Transcript
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another terrifying economic
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fact for everybody about the kovid
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depression here
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this is in cnbc as the economic fallout
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from the coronavirus pandemic continues
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almost one-third of u.s households
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32 percent have not made their full
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housing payments
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for july yet according to a survey by
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apartment list
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and online rental platform about 19
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percent of americans
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made no housing payment at all during
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the first week of the month
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and 13 only paid a portion of their rent
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or mortgage
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that’s the fourth month in a row that a
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quote
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historically high number of households
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were unable to pay their housing bill
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on time and in full up from 30 percent
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in june and 31 in may
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renters low income and younger
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households were most
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likely to miss their payments apartment
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list found
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so listen to this many households
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have already spent their one-time
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stimulus check
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the one-time 1200 check and the extra
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600
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per week in unemployment insurance
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used by many to cover essentials like
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housing
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runs out at the end of july
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that means even more households could
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potentially miss
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their rent or mortgage payments in the
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coming months
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we’re already at 32 percent
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we’re already at 32 percent
what’s that going to go up to when you
get rid of the 600
per week unemployment insurance increase
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and again it goes away at the end of
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this month
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what’s that going to get up to over 50
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percent
over 50 percent of people unable to pay
their rent or their mortgage
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over half the country is that what’s
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gonna happen over half the country
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can’t pay their rent and can’t pay their
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mortgage
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i’m at a loss for words we’ve never seen
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anything like this before
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i don’t know how many times i could tell
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you that
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when you look at the subprime mortgage
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crisis in the great recession
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in 2009 guys
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even before covid we were kicking two
million people
out of their house i believe per month
which is higher
than the height of the great recession
that was pre-coveted
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pre-covet what’s gonna happen
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when we’re totally done with covid no
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more cases which it’ll be a while by the
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way before we get there
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what’s gonna happen to all these people
who can’t make their payments what’s
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going to happen
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over 50 percent of the country perhaps
is not going to be able to make their
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payments
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you think we’re seeing social unrest
with this george floyd situation
just wait just wait
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there will be social unrest the likes of
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which we maybe haven’t seen in this
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country before
when you have real unemployment over 20
percent when you have a situation where
maybe half the country or
more can’t pay the bills
i mean that’s a recipe for revolution i
don’t want to sound hyperbolic about it
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but like all the distractions in the
world
cannot save us from the inevitable
i get it you know we live in the modern
era we got computers
we got netflix we’re like plugged in in
a way that can distract us from
all the problems of everyday life but if
over half the country can’t
keep a roof over their head what do you
think is going to happen
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and just so everybody understands i’m an
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idiot loudmouth youtuber and i’m talking
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about this
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do you think that mitch mcconnell do you
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think that nancy pelosi or chuck schumer
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do you think that trump or his merry
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band of idiot advisors like larry kudlow
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you think that they know that this is on
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the way and that
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this is the dire situation that we’re in
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you think they know they have literally
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no idea
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trump goes out there every day now and
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brags about the v-shaped recovery
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it’s unbelievable the stock market is
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bouncing back
the stock market 92 of the stock market
is owned by the top
10 of income earners
so you’re bragging about the stock
market you’re bragging about how the
rich you’re doing you’re bragging about
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how the corporations are doing
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guys we had a full corporate bailout we
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had full
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corporate socialism at the beginning of
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this crisis it was naomi klein shock
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doctrine 101.
