The Commentariat -- March 8, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Darius Tahir of Politico: "The government's top infectious disease expert on Sunday said that the coronavirus outbreak is getting worse and warned elderly and sick people to think twice before traveling or circulating in crowds. The remarks from Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, signaled a change in tone from health officials representing the Trump administration, making it clear that the outbreak is past the point where it can be prevented from spreading or easily tracked. That contrasted with the more measured language from some Trump officials including Vice President Mike Pence."

Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "After Surgeon General Jerome Adams advised on State of the Union Sunday morning that older Americans and those with underlying medical issues should 'think very carefully' before taking long flights or going into big crowds, CNN host Jake Tapper reminded him that all three men currently running for president -- Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump -- fall into that at least one if not both of those categories. 'Should those three stop traveling? Should they stop holding rallies?' Tapper asked. Without answering that question directly, Adams told Tapper that he has been reminding President Trump to wash his hands frequently. 'But speaking of being at risk, the president, he sleeps less than I do and he's healthier than what I amthe surgeon general, who is in his mid-40s, insisted."

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "President Trump in an early morning tweet on Sunday accused the 'Fake News Media' of attempting to 'make us look bad' on the administration's coronavirus response. The president called the White House's plan to combat the growing outbreak in the U.S. 'perfectly coordinated and fine tuned.'"

Chico Harlan & Stefano Petrelli of the Washington Post: "Italy on Sunday launched a complicated and urgent plan to restrict the movement of roughly 16 million people, a measure that unleashed confusion about how it could be enforced and whether it would be enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The plan to lock down large swaths of the north was the first major attempt by a democracy during the coronavirus crisis to radically halt the routines of daily life -- an effort that will have significant impacts on civil liberties. But in the hours before and after the measure became law, people continued to stream out of the northern hubs of Milan and Venice on trains and planes for southern Italy or elsewhere in Europe. Sunday, then, provided the first glimpse of a coronavirus lockdown, European-style -- a test of how the open-borders spirit of this continent might change as countries grapple with the scale and risks of the disease."

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Brian Resnick of Vox with "eight things to know about 'springing forward.'" Mrs. McC: One thing to know about daylight savings time, which I never knew: "... it's definitely called 'daylight saving time.' Not plural. Be sure to point out this common mistake to friends and acquaintances. You'll be really popular."

Brett Samuels & Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tested 1,583 people for the coronavirus since the first cases were identified in the U.S. in January, health officials said Saturday. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters at the White House that figure would increase as more tests are shipped nationwide to address demand. But officials made clear that an individual could be tested only if it was approved by a doctor or public health official, contradicting President Trump's previous claims about test availability. Meanwhile, the CDC had recently shipped enough kits to public health labs to test 75,000 patients, Hahn said.... After facing criticism over the CDC's slow pace of testing in the U.S., the FDA made it easier for commercial labs to manufacture and perform their own tests. More than 2.1 million of those tests will be shipped by Monday to commercial labs, Hahn said, which would translate to roughly 850,000 people who could be tested because current CDC guidelines require two swabs per patient. However, Americans will not be able to get tested for the coronavirus unless it is ordered by a doctor or public health official, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Saturday. Azar's comments contradict President Trump's assertion a day earlier that 'anybody that wants a test can get a test.'..."

** Mike Stobbe of AP: "The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted the plan this week as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed[.]" --safari: Only one source of the info., but believable. ~~~

     ~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump was harshly criticized following the [AP] report's publication, here's some of what people were saying[.]"

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're over the age of 60, see advice in the right-hand column under "Public Service Announcements" on how to avoid contracting the coronavirus (or other communicable illnesses, for that matter). The advice includes, uh, avoiding air travel.

Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump says he isn't concerned 'at all' about the coronavirus getting closer to the White House after the nation's capital reported its first case Saturday. Maryland officials warned Saturday that a person who attended the recent Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC] in the suburb of Oxon Hill had tested positive for the virus. Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the conference. The White House said Saturday there was no indication that either had met or were in 'close proximity' to the infected attendee. Asked if he was concerned about the virus getting closer, Trump said: 'No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. We've done a great job.'"

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "From the beginning, the Trump administration's attempts to forestall an outbreak of a virus now spreading rapidly across the globe was marked by a raging internal debate about how far to go in telling Americans the truth. Even as the government's scientists and leading health experts raised the alarm early and pushed for aggressive action, they faced resistance and doubt at the White House -- especially from the president -- about spooking financial markets and inciting panic." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Situation Normal -- All Fucked Up. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: The Trump Administration made "many preventable missteps and blunders in [its] handling of the coronavirus crisis -- the embodiment of an administration that, for weeks, repeatedly squandered opportunities to manage and prepare for a global epidemic that has killed thousands worldwide and at least 19 so far in the United States.... Public health experts and officials faced a deluge of challenges, almost from the beginning. First there were the problems with the initial coronavirus test kits, which contained an unspecified problem with a compound that prompted inconclusive results.... Infighting quickly materialized among agencies that have long had poor relationships ... and when the situation went awry, recriminations were swift.... Trump and many of his aides were initially skeptical of just how serious the coronavirus threat was, while the president often seemed uninterested as long as the virus was abroad." ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond of Politico: "For six weeks behind the scenes, and now increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administration's own efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak -- resisting attempts to plan for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he chose to hear. Members of Congress have grilled top officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield over the government's biggest mistake: failing to secure enough testing to head off a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. But many current and former Trump administration officials say the true management failure was Trump's.... Interviews with 13 current and former officials, as well as individuals close to the White House, painted a picture of a president who rewards those underlings who tell him what he wants to hear while shunning those who deliver bad news."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post assesses Trump's performance at his CDC Atlanta visit Friday. Nakamura doesn't grade Trump, but his review reads like a "D-", at best. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Adam Rogers of Wired: "As a reporter, in general I'm not supposed to say something like this, but: The president's statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world's most respected scientific institutions. It was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and -- most importantly -- misinformation about the virus and the US response."

