;)
The Commentariat -- April 30, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here.
Charisse Jones of USA Today: "About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks.... Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country. While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental, and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley." ~~~
~~~ From the New York Times live updates, linked above: "If anything, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate, according to many economists. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn't even try because they found the process too formidable.... As Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano [of the NYT] reported, systems that were devised to treat each unemployment case as potentially fraudulent are now rushing to deal with millions of newly unemployed people."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded one million. The American death toll surpassed that of the Vietnam War. And the economy was reported to have shrunk by nearly 5 percent. But the White House on Wednesday declared its response to the crisis 'a great success story.' As states begin to lift quarantines, President Trump is trying to recast the story of the pandemic from that of an administration slow to see and address the threat to one that responded with decisive action that saved lives. Recognizing that the crisis jeopardizes his chances of re-election, he and his allies want to convince his supporters that the cascade of criticism is unwarranted.... 'I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel very strongly,' Mr. Trump said [Wednesday, Mrs. McC: in one of those curious, non-idiomatic and, in this case, ungrammatical 'strongly' sentences].... In the revised history of the pandemic that Mr. Trump and his team offered, his actions were not belated and inadequate, but bold and effective. 'We did all the right moves,' Mr. Trump said. 'If we didn't do what we did, you would have had a million people die, maybe more, maybe two million people die.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not "revised history." This is lying about what happened within the past few weeks or months. Somebody should tell NYT reporters & editors that using accurate, if negative, language is good journalism. ~~~
~~~ Unhappy he has not done enough stupid stuff, Trump plans some more: ~~~
~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming the country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would probably lead to retaliation by Beijing.... 'Punishing China is definitely where the president's head is at right now,' one senior adviser said. Some political advisers have also encouraged Trump to take a more forceful swing at China because they think it will help him politically.... [So] senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.... Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait on how President Americ. A. First has undermined any chance of getting China to "pay" for Covid-19: "The reason you generally can't collect money from other countries is that we don't have a world government. To the limited extent it is possible to force other countries to pay you back without invading and occupying them, it is through the enforcement of international bodies like the World Trade Organization. But Trump has ignored or weakened transnational authorities.... The closest thing to a feasible option would be repudiating debt held by China, though the blowback to that move would be so enormous -- other potential buyers of Treasury bills would be demanding higher interest rates forever '' that this would be more like an act of financial self-harm than the collection of reparations.... The only discernible endgame here seems to be creating a predicate for Trump to publicly demand repayments from China as his solution to the crisis. If he could insist Mexico would pay for the wall, he can say China will pay for the coronavirus. The obvious fact that neither is going to happen is immaterial to their value as nationalistic campaign slogans." ~~~
~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic. Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus.... Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS. Mr. Trump's aides and Republicans in Congress have sought to blame China for the pandemic in part to deflect criticism of the administration's mismanagement of the crisis in the United States, which now has more coronavirus cases than any country."
David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely distributed by the beginning of next year, despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety. The White House has made no public announcement of the new effort, called Operation Warp Speed, and some officials are apparently trying to talk the president down, telling him that it would be more harmful to set an unreasonably short deadline that might result in a faulty vaccine than to wait for one that is proved safe and effective.... Mr. Trump's order came after he grew frustrated by warnings from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... and other experts on the coronavirus task force, that development of a vaccine would take a year to 18 months, and that even that schedule might be ambitious. He told Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, to come up with a faster program. According to one official, the idea would be to indemnify the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from liability if the vaccines cause sickness or death...." ~~~
~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that U.S. officials and scientists are working as quickly as possible to produce a coronavirus vaccine, and he asserted that he's in charge of its development in 'Operation Warp Speed.' 'I hope we're going to have a vaccine and we're going to fast-track a vaccine like you've never seen before if we come with a vaccine. I think they probably will,' he told reporters during a White House meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.... 'I'm really in charge of it,' he said. 'I think probably more than anything I'm in charge.'" Mrs. McC: How reassuring is it that a guy who thinks it might be good to ingest Lysol & Clorox has put himself "in charge" of managing release of a vaccine that holds harmless its developers & manufacturers? I never imagined I could become an anti-vaxxer, but Holy Cow!
