Apr 28 2020

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Paul Krugman: Peacocks and Vultures Are Circling the Deficit

The only fiscal thing to fear is deficit fear itself.

Almost a decade has passed since I published a column, “Myths of Austerity,” warning that deficit alarmism would delay recovery from the Great Recession — which it did. Unfortunately, that kind of alarmism seems to be making a comeback.

You can see that comeback in the gradually increasing number of news analyses emphasizing how much debt we’ll run up dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. You can also see it in the rhetoric of politicians like Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who is blocking aid to beleaguered state and local governments because, he says, it would cost too much.

So this seems like a good time to emphasize two key facts. One is economic: While we will run very big budget deficits over the next couple of years, they will do little if any harm. The other is that whatever they may say, very few prominent figures in politics or the media are genuine deficit hawks, who are actually worried about the consequences of rising government debt. What we mainly have, instead, are deficit peacocks and deficit vultures.

António Guterres: A Time to Save the Sick and Rescue the Planet

With closer cooperation among nations, the head of the United Nations argues, we could stop a pandemic faster and slow climate change.

World War II. There is a natural tendency in the face of crisis to take care of one’s own first. But true leadership understands that there are times to think big and more generously. Such thinking was behind the Marshall Plan and the formation of the United Nations after World War II. This is also such a moment. We must work together as societies and as an international community to save lives, ease suffering and lessen the shattering economic and social consequences of Covid-19.

The impact of the coronavirus is immediate and dreadful. We must act now and we must act together. Just as we must act together to address another urgent global emergency that we must not lose sight of — climate change. Last week, the World Meteorological Organization released data showing that temperatures have already increased 1.1 degrees centigrade above preindustrial levels. The world is on track for devastating climate disruption from which no one can self isolate.

Now, on every continent and in every sea, climate disruption is becoming the new normal. Human conduct is also leading to severe biodiversity loss, changing animal-human interaction and distorting ecosystem processes that regulate our planetary health and control many services that humans depend on. Science is screaming to us that we are close to running out of time — approaching a point of no return for human health, which depends on planetary health.

Charles M. Blow: For Trump, Lying Is a Super Power

He will use deception to keep his bungled response to Covid-19 from ruining his re-election chances.

After Donald Trump’s ridiculous and dangerous suggestion last week that household disinfectants injected into people’s bodies might be a treatment for Covid-19, Republicans intensified their hand-wringing over whether his daily briefings were doing more harm — to his political fortunes and theirs — than good.

The coronavirus has completely reshaped the coming election. The economy is in dire straits. Trump’s polls have taken a dip. People are anxious and afraid. The outlook isn’t good … at the moment.

As The New York Times reported last week, some in the Republican Party see similarities to 2006:

“In 2006, anger at President George W. Bush and unease with the Iraq war propelled Democrats to reclaim Congress; two years later they captured the presidency thanks to the same anti-incumbent themes and an unexpected crisis that accelerated their advantage, the economic collapse of 2008. The two elections were effectively a single continuous rejection of Republican rule, as some in the G.O.P. fear 2018 and 2020 could become in a worst-case scenario.”

But I would caution all those who take this fear as encouragement that Trump is weakened and vulnerable: Trump is not George W. Bush. This is not the Republican Party of 2006. This is not a cultural environment in which social media is in its infancy.

Trump, as a person and politician, is riddled with flaws. But he also has an ignominious super power: He is completely unencumbered by the truth, the need to tell it or accept it. He will do and say anything that he believes will help him. He has no greater guiding principles. He is not bound by ethics or morals. His only alliances are to those who would support and further his devotion to self-promotion.

I don’t look back to the 2008 campaign for parallels, but to the 2016 one.

