The Commentariat -- April 27, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.

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." ~~~

~~~ 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."

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."

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."

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.'"

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."

~~~~~~~~~~

Philip Bump & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing ... Joe Biden as a 'sleepy guy in a basement of a house' and lambasting the media as 'fake news' and 'lamestream.' He showered praise on himself and his team, repeatedly touting the 'great job' they were doing as he spoke of the 'tremendous progress' being made toward a vaccine and how 'phenomenally' the nation was faring in terms of mortality. What he did not do was offer any sympathy for the 2,081 Americans who were reported dead from the coronavirus on that day alone -- among more than 54,000 Americans who have perished since the pandemic began.... The president has offered little in the way of accurate medical information or empathy for coronavirus victims.... Over the past three weeks..., [Trump spoke at supposed briefings for] more than 13 hours ... -- including two hours spent on attacks and 45 minutes praising himself and his administration, but just 4½ minutes expressing condolences for coronavirus victims. He spent twice as much time promoting an unproven antimalarial drug that was the object of a Food and Drug Administration warning Friday. Trump also said something false or misleading in nearly a quarter of his prepared comments or answers to questions, [an] analysis shows." ~~

~~~ Tina Nguyen of Politico: "For once..., Donald Trump's latest tossed-out suggestion for a way to combat coronavirus -- injecting ultraviolet rays -- did not originate from a Fox News guest, a viral Twitter thread or an article on a conservative website. Instead, the process worked in reverse. First, Trump offered a muddled but hopeful theory -- that one could somehow insert light or medicine into the lungs -- and conservative and Trump-friendly media outlets started trying to explain and boost it. They flagged obscure research papers and said the president was simply attempting to raise the country's spirits. They tried to discredit mainstream media coverage of the comments."

This Is Scandalous. Joe Ruiz, et al., of CNN: "If you're getting money from the federal government as part of the recent stimulus response to the coronavirus, you'll also get a letter from ... Donald Trump explaining why.... The one-page letter arrives in an envelope from the IRS as part of the Treasury Department, with both postage and fees paid for by the IRS, according to a notice on the envelope. The letter reads, in part, 'We are fully committed to ensuring that you and your family have the support you need to get through this time,' and notifies the recipient exactly how much they would receive and how. On the other side of the letter is a translated Spanish version of the same text. Trump goes on to thank Congress for working with his administration in passing the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), 'which I proudly signed into law.'"

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: When you read this from a Rupert Murdoch publication, you will be very angry at the fake MSM for their dozens of reports about what a disengaged, unprepared, no-show slacker Trump is: ~~~

~~~ Steven Nelson & Ebony Bowden of the New York Post: "President Trump's schedule is so packed amid the coronavirus crisis that he sometimes skips lunch, his aides told The Post — refuting a report that the commander-in-chief spends his days obsessing over TV coverage and eating fries. White House staffers said the president works around the clock and can make five dozen work-related calls a day during the pandemic.... A ... White House official said that Trump, some days, doesn't eat lunch.... 'I can tell you that the biggest concern I have as a new chief of staff is making sure he gets some time to get a quick bite to eat,' White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told The Post. He said that Trump recently called him at 3:19 a.m. He ... was asleep when the phone rang." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: See, Mark, when someone calls you about nothing at 3 am, that doesn't signify he's diligent. Rather, it's quite a good indicator he's a thoughtless narcissist. As for Trump's missing lunch, the office staff would have no idea what Trump eats between the time his evening propaganda show ends & the following afternoon, because he's upstairs watching the teevee & occasionally tweeting & retweeting during that time period. For instance, ~~~

~~~ But Meadows & a few unnamed staffers weren't the only people in the White House who noticed how hard Trump works. Trump noticed, too! ~~~

~~~ Daniel Politi of Slate: "On Sunday the president went on an angry Twitter rant that was intense even by Trump's standards. And in his seething, it looks like the president didn't really think twice about spelling, criticizing reporters who won 'Noble prizes' investigating his administration, and those who say he eats 'a hamberger' in his bedroom. In his rambling outburst on Sunday afternoon, Trump complained that no one applauds him for all the hard work he is doing during the coronavirus crisis. He claimed he hasn't left the 'White House in many months' but then has to 'read a phony story' in the New York Times about his work schedule 'written by a third rate reporter' who doesn't know him. 'I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & see that I am angrily eating a hamberger & Diet Coke in my bedroom,' Trump wrote. 'People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!' He later deleted that tweet and reposted it with hamburger spelled correctly.... Trump then went on to threaten to sue the 'Noble committee' if it failed to revoke the awards.... 'Better be fast!' he added. Hours after deleting the tweets, Trump tried to play off his spelling mistake and his apparent confusion between the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, claiming he actually meant to write Noble. 'Does sarcasm ever work?' he asked on Twitter." Akhilleus has something to say about this in today's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So all of Trump's apparent mistakes -- from suggesting Americans might benefit from drinking Clorox & Lysol cocktails, to threatening Scandinavians who never bestowed a prize of any name on undeserving U.S. journalists, to misspellings -- are sarcasm that you and I are too unsophisticated to appreciate. ~~~

~~~ Ursula Perano of Axios: "President Trump tore into Fox News in a series of tweets on Sunday night.... While he continues to praise and live-tweet several of his favorite Fox News shows, the president has taken a more critical overall tone toward the outlet in recent months.... [Trump tweeted,]

@FoxNews just doesn't get what's happening! They are being fed Democrat talking points, and they play them without hesitation or research. They forgot that Fake News @CNN & MSDNC wouldn't let @FoxNews participate, even a little bit, in the poor ratings Democrat Debates.

Even the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats laughed at the Fox suggestion. No respect for the people running @FoxNews. But Fox keeps on plugging to try and become politically correct. They put RINO Paul Ryan on their Board. They hire 'debate questions to Crooked Hillary' fraud @donnabrazile (and others who are even worse).

Chris Wallace is nastier to Republicans than even Deface the Nation or Sleepy Eyes. The people who are watching @FoxNews, in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. So do I!

There's not a lot in this mix showing sympathy for the deaths of 55,000 Americans. Indeed, as we learn in the next linked story, the White House has a plan to ignore Americans lost to Covid-19 & their bereaved families (and the rest of us who need information) to concentrate instead on "economic success stories."-- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

