You can follow me if you want, but I'm probably not going anywhere.
May 4, 2020 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
When you use a loaded weapon to intimidate, you are the threat.
Liberty comes with responsibility.
Those who fail to recognize that, who abuse their freedom to frighten and demand to be recognized through force and fear rather than reason and persuasion...
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...are more responsible for advancing the suppression of liberty than any activist or politician.
A responsible gun owner who uses a weapon to protect others and save lives is to be celebrated for their bravery and instinct.
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May 2, 2020 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
There has now been a recession in the first term of every single Republican president for the past 111 years.
In the past 73 years, there have been 11 "official" recessions, including 49 recessionary quarters.
41 of those quarters occurred under Republican presidents.
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This year, the cumulative budget deficit since Trump took office is expected to surpass $5 trillion. Greater than any 4 year period in U.S. history.
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Apr 26, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
"Trump will never willingly leave office."
It's a refrain I hear often & attempt to debunk regularly.
CNN's Kaitlyn Collins was assigned to the front row in yesterday's W. H. Press Briefing. She regularly embarrasses Trump. Usually by just asking him about things he's said.
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Trump did not want CNN in the front row. He tried to have Mrs. Collins moved to the back. She asks tough questions & likely had a few lined up about injecting bleach.
Due to the rules inside the WH Press Room, the WH doesn't control what press is present or where they sit.
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Apr 23, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The only thing more amazing than how often Larry Kudlow's predictions are dead wrong is that he keeps making them.
March 1993: Clinton's taxes will ruin the economy. (90's economic boom)
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February 2000: Things will pick up again. Not even Greenspan can stop this internet economy. (Internet bubble burst)
June 2002: War will elevate the stock market by 2000 points. (Down 1000 over next year)
December 2007: There's no recession coming. (There was)
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Apr 22, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
368 male Covid-19 patients were included in a nationwide study by the VA.
97 received Hydroxychloroquine.
113 received Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin.
158 received neither.
How many died?
Neither drug: 11.4%
Both drugs: 22%
Hydroxychloroquine only: 27%
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So the mortality rate among those taking the drugs that Trump has repeatedly recommended, and that Fox News and GOP pundits and Twitter idols have touted endlessly, is about double the mortality rate without them.
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Apr 22, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I'm seeing a lot of casual jokes about people dying. You've seen them. The morbid one-liners, the R vs. D prediction commentaries and link shares, the strangers' obituaries as a political bullet point.
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It's so easy to share these. I don't doubt I've posted some frustrated comment or stupid joke that meets this exact criteria.
Usually, it's unnamed people in general, on the opposite side of the political spectrum, dying in these snapshots.
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Apr 19, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Claim:
The empty stockpile is Obama's fault.
The Truth:
U.S. exports of masks *to* China rose from $1.4 million in Jan/Feb last year, to $17.6 million in Jan/Feb of this year. Roughly 35 million masks were sold to China.
That's a retail price of about $0.50 per mask.
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Earlier this month, the U.S. Government placed over $110 million in mask orders - with just four companies who haven't held prior government contracts, and don't manufacture masks. These orders were for a total of just under 19 million masks.
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Apr 19, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
There are 6 states that still have not issued binding stay-at-home orders.
Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.
These 6 states have received a combined total of 118,238 PPP loans, for a total of $16.6 billion.
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North Dakota has received the most money per capita of all 50 states plus 5 territories and D.C. South Dakota is #5 on that list. Nebraska is #6.
None of them have shut down non-essential businesses.
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Apr 18, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Republicans wrote the bill that exhausted $350b in funds while leaving 95% of small businesses without financial assistance.
But now it's apparently the Dems fault that this failed program has collapsed because they refuse to write another blank check without stipulations...
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...or oversight.
So while Trump and his sycophants ratchet up the spin and blame in order to rally public pressure for another upward distribution of your tax dollars, maybe take a second to consider why the Republicans refuse to negotiate, allow oversight....
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Apr 17, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
FYI... the PPP loan program for small businesses was funded with $350bn.
The U.S. has 30.2 million small businesses.
Thats an average of $10,769 per small business. It should have been plenty to help close a two month gap.
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A loophole in the CARES act allowed national corporations with less than 500 employees *per location* to qualify each individual location as a "small business."
Ruth's Chris steakhouse qualified.