Amanda Marcotte: Gaslighting on Lysol-gate: Now Trump is denying he said what we heard him say

Gaslighting isn’t just a fancy word for lying — it’s an assault on truth, evidence and our perception of reality

It’s gone mainstream in recent years, but the word “gaslighting” used to be an esoteric term from the world of psychology and domestic abuse counseling. The word refers to the 1944 film “Gaslight,” in which Ingrid Bergman plays a woman whose husband tries to drive her insane by hiding her belongings and otherwise manipulating her environment, and telling her that the changes she perceives are all in her head. Experts in domestic violence developed the term to describe the way that abusers in real life try to manipulate victims. The gaslighter works by denying reality, often when the facts are plain as day, with such conviction and repetition that the victim starts to question themselves and the evidence of their own senses.

For instance, this might take the form of the abuser denying that he hit his victim or falsely claiming that she provoked it, and then browbeating her until she accepts the lie and even starts to wonder whether she imagined the whole thing.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, however, the term has ventured into politics. It’s become a way to talk about how Trump and his defenders won’t merely tell lies, but will stand by even the dumbest and most obvious lies, holding their ground until the defenders of reality simply give up fighting. This started from the very beginning of the administration, when Trump and his administration claimed his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s, and insisted on repeating that lie and intimidating government agencies into backing it up. Needless to say, this has continued throughout the coronavirus pandemic, dialed up to an extreme.

One might wonder why we need a term with such a complicated back story, when the word “lying” is right there for the taking. The reason is that Trump lies so frequently and in such varying ways that it’s useful to have a taxonomy of Trump lies to understand the various ways his lies work and how best, perhaps, to resist them.

Eugene Robinson: We should be worried about Trump’s rants

It is time to ask once again, in all seriousness, whether the president of the United States is of sound mind.

Even by his own standards, President Trump’s weekend ranting and raving on Twitter was bizarre and disturbing. I know there are commentators who see his eruptions as some kind of genius-level communications strategy, a way of bonding himself to his loyal base by sending messages at dog-whistle frequencies others cannot hear. Others justify these tantrums as a way for an embattled president to blow off steam. But there is a simpler and more disturbing interpretation: What you see is what you get.

And what we got Sunday was a whole lot of crazy. It’s not good for the country, and it doesn’t seem very good for the president, either. [..]

I’m not making a diagnosis, but rather just stating the obvious. If a loved one were raging in such a manner, you’d worry about his or her well-being. You’d hope it was just a bad spell. You might attempt to investigate, if only with a text reading: “R u ok?” We can only hope someone in Trump’s life is doing the same for him.

I can understand why Trump would be frustrated, seeing his plan to run for reelection on the strength of the economy ruined. I understand why he might be impatient for things to get back to normal. I’m impatient, too.

But it is objectively worrisome how much time the president spends venting his frustration and impatience. It is worrisome that he seems to engage in magical thinking about a miracle cure that will suddenly make everything better. It is alarming that a man with so little apparent self-control has so much power.

And there’s nothing we can do about it until November.

Apr 28 2020

The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

The Jungle–

There were the men in the pickle rooms, for instance, where old Antanas had gotten his death; scarce a one of these that had not some spot of horror on his person. Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one.

Of the butchers and floorsmen, the beef-boners and trimmers, and all those who used knives, you could scarcely find a person who had the use of his thumb; time and time again the base of it had been slashed, till it was a mere lump of flesh against which the man pressed the knife to hold it. The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them or to trace them. They would have no nails,–they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan.

There were men who worked in the cooking rooms, in the midst of steam and sickening odors, by artificial light; in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.

There were the beef-luggers, who carried two-hundred-pound quarters into the refrigerator-cars; a fearful kind of work, that began at four o’clock in the morning, and that wore out the most powerful men in a few years.

There were those who worked in the chilling rooms, and whose special disease was rheumatism; the time limit that a man could work in the chilling rooms was said to be five years.

There were the wool-pluckers, whose hands went to pieces even sooner than the hands of the pickle men; for the pelts of the sheep had to be painted with acid to loosen the wool, and then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off.

There were those who made the tins for the canned meat; and their hands, too, were a maze of cuts, and each cut represented a chance for blood poisoning. Some worked at the stamping machines, and it was very seldom that one could work long there at the pace that was set, and not give out and forget himself and have a part of his hand chopped off.