"The Swamp". Common Dreams via RawStory: "A new analysis of financial disclosure documents found that Republican and Democratic members of Congress [27 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 1 independent] made nearly 1,500 stock transactions worth up to $158 million between February and April as the coronavirus spread across the U.S., heightening suspicions that elected officials in charge of the federal response to the pandemic have opportunistically cashed in on it." --s
Timothy Gardner et al. of Reuters: "As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom.... The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that led to a landmark global deal to slash oil supply as demand collapsed in the coronavirus pandemic - scoring a diplomatic victory for the White House.... The kingdom's de facto leader was so taken aback by the threat that he ordered his aides out of the room so he could continue the discussion in private[.]" --s
Amy Taxin, et al., of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a memo was sent to the group's members Wednesday so they have time to plan ahead of Newsom's expected announcement Thursday."
Mrs. McCrabbie: Millions of Americans are stuck at home with nothing to do but check the news to find out if they'll ever be allowed out. So how is this possible? ~~~
~~~ Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "Americans divide evenly when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way ... Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus situation in the U.S., with 50% approving and 48% disapproving. Approval of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis is down 10 percentage points from last month, including a 10-point decline among independents and a 16-point decline among Democrats.... Gallup's April 14-28 poll finds Trump's overall job approval at 49%, the same as in a March 13-22 poll but higher than his reading of 43% in an April 1-14 survey. To the extent that these variations are not a function of sampling error, they could be tied to Americans' changing outlook on the coronavirus situation in general and Americans' increasingly evaluating Trump on the COVID issue alone." Mrs. McC's suggestion to the 49 percent: Drink a Lysol cocktail & go to bed.
Presidential Race. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "The president and his allies have embraced optimism as a central part of his new reelection push, offering a rosy message about a swift return to normal life despite the rising death toll and jobless claims resulting from the outbreak. Vice President Pence predicted the virus's impact will be largely over by Memorial Day. Much of the country will be back to normal by June, Jared Kushner ... told Fox News on Wednesday.... For his part, Trump has already declared that the economy has begun a' comeback,' predicting 'phenomenal' growth in the fourth quarter and arguing that he will quickly reconstruct what he describes as history's 'greatest economy.'... As economists and health experts warn that this crisis is likely to linger longer and have a more severe impact than anything in recent memory, Trump is essentially risking his reelection on proving them wrong."
Senate Race. South Carolina. Jessica Taylor of the Cook Report: "It's hard to think of a politician who has undergone a bigger evolution over the past four years than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. But could that very political makeover hurt him at the ballot box in 2020, even in a reliably red state?... [Graham] has emerged as one of President Trump's fiercest defenders.... Likely challenger Jaime Harrison, the state's former Democratic Party chairman and a DNC associate vice chairman..., had a record-setting fundraising haul during the first quarter of this year.... Harrison's compelling ads highlight his early biography. He's used his money to run positive spots in every major media market in the state.... Meanwhile, the likely Democratic nominee has been largely unanswered on TV.... So we are moving [the] South Carolina [U.S. Senate race] from Solid to Likely Republican." ~~~
~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "A top donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is switching sides. Richard Wilkerson, former head of Michelin's North America unit, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has endorsed Democrat Jaime Harrison.... Though Graham leads in limited polls, Harrison is outraising him this year so far, bringing in $7.36 million over the first three months versus $5.6 million for Graham."
