Prickly City by Scott Stantis for December 29, 2020

And it ain’t just government, either.

In previous “normal” times, it was just a little break between Christmas and New Year’s where you could catch your breath.

Now, we’re just thankful that we are still breathing.

Thanks Donnie.

Carmen just means that Congress is in recess.

Congress may be on vacation, but Americans will continue to die from covid.

At least Trump is so distracted by his attempt to overthrow democracy in America, that he has mostly given up sabotage of those trying to respond to the pandemic.

.

#TraitorTrump

Go get Cricket Bats, and call Shaun.

Well…

The R/W lies never seem to stop…

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Republicans say they are in favor of capitalism, but they are actually in favor of crony capitalism, which tips the scales in favor of their favorite industries.

Capitalism can be a tough master: The point of capitalism is that competition causes some industries to fail.

But protecting industries from failure in exchange for political benefit is far worse: It is a dangerously short step to socialism.

And traditional socialism necessarily implies authoritarianism—how else is a country to undertake central economic planning except by an authoritarian government?

That is actually where the Republican Party is taking us.

Exhibit A: This past summer, as the COVID-19 crisis pummeled markets and industries of almost all types, 36 Republican senators and representatives singled out energy companies and wrote to President Donald Trump urging him to “prevent financial institutions from discriminating against America’s energy sector.”

Discriminating? Investment firms such as BlackRock were considering divesting their holdings in fossil fuel energy stocks as gas, coal, and oil prices plummeted.

Republicans, those rugged individualists, were seeking to forbid private investment firms from divesting their fossil fuel holdings. That is the essence of socialism: authoritarian government dictating private investments.

Exhibit B: The Trump administration has spent more than $1 billion of taxpayer money trying to figure out how to capture the global-warming carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, so as to be able to keep them running.

That, despite the fact that not a single coal-fired power plant has been proposed for construction since 2017; even the plant that was proposed then was scrapped earlier this year.

But that has not discouraged Republicans from trying to prop up coal.

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https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/republicans-fossil-fuel-industry-crony-capitalism.html

So the 600 vs 2000 dollars thing is a distraction. The thing that will keep families from falling into poverty is the extension of Unemployment. And much as I respect Summers, no, 2000 wouldn’t be bad but it wouldn’t be what’s really needed.

Krugman: 2020 Was the Year Reaganism Died The government promised to help — and it did. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/opinion/reagan-economy-covid.html

We voted out the fascist president, all we have to do is win in Georgia and republicans are irrelevant.

There is always one thing that gets done during this week and that is all the politicians yammering about what they are or are not doing. If they took all that yammering and was productive with it, the fixes that could be done would be incredible! Instead, I have to go with the zombies. :(

“Globalists and corporatists.” Golly, some folks have the funniest words to refer to the favorite bogeys of the Nazis and Fascists.