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Apr 16, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Basic response from Trump supporters to just about every meme I debunk:
1. Prove that it isn't true. 2. I don't trust those sources. More please. 3. I do trust these new sources, but here are the conspiracies at play that allow these sources to be manipulated.
1/4. You have not sufficiently demonstrated that this meme is not true. 5. Therefore it is true, otherwise you'd be able to prove it isn't. 6. I don't need to prove that it is true because you can't prove it isn't true.
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Apr 14, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The last year that the USPS accepted a public subsidy was 1982.
They receive $0 tax dollars annually. Their annual revenue is $70b. Were it a private company, it would be in the top 50 on the Forbes 100 list.
There is no discernible taxpayer benefit to facilitating its collapse
The benefit would be to the profiteers who would then be able to access their data, which is invaluable, and in filling the "last mile" delivery void it would create.
In the 2016 elections, 24 million early votes were cast by mail, representing roughly 10% of all ballots.
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Apr 12, 2020 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
This was a response to a Trump supporter's comment on another post. But since they all say basically the exact same thing, its nearly universal. You're welcome to use it...
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The problem is that you come across as delusional, because you believe not only what trump says he's done, but also what he says everyone else says about him.
Almost none of what you've typed here is factually correct.
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Apr 9, 2020 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Funny. I underpaid my quarterly taxes by about $0.85 and the government managed to figure out who I was, that I owed them three quarters and a dime, and send me a letter about it within two weeks, no problem.
The Census is done by mail every ten years. They'll even send someone to your house if you don't mail it in. They issue legally binding traffic citations by matching a license plate on a camera.
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Apr 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
From today forward, continuing the anti-Democrat anti-Biden anti-DNC defamation crusade *is* supporting Trump.
If you are comfortable allowing yourself to be manipulated and used by Trump, the GOP, Dark Money and foreign influences, by all means, carry on.
But just remember, the progressive wing of the Democratic party has infinitely greater influence when the Democrats are in power.
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Apr 8, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Wait... wait. Churches got $50bn in donations in 2018. That amounts to *pretends to do math* $0 in taxes. The money donated to the churches can be written off. So the people donating it also paid zero income taxes on that money.
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But now churches can borrow money, from the SBA, and have those loans forgiven if they use it to cover the payroll of people who also don't get taxed, and whose money also comes primarily from donations?
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Apr 3, 2020 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Trump fancies himself a war-time president. He talks about the Coronavirus attacking us. He calls it an invisible enemy. He says we will be victorious. He literally says we're at war.
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Trump also likes to shift blame to governors. They should've planned better. They should've bought more. They should be figuring it out on their own. The federal govt is there to back them up, not interfere or do the work for them. They need to be more appreciative ...
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Apr 1, 2020 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Mike Pence March 3: Every American can get a coronavirus test. Our objective is to make tests broadly available to the American public.
Mike Pence March 4: We have 1.5 million tests ready to distribute. Tests are available in all 50 states.
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Donald Trump March 7: Anybody who wants a test can get a test.
Mike Pence March 10: We'll have 4 million more tests available by the end of the week.
Trump March 10: We have heavily tested everybody that returns to the country.
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Apr 1, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The United States has 4% of the world's population, 21.7% of the world's Covid-19 cases, and 9% of the world's Covid-19 deaths.
The number of deaths in the U.S. is still doubling about every 3 days. Faster than any other country.
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If you ask Repubs, this is due to Obama, 45's impeachment, the Green New Deal, Democrat greed, Governors failing to appreciate the administration, sensationalist news media, people stealing supplies, overburdening regulations & being "blindsided" by the severity of this virus
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Mar 25, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Real data-Multiple sources:
Total U.S. Deaths: 782
All 50 states have active Covid-19 cases. Plus DC. There were 229 deaths in the U.S. in the past 24 hours. 80 more than the day before, which was 30 more than the day before that, which was 65 more than the day before that...
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One state, New York, had over 100 deaths today. Five states had more than 10 deaths today. 22 states had at least one death. Today.
So when will people take this seriously here? How about when it hits 50,000 total deaths? That's how many the Flu killed in 2018. I suppose it..
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Mar 23, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
After a 3 day weekend & 5 days of public statements about all the things they would do to help, McConnell's Senate floated a bill that had few (if any) of the protections that were promised.
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The protections they did include had no guarantees, could be overridden by the executive branch, and in some cases didn't require any auditing, transparency, or allow oversight until *after* the 2020 election.
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