The Commentariat -- April 12, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Joe Biden, in a New York Times op-ed, describes his plan to safely "reopen America." Mrs. McC: Biden's methodical plan differs greatly from Trump's, which is "when I say so. we'll just do it." That's not the title of Trump's plan; that's the whole plan.

Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic ... has been fiercely criticised at home as woefully inadequate to the point of irresponsibility. Yet also thanks largely to Trump, a parallel disaster is unfolding across the world: the ruination of America's reputation as a safe, trustworthy, competent international leader and partner.... 'The Trump administration's self-centred, haphazard, and tone-deaf response [to Covid-19] will end up costing Americans trillions of dollars and thousands of otherwise preventable deaths,' wrote Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard. 'But that's not the only damage the United States will suffer. Far from "making America great again", this epic policy failure will further tarnish [its] reputation as a country that knows how to do things effectively.' This adverse shift could be permanent, Walt warned."

Jacob Knutson of Axios: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN's 'State of the Union' Sunday that 'no one is going to deny' that more lives could have been saved during the coronavirus crisis if the Trump administration had implemented social distancing guidelines prior to March.... 'We make a recommendation. Often the recommendation is taken. Sometimes it's not. But it is what it is. We are where we are right now.'"

Rishika Dugyala of Politico: “FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn has acknowledged the need to ramp up testing, but on Sunday his tone was cautious: Having an inaccurate test is worse than not having a test at all. Going forward, Hahn said on ABC's 'This Week,' 'further ramping up testing, both diagnostic as well as the antibody tests, will really be necessary as we move beyond May into the summer months and then into the fall.' The doctor added that the United States has done more than 2 million tests, but stated: 'We need to do more. No question about that.'" Mrs. McC: Notice that this is not a "plan" but an "aspiration" or a "plea" to the Dear Leader.

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "The bishop who delivered the Good Friday Easter blessing at the White House has in the past come under fire for anti-LGBTQ comments. Bishop Harry Jackson conducted the Easter blessing at the White House on Friday and was introduced by President Trump as a 'highly respected gentleman.' But Jackson has been in the national spotlight for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric throughout the past decade. In 2011, he spoke with the Sons of Liberty Radio and called the push for marriage equality 'a Satanic plot.'"

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Pope Francis advocated for a universal basic income amid the coronavirus pandemic in an Easter letter to leaders of social movements and organizations around the world. 'This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out,' he wrote. 'It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.' In his message the pope acknowledged that the pandemic and subsequen economic shutdowns have hit 'twice as hard' for those without any legal guarantee of protection."

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Mrs. McC: I got a late start this morning & added several links between about 8:30 & 9:30 am ET. If you stopped by earlier, you might want to skim the page for additions.

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments in the U.S. Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Washington Post live updates for Saturday are here. "The United States' covid-19 death tally is now the highest in the world, eclipsing Italy's toll on Saturday, despite experts calling the U.S. figure 'an underestimation.' The U.S. toll is now 19,424, with nearly half a million confirmed cases, surpassing Italy's total of 18,849. Italy has 147,577 infected with the virus. Despite the country's large elderly population, experts had previously forecast that Italy's staggering toll was not an outlier so much as a preview of what other countries could expect. The steady taraclimb of cases has slowed, and the Mediterranean country is now preparing to reopen." (Also linked yesterday.)

Today in Trumpian Incompetence

Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Throughout January, as Mr. Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus and focused on other issues, an array of figures inside his government -- from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet departments and intelligence agencies -- identified the threat, sounded alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action. The president, though, was slow to absorb the scale of the risk and to act accordingly, focusing instead on controlling the message, protecting gains in the economy and batting away warnings from senior officials. It was a problem, he said, that had come out of nowhere and could not have been foreseen.... Dozens of interviews with current and former officials and a review of emails and other records revealed many previously unreported details and a fuller picture of the roots and extent of his halting response as the deadly virus spread[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is a long & damning piece that clearly demonstrates how a "team of incompetents" a/k/a "all the best people" led by a volatile narcissist is a tremendous threat to U.S. security -- as if you didn't know. ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: Here are five key takeaways from the report linked above. "Intelligence agencies and the N.S.C. produced early warnings.... In recent days, Mr. Trump has denied that he saw [a January 29] memo [by Peter Navarro warning that half-a-million Americans could die] at the time. But The Times report reveals that aides raised it with him at the time and that he was unhappy that Mr. Navarro had put his ideas in writing.... An official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went public with dire warnings too soon, sending stocks tumbling and angering Mr. Trump, who pushed aside his health and human services secretary and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the response. [Mrs. McC: That "too soon" merits air quotes.]... Officials repeatedly expressed concern about the lack of aggressive action to deal with the virus.... The president was surrounded by divided factions in March even as it became clearer that avoiding more aggressive steps to stop the spread of the virus was not tenable."~~~

     ~~~ Eric Lipton of the NYT: "As the coronavirus emerged and headed toward the United States, a extraordinary conversation was hatched among an elite group of infectious disease doctors and medical experts in the federal government and academic institutions around the nation. Red Dawn -- a nod to the 1984 film ... -- was the nickname for the email chain they built.... Here are key exchanges from the emails, with context and analysis, that show the experts' rising sense of frustration and then anger as their advice seemingly failed to break through to the administration, raisin the odds that more people would likely die."

Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "Interviewed at Davos, [Switzerland, at] a gathering of global elites in the Swiss Alps, the president on Jan. 22 played down the threat posed by the respiratory virus from China, which had just reached American shores in the form of a solitary patient in Washington state. 'We have it totally under control,' Trump said on CNBC. 'It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine.' When Trump spoke in Switzerland, weeks' worth of warning signs already had been raised. In the ensuing month, before the president first addressed the crisis from the White House, key steps to prepare the nation for the coming pandemic were not taken. Life-saving medical equipment was not stockpiled. Travel largely continued unabated. Vital public health data from China was not provided or was deemed untrustworthy. A White House riven by rivalries and turnover was slow to act. Urgent warnings were ignored by a president consumed by his impeachment trial and intent on protecting a robust economy that he viewed as central to his reelection chances."

Calvin Woodward of the AP: "For several months..., Donald Trump and his officials have cast a fog of promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump and his team haven't delivered on critical ones. They talk numbers. Bewildering numbers about masks on the way. About tests being taken. About ships sailing to the rescue, breathing machines being built and shipped, field hospitals popping up, aircraft laden with supplies from abroad, dollars flowing to crippled businesses. Piercing that fog is the bottom-line reality that Americans are going without the medical supplies and much of the financial help they most need from the government at the very time they need it most -- and were told they would have it.... Bold promises and florid assurances were made, day after day, from the White House and a zigzagging president who minimized the danger for months and systematically exaggerates what Washington is doing about it. 'We're getting them tremendous amounts of supplies,' [Trump] said of health care workers. 'Incredible. It's a beautiful thing to watch.' This was when Americans were watching something else entirely -- doctors wearing garbage bags for makeshift protection." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration still has no clear plan for ending the coronavirus crisis, but it does have many task forces. There is the official task force led by Vice President Pence.... There is the 'Opening Our Country Council,' an economic task force announced Friday.... There is the group that reports directly to ... Jared Kushner, a cadre dismissively dubbed 'the shadow task force' that helps Kushner with his roving list of virus troubleshooting. And there is also the 'doctors group,' a previously unreported offshoot of the original task force..., created in part to push back against demands that the health experts view as too reckless. In theory, the task forces are all working toward the same goal: defeating the novel coronavirus and getting the nation back to work -- and life -- as quickly as possible. But the reality is far more complicated: a bureaucratic nesting doll of groups with frequently competing aims and agendas." ~~~

<~~~ Ezra Klein of Vox (April 10): "In different ways, all [the major] plans ... for what comes after social distancing ... say the same thing: Even if you can imagine the herculean political, social, and economic changes necessary to manage our way through this crisis effectively, there is no normal for the foreseeable future. Until there's a vaccine, the United States either needs economically ruinous levels of social distancing, a digital surveillance state of shocking size and scope, or a mass testing apparatus of even more shocking size and intrusiveness."

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "... the coronavirus crisis is shaking the foundation of the U.S. Postal Service in new and dire ways. The Postal Service's decades-long financial troubles have worsened dramatically, as the volume of the kind of mail that pays the agency's bills -- first-class and marketing mail -- has withered during the pandemic. The USPS needs an infusion of money, and President Trump has blocked potential emergency funding for the agency that employs around 600,000 workers, repeating instead the false claim that higher rates for Internet shipping companies Amazon, FedEx and UPS would right the service's budget. Trump threatened to veto the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, if the legislation contained any money directed to bail out the postal agency, according to a senior Trump administration official and a congressional official...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The entire federal government revolves around Trump's petty biases, and his antipathy for the USPS is one of them.

Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "... for some government officials familiar with the supply-chain end of the coronavirus fight, [a deal with DuPont to make & sell Tyvek bodysuits at an elevated price] was yet another example of Trump's task force serving industry, as the White House tried to corner the market on medical supplies. For weeks, Trump has resisted pressure to use the full power of his office to temporarily turn the private sector into an arm of the federal government in a national emergency. But he and his lieutenants instead have used the crisis to make federal assets and personnel ancillary to industry.... In doing so, the vice president's coronavirus task force -- mostly through a supply-chain unit led by Admiral John Polowczyk and heavily influenced by White House adviser Jared Kushner -- has favored some of the nation's largest corporations and ignored smaller producers of goods and services with long track records of meeting emergency need.... They have also operated almost entirely in the dark.... The story of the supply-chain group, a power center within the larger task force run by Vice President Mike Pence, is one of chaos, secrecy and ineptitude..., officials said."

This. Is. Nuts. Jay Hancock, et al., of Kaiser Health News in the Daily Beast: "... executives at ... beleaguered [hospital] systems are blasting the government's decision to take a one-size-fits-all approach to distributing the first $30 billion in emergency grants. HHS confirmed Friday it would give hospitals and doctors money according to their historical share of revenue from the Medicare program for seniors -- not according to their coronavirus burden.... States such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, which the pandemic has touched relatively lightly, are getting more than $300,000 per reported COVID-19 case..., according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. On the other hand, New York, the worst-hit state, would receive only $12,000 per case.... HHS 'has failed to consider congressional intent' in distributing the $30 billion by not accounting for 'the number of COVID-19 cases hospitals are treating,' New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and Rep. Bill Pascrell said in a Friday letter to [HHS Secretary Alex] Azar." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Screw American Workers, Ctd. Dave Jamieson of the Huffington Post: "The Trump administration announced Friday afternoon that employers outside of the health care industry generally won't be required to record coronavirus cases among their workers, a decision that left some workplace safety advocates incredulous. COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is classified as a recordable illness, meaning employers would have to notify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when an employee gets sick from an exposure at work. But the nation's top workplace safety agency now says the majority of U.S. employers won't have to try to determine whether employees' infections happened in the workplace unless it's obvious. 'OSHA is kidding, right?' tweeted David Michaels, who helmed OSHA throughout the presidency of Barack Obama. It is not a joke. OSHA, which is part of the Labor Department, released an enforcement memo Friday spelling out the recording rules.... [The policy] could leave both them and the government in the dark about emerging hotspots in places like retail stores or meatpacking plants." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: OSHA is part of the Labor Department. Jamieson: "The Labor Department, under Trump and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, has portrayed those kinds of employer [reporting] obligations as burdensome red tape." In a WashPo story linked yesterday, we learned that Eugene Son of Nino "has used his department's authority over new laws enacted by Congress to limit who qualifies for joblessness assistance and to make it easier for small businesses not to pay family leave benefits. The new rules make it more difficult for gig workers ... to get benefits, while making it easier for some companies to avoid paying their workers coronavirus-related sick and family leave...." So we don't care if you get sick at work and if your job makes you sick, you're not going to get unemployment benefits. ~~~

~~~ Screw "Essential Workers." Franco Ordoñez of NPR: "New White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to see how to reduce wage rates for foreign guest workers on American farms, in order to help U.S. farmers struggling during the coronavirus, according to U.S. officials and sources familiar with the plans. Opponents of the plan argue it will hurt vulnerable workers and depress domestic wages.... The nation's roughly 2.5 million agricultural laborers have been officially declared 'essential workers' as the administration seeks to ensure that Americans have food to eat and that U.S. grocery stores remain stocked." --s

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Top GOP leaders in Congress said Saturday they would not negotiate with Democrats and instead insisted lawmakers approve more money for a small business lending program for firms impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) released a joint statement Saturday morning saying they would not agree to any compromise with Democrats that changed their proposal to add $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which is being run by the Small Business Administration.... Democrats don't want to sign off on the $250 billion increase without also adding hundreds of billions for hospitals, cities, states and food stamp recipients. They also want ensure half the proposed $250 billion goes through community banks, emergency grants and other programs aimed at underserved communities." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Tara Golshan of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a full-time senator again, and he wants Democrats to back legislation that would cover health care for all during the coronavirus pandemic. Sanders and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) proposed an emergency version of their signature 'Medicare for All' legislation on Friday: the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act, which would have Medicare reimburse all out-of-pocket costs for both insured and uninsured Americans throughout the coronavirus pandemic.... The two lawmakers want a federal backstop for the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance due to unemployment in recent weeks, as well as some financial aid for the potentially high costs of hospitalization and treatment for COVID-19 patients."

Florida. A Deadly Spring Break. Patricia Mazzei & Frances Robles of the New York Times: "Weeks before Florida ordered people to stay at home, the coronavirus was well into its insidious spread in the state, infecting residents and visitors who days earlier had danced at beach parties and reveled in theme parks. Only now, as people have gotten sick and recovered from -- or succumbed to -- Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has the costly toll of keeping Florida open during the spring break season started to become apparent. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has blamed travelers from New York, Europe and other places for seeding the virus in the state. But the reverse was also true: People got sick in Florida and took the infection back home.... Slow action by Florida's governor left local leaders scrambling to make their own closure decisions during one of the busiest and most profitable times of the year for a state with an $86 billion tourism economy. The result was that rules were often in conflict, with one city canceling a major event while a neighboring city allowed another event to continue.... With little testing available, local officials made decisions blindly." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Nehamas & Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: "Florida is significantly under-reporting the state's COVID-19 testing backlog, a blind spot in the data that could obscure the pandemic's size and hamper efforts to decide when it's safe to end restrictions such as social distancing -- even as Gov. Ron DeSantis touts the state's transparency when it comes to coronavirus. On its public website, the Florida Department of Health says about 1,400 people statewide are waiting for their test results. But that's an undercount, the department acknowledged in response to questions from the Miami Herald. And it's likely a massive one. That's because the state only reports the number of Floridians waiting to hear back from state labs, not private ones -- and those private labs are completing more than 90% of Florida's tests. The state website doesn't say that its figures exclude the vast majority of pending tests for the novel coronavirus." ~~~

~~~ Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' general counsel called a representative of the Miami Herald's law firm seeking to quash a public records lawsuit that would force the state to divulge the names of all elder-care facilities that have had a positive test for the coronavirus. The back-door pressure -- through an attorney that had no involvement in the case -- paid off. The law firm, Holland & Knight, told Sanford Bohrer, a senior partner with decades of representing the Miami Herald, to stand down and abandon the lawsuit.... The state has yet to provide a legal justification for its refusal to provide records. Under Florida's public records law, records are considered public unless the custodian can provide a legal basis for withholding them." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Sallah & Scot Pham of BuzzFeed News: "Just weeks after a coronavirus outbreak in a Florida assisted living facility, the state's most powerful nursing home organization sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis with an urgent request: Grant the homes sweeping protections from legal claims arising from the viral scourge. The response: DeSantis is considering it. In one of the first such requests in the country, the governor's office is consulting with some of the state's top lawyers to see if such immunity can be provided to nursing homes and other healthcare providers, the chief of Florida's top healthcare agency told members of the Florida Health Care Association on Thursday." ~~~

~~~ Steve Contorno & Lawrence Mower of the Tampa Bay Times: "From New York to Ohio to California, the nation's governors are leading the way during the coronavirus crisis, using their offices to provide residents with consistent messages that promote public safety. Then there's Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A month into an international pandemic, the leader of the nation's third-largest state has confounded with conflicting orders. DeSantis has made erroneous claims -- like on Thursday when he suggested no one under the age of 25 has died from the coronavirus in the United States. He has pushed unproven medical cures while dismissing advice from health experts. He has shared wrong information, potentially affecting millions of people, that went uncorrected for hours.... The approval ratings of most governors have soared during the crisis. DeSantis, one of America's most popular governors a few months ago, has seen his support plummet. One poll found him the third-worst rated governor at handling the coronavirus in the country."

Kansas. A Safer Easter Sunday for Kansans. Jason Breslow of NPR: "The Kansas Supreme Court has voted to uphold an executive order by the state's governor limiting the size of church gatherings on Easter Sunday, ending a dramatic legal clash in which the court was asked amid a global pandemic to decide between public health and religious liberty. In a ruling issued on Saturday, the court said Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was within her rights when she announced an order on Tuesday limiting religious gatherings in the state to 10 people. The ruling came after an extraordinary morning session in which the court's seven justices heard oral arguments via videoconference in order to comply with social distancing guidelines.... Republican leaders on the state's Legislative Coordinating Council [had] voted to revoke the order, calling it a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion and an example of executive overreach."

Mississippi. Asthon Pittman of The Jackson Free Press: "All 'elective surgeries,' including abortions, will cease in Mississippi for the next two weeks under a new executive order, Gov. Tate Reeves announced Friday. The governor claimed that the move will free up personal protective equipment for hospitals to use as they deal with an escalating number of COVID-19 cases statewide.... [T]he number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases climbed to 2,469...Mississippi boasts the highest infant mortality rate in the country.... African American infants have nearly twice the mortality rate as white infants in Mississippi.... On April 3, the Jackson Free Press first reported that Reeves signed a proclamation declaring that April is 'Confederate Heritage Month,' celebrating the four-year period when Mississippi seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery." --s ~~~

