Misread

My career as an employment lawyer included cases of discrimination and sexual harassment.  Harassment cases were the most likely to have a kernel of truth.   Whether or not it met the bar for legal harassment, usually some act had occurred.  So my tendency is to give great credibility to a complaint.

Circulating on twitter, and in right wing media, is an allegation by a short term former Biden staffer, Tara Reade, that in 1993 she was digitally penetrated by the former Vice President.  Even with my tendency to credit such claims, this appears spurious.

In 2019 she had a column published in Medium about her mistreatment as a staffer for then Senator Joe Biden.  She claims that she was asked to be a cocktail server at a fundraiser, because Bidden though she had nice legs, but also noted she was cautioned not to dress sexy at the event.  More importantly, she repeated the often made complaints of non sexual touching, in this case of her shoulder and neck.

Markedly missing is the much more sexually explicit claim.  Certainly it is understandable and common for a woman to go many years before asserting a claim of harassment.  But quite unusual is to mention shoulder touching and leave out sexual assault.

The article is also ambiguous about whether she quit or was fired.  She vaguely implies that she complained, but is quite unclear whether she ever mentioned the touching.

In 2019 she remembered shoulder touching in 1993, but did not remember digital penetration until Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee in 2020.

Also curiously she recently deleted her string of tweets which passionately embraced Putin and Russia.  Just a little suspicious.

High Sea Robbery

Carnival Corporation, owner of Carnival and Princess lines, wants to commit high sea robbery.  These petri dishes of the sea, pay nothing to you and me.  Below is a section from their financial filing know as a 10K.  They claim to be exempt from U.S. Taxes. Additionally all their ships fly foreign flags, and virtually no Americans work in their crews.  So if they pay no taxes to us, we should pay no tax payer funded bailout to them.

XX. Taxation
A summary of our principal taxes and exemptions in the jurisdictions where our significant operations are located is as follows:
a. U.S. Income Tax
We are primarily foreign corporations engaged in the business of operating cruise ships in international transportation. We also own and operate, among other businesses, the U.S. hotel and transportation business of Holland America Princess Alaska Tours through U.S. corporations.
Our North American cruise ship businesses and certain ship-owning subsidiaries are engaged in a trade or business within the U.S. Depending on its itinerary, any particular ship may generate income from sources within the U.S. We believe that our U.S. source income and the income of our ship-owning subsidiaries, to the extent derived from, or incidental to, the international operation of a ship or ships, is currently exempt from U.S. federal income and branch profit taxes.
Our domestic U.S. operations, principally the hotel and transportation business of Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, are subject to federal and state income taxation in the U.S.

Time

Like a broken clock, even Trump can have a rare moment of inadvertent clarity.  Following his natural tendencies to exclude "the other," blocking flights from China was correct.  But it did not save lives.

Rather it bought us time, that could have been used to save lives.   Pandemics do not respect borders for long.  All experts warned it was coming.

We had time to buy, and develop, tests so the virus could be tracked, and its spread limited.  We had time to acquire masks and respirators.  We had time to build temporary  hospitals.

Instead, our president sold the time he bought at a loss.

Friendly Skies, Troubled Waters

Lobbyists are twinkling around the GOP stimulus Christmas Tree.  Some will shine bright, others must be turned off.

Airlines are essential, but cruise ships are not.  Airlines serve business as well as recreational needs.  Cruise ships are merely recreational.  Airlines employ Americans, by and large, cruise ships do not.  Working seven days a week, while squeezing into a shared bunk bed for nominal wages, has no 1st world takers.

The lights getting the juice must be visible.  The proposed bill includes 150 billion in discretionary  dollars.  Even if the GOP proposes on bended knee, we must say no.  Equally important, as with the 2008 bailout, a carefully appointed committee must approve all grants and loans.  Trump has the girth of Santa Claus, but not the equanimity.