The Commentariat -- April 30, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here.

Charisse Jones of USA Today: "About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks.... Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country. While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental, and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley." ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates, linked above: "If anything, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate, according to many economists. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn't even try because they found the process too formidable.... As Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano [of the NYT] reported, systems that were devised to treat each unemployment case as potentially fraudulent are now rushing to deal with millions of newly unemployed people."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded one million. The American death toll surpassed that of the Vietnam War. And the economy was reported to have shrunk by nearly 5 percent. But the White House on Wednesday declared its response to the crisis 'a great success story.' As states begin to lift quarantines, President Trump is trying to recast the story of the pandemic from that of an administration slow to see and address the threat to one that responded with decisive action that saved lives. Recognizing that the crisis jeopardizes his chances of re-election, he and his allies want to convince his supporters that the cascade of criticism is unwarranted.... 'I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel very strongly,' Mr. Trump said [Wednesday, Mrs. McC: in one of those curious, non-idiomatic and, in this case, ungrammatical 'strongly' sentences].... In the revised history of the pandemic that Mr. Trump and his team offered, his actions were not belated and inadequate, but bold and effective. 'We did all the right moves,' Mr. Trump said. 'If we didn't do what we did, you would have had a million people die, maybe more, maybe two million people die.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not "revised history." This is lying about what happened within the past few weeks or months. Somebody should tell NYT reporters & editors that using accurate, if negative, language is good journalism. ~~~

~~~ Unhappy he has not done enough stupid stuff, Trump plans some more: ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming the country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would probably lead to retaliation by Beijing.... 'Punishing China is definitely where the president's head is at right now,' one senior adviser said. Some political advisers have also encouraged Trump to take a more forceful swing at China because they think it will help him politically.... [So] senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.... Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response." ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait on how President Americ. A. First has undermined any chance of getting China to "pay" for Covid-19: "The reason you generally can't collect money from other countries is that we don't have a world government. To the limited extent it is possible to force other countries to pay you back without invading and occupying them, it is through the enforcement of international bodies like the World Trade Organization. But Trump has ignored or weakened transnational authorities.... The closest thing to a feasible option would be repudiating debt held by China, though the blowback to that move would be so enormous -- other potential buyers of Treasury bills would be demanding higher interest rates forever '' that this would be more like an act of financial self-harm than the collection of reparations.... The only discernible endgame here seems to be creating a predicate for Trump to publicly demand repayments from China as his solution to the crisis. If he could insist Mexico would pay for the wall, he can say China will pay for the coronavirus. The obvious fact that neither is going to happen is immaterial to their value as nationalistic campaign slogans." ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic. Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus.... Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS. Mr. Trump's aides and Republicans in Congress have sought to blame China for the pandemic in part to deflect criticism of the administration's mismanagement of the crisis in the United States, which now has more coronavirus cases than any country."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely distributed by the beginning of next year, despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety. The White House has made no public announcement of the new effort, called Operation Warp Speed, and some officials are apparently trying to talk the president down, telling him that it would be more harmful to set an unreasonably short deadline that might result in a faulty vaccine than to wait for one that is proved safe and effective.... Mr. Trump's order came after he grew frustrated by warnings from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... and other experts on the coronavirus task force, that development of a vaccine would take a year to 18 months, and that even that schedule might be ambitious. He told Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, to come up with a faster program. According to one official, the idea would be to indemnify the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from liability if the vaccines cause sickness or death...." ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that U.S. officials and scientists are working as quickly as possible to produce a coronavirus vaccine, and he asserted that he's in charge of its development in 'Operation Warp Speed.' 'I hope we're going to have a vaccine and we're going to fast-track a vaccine like you've never seen before if we come with a vaccine. I think they probably will,' he told reporters during a White House meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.... 'I'm really in charge of it,' he said. 'I think probably more than anything I'm in charge.'" Mrs. McC: How reassuring is it that a guy who thinks it might be good to ingest Lysol & Clorox has put himself "in charge" of managing release of a vaccine that holds harmless its developers & manufacturers? I never imagined I could become an anti-vaxxer, but Holy Cow!

"The Swamp". Common Dreams via RawStory: "A new analysis of financial disclosure documents found that Republican and Democratic members of Congress [27 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 1 independent] made nearly 1,500 stock transactions worth up to $158 million between February and April as the coronavirus spread across the U.S., heightening suspicions that elected officials in charge of the federal response to the pandemic have opportunistically cashed in on it." --s

Timothy Gardner et al. of Reuters: "As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom.... The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that led to a landmark global deal to slash oil supply as demand collapsed in the coronavirus pandemic - scoring a diplomatic victory for the White House.... The kingdom's de facto leader was so taken aback by the threat that he ordered his aides out of the room so he could continue the discussion in private[.]" --s

Amy Taxin, et al., of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a memo was sent to the group's members Wednesday so they have time to plan ahead of Newsom's expected announcement Thursday."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Millions of Americans are stuck at home with nothing to do but check the news to find out if they'll ever be allowed out. So how is this possible? ~~~

~~~ Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "Americans divide evenly when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way ... Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus situation in the U.S., with 50% approving and 48% disapproving. Approval of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis is down 10 percentage points from last month, including a 10-point decline among independents and a 16-point decline among Democrats.... Gallup's April 14-28 poll finds Trump's overall job approval at 49%, the same as in a March 13-22 poll but higher than his reading of 43% in an April 1-14 survey. To the extent that these variations are not a function of sampling error, they could be tied to Americans' changing outlook on the coronavirus situation in general and Americans' increasingly evaluating Trump on the COVID issue alone." Mrs. McC's suggestion to the 49 percent: Drink a Lysol cocktail & go to bed.

Presidential Race. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "The president and his allies have embraced optimism as a central part of his new reelection push, offering a rosy message about a swift return to normal life despite the rising death toll and jobless claims resulting from the outbreak. Vice President Pence predicted the virus's impact will be largely over by Memorial Day. Much of the country will be back to normal by June, Jared Kushner ... told Fox News on Wednesday.... For his part, Trump has already declared that the economy has begun a' comeback,' predicting 'phenomenal' growth in the fourth quarter and arguing that he will quickly reconstruct what he describes as history's 'greatest economy.'... As economists and health experts warn that this crisis is likely to linger longer and have a more severe impact than anything in recent memory, Trump is essentially risking his reelection on proving them wrong."

Senate Race. South Carolina. Jessica Taylor of the Cook Report: "It's hard to think of a politician who has undergone a bigger evolution over the past four years than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. But could that very political makeover hurt him at the ballot box in 2020, even in a reliably red state?... [Graham] has emerged as one of President Trump's fiercest defenders.... Likely challenger Jaime Harrison, the state's former Democratic Party chairman and a DNC associate vice chairman..., had a record-setting fundraising haul during the first quarter of this year.... Harrison's compelling ads highlight his early biography. He's used his money to run positive spots in every major media market in the state.... Meanwhile, the likely Democratic nominee has been largely unanswered on TV.... So we are moving [the] South Carolina [U.S. Senate race] from Solid to Likely Republican." ~~~

~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "A top donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is switching sides. Richard Wilkerson, former head of Michelin's North America unit, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has endorsed Democrat Jaime Harrison.... Though Graham leads in limited polls, Harrison is outraising him this year so far, bringing in $7.36 million over the first three months versus $5.6 million for Graham."

~~~~~~~~~~

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. deaths from covid-19 passed 60,000 on Wednesday, a figure President Trump had once projected would be the upper limit, as hopes rose for a drug treatment that the top U.S. infectious-disease expert said has shown a clear benefit in an early trial. Trump welcomed the promising early signs that an experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, can be effective in speeding the recovery time for covid-19 patients. 'The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,' Anthony S. Fauci said alongside Trump at the White House on Wednesday. 'That is really quite important.' The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci leads, is overseeing a ... double-blind, placebo-controlled trial ... of more than 1,000 patients.... The study showed that patients treated with remdesivir were ready to be discharged from the hospital within 11 days, on average, compared with an average of 15 days for patients who had received a placebo.... The study showed only a marginal benefit in the rate of death." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

From the New York Times' coronavirus live updates Wednesday: "U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014 and the worst quarterly contraction since 2008, when the country was in a deep recession. Things will get much worse. Widespread layoffs and business closings didn't happen until late March, or the very end of the last quarter, in most of the country. Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the effects of the shutdown more fully, to show that G.D.P. contracted at an annual rate of 30 percent or more." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The United States has suffered at least 66,000 more deaths than expected this year, a toll that includes the devastation directly caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp rise in fatalities not attributed to the virus, the government reported late Wednesday. The new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows 33,756 covid-19 deaths and 32,325 from all other causes since Jan. 1.... [The number] also could include people who died of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at home but whose deaths were incorrectly attributed to another cause. The numbers are almost certainly a substantial undercount of the actual total. On Wednesday, the death toll from the coronavirus alone passed 60,000 since Feb. 29, according to data collected by The Washington Post." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Joel Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "The number of nursing homes publicly reporting cases of covid-19 has doubled in the past week, with more than 1 in 6 facilities nationwide now acknowledging infections among residents or staff, a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data found. The rise is driven in part by newly released information about previous novel coronavirus infections from states including Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky and South Carolina. Some states have not yet publicly released the names of affected nursing homes." The article is a freebie.

Joanne Kenen of Politico: "The Trump administration's 'Stay at Home' guidelines will quietly expire Thursday with little fanfare -- letting states decide what's next. But as ... Donald Trump repeatedly declares that 'we're opening our country again,' the inconsistent patchwork of state, local and business decision-making is exactly what could drive a second wave of the coronavirus -- or potentially prolong the current outbreak.... The White House is leaving states with a set of CDC recommendations. They aren't binding, and they aren't all specific. That could lead to unexpected spikes across the country -- sometimes in new places that didn't see a bad outbreak, but also in cities that were recovering, only to suffer a setback." ~~~

~~~ Christina Maxouris of CNN: "A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's top infectious disease doctor says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months. 'If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 'If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.' If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would 'get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,' adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted.... Being able to test for the virus, track cases and isolate every infected American will be key factors in ensuring that second wave isn't as deadly, Fauci says. The US continues to lag behind in testing, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The nation has performed 16.4 tests per 1,000 people, according to the report. Spain and Italy, with the second and third highest number of cases after the US, have conducted 22.3 and 29.7 tests per 1,000 people respectively." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Trump Determined to Make Fauci's Point a Reality. Brooke Singman of Fox "News": "President Trump on Wednesday said the administration will be 'fading out' the federal social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus that are slated to expire Thursday.... The 'fading out' of the White House social distancing guidelines comes as the states across the nation begin Phase One to reopen their economies amid the coronavirus crisis." Mrs. McC Translation: Trump means "fazing out." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Erika Edwards of NBC News: "As a handful of states begin to ease stay-at-home restrictions, no state that has opted to reopen has come close to the federally recommended decline in cases over a 14-day period.... Daily case counts continue to rise in many states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Even Trump's Testing Czar Says He Lied. W.J. Hennigan of Time: "... Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn't feasible given current technology. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government's testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that 'there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.'... Five hours later, when a reporter asked Trump at the White House if the country would reach five million daily tests, as the Harvard study recommended, Trump responded: 'We'll increase it, and it'll increase it by much more than that in the very near future.' Asked to clarify if he meant the U.S. would 'surpass 5 million tests per day', Trump said, 'We're going to be there very soon.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ As Jonathan Chait points out, "Trump's underlings usually know to steer clear of directly contradicting the boss's lies, but in this case, Time asked Giroir about testing levels in the morning, and then Trump decided to go ahead and lie about it that afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "On Wednesday..., Donald Trump retracted his claim that the U.S. will soon be able to administer 5 million COVID-19 tests every day after his own testing director on the White House task force, Admiral Brett Giroir, emphatically rejected the possibility of that goal. 'Somebody started throwing around five million,' Trump told reporters, referring to a Harvard University study that found that reopening the economy would only be feasible if the government were able to do at least five million tests daily by early June, and then ramp it up to 20 million tests each day by late July. 'I didn't say 5 million,' Trump said, despite the fact that he had said exactly that the day before." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would not say Trump "retracted his claim." I would say, "Trump lied about making a claim he made a day earlier." Trump does not retract; he lies.