~~~ White House to Scale Back, Change Focus of Trump Daily Car Wreck, Sideline Docs. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The White House plans to shift its coronavirus messaging toward boosting the economy and highlighting 'success stories' of businesses, reducing its public emphasis on health statistics, according to two officials familiar with the planning.... Trump will host businesses who've been harmed by the coronavirus, and he'll highlight the governors who are reopening their economies in line with the Trump administration's guidelines.... The Coronavirus Task Force -- and the doctors who've become household names, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci -- 'will continue but take a back seat to the forward-looking, "what's next" message,' a White House official told Axios.... [A] source wondered aloud: 'I mean, you wonder how we got to the point where you're talking about injecting disinfectant.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: We all knew Fauci's & Birx's days were numbered. The last straws: Brad Pitt as Fauci, viral video of Birx. It's fatal to upstage Trump and of course to react to his stupidity with the horror it deserves, even if one tries to suppress it.

~~~ Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "President Trump's self-assessment has been consistent. 'I'm, like, a very smart person,' he assured voters in 2016. 'A very stable genius,' he ruled two years later. 'I'm not a doctor,' he allowed on Thursday, pointing to his skull inside the White House briefing room, 'but I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what.' Mr. Trump's performance that evening, when he suggested that injections of disinfectants into the human body could help combat the coronavirus, did not sound like the work of a doctor, a genius, or a person with a good you-know-what. Even by the turbulent standards of this president, his musings on virus remedies have ... [drawn] widespread condemnation as dangerous to the health of Americans.... No modern American politician can match Mr. Trump's record of false or illogical statements, which has invited questions about his intelligence.... Even some of the president's reliable cheerleaders at Fox News have not tried to defend him."

She Would Not Be Moved. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "A White House official ordered a CNN reporter to give up her front-row seat and move to the back of the press room before President Trump's briefing on Friday, in what appears to be another attempt by Trump to punish [the] network.... Kaitlan Collins refused to move, as did a second reporter whose seat in the rear of the room she was ordered to take. The official then suggested the matter would be resolved by the Secret Service, though no action was taken, according to several people involved in the episode. Network reporters, including those from CNN, have assigned seats at the front of the briefing room, under a plan managed by the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) and agreed to by White House officials last month. The agreement reduced the number of reporters in the briefing room to meet social distancing requirements."

To Go or Not to Go. Chas Danner of New York: "Trump administration officials are considering replacing Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar -- or at least leaking that they are -- according to the Wall Street Journal and Politico. The potential move, which President Trump dismissed as 'fake news' on Sunday night, reportedly stems from frustrations with Azar's management style both before and amid the coronavirus pandemic, particularly after he ousted vaccine expert Dr. Rick Bright last week, according to the Journal.... Trumpworld has also reportedly been annoyed with how news reports on the administration's wide-scale mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis have portrayed Azar as more concerned about the threat of the pandemic than Trump was. Indeed, the suspicion that Azar is a leaker also appears to be working against him[.]... Unfortunately, if the above reports are accurate, it does not seem as though helping screw up the U.S. response to the biggest public-health crisis in more than a hundred years is the real reason he'll be ousted."

"The Best People," Ctd. Michael D'Antonio of CNN: "A former Labradoodle breeder, an internet thug and a college senior walk into the White House. This may sound like the set-up of a joke. During the pandemic, however, with the US death toll passing 50,000, these actual administration officials are a grim reminder that we shouldn't expect much from the Trump administration.... There's also Michael Caputo, who is the new spokesman at the Department of Health and Human Services.... Caputo recently scrubbed more than 1,000 tweets and retweets, including racist comments about Chinese people.... [Y]ou get the sense that someone would have to make a real effort to be less qualified for the task of providing trustworthy information to a country in crisis than Caputo.... He comes first, no matter the crisis affecting the nation, and the federal team fighting this deadly threat is forced, in many cases, to prioritize loyalty to the President above science." --s

Helena Evich of Politico: "Tens of millions of pounds of American-grown produce is rotting in fields as food banks across the country scramble to meet a massive surge in demand, a two-pronged disaster that has deprived farmers of billions of dollars in revenue while millions of newly jobless Americans struggle to feed their families. While other federal agencies quickly adapted their programs to the coronavirus crisis, the Agriculture Department took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables -- despite repeated entreaties.... It has been six weeks since ... Donald Trump and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first urged Americans to avoid restaurants as part of national social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of Covid-19 -- a move that immediately severed demand for millions of pounds of food earmarked for professional kitchens across the country." The article goes on to describe what a piss-poor job USDA is doing even as it finally announced a $19BB program to buy up & redistribute excess food.

Didn't Get Her Talkng Points. Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Some form of social distancing will probably remain in place through the summer, Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, said Sunday -- the same day several governors expressed optimism about the course of the virus and outlined their plans for a piecemeal reopening of their economies. It was the latest instance of conflicting signals coming not just from state and federal leaders but also from within the Trump administration.... Last week, Vice President Pence predicted that 'we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us' by Memorial Day weekend." ~~~