~~~ Texas. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Abortion rights advocates asked the [U.S.] Supreme Court on Saturday night to overturn part of the Texas governor's sweeping ban on abortions during the coronavirus pandemic -- the first of similar restrictions to reach the high court. Texas and several Republican-led states that have long led the legal battle to restrict abortion have sought to cut off access as the health crisis escalated in recent weeks, contending the procedure would drain medical resources. The new petition to the Supreme Court sets up a key test of how the more conservative roster of judges will address the right to an abortion established in Roe v. Wade."

Josh Marshall of TPM on a "sign of the times": a scam in which the scammers claimed to have a cache of 39 million N95 masks available for sale to US entities.

Here are SNL's opening credits & Tom Hanks' monologue, both of which are also signs of the times. The opening credits feature SNL musical producer Hal Willner, who died this week, probably of Covid-19. ~~~

~~~ This SNL tribute to Willner is really sweet.

** U.K. Rowena Mason of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has left hospital after spending a week in hospital with Covid-19 and will go to Chequers to continue his recovery. The prime minister was being treated at St Thomas' hospital in south London and had spent time in the hospital's intensive care unit after his situation deteriorated. A No10 spokesman said: 'The PM has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery, at Chequers'."

Vatican. Pope Francis Is Smarter Than Your Average Kansas Republican. Martin Farrer of the Guardian: "The pope and other Christian leaders are preparing to give their annual Easter addresses over the internet as churches stand empty and countries around the world continue to extend lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus. Pope Francis will break with centuries of tradition and livestream his Easter Sunday mass to allow the world's 1.3 billion Catholics to celebrate their holiest holiday."

2020 Elections

AP: "Joe Biden has won the Alaska Democrats' party-run presidential primary, beating Sen. Bernie Sanders days after Sanders suspended his campaign. Biden beat Sanders Saturday 55.3% to 44.7%. A total of 19,759 votes were cast. Biden gets 11 delegates and Sanders gets 4. Sanders would have won more delegates but after ending his bid for the nomination last week, Sanders is no longer eligible to win delegates based on the statewide vote in primaries and caucuses, according to Democratic National Committee rules.... The Alaska primary originally was scheduled for April 4, but concerns with COVID-19 upended plans. In response, the party, which had planned to offer voting by mail and at in-person locations, went exclusively to a vote-by-mail system. The primary itself was new to Alaska Democrats, who moved from their traditional caucuses to a primary for this year's race.... It used rank-choice ballots. The party said it sent in early March ballots to every person who was registered as a Democrat as of mid-February, more than 71,000."

Biden Will Have to Address This Now. Lisa Lerer & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "A former Senate aide who last year accused Joseph R. Biden Jr. of inappropriate touching has made an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president, the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee this fall. The former aide, Tara Reade, who briefly worked as a staff assistant in Mr. Biden's Senate office, told The New York Times that in 1993, Mr. Biden pinned her to a wall in a Senate building, reached under her clothing and penetrated her with his fingers. A friend said that Ms. Reade told her the details of the allegation at the time. Another friend and a brother of Ms. Reade's said she told them over the years about a traumatic sexual incident involving Mr. Biden. A spokeswoman for Mr. Biden said the allegation was false. In interviews, several people who worked in the Senate office with Ms. Reade said they did not recall any talk of such an incident or similar behavior by Mr. Biden toward her or any women. Two office interns who worked directly with Ms. Reade said they were unaware of the allegation or any treatment that troubled her. Last year, Ms. Reade and seven other women came forward to accuse Mr. Biden of kissing, hugging or touching them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable.... No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of [the Times' extensive] reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade&'s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden."

Montana Governor's Race. Don Pogreba of The Montana Post: "[T]he campaign for Montana Attorney General Tim Fox accused Greg Gianforte, our current US House Representative and his rival for the GOP nomination for governor, of financing his campaign by insider trading capitalizing on COVID-19.... It's an incredible claim, no doubt based on the research that shows Gianforte, rather than putting his investments into a blind trust as promised, has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past three months in companies hoping to profit from COVID-19, including the French manufacturer of Hydroxychloroquine.... [I]t's incomprehensible to me that it's not of news value that the sitting Republican Attorney General just accused the sitting Republican Congressional representative of breaking the law and of profiteering off a global crisis that has killed 16,000 Americans in only a few weeks." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Fox's accusation seems un-possible. Gianforte seems like such a nice guy who would not do anything even slightly criminal -- like, say, bodyslam a specs-wearing reporter for asking him a legitimate question.

Ashley Cullins of The Hollywood Reporter: "Journalists, litigants and even actor Tom Arnold for years have been trying to get their hands on unaired footage from The Celebrity Apprentice that allegedly incriminates Donald Trump -- and on Thursday a New York federal judge ordered MGM to hand over tapes in a lawsuit over an alleged multilevel marketing scam. Whether they're those tapes remains to be seen.... Former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos, who accuses Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2007, is also fighting to get unaired footage in her defamation lawsuit. Multiple former contestants, including Arnold and Penn Jillette have said Trump regularly made sexist and 'racially insensitive' comments on set." --s

Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Eeew News. Allison Quinn & Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fathered two children with a lawyer who was helping him fight extradition to the U.S. while he was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, according to The Daily Mail. The lawyer, Stella Morris, told the Mail that she had decided to come forward about the relationship now because she fears for his life as long as he is in the high-security Belmarsh prison. Assange has been at the prison in London since last spring, when he was sentenced to 50 weeks. The Mail also cited court records regarding the United States' attempted extradition of Assange that mentioned the two young children." Mrs. McC: Can't imagine why the Ecuadorians wanted to get Assange out of there.

The Commentariat -- April 11, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments in the U.S. Saturday are here. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post live updates for Saturday are here. "The United States' covid-19 death tally is now the highest in the world, eclipsing Italy's toll on Saturday, despite experts calling the U.S. figure 'an underestimation.' The U.S. toll is now 19,424, with nearly half a million confirmed cases, surpassing Italy's total of 18,849. Italy has 147,577 infected with the virus. Despite the country's large elderly population, experts had previously forecast that Italy's staggering toll was not an outlier so much as a preview of what other countries could expect. The steady climb of cases has slowed, and the Mediterranean country is now preparing to reopen."

Calvin Woodward of the AP: "For several months..., Donald Trump and his officials have cast a fog of promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump and his team haven't delivered on critical ones. They talk numbers. Bewildering numbers about masks on the way. About tests being taken. About ships sailing to the rescue, breathing machines being built and shipped, field hospitals popping up, aircraft laden with supplies from abroad, dollars flowing to crippled businesses. Piercing that fog is the bottom-line reality that Americans are going without the medical supplies and much of the financial help they most need from the government at the very time they need it most -- and were told they would have it.... Bold promises and florid assurances were made, day after day, from the White House and a zigzagging president who minimized the danger for months and systematically exaggerates what Washington is doing about it. 'We're getting them tremendous amounts of supplies,' [Trump] said of health care workers. 'Incredible. It's a beautiful thing to watch.' This was when Americans were watching something else entirely -- doctors wearing garbage bags for makeshift protection."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Top GOP leaders in Congress said Saturday they would not negotiate with Democrats and instead insisted lawmakers approve more money for a small business lending program for firms impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) released a joint statement Saturday morning saying they would not agree to any compromise with Democrats that changed their proposal to add $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which is being run by the Small Business Administration.... Democrats don't want to sign off on the $250 billion increase without also adding hundreds of billions for hospitals, cities, states and food stamp recipients. They also want ensure half the proposed $250 billion goes through community banks, emergency grants and other programs aimed at underserved communities." A Politico story is here.

This. Is. Nuts. Jay Hancock, et al., of Kaiser Health News in the Daily Beast: "... executives at ... beleaguered [hospital] systems are blasting the government's decision to take a one-size-fits-all approach to distributing the first $30 billion in emergency grants. HHS confirmed Friday it would give hospitals and doctors money according to their historical share of revenue from the Medicare program for seniors -- not according to their coronavirus burden.... States such as Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, which the pandemic has touched relatively lightly, are getting more than $300,000 per reported COVID-19 case..., according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. On the other hand, New York, the worst-hit state, would receive only $12,000 per case.... HHS 'has failed to consider congressional intent' in distributing the $30 billion by not accounting for 'the number of COVID-19 cases hospitals are treating,' New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and Rep. Bill Pascrell said in a Friday letter to [HHS Secretary Alex] Azar." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

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

Brian Williams summarizes Trump's Friday briefing. Williams also notes that Trump began the day by "wishing all Americans a Happy Good Friday." (Good Friday, of course, is the more sorrowful day of the Christian calendar, a day in which Christians mourn Jesus' martyrdom on the cross: ~~~