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to visit Arizona next week and potentially Ohio 'very soon,' marking one of the few times the president has left the White House in several weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic."

Rama Venkat of Reuters: "The Trump administration is quietly planning a major undertaking to speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal to have 100 million doses ready by year's end, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Called 'Operation Warp Speed,' the project will join private pharmaceutical companies with government agencies and the military in trying to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, Bloomberg News said bloom.bg/2YgpC1j." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've seen a few "Where's Jared?" stories this past week. After all, we heard he was in change of saving us from the coronavirus, and things have not been going well. Or so we thought. ~~~

~~~ "This Is a Great Success Story." Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Jared Kushner ... praised himself and the rest of the administration on Wednesday morning for its efforts to reopen the U.S. economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kushner's comments came after the nation's death toll from coronavirus surpassed the Vietnam War. 'I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed,' Kushner said during an interview on 'Fox and Friends.' 'So, the government -- federal government -- rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that's really what needs to be told.'" Hard to say why the White House keeps the boy genius under wraps. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Navy will open a full investigation of the coronavirus outbreak aboard an aircraft carrier, acting Navy secretary James McPherson said Wednesday, days after the service's top officer recommended the reinstatement of a captain who raised concerns about the handling of the issue. McPherson said Wednesday that after carefully reviewing a preliminary inquiry into what happened, he has 'unanswered questions' that 'can only be answered by a deeper review.'"

Dan Keating & Lauren Tierney of the Washington Post: "A majority of the country's 43.8 million renting households have lost at least some of their income in the coronavirus shutdown, a much higher share than homeowners, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll done in mid-April. This means an increasing number of households are at risk of missing rent payments, which could cascade into a national flood of evictions and forced homelessness. Facing the coronavirus pandemic, state governments have adopted special rules to protect renters. Landlords, attorneys, judges, sheriffs and renters are all trying to keep up with daily changes in the system.... The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has created a scorecard to measure protections for renters. Each state gets a rating from zero to five stars based on how many renter protections and supports it has in place." The article includes a map of state ratings & some additional data.

Alex Woodward of The Independent (U.K.): "Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines. As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.... The virus has had a wildly disproportionate impact among black congregations, many of which have relied on group worship." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Kathleen McGrory & Rebecca Woolington of the Tampa Bay Times: "State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida's medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state's published count. The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners' death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted. They've now been withholding it for nine days, without providing any of the information or specifying what they plan to remove. Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Lawrence Mower & Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald: Florida "Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will start lifting stay-at-home orders starting Monday, with restaurants and shops being allowed to reopen with limited capacity. In the first phase of a three-phase plan, DeSantis said Florida will closely follow guidelines from the White House. The order does not apply to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the pandemic has hit hardest, however. He said he will consider issuing an order for those counties soon."

Georgia. Ed Kilgore of New York: "It's been well-established for a while that African-Americans are being hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus.... But the degree to which COVID-19 has victimized this demographic is dramatized by a new CDC study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Georgia, the state that is in the process of discarding restrictions on businesses and public gatherings via an order from Republican governor Brian Kemp. The Washington Post has the story: 'Surveying eight Georgia hospitals, researchers found that in a sample of 305 covid-19 patients, 247 were black -- more than 80 percent and more than they expected....'... As the Guardian explained recently: 'Due to occupational segregation, black Americans have often been disproportionately represented in industries and occupations that face the greatest risks of known occupational hazards. The same seems to be the case with Covid-19....'... The businesses that choose to reopen under Kemp's new order, forcing employees to give up unemployment benefits and go back to work in proximity to the public, are likely to have more black employees than businesses still operable via telecommuting." ~~~

~~~ ** "Experiment in Human Sacrifice." Amanda Mull of the Atlantic: "Georgia's brash reopening puts much of the state's working class in an impossible bind: risk death at work, or risk ruining yourself financially at home. In the grips of a pandemic, the approach is a morbid experiment in just how far states can push their people. Georgians are now the largely unwilling canaries in an invisible coal mine, sent to find out just how many individuals need to lose their job or their life for a state to work through a plague.... '... we're also choosing industries where racial- and ethnic-minority communities are disproportionately represented,' [Harry] Heiman, [a public-health professor at Georgia State University,] noted. He said that choosing to restart these industries is likely to deepen the crisis for communities of color in the South. 'They're going back to a job that places them at increased risk for exposure to coronavirus, and they don't have access to Medicaid, because we haven't expanded it,' he explained."

Maryland. Erin Cox & Steve Thompson of the Washington Post: "When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the purchase of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea last week, he called it 'an exponential, game-changing step forward' in the state's effort to get more people tested. The dramatic story drew notice from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a dismissive swipe from ... President Trump. But more than 10 days after the chartered Korean Air plane landed, Maryland has not allowed access to the tests kits, much to the frustration of local, state and federal leaders.... In conference calls with local and federal officials over the past two weeks, the Hogan administration said the tests were hung up by regulatory hurdles and shortages of other supplies that have throttled testing capacity nationwide, according to multiple people who participated. Hogan publicly described a different reality on Wednesday.... He said he would prioritize universal testing in nursing homes and other hot spots.... The governor said the kits would also bolster testing for health-care workers and first responders. As a fifth priority, he would expand the broad, community-based testing experts say is critical to easing shutdown restrictions." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although the Hogan administration is making conflicting statements about the availability of swabs, reagents and labs certified to analyze the tests, I can't see why they didn't start administering the tests, say, eight days ago.

New York. Rosalind Adams & Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed News: "On March 27..., Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to 'START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!' One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: 'We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT.' Its author was Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology..., he ... has ... no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices. But three days later, New York state paid Oren-Pines $69.1 million. The payment was for 1,450 ventilators -- at an astonishing $47,656 per ventilator, at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models.... Not a single ventilator ever arrived.... Nearly a month later, New York has terminated the contract, and the state is now trying to recover all of the money it paid the Silicon Valley electrical engineer.... A state official ... said New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, "the White House coronavirus task force"? Are we talking Jared Kushner here? The shadow task force that Kushner said would bring an "an entrepreneurial approach" to the problem because "In America, some of our best resources are in our private sector"? You have to admit, collecting $69 million for nothing is ever-so entrepreneurial.

Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: "Newly released documents about the origins of the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn show that FBI officials feared that the new Trump White House might view the bureau as 'playing games' if it sought to interview him without disclosing exactly what it was up to. The four pages of records provided to Flynn's defense attorneys last week and unsealed on Wednesday by a federal judge reflect internal brainstorming at the FBI in January 2017 about how to approach the politically explosive investigation into Flynn's contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks earlier, during the presidential transition.... One issue that FBI officials considered was whether to show Flynn that they already knew details of his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time.... Flynn's lawyers and supporters said the notes and emails were 'smoking gun' evidence that he was railroaded by FBI officials intent on bringing him down.... 'What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?' the notes read.... 'Flynn told the Russian ambassador to ignore U.S. sanctions, for goodness sake! FBI had a legitimate purpose and even a duty to question Flynn,' former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Politico via email on Wednesday night. 'The strategy of the agents does not negate Flynn's lies.'"

i24 News, Israel: "Newly released documents from the FBI suggests that Roger Stone ... had one or more high-ranking contacts in the Israeli government willing to help the then-Republican Party nominee win the presidential election.... Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also in the same post during US President Donald Trump's 2016 run for the White House.... In one exchange specifically mentioning Jerusalem, the document alleges Stone in communication with a high-ranking official in the Israeli capital. 'Roger, hello from Jerusalem,' the document reads. 'Any progress? He is going to be defeated unless we intervene. We have critical intell [sic]. The key is in your hands! Back in the US next week. How is your Pneumonia? Thank you.'" --s

Presidential Race

Lisa Lerer & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "For more than three weeks, progressive activists and women's rights advocates debated how to handle an allegation of sexual assault against Joseph R. Biden Jr. The conversations weren't easy, nor were the politics: Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, faced one allegation; his opponent, President Trump, at least a dozen. Finally, several of the women's groups prepared a public letter that praised Mr. Biden's work as an 'outspoken champion for survivors of sexual violence' but also pushed him to address the allegation from Tara Reade, a former aide who worked in Mr. Biden's Senate office in the early 1990s.... Then ... the group put the letter on hold as it began pressuring Biden advisers to push the candidate to make a statement himself before the end of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Nearly two weeks later, Mr. Biden and his campaign have yet to make that statement, and the advocates have not released their letter.... As two more women have come forward to corroborate part of Ms. Reade's allegation, the Biden campaign is facing attacks from the right and increasing pressure from the left to address the issue.... Republicans and the Trump campaign are already using the accusation to undercut Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party as hypocritical on issues of gender equity." ~~~

~~~ Ruby Cramer & Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed News: "While Joe Biden has remained publicly silent about a sexual assault allegation made against him, his presidential campaign has sought to coordinate and unify Democratic messaging on the matter, advising surrogates earlier this month to say that the allegation 'did not happen.' The Biden campaign circulated talking points among top Democratic supporters shortly after the New York Times published a story earlier this month about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden's Senate office who says he assaulted her in 1993.... The messaging shows that ... aides were taking the claims seriously enough behind the scenes to coordinate messaging among other Democrats to try to cast the matter as one that's been thoroughly vetted and determined to be unfounded." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Joe, you can't pretend to be a champion of women while hiding behind your female staff's skirts. I believe Reade, partially because I have been the victim of very similar attacks (though I didn't get fired because I knew not to complain).* The details of Joe's assault seems to be SOP for powerful men. In any event, I am committed to voting for you instead of the careless, repeat sexual abuser currently occupying the Oval. ~~~ * Oh, wait. I forgot. I did once get fired for complaining about a different kind of sexual attack. My complaint "had upset the talent," the woman who fired me said. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "... the way [for Biden] to signal he takes Ms. Reade's case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.... Contemporaneous accounts of Ms. Reade's claim are counterweighted by the denials of her superiors at the time that she reported any misconduct, as well as inconsistencies in her retelling. There are, at the moment, no clear conclusions.... President Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault, including rape, by dozens of women. He has responded by brushing the accusations off, once claiming repulsively, 'She's not my type.' It may seem unfair to hold Mr. Trump's likely rival in the 2020 race to a standard that Mr. Trump has failed to meet again and again. But Mr. Trump shouldn't be allowed to set that standard. A better man could." The editors also recommend that Biden release any related personnel records. ~~~