There were the “hoisters,” as they were called, whose task it was to press the lever which lifted the dead cattle off the floor. They ran along upon a rafter, peering down through the damp and the steam; and as old Durham’s architects had not built the killing room for the convenience of the hoisters, at every few feet they would have to stoop under a beam, say four feet above the one they ran on; which got them into the habit of stooping, so that in a few years they would be walking like chimpanzees.

Worst of any, however, were the fertilizer men, and those who served in the cooking rooms. These people could not be shown to the visitor for the odor of a fertilizer man would scare any ordinary visitor at a hundred yards, and as for the other men, who worked in tank rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting, sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!

1906.

2020.

Trump to Order U.S. Meat Plants to Stay Open Amid Pandemic
By Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg News
4/28/20

President Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said.

Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance, according to the person.

Trump signaled the executive action at the White House on Tuesday, saying he planned to sign an order aimed at Tyson Foods Inc.’s liability, which had become “a road block” for the company. He didn’t elaborate.

The order, though, will not be limited to Tyson, the person said. It will affect many processing plants supplying beef, chicken, eggs and pork.

Trump’s order sets the stage for a showdown between America’s meat giants, who’ve been pressing to reopen plants hit by mass outbreaks, and local officials and labor unions who’ve called for closures and are trying to prevent the virus from spreading. The president himself has long agitated for Americans to return to work and restore a U.S. economy crippled by social distancing measures.

The White House decided to make the move amid estimates that as much as 80% of U.S. meat production capacity could shut down. Meat stocks rose on the news.
…
Illnesses in the meat-processing industry and shifts in demand after restaurants closed have disrupted the supply chain. Dairy farmers are dumping milk that can’t be sold to processors, broiler operations have been breaking eggs to reduce supplies and some fruit and vegetables are rotting in fields amid labor and distribution disruptions.

Many low-income Americans, meanwhile, have been waiting in long lines at food banks, which have reported shortages.

Asked about the country’s food supply, Trump said: “There’s plenty of supply.”

The Defense Production Act allows the government broad power to direct industrial production in crises. Trump has previously invoked the law — or threatened to invoke it — in order to increase the supply of medical gear including ventilators, masks and swabs to test for coronavirus infection.

The White House has been discussing the order with meatpacking executives to determine what they need to operate safely and stay open, in order to prevent shortages, the person said. White House General Counsel Pat Cipollone worked with private companies to design a federal mandate to keep the plants open and to provide them additional virus testing capacity as well as protective gear.

Trump acted one day after Iowa’s two U.S. senators and its governor urged the administration to invoke the DPA to keep meatpackers open and reopen closed facilities “as soon as it is possible to do so safely.” Iowa produces one-third of the nation’s pork supply, according to the state officials.

The officials also asked for federal assistance in euthanizing pigs and reimbursing hog farmers for their losses due to closures of processing facilities.

Across the country, at least 6,500 meat processing employees have been impacted by the virus, meaning they either tested positive for the disease or had to go into self-quarantine, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the largest private-sector union. Twenty workers have died.

At least 22 meat plants have closed within the past two months, reducing pork processing capacity by 25% and beef processing capacity by 10%, according to UFCW. Farmers have animals with nowhere to go as a result, and the situation is so dire that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is setting up a center to help growers with “depopulation and disposal methods” for animals.

Experts have warned the U.S. could be just weeks away from fresh meat shortages. While inventories can provide some cushion, stockpiles are limited.

Total American meat supplies in cold-storage facilities are equal to roughly two weeks of production. With most plant shutdowns lasting about 14 days for safety reasons, that further underscores the potential for deficits.

And the shutdowns are happening at a time when global meat supplies were already tight. China, the world’s top hog producer, has been battling an outbreak of African swine fever, which destroyed millions of the country’s pigs.

Oddly enough the outrage created by Upton Sinclair’s book was based not on the horrific working conditions, but on the revulsion that there might be their remains mixed in with the Lard (not to mention the many other unsanitary practices).