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Do you have a nagging medical concern?... Well, fret no more. America now has a leading medical expert -- some say the best -- who will dispense diagnoses and prognoses to all -- for free! This bold new telemedicine initiative, 'Ask Dr. Trump,' will be offered on an unpredictable but highly frequent basis to all Americans (whether they like it or not). Dr. Donald J. Trump, of course, is the pioneering scientist who first determined that climate change is a hoax and, more recently, discovered that windmills cause cancer. In between, he proved that forest fires could be contained by 'raking' and identified a previously unrecognized tropical cyclone pattern targeting Alabama. Dr. Trump acquired what he calls 'a natural instinct for science' not through formal education but because 'my uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years.' Sadly, the elder Trump didn't live to see his nephew's greatest discoveries in the medical field: The flu shot is basically 'injecting bad stuff into your body' and exercise can shorten your life. Dr. Trump used his instinctive grasp of medicine to become 'the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency' with an innate life expectancy of 200 years." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Know-Nothing President*. Ctd. ... I didn't know people died from the flu.... And ... you had a couple of years where it was over a 100,000 people died from the flu. -- Donald Trump, Friday ~~~

~~~ Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: "There have been several years where more than 100,000 Americans were killed by particularly nasty influenza strains. One of those episodes was ... 1918. That is the year Trump's paternal grandfather ... died of the flu.... Friedrich Trump was a successful, 49-year-old businessman, husband and father of three living in Queens, according to Gwenda Blair in her 2001 book 'The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire.' One day in May, he came home from a stroll feeling sick. He died almost immediately. He was a victim of the first wave of the Spanish flu pandemic. A second, deadlier wave hit in the fall. All told, the pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 in the United States, according to the CDC." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Kali Holloway of the Daily Beast has the story here. "The president's grandfather, in fact, was one of the first domestic casualties of the world's worst modern pandemic, which ultimately millions. The death toll was undoubtedly worsened by the efforts of President Woodrow Wilson's administration to talk down the health risk. Sound familiar?" Mrs. McC: Holloway's report on the 1918 Sedition Act should terrify you. What probably is saving us from a similar law now is House Democrats.

Not So Funny Now, Is It, Frat Boy? Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "Days after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wore an enormous gas mask during a House floor vote on an emergency funding package for the coronavirus response, the congressman announced that a resident in his northwestern Florida district had died of covid-19." Mrs. McC: It doesn't take a stable genius to figure out that joking about a pandemic will not well-serve the joker, but perhaps he does have to extricate himself from the Trump Bubble to know that Covid-19 is not a "Democrat hoax" ripe for mocking.

Taylor Locke of CNBC: "Amtrak is canceling its high-speed Acela nonstop service between Washington, D.C. and New York through late May as consumer demand weakens amid concern over the coronavirus outbreak.... The Acela nonstop service will be temporarily suspended starting Tuesday, March 10 until Tuesday, May 26. Passengers can still take Amtrak’s slower, northeast regional trains between the two cities."

Lorenzo Tondo of the Guardian: "The Italian government is to lockdown the northern region of Lombardy, as it battles to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A draft decree would extend the quarantined areas, so-called 'red-zones', ordering people not to enter or leave the region.... Rome is also considering prolonging the closure of schools across the country until 3 April, while major sporting events, such as Serie A football games, will be played behind closed doors. The number of coronavirus cases in Italy leapt by more than 1,200 in a 24-hour period, the civil protection agency said on Saturday." According to the Wall Street Journal, the quarantined area also would include 11 surrounding provinces. (Via the Verge.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Italy's government early Sunday took the extraordinary step of locking down much of the country's north, restricting movement for about a quarter of the Italian population in regions that serve as the country's economic engine.... By taking such tough measures, Italy, which is suffering the worst outbreak in Europe, sent a signal that restrictive clampdowns at odds with some of the core values of Western democracies may be necessary to contain and defeat the virus.... More generally, the wobbly Italian government, which has had difficulty passing basic laws, was attempting a crackdown of historic scope in a continent fiercely protective of its personal liberties and in a country with a tendency to interpret laws as suggestions or hurdles to circumvent."

Igor Derysh of Salon: "President Donald Trump's properties have charged taxpayers nearly eight times more than previously claimed for Secret Service stays, according to new documents obtained by the watchdog group Public Citizen. Eric Trump has claimed that Secret Service agents 'stay at our properties for free -- meaning, like, cost for housekeeping.' He insisted last year that 'we charge them, like, 50 bucks.' But receipts ... show that Trump's properties have charged the Secret Service $396 per night for 177 rentals at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort since he took office.... The report found that taxpayers spent more than $471,000 on Trump properties, but the new receipts show that the Trump Organization charged Secret Service an additional $157,000 since 2017, bringing the total to more than $628,000." --s

Martyn McLaughlin of The Scotsman: "[A]n official European Union agency has issued a series of far-reaching decisions which experts believe will impact on the Trump Organisation's ability to enforce its rights over numerous products and services associated with the Trump brand.... Trump's company has been engaged in a fight with a little-known firm based in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg since March 2018...,[producing] nearly 1,300 pages of evidence..., includ[ing] a series of statistical sets detailing a decline in golf custom at Turnberry, the US president's flagship international resort, since he bought it in 2014.... [T]he number of visitors booking use of golf facilities at the property ... has fallen from 11,835 in 2014 to 7,483 in 2018.... [T]he number of golf club members ... has dropped from 434 to 373 over the same period ... despite a sizable investment..., anywhere between £150m and £250m." --s

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: AND I guess we'll have to mention Melanie's Covfefe-19 Memorial White House Tennis Pavillion, since Anonymous raiseed the matter in yesterday's Comments: ~~~

~~~ Eliza Relman & Ellen Cramley of Business Insider: "... Melania Trump tweeted on Thursday about the construction of a new private White House tennis pavilion amid concern that the Trump administration isn't doing enough to contain the coronavirus outbreak. 'I am excited to share the progress of the Tennis Pavillion at @WhiteHouse,' she tweeted alongside photos of herself in a hard hat at the construction site. 'Thank you to the talented team for their hard work and dedication.' Critics were quick to condemn Trump's announcement.... The first lady pushed back against her critics in a tweet on Saturday morning.... 'I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities,' she tweeted, adding the hashtag for her childhood wellness campaign, #BeBest." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr ... increasingly appears to be chiseling away at [Robert Mueller's investigation]. The attorney general's handling of the results of th Russia inquiry came under fire when a federal judge questioned this week whether Mr. Barr had sought to create a 'one-sided narrative' clearing Mr. Trump of misconduct.... In fact, Mr. Barr's comments then were but the first in a series of actions in which he cast doubt not just on the findings of the inquiry by the special counsel ... and some of the resulting prosecutions, but on its very premise.... Mr. Barr has assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate the [investigation] further and has suggested that the inquiry might conclude that the F.B.I. acted in bad faith.... Last month, Mr. Barr appointed another outside prosecutor to review a case that Mr. Mueller brought against the president's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn for lying to the F.B.I. And in a second case that the Mueller team brought against Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump's longtime friend, the attorney general overruled career prosecutors to seek a more lenient prison sentence...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"All the Best People," Ctd. Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The White House has placed another college senior in an influential administration position.... Anthony Labruna, who starts on Monday, is not slated to graduate from Iowa State University until early May. In the meantime, he'll be deputy White House liaison at the Department of Commerce.... One person familiar with the matter said that Labruna was foisted on Commerce at the urging of 29-year-old PPO director John McEntee, who has been charged by the president with keeping his administration stocked with loyal officials.... The role is a sensitive one: The job of a White House liaison entails matching qualified people with political vacancies at the department, headed up by Secretary Wilbur Ross, and moving appointees in and out of those positions as needed." --s

How Low Will They Go? So Low, Can't Get Under It. Mark Mazzetti & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents. One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers.... [Prince's sister Betsy] DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers' unions.... Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her. Both operations were run by Project Veritas.... The Trump Foundation gave $20,000 to Project Veritas in 2015, the year that Mr. Trump began his bid for the presidency." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times reports on SNL's cold open.

Presidential Race

Sarah Kendzior of the Globe and Mail: "On Super Tuesday, voters decided that the best people to determine the American future were old men who, statistically, will likely not live to see even the near-term outcomes of their efforts.... Americans do not know if they will live in a democracy or an autocracy, but they will undoubtedly live in a gerontocracy. A gerontocracy is dangerous in a time of profound existential threats. The Democratic nominee will be battling the climate crisis, rising autocracy worldwide and a global recession exacerbated by a pandemic. They will also be facing off against the Trump regime, whose flagrant corruption and decimation of institutions has put American democracy in unprecedented peril.... To capture their votes, Democrats must make a compelling case about how they will protect that future -- even though their presidential nominee will not live to see it." --s

An Aspirational Freudian Slip. Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar mistakenly told cheering Joe Biden supporters in Michigan Saturday that she's honored to join his 2020 'ticket,' before she quickly corrected the apparent verbal slip-up.... Klobuchar's brief suggestion immediately encouraged speculation about who is vying for the vice president role on a potential Biden ticket."

The Guardian has a live blog on activities commemorating International Women's Day. --s

Nice Company, Andy! Ryan Fahey of the (U.K.) Daily Mail: "Prince Andrew has recruited an extradition lawyer once used by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after the FBI demanded an interview with the royal over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.... Claire Montgomery QC, known as the leading extradition lawyer in the UK, is said to be advising the 60-year-old Duke...."