~~~ Steve M. "... this is working out just the way the Republican Party wants it to. The slow build of the story seems to have lulled Biden into believing that it will disappear as a news item, the way sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump always disappear. (That won't happen, and there'll come a time when Trump will add a Tara Reade riff to his stump speech...). The mainstream press is feeling the need to make up for the lack of early coverage, so ... it's a drip-drip-drip with MSM buy-in. In other words, it's Hillary Clinton's emails and Uranium One all over again. Those slow-simmering stories worked like a charm for the GOP. This scandal can get Trump reelected. Joe Biden needs to realize that it will consume him unless he can persuade us that he's innocent." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Both the WashPo editors & Steve are right. Unfortunately, there's a near-guarantee that if Biden does try to address the charges, he will blow it. Joe Biden is just not a guy who gets it. ~~~

~~~ On the Other Hand. Here is an article posted to Medium that attacks Tara Reade's credibility and posts receipts to at least partially back up its claims. A woman who runs a California non-profit claims Reade manipulated, duped and stole from her & her non-profit. Mrs. McC: We really do need more reporting on Reade. If she has a history of lying & stealing -- and I'm not saying she does -- her accusations will go away. ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "The job description for Joe Biden's running mate has suddenly become more complicated: the Democratic vice presidential nominee must now defend him against sexual assault accusations without looking hypocritical. It's a particularly vexing problem for Biden's potential picks, many of whom played lead roles in opposing the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.... Advisers to four of the potential candidates who spoke to Politico -- none of whom would go on record -- ... all said they hoped Biden would speak out soon, but conceded there's no way he -- or those in contention to be his running mate -- can continue to avoid the subject as they run for office or jockey to be on the Democratic ticket."

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's advisers presented him with the results of internal polling last week that showed him falling behind former vice president Joe Biden in key swing states in the presidential race, part of an effort by aides to curtail Trump's freewheeling daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. The president spoke with campaign manager Brad Parscale, White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among other officials, in calls and meetings last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.... Trump resisted the pleas, saying people 'love' the briefings and think he is 'fighting for them.'... Trump told Parscale that he did not believe the polling that had been presented to him, even though it came from the campaign and the RNC." ~~~

~~~ Nothing Is Trump's Fault, Including His Being the Worst President* in U.S. History. Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump, according to multiple people..., erupted during a phone call with his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, two days after he was presented with polling data from his campaign and the Republican National Committee that showed him trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... in several crucial states. He lashed out at Mr. Parscale and said it was other people's fault that there had been fluctuations in a race they had all seen as his to lose just two months ago. At one point, Mr. Trump said he would not lose to Mr. Biden, insisted the data was wrong and blamed the campaign manager for the fact that he is down in the polls, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. Mr. Trump even made a threat to sue Mr. Parscale, mentioning the money he has made while working for the president, another person familiar with the call said, although the threat did not appear to be serious." ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "As he huddled with advisers on Friday evening..., Donald Trump was still fuming over his sliding poll numbers and the onslaught of criticism he was facing for suggesting a day earlier that ingesting disinfectant might prove effective against coronavirus. Within moments, the President was shouting -- not at the aides in the room, but into the phone -- at his campaign manager Brad Parscale, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It's not clear how serious the President's threat of a lawsuit was." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Only Trump would think of suing somebody else because he himself is a flaming ass.

Kansas. Rick Hasen: "In a major ruling, a 10th Circuit panel (consisting of 2 judges, as a third judge on the panel had passed away), a Tenth Circuit panel has held that a Kansas anti-voting law championed by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach violated both the Constitution's equal protection clause and was preempted by the federal motor-voter law. The law at issue required those who wished to register to vote in Kansas to provide documentary proof of citizenship -- such as a birth certificate or naturalizatio certificate -- in order to register to vote. Until the ACLU secured a preliminary injunction against this law, about 30,000 people had their voter registrations suspended and were not allowed to vote in Kansas elections.... Kobach had claimed that the amount of noncitizen voting was the tip of the iceberg, but the trial court, after an extensive trial where Kobach was given every chance to prove his case, as no more than 'an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Shawn Johnson of Wisconsin Public Radio: "State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly announced Wednesday he would lift his recusal in a case that could purge up to 200,000 names from Wisconsin's voter list. Kelly, who lost his bid for a 10-year term on the court to Judge Jill Karofsky, had stayed out of the case while he was a candidate, saying it could have influenced his own election. With that race now behind him, he indicated in a brief order Wednesday that circumstances had changed.... Kelly's recusal from the voter purge case had tangible consequences in December, when the court deadlocked 3-3 on whether to hear the case on an expedited appeal.... Kelly was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016." --s

The Commentariat -- April 29, 2020

Afternoon Update:

From the New York Times' coronavirus live updates Wednesday: "The F.D.A. plans to announce as early as Wednesday an emergency use authorization for remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug that is being tested in treating patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.... A federal trial has shown that treatment with remdesivir can speed recovery in patients infected with the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Wednesday. The drug, made by Gilead Sciences, could eventually become the first approved treatment for Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. An emergency authorization by the F.D.A. is not the same as a formal drug approval by the agency. When the federal government declares a public health emergency, the F.D.A. can approve certain drugs or tests to address the emergency if there are no other alternatives." ~~~

~~ "U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014 and the worst quarterly contraction since 2008, when the country was in a deep recession. Things will get much worse. Widespread layoffs and business closings didn't happen until late March, or the very end of the last quarter, in most of the country Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the effects of the shutdown more fully, to show that G.D.P. contracted at an annual rate of 30 percent or more."

Christina Maxouris of CNN: "A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's top infectious disease doctor says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months. 'If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 'If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.' If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would 'get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,' adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted. A second round of the coronavirus is "inevitable," the nation's top infectious disease doctor says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months....Being able to test for the virus, track cases and isolate every infected American will be key factors in ensuring that second wave isn't as deadly, Fauci says. The US continues to lag behind in testing, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The nation has performed 16.4 tests per 1,000 people, according to the report. Spain and Italy, with the second and third highest number of cases after the US, have conducted 22.3 and 29.7 tests per 1,000 people respectively." ~~~

~~~ Trump Determined to Make Fauci's Point a Reality. Brooke Singman of Fox "News": "President Trump on Wednesday said the administration will be 'fading out' the federal social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus that are slated to expire Thursday.... The 'fading out' of the White House social distancing guidelines comes as the states across the nation begin Phase One to reopen their economies amid the coronavirus crisis." Mrs. McC Translation: Trump means "fazing out." ~~~

     ~~~ Erika Edwards of NBC News: "As a handful of states begin to ease stay-at-home restrictions, no state that has opted to reopen has come close to the federally recommended decline in cases over a 14-day period.... Daily case counts continue to rise in many states." ~~~

~~~ Even Trump's Testing Czar Says He Lied. W.J. Hennigan of Time: "... Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn't feasible given current technology. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government's testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that 'there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.'" ~~~

     ~~~ As Jonathan Chait points out, "Trump's underlings usually know to steer clear of directly contradicting the boss's lies, but in this case, Time asked Giroir about testing levels in the morning, and then Trump decided to go ahead and lie about it that afternoon."

Rama Venkat of Reuters: "The Trump administration is quietly planning a major undertaking to speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal to have 100 million doses ready by year's end, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Called 'Operation Warp Speed,' the project will join private pharmaceutical companies with government agencies and the military in trying to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, Bloomberg News said bloom.bg/2YgpC1j."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've seen a few "Where's Jared?" stories this past week. After all, we heard he was in change of saving us from the coronavirus, and things have not been going well. Or so we thought. ~~~

~~~ "This Is a Great Success Story." Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Jared Kushner ... praised himself and the rest of the administration on Wednesday morning for its efforts to reopen the U.S. economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kushner's comments came after the nation's death toll from coronavirus surpassed the Vietnam War. 'I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed,' Kushner said during an interview on 'Fox and Friends.' 'So, the government -- federal government -- rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that's really what needs to be told.'" Hard to say why the White House keeps the boy genius under wraps.

Alex Woodward of The Independent (U.K.): "Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines. As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.... The virus has had a wildly disproportionate impact among black congregations, many of which have relied on group worship." --s

Florida. Kathleen McGrory & Rebecca Woolington of the Tampa Bay Times: "State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida's medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state's published count. The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners' death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted. They';ve now been withholding it for nine days, without providing any of the information or specifying what they plan to remove. Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened."

Rick Hasen: "In a major ruling, a 10th Circuit panel (consisting of 2 judges, as a third judge on the panel had passed away), a Tenth Circuit panel has held that a Kansas anti-voting law championed by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach violated both the Constitution's equal protection clause and was preempted by the federal motor-voter law. The law at issue required those who wished to register to vote in Kansas to provide documentary proof of citizenship -- such as a birth certificate or naturalization certificate -- in order to register to vote. Until the ACLU secured a preliminary injunction against this law, about 30,000 people had their voter registrations suspended and were not allowed to vote in Kansas elections.... Kobach had claimed that the amount of noncitizen voting was the tip of the iceberg, but the trial court, after an extensive trial where Kobach was given every chance to prove his case, as no more than 'an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. "It has been 100 days since a 35-year-old man presented to an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, Wash., with a four-day history of cough and fever and tested positive for the virus.... Since then, more than one million people had tested positive in the United States.... Epidemiologists have estimated that the true number of infections may be about 10 times the known number, and preliminary testing of how many people have antibodies to the virus seems to support that view.... With the United States leading the world in both deaths and infections, the image of the country has taken a beating around the world, and Americans have been forced to re-examine their own self-image. The country has watched the president speak about the pandemic almost every day in ways that were alternately misleading, resentful, insulting, dangerous and, often, sown with self-praise." ~~~

The Washington Post's live updates for coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. "The U.S. and its territories have surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to figures compiled by The Post. The count represents nearly one-third of the world's reported covid-19 cases and includes more than 57,000 deaths since February, though experts call those numbers an underestimation." ~~~

~~~ David Welna of NPR: "In not even three months since the first known U.S. deaths from COVID-19, more lives have now been lost to the coronavirus pandemic on U.S. soil than the 58,220 Americans who died over nearly two decades in Vietnam. Early Tuesday evening ET, the U.S. death toll reached 58,365, according to Johns Hopkins University. While the number of lives lost in the U.S. during the pandemic and the U.S. death toll in that war are roughly the same now, the death rate from the coronavirus in America is considerably higher. It now stands at about 17.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. During 1968, the deadliest year for the U.S. in Vietnam, the death toll of 16,899 occurred at about half the pandemic's rate -- 8.5 troops were killed for every 100,000 U.S. residents. The pandemic has also been marked by nationwide death tolls surpassing 2,000 on six days this month. The highest daily toll for Americans fighting in the Vietnam War was on Jan. 31, 1968, when 246 U.S. personnel were killed during the Tet Offensive."

