that was theoretically designed to assist small businesses frustrated many within the latter group.  (our emphasis)

The Foremost Group owns 33 large dry bulk "capesize" ships, the largest dry cargo ships, valued at $1.2 billion. It's the most valuable of any dry bulk shipper headquartered in the U.S. Does that sound like a small business to you?

... Chao's relationship with the company has in the past been the subject of an ethics investigation launched by the House of Representatives after Chao assumed her role within the Trump administration in early 2017. Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has also received criticism for possessing stocks after she said she would sell them before stepping up to lead the Department of Transportation.

Of course, this company didn't need $350,000 + to save 20 jobs, yet it "somehow" got aid that struggling, truly small businesses could have used.  Perhaps her family (billionaires) or Mrs. Moscow Mitch herself ($24 million net worth) could have used some of their personal fortunes to guarantee those 20 jobs rather than take a place at the trough.  The shameless greedy always find a way, though.

Most. Corrupt. Regime. Ever.

(Photo:  Swamp creatures Elaine "Mrs. Moscow Mitch" Chao and Moscow Mitch McConnell.)

Today In Moscow Mitch McConnell

The Lincoln Project turns its lethal laser on the second biggest threat to American democracy after the Orange Shitgibbon: Kentucky Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell (a.k.a., "Rich Mitch"):



It'll be tough, but how great would it be to kick this smug, malevolent asshole out of office in January?  If you can help, please support Amy McGrath.

Today (And Every Day) In Moscow Mitch (UPDATED)

Let's catch up on what the biggest threat to American democracy and Putin's biggest asset outside of the Oval Office has been up to:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed in a private call with House Republicans Wednesday that the enhanced unemployment benefits keeping millions of people afloat amid Great Depression-level joblessness will not be extended in the next coronavirus stimulus legislation, effectively endorsing a major income cut for a large swath of the U.S. population.

The boosted unemployment insurance—which provides an additional $600 per week on top of state benefits and is set to expire on July 31—”will not be in the next bill,” the Kentucky Republican reportedly told his GOP colleagues, calling the fact that some people are making slightly more money on unemployment than they did from their jobs “crazy.”  (our emphasis)

"Crazy"!  But what's not crazy to Moscow Mitch, and why the push to end enhanced unemployment benefits?

McConnell, whose remarks during the private call were first reported by Politico, also said he will continue advocating aggressively for the inclusion of corporate liability protections in the next stimulus package, but did not provide a timeline for the legislation.

The Kentucky Republican’s effort to shield corporations from legal responsibility for workers who contract Covid-19 on the job has drawn outrage from consumer advocacy groups, small businesses, and seniors.

McConnell’s push for corporate liability protections and opposition to extending beefed-up unemployment benefits are interlinked: While urging states to reopen and pressuring people to return to potentially unsafe workplaces by moving to end benefits, the GOP is simultaneously attempting to guarantee that companies are not held accountable for endangering the health of employees by bringing them back prematurely amid a pandemic.  (our emphasis)

Read that last paragraph again and tell us Moscow Mitch and his rotted- out "party of life" don't believe in profits before people.  They're not even trying to hide it anymore because their own voters are so deep in the bubble they believe there's nothing wrong with any of the wicked dystopia their party has ushered into American life.*  To them it's "cleansing society," "weeding out the weak and unproductive" -- until it happens to them, and then they blame (insert favorite targets here).

Amy McGrath is aiming to replace this particular turtle- like tumor in November.  Help her if you can.

UPDATE:  Mrs. Moscow Mitch is also benefiting from her conjugal arrangement: the Transportation Department Acting Inspector General has been ousted while overseeing an investigation of her funneling Federal money into her hubby's state for his political benefit.  Another reason to vote Moscow Mitch out.
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*Or as Driftglass colorfully puts it, that "tens of millions of our fellow citizens are such abject failures as citizens and as human beings that they would fling themselves into a live volcano at Trump's command and blame Liberals for the pain with their dying breath."

Tweet Of The Day -- Moscow Mitch McConnell Edition

News item:  Earlier in the week, killer of American democracy Sen. "Moscow Mitch" McConnell had "thoughts" about former President Obama privately and accurately calling nitwit demagogue Donald "Disinfectant Donnie" Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic "an absolute chaotic disaster," saying Obama "should have kept his mouth shut" and that it was "a little bit classless." The former chair of the Republican National Committee responded:

I'm sure Mitch is aware that a grown ass black man who happens to be a former president has agency to speak his mind on how his successor is managing this crisis, especially since his successor has yet to keep "his mouth shut" about him.
And "classless"?https://t.co/kx6yyH8n4k

— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) May 12, 2020

You can support Moscow Mitch's most likely challenger, Amy McGrath here.

BONUS:


(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)

QOTD -- Cuomo On Moscow Mitch

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo responding to yesterday's suggestion by Moscow Mitch McConnell that providing funds to state and local governments for COVID-19 relief was a "blue state bailout" and that they consider declaring bankruptcy as an option:

"Don’t help New York because it is a Democratic state. How ugly a thought. Just think of what he’s saying. People died, 15,000 people died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats, so why should we help them? I mean, for crying out loud, if there was ever a time for you to put aside your pettiness and your partisanship and this political lens that you see the world through — Democrat or Republican, and we help Republicans but we don’t help Democrats — that’s not who we are. That’s just now who we are as a people. If there’s ever a time for humanity and decency, now is the time."

Paul Waldman has more analysis of Moscow Mitch's "factually wrong and so morally revolting" idea at the link, including how "blue" states heavily subsidize "red" states, including McConnell's own Kentucky.

It's a good time to remember that morally bankrupt Moscow Mitch is up for reelection, and he's running against a hero and a star, former Marine Corps pilot Amy McGrath. Consider a contribution to her campaign to help send Moscow Mitch packing.

Tweets Of The Day -- Today In #Moscow Mitch

Mitch McConnell pays lip service to President Trump but those in his circle say he has called the president “nuts” behind his back: How Mitch McConnell Became Trump’s Enabler-in-Chief https://t.co/APJnV8lhuf via @NewYorker

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) April 13, 2020

Just out: History is going to be exceptionally unkind to Mitch McConnell, the bland enabler who abetted a tyrant. In this blockbuster profile, which just posted, the great @JaneMayerNYer exposes his peculiar brand of moral bankruptcy. https://t.co/9ebK88ak4B

— Patrick Radden Keefe (@praddenkeefe) April 12, 2020

The incomparable @JaneMayerNYer on Mitch McConnell is every bit as good as you'd expect it to be, including arguably the best paragraph ever written on the Kentucky crusher of democracy pic.twitter.com/XK2tWqPiDp

— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) April 12, 2020

Whoa. Way at the bottom of this @JaneMayerNYer story:

McConnell amendment in a 2017 ACA repeal bill would have zeroed out a CDC fund that provides grants to states for detecting and responding to infectious-disease outbreaks -- about 12 percent of the CDC's annual budget pic.twitter.com/WurE7bI9N8

— Jake Zuckerman (@jake_zuckerman) April 13, 2020

.@JaneMayerNYer ends pretty much every section of this piece with a mic-drop quote. Here's one from Robert Caro: pic.twitter.com/KJ3qZTqDGu

— Andrew Marantz (@andrewmarantz) April 12, 2020

This is why we need Amy McGrath to make Mitch just a random constituent of hers.

— dbWrasslin (@DbWrasslin) April 13, 2020

With the economic problems we face, it's hard to ask for donations, but it's all the more important that McConnell be defeated.