Beyond the Beltway

Massachusetts. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "The US government has banned an electric shock machine that is used to zap children and young adults with special needs in a school outside Boston -- the only institution in the world known to practice the controversial punishment 'treatment'.... The ban brings to an end a decades-long battle against the use of electric shocks at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) in Canton, Massachusetts.... More than 40 special needs residents of JRC, many with severe forms of autism, are understood to be on the electric shock regime." --s

Way Beyond

Poland. A PBS Network Even Trump Would Like. Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Poland's president has signed a bill earmarking nearly 2 billion zlotys ($510 million) to fund public television and radio, broadcast outlets that have become mouthpieces for the country's right-wing government and given the president positive coverage as he campaigns for reelection. President Andrzej Duda, who hails from the ruling Law and Justice party, signed the funding bill late Friday as he campaigns for a second five-year term in a May election.... In [signing the bill], he allowed a large injection of money to go into broadcasters that were already helping his campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ I am excited to announce the introduction of "Fifth Avenue," an educational entertainment show for the kiddies featuring Big Eagle, Barack the Grouch & a cast of beautiful, rich white people. Today's show stars the Letter "A" for "Abercrombie." Tune in tomorrow to meet the letter "B" for "Bergdorf." And the kids won't want to miss "C" for "Cartier" -- they'll all enjoy learning to tell time the old-fashioned way with this beautiful Cartier watch with fuchsia alligator strap for only $70,800.00 (free shipping!).

Saudi Arabia. David Kirkpatrick & Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "The scope of a new roundup of Saudi royals widened on Saturday with word that a fourth senior prince has been detained under orders from the crown prince, according to two people close to the royal family, the latest step by the kingdom's de facto ruler to consolidate power. The wave of arrests has now ensnared a former head of army intelligence, Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, as well as at least three other senior princes, all detained on Friday. The full extent of the roundup is still not clear. The detentions raised questions about whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 34, would soon seek to take formal power from his aging father, King Salman, 84. They could also indicate that the crown prince was worried about discontent within the royal family as plummeting oil prices strained the country's budget and economy...."

News Lede

The New York Times' latest live updates on developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here. "The Grand Princess cruise ship that has been held off the coast of California after 21 people onboard tested positive for the coronavirus will dock on Monday at the port of Oakland, the vessel's operator said. Passengers on the ship who require 'acute medical treatment and hospitalization' will disembark first and be taken to facilities in California, according to the boat's operator, Princess Cruises." ~~~

The Commentariat -- March 7, 2020

Afternoon Update:

How Low Will They Go? So Low, Can't Get Under It. Mark Mazzetti & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents. One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers.... [Prince's sister Betsy] DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers' unions.... Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her. Both operations were run by Project Veritas.... The Trump Foundation gave $20,000 to Project Veritas in 2015, the year that Mr. Trump began his bid for the presidency."

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "From the beginning, the Trump administration's attempts to forestall an outbreak of a virus now spreading rapidly across the globe was marked by a raging internal debate about how far to go in telling Americans the truth. Even as the government's scientists and leading health experts raised the alarm early and pushed for aggressive action, they faced resistance and doubt at the White House -- especially from the president -- about spooking financial markets and inciting panic."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post assesses Trump's performance at his CDC Atlanta visit Friday. Nakamura doesn't grade Trump, but his review reads like a "D-", at best. ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Do you have a nagging medical concern?... Well, fret no more. America now has a leading medical expert -- some say the best -- who will dispense diagnoses and prognoses to all -- for free! This bold new telemedicine initiative, 'Ask Dr. Trump,' will be offered on an unpredictable but highly frequent basis to all Americans (whether they like it or not). Dr. Donald J. Trump, of course, is the pioneering scientist who first determined that climate change is a hoax and, more recently, discovered that windmills cause cancer. In between, he proved that forest fires could be contained by 'raking' and identified a previously unrecognized tropical cyclone pattern targeting Alabama. Dr. Trump acquired what he calls 'a natural instinct for science' not through formal education but because 'my uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years.' Sadly, the elder Trump didn't live to see his nephew's greatest discoveries in the medical field: The flu shot is basically 'injecting bad stuff into your body' and exercise can shorten your life. Dr. Trump used his instinctive grasp of medicine to become 'the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency' with an innate life expectancy of 200 years." Read on.

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr ... increasingly appears to be chiseling away at [Robert Mueller's investigation]. The attorney general's handling of the results of the Russia inquiry came under fire when a federal judge questioned this week whether Mr. Barr had sought to create a 'one-sided narrative' clearing Mr. Trump of misconduct.... In fact, Mr. Barr's comments then were but the first in a series of actions in which he cast doubt not just on the findings of the inquiry by the special counsel ... and some of the resulting prosecutions, but on its very premise.... Mr. Barr has assigned a federal prosecutor to investigate the [investigation] further and has suggested that the inquiry might conclude that the F.B.I. acted in bad faith.... Last month, Mr. Barr appointed another outside prosecutor to review a case that Mr. Mueller brought against the president's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn for lying to the F.B.I. And in a second case that the Mueller team brought against Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump's longtime friend, the attorney general overruled career prosecutors to seek a more lenient prison sentence...."

A PBS Network Even Trump Would Like. Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Poland's president has signed a bill earmarking nearly 2 billion zlotys ($510 million) to fund public television and radio, broadcast outlets that have become mouthpieces for the country's right-wing government and given the president positive coverage as he campaigns for reelection. President Andrzej Duda, who hails from the ruling Law and Justice party, signed the funding bill late Friday as he campaigns for a second five-year term in a May election.... In [signing the bill], he allowed a large injection of money to go into broadcasters that were already helping his campaign." ~~~

     ~~~ I am excited to announce the introduction of "Fifth Avenue," an educational entertainment show for the kiddies featuring Big Eagle, Barack the Grouch & a cast of beautiful, rich white people. Today's show stars the Letter "A" for "Abercrombie." Tune in tomorrow to meet the letter "B" for "Bergdorf." And the kids won't want to miss "C" for "Cartier" -- they'll all enjoy learning to tell time the old-fashioned way with this beautiful Cartier watch with fuchsia alligator strap for only $70,800.00 (free shipping!).