Get Real. Yascha Mounk in the Atlantic: "The miracle of deliverance is not in sight.... Experts estimate that for a population to reach herd immunity, up to 80 percent of it would have to be exposed to the coronavirus. Even if the virus has a fatality rate of a little less than 1 percent, this means that letting it spread through the population of the United States would cause about 2 million deaths.... Plans to brave the virus by going back to normal remain in the realm of the stupid or the sociopathic.... The chances of finding a transformative treatment against COVID-19 that could be deployed very soon have dwindled considerably.... A vaccine is likely at least a year away.... It now seems less likely than ever that the United States will do what is necessary to reopen the economy without causing a second wave of deadly infections.... For all his blustering demands to get the country back to normal, the president is failing to take the steps that are required to reopen the economy without a horrific death toll." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ON THE OTHER HAND ~~~

~~~ A Ray of Hope. Maybe. Charlie D'Agata of CBS News: "In the global race to find a vaccine, Oxford University just jumped way ahead of the pack. Human testing is already underway, and scientists say they're hopeful a coronavirus vaccine will be widely available by September. Technology the lab had already developed in previous work on inoculations for other viruses, including a close relative of COVID-19, gave it a head start.... The vaccine takes the coronavirus' genetic material and injects it into a common cold virus that has been neutralized so it cannot spread in people. The modified virus will mimic COVID-19, triggering the immune system to fight off the imposter and providing protection against the real thing." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I sure hope this vaciine works & can be produced quickly and the only big question is "How will Trump take credit for a vaccine developed in the U.K.?"

~~~ Or We Could Pretend We're Kiwis & Had a Competent Leader. Julia Hollingsworth of CNN: "After weeks of lockdown, New Zealand has achieved its ambitious goal of eliminating the coronavirus. But the country isn't celebrating yet. Over the past few days, newly diagnosed infections have been in the single digits. And on Monday, New Zealand reported just one new case.... Monday was the final day of almost five weeks of strict level four lockdown measures, which New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as 'the strictest constraints placed on New Zealanders in modern history.' On Tuesday, the country eased into a less restrictive lockdown, with 400,000 more New Zealanders heading back to work and 75% of the country's economy operating, according to Ardern. The new level three restrictions also mean that New Zealanders will be able to hold small funerals and buy takeaways." ~~~

~~~ BUT We Have This Guy ~~~

We have tested much more than anybody else times two. We've tested more than every country combined. We inherited a very broken test, a broken system and a broken test, and within a short period of time we were setting records. We have done more than the entire world combined. -- Donald Trump at a White House event Tuesday

Trump has said this over and over, and it has been corrected over and over, for it is demonstrably false.... He has never abandoned the regular application of disinformation as his primary defense against the coronavirus. -- Dana Milbank of the Washington Post

Tara Subramaniam, et al., of CNN: "Trump ... suggested Tuesday that he was correct when he said in February that the US would go down from 15 coronavirus cases to nearly zero -- even though he was wildly inaccurate, since the US now has more than a million cases.... 'It will go down to zero, ultimately,' Trump [said to CNN's Jim Acosta]. Trump's prediction was wrong and contradicted warnings from doctors that the disease would become widespread. He's now saying his prediction was right, because there will eventually come a time without new cases.... He never came close to suggesting that there would be a massive swell in the number of cases, as we've seen in recent weeks. Instead, he said the virus might 'disappear.'... [He also] claimed Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci ... said in late February that the coronavirus was 'no problem.' Fauci didn't say that.... And the President repeated his false claims that he 'inherited' a 'broken test' for the virus, though there was no inherited test for a virus only identified during his presidency. He also said that ... Joe Biden had apologized to him for previous comments about Trump's travel restrictions on China, though there was no apology."

Trump Threatens States. Myah Ward of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested that state and local bailout money from the federal government could hinge on whether the immigration policies of the individual governments seeking relief align with Trump administration priorities.... Alongside Trump's suggestion that states will have to look at sanctuary city policies, the president said a payroll tax cut would need to be part of any negotiation on a state and local bailout. 'I think there's a big difference with a state that lost money because of covid and a state that's been run very badly for 25 years,' the president said during his meeting with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 'There's a big difference, in my opinion. And you know, we'd have to talk about things like payroll tax cuts. We'd have to talk about things like sanctuary cities, as an example. I think sanctuary cities is something that has to be brought up where people who are criminals are protected, they are protected from prosecution.'"

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" Redux. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: Bloomberg reports that "'... Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance, according to the person.'... His base hears 'meat shortage' and goes cuckoo, so Trump sees a chance to show them whose side he's on. And it's not the side of liberal elites, that's for sure. Nor is it the side of the brown-skinned people who mostly work in packing houses these days. However, I'm sure they'll be mollified by Trump's promise of 'guidance' to their bosses.... Trump is forcing everyone to stay open regardless of whether their meat is safe. And since there's no way to know which packing plant your meat comes from, you might just decide to avoid all meat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Mind you, the plants that are closed are closed because a lot of their workers got sick with Covid-19. Care for a pork chop? ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Ana Swanson & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday declared meat processing plants 'critical infrastructure,' in an effort to ensure that facilities around the country remained open as the government tried to prevent looming shortages of pork, chicken and other products as a result of the coronavirus. The action comes as meat plants around the country have turned into coronavirus hot spots, sickening thousands of workers, and after the head of Tyson Foods, one of the country's largest processors, warned that millions of pounds of meat would simply disappear from the supply chain. In an executive order issued late Tuesday, Mr. Trump said recent closures of meat processing facilities 'threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain, undermining critical infrastructure during the national emergency.'... On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued guidelines calling for physical distancing and other measures to keep workers safe. But the guidelines are voluntary.... 'Using executive power to force people back on the job without proper protections is wrong and dangerous,' Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., wrote on Twitter, saying he echoed calls by the food workers' union to 'to put worker safety first.'... [Trump's] action ... was taken under the Defense Production Act...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Chris Hayes of MSNBC pointed out, Trump didn't find it necessary to invoke the DPA to produce ventilators to save the lives of Covid-19 victims, or to produce personal protective equipment to protect healthcare workers and all of the rest of us. But hot dogs? Chicken nuggets? By all means. As for the safety of the meat processing personnel themselves? It's up to the plants' owners. ~~~

     ~~~ Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Health officials on Virginia's Eastern Shore are increasingly worried that clusters of coronavirus tied to two poultry plants may overwhelm the one local hospital, even as the Trump administration insists such facilities remain open to keep the country fed during the crisis. The chicken plants, one operated by Perdue Farms, the other by Tyson Foods, have continued operating as the number of cases linked to them climbed in the past week, according to health officials."

Last Friday, President Pompous Circumstances announced that he would be giving the commencement speech at West Point, to the surprise of officials at the military academy. ~~~

~~~ Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The decision to hold an in-person graduation June 13 meant that nearly 1,000 graduating cadets would travel back to West Point from their homes, where they have been distance-learning since spring break, and undergo up to three weeks of quarantine at campus barracks and a nearby training site. But uncertainties remained, including how to ensure that the cadets wouldn't sicken one another and how to account for sometimes unreliable test results." Mrs. McC: Since Trump has shown disinterest in the well-being of almost every group of Americans, I suppose it's appropriate that he gets around to threatening the health & safety of military cadets. ~~~