~~~ Didn't Get His Talkng Points. Ashley Brown & Jack Arnholz of ABC News: "The U.S. is going to see a jobless rate comparable to what happened during the Great Depression as it recovers from the novel coronavirus pandemic, Kevin Hassett..., Donald Trump's economic adviser, said on ABC's 'This Week.' The unemployment rate peaked at about 25% during the Great Depression. And during the Great Recession, it took roughly 10 months for new unemployment claims to go as high as they now have in less than a month." ~~~

~~~ Got His Talking Points. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday predicted the U.S. economy hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic would rebound this summer and early in the fall even as Fox News's Chris Wallace noted most experts have projected a longer, slower recovery. 'I think as we begin to reopen the economy in May and June you're going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September,' Mnuchin said on 'Fox News Sunday.'"

Rainer Buergin & Steven Arons of Bloomberg, via MSN: "Deutsche Bank AG has turned down a request by four U.S. senators including Elizabeth Warren to release details about the lender's contacts with the family business of President Donald Trump, which asked the bank for leniency on some of its loans.... Trump Organization representatives reached out to Deutsche Bank's private-banking unit in New York late last month as the coronavirus pandemic forces widespread disruptions to the economy, according to a person familiar with the matter." --safari: Quid pro quo in the making.

** Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Global leaders have pledged to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine and to share research, treatment and medicines across the globe. But the United States did not take part in the World Health Organization initiative, in a sign of Donald Trump's increasing isolation on the global stage. The cooperation pledge, made at a virtual meeting, was designed to show that wealthy countries will not keep the results of research from developing countries." --s

Sarah Kliff, et al., of the New York Times: "Across the United States, hospitals serving rural areas have spent decades trying to provide medical care and produce enough revenue to stay open. They have closed in increasing numbers in recent years as local populations have declined. About 170 rural hospitals have shut down since 2005. Some nonprofit or community-owned hospitals ... turn to for-profit hospital chains as a lifeline, hoping that a focus on generating revenue could help them survive. But for-profit hospitals are more likely to close than the others, one recent federal study showed." The article concentrates on "three hospitals that have shut down in this corner of rural West Virginia and Ohio since September." ~~~

~~~ Ella Koeze, et al., of the New York Times: "Dozens of rural hospitals have closed in the last decade, many of them in the Southeast. In the West, there have been fewer closures, but hospitals are more dispersed and many are designated 'critical access hospitals,' with 25 or fewer inpatient beds. That means fewer beds, farther apart for the sick, whether those with coronavirus or those needing other treatment. The problem of distance is further compounded by demographics. Rural populations generally tend to be older and have higher rates of underlying health conditions, making them most at risk of hospitalization from the coronavirus." Mrs. McC: The article is headed by a U.S. map purporting to show areas where people live more than 30 min. from hospitals, but the map is confusing or inaccurate. For instance, it shows Lee County, Florida (Fort Myers, Cape Coral) as being a particularly hard-hit area; in fact, if you roll over the map or look at a break-out map of Florida, further down the page, you find there are 5 major hospitals in Lee County and another 4 in Collier County (Naples), just south of Lee. In addition, these other maps show that Lee residents are not in a hard-hit area.

Whitney Kimball of Gizmodo: "God help us if Mark Zuckerberg's next congressional hearing is on the subject of the Bloody Insurrection of 2020. As HuffPost first reported, a scourge of far-right extremist accounts on Facebook appear to be gearing up for a meme-inspired civil war amid the covid-19 outbreak. The Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a research group focused on exposing large platforms' misconduct and influence, released a report finding that 125 Facebook groups are promoting the 'boogaloo,' a term far-right groups use to refer to a wishful Civil War sequel. Boogaloo promoters have been attending anti-quarantine protests, events with ties to pro-gun activists. The report says that the Boojahideen have been hearing dog whistles from the president lately, greeting his 'LIBERATE' tweets with cheers." --s

Zachary Cohen & Alex Marquardt of CNN: "[O]fficials are warning they have seen a growing wave of cyberattacks on US government agencies and medical institutions leading the pandemic response by nation states and criminal groups. Hospitals, research laboratories, health care providers and pharmaceutical companies have all been hit, officials say.... 'It is safe to say that there are only two places in the world that could hit (the Department of Health and Human Services) the way it's been hit,' the official familiar with the attacks told CNN. The primary culprits for the HHS attacks are Russia and China, the official said[.]" --s

Africa. Jason Burke of the Guardian: "African nations are banking on aggressive screening and testing strategies as their best -- and possibly only -- defence against the Covid-19 virus. After a slow start, a sudden rise of more than 40% in the number of Covid-19 cases on the continent in the last 10 days -- to 28,000 -- and a similar increase in the number of deaths -- to 1,300 -- has worried specialists. The World Health Organization has warned of 10 million cases on the continent within three to six months[.]" --s

Malaysia. Lockdown Gender Inequality. The Moscow Times: "A Russian Orthodox Church official has urged women not to reprimand their husbands during coronavirus lockdown in order to avoid domestic conflict -- and to punish themselves if they do.... In March, the government of Malaysia apologized for advising women to 'avoid nagging' their husbands during the country's Covid-19 lockdown. Other tips issued by the Malaysian women's ministry online urged women to wear make-up and dress neatly, sparking anger and mockery on social media." --s

Russia. The Moscow Times: "The head of a Siberian hospital repurposed for coronavirus patients is in critical condition after she fell [from a fifth-floor window] from the hospital building following a conference call with health officials, local media reported Saturday.... [Yelena] Nepomnyashchaya was allegedly opposed to repurposing another of the hospital's buildings to house 80 Covid-19 patients because of its shortage of protective gear and lack of proper training among staff, TVK cited an unnamed source as saying....[P]reliminary findings showed no signs that a crime was committed. The incident with Nepomnyashchaya follows a spate of mysterious deaths by falling out of windows among Russian journalists in recent years." --s

The Commentariat -- April 26, 2020

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dr. "Anthony Fauci" explains what Trump really meant, in an opening monologue that surely will make Trump livid: ~~~

     ~~~ Ethan Alter of Yahoo! Entertainment: Actor Brad Pitt "fulfilled the wishes of the real Dr. Fauci, who told CNN earlier this month that Pitt would be his first choice to play him on SNL. It’s also appropriate casting considering the widely-circulated Change.org petition nominating Fauci as People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive -- a title that Pitt has held twice in the past 35 years."

Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "After more than a month of near-daily White House coronavirus press briefings, Donald Trump stayed behind closed doors on Saturday after advisers reportedly warned the president that his appearances were hurting his campaign. Trump himself referenced his absence when he wrote on Twitter ... Saturday evening..., 'What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,' he wrote. 'They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: While I'll grant Trump made the briefings take up a lot of time, they apparently did not require him to make much effort. According to a New York Times report, also linked here last week: "Mr. Trump rarely attends the task force meetings that precede the briefings, and he typically does not prepare before he steps in front of the cameras. He is often seeing the final version of the day's main talking points that aides have prepared for him for the first time although aides said he makes tweaks with a Sharpie just before he reads them live. He hastily plows through them, usually in a monotone, in order to get to the question-and-answer bullying session with reporters that he relishes."