Mrs. McCrabbie: AND I guess we'll have to mention Melanie's Covfefe-19 Memorial White House Tennis Pavillion, since Anonymous raises the matter in today's Comments: ~~~

~~~ Eliza Relman & Ellen Cramley of Business Insider: "... Melania Trump tweeted on Thursday about the construction of a new private White House tennis pavilion amid concern that the Trump administration isn't doing enough to contain the coronavirus outbreak. 'I am excited to share the progress of the Tennis Pavillion at @WhiteHouse,' she tweeted alongside photos of herself in a hard hat at the construction site. 'Thank you to the talented team for their hard work and dedication.' Critics were quick to condemn Trump's announcement.... The first lady pushed back against her critics in a tweet on Saturday morning.... 'I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative & question my work at the @WhiteHouse to take time and contribute something good & productive in their own communities,' she tweeted, adding the hashtag for her childhood wellness campaign, #BeBest."

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** Your Friday Night News Dump. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday announced [in a tweet] that Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) would replace Mick Mulvaney as his chief of staff. Trump announced the news in a tweet, saying he would appoint Mulvaney as U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland." This is a developing story. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The New York Times story, by Peter Baker, is here. Mrs. McC: It's surprising the Times first posted its story at 9:49 pm ET, an hour-and-a-half after Trump's tweet. NYT reporter Annie Karni said on MSNBC the other day that every time Trump announces a new hire, the paper mocks up a story about that person's dismissal (as they do for prominent, elderly people), inasmuch as it won't be long till Trump axes him. Mulvaney lasted 14 months, but only because, as Baker notes, "The president soured on Mr. Mulvaney long ago but was warned by advisers not to get rid of him until after his [impeachment] trial in the Senate...." Anyway, I hope Mulvaney enjoys Northern Ireland. I guess positions in Greenland and Mongolia were unavailable.

Thanks to Ken W. for the lead.Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump's visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday turned into a scattershot defense of his administration's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, veering into political score-settling, exaggerations and talk harking back to his impeachment.... Trump called Washington state's governor [Jay Inslee (D)], who is dealing with the most serious outbreak in the nation, a 'snake.' He said he'd prefer that people exposed to the virus on a cruise ship be left aboard so they wouldn't be added to the count for the nation's total number of infections. And he falsely claimed that a test for the virus was available immediately to all who want it. He also suggested the accuracy of the coronavirus test was 'perfect -- like the letter was perfect.' With that, Trump was making a comparison to the July phone call with Ukraine's president that led to his impeachment.... Trump touted the ratings of his town hall this week on Fox News and mocked a CNN reporter. He cut off Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar as he tried to counsel Americans to be patient.... The president, while touring the CDC, talked up his ability to understand the virus, although he has repeatedly misstated how long it would take for a vaccine to be developed and available. 'I like this stuff. I really get it,' Trump said. 'People are surprised that I understand it.... Maybe I have a natural ability.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yes, if the Stable Genius would have just one more chat with Ben Carson, I'd feel safe having Trump cut into my skull & operate on my brain. He has a natural ability. ~~~

This video in which Trump repeatedly claims that "anybody who wants a test gets a test" is remarkable, not just because it isn't true but because of the way Trump keeps repeating the lie: ~~~

~~~ BUT the lie works, at least as far as spreading disinformation goes. The "news" team at Atlanta's Channel 11, an NBC affiliate, reported Friday that "the agency [CDC] is expected to ship out about a million tests by tomorrow." That isn't even marginally true, as Steve Kornacki of MSNBC makes clear in his report embedded above. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, in the Real World. Katie Thomas, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump claimed again on Friday that anyone who needed a coronavirus test 'gets a test.' But from Washington State to Florida to New York, doctors and patients are clamoring for tests that they say are in woefully short supply, and their frustration is mounting alongside the growing number of cases around the country. In California, where thousands are being monitored for the virus, only 516 tests had been conducted by the state as of Thursday. Washington health officials have more cases than they can currently process. And in New York, where cases have quadrupled this week, a New York City official pleaded for more test kits from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'The slow federal action on this matter has impeded our ability to beat back this epidemic,' the official said in a letter Friday. More than 300 cases have been confirmed, at least 17 have died, and thousands are in self-quarantine. Public health officials are warning that no one knows how deeply the virus will spread, in part because the federal government's flawed rollout of tests three weeks ago has snowballed into an embarrassing fiasco of national proportions."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to confront the coronavirus outbreak on Friday morning and decided to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, reversing his decision hours earlier to skip touring the nerve center of the government's response to the health crisis." Mrs. McC: The reason Trump's visit to the CDC was on-again/off-again was because of a suspected case of coronavirus at the Atlanta center. But then it turned out the person had tested negative for the virus. Everything is going very smoothly. A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~

~~~ Guardian (from the liveblog @9:50 am ET): "Trump ... reiterated his lack of worry about the spread of [coronavirus] in the US. Perhaps problematic, though is that, to many, he's coming across as casually dismissive and posturing, not measured, and reassuringly presidential. 'You have to be calm,' he said, at the White House this morning before departing to tour the tornado damage in Tennessee and just after signing an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to deal with the virus. 'It will go away,' he said. 'We have very low numbers [of confirmed cases] compared to many countries throughout the world, our numbers are lower than almost anyone ... deaths, is it 11?' It is. 'In terms of cases, it's very very few because we have been very strong at the borders.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ John Harwood of CNN: "... Donald Trump sent a message Friday to anyone expecting major economic aid to head off a coronavirus recession: Don't hold your breath. With financial markets reeling, some economists back direct bailouts for affected workers and businesses to prevent a contraction of the already-slowing American economy. But as he signed the $8.3-billion emergency coronavirus spending bill passed by Congress -- more than triple the amount the White House had requested -- Trump waved off the idea of a new fiscal stimulus to protect America's record-breaking economic expansion, again calling on the Federal Reserve to use its monetary policy tools. 'The Fed should cut and the Fed should stimulate,' Trump told me before leaving the White House to tour tornado damage in Tennessee. And he evinced little concern about the chance of recession anytime soon, declaring, 'I think we're in great shape.'... 'We're not looking at these massive, federal, throw-money-at-people plans,' National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow told reporters. 'We are looking at timely and targeted (efforts) where we can do the most good.'"

Jonathan Chait enjoys ragging Donald Trump & Larry Kudlow for their wildly incorrect claims & prognostications on the coronavirus & its impact on the markets. (Also linked yesterday.)

Morgan Chalfant, et al., of the Hill: "Vice President Pence said Friday that 21 individuals on a cruise ship off the coast of California tested positive for the coronavirus and that the Trump administration would bring the passengers stateside this weekend. The cruise ship will be brought into a noncommercial port. Passengers will be tested for the coronavirus and then officials will quarantine and offer medical attention to those who need it. The vice president said 46 people aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship were tested for the virus. Of the 21 who tested positive, 19 are crewmembers and two are passengers, Pence said. He said 24 tests came back negative and one inconclusive. There are 3,500 people on the ship.... [Donald Trump] said he preferred those who tested positive for the virus remain on the ship in part because he didn't want the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. to spike.... 'I like the numbers being where they are,' he said. 'I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.'"

KGO San Francisco: "Stanford University is canceling all in-person courses for the remainder of the winter quarter due to coronavirus concerns. The school's website states, those classes will not meet in person but will move to online formats. It also says that large-group events are being canceled or adjusted." This is a live update of coronavirus-related developments in the San Francisco area. It gives you a good idea of how life is changing for residents of an area directly affected by the virus. Here's the Seattle Times' liveblog; the University of Washington & other local colleges also have cancelled in-person classes.

David Enrich, et al., of the New York Times: "The spiraling fears [of the coronavirus outbreak] have caused financial carnage. The S&P 500 index has dropped 12 percent since Feb. 19, the sharpest dive in nine years. The plunge has obliterated roughly $3 trillion in wealth. In the past two weeks, even decent days have been tinted with a scary aura. On Friday afternoon, the S&P was poised to lose more than 2 percent, before the index pared its losses amid a blizzard of buying in the moments before the closing bell."

If you don't think Trump's lies are a danger to your health, there's this: ~~~

~~~ Brad Heath of Reuters: "Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to say the coronavirus poses an imminent threat to the United States, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week. And more Democrats than Republicans say they are taking steps to be prepared, including washing their hands more often or limiting their travel plans."

Aaron Rupar of Vox: "During his Fox News town hall on Thursday night..., Donald Trump said he planned to propose cuts to government benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security in his second term. The White House spent the hours that followed trying to walk those comments back.... Host Martha MacCallum pointed out that 'if you don't cut something in entitlements, you'll never really deal with the debt.'... Oh, we'll be cutting,' [Trump] said.... Press secretary Stephanie Grisham responded on Twitter to a story from the Daily Beast about how Democrats like Joe Biden were already messaging on Trump's entitlement comments.... 'Fake news -- POTUS was taking about cutting deficits, NOT entitlements,' Grisham tweeted. On Friday morning, Trump himself weighed in. 'I will protect your Social Security and Medicare, just as I have for the past 3 years. Sleepy Joe Biden will destroy both in very short order, and he won't even know he's doing it!' he tweeted. Around that same time, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was on Fox News denying that Trump said what he said...."

** Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "A union representing federal asylum officers said on Friday that a Trump administration policy that diverts migrants at the southwestern border to Guatemala unlawfully sends a vulnerable population to a country 'in which their lives and freedom directly threatened.' In an amicus brief filed in Federal District Court in Washington, a union representing 700 asylum and refugee officers with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said the deal with Guatemala violates international treaty obligations by deporting migrants to a country where they are likely to face persecution. Under the asylum deal, initially described as a 'safe third country agreement,' the administration can deport migrants at the southwestern border seeking safety in the United States to Guatemala to seek refuge there.... In the brief, the asylum officers said enforcing the policy violated their oath. The State Department's own country condition reports on Guatemala warn about rampant gang activity and high levels of violence."

Spencer Hsu & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "House Democrats asked a federal appeals court in Washington on Friday to reconsider enforcing a congressional subpoena for President Trump's former White House counsel Donald McGahn. The request comes after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that the courts have no authority to resolve the separation-of-powers dispute between the White House and Democrats in Congress. Lawyers for ... Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) want a full complement of judges on the appeals court to overturn the ruling from a three-judge panel of the same court. If last week's ruling stands, it means McGahn can defy the subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge in Washington has ordered the National Security Agency to turn over to her a memo that details an unusual conversation in which ... Donald Trump pleaded with former NSA chief Adm. Mike Rogers to take action to rebut news reports about collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in a ruling Friday that she needs to read the memorandum -- written by Rogers’ deputy, Rick Ledgett -- in order to decide whether it can be entirely blocked from release in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.... The Justice Department has argued that the entire memo is classified and exempt from disclosure under a form of executive privilege, because the document describes a confidential conversation between the president and a top adviser. The watchdog group pressing for the memo's release, the Protect Democracy project, contends that the privilege was waived after special counsel Robert Mueller included a summary of the conversation in his report that was published last year. Kollar-Kotelly said it is simply too hard for her to resolve those issues without seeing the memo herself."

Presidential Race

Misogynist-in-Chief Says Warren Is "Mean," Lacks Talent. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday shot down questions about whether sexism grounded the presidential campaign of Elizabeth Warren.... 'I think lack of talent was her problem,' Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the role sexism played in her demise. 'She had a tremendous lack of talent. She was a good debater. She destroyed Mike Bloomberg very quickly like it was nothing. That was easy for her but people don't like her.' But Trump then employed language likely to strike Warren's defenders as an example of the very gender-coded criticism her male opponents have not faced. 'She is a very mean person and people don't like her. People don't want that,' the president argued. Trump then claimed that 'people like a person like me, who is not mean.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) will vote to subpoena a former consultant linked to Burisma Holdings, as part of a GOP probe into Hunter Biden and the Ukraine gas company." (Also linked yesterday.) Update: A Washington Post story is here.

Veronica Stracqualursi & Annie Grayer of CNN: "A man was kicked out of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' rally in Arizona after he unfurled a Nazi flag during the Democratic presidential candidate's speech. The appearance of a Nazi flag at the Sanders campaign event Thursday night was widely denounced on social media, sparked outcry and prompted calls for security.... Sanders communications director Mike Casca told CNN that the Vermont senator did not see the flag.... Later in the night, the crowd wrestled away 'Trump' banners from protesters, who were also escorted out of the rally, according to footage from CNN affiliate KNXV.... Sanders addressed the flag incident on Friday, telling reporters, 'I will simply say this, and I speak not only as a Jewish American, I think I can speak for the families of some 400,000 American troops who died fighting Nazism, fighting fascism. That is, it is horrific. It is beyond disgusting to see that in the United States of America. There are people who would show the emblem of Hitler and Nazism.'"

"Warren's Exit Interview Was a Warning for the Dirtbag Left." Zack Beauchamp of Vox: In "Sen. Elizabeth Warren's campaign exit interview with Rachel Maddow, aired Thursday night..., Warren showed palpable anger with the online Sanders army's treatment of her and other progressives.... Maddow asked about Sanders's disavowal of his supporters' attacks on her, and Warren seemed not to find it very persuasive.... From Warren's point of view, it might seem like Sanders is speaking out of both sides of his mouth: vaguely disavowing online anger in public statements while his campaign reaches out and appeals directly to the people purveying it.... Online anger and abuse may not filter down to the ordinary voter directly, but it shapes the way Democratic Party elites see the Sanders campaign.... If Sanders's fans are really serious about helping their guy, they need to think carefully about whether what they're doing is actually working." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There's no reason to think Sanders' dirtbag brigade gives a flying fuck about effective governance and issues. Their point is to show off their "power" with crude insults & bullying. Many fascist movements have been at least theoretically left-wing or populist. This is something Bernie has refused always to understand.

Sarah Smarsh in a New York Times op-ed: "Consider every moment, since the dawn of woman, when a female aspired but to no avail. She asked to attend school but was denied. She raised her hand but wasn't called on. She applied but wasn't hired. She enlisted but wasn't deployed. She created but wasn't credited. She ran but wasn't elected. Imagine the sadness and frustration of every such instance as a spark, their combined energy the size of many suns. That is the measure of grief and fury I felt rise inside me as I watched Elizabeth Warren's bid for the Democratic nomination wane."

Mrs. McCrabbie: As Joy Reid pointed out in a discussion on MSNBC Thursday night, it's not entirely surprising that Americans elected a black male president before they elected a female president: as Reid said, "Black men got the vote in the U.S. 50 years before women did." (Paraphrase. It was 55 years, but you get the point.)

Trump Campaign Brings Another Frivolous Lawsuit. Matt Shuham of TPM: "The Trump campaign's lawsuit spree against major media outlets continued Friday, with a third suit in 10 days alleging unfair coverage. After suing The New York Times last week and The Washington Post on Tuesday -- both over pieces from opinion writers -- the President's reelection organization sued CNN Friday in federal court in Georgia, alleging 'a systematic pattern of bias against the Campaign.'... CNN's libel against the Trump campaign, the suit alleged, came from a a nine-month-old op-ed from Larry Noble, the law professor and former Federal Election Commission general counsel who's a vocal critic of President Trump."

Bill & Hillary Decide This Is a Good Time to Remind Voters Democratic Men Treat Women Badly, Get Impeached, Too. Neil Vigdor has the New York Times' story. Dan Merica writes CNN's story. Thanks, Billary! Stay relevant! Whacha got planned for late October? (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here. "Officials across the United States reported 308 cases of coronavirus and 17 deaths as of Friday, with Florida reporting the first deaths on the East Coast. The number of infections does not count the 21 people who have tested positive aboard a cruise ship off California, the Grand Princess. Florida officials reported on Friday night that there had been two deaths in the state related to the coronavirus. Both of the people who died had traveled internationally, they said. More tests are planned after 21 cases are found on the cruise ship. On the East Coast, a cluster has emerged in New York State. All but a few of its 33 confirmed cases as of Friday were linked to a New Rochelle man. More than 2,700 people are under some form of quarantine in New York City."

The Commentariat -- March 6, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Peter Baker of the New York Times: “President Trump signed an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to confront the coronavirus outbreak on Friday morning and decided to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, reversing his decision hours earlier to skip touring the nerve center of the government's response to the health crisis." Mrs. McC: The reason Trump's visit to the CDC was on-again/off-again was because of a suspected case of coronavirus at the Atlanta center. But then it turned out the person had tested negative for the virus. Everything is going very smoothly. A Politico story is here.