Apr 28 2020

Cartnoon

Look, Stars Hollow sucks too.

Hey! Not New Haven.

Not New Haven either.

Apr 28 2020

The Breakfast Club (Best Form Of Government)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini killed; Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein born; Muhammad Ali refuses military induction during the Vietnam War; The first space tourist; ‘Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.

James Monroe

Continue reading

Apr 27 2020

A Daily-ish Nightly

 
Dr. Anthony Fauci Cold Open – SNL


 
Weekend Update Home Edition: Trump Suggests Injecting Disinfectant – SNL

 
Message from Gov. Whitmer – SNL

 
Don Trump The Science-ish Guy: Disinfectant Injections | The Daily Social Distancing Show

 
The Daily Show Foxsplains Coronavirus | The Daily Social Distancing Show

 
Sam’s Nature Gym | Full Frontal on TBS

 
Pandemic Pets Should Have A “No Return Policy” | Full Frontal on TBS

 
Jimmy Kimmel’s Quarantine Monologue – Trump & Vegas Mayor Compete for Who’s Crazier

 
Meet The Former Dog Breeder In Charge Of Coronavirus Response At HHS

 
Mitch McConnell’s “Screw The States” Plan Riles Lawmakers From Both Parties

 

Apr 27 2020

Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news media and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

Frank Bruni: Injections of Bleach? Beams of Light? Trump Is Self-Destructing Before Our Eyes

The notion that he is bound for four more years is pure superstition.

“And he’s going to get re-elected.”

Not a day goes by without several friends — Republicans as well as Democrats — saying that to me. It’s the blunt coda to a bloated recitation of Donald Trump’s failures during this pandemic. It’s a whimper of surrender following a scream of disbelief.

Tens of thousands of Americans die; what does the president do? Spreads bad information. Seeds false hope. Reinvents history, reimagines science, prattles on about his supposed heroism, bellyaches about his self-proclaimed martyrdom and savages anyone who questions his infallibility. In lieu of leadership, grandstanding. In place of empathy, a snit. And he’s going to get re-elected.

With that refrain we perform a spiritual prophylaxis. We prepare for despair.

But somewhere along the way, we started to confuse a coping mechanism with reasoned analysis. We began to treat a verbal tic as inevitable truth.

It isn’t. While Trump may indeed be careening toward four more years, it’s at least as possible that he’s self-destructing before our eyes. [..]

Don’t tell me that his nightly briefings are just a new version of the old stadium rallies; their backdrop of profound suffering makes them exponentially harder to stomach. Americans who take any comfort from them were Trump-drunk long ago. The unbesotted see and hear the president for what he is: a tone-deaf showman who regards everything, even a mountain of corpses, as a stage.

Michelle Goldberg: Coronavirus and the Price of Trump’s Delusions

A cult of personality is no match for a pandemic.

In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that a second wave of coronavirus infections this coming winter “will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” because it will coincide with flu season. He also called the protests against stay-at-home orders “not helpful.”

Donald Trump was apparently not pleased, tweeting that Redfield was “totally misquoted by Fake News @CNN.” On Wednesday evening, after another rant about fake news, Trump brought Redfield onstage at his daily press briefing, where Redfield had the unenviable task of trying to explain his remarks, which he acknowledged were quoted accurately, without contradicting the president. The fall and winter might be “more difficult and potentially more complicated” due to the confluence of coronavirus and influenza, Redfield said, but that didn’t mean the second wave would be “worse.”

Trump, meanwhile, spoke of the crisis in the past tense, as something America is now emerging from, suggesting that all the country will face in the future is “some embers of corona.” The day before, the country had recorded around 2,200 deaths, making it one of the deadliest days of the pandemic in the United States.

Over the last three and a half years, Americans have had to accustom themselves to a relentless, numbing barrage of lies from the federal government. In one sector after another, we’ve seen experts systemically purged and replaced with toadying apparatchiks. The few professionals who’ve kept their jobs have often had to engage in degrading acts of public obeisance more common to autocracies. Public policy has zigzagged according to presidential whim. Empirical reality has been subsumed to Trump’s cult of personality.

