Confirmation Hearings for Amy Coney Barrett Will Go Ahead
Three Republican Senators who attended a White House rose Garden party for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett have contracted Covid.
That would leave Barrett two votes short of confirmation.
However, But McConnell said confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett would go ahead as planned starting Oct. 12 even though Scheduled Votes are Cancelled for Two Weeks.
Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin had all tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday afternoon, after attending a Rose Garden event last Saturday at which most attendees did not wear face masks.
Supreme Court Implications
The Senate makeup is 53 Republican to 47-Democrat.
The vote total at present is 51 for and 49 against. Sue Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are in favor of letting the next president decide.
Unless two or more additional Republican senators cannot vote on Barrett or decide against her, she will be confirmed.
See Trump Taps Amy Barrett to Replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court for details.
Rush Job
Clearly McConnell intends to ram Barrett through come hell or high water.
The tactic may easily cost the Republicans more Senatorial seats in November.
What About Airlines?
Good question. Although Supreme Court confirmation hearings go on schedule, voting doesn’t.
That includes any covid package or airline bailout package.
The Airlines, Allstate, and Shell Announce Mass Layoffs
On October 1, I reported The Airlines, Allstate, and Shell Announce Mass Layoffs
Just in Time for the Election (or a Bailout)
American and United Airlines will bring back workers if they get more aid. Otherwise, Say Goodbye to 32,000 Jobs.
Airline Deal No Longer Imminent
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a long-awaited deal to provide another $25 billion in aid for the airlines was “imminent.”
She asked airlines to halt layoffs.
It is uncertain if Pelosi really had a deal or was just posturing.
However, it’s easy to say a deal is not imminent if there will not be a vote for another two weeks.
The vote postponement likely kills any deals on anything given the election would then be a mere two to three weeks away.
Sobering Thought
Mish
I think this sums up where we are at: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IIPUSNETIQ
Study Confirms It’s Possible to Catch COVID Twice https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200824/study-confirms-its-possible-to-catch-covid-twice#:~:text=Researchers%20in%20Hong%20Kong%20say,ve%20gotten%20COVID%20twice.
It was only one person. There are all sorts of issues that could be specific to only this one person. When they can show that hundreds, if not thousands have gotten a 2nd infection, I will pay more attention.
Here’s an idea. Term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court.
That’s what COVID can be to the very susceptible.
Or “weeding the herd” of the weak so the stronger can move on. It’s how Nature has worked across billions of years.
A plausible theory: Trump was acting such a fool about Covid that anyone who really wanted to infect him could have found a way to introduce the virus into the White House
It was the perfect crime! All they had to do is send in a bunch of mask denying republicans. Damn you Lord Soros!
There are lots of reporters in the Whitehouse who hate Trump and most of them are under 50 years old so NOT in any kind of risk to themselves if they intentionally infected themselves and then walked around Whitehouse.
Three reporters have gotten sick from Covid.
Just like the episode on the show ’24’ when an agent infected the president with a bioagent that eventually killed him via a handshake.
These are the extreme measures Vladimir Putin takes to avoid COVID-19 https://nypost.com/2020/10/03/these-are-the-measures-vladimir-putin-takes-to-avoid-covid-19/
He is thinking that he will be the last man standing, ready to take over the world when all the leaders succumb to the virus. [lol]
What I saw inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue today is cause for alarm. “I was struck by the lack of safety protocols in place. The most famous address in America now feels like a coronavirus breeding ground.”
TheAtlantic has NO credibility after their “two anonymous sources” report how Trump had called dead American soldiers “suckers and losers” which was DEBUNKED by several people who spent that day in France with Trump when the claimed statement allegedly happened.
Even John Bolton who hates Trump and was in effect fired by Trump and wrote a nasty book about Trump said that the claimed comment NEVER happened.
Two members of the White House residence staff tested positive for the coronavirus roughly three weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the diagnoses. (NYT)
“The people who tested positive were not employees who come in direct contact with the president and the first lady, one of the people familiar with the diagnoses said. But the positive results again raise questions about how and when President Trump may have been exposed to the virus.”
hubris, irony… hubris and sweet delicious irony
stakes have never been higher,and I’m not talking about those BS Trump steaks.Gettin late in the game,if trump does not come out with the mother of all stimulus bills and right now, both he and Republicons will be going home permanently and the party will virtually cease to exist after 2020,gone the way of the The Labor Party,Go big or go home…….Literally, at least for the republicons and DT!!