Guardian (from the liveblog @9:50 am ET): "Trump ... reiterated his lack of worry about the spread of [coronavirus] in the US. Perhaps problematic, though is that, to many, he's coming across as casually dismissive and posturing, not measured, and reassuringly presidential. 'You have to be calm,' he said, at the White House this morning before departing to tour the tornado damage in Tennessee and just after signing an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill to deal with the virus. 'It will go away,' he said. 'We have very low numbers [of confirmed cases] compared to many countries throughout the world, our numbers are lower than almost anyone ... deaths, is it 11?' It is. 'In terms of cases, it's very very few because we have been very strong at the borders.'"

Jonathan Chait enjoys ragging Donald Trump & Larry Kudlow for their wildly incorrect claims & prognostications on the coronavirus & its impact on the markets.

Misogynist-in-Chief Says Warren Is "Mean," Lacks Talent. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday shot down questions about whether sexism grounded the presidential campaign of Elizabeth Warren.... 'I think lack of talent was her problem,' Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the role sexism played in her demise. 'She had a tremendous lack of talent. She was a good debater. She destroyed Mike Bloomberg very quickly like it was nothing. That was easy for her but people don't like her.' But Trump then employed language likely to strike Warren's defenders as an example of the very gender-coded criticism her male opponents have not faced. 'She is a very mean person and people don't like her. People don't want that,' the president argued. Trump then claimed that 'people like a person like me, who is not mean.'"

Yun Li of CNBC @ 11 am ET: "Stocks fell on Friday, extending the deep rout in the previous session, as Wall Street edges closer to the end of a tumultuous trading week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 530 points, or 1.9%, cutting some of its morning losses. The 30-stock benchmark plunged 894 points at one point in the session. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite also pared losses slightly, last down 2.1% and 1.9%, respectively. Airline stocks rebounded sharply after chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said the White House is considering 'targeted measures' to offset the negative impact on the industry from the coronavirus outbreak. American Airlines jumped 4%, while United Airlines surged more than 7%. Still, investors continued to seek safer assets amid fears that the coronavirus will disrupt global supply chains and tip the economy into a recession. On Friday, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield tumbled below 0.7% for the first time ever. Another haven asset gold is on track for its best week since 2008."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) will vote to subpoena a former consultant linked to Burisma Holdings, as part of a GOP probe into Hunter Biden and the Ukraine gas company."