~~~ Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "As Americans ... struggle to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Trump has placed himself at the center as their patron. The president has sought to portray himself as singularly in charge -- except for when things go wrong. In those instances, he has labored to blame others and avoid accountability. Day after day, in his self-constructed role of wartime president, the task Trump seems to relish most is spreading cash and supplies across a beleaguered and anxious nation. 'Honestly, people should respect, because nobody has ever seen anything like what we've done,' Trump said this week, a point he has been making regularly.... Trump often speaks of federal payments coming to many Americans as an act of his own benevolence, calling the bipartisan stimulus legislation 'a Trump administration initiative' and reportedly musing about printing his thick-and-jagged signature on the government checks. Trump touts the deployment of the USS Comfort to New York Harbor in personal terms, saying it was his choice to allow the hulking Navy hospital ship to be used to for coronavirus patients -- and even traveling to 'kiss it goodbye' before its trek north. And Trump talks about the Strategic National Stockpile of ventilators and medical equipment being shipped to hard-hit states as if it were his own storage unit...." ~~~

~~~ In the Absence of National Leadership.... Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "A national plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and return Americans to jobs and classrooms is emerging -- but not from the White House. Instead, a collection of governors, former government officials, disease specialists and nonprofits are pursuing a strategy that relies on the three pillars of disease control: Ramp up testing to identify people who are infected. Find everyone they interact with by deploying contact tracing on a scale America has never attempted before. And focus restrictions more narrowly on the infected and their contacts so the rest of society doesn't have to stay in permanent lockdown. But there is no evidence yet the White House will pursue such a strategy.... [And] without substantial federal funding, states' efforts will only go so far.

Of the federal government's response to the crisis, "'It's mind-boggling, actually, the degree of disorganization,' said Tom Frieden, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. The federal government has already squandered February and March, he noted, committing 'epic failures' on testing kits, ventilator supply, protective equipment for health workers and contradictory public health communication. The next failure is already on its way, Frieden said, because 'we're not doing the things we need to be doing in April.'"

** Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos [April 8]: Wednesday Rep. Katie Porter [D-Calif.] "released a report showing that in spite of growing concerns and warnings about the potential oncoming pandemic threat of the COVID-19 virus from top officials and experts, Donald Trump not only did nothing about it, he allowed ramped up exportation of much-needed medical supplies.... Porter's team has analyzed 'previously unreported government trade data'.... According to the report, the United States was not simply ill-prepared for the coming pandemic -- they were actively making big money depleting our medical resources, making us even less prepared: 'The value of U.S. ventilator exports jumped 22.7% percent from January to February.' And it wasn't only ventilators. Porter says her team 'found that in February 2020, the value of U.S. mask exports to China was 1,094% higher than the 2019 monthly average.'... And to be clear, during this same time the U.S. imported fewer PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as fewer ventilators." --s

** Josh Marshall of TPM: "As we've reported on the seemingly ubiquitous seizures and reroutings of purchases of medical supplies, FEMA has always appeared to be at the heart of it, even though the targeted buyers are seldom given much information about who took their supplies. But now FEMA is denying that it is requisitioning or confiscating supplies anywhere within the United States, except in cases where they suspect criminal activity.... Something doesn't fit here. These seizures and reroutings have become commonplace around the country in recent weeks.... If it's really true that FEMA isn't doing this, who is? And is it really possible this is happening on a widespread basis around the country and FEMA doesn't know anything this? Something here does not fit or something isn't telling the truth." --s

You could have massive civil unrest if these systems cannot get checks out the door. We're talking about 20 percent unemployment, maybe even more. The application process is a nightmare. The state systems are failing.... But I don't see any action being taken. -- Liberal firebrand sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Eugene Scalia's response to the crisis ~~~

~~~ Screw American Workers. Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: Labor Secretary Eugene "Scalia..., the son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, has emerged as a critical player in the government's economic response to the pandemic.... In recent days..., Scalia, who has expressed concerns about unemployment insurance being too generous, has used his department's authority over new laws enacted by Congress to limit who qualifies for joblessness assistance and to make it easier for small businesses not to pay family leave benefits. The new rules make it more difficult for gig workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers to get benefits, while making it easier for some companies to avoid paying their workers coronavirus-related sick and family leave.... At the same time, frustrations have built among career staff at the Labor Department that the agency hasn't ordered employers to follow safeguards, including the wearing of masks.... Writing on Fox Business Network's website on Monday, [Scalia] warned that he does not want unemployed people to become addicted to government aid." Mrs. McC: Ah, the old "hammock of complacency & dependence." As citizen625 -- who gave us the link to this story -- wrote, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." ~~~

~~~ Annalyn Kurtz of CNN remembers another Labor Secretary: "... Frances Perkins: the first female member of a presidential cabinet, and the chief architect behind many New Deal programs that live on 85 years later.... Perkins' legacy includes Social Security to support workers with disabilities and in old age, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and the end of child labor. And if that wasn't enough, she also built the nation's unemployment benefits system.... Perkins created the national unemployment insurance system in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if any wingers would behave differently if they understood that history would treat them as villains.

Since the day that President Trump pulled down the flights from China to the US, he has been actively leading the situation in terms of this crisis with the task force. Nothing to worry about for the American people. -- Peter Navarro, press gaggle February 24, nearly 4 weeks after his January 29 internal memo warning "'increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic' could infect as many as 100 million Americans and kill 'as many as 1-2 million souls'" ~~~

~~~ Em Steck & Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "White House trade adviser Peter Navarro publicly said Americans had 'nothing to worry about' while he privately warned the White House that the coronavirus pandemic could cost trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of American lives. Navarro circulated two memos at the White House in late January and February warning that a full-blown coronavirus outbreak would leave American lives and the economy vulnerable. But Navarro, a frequent surrogate for ... Donald Trump and his administration on television, continued to present a far more optimistic message in public, CNN's KFile found after reviewing Navarro's interviews, statements and writings."

Suzy Khimm, et al., of NBC News: "Nearly 2,500 long-term care facilities in 36 states are battling coronavirus cases, according to data gathered by NBC News from state agencies, an explosive increase of 522 percent compared to a federal tally just 10 days ago.... The full scale of the virus' impact is even greater than NBC News' tally, as key states including Florida did not provide data, and nursing homes across the United States are still struggling for access to testing.... NBC News tallied 2,246 deaths associated with long-term car facilities, based on responses from 24 states. This, too, is an undercount; about half of all states said they could not provide data on nursing home deaths, or declined to do so. Some states said they do not track these deaths at all.... The federal government does not keep a formal tally of the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes or the number of facilities with infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Experts say more comprehensive data is critical to battling the virus and understanding why it is spreading faster in some nursing homes than others."