     (~~~ To be fair, Trump already has dismissed injuries to combat troops. Barbara Starr of CNN: "Dozens of US military personnel are expected to receive Purple Hearts in recognition of traumatic brain injuries they suffered in a January Iranian missile attack in Iraq, according to three US defense officials. The officials describe the decision as extremely sensitive because of the attention the issue received after ... Donald Trump dismissed the injuries as 'not very serious,' when they were first reported." Trump said of the troops' brain injuries, "... I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things....") ~~~

~~~ Waitman Beorn, in a Washington Post opinion piece: "In the past week or so, President Trump ... has cloaked himself in the mantle of commander in chief by announcing that the military's preeminent pilots would perform those fly-bys that he said he 'can't get enough of,' declaring that the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy would return to it so that he can deliver a commencement address; and calling for a reprise of his 2019 Fourth of July military extravaganza on the Mall.... In all these anticipated events of martial showmanship -- all announced at coronavirus task force briefings ostensibly intended to update the American public on the pandemic -- the common denominator is the president's desire to appropriate the military as a symbol not of the nation but of himself. Trump seeks not to honor those in uniform by displaying them and their weaponry in front of the nation, but to glorify himself by placing the military in the background, regardless of the cost.... The armed forces do not exist to provide photo ops for Trump."

Betsy Klein of CNN: "...Donald Trump on Monday urged the nation's governors [on a teleconference call] to 'seriously consider' reopening schools as part of his push to restart the economy.... According to a CNN tally of school closures, 43 states as well as Washington, DC, have ordered or recommended that schools don't reopen this academic year.... The President, who owns a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, asked Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, whether he had made a decision on opening his state 'and the Strip, etc., etc., with all your hotels.'... Sisolak said that casino management is 'very concerned about doing it right' and he is working closely with 'our mutual friend Sheldon Adelson' and others." --s ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump told the governors, "It’s not a big subject, young children have done very well in this disaster that we've all gone through." He later said something similar during Monday's relatively sedate Trump Show. Of course schoolchildren come in all ages from about four to late teens, and children of every age have gotten extremely ill from Covid-19. Moreover, it does not seem to have occurred to President Thickhead that very few schoolkids live in bachelor pads: their family members are every age.

Nancy Cook & Meredith McGraw of Politico (April 27): "As one of the few aides Trump implicitly trusts..., [31-year-old Hope Hicks] urged the president to act as a frontman for the coronavirus crisis -- a leader who could offer calming messages, critical health information and important updates on the progress of the White House’s response efforts, instead of delegating those responsibilities to health officials or the vice president." Via safari. Mrs. McC: Apparently Hicks, whose pre-Trumpist professional experience was mostly in the fashion industry working for Ivanka Trump, has not noticed that Donald Trump is a walking, talking disaster.

Everything Trump Does Is Stupid -- and Usually Petty. Matt Stieb of New York: "Despite evidence that COVID-19 may have jumped from bats to humans -- with a possible layover in the immune systems of pangolins -- Politico reports that President Trump is now cutting funding for researchers determining how bat coronaviruses can infect humans because the project is linked to a lab in Wuhan, China. On Friday, the National Institutes of Health told the sponsor of the study for the past five years, EcoHealth Alliance, that all future funding was off the table and that the nonprofit would stop spending the remaining $369,819 from its 2020 grant.... The revocation of just over $3.7 million is a paltry sum for the NIH.... Cutting 0.000094 percent of the budget in an apparent act of political posturing shows that the Trump administration continues to let its incoherent policy toward China obstruct important research that may help us fend off the next pandemic -- even as we're still in the heart of the current one." The Politico report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** The Cover-up Is Worse Than the Incompetence. Ryan Goodman & Danielle Schulkin in a New York Times op-ed: "The strongest critics of the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic point to its flat-footedness and the consequences of time lost. But the full account looks worse. Over the last five days of February, President Trump and senior officials did something more sinister: They engaged in a cover-up. A look at this window of time gives insight into how several members of the president's team were willing to manipulate Americans even when so many lives were at stake.... Senior officials knew the coronavirus was an extreme threat to Americans. Thanks to information streaming in from U.S. intelligence agencies for months, officials reportedly believed that a 'cataclysmic' disease could infect 100 million Americans and discussed lockdown plans. The warnings were given to Mr. Trump in his daily brief by the intelligence community; in calls from Alex Azar, the secretary of health; and in memos from his economic adviser Peter Navarro. The same day [Feb. 25] that Dr. [Nancy] Messonnier spoke [to reporters about the coming pandemic], the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence raised the warning level inside the government to WATCHCON1, concluding that the coronavirus was imminently likely to develop into a full-blown pandemic.... So the president's top advisers took to the airwaves with a united purpose: to deny the truth." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Veep Spits on Mayo Clinic Staff. Briana Bierschbach of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Vice President Mike Pence returned to Minnesota Tuesday to highlight Mayo Clinic's coronavirus research and testing efforts, calling them a 'whole of Minnesota approach.' But even as he praised Mayo's efforts to combat COVID-19, Pence ignored the clinic's request that all visitors don face masks to prevent transmission, including Gov. Tim Walz [D(FLP)] and others on the tour. In the face of growing commentary on television and social media, Mayo officials responded with a tweet as the tour was still underway: '"Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Mr. Pence later defended his maskless appearance at the Mayo Clinic to reporters. 'As vice president of the United States, I'm tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,' he said.... Mr. Pence did not explain why he chose not to honor the Mayo Clinic's own guidelines for its facility. But public health experts dismissed his argument for skipping a face mask as faulty. Even in coronavirus patients who show symptoms, diagnostic tests may detect the virus only 75 percent of the time, said Dr. Mark Loeb, a microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and it is unclear how sensitive the tests are in asymptomatic cases."

Gone Scapegoat Fishing. Ken Delanian, et al. of NBC News: "The White House has ordered intelligence agencies to comb through communications intercepts, human source reporting, satellite imagery and other data to establish whether China and the World Health Organization initially hid what they knew about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter told NBC News." --s

Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post: "It's now been 15 days since tens of millions of people were sent stimulus money, and per the law, the IRS began mailing letters to payment recipients. However, what should have been an instructive letter coming from either the Treasury or the IRS reads more like a message that the Trump reelection campaign would send out to voters. 'Just as we have before, America will triumph yet again -- and rise to new heights of greatness,' the letter says. This language is just another way of restating Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again,' or the president's 2020 rallying cry, 'Keep America Great.'... While the envelope reads Treasury Department and the IRS, once it has been opened, the letterhead says, 'The White House.'" Many recipients are angry about the "vanity letter," sometimes because the payment they received seemed to be in the wrong amount and/or because the IRS number the letter advises you to call is not manned by real people.

A Grand Gift from the Fed. Jeff Stein & Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "A Federal Reserve program expected to begin within weeks will provide hundreds of billions in emergency aid to large American corporations without requiring them to save jobs or limit payments to executives and shareholders. Under the program, the central bank will buy up to $500 billion in bonds issued by large companies. The companies will use the influx of cash as a financial lifeline but are required to pay it back with interest. Unlike other portions of the relief for American businesses, however, this aid will be exempt from rules passed by Congress requiring recipients to limit dividends, executive compensation and stock buybacks and does not direct the companies to maintain certain employment levels." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Another Way the Haves Are Profiting from Covid-19. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "As American companies lay off millions of workers, some appear to be taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to target workers who are in or hope to join unions, according to interviews with more than two dozen workers, labor activists and employment lawyers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Axios announced Tuesday it is returning a loan it received through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as it nears an alternative source of funding. The media outlet noted in a post by CEO Jim VandeHei that it has come under criticism for accepting funds under the PPP and said it was conducting its search for additional capital as the funds came in.... VandeHei said Axios had taken a financial hit during the coronavirus pandemic, pointing to physical events that were scrapped and cancellations by advertisers."

Mike DeBonis & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday the House was abandoning plans to meet next week, less than 24 hours after members were told to prepare to return to Washington on May 4 despite the spreading coronavirus pandemic. Hoyer said the change was made in light of advice from the congressional attending physician and in light of the continued spread of the virus in Washington and its suburbs. 'The numbers in the District of Columbia are going up, not down,' he said.... The decision by House Democratic leaders to stay home stands in stark contrast to the plan from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said this week the Senate will reconvene on Monday to confirm President Trump's judicial nominees and to start work on a new coronavirus relief bill." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "... Steny Hoyer on Tuesday announced that lawmakers won't return to Washington next week, abruptly reversing course after widespread backlash from members in both parties who warned the move would be unsafe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marty Johnson of The Hill: "Some states that are reopening parts of their economies have warned employees that they'll lose their unemployment benefits if they refuse to go back to work for their employers, even if they're worried about contracting the coronavirus. 'If you're an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that's a voluntary quit,' Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said Friday. 'Therefore, they would not be eligible for the unemployment money.'...The only exception for workers getting unemployment after not returning to work is if they are ill with the virus or taking care of a family member who has the deadly disease. The situation is similar for workers in Texas[.]" --s (Related Texas Tribune story linked below.)

Arizona. Alana Goodman of the Washington Free Beacon: "The Mesa City Police Department's homicide division is investigating the death of Gary Lenius, the Arizona man whose wife served him soda mixed with fish tank cleaner in what she claimed was a bid to fend off the coronavirus.... Though ... [reports] suggested the couple mindlessly followed the president's medical advice to disastrous results, friends of Gary Lenius told the Free Beacon they were skeptical he would knowingly ingest fish tank treatment. Rather, they described Lenius as a levelheaded retired engineer and recounted a troubled marital relationship that included a previous domestic assault charge against his wife, of which she was ultimately found not guilty. The Free Beacon also reported that Wanda Lenius was a Democratic donor whose most recent contribution went to a 'pro-science' super PAC." Mrs. McC: Wouldn't hurt to arrest Trump as an accessory before the fact.

Massachusetts. Alanna Richer of the AP: "Nearly 70 residents sickened with the coronavirus have died at a Massachusetts home for aging veterans, as state and federal officials try to figure out what went wrong in the deadliest known outbreak at a long-term care facility in the U.S. While the death toll at the state-run Holyoke Soldiers' Home continues to climb, federal officials are investigating whether residents were denied proper medical care and the state's top prosecutor is deciding whether to bring legal action."

New York. Liam Stack & Michael Gold of the New York Times: New York City "Mayor Bill de Blasio lashed out at Hasidic residents of the Williamsburg section in Brooklyn late Tuesday night after personally overseeing the dispersal of a crowd of hundreds of mourners who had gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who died of the coronavirus. In a series of tweets, Mr. de Blasio denounced the gathering, which th police broke up, and warned 'the Jewish community, and all communities' that any violation of the social-distancing guidelines in place to stop the spread of the virus could lead to a summons or an arrest.... Hasidic groups and leaders reacted to the mayor's warning with outrage.... The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council said in a tweet that 'people failed to social distance at a funeral the same day that thousands of New Yorkers failed to distance for 45 minutes to watch a [Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds] flyover.'"

Texas. Clare Proctor of the Texas Tribune: "Gov. Greg Abbott's Monday announcement that retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls will be allowed to reopen Friday means many Texas workers now have a difficult decision to make.... Refusing to return after a business reopens means forfeiting unemployment benefits." Mrs. McC: This is another of those rules that puts poorer people more at risk than middle-class workers. It stands to reason that people working in lower-paying jobs are more likely to have to work in close quarters where social-distancing rules are not well-enforced. People in low-paying jobs also may be more likely to need unemployment benefits than do people with incomes high enough to accumulate savings. In addition, what about the kids, who are out of school? The question for many workers may be, "Is child care going to cost more than what I'll lose in unemployment benefits?"

Wisconsin. AP: "More than 50 people who voted in person or worked the polls during Wisconsin's election earlier this month have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. The state Department of Health Services reported the latest figures on Tuesday, three weeks after the April 7 presidential primary and spring election that drew widespread concern because of voters waiting in long lines to cast ballots in Milwaukee. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to move to a mail-order election but was blocked by the Republican Legislature and conservative controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court."

Adam Raymond of New York: "The New York Times responded Monday night to Sean Hannity's demand for an apology and retraction over recent columns concerning his comments on the coronavirus. 'In response to your request for an apology and a retraction, our answer is "no,"' a Times lawyer wrote in a letter to Hannity's lawyer, Charles Harder, who had represented the Trump campaign in a previous lawsuit against the Times.... Earlier on Monday, Hannity and Harder threatened to sue the Times in a letter accusing the paper of 'blatant and outrageous disregard for the truth in mischaracterizing Mr. Hannity's coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.'" Mrs. McC: Hannity is just trying to find a way to wiggle out of his responsibility for persuading his listeners that coronavirus was a hoax that would not endanger Americans' health. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. William Booth & Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work to find his government under mounting pressure to explain why front-line workers for the National Health Service were donning garbage bags and makeshift masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus during the pandemic. A BBC 'Panorama' special investigation that aired Monday charged that the government had failed to include crucial personal protective equipment, including gowns and face shields, in its pandemic stockpile. The show ... focused on the lack of preparedness that has left health-care workers vulnerable to coronavirus exposure.... In its investigation, the BBC reported that Britain's stockpile, which was created in 2009, did not include vital items in its disaster preparation kit and that the government ignored warnings to purchase missing equipment."

Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Nearly three-dozen search warrants unsealed late Tuesday reveal a web of contacts between longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other key figures in the long-running probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Stone, who was convicted last year of lying to House investigators during their own Russia probe, was never charged with aiding efforts by Russia. But his contacts with Assange add new details to a relationship that he long denied existed. An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Investigators from former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation told a judge that Trump political adviser Roger Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media in 2016, according to court documents from the Mueller investigation unsealed on Tuesday."

Presidential Race

Primary Election -- Ohio. The New York Times has Tuesday's primary election results here. WLTW Cincinnati has the results here.

Primary Election -- New York. Andrew Yang Is Being a Dick. Zack Montellaro of Politico: "Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, is suing the New York State Board of Elections in federal court after the state election commission effectively canceled the Democratic presidential primary there. Yang, along with seven New Yorkers who filed to serve as Yang delegates to the Democratic National Convention, filed suit on Monday arguing that they should not be removed because they had otherwise met the requirements to be on the ballot."

David Siders & Ally Mutnick of Politico: "Justin Amash, an independent congressman from Michigan, announced Tuesday that he is forming an exploratory committee for president as a Libertarian Party candidate. Amash's prospects, though dim, could nevertheless be significant in a close election between ... Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Third-party candidates who gain even a fraction of the vote in swing states can affect the outcome in a close race.... It is unclear if Amash, who left the Republican Party last year over his outspoken opposition to Trump, would do more damage to Biden or Trump. Before leaving the party, he was the lone Republican who supported impeaching the president.... And on Tuesday, some supporters of Biden were already criticizing Amash." Also too, Akhilleus; see commentary below.

The Commentariat -- April 28, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Get Real. Yascha Mounk in the Atlantic: "The miracle of deliverance is not in sight.... Experts estimate that for a population to reach herd immunity, up to 80 percent of it would have to be exposed to the coronavirus. Even if the virus has a fatality rate of a little less than 1 percent, this means that letting it spread through the population of the United States would cause about 2 million deaths.... Plans to brave the virus by going back to normal remain in the realm of the stupid or the sociopathic.... The chances of finding a transformative treatment against COVID-19 that could be deployed very soon have dwindled considerably.... A vaccine is likely at least a year away.... It now seems less likely than ever that the United States will do what is necessary to reopen the economy without causing a second wave of deadly infections.... For all his blustering demands to get the country back to normal, the president is failing to take the steps that are required to reopen the economy without a horrific death toll."

A Grand Gift from the Fed. Jeff Stein & Peter Whoriskey of the Washington Post: "A Federal Reserve program expected to begin within weeks will provide hundreds of billions in emergency aid to large American corporations without requiring them to save jobs or limit payments to executives and shareholders. Under the program, the central bank will buy up to $500 billion in bonds issued by large companies. The companies will use the influx of cash as a financial lifeline but are required to pay it back with interest. Unlike other portions of the relief for American businesses, however, this aid will be exempt from rules passed by Congress requiring recipients to limit dividends, executive compensation and stock buybacks and does not direct the companies to maintain certain employment levels."

Another Way the Haves Are Profiting from Covid-19. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "As American companies lay off millions of workers, some appear to be taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to target workers who are in or hope to join unions, according to interviews with more than two dozen workers, labor activists and employment lawyers."