Bill & Hillary Decide This Is a Good Time to Remind Voters Democratic Men Treat Women Badly, Get Impeached, Too. Neil Vigdor has the New York Times' story. Dan Merica writes CNN's story. Thanks, Billary! Stay relevant! Whacha got planned for late October?

~~~~~~~~~~

** No Country for Women. Astead Herndon & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts told her staff she was dropping out of the presidential race on Thursday, ending a run defined by an avalanche of policy plans that aimed to pull the Democratic Party to the left and appealed to enough voters to make her briefly a front-runner last fall." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Every time I get introduced as the most powerful woman, I almost cry, because I wish that were not true. I so wish that we had a woman president of the United States, and we came so close to doing that... I do think there's a certain element of misogyny. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at her weekly press conference Thursday

This Is Going to Be Painful:

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you think a debate between Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders is going to make Democrats look like the Party of the Future, you have another think coming. Also too, aren't these the two people in America most likely to get the coronavirus and get it bad?

Mara Gay of the New York Times on "why Southern Democrats saved Biden." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Well, maybe. But the guy they saved, well, the last time he ran for president, Joe Biden called Barack Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." The guy they saved engineered the suppression of black women testifying against a sexual harasser who still sits on the Supreme Court because, he said, he had given his word to Southern Republican male senators to keep the women quiet. Southern Democrats "saved" perhaps the most paternalistic, "Southern"-type white man running on the Democratic ticket. It's bad enough this kind of thinking controls the Republican party. Now we know it controls both parties. This country, like its presidential candidates, is corrupt (Trump) and over the hill (Biden-Sanders).

Mistakes Were Made. Matt Yglesias of Vox, who is sympathetic to Bernie Sanders, assesses the Sanders campaign. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Bernie Suddenly Feels the Barack:

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "The mayor of Burlington, Vt., wrote to a Soviet counterpart in a provincial city that he wanted the United States and the Soviet Union to 'live together as friends.' Unbeknown to him, his desire for friendship meshed with the efforts of Soviet officials in Moscow to 'reveal American imperialism as the main source of the danger of war.'That mayor was Bernie Sanders, and the story of his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union has been told before. But many of the details of Mr. Sanders's Cold War diplomacy before and after that visit -- and the Soviet effort to exploit Mr. Sanders's antiwar agenda for their own propaganda purposes -- have largely remained out of sight. The New York Times examined 89 pages of letters, telegrams and internal Soviet government documents revealing in far greater detail the extent of Mr. Sanders's personal effort to establish ties between his city and a country many Americans then still considered an enemy despite the reforms being initiated at the time under Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet general secretary."

On the teevee, they're calling the Democratic primary "officially a two-man race." But Tulsi Gabbard!

Maya King of Politico: "Just 36 hours after suspending his campaign for president, Michael Bloomberg is out with a new digital advertisement.... On the heels of announcing plans to start a new organization to elect Democrats in battleground states, Bloomberg released a digital ad targeting Donald Trump. The ad ... teases the billionaire's future plans to throw his money behind an ad campaign aimed at defeating president in November."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney ... could throw another wrench in President Trump's and the GOP's efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens.... Romney indicated Thursday that he is skeptical about the need for the Senate Homeland Security Committee to issue a subpoena related to Hunter Biden's work for Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company. 'I would prefer that investigations are done by an independent, nonpolitical body,' Romney told The Post's Mike DeBonis. 'There's no question the appearance is not good.' Romney also told reporters the effort 'appears political' and said, 'I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations.'... Republicans have a 8-to-6 majority [on the committee], meaning Romney's vote, when combined with the six Democrats on the committee, would deadlock it at 7-7 and prevent the subpoena from being issued. (Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman hasn't committed to voting for the subpoena yet, either.)" Politico's story is here.

>Craig Timberg & Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "Facebook removed Trump campaign ads on Thursday for violating its policy against misleading references to the U.S. census amid criticism that it has given politicians too much leeway to misinform users on its platform. The Trump ads urged Facebook users to 'take the official 2020 Congressional District Census today,' but despite the look and language of the ad, they were not related to the once-a-decade national count of U.S. citizens happening this year. Instead, the ads linked to a survey on the 'Certified Website of President Donald J. Trump,' which collected information and requested a donation. Facebook initially said it would permit the ads, ruling that they were clearly not a part of the U.S. census.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sharply criticized Facebook's decision [to allow the fake census ads] in a news conference Thursday.... Facebook reversed its position hours later, saying that the ads indeed violated its policy against 'misrepresentation of the dates, locations, times and methods for census participation.'" Politico's story is here.

New York Times: "The stock market has swung wildly in the past week as investors have struggled to get a bead on the economic damage the fast spreading coronavirus might cause, as the number of cases continues to rise and companies step up measures to contain them. That jarring volatility continued on Thursday, with the S&P 500 falling more than 3 percent. The index has now climbed or fallen more than 3 percent on six different days in the past two weeks.... Shares of airlines plunged and industrial, financial and energy stocks also fell sharply. Worry about long-term growth also pushed the yield on 10-year United States Treasury notes to a new low. Because of their relative safety, government bonds are in high demand during bouts of panic over the economy.... News about the coronavirus's spread has been relentless: A cruise ship being held off the coast of San Francisco has suspected links to two coronavirus cases, one of them fatal. The governor of California declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, and 18 states have infected patients. Around the world, more than 90,000 cases and 3,000 deaths have been reported." CNBC's report is here.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday easily passed more than $8 billion in funding to fight the coronavirus, sending the measure to President Trump, who is expected to sign it. Senators voted 96-1 on the bill, which was finalized and cleared the House the day before.... [Sen. Rand] Paul [R-Ky.] was the lone senator to vote against the final measure Thursday." Mrs. McC: Of course.

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Vice President Mike Pence ... acknowledged Thursday there was a shortfall in the number of [coronavirus] testing kits required to meet demand.... It was the latest in a confusing string of statements from the administration about the availability of coronavirus tests. The issue has emerged as a key flaw in the Trump administration's response, which has frustrated doctors and state health officials who want to identify patients with coronavirus to isolate them and prevent the virus's spread."

U.S. Is Breeding Coronavirus on Cruise Ship. Reed Albergotti, et al., of the Washington Post: "Military helicopters delivered testing kits Thursday to a cruise ship being held off the coast of California, as officials in Washington faced angry questions about whether the vessel is set to become the latest breeding ground for the deadly novel coronavirus.... Public health officials ... were investigating a cluster of coronavirus cases among the roughly 2,500 people who had taken an earlier cruise on the same ship. One of those passengers, a 71-year-old man, has since died of covid-19.... At a hearing on Capitol Hill about the federal response to the novel coronavirus, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) asked [Ken Cuccinelli, who testified at the hearing,] why the passengers on the Grand Princess were being held offshore in a closed environment, where the virus could spread.... Cuccinelli defended the decision, saying there is not enough capacity on land to quarantine large numbers of passengers."

Anne Flaherty of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is falsely blaming the Obama administration for the slow rollout of U.S. tests for the new coronavirus, ignoring his administration's own fumbles in responding to the health crisis and mischaracterizing Obama-era policies.... 'The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing,' Trump said Wednesday. 'And we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion.' Under Obama, the Food and Drug Administration exercised only some oversight of large commercial test kits shipped across state lines. But there was little to no check done on single medical labs, former officials said.... Last Saturday, the FDA invoked a 2004 law -- passed well before Trump or Obama took office -- to specifically authorize coronavirus tests to be developed in private laboratories like hospitals and given to patients without prior federal approval.... This power was something Health Secretary Alex Azar and the FDA have had since coronavirus became a global health crisis in late January.... Standing next to Trump, Robert Redfield -- head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- backed up Trump's mischaracterization of Obama-era policy when it came to medical tests.... The Trump administration has faced sharp questions by state governors and Democratic lawmakers for the lack of tests available to doctors and hospitals." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Assuming Joe Biden becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, we'll hear from Trump & Co. that Biden was directly responsible for preventing coronavirus testing.

Farah Stockman & Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Nurses in two states who are responding to the onslaught of novel coronavirus cases said in interviews this week that they lack protective equipment, training on how to use whatever equipment they have been given, and clear protocols to keep themselves and their patients safe. Some nurses in the two states, Washington State and California, said they have been asked to watch online videos -- rather than have in-person training -- about how to spot the virus and how to put on and take off hazmat suits. Others said they have had to beg for N95 masks, which are thicker and block out much smaller particles than surgical masks do. And still others said they have faced ridicule when expressing concerns about catching the highly contagious virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Diamond, et al., of Politico: "There [was] a notable omission when Vice President Mike Pence visit[ed] Washington state Thursday as part of the Trump administration's coronavirus response: health Secretary Alex Azar. The White House on Wednesday also benched Azar from a coronavirus task force press briefing, the latest sign of diminished standing for an official who was the face of the U.S. response to the disease just a week ago. Four of Azar's deputies -- including Medicare chief Seema Verma and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Steve Hahn, who were both added to the task force after Pence took over the federal response -- joined the vice president and other officials at the White House on Wednesday.... Pence asked Azar not to attend Wednesday's press conference, said two individuals with knowledge of events."

Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle: "California on Thursday became the latest state to order insurance companies to waive out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus testing.... Washington's state insurance commissioner issued a similar order on Thursday, as did New York regulators on Monday." --s

Vera Bergengruen & W.J. Hennigan of Time: "Since January, epidemiologists, former U.S. public health officials and experts have been warning, publicly and privately, that the administration's insistence that containment was -- and should remain -- the primary way to confront an emerging infectious disease was a grave mistake.... Experts say the U.S. response is now likely weeks -- if not months -- behind schedule.... The problem, they say, is that once it was clear that the [corona]virus was within our borders officials did not pivot quickly enough to changing circumstances. And those new circumstances, experts told Time, were entirely predictable." --s

Donald Trump Is a Health Hazard. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "As leading public health experts from across the government have tried to provide clear and consistent information about the deadly coronavirus, they have found their messages undercut, drowned out and muddled by President Trump's push to downplay the outbreak with a mix of optimism, bombast and pseudoscience. Speaking almost daily to the public about an outbreak that has spread across states and rocked the markets, Trump has promoted his opinions and at times contradicted the public health experts tasked with keeping Americans safe. The president has repeatedly misstated the number of Americans who have tested positive for the virus and claimed it would 'miraculously' disappear in the spring. He has given a false timeline for the development of a vaccine, publicly questioned whether vaccinations for the flu could be used to treat the novel coronavirus and dismissed the World Health Organization's coronavirus death rate estimate, substituting a much lower figure and citing a 'hunch.'... The president's running commentary about the coronavirus, untethered to script or convention, indicates that the Trump administration's greatest obstacle to sending a clear message about the outbreak may be Trump himself."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "So far, Donald Trump's response to coronavirus combines the worst features of autocracy and of democracy, mixing opacity and propaganda with leaderless inefficiency. From the beginning, Trump minimized the scale of the crisis, portraying it as a purely foreign threat that could be addressed by closing borders.... Within the administration, there's strong pressure not to contradict Trump's line.... It seems as if in the midst of this burgeoning crisis, we're seeing a coordinated, whole-of-government campaign to protect the president from being contradicted.... But if this administration is incapable of the basic honesty one expects from officials in a democracy, it also can't pull off autocratic, top-down coordination.... Trump spent much of Thursday afternoon congratulating himself on Twitter for his coronavirus response."

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "A top State Department official said Thursday that Russia is behind 'swarms of online, false personas' that sought to spread misinformation about coronavirus on social-media sites, stressing the 'entire ecosystem of Russian disinformation is at play.' The latest warning came from Lea Gabrielle, the coordinator of the government's Global Engagement Center, in testimony to Congress.... The Kremlin, in particular, 'seeks to weaken its adversaries by manipulating the information environment in nefarious ways, by polarizing political conversations, and attempting to destroy the public's faith in good governance, independent media, and democratic principles,' she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As I was posting the link above, I was listening to an MSNBC report about Trump's spreading misinformation about coronavirus. In addition, Romm writes that the State Department has added to the confusion of who's behind the misinformation inasmuch as "the State Department report on coronavirus ... did not mention Russia." So I guess I'd put it down to Trump, Trump toadies & Russia. It's one of those conspiracies where the actors don't necessarily speak to each another but reinforce one another as they work toward the same end.

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's company charged the Secret Service $157,000 more than was previously known -- billing taxpayers for rooms at his clubs at rates far higher than his company has claimed, according to a new trove of receipts and billing documents released by the Secret Service. Many of the new receipts were obtained by the watchdog group Public Citizen, which spent three years battling the Secret Service over a public-records request from January 2017. When added to dozens of charges already reported by The Washington Post, the new documents show that Trump's company has charged the Secret Service more than $628,000 since he took office in 2017. The payments show Trump has an unprecedented -- and still partially hidden -- business relationship with his own government. The full scope of that relationship is still unknown because the publicly available records are largely from 2017 and 2018, leaving huge gaps in the data."

AP: "... Jared Kushner has sold his stake in a company investing in Opportunity Zone projects offering tax breaks he had pushed for in Washington, sparking criticism that he was benefiting from his White House role. A filing at the Office of Government Ethics released Monday shows that Kushner received permission to defer capital gains taxes on the sale of his stake in Cadre, a digital platform for smaller investors in commercial properties. Kushner's holding in the private Cadre was worth between $25 million and $50 million.... Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, pushed for the Opportunity Zone tax breaks to be included in Trump's 2017 tax overhaul.... Kushner also has stakes in more than a dozen properties in Opportunity Zones owned by his family firm, Kushner Cos. It is not clear if the company has taken advantage of the breaks." --s

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday sharply criticized Attorney General William P. Barr's handling of the report by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, saying that Mr. Barr put forward a 'distorted' and 'misleading' account of its findings and lacked credibility on the topic. Judge Reggie B. Walton said Mr. Barr could not be trusted and cited 'inconsistencies' between his statements about the report when it was secret and its actual contents that turned out to be more damaging to President Trump. Judge Walton said Mr. Barr's 'lack of candor' called 'into question Attorney General Barr's credibility and, in turn, the department's' assurances to the court. The judge ordered the Justice Department to privately show him the portions of the report that were censored in the public version so he could independently verify the justifications. The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking a full-text version of the report." Walton is a Bush II appointee. The Hill has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Judge Walton didn't say anything we don't already know, but it is astounding to hear a federal judge effectively call the attorney general a liar in a court proceeding. ~~~