Florida. Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday would not rule out sending Florida's schoolchildren back to their classrooms in May, if the conditions are right. 'We're going to look at the evidence and make a decision,' DeSantis said, when asked if he intended to keep schools closed for the remainder of the current academic year. 'If it's safe, we want kids to be in school. .... Even if it's for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The state health department is tracking new cases of the coronavirus to determine whether it was spread among voters during Tuesday's spring election. The state Department of Health Services and local public health officials are 'monitoring' the relationship between new cases in the coming weeks and voting in person, agency officials said Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Wisconsin Election Debacle, Ctd. Laura Schulte & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Hundreds of absentee ballots mailed back to the City of Madison for Tuesday's election may not be counted, thanks to a missing postmark. The problem is one that is emerging in communities across Wisconsin as election officials prepare to tally the results of an election conducted during the coronavirus pandemic. Results for the state Supreme Court and other races are to be released Monday.... Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl said that so far her office has received more than 8,000 absentee ballots. Of those, 682 have no postmark, meaning that it's likely they won't be counted. She said seeing the ballots come in without the postmark has been frustrating, especially since the ballots that came in on Wednesday were likely mailed before Tuesday.... Witzel-Behl said ... she's seeking legal guidance and clarification.... In many cases, postmarks are not used, such as for metered mail.... On Wednesday, attention was drawn to three tubs of undelivered ballots in a mail processing center that were meant for voters in Appleton and Oshkosh. Separately, the Milwaukee Elections Commission called for an investigation into other ballots that never made it to voters. And in Fox Point, hundreds of undelivered ballots were sent back to the village, unopened and unmarked. No explanation was given as to what was wrong with the ballots, or why they couldn't be delivered." ~~~

~~~ ** The GOP's 50-State Solution: Fight Free & Fair Elections. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The voting debacle in Wisconsin on Tuesday was further evidence of an incontrovertible reality in American politics: The Republican Party does not believe in free and fair elections, where free means equal access to the ballot and fair means equitable rules and neutral procedures.... Wisconsin voters who went to the polls had to pay what amounted to a poll tax in the form of fear, anxiety and possible sickness, imposed by conservative Republicans on the courts and in the State Legislature. There's no theory of democracy that renders this acceptable, but then this wasn't about democracy. It was about power.... The most prominent Republican voice against free and fair elections is, of course, President Trump's."

Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "A majority of a small group of patients showed improvements after being treated with an experimental coronavirus drug made by Gilead Sciences, bolstering hopes for finding a treatment for the disease, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday. The group of patients received the antiviral drug remdesivir as part of a 'compassionate use' trial, not a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that would offer more definitive evidence. Also, the cohort of patients was small, only 53 patients in the United States and around the world. Those limiting factors prevent scientists from declaring that the drug works. Still, the improvements offered positive news about a drug seen by global health authorities as offering the best shot at becoming a treatment for the disease."

Italy. Lorenzo Tando of the Guardian: "As Italy struggles to pull its economy through the coronavirus crisis, the Mafia is gaining local support by distributing free food to poor families in quarantine who have run out of cash, authorities have warned. In recent weeks, videos have surfaced of known Mafia gangs delivering essential goods to Italians hit hard by the coronavirus emergency across the poorest southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Puglia, as tensions rise across the country." --s

** The Trump Family Moochers. Walker Davis & Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel of CREW: "Last fiscal year, the Trump family took more trips that required Secret Service protection than the Obama family took in seven, according to a budget document released by the Treasury Department. On average, Obama's family took 133.3 protected trips per year, while the Trump family has taken an average of 1,625 annually. Much of the Trump family's known travel has been to promote Trump Organization businesses, which President Trump still owns and profits from. Every President and his family deserve Secret Service protection. But the President's private business should reimburse taxpayers for money spent at Trump's businesses or in support of them.... Despite running up a high tab, the Trump Organization has not paid the American people back for the security taxpayers have subsidized when Trump family members travel to support a business that regularly cashes in on the presidency.

Barr Threatens FBI Investigators. Kevin Jackson of USA Today: "Attorney General William Barr signaled that federal officials involved in launching the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and its links to the Trump campaign could face criminal prosecution. As part of a wide-ranging interview with Fox News, the attorney general said a federal prosecutor appointed to review the origins of the inquiry, later headed by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, has so far found 'troubling' evidence of possible abuses. 'My own view is that the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just the mistakes or sloppiness,' Barr said Thursday. 'There was something far more troubling here. We're going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted.' The attorney general's remarks represent the most extensive public assessment yet of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham's work since his appointment last year."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... in making the case that [in intelligence community's inspector general Michael] Atkinson committed a firing offense in his handling of a whistle-blower complaint last year that led to the impeachment battle, [Attorney General William] Barr made several claims that are subject to scrutiny." Savage dissects all of the claims Barr made against Atkinson, & demonstrates they are misrepresentations.

AP: "A watchdog has found that the Treasury Department appropriately handled Congress' request for ... Donald Trump's tax returns, which Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to provide. But the acting inspector general for Treasury, Rich Delmar, also said he had no opinion on whether the advice Mnuchin followed -- which came from Justice Department attorneys -- was itself well-founded. In refusing to hand over the returns, Mnuchin decided he was legally bound to comply with that advice, Delmar noted in a letter Wednesday to senior House lawmakers. The Justice Department legal opinion backed Mnuchin's refusal, saying that [Rep. Richard] Neal's [D-Mass.] request lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and was an 'unprecedented' use of congressional authority. The argument is the same one Trump has used in refusing other demands from Democrats in Congress for financial records from banks an accountants that have had business with Trump and his family. Lawsuits over those records were filed in federal courts in Washington and New York."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Twenty House committee chairs are asking the nation's top federal agency watchdogs for advice on how to protect them from potential retaliation by ... Donald Trump for uncovering mismanagement or wrongdoing inside his administration. The Democratic committee leaders, who include Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, say they're seeking legislative proposals that could restrict Trump's ability to remove or demote inspectors general for political reasons." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Trump's 2020 Campaign Starts Out Racist. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "A new attack ad by President Trump's campaign that portrays former vice president Joe Biden as too cozy with China to confront the country ... includes an image of Gary Locke, a former governor of Washington state, that appears to falsely suggest he is a Chinese official. Locke, who is Chinese American and was serving as U.S. ambassador to China at the time, is briefly depicted onstage at a 2013 event in Beijing with Biden...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "... the ad shows Biden bowing to an Asian man with Chinese flags in the background. The man turns out to be American [-- Gary Locke, then the U.S. ambassador to China]. But there's something more fundamentally absurd about this ad that is eluding notice. It's that a look at the timeline shows that, early on, Trump was praising China's handling of coronavirus at precisely the same time that Biden was insisting we must show skepticism toward China's handling of it.... The ad clips Biden's words out of context to misleadingly imply tha Biden criticized Trump's decision to restrict travel from China, when that's not what Biden did.... We now know who was right about [China's handling of Covid-19], and his name isn't Donald J. Trump. So, plainly, the core argument in this ad is laughable.... Once again, the truth is the direct opposite of what Trump claims it is -- in a way that holds a mirror up to his ongoing failures, as his debunked lies so often do."

Beyond the Beltway

Virginia. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Friday signed five gun measures into law, including a background checks bill and an 'extreme risk protective order.' The slate of bills prompted a large gun-rights rally in January, with about 22,000 gathering in protest at Virginia's state capitol. The legislation has also fueled a pro-gun movement across the state known as 'Second Amendment sanctuaries,' or localities that vow not to enforce what some officials in those regions have called 'unconstitutional' gun laws. The gun measures had been a priority for Northam since he first introduced them in the 2019 legislative session -- and he made them an even more urgent priority in the wake of mass shooting at a Virginia Beach municipal building last year that left 12 people dead. Northam called for a special session at that time to debate gun control, but it was adjourned by Republican lawmakers without action after just 90 minutes."

News Ledes

New York Times: Ruth "Mandel..., [who fled] the Nazis on the doomed 'Voyage of the Damned' underpinned her faith in democracy as head of the Eagleton Institute of Politics [at Rutgers University,] died at 81 on Saturday at her home in Princeton, N.J."

The Real Deal: "Stanley I. Chera, who parlayed his father's Brooklyn department store business into one of New York real estate's biggest retail empires, reaped huge rewards from the city's emergence as a global shopping destination and used his wealth and connections to play kingmaker for Donald Trump, has died from complications of the coronavirus, making him the most high-profile industry casualty of the global pandemic.... According to Vanity Fair, word in late March of the gravity of Chera's condition contributed to Trump taking the coronavirus more seriously and abandoning his call to get the country back to work by Easter."

The Commentariat -- April 10, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

Florida. Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday would not rule out sending Florida's schoolchildren back to their classrooms in May, if the conditions are right. 'We're going to look at the evidence and make a decision,' DeSantis said, when asked if he intended to keep schools closed for the remainder of the current academic year. 'If it's safe, we want kids to be in school. .... Even if it's for a couple of weeks, we think there would be value in that.'"

Wisconsin. Molly Beck of the Milwakee Journal Sentinel: "The state health department is tracking new cases of the coronavirus to determine whether it was spread among voters during Tuesday's spring election. The state Department of Health Services and local public health officials are 'monitoring' the relationship between new cases in the coming weeks and voting in person, agency officials said Thursday."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Twenty House committee chairs are asking the nation's top federal agency watchdogs for advice on how to protect them from potential retaliation by ... Donald Trump for uncovering mismanagement or wrongdoing inside his administration. The Democratic committee leaders, who include Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, say they're seeking legislative proposals that could restrict Trump's ability to remove or demote inspectors general for political reasons."

Trump's 2020 Campaign Starts Out Racist. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "A new attack ad by President Trump's campaign that portrays former vice president Joe Biden as too cozy with China to confront the country ... includes an image of Gary Locke, a former governor of Washington state, that appears to falsely suggest he is a Chinese official. Locke, who is Chinese American and was serving as U.S. ambassador to China at the time, is briefly depicted onstage at a 2013 event in Beijing with Biden...."