~~~ ** Veep Spits on Mayo Clinic Staff. Briana Bierschbach of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Vice President Mike Pence returned to Minnesota Tuesday to highlight Mayo Clinic's coronavirus research and testing efforts, calling them a 'whole of Minnesota approach.' But even as he praised Mayo's efforts to combat COVID-19, Pence ignored the clinic's request that all visitors don face masks to prevent transmission, including Gov. Tim Walz [D(FLP)] and others on the tour. In the face of growing commentary on television and social media, Mayo officials responded with a tweet as the tour was still underway: 'Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today.'"

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: Bloomberg reports that "'... Donald Trump plans to order meat-processing plants to remain open, declaring them critical infrastructure as the nation confronts growing disruptions to the food supply from the coronavirus outbreak, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump plans to use the Defense Production Act to order the companies to stay open during the pandemic, and the government will provide additional protective gear for employees as well as guidance, according to the person.'... His base hears 'meat shortage' and goes cuckoo, so Trump sees a chance to show them whose side he's on. And it's not the side of liberal elites, that's for sure. Nor is it the side of the brown-skinned people who mostly work in packing houses these days. However, I'm sure they'll be mollified by Trump's promise of 'guidance' to their bosses.... Trump is forcing everyone to stay open regardless of whether their meat is safe. And since there's no way to know which packing plant your meat comes from, you might just decide to avoid all meat."

Everything Trump Does Is Stupid and Petty. Matt Stieb of New York: "Despite evidence that COVID-19 may have jumped from bats to humans -- with a possible layover in the immune systems of pangolins -- Politico reports that President Trump is now cutting funding for researchers determining how bat coronaviruses can infect humans because the project is linked to a lab in Wuhan, China. On Friday, the National Institutes of Health told the sponsor of the study for the past five years, EcoHealth Alliance, that all future funding was off the table and that the nonprofit would stop spending the remaining $369,819 from its 2020 grant.... The revocation of just over $3.7 million is a paltry sum for the NIH.... Cutting 0.000094 percent of the budget in an apparent act of political posturing shows that the Trump administration continues to let its incoherent policy toward China obstruct important research that may help us fend off the next pandemic -- even as we're still in the heart of the current one." The Politico report is here.

~~~ ** The Cover-up Is Worse Than the Incompetence. Ryan Goodman & Danielle Schulkin in a New York Times op-ed: "The strongest critics of the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic point to its flat-footedness and the consequences of time lost. But the full account looks worse. Over the last five days of February, President Trump and senior officials did something more sinister: They engaged in a cover-up. A look at this window of time gives insight into how several members of the president's team were willing to manipulate Americans even when so many lives were at stake.... Senior officials knew the coronavirus was an extreme threat to Americans. Thanks to information streaming in from U.S. intelligence agencies for months, officials reportedly believed that a 'cataclysmic' disease could infect 100 million Americans and discussed lockdown plans. The warnings were given to Mr. Trump in his daily brief by the intelligence community; in calls from Alex Azar, the secretary of health; and in memos from his economic adviser Peter Navarro. The same day [Feb. 25] that Dr. [Nancy] Messonnier spoke [to reporters about the coming pandemic], the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence raised the warning level inside the government to WATCHCON1, concluding that the coronavirus was imminently likely to develop into a full-blown pandemic.... So the president's top advisers took to the airwaves with a united purpose: to deny the truth."

Mike DeBonis & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday the House was abandoning plans to meet next week, less than 24 hours after members were told to prepare to return to Washington on May 4 despite the spreading coronavirus pandemic. Hoyer said the change was made in light of advice from the congressional attending physician and in light of the continued spread of the virus in Washington and its suburbs. 'The numbers in the District of Columbia are going up, not down,' he said.... The decision by House Democratic leaders to stay home stands in stark contrast to the plan from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said this week the Senate will reconvene on Monday to confirm President Trump's judicial nominees and to start work on a new coronavirus relief bill." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "... Steny Hoyer on Tuesday announced that lawmakers won't return to Washington next week, abruptly reversing course after widespread backlash from members in both parties who warned the move would be unsafe."

Adam Raymond of New York: “The New York Times responded Monday night to Sean Hannity's demand for an apology and retraction over recent columns concerning his comments on the coronavirus. 'In response to your request for an apology and a retraction, our answer is "no,"' a Times lawyer wrote in a letter to Hannity's lawyer, Charles Harder, who had represented the Trump campaign in a previous lawsuit against the Times.... Earlier on Monday, Hannity and Harder threatened to sue the Times in a letter accusing the paper of 'blatant and outrageous disregard for the truth in mischaracterizing Mr. Hannity's coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.'"; Mrs. McC: Hannity is just trying to find a way to wiggle out of his responsibility for persuading his listeners that coronavirus was a hoax that would not endanger Americans' health.

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump, under growing pressure to expand coronavirus testing as states move to reopen their economies, unveiled a new plan on Monday to ramp up the federal government's help to states, but his proposal runs far short of what most public health experts say is necessary. Mr. Trump's announcement in the Rose Garden came after weeks of him insisting, inaccurately, that the nation's testing capability 'is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country,' as he said on April 18. Numerous public health experts say that is untrue, and Mr. Trump's plan may do little to fix it. 'These were not complaining people. They had everything they needed. They had their ventilators; they had their testing,' Mr. Trump said on Monday after a call with governors. 'We're getting them what they need.' In fact, governors have been complaining that they do not have nearly enough tests to give them the kind of information they need to make difficult decisions about reopening"

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: During the briefing yesterday, mike pence had a precious explanation for why he and Trump said way back in early March that "Anybody that wants a test can get a test" (-- Trump, March 6) & have repeated similar claims when that still isn't true: ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Dale, et al., of CNN: "... Mike Pence accused a reporter of a misunderstanding about testing that Pence's own words had created weeks earlier.... A reporter [-- Jon Karl of ABC News --] ... asked Pence what went wrong before -- after his early-March claims that four million tests would be available by the following week. Pence responded Monday: 'I appreciate the question, but it represents a misunderstanding on your part and frankly the -- a lot of people in the public's part -- about the difference between having a test versus the ability to actually process the test.' Pence said 'the old system' was not able to process the tests at the necessary volume. When a reporter pressed him, asking if he had just been talking in March about tests being sent out, not actually being completed,' Pence said that was correct.... Here's what Pence said on March 9: 'Over a million tests have been distributed. Before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed. But as I said before, with the deployment of the commercial labs, we literally -- we literally are going to see a dramatic increase in the available -- availability of testing, and that's all a direct result of the President's leadership.' Pence did not add a caveat about how the system was currently unable to deal with the 4 million tests. And he specifically mentioned commercial labs...." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Dangling Man. Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Let's say mike is up on a 20-foot ladder cleaning the gutters when the ladder begins to fall sideways & crash to the ground. mike is able to catch onto the eaves and is left dangling 20 feet above-ground. He hollers for mrs. mike to get him the ladder. She comes out of the house, surveys the scene, and says, "But, mike, you have a ladder." Then she goes back on in the house to watch the country craft shows on the teevee. Under the pence theory of availability, that should work for mike.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "To the surprise of exactly no one, President Trump resumed his daily coronavirus news briefings on Monday, just two days after tweeting that they were 'not worth the time & effort' and just hours after his own White House officially canceled the planned appearance.... For a president who relishes the spotlight and spends hours a day watching television, the idea of passing on his daily chance to get his message out turned out to be untenable despite his anger over his coverage. And so he was back, defending his handling of the pandemic and promising to reopen the country soon.... Even as he talked about the crisis that has killed almost as many Americans as the Vietnam War, Mr. Trump veered off to attack 'Sleepy Joe' Biden, complain about being persecuted and make some of his favorite false claims. He promoted his administration's record on responding to the pandemic despite widespread criticism, blamed China for not stopping the virus in the first place, suggested he was open to suing states for imposing restrictions embraced by his own public health advisers and predicted an 'incredible fourth quarter' of economic growth and recovery from the collapse of the economy."

Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Governors, congressional leaders and public health officials have pressed for a robust testing plan from the federal government, insisting that frequent and widespread testing is crucial to ending the stay-at-home orders that have idled businesses across much of the country. President Trump responded Monday by announcing what the White House called a 'blueprint' for increasing testing capacity. But it leaves the onus on states to develop their own plans and rapid-response programs.... Trump insisted that the nation will have the necessary testing, but it was unclear how the plan would work.... Trump outlined the effort at a White House news conference where he was joined by some major retailers, who said they had ramped up the rate of testing and the production of medical supplies.... But a previous high-profile public-private initiative announced by the president in March -- partnering with companies to open up scores of testing sites on their properties across the country -- has been slow to materialize." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The WashPo description of the Daily Shitshow is generous. As the usually-circumspect John King of CNN put it, "The briefing was nothing but an opportunity for Trump to march a bunch of CEOs up to the podium to praise him; then he spent the rest of the time doing most of the talking." (Paraphrase.) ~~~