~~~ Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "How often does a conservative federal judge call a conservative attorney general a liar whose word can't be trusted? Not very often. But Barr is a special case."

Barr Aids Trump's Cruel Immigration Policies. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr quietly intervened in an immigration asylum case last week when he issued a decision that narrowed the definition of torture for asylum seekers who invoke it as a grounds for staying in the United States. Barr used a process known as 'certification,' a historically little-used power of the attorney general that allows him to overrule decisions made by the Board of Immigration Appeals and set binding precedent. Immigration lawyers and judges say the Trump administration is using the power with greater frequency -- to the point of abuse -- as it seeks to severely limit the number of immigrants who can remain in the United States. The administration is also using it as a check on immigration judges whose decisions don't align with the administration's immigration agenda, experts say." Mrs. McC: IOW, Barr is going above & beyond -- even to the point of facilitating torture -- to help Trump punish asylum seekers. Bill Barr is a horrible human being.

Debbie Cenziper of the Washington Post: "Seventy-five years after the end of the war, a U.S. immigration judge in Memphis has ordered the deportation of a longtime Tennessee resident and German citizen who acknowledged having served as a guard at a concentration camp in Germany and is still receiving a pension for work that includes his wartime service. An index card found submerged in a sunken ship in the Baltic Sea helped federal prosecutors prove their case.... Officials at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum also supported the investigation.... According to the removal order, announced by the Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, Friedrich Karl Berger served at a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp system, near Hamburg."

Tierney Sneed of TPM: "The apparent refusal of President Trump's Justice Department to engage in any meaningful, public enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has taken Republicans' general hostility to the law to a whole new level. The DOJ has not filed a single new Voting Rights Act case since the Trump administration took over -- setting it apart from the last several administrations, Republican and Democratic.... The current dry spell in DOJ voting rights enforcement is unprecedented, according to the DOJ's own public record and what former voting section officials told TPM.... The Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder dramatically altered the legal landscape around the VRA in ways that make the current lack of DOJ enforcement even more striking...." --s

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Under fire from President Trump and Republican senators who accused him of threatening two conservative Supreme Court justices, Senator Chuck Schumer said on Thursday he 'should not have used the words' he did on Wednesday in a fiery speech warning of the consequences of their rulings. But Mr. Schumer, who chalked up his sharp tongue to his Brooklyn upbringing, refused to apologize for the spirit of his remarks, saying that Republicans would pay a political price if the court struck down abortion rights. 'They didn't come out the way I intended,' Mr. Schumer said of his remarks a day before that Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh ... would 'pay the price' if a contentious Louisiana case the court was hearing ended up reducing access to abortion in the state and across the country.... Mr. Schumer ... said those remarks were not meant as a threat of bodily harm against the justices, but instead as a warning to Mr. Trump and the Republicans who supported his conservative nominees that they could suffer a political backlash for the decisions the justices made. 'And Republicans who are busy manufacturing outrage over these comments know that, too,' Mr. Schumer added." An NBC News story is here.

Jan Ransom of the New York Times: "Harvey Weinstein underwent a heart procedure at a New York City hospital on Wednesday evening and the next day was transferred to a jail on Rikers Island for inmates needing special protection, his spokesman said. Mr. Weinstein, the once powerful film producer, was convicted last week of rape and criminal sexual assault after a trial in Manhattan that many saw as a milestone in the #MeToo movement. A judge ordered him held in jail until his sentencing next week. But hours after the verdict, Mr. Weinstein, 67, experienced extremely high blood pressure and heart palpitations, his lawyers said. He was taken directly from State Supreme Court in Manhattan to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was treated for 10 days in a ward for inmates. Mr. Weinstein had a stent implanted to alleviate a blockage, his spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, said."

Shannon Vavra of Cyberscoop: "U.S. government officials have warned that the Chinese technology firm [Huawei] could be used as a tool for government surveillance or other intelligence operations, specifically via backdoors in its mobile networks.... In order to answer to each and every accusation, Huawei sent two of its top cybersecurity officials -- Chief Security Officer Andy Purdy and Vice President of Risk Management and Partner Relations Tim Danks -- to the RSA Conference in San Francisco last week. In an interview with CyberScoop..., the executives indicated they don't really have visibility into how their technology is used." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Another Legal American Murder. Alabama. Kenya Evelyn of the Guardian: "Alabama has executed Nathaniel Woods, a prisoner convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of three police officers, despite a national outcry over his case. The execution by lethal injection came after the US supreme court issued a temporary stay to consider last-minute appeals and then denied the inmate's petitions. Alabama governor Kay Ivey denied a request for clemency.... The execution proceeded despite the co-defendant, Kerry Spencer, supporting Woods' innocence.... Woods' supporters also point to a joint investigation between The Appeal and the Alabama Media Group that uncovered several accusations of police misconduct involving Woods' case." The New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond

Azerbaijan/U.K. Edward Robinson, et al. of Bloomberg: "Jahangir Hajiyev..., then chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan, had used a chain of trusts and shell companies stretching from Cyprus to the Channel Islands to move tens of millions of dollars out of the state-owned lender, according to allegations in U.K. court filings.... Hajiyev [was] charged in Azerbaijan ... [and] was sentenced to 15 years in prison.... The U.K.'s National Crime Agency obtained court orders in 2018 freezing some of his assets.... The authorities have said they hope the case will be a blueprint for curbing the estimated 100 billion pounds ($128 billion) in dirty money that worms its way into Britain every year.... The trove of documents reviewed by Bloomberg provides a rare look at the inner workings of two dozen shell companies that moved Hajiyev's illicit wealth around the world." --s (Firewalled.)

News Lede

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here. "... around the world, as the number of cases neared 100,000, governments have displayed signs of paralysis, obfuscation and a desire to protect their own interests, even as death tolls passed 3,200 and global capitals were so threatened by infection that politicians and health officials tested positive for the illness. In the United States, a survey of nurses found that only 29 percent had a plan to isolate potentially infected patients. Across the nation, as the number of new cases passed 200, public health labs anxiously awaited diagnostic kits, which will allow for a fuller sense of the scale of the crisis."