John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his top aides are working behind the scenes to sideline the World Health Organization on several new fronts as they seek to shift blame for the coronavirus pandemic to the world body, according to U.S. and foreign officials involved in the discussions. Last week, the president announced a 60-day hold on U.S. money to the WHO, but other steps by his top officials go beyond a temporary funding freeze, raising concerns about the permanent weakening of the organization amid a rapidly spreading crisis. At the State Department, officials are stripping references to the WHO from coronavirus fact sheets, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has instructed his employees to 'cut out the middle man' when it comes to public health initiatives the United States previously supported through the WHO.... At the United Nations Security Council, the Trump administration has delayed a resolution responding to the health crisis, which the French have been trying to advance for weeks, because it disagrees with draft language that expresses support for the WHO, European officials said."

Maybe Trump was upset by that tweet (embedded here yesterday) -- which went viral -- highlighting Dr. Deborah Birx' horrified reactions to his outlandish remarks. So ~~~

Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx. Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick! -- Donald Trump in a tweet Saturday afternoon

Although not the only time Trump spoke to Birx during that briefing, here's a significant one, from the transcript:

You know what. Deborah, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus? -- Donald Trump, Thursday's Trump Show

Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I know, Birx was the only "Deborah" on the dais. In any event, she was the "Deborah" who responded -- in the negative but oh, so diplomatically -- to Trump's idiotic question. Who's "corrupt & sick"?

Thanks to Elizabeth & Hattie for the links & to Randy for the laughs:

     ~~~ As Randy says, "Do not actually drink cleaning fluids."

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "Of all the coverage of Camp Runamuck that has emerged since the pandemic began, The New York Times had a story this week that was particularly unnerving. Evidently, the president* now exists in the White House in an zone of isolation that registers as somewhere between an episode of The Twilight Zone and a performance of The Emperor Jones.... It is sheer lunacy to have the country led by an angry shut-in at a time of plague and economic depression.... It is precisely this situation for which the 25th was designed. The 25th doesn't say anything about physical illness or mental instability. It simply refers to a president who is 'unable to discharge the duties of his office.'"

