Tweet Me Right
***
BURR, SIR
The United States of America is now 0 fer 2 on Senator Burrs. Aaron shot and killed Alexander Hamilton while Richard Burr (R– North Carolina) has now topped that by being the Senate Intel Chief, being briefed on the coronavirus on January 24, immediately liquidating at least $600,000 in stock, more than he had in 14 months (back when Khashoggi was murdered), and never informing anyone other than his $100,000 campaign contribution club, the Tar Heel Club, about it.
Is that bad?
This is taking “talk less, listen more” to a dangerous extreme.
Even Tucker Carlson is affronted:
“[Burr] had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening, but he didn’t warn the public. He didn’t give a prime-time address. He didn’t go on television to sound the alarm. He didn’t even disavow an op-ed he’d written just 10 days before claiming America was ‘better prepared than ever’ for coronavirus. He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money, and then he stayed silent. Now maybe there’s an honest explanation for what he did. If there is, he should share it with the rest of us immediately. Otherwise, he must resign from the Senate”
The Loeffler Curve
First-term Senator Kelly Loeffler, also a Republican senator from the South (Georgia), received the same briefing. Like Burr, she sounded no public warning regarding the existential threat but instead sold somewhere between $1.2 million and $3.1 million of her stock holdings. Loeffler, who is married to the head of the New York Stock Exchange, is worth roughly $500 million.
But apparently that’s not enough.
Like Burr, faced with a decision of whether to inform her constituents of the existential danger or to not warn them, feathered her own nest with the disaster. Loafer’s husband is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, but I cannot imagine her ever sharing state secrets with him. Now would she?
You Can Still Run
The restaurant’s closed. The bar’s closed. The gym’s closed. The lap pool’s closed. The movie theater’s closed. The bookstore’s closed.
You’re sick of being indoors. You’re sick of your co-habitants. No less important, they’re sick of you.
You can still run. If you can’t run (yet), go for a walk. Be outdoors. Exercise.
We can do this.
Nasty Boy
Last Friday President Trump called the reporter from PBS News Hour, Yamiche Alcindor, nasty. Today it was NBC’s Peter Alexander. So at least we know he does not only reserve that term for women of color.
Trump only uses “nasty” when you’ve nailed him and he cannot wriggle out of the question with a lie. He’s such a clown.
Meanwhile, I have a few questions: 1) If Richard Burr and Kelly Louffler knew and comprehended how dangerous the coronavirus was on January 24th, why didn’t Donald Trump? 2) What do you think you’d find if we had access to the Trump and Kushner family’s stock trades in the weeks right after January 24? 3) Where is Dr. Fauci? Is it possible he told Trump he’d no longer be a part of his prop-up-you-legitimacy-with-my-presence show? Or that he saw what Trump did yesterday on his notes and said he no longer wanted to be associated with this?*
Correction on that last Q. He is at the presser today, but read his body language. This is what you do when your significant other makes a racist joke at a wedding.
Tampa Tom*
*The judges will also accept “Brady-ton, Florida”
It’s official. Tom Brady, 43, will sit out the 2020 NFL season as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team immediately raised ticket prices 15%, which did not seem to affect demand. There may not be a season, of course, but who cares? And instead of a refund those purchases will likely just be applied to the following season.
All we know is that Tom will be receiving mucho Tampa Bay Bucks.
I think I read Senator Feinstein and Senator Inhofe also dumped stock.
So far 3 Rs 1 Ds.