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they looked at kovid they looked at the
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impact
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the federal reserve the central bank
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stepped in and said we will do anything
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to prop the market up a trillion dollars
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in liquidity per day
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fine then you had the cares act
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the coveted bailout it was crumbs to the
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people but really the point of that was
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the five trillion dollars to corporate
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america
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to let them know hey we got your back
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so we fully socialized corporate america
propped them up and then now
regular people are the ones who are
getting screwed why didn’t we just not
bail them out and bail
just do a bailout from the bottom up
instead of the top down this is the same
thing we didn’t know eight we did a
top-down
bailout not a bottom-up same thing now
we did a top-down bailout not a
bottom-up
well when you don’t bail out from the
bottom up this is what happens
you’re gonna have 50 of the country who
can’t live who can’t put a roof over
their head
we’ve never seen anything like this and
to think about the fact
that in the midst of this crisis with a
pandemic
they’re like no we will not do medicare
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for all you’re not going to get health
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care
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there’s a pandemic bro people can’t pay
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the bills they can’t even put a roof
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over there do you think they can afford
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medical bills if they get sick
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are you kidding me even the idea even
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the concept
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of medical bills makes me sick just
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hearing it
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somehow other countries have figured out
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how to make sure everything’s covered
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when it comes to your health
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this country nope you might have to go
bankrupt you have to go bankrupt because
you got sick
that’s the way it works we’ve covered
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stories what was it forty thousand
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dollar bill because somebody had coveted
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and they needed a lot of care
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they’re denying you universal health
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care in a pandemic
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they’re denying you universal basic
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income
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when you can’t work because of the
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pandemic
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they give you a one-time 1 200 payment
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that you went through in probably a week
if they don’t make real concessions i
shudder thinking about what happens
in the future if they don’t do real
concessions if they don’t do medicare
for all
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if they don’t do universal basic income
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i
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shudder at what’s going to happen this
country is coming apart at the seams it
could come
apart a lot worse than it already has
because there’s no way you can keep the
facade going
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when probably over half the people will
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not be able to put a roof over their
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head
what do you want to do you want to you
want to evict all of them or foreclose
on all of them you want to keep them all
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out of their
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their place where they live is that what
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you want to do
you want millions and millions and
millions and millions of
new homeless people is that what you
want to do
you know i knew our government was
totally corrupt and terrible
but i think i was naive in the sense
that
on some level i thought well they won’t
let it get
beyond a certain point like it won’t
get so bad that it threatens the fabric
of the system
period no it will and they’re totally
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unaware
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it absolutely will they’ll let it get as
bad as possible because these guys are
not there to represent you
they’re not they’re given money to get
elected
by corporations and billionaires so when
they get in there they represent
corporations and billionaires they don’t
care about you
and this is the result this is the
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result
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we have the solutions that’s the thing
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that’s probably the most frustrating
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is that we know what would work we know
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how to fix these problems
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we know how to make our country better
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and they just they’re not doing any of
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those ideas they’re not doing medicare
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for all
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they’re not doing free college they’re
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not doing a great new deal they’re not
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doing a living wage
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they’re not ending right to work laws
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and having stronger
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union laws they’re not doing universal
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basic income
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there are really clear ways they’re not
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getting money out of politics
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they’re really clear ways to fix all
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this stuff they don’t want to do it
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they want to do it and we’re about to
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see unrest
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that again will make the george floyd
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protest look like cakewalk because
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this may surpass the great depression if
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these numbers
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come to fruition
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think about how the history books are
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going to look at this point in time
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think about how they’re going to look
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back on this
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kind things are not going to be said
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about this era about this generation
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and i haven’t even touched climate
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change yet which is ecological disaster
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which is
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civilization threatening haven’t even
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touched that yet
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oh that is a nihilistic laugh i just had
09:44
if i’ve ever heard of one
Official Homeland Security Twitter Account: Anti-Media Tweet
Shame on you. You are a public institution. You should not engage in blatant partisan activity. You should not spread disinformation. You take an oath to the Constitution and to the concept of free speech and an independent media. Public servants should be above this garbage.
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) June 21, 2020
It’s Hardly Shocking the Navy Fired a Commander for Warning of Coronavirus Threat. It’s Part of a Pattern.
Capt. Brett Crozier, fired this week from command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, joins a growing list of Navy officers who attempted to raise concerns about the safety of their ships and crew, only to pay with their jobs.
Crozier wrote a letter dated March 30 warning that an outbreak of the coronavirus on his ship was a threat to his crew of some 4,000 sailors unless they disembarked and quarantined.
“We are not at war, and therefore cannot allow a single sailor to perish as a result of this pandemic unnecessarily,” Crozier wrote. “Decisive action is required now.”