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the bill for a president with a tyrant's contempt for truth and competence has come due. This week brought a barrage of new evidence of how Trump's assault on nonpartisan expertise has undermined America's fight against coronavirus. On Wednesday, The Times broke a story about Dr. Rick Bright, the official who led the federal agency working toward a coronavirus vaccine. Bright claims he was reassigned because he 'resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.'... Also on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump wanted to fire Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a C.D.C. expert on respiratory diseases, when she warned, on Feb. 25, that community spread of the coronavirus was likely in the U.S. and that everyday life could be severely disrupted. Reuters reported that Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, assigned his department's day-to-day responsibility for coronavirus to an aide with little public health experience whose previous job was running a Labradoodle-breeding business. Today our country, with a little more than 4 percent of the world's population, has almost 32 percent of the world's coronavirus cases.... A country that could be brought to its knees this quickly was sick well before the virus arrived." ~~~

~~~ What to do when Trump screws up again? Change the subject. Fire somebody: ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn, et al., of Politico: "White House officials are weighing a plan to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Among the names on the short list to replace Azar are White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx, Medicare chief Seema Verma and deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan, said the four people familiar with the talks. Senior officials' long-standing frustrations with the health chief have mounted..., with White House aides angry this week about Azar's handling of the ouster of vaccine expert Rick Bright. At a recent task force meeting, Azar assured Vice President Mike Pence that Bright's move to the National Institutes of Health was a promotion -- only for Bright and his lawyers to release a statement that he would soon file a whistleblower complaint against HHS leadership." Mrs. McC: But what will happen to the Labradoodle breeder?

Lara Seligman of Politico: "The nation's top military officer wants a broader investigation into the events leading up to the firing of an aircraft carrier captain, after top Navy leaders recommended Capt. Brett Crozier be reinstated as commander of the virus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt, two senior defense officials tell Politico. The push by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to open a 'full-blown investigation' into the incident would delay a final decision on reinstating Crozier after the Navy completed an 'extensive' preliminary inquiry, according to one of the officials.... Pentagon leaders are now at an impasse about how to move forward."

Ellen Gabler & Michael Keller of the New York Times: "Prescriptions for two antimalarial drugs jumped by 46 times the average when the president promoted them on TV. There's no proof they work against Covid-19.... And the nearly 32,000 prescriptions came from across the spectrum -- rheumatologists, cardiologists, dermatologists, psychiatrists and even podiatrists, the data shows.... Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, said the surge created shortages that 'put patients at risk who depend on these medications' to treat other illnesses.... The extraordinary change in prescribing patterns reflects, at least in part, the outsize reach of the Trump megaphone, even when his pronouncements distort scientific evidence or run counter to the recommendations of experts in his own administration. It also offers the clearest evidence yet of the perils of a president willing to push unproven and potentially dangerous remedies to a public desperate for relief from the pandemic." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Looks as if a lot of doctors missed that class on "first, do no harm." They're worse than Trump.

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... scores of [cruise] ships ... continued voyages even after early outbreaks on other vessels, carrying thousands of international passengers to far-flung ports and helping seed the virus around the globe, health officials say. A Post review of cruise line statements, government announcements and media reports found that the coronavirus infected passengers and crew on at least 55 ships that sailed in the waters off nearly every continent, about a fifth of the total global fleet. The industry's decision to keep sailing for weeks after the coronavirus was first detected in early February on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan, despite the efforts by top U.S. health officials to curtail voyages, was among a number of decisions that health experts and passengers say contributed to the mounting toll. At least 65 people who traveled or worked on the ships have since died, according to The Post tally, although the full scope of deaths is unknown." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "As governors decide about opening their economies, they continue to be hampered by a shortage of testing capacity, leaving them without the information that public health experts say is needed to track outbreaks and contain them. And while the United States has made strides over the past month in expanding testing, its capacity is nowhere near the level Mr. Trump suggests it is.... On top of [shortages of components of the tests, protective gear for workers & employees to analyze the tests], the administration has resisted a full-scale national mobilization, instead intervening to allocate scarce equipment on an ad hoc basis and leaving production bottlenecks and shortages largely to market forces.

Michigan. Uh, A Teaching Moment. Angie Jackson of the Detroit Free Press: "A Michigan [state] senator has apologized for wearing a face mask that appeared to depict the Confederate flag during a Senate vote at the state Capitol on Friday. Sen. Dale Zorn, R-Ida, previously denied that the face covering -- a red mask with blue stripes and white stars -- was the Confederate flag, telling WLNS-TV 6 that his wife made the face covering.... 'It was not a Confederate flag,' he said. 'I think even if it was a Confederate flag, you know, we should be talking about teaching our national history in schools. And that's part of our national history, and it's something we can't just throw away because it is part of our history. And if we want to make sure that the atrocities that happened during that time doesn't happen again, we should be teaching it. Our kids should know what that flag stands for.' When asked by a reporter what the flag stands for, Zorn replied, 'the Confederacy.'"; And a shoutout to Mrs. Zorn. Don't know what her first name is, but we'll call her "Scarlett." Fiddle-dee-dee.

Wisconsin. Republicans Make People Sick. Teran Powell of WUWM Radio (NPR): "Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik says data is still being analyzed to show the connection between more people that may have contracted COVID-19 due to election activities, like being a poll worker or voting in person, earlier this month. Kowalik hopes the data will be finalized by May 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump and Putin, Together Again. Edward Moreno of the Hill: "President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement on Saturday commemorating the 75th anniversary of a World War II meeting of U.S. and Soviet troops at the Elbe river in 1945.... According to the [Wall Street Journal], the decision to issue the statement was controversial among Trump administration officials at the Pentagon and State Department.... The officials pointed to Russia's intervention in Ukraine and its aid to Syrian President Bashar Assad for his offensive in the country's Idlib province. The U.S. officials also claim that Russia has spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and interfered in U.S. campaigns." Mrs. McC: That is, State & the Pentagon opposed the joint statement; Trump overruled them.

Presidential Race. Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: "On Thursday, Bloomberg News reported what had been rumored for weeks: [Larry] Summers has been advising [Joe] Biden on economic recovery strategies for the ongoing coronavirus collapse." Carter goes into a list of reasons Biden should stay away from Summers. Mrs. McC: The one I didn't know: Summers was a long-time friend of Jeffrey Epstein, a friendship Summers maintained even after Epstein's first arrest in 2006 & subsequent prosecution for soliciting an underaged prostitute. I'll bet Joe Biden knew this, though. If the many problems Biden has, a prominent one is his indifference to the personal behavior of men he calls "friends." That's why he continued to pal around with Southern racist senators and back their preferences before those of, say, Anita Hill's. Biden is a good ole boy through and through. And the presidency won't make him wiser or more discerning. It's up to the press to embarrass Biden out of his many dumb decisions to come.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Simon Denyer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still alive and in the coastal resort of Wonsan is mounting, as satellite images showed his train apparently traveled there in the past few days, and U.S. and South Korean officials said they did not believe he had died. Rumors of the portly leader's possible demise have been swirling since he skipped celebrations for his grandfather's birthday on April 15, and after a South Korea media report said he had undergone a cardiovascular procedure on April 12 and was recuperating. But U.S. and South Korean intelligence services remain skeptical of reports that Kim is dead or gravely ill, according to three government officials familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: Maybe this whole hoohah was merely Li'l Kim's taking a trip to the beach to develop resorts as Donald's suggested.

The Commentariat -- April 25, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Maybe Trump was upset by that tweet -- which went viral -- highlighting Dr. Deborah Birx' horrified reactions to his outlandish remarks (embedded below). So ~~~

Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx. Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick! -- Donald Trump in a tweet Saturday afternoon

Although not the only time Trump spoke to Birx during that briefing, here's a significant one, from the transcript:

You know what. Deborah, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus? -- Donald Trump, Thursday's Trump Show

Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I know, there was only one "Deborah" on the dais. In any event, Dr. Birx was the "Deborah" who responded -- in the negative but oh, so diplomatically -- to this idiotic question. Who's "corrupt & sick"?

Thanks to Elizabeth & Hattie for the links & to Randy for the laughs:

     ~~~ As Randy says, "Do not actually drink cleaning fluids."

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

Republicans Make People Sick. Teran Powell of WUWM Radio (NPR): "Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik says data is still being analyzed to show the connection between more people that may have contracted COVID-19 due to election activities, like being a poll worker or voting in person, earlier this month. Kowalik hopes the data will be finalized by May 1."

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... scores of [cruise] ships ... continued voyages even after early outbreaks on other vessels, carrying thousands of international passengers to far-flung ports and helping seed the virus around the globe, health officials say. A Post review of cruise line statements, government announcements and media reports found that the coronavirus infected passengers and crew on at least 55 ships that sailed in the waters off nearly every continent, about a fifth of the total global fleet. The industry's decision to keep sailing for weeks after the coronavirus was first detected in early February on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan, despite the efforts by top U.S. health officials to curtail voyages, was among a number of decisions that health experts and passengers say contributed to the mounting toll. At least 65 people who traveled or worked on the ships have since died, according to The Post tally, although the full scope of deaths is unknown."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Cancryn of Politico: "As coronavirus cases climbed daily by the thousands and the nation entered its second month of an economic standstill..., Donald Trump latched onto a sign of hope: A pandemic model ... projected the virus would kill as few as 60,000 Americans, a figure far below what officials previously feared. The new April forecast signaled the worst would soon be over, with some states effectively ending their bout with coronavirus as early as the end of the month.... Trump swiftly adopted the projection from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as his newest measure of success -- while top administration health officials including infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx touted the lower figure as a clear indication the U.S. was winning its fight with the disease. 'It looks like we'll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of,' Trump said during a news briefing on Sunday, April 19, adding the next day that 'the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We could end up at 50 to 60.'... The U.S. is now expected to blow past the 60,000 mark around the beginning of May, earlier than the IHME model had projected and with less of the dramatic leveling-off that its forecast had initially baked in."

Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "The economy shut down almost overnight. It won't start back up that way.... Because the restart will be gradual, with certain places and industries opening earlier than others, it will by definition be complicated.... And it isn't clear what, exactly, it means to gradually restart a system with as many interlocking pieces as the U.S. economy. How can one factory reopen when its suppliers remain shuttered?... The White House released a plan this month for a phased reopening of the economy, with restrictions easing as states meet public health benchmarks.... But those proposals are mostly rough schematics, leaving unanswered crucial questions about how the process will play out at the ground level.... Under the ... plan, many businesses will be allowed to open in the first phase. Schools and day care centers will need to wait for the next phase. That means that millions of working parents could be asked to return to their jobs before they have any way to take care of their children." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Mervosh & Jasmine Lee of the New York Times have created an interactive U.S. map that gives you a rough idea of what states are doing to reopen -- or not. Mrs. McC: But you'll probably have to consult your own state's Website or local newspapers to figure out what you can and can't do in your state and in states you may want to visit. And you'll also have to check with individual businesses, government offices, etc., to see if, when and how you can do business there. I responded Monday to a letter from a state agency that thought I might owe the state money (I didn't). It was several days before anyone called me back, but I did get a call back from a very pleasant tax agent who was working from home without access to a computer.

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal government scrambled Friday to stave off a potential wave of public health emergencies sparked by President Trump's dangerous suggestion that injecting bleach or other household disinfectants into the body might cure people of the novel coronavirus. It was only the latest dubious medical tip from a president struggling to contain a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans.... Trump's latest fantasy cure mushroomed into a potential crisis for public health officials. In Maryland alone, the state government's emergency hotline received more than 100 calls from residents inquiring whether injecting a disinfectant really was a cure.... The extraordinary uproar over ingesting disinfectants underscored what public health experts say is the danger when the president -- who has no training in medicine, a proud aversion to studying details and a supreme confidence in his own expertise -- speculates about science during a pandemic. Compounding the situation is the timidity and at times reluctance with which the physicians advising Trump intervene to correct the president or refute his theories, said Jack Chow..., a former World Health Organization assistant director general.... [Dr. Deborah] Birx was present [at Thursday's Trump show], sitting silently and visibly straining to control her facial expressions as Trump talked up the possibility of disinfectant injections to cure covid-19." ~~~