~~~~~~~~~~

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

Patricia Cohen & Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Another 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week as the coronavirus outbreak continued its devastating march through the American economy, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The release came as the Federal Reserve said it could pump $2.3 trillion into the economy through new and expanded programs it announced on Monday, ramping up efforts to help companies and state and local governments suffering financially amid the coronavirus.... In just three weeks, more than 16 million U.S. workers have lost their jobs -- more losses than the most recent recession produced over two years." A CNBC story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The Dow rallied 285.80 points [Thursday], or 1.22%, to close at 23,719.37. The S&P 500 advanced 1.45% to 2,789.82 The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.77% to 8,153.58. Stocks rallied to end a historic week of gains after the Fed unveiled even more measures to help the economy during the coronavirus outbreak. The Fed announced as slew of programs, including loans geared towards small and medium sized businesses, that will total up to $2.3 trillion. The central bank also gave more details on its plans to buy investment-grade and junk bonds. Those moves were enough to overshadow another massive spike in weekly jobless claims."

Pippa Stevens of CNBC: "OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, on Thursday agreed to historic production cuts that will take 10 million barrels per day offline as the coronavirus pandemic saps demand for crude. The agreement came as the oil-producing nations held an extraordinary meeting to discuss production policy amid falling oil prices. The group will cut 10 million barrels per day in May and June, 8 million barrels per day from July through the end of the year, and 6 million barrels per day beginning in January 2021 and extending through April 2022, according to Reuters."

Obama: Don't Be Trump!" Dan Merica & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Former President Barack Obama on Thursday gave some advice to a group of mayors on how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, saying that 'the biggest mistake any (of) us can make in these situations is to misinform.' Obama was speaking during a virtual meeting organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies. 'Speak the truth. Speak it clearly. Speak it with compassion. Speak it with empathy for what folks are going through, Obama said, according to a press release on the virtual meeting....On Wednesday, Obama tweeted that it would not be feasible to relax current measures to combat the spread of coronavirus without a 'robust system of testing and monitoring -- something we have yet to put in place nationwide.' Those comments, much as the ones made to mayors on Thursday, presented a notable contrast in tone compared to the views of Trump." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Brett Samuels & Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday shrugged off the need to significantly expand nationwide coronavirus testing capabilities in order to be able to restart the U.S. economy and then keep it open.... 'We want to have it and we're going to see if we have it. Do you need it? No. Is it a nice thing to do? Yes,' Trump said. 'We're talking about 325 million people. And that's not going to happen, as you can imagine, and it would never happen with anyone else either.' But experts say that widespread testing is a crucial step. Easing blunt measures like stay-at-home orders requires enough widespread testing to identify infected people so they can be isolated and people they've been in contact with notified, they say." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You know why Trump opposes testing. Fewer than one percent of U.S. residents have been tested for the coronavirus. Obviously as the number of those tested goes up, so does the number who test positive. In reality, testing is necessary to reopen elements of the economic infrastructure; in Trump's view, testing is an inhibition to reopening the economy because it would expose Trump's delusional pretense that everybody is all better.

Trump Plans to Sicken & Kill Americans to Improve His Re-election Chances. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month, raising concerns among health experts and economists of a possible covid-19 resurgence if Americans return to their normal lives before the virus is truly stamped out. Behind closed doors, President Trump -- concerned with the sagging economy -- has sought a strategy for resuming business activity by May 1, according to people familiar with the discussions.... Trump regularly looks at unemployment and stock market numbers, complaining that they are hurting his presidency and reelection prospects, the people said.... Trump said at his daily briefing Thursday that the United States was at the 'top of the hill' and added, 'Hopefully, we're going to be opening up -- you could call it opening -- very, very, very, very soon, I hope.'"

But My Ratings! Brett Samuels: "President Trump on Thursday blasted The Wall Street Journal for an editorial criticizing the daily White House press briefings.... 'The Wall Street Journal always "forgets" to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are "through the roof,'" Trump tweeted, referencing a New York Times piece that recently compared the number of viewers to 'Monday Night Football' or 'The Bachelor.' president asserted that the briefings were the'"only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!'... The [righty-ring wing WSJ editorial] board urged Trump to cede center stage at the briefings to Vice President Pence and top health officials, who have regularly appeared at the briefings but have primarily waited to provide updates until the president delivers his own remarks. Trump's tweet Thursday -- which marked a rare shot from the president at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal -- highlighted the president's fixation on how his briefings are playing in the media. He frequently boasts about their popularity, and White House officials have complained about networks that do not air them in their entirety." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In his daily briefings on the coronavirus, President Trump has brandished all the familiar tools in his rhetorical arsenal: belittling Democratic governors, demonizing the media, trading in innuendo and bulldozing over the guidance of experts.... On a day [-- Thursday --] that New York State reported 799 deaths from the coronavirus in a 24-hour period, Mr. Trump's focus was on himself, and his feuds.... As ... new polls show support for the president's handling of the crisis sagging, White House allies and Republican lawmakers increasingly believe the briefings are hurting the president more than helping him. Many view the sessions as a kind of original sin from which all of his missteps flow, once he gets through his prepared script and turns to his preferred style of extemporaneous bluster and invective."

** Josh Marshall of TPM: "As we work to find out the scope and goals of the White House's seizure of medical goods across the United States, a simpler pattern is coming into view: the White House seizes goods from public officials and hospitals across the country while doling them out as favors to political allies and favorites, often to great fanfare to boost the popularity of those allies. The Denver Post today editorialized about one of the most egregious examples. Last week, as we reported, a shipment of 500 ventilators to the state of Colorado was intercepted and rerouted by the federal government. Gov. Jared Polis (D) sent a letter pleading for the return of the equipment. Then [Wednesday] President Trump went on Twitter to announce that he was awarding 100 ventilators to Colorado at the behest of Republican Senator Cory Gardner, one of the most endangered Republicans on the ballot this year. As the Post put it, 'President Donald Trump is treating life-saving medical equipment as emoluments he can dole out as favors to loyalists. It's the worst imaginable form of corruption -- playing political games with lives.'... We need more information, more explanations of what standards the White House is using to distribute these goods. The consistent refusal to explain speaks volumes."

Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is preparing to announce a second coronavirus task force solely focused on reopening the nation's economy, multiple sources told CNN." (Also linked yesterday.)

What Did You Expect? Matt Stieb of New York: "On Sunday, the official White House account tweeted out a message to the generous hoteliers of America: 'Thank you to hotels around the country for providing healthcare workers and first responders a place to stay while they're on the front lines of the pandemic.' Though Trump rarely forgoes an opportunity to promote himself, the White House was not able to include his properties in the letter of gratitude. According to report from Politico, Trump hotels are not providing space for healthcare workers in U.S. cities grappling with substantial coronavirus outbreaks."

