Virus thread, the political one.

[monadnocky]

.... aaaand Trump just tied "liberating" Virginia with the Second Amendment in a tweet.

Yes, this is where we are.

For the love of God how can anyone who calls themselves human support this monster.

[bcm119]

How easy is this to prosecute though? It can be pursued through an ethics investigation I suppose, where Congress says "Yeah, okay this one is a bit too close for comfort. 40 rhetorical lashes for you." But in terms of getting some kind of secret information that wasn't available to other investors at the time and trading based on that information - that's much more difficult to prove, isn't it?

Looking back through our financial movements, we've made changes in & around February almost every year. And that's just because that's when my wife gets her earnings statements and our financial advisor meets with us. Just routine calendar based pattern.

Would Trump's statements as President that no one could have seen this coming provide cover for these trades as lucky decisions? If so, I guess the growing evidence of administration communications warning about a possible pandemic as early as January might then also make it more difficult to say these were just lucky - if those missives were shared with members of Congress.

I agree this would be hard to prosecute. And I don't really think they are explicit violations. I knew plenty of friends who started selling in January as news of the virus was coming out of China. If you were paying attention, the early estimates of transmissibility and death rates were enough to do the math on how this would hit our economy. I have a friend who works in the IT hardware biz, and deinvested his entire retirement fund based on the delays of iPhones coming out of China. Still, facts about a virus possibly becoming a pandemic are still just predictions, and selling based on predictions is taking a risk. I don't think this is the same as selling based on insider knowledge of a particular company's financials.

[theflashunc]

.... aaaand Trump just tied "liberating" Virginia with the Second Amendment in a tweet.

Yes, this is where we are.

For the love of God how can anyone who calls themselves human support this monster.

Not just Virginia, multiple states. The President is actively encouraging insurrection against state governments. This is lunacy.

Trump: 'LIBERATE' states with Dem-issued stay-at-home orders - POLITICO

[AngryScientist]

Not just Virginia, multiple states. The President is actively encouraging insurrection against state governments. This is lunacy.

Trump: 'LIBERATE' states with Dem-issued stay-at-home orders - POLITICO

We've seen some pretty crazy things out of Trump, but this may take the cake. Inviting civil unrest during times like this is really beyond lunacy. The country needs a calm voice, and unity. He should be removed from office and banned from social media IMO.

[Sbti]

Maybe he could get his fat ass out of bed before noon for once.

Minutes after he sees the fux report on Minnesota protests at the governors office, he twits "Liberate Minnesota." Minutes after the Cuomo(a human who can actually talk in a calm, measured way) daily update he twits "quit talking, get the job done."
TV watcher in chief.

[EDS]

He wasn't the only one..

Feinstein, a California Democrat, sold $500,001 to $1 million worth of stock in a company called Allogene Therapeutics on Jan. 31, less than a month before panic about the virus caused markets to plunge, Senate records show. Her husband sold $1,000,001 to $5 million worth of Allogene shares on Feb. 18, according to financial disclosures.

The closing price per share of Allogene shares on January 31st was lower than it is today.

[Matthew Strongin]

The closing price per share of Allogene shares on January 31st was lower than it is today.

Silly Dems. Can’t even get insider trading right.



I’m joking.

[gregl]

We've seen some pretty crazy things out of Trump, but this may take the cake. Inviting civil unrest during times like this is really beyond lunacy. The country needs a calm voice, and unity. He should be removed from office and banned from social media IMO.

Donald Trump: making the United States long for the good old days of Joseph McCarthy since January 20, 2017. I feel like I'm living in The Manchurian Candidate.

Greg

[EDS]

Donald Trump: making the United States long for the good old days of Joseph McCarthy since January 20, 2017. I feel like I'm living in The Manchurian Candidate.

Greg

I keep coming back to this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Happen-H.../dp/0451465644

[HorsCat]

Donald Trump: making the United States long for the good old days of Joseph McCarthy since January 20, 2017. I feel like I'm living in The Manchurian Candidate.

Greg

I miss the halcyon days of GWB, a comparatively beneficent period involving mere incompetence, small scale malevolence, a couple unjustified wars and a very bad recession.

[Sbti]

I miss the halcyon days of GWB, a comparatively beneficent period involving mere incompetence, small scale malevolence, a couple unjustified wars and a very bad recession.

"Don't be a cutie pie!
(I)dj(i)t - 3-27-2020

[rydesteel]

It was funny though!

[guido]

Meme

A very appropriate analogy:

"The curve is flattening, we can start lifting restrictions now" = "The parachute has slowed our rate of descent, we can take it off now"

[Mabouya]

Trump calls the protestors that he says should liberate certain states, "responsible people" at his campaign event today.

I keep thinking to myself "He can't possibly do or say anything worse now," and yet each time, within days, a week at the most, he manages to outdo himself.