We do not know all the facts that prompted the letter. But we know that once it was published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the acting secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modly, relieved Crozier of command. Crozier, 50, had been a rising star in the officer corps. He will remain in the Navy at his current rank, though his career future is uncertain. In viral videos, Crozier’s sailors can be seen cheering him loudly as he disembarks the Roosevelt, alone, before driving away.
Navy experts believe that the cumulative effects of the service’s decisions over the past several years to punish those who speak out will result in silencing sailors with legitimate concerns about their health and safety.
“This may have the effect of chilling the responses of other commanding officers because it will be perceived, fairly or not, as a shoot the messenger scenario,” said James Stavridis, a retired admiral and former head of the United States Naval Institute, who called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the dismissal.
The Navy’s top officer, Adm. Mike Gilday, initially praised Crozier’s attempt to warn his superiors. But the next day, Thursday, Modly, the Navy’s civilian boss, reversed course, telling reporters that he fired Crozier because he lost confidence in the officer for not using a secure email network to properly route his complaint.
Crozier’s unclassified email wound up with 20 or 30 other individuals and at some point was provided to the Chronicle reporters. Modly said the public airing of the complaint had unnecessarily alarmed sailors and provided enemies with information that exposed weaknesses on one of the country’s most important warships.
As part of our 2019 investigation into the incidents in the Navy’s 7th Fleet, its largest overseas presence, ProPublica found repeated instances of frontline commanders warning superiors of risks the fleet was facing — a lack of training, exhausted crews, deteriorating ships and equipment. Those warnings, all sent through the normal chain of command, were met with indifference.
Disaster in the fleet struck in June 2017, after the USS Fitzgerald, a destroyer, collided with a cargo ship in the Sea of Japan. Two months later, a second destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, collided with an oil tanker in the Singapore Strait. The two accidents cost the Navy 17 sailors — the biggest loss of life in maritime collisions in more than 40 years.
Navy investigations laid blame on nearly the entire chain of command in the 7th Fleet, punishing commanders and sailors for failing to properly train and equip its crews and ships.
Adm. Joseph Aucoin, the head of the 7th Fleet, was fired. Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, who oversaw training, was forced from his job. Cmdr. Bryce Benson, captain of the Fitzgerald, was recommended for court-martial.
But ProPublica reported that all three men had repeatedly tried to warn higher-ups of dangerous safety issues in the vaunted fleet, based at Yokosuka, Japan. They argued to their superiors that the Navy was running ships in the 7th Fleet too hard, too fast. Their warnings were dismissed.
Benson, the Fitzgerald commander whose court-martial case was dismissed, said that Crozier “was right to strongly advocate for the safety of his crew and it was wrong for the SecNav [secretary of the Navy] to fire him for doing so.”
Senior leaders “continue to under-resource ships at sea and are slow to respond to commanders’ pleas for assistance,” said Benson, who is now retired. “From one tragedy to the next, senior Navy leaders continue to break faith with the fleet.”
Dismissing Crozier, Benson said, “sends a clear message to commanders: The authority and responsibility that you enjoy is yours alone and an absolute liability even when under resourced and thinly supported.”
Modly emphasized that he did not intend his actions to discourage officers from coming forward to report their concerns through the chain of command.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Capt. Crozier did what he thought was in the best interests of the safety and well-being of his crew. Unfortunately, it did the opposite,” Modly said at a press conference.
But Crozier’s firing has raised alarm anew that the Navy is more interested in its public image than in fixing problems raised by its sailors. It did not go unnoticed by fellow officers that Crozier was dismissed within two days of his letter becoming public. Such haste is unusual, and raised questions about the due process afforded to Crozier.
Some now believe that the cumulative effects of the Navy’s decisions over the past several years to punish those who speak out will silence sailors who have legitimate concerns about their health and safety.
“His removal sends a really strong message that coming forward will end people’s careers,” said Mandy Smithberger, a military expert at the Project on Government Oversight. “Before this I’d say that risk was more so implied through both social and professional retaliation. This is much more explicit.”
Crozier’s firing comes amid increased concern that the Pentagon is not acting quickly enough to protect whistleblowers. Glenn Fine, the principal deputy inspector general for the Defense Department, testified that the agency has shown a reluctance to punish officials who take punitive action against whistleblowers.