Quid Pro Quo? Akbar Shahid Ahmed & Chris D'Angelo of the Huffington Post: "President Donald Trump has spent weeks promising to protect cruise lines from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic. Now a fund that Trump ally Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman controls has revealed a big new stake in Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator. The sudden change of fortunes for a company run by Micky Arison, a longtime Trump associate, could be as much about personal relationships and geopolitics as about business.... As of Thursday afternoon, the kingdom's 43.5 million shares were worth more than $500 million...By addressing one of Trump's big current fixations, the Saudis may have secured undue influence on the president and U.S. foreign policy ― another quid pro quo for a president who's proven transactional in his approach to global affairs." --s

Donald Shaw of Sludge: "President Trump has latched onto antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for COVID-19 patients.... On Monday, Sludge reported that one of President Trump's biggest donors is the founder of a pharmaceutical industry-funded nonprofit that is lobbying the White House to boost the use of the drug. The New York Times reported that Trump has a small financial stake, by way of a mutual fund, in Sanofi, a top manufacturer of the drug. But here's another possibility: Trump may have been influenced by a Palm Beach donor named Joseph Pizza... .According to his LinkedIn, Pizza is president and CEO of Interchem.... One product Interchem sells is hydroxychloroquine sulfate, the primary active ingredient of Plaquenil." --s

Mike Wants to Be on the Teevee. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Vice President Mike Pence's office has declined to allow the nation's top health officials to appear on CNN in recent days and discuss the coronavirus pandemic ... in an attempt to pressure the network into carrying the White House's lengthy daily briefings in full. Pence's office, which is responsible for booking the officials on networks during the pandemic, said it will only allow experts such as Dr. Deborah Birx or Dr. Anthony Fauci to appear on CNN if the network televises the portion of the White House briefings that includes the vice president and other coronavirus task force members.... After Trump leaves the podium, CNN frequently cuts out of the White House briefing to discuss and fact-check what the President had said.... The Vice President's office has blocked all CNN appearances since last Thursday night." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oliver Darcy: "Vice President Mike Pence's office reversed course on Thursday afternoon, after declining for days to allow the nation's top health officials to appear on CNN and discuss the coronavirus pandemic, in what was an attempt to pressure the network into carrying the White House's lengthy daily briefings in full. After this story was published, Pence's office allowed for the booking of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield for CNN's Thursday night coronavirus town hall. Dr. Anthony Fauci was also booked for Friday on 'New Day.'"

Melanie Trolls Clownstick von Fuckface: ~~~

As the CDC studies the spread of #COVID-19, they recommend people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when social distancing can be hard to do. Remember, this does NOT replace the importance of social distancing. pic.twitter.com/HRaQHFgXxn

— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) April 9, 2020

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, I got a postcard from the White House & the CDC last week telling me how to reduce my chances of contracting the coronavirus. On the front of the card it says, "President Trump's Coronavirus Guidelines for America," and on the back are actual guidelines & no political message. Did everybody get one?

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham Wednesday night, Attorney General Bill Barr praised President Trump's 'statesman-like' effort at the 'beginning' of the coronavirus epidemic where he 'tried to bring people together' while 'working with all the governors' -- a characterization that did not go over well with many of the President's critics...." Mrs. McC: So, according to Barr, "statesman-like" is lying repeatedly about the severity of the pandemic; praising himself & his popularity, promoting quack "science" while literally pushing aside experts; resisting, mocking and/or ignoring social distancing guidance; excoriating reporters for asking legitimate questions during a Q&A (and demanding they "congratulate" him; and dissing governors on "the other side" while praising Republican governors. What's not "statesman-like"? Throwing actual poop at reporters?

NPR Embarrasses Trump DHHS into Maintaining Coronavirus Test Sites. Jeff Brady of NPR: "The Department of Health and Human Services is stepping back from a plan to end support on Friday for community-based coronavirus testing sites around the country. Instead the agency says local authorities can choose whether they want to transition to running the programs themselves or continue with federal oversight and help. The news came after NPR reported yesterday that some local officials were critical of plans to end the program before the pandemic peaks." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: They really don't care, do they? That's two stories today where the Trumpettes have almost immediately reversed a coronavirus-related decision only because the media embarrassed them. Both demonstrate how little the administration cares about the effects of the pandemic on Americans: half-pence is so petty he wouldn't allow officials to appear on CNN to share Covid-19 info unless CNN covered his portion of the daily White House briefings, and more importantly, DHHS was ready to cut off funding for testing around the country. ~~~

~~~ There's still one place in the USA where it's not only super-easy but also mandatory to get a coronavirus test. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

White House to administer rapid coronavirus test on all journalists before allowing them to attend this afternoon's daily briefing with the president after a news outlet employee who was in the building on Tuesday fell ill. -- Peter Baker of the New York Times, in a tweet Thursday

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The Food and Drug Administration is demanding that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones stop advertising dubious dietary supplements as coronavirus treatments and threatening legal action if he doesn't comply. The FDA sent a letter to Jones and his website InfoWars on Thursday demanding that he stop telling the viewers of his popular internet broadcasts that they can ward off the virus with colloidal silver products sold on his website. Those videos, the FDA wrote, 'misleadingly represent them as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So why isn't the FDA sending Trump a cease-and-desist letter warning him to stop advertising hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure?

Jacob Pramuck of CNBC: "Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a Republican push to unanimously pass a bill to put $250 billion more into a loan program for small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. With only a few senators in the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to move the measure by a unanimous vote. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., objected to the request, stalling the legislation.... After Cardin rejected the measure, he called McConnell's move to pass the funding a 'political stunt.' He pushed for provisions including funding for Small Business Administration disaster assistance grants.... Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., then tried to unanimously pass a Democratic amendment. McConnell blocked it, and the Senate adjourned until Monday after a roughly 30-minute pro forma session." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michigan. Julie Mack of Michigan Live: "The emergency department is bursting to the seams, day after day, night after night. 'We've run out of stretchers. We've run out of body bags,' said [Krysti] Kallek, who is a nurse.... Patients end up in the emergency-department hallways using oxygen tanks, she said. One night, they even ran out oxygen tanks, so staff ran oxygen tubing from patient rooms to the people in the hallways.... The situation is so fraught that emergency-departments nurse are afraid to take a meal break because that leaves even fewer nurses to monitor so many patients, she said. 'I couldn't tell you the last time I took a break.'... Across the state, there are concerns about staffing. Worries about shortages of personal protective equipment. Fears about their own health. At least three Michigan healthcare workers have died from coronavirus." --s

Kansas. Jonathan Shorman of the Wichita Eagle: "Kansas Gov Laura Kelly [D] is suing to stop Republican lawmakers from overturning her executive order limiting church gatherings -- triggering a high-stakes legal showdown amid a deadly pandemic. Kelly on Thursday afternoon sued the Legislative Coordinating Council -- the seven-member body of legislative leaders that voted Wednesday to revoke her order, calling it an infringement on freedom of religion. The lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in the state's ongoing fight over constitutional rights and public health, a dispute that potentially holds life-or-death implications as pastors and priests weigh whether to open church doors this Sunday. Three of the state's 12 coronavirus clusters have stemmed from church gatherings, and health officials fear large [Easter] Sunday services will further spread the contagion throughout the state.... The Republican legislative leaders who voted to revoke the order ... came under crushing criticism after the vote."

Erica Henry & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falsely claimed Thursday that the novel coronavirus hasn't killed anyone under 25 nationwide while discussing a timeline for reopening schools in the state.... In reality, the CDC reports on its website that four people between the ages of 15 and 24 and one person between the ages of one and four have died. CNN has also reported on the death of a newborn in Connecticut on April 1 and an infant in Illinois last month whose death is being investigated as possibly caused by the virus. Young people can also serve as carriers of the virus, transmitting to the elderly and people with underlying conditions -- those most at risk." Mrs. McC: And of course CDC numbers don't count young people who may have died of Covid-19 but were not tested for the virus. ~~~

~~~ Yes But Maybe They Were Black and/or Poor. Likhitha Butchireddygari & Anna Wiederkehr of 538: "Preliminary reports on COVID-19 fatalities suggest black Americans are dying at elevated rates, and poorer Americans are many of the workers whose jobs put them at daily risk of exposure.... Younger black Americans are more likely to be vulnerable.... The poorest and least educated Americans are more likely to be at risk than those with higher incomes or more education."