~~~ Nikki Carvajal & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Monday that he takes no responsibility for any spike in people using disinfectants improperly after dangerously suggesting last week that ingesting it could serve as a coronavirus treatment. Asked about the increase during a White House news conference, Trump said: 'I can't imagine why.' When asked if he takes any responsibility for the spike, Trump answered: 'No, I don't.'" ~~~

~~~ Poor, Pitiful, Marvelous Me. Jeremy Peters, et al., of the New York Times: "The self-regard, the credit-taking, the audacious rewriting of recent history to cast himself as the hero of the pandemic rather than the president who was slow to respond: Such have been the defining features of Mr. Trump's use of the bully pulpit during the coronavirus outbreak. The New York Times analyzed every word Mr. Trump spoke at his White House briefings and other presidential remarks on the virus -- more than 260,000 words -- from March 9, when the outbreak began leading to widespread disruptions in daily life, through mid-April. The transcripts show striking patterns and repetitions in the messages he has conveyed, revealing a display of presidential hubris and self-pity unlike anything historians say they have seen before." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Greg Miller & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "U.S. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for President Trump in January and February, months during which he continued to play down the threat, according to current and former U.S. officials. The repeated warnings were conveyed in issues of the President's Daily Brief, a sensitive report that is produced before dawn each day and designed to call the president's attention to the most significant global developments and security threats. For weeks, the PDB -- as the report is known -- traced the virus's spread around the globe, made clear that China was suppressing information about the contagion's transmissibility and lethal toll, and raised the prospect of dire political and economic consequences. But the alarms appear to have failed to register with the president, who routinely skips reading the PDB and has at times shown little patience for even the oral summary he takes two or three times per week, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity...."

The New York Times puts "What an Idiot!" right on the front page: ~~~

~~~ Lisa Friedman & Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "At a March visit with doctors and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the public health agency at the heart of the fight against the coronavirus, President Trump spoke words of praise for the scientific acumen in the building -- particularly his own. 'Every one of these doctors said, "How do you know so much about this?" Maybe I have a natural ability,' Mr. Trump said. It was a striking boast, even amid a grave health crisis in which Mr. Trump has repeatedly contradicted medical experts in favor of his own judgment. But a disregard for scientific advice has been a defining characteristic of Mr. Trump's administration.... The president's actions, [presidential historian Douglas Brinkley] said, have eroded one of the United States's most enviable assets: the government's deep scientific expertise, built over decades. Historians and foreign policy experts said the administration's disregard for scientific expertise -- combined with the nation's broader retreat from international trade agreements and cross-border defense alliances like NATO -- is diminishing the nation's status on the world stage."

Pete Williams of NBC News: "Attorney General William Barr directed the nation's federal prosecutors Monday to watch for restrictions imposed by state and local governments during the coronavirus pandemic that may go too far, violating constitutional rights.... He tasked the U.S. attorney in Detroit, Matthew Schneider, to help lead the effort.... Donald Trump, speaking later Monday at a news conference, backed Barr's efforts. 'He wants to see people get back to work,' Trump said. 'He does not want people to be held up when there is no reason for doing it.... The attorney general doesn't want rights taken away. There are some people, they are not allowed to open up their store. They're going to lose their livelihood. And, by the way, that causes death also....'"

Jordan Fabian & Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg, republished in Yahoo! Finance: "The White House is urging businesses to open their doors again in hopes of triggering a swift revival of the U.S. economy, despite warning signs that nationwide reopenings may be premature. Kevin Hassett, an economic adviser to ... Donald Trump, said Monday the White House has data showing that essential businesses over the past four weeks have begun to operate without major coronavirus flare-ups. He said it is likely safe for non-essential businesses to reopen as well.... Over the past two weeks, outbreaks have been reported at meatpacking plants, distribution centers and warehouses across the country that have remained open. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro nonetheless echoed Hassett's claims during a CNN interview, saying the performance of aerospace companies and other 'essential industries' shows the nation is ready to return to work -- albeit with social distancing and personal hygiene guidelines." ~~~

~~~ KSHB Kansas City, Mo.: "As meat-packing plants become a point of concern for the spread of COVID-19 across the country, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have joined forces to give employers and workers guidance. The agencies on Sunday released recommendations for those involved in processing beef, pork and poultry to reduce the risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus." Mrs. McC: Mind you, these are "recommendations," not mandates. ~~~

~~~ Shelly Bradbury of the Denver Post: "A fifth employee at the JBS USA plant in Greeley died Sunday after contracting the novel coronavirus, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7. Four workers at the Greeley beef plant have now died, as well as one person who worked at the JBS corporate office. The death of plant employee Way Ler, 61, comes two days after JBS reopened its Greeley plant after a nine-day closure prompted by the spread of the novel coronavirus among employees. The plant reopened Friday after the company installed a variety of protections for workers designed to slow the spread of the virus, and most employees will return to work Monday, despite ongoing concerns about worker safety and a lack of testing for employees. On Friday, JBS sent the union a cease-and-desist letter alleging that union president Kim Cordova violated the collective bargaining agreement between the workers and the company by speaking publicly about safety concerns at the plant.... At least 102 JBS employees have confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, although health officials believe the outbreak is larger...." ~~~