~~~ Contributor Patrick linked to this amusing evidence of Birx' discomfort, which Daniel Lewis, a CNN digital producer, edited from the regular briefing room feed:

Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/MVno5X7JMA

— Daniel Lewis (@Daniel_Lewis3) April 24, 2020

I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't drink bleach. -- Joe Biden, in a tweet Friday

A reminder to all Americans- PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one. -- Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, in a tweet Friday ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "As he listened to [a presentation by DHS official Bill] Bryan, the president became increasingly excited, and also felt the need to demonstrate his own understanding of science, according to three of [his] advisers. So Mr. Trump went ahead with his theories about the chemicals.... Mr. Trump's remarks [about ingesting bleach & disinfectant & zapping patients with 'heat and light'] caused an immediate uproar, and the White House spent much of Friday trying to walk them back.... But the president later undermined [their] arguments by insisting that his question to Mr. Bryan in fact had been an elaborate prank that he had engineered to trick reporters. 'I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,' Mr. Trump said on Friday to journalists gathered in the Oval Office. The president said he had posed his theory on cleaning the body with disinfectant 'in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter,' which also was not true -- he had said it unprompted to Mr. Bryan. With more questions likely at the Friday briefing, Vice President Mike Pence ... abruptly ended it shortly after it began." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Anderson Cooper said, "You just witnessed the President* lying about something we all saw & heard him say only yesterday.... He must think we're all morons." This is a slight paraphrase. Here's a clip of Trump's supposed "sarcastic" remarks. He's querying Bill Bryan & Dr. Deborah Birx: ~~~

     ~~~ The full transcript of Thursday's "press briefing" is here. Mrs. McCrabbie: It's clear that Trump is dead serious in asking Bryan and Birx about injecting disinfectants & light rays into bodies to cure the coronavirus. The clip does show Trump making one sarcastic remark to Phil Rucker of the WashPo after Rucker asks about all the people dying of Covid-19 in warm climates like Florida & Singapore: "... Here we go.," Trump says. "The new headline is 'Trump asks people to go outside. That's dangerous.'" A few moment later (according to the transcript), Trump disses Rucker personally for asking a related question, "Hey, Phil. I'm the President and you're fake news. And you know what I'll say to you, I'll say very nicely... I know you well. I know you well because I know the guy, I see what he writes. He's a total faker...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, and Bill Bryan has not had a career quite as bland as I presumed: according to the NYT report by Rogers, et al., linked above, "Mr. Bryan served 17 years in the Army, followed by yearslong stints as a civil servant at the Defense and Energy Departments. The latter role led to a whistle-blower complaint accusing him, in part, of manipulating government policy to further his personal financial interests, and then lying to Congress about those interests. The United States Office of Special Counsel ... asked the Energy Department last year to investigate the accusations against Mr. Bryan. In January, the Senate returned his nomination to the White House. Mr. Pence's advisers wanted Mr. Bryan to brief the news media on his findings, but several West Wing staff members objected, partly because they were concerned the information had not been verified. Before Mr. Bryan took the lectern in the White House Briefing Room, Dr. Birx and Dr. ... Fauci ... made a few revisions to his presentation, officials said." ~~~

~~~ Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Members of ... Donald Trump's coronavirus task force and aides in the West Wing were shocked on Thursday when he promoted the use of light and disinfectant to treat the deadly respiratory illness, according to administration officials. As Trump went off script to suggest people with the virus could be cured by UV rays or disinfectants 'by injection inside,' White House officials began texting one another to ask where he got that idea because they thought, as one adviser put it, 'this was going to be bad.'... It appears Trump conflated and misinterpreted scientific information discussed with him in the Oval Office before Thursday's daily briefing, according to the officials." ~~~