That bunch can barely find their butts with both hands. I don’t see them pulling it together.
Serious question: the US Constitution says “advice and consent of the Senate.” What does that mean?
Correct me if I’m wrong, there is no statute that mandates specific procedure — it’s just Senate rules that can be disregarded like in 2013 when Senate majority leader Harry Reid ended the filibuster (the “nuclear option”).
So what’s to keep Senate majority leader McConnell from saying “On behalf of the entire Senate, for whom I speak, I grant advice and consent to this nomination.” No hearings, no vote.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
I think a good case for your idea can be made. The rules for “consent” do not necessarily mean a majority of Senators sitting, or at the voting, or whenever as the rule is vague. I hope McConnell will do that if necessary.
That would be a VERY slippery slope. A better approach would be to allow remote voting by officials who tested positive for COVID.
Agreed. I could see McConnell resorting to that if he lacked the votes. But better to keep up appearances if he has the votes.
Wow, this Covid is very, very, contagious. Don’t say it was made in a lab because all your Facebook friends will skewer you. Don’t say it came from Wuhan after they gain functioned a bat virus to add human to human transmission because all your friends on Facebook will skewer you. Don’t say that the PLA has bioweapon in their strategic plan to counter the West’s superiority in conventional warfare. Don’t say that it may have been enhanced from the original, etc., etc., etc…
No it is not. I’ve posted before here and elsewhere. Over the last 7 months of this scamdemic and among the 200 or so people (family & friends & acquaintances) I can say are loosely in my network, not one has gotten the virus and I haven’t heard of anyone related to any of these people who have been hospitalized or died.
I lost 3 in laws early on, and a few relatives have had it and recovered.
And yet I and everyone I know has had a completely different experience. So who is the outlier?
My wife lost her sense of smell, still not completely normal (5 months); tested positive. I had it too, lightly. Still not convinced I’m back to normal when I sprint a few kilometers on my bike.
Saying it doesn’t exist is the most unrealistic of all possible opinions, even if you think the reaction and commotion is largely a scam. Read some articles on the genome, unless you think people attempting to point out difficulties with the zoontic wet-market gloss are also in on the conspiracy, with all nations and scientists of the world working in concert.
I AM NOT saying it “doesn’t exist”. I AM saying that it is less pervasive that the MSM tries to make out, that a lot less people have actually become infected and sick than the media tries to make out, that the virus is a lot less contagious that some think and that overall, there has been a gross overreaction to the virus.
Is this clear enough?
I’m willing to travel. When do the restrictions drop? (glad I got my refund from AA, too risky being a creditor)
The airlines are loaded with assets and the shareholders spent their profits on stock paper buybacks. There’s no need for yet another freebie bailout. Have the shareholders respect the public – issue secondary stock offerings and sell assets. Just as the average small business owner has had to do.
If Mitch can’t get it done by November 3rd and Democrats gain control it will be politically difficult for Mitch to vote in his judge. On paper there is little Democrats can do to stop the confirmation but if more Republican Senators come down with Covid-19 they might not be able to get this out of judiciary committee
Very good possibility with these dumbasses not wearing masks. American arrogance is taking a beating. A true Darwin event. Over the next couple weeks I expect a whole bunch of the DC crowd in contact with Trump and Co to test positive. And then the folks not wearing masks get a strong initial dose of the virus=higher probability of bad outcome. Add that to the age and poor health of a lot of them is gonna make for an interesting next 60 days.
Senator Lee (Dem(no mask)) and Senator Tillis (Gop(masked)) both tested positive.
So much for that theory. Masks are not magic sabres and there is little actual evidence to recommend them.
In an outdoor event (with a little breeze) the chance of droplet or aerosol contamination is virtually nil (half time dispersal dilution can be measured in milliseconds with that volume of air). The affair again illustrates that perhaps the respiratory route is not the only transmission vector. Perhaps it was the snacks and drinks.
When did Lee become a Democrat?
Correct. None of these names mean anything to me. I probably misread a list I was looking at, eyes skipped a line up or down, or something.
Covid spreads through fecal matter and has been found in toilet surfaces when people flush the toilet without putting the toilet seat lid down.
In addition to spreading in close contact such as speaking face near another face or by handshaking and then touching eye-corner or nose.
It was idiotic from whoever instructed the people to remove their masks after all had been tested with the coronavirus quick tests in the Barrett Supreme Court nomination party.
They arrived masked but some brown nosed lackey apparently wanted to please Trump and decided since all had the quick Covid test that masks should be removed.