Doing Some Weekending

But don't worry, I will never stop fighting for you.

Saturday Afternoon

Gonna have to violate some norms.

America's Worst Institute

Claremont.

Plateauing

Better than exploding, but "keeping steady at the worst it's ever been" is... not quite progress, either.

Analysts have confirmed that Georgia is making progress in the fight against COVID-19. This encouraging data is vital as local leaders decide how best to protect and educate students in schools throughout our state. #gapol https://t.co/3gX6V2cRLq

— Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) August 14, 2020

The Plan Is Hope

I was never a SUPER DC INSIDER, but I used to be a bit more connected to various information pathways. Not so much anymore. Still I learned to read the tea leaves a bit. To put it a bit bluntly, insiders leak information to various positioned individuals and outlets in a way that's designed to get the message out. I guess the dumbest version of this is talking points, but sometimes there's more substance.

The result is sometimes it's pretty obvious that a message is going out, as you begin hearing it in surround sound.

There really is no message. The message is just the wrapping, of course. What's inside the box is more important. But if there's no wrapping, there probably no box either. Members of Congress are tweeting, "nothing we can do, please vote."

I am dumb and not important and nobody tells me anything anymore, but...

Good Morning

Friday Night

Rock on.

Grifter Friday

The FSD improvement will come as a quantum leap, because it’s a fundamental architectural rewrite, not an incremental tweak. I drive the bleeding edge alpha build in my car personally. Almost at zero interventions between home & work. Limited public release in 6 to 10 weeks.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2020

Not that it even matters, but Elon promised ONE MILLION ROBOTAXIS by the end of this year. But he can sometimes get from his work to his home.

What Are You Going To Do About it

I suspect just waiting for the election is not quite enough of a plan.

Afternoon Thread

Everything is still horrible!

Keeping Out The Canadian Menace

Another month of border restrictions.

Disapora

I don't have a handle on how many college students are going to be traveling to for the Fall semester, relative to what is normal, but that is an issue, also, too.

The study, conducted by scientists with the Union of Concerned Scientists and Columbia University, examines how four South Florida counties that are hotspots for coronavirus — Miami Dade, Palm Beach, Monroe and Broward — would influence the spread of COVID-19 should a Category 3 hurricane hit the area and force some residents to flee to safer regions.

10 Points To Gryffindor

This is how I and fellow Democrats reacted when idiots tried to say McCain wasn’t qualified to run.

Text of S.Res. 511 (110th): A resolution recognizing that John Sidney McCain, III, is a natural born citizen. (Resolution Agreed to by Senate version) https://t.co/vH9ii5s9ty

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) August 14, 2020

Road Rage Nation

Obviously The Man tells us what we can and can't do in lots of ways, but I guess psychology is such that status quo bias means that being told to do so some new thing, especially when you think The Libs Are Making You Do It, is intolerable. That a nontrivial number of people are driven into genuine - not performative - rage over very minor inconveniences is, I guess, not surprising. Everyone has a road rage story, and everyone has seen the red faced ham man apoplectic because the service worker gave him the wrong sized fries.

It isn't as if governments are generally enforcing mask requirements with jack booted thuggery. I suppose there are some fines happening in some places, but basically getting chucked out of a store (private property) is about the extent of the "tyranny" you are about to experience.

Literally everything about covid at all levels of government could have been handled better, but I don't even know how to overcome a culture of Spreading The Plague To Own The Libs Even If My Kids Get It Too.

I guess we had a good run.

Welcome to Friday

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Vote Markey, you Massholes.

When the government abandons its people, it’s up to us to rise up and make a revolution. We’re fighting for dignity, for justice, and for our future. Join us at https://t.co/NY8pZcBcFE. #GreenNewDealmaker pic.twitter.com/4V558XjrVw

— Ed Markey (@EdMarkey) August 13, 2020

And That's How The World Will End

It's hard to remember what I thought about anything even a week ago, but I'm pretty sure even pessimistic me thought that schools around the country would consistently make half-assed attempts, at least, to seem to be doing something to minimize transmission risks. There are severe limits to what even the most well-intentioned schools can do, but clearly some (for a variety of reasons) aren't even fucking trying.

Cases have been going down. They're going to start going up again soon.

What A Country

Encouraging 30% of the country refuse to wear masks (and similar) to Own the Libs might even be the greatest catastrophe of Trumpism.

A Georgia school district that does not require masks has closed a high school and now has over 1,100 students and staff in quarantine due to the coronavirus.

...

"As your Superintendent, I wear a mask whenever I cannot social distance," Hightower said. "We know all parents do not believe the scientific research that indicates masks are beneficial, but I believe it and see masks as an important measure to help us keep schools open."

The Fed Can Do What It Wants

I don't particularly care about the legal arguments, because they've made quite clear through past actions that they will take whatever extraordinary measures they deem "necessary" and come up with some bullshit justifications later. Also, who will stop them? But, yes, they are the backstop against everything collapsing.

Keep in mind that the Fed has bought over 800 companies’ corporate bonds, because they had to keep their promises according to chair Jerome Powell, but the municipal lending is stuck on 1. Some regional Fed presidents have intimated that Treasury is holding up bigger changes on funds to which it contributed its CARES Act share. Others have said that states don’t need liquidity, they need grants, and the central bank’s hands are tied.

Darien Shanske, a UC-Davis professor of law and political science, figured out a way to untie those hands months ago. In a paper co-written with Indiana University’s David Gamage, Shanske lays out how there’s a way to avoid Treasury’s effective veto on the program by lending under the Fed’s Section 14 authority rather than the Section 13 authority being used now. Under those powers, the Fed can purchase six-month notes without needing an equity backstop from elsewhere. The way to extend the terms is to commit to re-purchase the notes every six months for twenty years, with a sliding schedule of repayment of principal. Most localities have a short-term borrowing exception that could make this work.

Gotta point the money cannon somewhere useful. Quickly.

America's Worst Humans

Tucker Carlson.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

de Blasio is as bad as Florida Man.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is digging in on NYC schools reopening.

New Yorkers don't back down, he says, just because people raise questions and doubts.
"We just don't surrender."

NYC has a low infection rate. Parents are begging for school. We are doing this, he says.

— Emma G. Fitzsimmons (@emmagf) August 13, 2020