Consequently, I've stopped believing that the November election could not possibly be postponed. If polling shows the GOP in serious trouble I will not be surprised if we start to hear things like:

"Well, just like the Dems wanted to postpone things in Wisconsin, I'm now thinking that for the best of the country, the voters, and all our great poll workers, we really need to start thinking about pushing the election back a bit. I don't know when we'll be able to get things back to where they need to be so we can all vote, but right now it really looks like we need to take a break from that voting stuff. It's just too dangerous for our country, and for our democracy."

[BBB]

Great. Moving closer to a civil war because a hopelessly inept small p president can't accept, understand, rationalise that he is way over his head and his stupidity has resulted in the highest death toll from this virus.

[COVRTDESIGN]

I keep thinking to myself "He can't possibly do or say anything worse now," and yet each time, within days, a week at the most, he manages to outdo himself.

Consequently, I've stopped believing that the November election could not possibly be postponed. If polling shows the GOP in serious trouble I will not be surprised if we start to hear things like:

"Well, just like the Dems wanted to postpone things in Wisconsin, I'm now thinking that for the best of the country, the voters, and all our great poll workers, we really need to start thinking about pushing the election back a bit. I don't know when we'll be able to get things back to where they need to be so we can all vote, but right now it really looks like we need to take a break from that voting stuff. It's just too dangerous for our country, and for our democracy."

You can't do that, it is literally in the constitution. It needs a full constitutional amendment for that to happen. Plus trump must leave office, per said constitution, on the 21st of January if voted out, regardless of if he wants to or not.

His only hope is to make sure that the post office goes bankrupt and then he can privatize it. This will completely shut off mail in voting for every US citizen around the world.

I am absolutely disgusted, as a veteran, with someone that is supposed to be the commander in chief, the one person that we look to in these trying times for hard work and calming words.

[zachateseverything]

I keep thinking to myself "He can't possibly do or say anything worse now," and yet each time, within days, a week at the most, he manages to outdo himself.

Consequently, I've stopped believing that the November election could not possibly be postponed. If polling shows the GOP in serious trouble I will not be surprised if we start to hear things like:

"Well, just like the Dems wanted to postpone things in Wisconsin, I'm now thinking that for the best of the country, the voters, and all our great poll workers, we really need to start thinking about pushing the election back a bit. I don't know when we'll be able to get things back to where they need to be so we can all vote, but right now it really looks like we need to take a break from that voting stuff. It's just too dangerous for our country, and for our democracy."

I hate to break it to you but with this guy there is no bottom.

[guido]

Trump’s Pandemic Plan: “Absolute Authority,” No Responsibility | The New Yorker

"A week ago, President Trump foreshadowed his growing anxiety over when and how to end the Great Shutdown, a decision he is well aware will have existential consequences—for his own political future. He called the question of reopening the country amid the coronavirus pandemic “the biggest decision I’ll ever make” and “by far the biggest decision of my life.” Yet by the time Trump advertised a “Major News Conference” for Thursday evening, there was little suspense from a man who has been tweeting about a “LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL” and who declared, on March 24th, that he wanted church pews “packed” by Easter. Trump backed off the Easter deadline within days of promoting it, and he repeated the act this week, with a May 1st date and a new plan for “OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN,” which started out on Monday as an imperial diktat from an almighty President and ended up on Thursday as a mere recommendation to individual states, without a fixed date. Many governors have already announced that they will not follow his guidance. “You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump reassured them on a conference call on Thursday afternoon, according to an audio recording, which promptly leaked. “You’re going to be calling the shots.”

This might seem a head-spinning reversal. But it is classic Trump. His two most memorable lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, proclaiming “absolute authority” and “no responsibility at all,” are wildly contradictory, and yet also completely consistent with his approach to governing. The novel coronavirus is truly a new type of American crisis, but it has been met by the same old, same old from America’s President: unhinged press conferences and unfounded conspiracy theories; lies, attacks, and bizarre non sequiturs; and abrupt, seemingly incomprehensible policy shifts from a leader who has no problem changing course at the expense of his own credibility."

[ides1056]

meanwhile snow is falling in the Berkshires

[j44ke]

The instantaneous production of protests in Michigan make a little more sense after reading this article about Gov. Whitmer. Potentially you will be able to track potential running mates for Joe Biden by the number of protestors that materialize outside their door. So if you wake up in the morning and there is a militia in your front yard, don't panic. Biden just put you on his list of potential VP's.

Gretchen Whitmer Isn’t Backing Down - The New York Times

BTW, I'm not questioning the legitimate economic anxiety - and in many cases outright panic as bill after bill comes due with no salary in sight - of people. Just that these protests' just add water" spontaneity contrasted with the similarity of talking points, messages on signs, etc.