~~~ Maybe This Is What Confused Trump. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: “The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a 'miracle cure' for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week. In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide -- a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk -- is 'a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body'. He added that it 'can rid the body of Covid-19'.... Grenon styles himself as 'archbishop' of Genesis II -- a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a 'miracle cure' in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, 'miracle mineral solution', and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.... Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as 'an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19'." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems highly unlikely that Trump received and read Grenon's letter, but it is likely that Trump's travels around nutty right-wing media has familiarized him with Grenon's "miracle mineral solution" or some similar elixir. For instance, Will Sommer & others of the Daily Beast report, "Jordan Sather, a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist who promotes MMS, tweeted that Trump's comments proved that MMS was safe to consume. 'How AWESOME would it be if he starts openly looking at Chlorine Dioxide for COVID!' Sather tweeted, adding that it was a good 'lung cleaner.'"

~~~ But What Are They Saying on Fox "News?" Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The morning after President Trump mused at a nationally televised briefing that injecting disinfectant could be a treatment for Covid-19 patients, [Steve] Doocy, a co-host of 'Fox & Friends,' issued a warning.... Injecting disinfectants 'is poisonous,' Mr. Doocy said, holding up his hands for emphasis, during an otherwise upbeat segment that praised Mr. Trump for his other health tip: Get more sunlight.... 'Please don't try this at home,' said the Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney, one of Mr. Trump's favorite hosts. The anchor Chris Wallace -- not a Trump favorite -- felt the need to clarify on-air: 'The answer is no, it's not safe. A lot of the major manufacturers say it isn't.' When Mr. Trump made an effort to walk back his remarks on Friday, claiming ... that he had made the comment 'sarcastically,' John Roberts, Fox News's chief White House correspondent, did not sound convinced. 'I was watching very closely,' Mr. Roberts, who attended the briefing, said on the air. 'At no time did I seem to think that the president was sarcastically asking the question.'... Still, Mr. Trump's defenders in Fox News prime time, the channel's most closely watched portion of day, sidestepped the matter entirely on Thursday." Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh & Breitbart 'News' defended Trump. And Laura Ingraham continued to back Trump's enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine. "On Friday, after the F.D.A. issued its warning [against using the drug to treat Covid-19], Ms. Ingraham retweeted several online articles extolling the use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment."

FDA Issues Trump Warning. Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Two anti-malaria medications highly touted by President Trump should not be taken outside a hospital or clinical trial because of the risk of severe heart problems, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Friday. The FDA said it issued the warning because of numerous reports about serious cardiac events and death in patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, either alone or combined with the antibiotic azithromycin." Mrs. McC: This may be a first: a developed country issues a formal warning against advice their leader gives. Thanks, Republicans, for leaving us with this schmuck! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "Citing a 'primary outcome' of death, researchers cut short a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heart beats and nearly two dozen died after taking doses daily. Scientists say the findings, published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should prompt some degree of skepticism from the public toward enthusiastic claims and perhaps 'serve to curb the exuberant use' of the drug, which has been touted by ... Donald Trump as a potential 'game changer' in the fight against the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ In the meantime, of course, doctors are running around with their hair on fire warning everyone off Trump's disinfectant smoothie: ~~~

~~~ Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: Trump's musings "spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic.... White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ... accused the media of taking Trump's words out of context." The article is free to nonsubscribers. Of course it is; the story is a life-saving public service announcement. Mrs. McC: Since Republicans in the Senate wouldn't convict him, they should at least agree to pass a law requiring Trump to wear a large skull-and-crossbones Danger! sign on his chest every time he speaks in public. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Postal workers throughout the nation are putting their lives on the line to do their jobs during a pandemic. As Brian Williams of NBC News pointed out, about 100,000 of them are military veterans. When I go to the Post Office, which I do fairly often since I have a PO box, I thank them profusely for being there for us. Donald Trump has a different idea: ~~~

~~~ Lisa Rein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole. 'The Postal Service is a joke,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, 'The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,' he said. Trump for years has alleged the Postal Service has charged too little for packages and personally pushed the head of the agency to charge far more to ship goods for big online retailers. Several administration officials..., have said Trump's criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair." ~~~

This is about as catastrophically stupid an idea that anyone could ever imagine. As if anyone from Amazon to the local mom and pop delivery businesses would ever put up with a rate increase like that when they have alternatives. -- Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University Business School

C'mon, Mark. It's not as stupid as injecting yourself with Clorox & Lysol. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie 

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. He may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said -- a practice that may have started with Friday's unusually short briefing.... Trump's daily press conferences -- televised to a largely homebound population -- have dominated the public discourse about the coronavirus.... A number of Trump's most trusted advisers -- both inside and outside the White House -- have urged him to stop doing marathon televised briefings. They've told him he's overexposed and these appearances are part of the reason polls aren't looking good for him right now against Joe Biden. 'I told him it's not helping him,' said one adviser to the president. 'Seniors are scared. And the spectacle of him fighting with the press isn't what people want to see.'" ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Jill Colvin of the AP later fleshed out Swan's report: "For the first time..., Donald Trump cut off his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Friday without taking any questions from reporters. It may not be the last time. There have been discussions within the White House about changing the format of the briefings to curtail the president's role, according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity.... Trump was angry after a day of punishing headlines Friday.... For weeks, advisers have been urging the president to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that he should come before the cameras only when there is major news or a positive development to discuss, according to the officials. Otherwise, they suggested, he should leave it to ... Mike Pence and health officials to take the lead.... Advisers have argued that while the briefings may appeal to his most loyal base of supporters, they could be alienating some viewers, including senior citizens worried about their health." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As we all know, "Trump plans" is an internallly inconsistent clause. The AP's & Swan's reports might be "Trump's plan" today, but it won't necessarily last long past, say, Monday. 

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump signed a nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus bill on Friday that includes additional money for the small-business loan program, as well as more funding for hospitals and testing. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week by voice vote and was approved by the House on Thursday on a 388-5-1 bipartisan vote." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Arlana Cha of the Washington Post: "Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged ... in many ... hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus -- are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of its connected disease, covid-19.... Three large U.S. medical centers are preparing to publish data on the stroke phenomenon.... Even as the virus has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe -- impacting nearly every major organ system in the body." The story is free to nonsubscribers. Mrs. McC: The anecdote at the top of the story includes a science-fiction-scary element; unfortunately, it is not fiction. If you're a young or youngish person who thinks it might be safe for you to be a bit cavalier about precautionary measures, this story could make you think twice. ~~~

~~~ AND There's This. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is currently 'no evidence' showing that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are not at risk of becoming infected again. Several countries, including the United States, have considered the idea of written documentation proving the holder is either immune or no longer infected with the coronavirus so they can return to the workforce.... Anthony Fauci ... said earlier this month that such a system has been discussed by the Trump administration's coronavirus task force." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here I go with an ignorant Trump-style observation. The WHO's warning seems to be consistent with a report I linked several days back that cited virologists who were unsure that an effective vaccine could be developed against Covid-19. If the presence of antibodies don't prevent re-infection, then a vaccine containing antibodies might not protect against infection. In a way, Trump's Clorox shot is a more effective than a vaccine: sure, the shot will kill you, but as you go, so goes the virus!

