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[Frumple]

I mean... if Thatcher was running on the dem ticket she probably would be an improvement over whatever the GOP fielded. Hell, she'd probably be better than the current batch of shitsacks even if zombie thatcher ran R. Pretty sure she'd represent a leftward swing or general mellowing for the conservative parties.

Sexism probably would be invoked for opponents, assuming whoever ran against her wasn't also female, but, like. Zombie thatcher would probably represent a general win for the american populace, as fucked up a thought as that is. Either a generally better human being than most GOP politicians if running R, or still a better one if running against them.

All that said, someone like abrams would probably be a pretty decent VP pick for biden (maybe even bernie, if bernie hadn't gotten roflstomped again). I'm not sure pandering is the right word for trying to leverage that kind of symbol to, y'know, like half the fucking population. Especially if there's not some super better choice (and there ain't, as far as I know). Warren I'd rather see as sec of treasury or just still a congresscritter but heavily called on for advice and support and whatnot. Picking a veep that's not going to undermine margins in congress is probably a good idea.

[Dostoevsky]

Senate will be holding vote(s) later today on relief bill #3. Technically a procedural vote, but a very important one. Rumors are that negotiations between Rs and Ds are not in a good place, and what McConnell brings to the floor today is not going to be good. In some ways better than what came out Thursday (Rs have made some concessions in the last 72 hours), in some ways unchanged, and in some ways potentially significantly worse.

I guess what I'm saying is that it sounds like there's a chance this bill turns into a slog, which is a really dumb thing to do given how fast things are moving. Hopefully those of you needing the expanded unemployment or tax rebates can hold on a few days more...

[Naturegirl1999]

Iowa has 68 positive cases out of 1,117 tests. 6.09% of tests, though the amount tested is just 0.04%, so there are likely more cases

[PTTG??]

If Americans deserve life and liberty, this is the event that will destroy the Democratic and Republican parties.

[Iduno]

i remember watching a documentary about the drought, and avocado farmers buying up the aquifers, meaning the citizens had even less water to work with, as most of it is used for avacsdo production, hence why I thought it was a desert

Also, unsustainable irrigation causes desertification. Whoo for short-term thinking!

Ha ha ha.

Remember that 1 trillion dollar liquidity thing a little bit back?

They're going to do it again!

Every day for the next 30 days straight.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-sound-alarm-about-joe-biden-s-young-voter-problem-n1163296

Glad that they understand that they have a problem, too fucking bad they wont do what needs to be done to actually get those voters to join with them, because those voters have been shit on too many times by their policies.

Oh darn.

Obama (first term only) was the first presidential candidate I voted for, and taught me enough about politicians that he will probably be the last non-third party presidential candidate I'll ever vote for.


Edit: The "best" part of hearing that the DNC knew about Coronavirus for long enough to do insider trading for months is that they've still been trying to prevent sick people from getting healthcare. The republicans too, but nobody pretends the republicans care if you live or die.

[nenjin]

The fuck even is a Nebraska though?

Sparsely populated and responsible enough that we have like some of the lowest cases in the country right now.

That's WHAT.

[TamerVirus]

Where social distancing is a way of life.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

And yet you will probably still find boomers desperately petitioning for a bus ride to Omaha so they can take advantage of the s i c k d e a l s

[misko27]

Sen. Rand Paul has tested positive for COVID-19. He had been on the floor just days ago, and in a lunch with his fellows on Saturday. At least one Senator, Mile Lee of Utah, has decided to self-quarantine in response to the news.

It remains unclear how this will effect ongoing negotiations over the Stimulus package.

[andrea]

The political class is perhaps the most at risk group.

They all have frequent interactions with lots of strangers from all across the nation and world, and the average age is high.

[ZBridges]

Is there really not some sort of protocol in place to protect continuity of government during pandemics?  I'm surprised senators aren't working remotely or otherwise isolated to protect themselves from the virus.

[sluissa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greenbrier#The_Bunker

That was probably the closest thing we had, but decommissioned in 1992.

That said, most of the hurdles to keeping congress isolated during a situation like this are easily changeable by congress itself. It's their own damn fault if they get it.

[misko27]

For the executive branch there is an abundance of plans. For Congress, not so much.

Since the end of World War II, efforts to force the House and Senate to confront how it would function in an emergency have stalled, and even the lackluster efforts after 9/11 to improve congressional continuity planning fell short of addressing the potential impact of a pandemic...
...
Since the beginning of the Cold War, Congress has been woefully disengaged in thinking about its own mortality and planning for its own survival. President Dwight D. Eisenhower effectively had to build the secret Cold War congressional bunker at West Virginia’s Greenbrier Hotel of his own accord after Congress dragged its feet on planning how it would survive nuclear war. In the first two decades of the Cold War, more than 30 bills were introduced to deal with how to continue functioning in the event of a widescale death of its membership, yet while three such bills passed out of the Senate, all of them died in the House. Eventually, Congress gave up the question entirely.

The short version is that if a large number of members of Congress die, how the quorum is counted works so that they can continue to function, although their political legitimacy will probably suffer depending on the makeup of the remaining body. But if a large number are incapacitated we enter uncharted territory, and probably gridlock.

[ZBridges]

I guess that's just another reminder of how dysfunctional Congress is.  They can't even agree on passing laws to protect themselves.

[MrRoboto75]

And yet you will probably still find boomers desperately petitioning for a bus ride to Omaha so they can take advantage of the s i c k d e a l s

This time the deals really are sick.