“We have seen a disturbing trend in the DoD disagreeing with the results of our investigations or not taking disciplinary action in substantiated reprisal cases without adequate or persuasive explanations,” Fine testified in January to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. “Failure to take action sends a message to agency managers that reprisal will be tolerated and also to potential whistleblowers that the system will not protect them.”
Navy commanders may be fired at any time by their superiors. And the captains of Navy ships are uniquely responsible for any mishaps on their ships.
A study published earlier this year of more than 2,000 disciplinary cases found that Navy commanders were historically dismissed for “crimes of command” — such as a ship colliding with another vessel or running aground.
More lately, however, the study documented that it has become harder to tell if those punished are being disciplined less because of their performance and more because they had either internally or publicly called the Navy out for neglect.
“In the modern Navy,” wrote Capt. Michael Junge in the Naval War College Review, “a commander is most likely to be removed for personal misconduct or when the crime of command includes one or all of the following elements: death, press coverage, or significant damage to the Navy, whether materially or to its reputation.”
Why Donald Trump feels invincible
People who think they are invincible tend to find out that they are not in the harshest way possible.
.. one could understand Trump’s behavior if he was doing nothing but winning — except that he isn’t. Most of the coverage suggests Trump feels liberated in particular by his decisions to levy steel and aluminum tariffs and plan on a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. But let’s review those two moves. The former is bad policy and bad politics, and it failed to win the Pennsylvania special election for the GOP. The latter may or may not happen, but it is very likely to not end well.The best interpretive framework through which to understand Trump’s leadership is psychological rather than ideological. One would think that a president with historically low poll numbers, facing an investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III of growing seriousness, heading (in all likelihood) toward a disastrous midterm repudiation that could lead to his impeachment, and presiding over an administration run on the management principles of Maximilien Robespierre might be acting out of desperation. On the contrary, White House insiders indicate that Trump’s increasingly flailing decisions are the function of a president gaining in confidence. Having decided that he has gotten the hang of the job, Trump has lost patience with opposition and constraints. He seems not frightened but giddy.
.. Trump feels he’s winning because he is not losing as much as everyone has claimed.
None of the crazy stuff Trump said or did — from boasting about the size of his nuclear button to firing the FBI director running the investigation into his campaign — merited more than a shrug from investors. And when the market finally did hit a turbulent patch, in early February of this year, it wasn’t because of anything Trump had done; it was triggered by a boring old economic indicator, an upbeat jobs report that made investors worry the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates. Even Trump’s globe-shaking announcement last week of big tariffs on imported steel and aluminum only had a temporary effect. Stocks initially plunged on fears of a disastrous trade war, but they recovered nearly all the ground they had lost in just three days, as traders figured Trump would water down the actual policy.
.. White House staffers have been counseling presidents against rash actions since the invention of White House staff. The way they do this is by warning of dire consequences if their advice is not followed.
Indeed, this was the tactic that Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used to try to forestall the tariffs.
Despite doomsaying
- predictions of a crashing economy if he was elected, the economy is still chugging along. Despite dire warnings that the
- tariffs would trigger a trade war and a global economic scare, that has not happened yet, either. Despite much clucking about
- the impropriety of shifting from “maximum pressure” on North Korea to a planned summit, no alliance has been torn asunder.
.. I am not saying any of Trump’s moves are great ideas. But they haven’t triggered immediately catastrophes either. If an adviser keeps warning you that bad things will happen and then they have not yet come to pass, you would start to doubt their worth as well.
.. If Trump thought about it he would probably realize some of his self-initiated moves, like
- firing James B. Comey, have been calamitous. And as White acknowledges, it is possible “Trump really does pose a massive systemic risk, and
- markets just can’t see it or can’t price it.”
- A botched summit could lead to war on the Korean Peninsula.
- All of Trump’s myriad miscues could come back to haunt him in the midterms.
But nothing bad has happened yet, so Trump will continue to feel emboldened. Essentially, he is acting like he is invincible. And people who think they are invincible tend to find out they are not in the harshest way possible.