Florida. David Smiley, et al. of The Miami Herald: "Florida emergency managers are accustomed to planning for hurricanes. But as the June 1 start of the season grows closer and the state's coronavirus outbreak lingers on, questions and uncertainties are nagging at the people preparing for the worst-case scenario.... [W]ith less than two months to go until the tropics reach the conditions that forecasters expect will generate an above-average storm season, government officials and local politicians are hustling to prepare for what Broward County Mayor Dale Holness described as a 'double disaster' of a hurricane strike amid a COVID-19 outbreak." --s

This Might Be the First U.S. Murder Mystery Tied to Covid-19. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: “When police showed up to their home near Jupiter, Fla., on March 26, neither Gretchen Anthony, nor her husband, David Ethan Anthony, answered the door.... Her relatives [had] reported suspicious text messages sent from her phone that claimed she had a severe case of covid-19.... One text said she had been admitted to a local clinic and was being 'held' there by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, police said. Another said Gretchen had been transferred to a hospital and placed on a ventilator. But when family members phoned the clinic and hospital..., staff told them nobody named Gretchen Anthony had been admitted.... When she couldn't be found, a relative reported Gretchen missing and alerted police about the suspicious texts. Almost two weeks later, her 43-year-old husband was arrested on kidnapping and murder charges."

Heather Stewart of the Guardian: Britain's PM "Boris Johnson is back on a hospital ward after spending three nights in intensive care, and is in 'extremely good spirits', Downing Street has announced.... Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Johnson, had earlier said the prime minister was making 'positive steps forward'. Speaking at the daily Downing Street press conference, Raab admitted he had not spoken to Johnson since the prime minister was admitted to hospital, but insisted the government continued to function smoothly."

Elections 2020

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "A day after becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, former vice president Joe Biden sought to appeal to liberal supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday with a pair of new proposals to expand access to health care and curtail student loan debt. Biden proposed lowering the eligibility age for Medicare coverage from 65 to 60. He also came out in favor of forgiving student loan debt for people who attended public colleges and universities and some private schools and make up to $125,000 a year. The announcements came after private conversations between Biden's team and aides to Sanders (I-Vt.), who announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign."

IOKIYVote for Trump. Jonathan Chait: "'Mail-in voting is horrible. It's corrupt,' declared President Trump earlier this week. When a reporter asked how he could reconcile that position with the fact that he had personally voted by mail in the last election, Trump replied, 'Because I';m allowed to.' This perfectly circular logic -- if more voters were permitted to vote by mail, they would also be 'allowed to' -- seemed not to satisfy him. Trump has refined his view, explaining that casting a ballot by mail is fine for members of the military and senior citizens, but is 'ripe for fraud' when used by others[.]... Trump is not even attempting to formulate a facially neutral principle. He is simply asserting that members of the military and senior citizens -- constituencies that lean Republican -- can be trusted not to commit voter fraud, but that constituencies that might vote Democratic cannot.... (Trump campaign officials already confirmed this to Politico -- they will allow mail voting for senior citizens, but not others.) The travesty that was Tuesday's election in Wisconsin is his plan to win in November." Chait argues that Democrats don't seem to get what's going on & are about to miss their chance to leverage a "correction." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Trump Model Works! Ed Kilgore of New York: "... seven states that generally discourage voting by mail but waive excuse requirements for Republican-leaning old folks are Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Coincidentally or not, these are all deep-red states carried by Trump in 2016, most of them by large margins (Texas, which went MAGA by nine points, was the closest). They appear to provide Trump's model for the country as a whole." (Also linked yesterday.)

Death of a Democracy. Paul Krugman: "... the scariest news of the past week didn't involve either epidemiology or economics; it was the travesty of an election in Wisconsin where the Supreme Court required that in-person voting proceed despite the health risks and the fact that many who requested absentee ballots never got them.... The pandemic will eventually end; the economy will eventually recover. But democracy, once lost, may never come back. And we're much closer to losing our democracy than many people realize. To see how a modern democracy can die, look at events in Europe, especially Hungary, over the past decade.... Wisconsin, in particular, is well on its way toward becoming Hungary on Lake Michigan, as Republicans seek a permanent lock on power.... What we saw in Wisconsin, in short, was a state party doing whatever it takes to cling to power even if a majority of voters want it out -- and a partisan bloc on the Supreme Court backing its efforts.... Does anyone seriously doubt that something similar could happen, very soon, at a national level?" ~~~

~~~ ** Frank Rich: "Any casualties that ensue [from the Wisconsin] will be the culmination of Chief Justice John Roberts's career-long campaign to thwart voting rights for America's minority population.... By Wisconsin, I really mean Milwaukee, the state's largest city and the home to most of its African-American population. That's where it was impossible to enforce social distancing because the usual 180 polling places were reduced to five -- to serve a population of some 600,000.... Black Americans risked and sometimes lost their lives for the right to vote during the Jim Crow era. Now, 55 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they are being forced to do so again. Those horrific images of medically endangered Wisconsin voters waiting hours to cast a ballot are today's corollary to those old photos of rabid police attack dogs threatening blacks who attempted to secure their civil rights in the 1960s. The hasty decision of the Roberts court that got us here is just the latest in his string of assaults on black voters.... [Roberts] presided over the decision ... while working in quite different circumstances from those that were visited on voters on line in Milwaukee. The Supreme Court has shut down its courtroom and oral arguments, convening by teleconference so its justices can enjoy the safety protections that the court's 5-4 decision denied to those standing in line to vote on Tuesday." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In the annals of history, John Roberts will be remembered right up there with Chief Justices Roger Taney (Dred Scott) & Melville Fuller (Plessey v. Ferguson). (Yes, I hadda look up Fuller, because I'd never heard of him.)

Nick Corasaniti & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "Three tubs of absentee ballots that never reached voters were discovered in a postal center outside Milwaukee. At least 9,000 absentee ballots requested by voters were never sent, and others recorded as sent were never received. Even when voters did return their completed ballots in the mail, thousands were postmarked too late to count -- or not at all. Cracks in Wisconsin's vote-by-mail operation are now emerging after the state's scramble to expand that effort on the fly for voters who feared going to the polls in Tuesday's elections. The takeaways -- that the election network and the Postal Service were pushed to the brink of their capabilities, and that mistakes were clearly made -- are instructive for other states if they choose to broaden vote-by-mail methods without sufficient time, money and planning."

New Hampshire. Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "A New Hampshire judge dismissed a state law that opponents said made it more complicated for students to register to vote, calling it 'unconstitutional,' 'discriminatory' and 'unreasonable.'... The state Democratic Party, the League of Women Voters and numerous college students sued in 2017 to block the Republican-backed law, which required new voters to fill out complicated forms and expose themselves to possible criminal prosecution and civil fines if they didn't turn over certain proof-of-residence documents.... The judge noted that there has been an average of one confirmed case of voter fraud a year in New Hampshire over the past 20 years, and he concluded that the requirements in the law did little to address fraud and only made registering more difficult.... State Solicitor General Daniel Will said in a statement, 'After an initial review of the order, we expect to appeal the decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court.'"

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "When an inspector general issued a report in December saying the investigation [into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election] was properly founded, [AG Bill] Barr put out an extraordinary statement disagreeing with that. And now, Barr has gone quite a bit further.... 'What happened to him [Trump] was one of the greatest travesties in American history,' Barr said in a clip played on Fox News on Wednesday night. 'Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign, and even more concerning actually is what happened after the campaign -- a whole pattern of events while he was president ... to sabotage the presidency -- or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see: (1) Trump & Co. conspired with Russians, engaged in more conspiracies to cover up this & other conspiracies, lied a lot, & used Russian hacks against Trump's opponent; (2) DOJ investigated but let Trump & most of his cronies off; (3) the "travesty" is the investigation. Either I'm crazy or Bill Barr is. ~~~

~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr said in an interview aired Thursday that he supported President Trump's controversial decision to oust the intelligence community's inspector general, whose decision to alert Congress about a whistleblower complaint last year helped spark Trump's impeachment. In an interview with Fox News, Barr said Trump 'did the right thing' in removing Michael Atkinson from his post as the intelligence community's internal watchdog, and recalled how the Justice Department had fought against Atkinson last year when he wanted to turn the whistleblower complaint over to lawmakers. 'He had interpreted his statute..., and tried to turn it into a commission to explore anything in the government and immediately report it to Congress without letting the executive branch look at it and determine whether there was any problem,' Barr said of Atkinson."

Cohen Behaving Badly. Aram Roston & Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "Michael Cohen..., Donald Trump's former personal attorney, has been placed in solitary confinement at a federal prison in New York state where he is serving time for violating campaign finance laws, according to his lawyer and two sources familiar with the matter. Cohen, 53, was transferred on Wednesday to a Special Housing Unit at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, a disciplinary section of the prison, the sources said.... 'It is my understanding that a verbal dispute over phone use prompted a temporary placement to SHU pending an investigation. I do not however know who prompted the altercation, or if the action taken was factually/regulatory appropriate,' Cohen's lawyer, Roger Adler, said in an email to Reuters."