Florida. Ben Cornarck & Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: "About 6 percent of Miami-Dade's population -- about 165,000 residents -- have antibodies indicating a past infection by the novel coronavirus, dwarfing the state health department's tally of about 10,600 cases, according to preliminary study results announced by University of Miami researchers Friday. The study, spurred by Miami-Dade County officials, will be an ongoing weekly survey based on antibody testing -- randomly selecting county residents to volunteer pinpricks of their blood to be screened for signs of a past COVID-19 infection, whether they had tested positive for the virus in the past or not. The goal is to measure the extent of infection in the community. Friday's results, based on two weeks of countywide antibody testing and about 1,400 participants, found that about half of the people who tested positive for antibodies reported no symptoms in the 14-17 days before being tested."

The Diabolical Mr. Miller Has a Plan. Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call this week that the president's new executive order curbing immigration will usher in the kind of broader long-term changes to American society he has advocated for years, even though the 60-day measures were publicly characterized as a 'pause' during the coronavirus pandemic. Miller, the chief architect of the president's immigration agenda and one of his longest-serving and most trusted advisers, spoke to a group of Trump surrogates Thursday in an off-the-record call about the new executive order, which had been signed the night before.... Miller told the group that subsequent measures were under consideration that would restrict guest worker programs, but the 'the most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor,' he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. Miller indicated that the strategy is part of a long-term vision and not seen only as a stopgap." A New York Times report, by Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman, is here.

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Capt. Brett E. Crozier should be restored to command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy's top officials recommended on Friday. But Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who was briefed on the recommendations, has asked for more time to consider whether to sign off on reinstating the captain of the nuclear-powered carrier. Mr. Esper received the recommendation from the chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday, and the acting Navy secretary, James McPherson. Defense Department officials said earlier that they expected to announce the results of the Navy's investigation into the matter on Friday afternoon. Mr. Esper's decision to hold up the investigation has surprised Navy officials, who believed that the defense secretary would leave the process in the hands of the military chain of command."

Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "AutoNation, a national network of auto sellers, received more than $77 million in federal small-business funds despite being a company worth billions that employed more than 26,000 people before the pandemic. In response to questions from The Washington Post, AutoNation Executive Vice President Marc Cannon said that the company's board voted Thursday to return the funds even though the company had acquired them under the rules created by Congress and intended to use the money only to pay employees.... Documents show the company may have received even more money, a total of $95 million, spread across dozens of locations, an amount that would be more than triple the amount any company is known to have received through the fund. AutoNation disputes the $95 million figure.... AutoNation used separate tax identification numbers assigned to dozens of its more than 300 locations to apply for at least $266 million in funds for separate dealerships.... Because the [SBA] has refused to release data on which companies received loans and the amount of those loans, it's impossible to know whether even larger companies received funding from the program." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears the Post learned of these loans only because of a tip or tips from Auto Nation employees. I don't know why Congress is allowing the SBA to keep the loans secret. Public money is funding these loans/grants. Maybe it's because it was Congress that structured the law so as to allow so many big, publicly-held companies to grab up the majority of the funds.

Chait IDs Donald Trump's "Sophisticated" Friend. Jonathan Chait: "In his remarks to reporters [Friday], before preposterously asserting that his proposals for wild new coronavirus treatments were an elaborate deadpan practical joke on the media, President Trump revealed a conversation with an unidentified friend. This friend 'a very sophisticated man,' Trump noted -- was unaware that there are more than 184 countries in the world, and thought there are far fewer[.] Chait does a little sleuthing of past remarks by Trump and concludes that this "anonymous, geographically ignorant man" is none other than Donald Trump himself. Mrs. McC: The U.N. recognizes 195 countries; it's 197 if you include the Vatican & Palestine.

Bill Barr Promotes Still-Secret Investigation to Help Trump. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Investigators for John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut leading the investigation [into FBI actions re: the Trump campaign's ties to Russia], have asked witnesses about news articles published in early 2017 that former administration officials blame for prompting the chaos that dominated the early days of the Trump presidency, according to three people familiar with the inquiry. Among them was a Washington Post column [by David Ignatius] about Michael T. Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, one of the people said.... New details show that Mr. Durham's inquiry is broader than previously known.... Attorney General William P. Barr has promoted the investigation in recent days [on Laura Ingraham's Fox 'News' show], saying that Mr. Durham has uncovered 'troubling' problems and indicating that some results could [be] made public before the general election in November." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Barr is unfamiliar with irony. He's leaking tidbits of an investigation into leaks.

Presidential Race

Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "A new piece of evidence has emerged buttressing the credibility of Tara Reade's claim that she told her mother about allegations of sexual harassment and assault related to her former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden. Biden, through a spokesperson, has denied the allegations. Reade has claimed ... that she told her mother, a close friend, and her brother about both the harassment and, to varying degrees of detail, the assault at the time. Her brother, Collin Moulton, and her friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, both confirmed that they heard about the allegations from Reade at the time. Reade's mother died in 2016.... In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to 'Larry King Live' on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter's experience on Capitol Hill.... A listener [to a podcast on which Grim spoke] managed to find the call and sent it to The Intercept." Video of the call to Larry King is included in the report.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Hyonhee Shin, et al., of Reuters: "China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.... Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim's health."