Amanda Marcotte: Now that Trump has suggested we shoot up Lysol, can cable news stop airing this crap?

“I’m like a person who has a good,” said the president of the United States, pointing to his head. Fact check: No

First things first: Don’t buy the right-wing media outlets trying to spin this. Donald Trump absolutely went on live TV and floated injecting household disinfectants into people’s lungs as a potential cure for the novel coronavirus.

Moreover, in what may be the most narcissistic act in all of human history, he implied that the reason this hasn’t been tried yet is because the entire medical establishment was not clever enough to think of it, and that only the mighty Doctor Trump has the genius brain to come up with such an idea. [..]

There has been a debate raging for a couple of weeks now over whether or not cable news networks should stop airing the live feeds of these daily rants disguised as press briefings. This moment, in a sane world, would end that debate.

By running his “briefings” unmediated every day, cable news is giving Trump the trappings of presidential authority that, in turn, create the illusion that he’s an expert whose advice should be trusted. Those trappings are incredibly powerful, especially for the nearly 63 million people who voted for Trump and dearly don’t want to believe they supported an imbecile who advises people to inject poisonous chemicals. [..]

In other words, what happened on Thursday was exactly what it looked like: A man who thinks he knows everything but actually knows nothing, who only halfway absorbed a presentation about how disinfectant and sunlight can kill the virus. He used this tidbit of information to bullshit wildly, saying stuff that was painfully dumb and dangerous because he is too lazy and stupid to have learned that household cleaners are poisonous.

This is not a person who should be presented on TV with the trappings of authority. If cable news networks want to air the daily briefings live, then for the sake of their viewers’ safety, they should cut away any time this “fucking moron” (in Rex Tillerson’s immortal phrase) takes the microphone. The only people who should be live on CNN are actual public health officials. This isn’t a game. People’s lives are on the line.

Apr 27 2020

Multi Level Marketing

While the money to be made is from recruiting others to sell for you and a never ending Fraudulent Pyramid Scheme, the McGuffin grunt work of the Business model that is actually supposed to deliver real products to consumers is Door to Door Sales.

Kind of difficult to get people to invite you into their kitchen to talk about Vitamins and Dietary Supplements (I’ll note right here that some of my dumber Michigan relatives are heavily invested in Nutralite, part of the Amway Empire) during a Plague.

But- Darwin. You have to be an idiot to buy it and a bigger idiot to sell it so, bring out your dead!

It is no surprise then that Betsy DeVos the Amway Goldigger is 1000% behind lifting any Coronavirus restrictions. The Cure can’t be worse than the Disease.

Why the DeVos family’s backing of the Michigan protests is no surprise
by Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian
Sun 26 Apr 2020

While the anti-coronavirus lockdowns springing up around the US came as a surprise to many, the involvement of the conservative billionaire DeVos family, repeated donors to a slew of dubious rightwing causes, should not.

The family – which includes Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary – has been a regular donor to the Michigan Freedom Fund, which helped promote a Michigan protest against the state’s stay-at-home orders in mid-April.

That rally, which saw about 3,000 people descend on the state’s capitol building, in Lansing, sparked a slew of other protests in states, and an endorsement from Trump.

But the DeVoses’ donations to the Michigan Freedom Fund – more than half a million dollars over the past four years, including from Betsy DeVos herself – are the tip of an iceberg of support for conservative causes.

The family, which has a net worth of $5.6bn accrued through a sprawling business, handed over
more than $10m to Republican candidates and groups during the 2016 election, and has pushed causes including Christian schools and the opposition of equal rights for LGBT people.
…
It was a Michigan organization that has landed DeVos in the news over the past two weeks. The Michigan Freedom Fund, which “fights to champion conservative policies on behalf of Michigan taxpayers” – including lower taxes – helped promote a rally in Michigan against the state’s stay-at-home order.