     ~~~ Natalia Navarro of Colorado Public Radio (April 24): "The JBS Greeley beef production facility is reopening Friday, April 24 without testing all employees for COVID-19, despite promises from the White House and plant management to do so. The plant was ordered to close April 10 to test all employees, disinfect and implement social distancing protocols in the facility. Vice President Mike Pence discussed JBS during a White House briefing and promised resources for testing. But the company confirmed to CPR that not all employees were tested."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. "Less than an hour after the Small Business Administration started taking requests for another $310 billion in emergency aid for small businesses on Monday morning, its computer system for processing the loan applications crashed.... It was a rocky start for the second round of funding through the Paycheck Protection Program, a stimulus measure that offers small companies a low-interest loan to cover their payroll and other costs. If borrowers comply with the program's rules, the loans will be forgiven." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Luke Darby of GQ: "Dallas billionaire Monty Bennett had a special hand in draining the first round of PPP money -- he's the single biggest recipient of PPP funds, with $96.1 million going to his businesses. Bennett is the the head of what the Dallas Morning News calls a 'hotel empire.' He's the CEO of Ashford Inc., a company that serves as the 'external advisor' to Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, two companies where Bennett also serves as chairman of the board. As Popular Information reports, the three companies made $2.2 billion in revenue in 2019. But in March, when U.S. businesses started to feel the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the companies laid off 95 percent of their employees and hired lobbyists for the first time ever to make sure that they could get bailout money. That same month, Bennett personally donated $50,000 Donald Trump's reelection committee.... In a statement out Saturday, Ashford Inc. announced that unlike other publicly-traded, multi-million dollar companies, it would not be returning any of the funds it received." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jessica Silver-Greenberg, et al., of the New York Times: "A company in Georgia paid $6.5 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation -- and, two weeks later, received a $10 million federally backed loan to help it survive the coronavirus crisis. Another company, AutoWeb, disclosed last week that it had paid its chief executive $1.7 million in 2019 -- a week after it received $1.4 million from the same loan program.... The loan program was meant for companies that could no longer finance themselves through traditional means.... The law required that the federal money -- which comes at a low 1 percent interest rate and in some cases doesn't need to be paid back -- be spent on things like payroll or rent.... But dozens of large but lower-profile companies with financial or legal problems have also received large payouts under the program.... Another dozen or so collected money even though they have recently reported being able to raise large sums through private means. Several others have recently showered top executives with seven-figure pay packages.... Instead of having the Small Business Administration, which is guaranteeing the loans, decide which companies get funding, the process was essentially outsourced to banks. The banks collect fees for each loan they make but don't have to monitor whether the recipients use the money appropriately." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ "Heads We Win, Tails You Lose." Dominic Rushe & Mona Chalabi of the Guardian: "Some of the richest people in the US have been at the front of the queue as the government has handed out trillions of dollars to prop up an economy it shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the billionaire class has added $308bn to its wealth in four weeks - even as a record 26 million people lost their jobs. According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive thinktank, between 18 March and 22 April the wealth of America's plutocrats grew 10.5%.... Eight of those billionaires have seen their net worth surge by over $1bn each.... The billionaire bonanza comes as a flotilla of big businesses, millionaires and billionaires sail through loopholes in a $349bn bailout meant to save hard-hit small businesses. About 150 public companies managed to bag more than $600m in forgivable loans before the funds ran out.... Fisher Island, a members-only location off the coast of Miami where the average income of residents is $2.2m..., has received $2m in aid. The banks that were the largest recipients of bailout cash in the last recession have also done well, raking in $10bn in fees from the government loans, according to an analysis by National Public Radio." ~~~

~~~ **The Great White Heist. Megan Cerullo of CBS: "Flaws in the Paycheck Protection Program are hindering small businesses owned by minorities and by women from securing federal coronavirus relief, according to lending experts and interviews with numerous owners.... 'Roughly 95% of Black-owned businesses, 91% of Latino-owned businesses, 91% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander-owned businesses, and 75% of Asian-owned businesses stand close to no chance of receiving a PPP loan through a mainstream bank or credit union,' the [Center for Responsible Lending, a non-profit group that combats abusive lending practices] warned on April 6 as the Paycheck Protection Program, or the PPP, was starting to take applications." --safari: This, right here, is exactly why the #MAGA cult exists.

** Angela Fritz, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added six symptoms of the novel coronavirus to its list, suggesting health experts are learning more about the growing number of ways physicians see the virus affecting patients. The symptoms, which the CDC reports could appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus, are: Chills, Repeated shaking with chills, Muscle pain, Headache, Sore throat [and] New loss of taste or smell. Previously, the CDC listed just three known symptoms: shortness of breath, cough and fever."

Emma Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic, the United States recorded an estimated 15,400 excess deaths, nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to covid-19 at the time, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Washington Post by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health. The excess deaths -- the number beyond what would normally be expected for that time of year -- occurred during March and through April 4, a time when 8,128 coronavirus deaths were reported. The excess deaths are not necessarily attributable directly to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They could include people who died because of the epidemic but not from the disease, such as those who were afraid to seek medical treatment for unrelated illnesses, as well as some number of deaths that are part of the ordinary variation in the death rate.... The analysis suggests that the deaths announced in the weeks leading up to April 4, based on reports from state public health departments, failed to capture the full impact of the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Burgess Everett of Politico: "In an interview on Monday, [Mitch McConnell] said it's 'highly likely' the next coronavirus response bill will aid local governments whose budgets have been decimated by lockdowns and now face spiraling deficits. But to unlock that money, McConnell said he will 'insist' Congress limit the liabilities of health care workers, business owners and employees from lawsuits as they reopen in the coming weeks and months.... In acknowledging that states like New York and New Jersey can count on more federal aid in the next massive relief bill, the Kentucky Republican is cracking the door to an agreement with congressional Democrats after taking a hard line with his recent suggestion that states go 'the bankruptcy route.'" Mrs. McC: I'm not sure even a federal law can protect me from highly irresponsible behavior: say, requiring employees to work in close quarters with no PPE when a threat of infection, illness and death exists. (But let's not ask Neil Gorsuch about that.)

Jack Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "Governors across the country forged ahead Monday with plans to reopen their economies, even as the nation hit a grim milestone of 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus and public health experts warned against lifting stay-at-home orders too quickly. Numerous states, including some of the largest, began the process of lifting shelter orders in what could be a pivotal stage in the U.S. response to the pandemic.... The moves came as President Trump promised to help the states ramp up testing and called on them to consider reconvening schools before the end of the academic year rather than waiting until the fall, as many districts have decided or are expected to do."

Arizona. Impersonate a Nurse! Kate Riga of TPM: "Dr. Kelli Ward, the far-right conspiracy theory-embracing chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, encouraged her Twitter followers to don scrubs and personal protective equipment while attending 'reopen' rallies to bamboozle the media.... 'If anyone's status as a health care professional should be questioned it's Dr. Kelli Ward's, considering her unwillingness to promote the advice of health experts,' said Matt Grodsky, spokesman for the [Arizona Democratic] party. 'Irresponsible, shameful tweets like this do nothing to help people afflicted with the virus or the health care heroes who are working to save lives.' Ward is a doctor of osteopathic medicine."

New York. Ali Watkins, et al., of the New York Times: "A top emergency room doctor at a Manhattan hospital that treated many coronavirus patients died by suicide on Sunday, her father and the police said. Dr. Lorna M. Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, died in Charlottesville, Va., where she was staying with family, her father said in an interview.... Dr. Breen's father, Dr. Philip C. Breen, said she had described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients. 'She tried to do her job, and it killed her,' he said. The elder Dr. Breen said his daughter had contracted the coronavirus but had gone back to work after recuperating for about a week and a half. The hospital sent her home again, before her family intervened to bring her to Charlottesville, he said. Dr. Breen, 49, did not have a history of mental illness, her father said." ~~~

~~~ Alina Selyukh of NPR: "In a letter to Amazon obtained by NPR, the office of New York's [attorney general] Letitia James says the company may have ... broken the state's whistleblower laws for firing a warehouse worker who helped organize a protest in Staten Island. 'While we continue to investigate, the information so far available to us raises concerns that Amazon's health and safety measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are so inadequate that they may violate several provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act' and other federal and state guidelines, James's staff wrote in the letter, dated April 22.... Amazon's New York warehouses have been under extra scrutiny since the company fired Staten Island worker Christian Smalls, who helped stage a protest demanding that the facility be closed following several confirmed cases of the coronavirus among staff. Amazon has said Smalls was fired for violating quarantine and safety measures. New York officials write that their preliminary findings 'raise serious concern that Amazon may have discharged [Smalls] in order to silence his complaints and send a threatening message to other employees that they should also keep quiet about any health and safety concerns.' Notably, the letter says New York's attorney general is also investigating "other cases of potential illegal retaliation.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Worth noting: Between March 18 and April 22, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos increased his wealth by more than a billion dollars, according to the Guardian report linked above. But, you know, can't have those low-paid rabble-rousers demanding safe workplace conditions.

North Carolina. Jeff Reeves of CBS 17 Raleigh: "A leader of the ReOpen NC group revealed in a Facebook post that she tested positive for COVID-19. Audrey Whitlock posted to the ReOpen NC Facebook page early Sunday saying her two-week quarantine was ending. She described herself as an' an asymptomatic COVID19 positive patient.' Whitlock is one of the administrators of the ReOpen NC Facebook page -- which has helped organize two protests in downtown Raleigh calling for Gov. Roy Cooper [D] to lift his stay-at-home order. In Whitlock's post, she wrote about how the restrictions put in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic are violating her First Amendment rights as well as her 5th and 14th Amendment rights." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I read Audrey's Facebook manifesto (which appears -- partly illegibly -- at the bottom of the CBS 17 article). She believes she has a Constitutional right to sicken other people partly because her quarantine violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. That is, Audrey is so dumb she is comparing Covid-19 to, say, a spinal anomaly or hearing impairment.

Judy Fahys of Inside Climate News: "[I]n a sweeping plan to revive the domestic uranium mining industry unveiled Thursday, the Trump administration proposed ... to open the scenic and sacred areas [in the Grand Canyon] once again in the name of economic vitality and national security. Allowing more uranium mining on federal lands is just one of the suggestions that emerged from an eight-month review by the White House Nuclear Fuel Working Group. So are the creation of a federally funded, $150 million uranium reserve over the next decade, the easing of environmental regulations at mines and processing plants and the global expansion of U.S.-made nuclear technologies.... The new nuclear strategy is in concert with environmental policies that have become familiar in the Trump years." --s

Presidential Race

New York. Stephanie Saul & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "New York officials canceled the state's Democratic presidential primary on Monday, calling the vote a 'beauty contest' that the state could ill afford in the face of the coronavirus epidemic. The move by Democrats on the New York State Board of Elections followed the decision by Senator Bernie Sanders to concede the Democratic presidential nomination to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., rendering the primary unnecessary. Officials had struggled with the decision, which was certain to anger some supporters of Mr. Sanders, but they ultimately concluded that the risk of spreading the coronavirus was too great to justify holding an election with no real meaning. Because of the board's decision, voters in about 20 counties that had no other contests on their ballot will have no need to go to the polls on June 23.... Despite arrangements to encourage absentee voting, polling places are expected to remain open in about 42 counties for down-ballot races.... In a letter to the board on Sunday, Mr. Sanders's campaign had urged the board to keep him on the ballot and hold a primary in the interest of party unity, and the Sanders-aligned group Our Revolution had cautioned against the presidential primary's cancellation."

Rich McHugh of Business Insider: "In March, when a former aide to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, two people came forward to say that the woman, Tara Reade, had told them of the incident shortly after it allegedly occurred -- her brother, Collin Moulton, and a friend who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. Now two more sources have come forward to corroborate certain details about Reade's claims. One of them -- a former neighbor of Reade's -- has told Insider for the first time, on the record, that Reade disclosed details about the alleged assault to her in the mid-1990s.... [Lynda] LaCasse told Insider that in 1995 or 1996, Reade told her she had been assaulted by Biden. 'I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him,' LaCasse said. 'And he kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn't feel there was anything she could do.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Some allies of President Trump pointed Monday to new claims by a woman who said she was told about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden decades ago, renewing attention to questions about the past behavior of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Apparent corroboration surfaced this week for elements of two accusations made by Biden's former Senate aide Tara Reade, one involving harassment and the second a sexual assault.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that the allegations against Biden deserve to be scrutinized as much as those against Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who during his nomination hearings was accused of a past assault.... Trump has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual assault. He has denied all of the allegations. His son Donald Trump Jr. has repeatedly tweeted about the accusations against Biden in recent days. On Monday afternoon, he retweeted the Business Insider story [linked above].... Three of Reade's supervisors from the time, to whom Reade says she complained about Biden's behavior, have said they don't remember Reade or any complaints from her." Biden has, through a spokesperson, denied the accusations. An AP story is here.

Susannah Luthi of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday ruled the federal government owes health insurers massive payments from an Obamacare program shielding them from financial risks after the companies accused Washington of reneging on its funding promises. The 8-1 decision could open the floodgates for federal cash to the insurance industry. Insurers who accused the government of a 'bait and switch' claimed they're owed $12 billion from the Affordable Care Act program. The case concerned a temporary fund in the health care law intended as a buffer for health plans who had sicker customers than expected in the newly overhauled insurance marketplaces. Obamacare's drafters hoped the program would be funded by industry, but health plans quickly racked up losses when the marketplaces opened in 2014. The next year, Republican lawmakers approved the first in a series of annual appropriations riders barring HHS from using taxpayer dollars to bankroll the program, known as risk corridors. The high court agreed with insurers that the congressional spending restrictions didn't release the government from its original promise to fund the Obamacare program." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News: "President Trump was asked about the widespread speculation surrounding the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a White House news conference on the coronavirus on Monday. Trump suggested he knew 'exactly' how Kim is doing, but declined to reveal that information. 'Yes I do have a very good idea, but I can't talk about it now,' said Trump when he was asked to provide an update on Kim's condition. 'I just wish him well.'"