The MFF, which is chaired by Betsy and Dick DeVos’ longtime political adviser, Greg McNeilly, helped promote, rather than organize, the Michigan rally.

But the MFF exists, in large part, due to the DeVos family’s largesse.

The organization has received more than $500,000 from a slew of family members. As well as Betsy DeVos, her husband donated $80,000 just last year. Betsy DeVos’ brother-in-law Daniel and sister-in-law have also handed over tens of thousands to the fund.

No Conflict of Interest here!

Just as a subtle reminder this is what John Oliver had to say about Multilevel Marketing (no show this week).

Apr 27 2020

Cartnoon

Missouri really doesn’t have a very pleasant history.

Apr 27 2020

The Breakfast Club (Too Great A Burden)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

President and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant born; Explorer Ferdinand Magellan killed; U.S. Marines attack North Africa during the First Barbary War; Ailing baseball star Babe Ruth honored.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.

Coretta Scott King

Continue reading

Apr 26 2020

Rant of the Week: Vic Dibitetto – “Patriots” and Nazi Flags

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to notice this nearly five minute rant on what the Feds need to do by Vic Dibitetto who is from Brooklyn, NY. The accent is a dead giveaway. Jack Holmes of Eaquire Politics also took note of Vic’s “expletive laden” tirade on the toll the coronavirus lock down has taken on renters and homeowners.

After 4.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment in the last week, the total number of claims since the novel coronavirus pandemic hit—and brought with it a necessary economic lockdown—is over 26 million. All job gains in the decade since the Great Recession have been wiped out. The people who’ve lost their jobs have been funneled into beefed-up (but often overwhelmed) state unemployment systems. With some luck, they’ll qualify for benefits to supplement the onetime $1,200 check from the IRS. And then, when the cataclysm recedes, they’ll have to try to get a job again.

But though the economy has stopped, the bills have not. Even in a scenario where we were to make the mistake of broadly reopening now, people would not go out to restaurants or fly on airplanes as normal. They don’t want to get sick. It’s a pandemic. Markets are mortally wounded. The state must step in, even in a country as poisoned against its own democratic self-government as the United States has become. People have severely reduced, or completely eliminated, incomes. They can’t pay their bills, even if they keep piling up.

The most absurd extension of this involves housing. Many jurisdictions have enacted moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures, meaning people who can’t pay their rent or mortgage can’t be thrown on the street during a pandemic. This is a good first step, but the effect is to create a financial cliff after three months. How are people whose income has been affected, or destroyed outright, supposed to pay three months in back rent this summer when they probably will struggle to pay one month’s? Even if they get unemployment and the $1,200, there are other expenses. They might have kids, or an elderly relative to take care of, or healthcare costs, or student-loan debt. We’re a nation where huge numbers of people live paycheck to paycheck, and for a lot of people, the paychecks aren’t coming in anymore. [..]

This is Vic Dibitetto, a New York comedian with a phenomenal accent who is exactly right. A onetime payment of $1,200, as he well illustrated by listing off all the financial obligations a head-of-household might have, is not sufficient. The government should set up recurring payments for the duration of the crisis. This acknowledges reality and also would function as a temporary experiment in universal basic income. Andrew Yang cheers.

But then Dibitetto got into the mortgage question with some aplomb. It’s a similar problem to the rent delay: how are people supposed to make three or four months’ worth of payments when they don’t have as much, or any, money coming in? The Wall Street Journalreported on this phenomenon Thursday, tracking the false promise of federal mortgage relief which has left many borrowers to be “told they will have to make lump-sum ‘balloon’ payments” when the forbearance period ends. “If mortgage servicers follow through with demands for lump-sum payments,” the WSJ tells us, “borrowers could be pushed into default, damaging their creditworthiness and compounding the financial pain inflicted by the downturn.” People can’t pay out of no fault of their own, then take further damage to their financial health in the bargain. It’s absurd, greed and capital run amok because political leaders in both parties have allowed it to happen through (bad or purposeful) design.

Vic explains it better.

 

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