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Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. deaths from covid-19 passed 60,000 on Wednesday, a figure President Trump had once projected would be the upper limit, as hopes rose for a drug treatment that the top U.S. infectious-disease expert said has shown a clear benefit in an early trial. Trump welcomed the promising early signs that an experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, can be effective in speeding the recovery time for covid-19 patients. 'The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,' Anthony S. Fauci said alongside Trump at the White House on Wednesday. 'That is really quite important.' The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci leads, is overseeing a ... double-blind, placebo-controlled trial ... of more than 1,000 patients.... The study showed that patients treated with remdesivir were ready to be discharged from the hospital within 11 days, on average, compared with an average of 15 days for patients who had received a placebo.... The study showed only a marginal benefit in the rate of death." The article is free to nonsubscribers.
From the New York Times' coronavirus live updates Wednesday: "U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014 and the worst quarterly contraction since 2008, when the country was in a deep recession. Things will get much worse. Widespread layoffs and business closings didn't happen until late March, or the very end of the last quarter, in most of the country. Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the effects of the shutdown more fully, to show that G.D.P. contracted at an annual rate of 30 percent or more." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The United States has suffered at least 66,000 more deaths than expected this year, a toll that includes the devastation directly caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp rise in fatalities not attributed to the virus, the government reported late Wednesday. The new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows 33,756 covid-19 deaths and 32,325 from all other causes since Jan. 1.... [The number] also could include people who died of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at home but whose deaths were incorrectly attributed to another cause. The numbers are almost certainly a substantial undercount of the actual total. On Wednesday, the death toll from the coronavirus alone passed 60,000 since Feb. 29, according to data collected by The Washington Post." The article is free to nonsubscribers.
Joel Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "The number of nursing homes publicly reporting cases of covid-19 has doubled in the past week, with more than 1 in 6 facilities nationwide now acknowledging infections among residents or staff, a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data found. The rise is driven in part by newly released information about previous novel coronavirus infections from states including Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky and South Carolina. Some states have not yet publicly released the names of affected nursing homes." The article is a freebie.
Joanne Kenen of Politico: "The Trump administration's 'Stay at Home' guidelines will quietly expire Thursday with little fanfare -- letting states decide what's next. But as ... Donald Trump repeatedly declares that 'we're opening our country again,' the inconsistent patchwork of state, local and business decision-making is exactly what could drive a second wave of the coronavirus -- or potentially prolong the current outbreak.... The White House is leaving states with a set of CDC recommendations. They aren't binding, and they aren't all specific. That could lead to unexpected spikes across the country -- sometimes in new places that didn't see a bad outbreak, but also in cities that were recovering, only to suffer a setback." ~~~
~~~ Christina Maxouris of CNN: "A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's top infectious disease doctor says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months. 'If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 'If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.' If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would 'get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,' adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted.... Being able to test for the virus, track cases and isolate every infected American will be key factors in ensuring that second wave isn't as deadly, Fauci says. The US continues to lag behind in testing, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The nation has performed 16.4 tests per 1,000 people, according to the report. Spain and Italy, with the second and third highest number of cases after the US, have conducted 22.3 and 29.7 tests per 1,000 people respectively." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Trump Determined to Make Fauci's Point a Reality. Brooke Singman of Fox "News": "President Trump on Wednesday said the administration will be 'fading out' the federal social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus that are slated to expire Thursday.... The 'fading out' of the White House social distancing guidelines comes as the states across the nation begin Phase One to reopen their economies amid the coronavirus crisis." Mrs. McC Translation: Trump means "fazing out." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Erika Edwards of NBC News: "As a handful of states begin to ease stay-at-home restrictions, no state that has opted to reopen has come close to the federally recommended decline in cases over a 14-day period.... Daily case counts continue to rise in many states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Even Trump's Testing Czar Says He Lied. W.J. Hennigan of Time: "... Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn't feasible given current technology. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government's testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that 'there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.'... Five hours later, when a reporter asked Trump at the White House if the country would reach five million daily tests, as the Harvard study recommended, Trump responded: 'We'll increase it, and it'll increase it by much more than that in the very near future.' Asked to clarify if he meant the U.S. would 'surpass 5 million tests per day', Trump said, 'We're going to be there very soon.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ As Jonathan Chait points out, "Trump's underlings usually know to steer clear of directly contradicting the boss's lies, but in this case, Time asked Giroir about testing levels in the morning, and then Trump decided to go ahead and lie about it that afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "On Wednesday..., Donald Trump retracted his claim that the U.S. will soon be able to administer 5 million COVID-19 tests every day after his own testing director on the White House task force, Admiral Brett Giroir, emphatically rejected the possibility of that goal. 'Somebody started throwing around five million,' Trump told reporters, referring to a Harvard University study that found that reopening the economy would only be feasible if the government were able to do at least five million tests daily by early June, and then ramp it up to 20 million tests each day by late July. 'I didn't say 5 million,' Trump said, despite the fact that he had said exactly that the day before." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would not say Trump "retracted his claim." I would say, "Trump lied about making a claim he made a day earlier." Trump does not retract; he lies.
Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to visit Arizona next week and potentially Ohio 'very soon,' marking one of the few times the president has left the White House in several weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic."
Rama Venkat of Reuters: "The Trump administration is quietly planning a major undertaking to speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal to have 100 million doses ready by year's end, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Called 'Operation Warp Speed,' the project will join private pharmaceutical companies with government agencies and the military in trying to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, Bloomberg News said bloom.bg/2YgpC1j." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've seen a few "Where's Jared?" stories this past week. After all, we heard he was in change of saving us from the coronavirus, and things have not been going well. Or so we thought. ~~~
~~~ "This Is a Great Success Story." Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Jared Kushner ... praised himself and the rest of the administration on Wednesday morning for its efforts to reopen the U.S. economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kushner's comments came after the nation's death toll from coronavirus surpassed the Vietnam War. 'I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed,' Kushner said during an interview on 'Fox and Friends.' 'So, the government -- federal government -- rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that's really what needs to be told.'" Hard to say why the White House keeps the boy genius under wraps. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Navy will open a full investigation of the coronavirus outbreak aboard an aircraft carrier, acting Navy secretary James McPherson said Wednesday, days after the service's top officer recommended the reinstatement of a captain who raised concerns about the handling of the issue. McPherson said Wednesday that after carefully reviewing a preliminary inquiry into what happened, he has 'unanswered questions' that 'can only be answered by a deeper review.'"
Dan Keating & Lauren Tierney of the Washington Post: "A majority of the country's 43.8 million renting households have lost at least some of their income in the coronavirus shutdown, a much higher share than homeowners, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll done in mid-April. This means an increasing number of households are at risk of missing rent payments, which could cascade into a national flood of evictions and forced homelessness. Facing the coronavirus pandemic, state governments have adopted special rules to protect renters. Landlords, attorneys, judges, sheriffs and renters are all trying to keep up with daily changes in the system.... The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has created a scorecard to measure protections for renters. Each state gets a rating from zero to five stars based on how many renter protections and supports it has in place." The article includes a map of state ratings & some additional data.
Alex Woodward of The Independent (U.K.): "Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines. As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.... The virus has had a wildly disproportionate impact among black congregations, many of which have relied on group worship." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. Kathleen McGrory & Rebecca Woolington of the Tampa Bay Times: "State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida's medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state's published count. The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners' death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted. They've now been withholding it for nine days, without providing any of the information or specifying what they plan to remove. Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Lawrence Mower & Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald: Florida "Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will start lifting stay-at-home orders starting Monday, with restaurants and shops being allowed to reopen with limited capacity. In the first phase of a three-phase plan, DeSantis said Florida will closely follow guidelines from the White House. The order does not apply to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the pandemic has hit hardest, however. He said he will consider issuing an order for those counties soon."
Georgia. Ed Kilgore of New York: "It's been well-established for a while that African-Americans are being hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus.... But the degree to which COVID-19 has victimized this demographic is dramatized by a new CDC study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Georgia, the state that is in the process of discarding restrictions on businesses and public gatherings via an order from Republican governor Brian Kemp. The Washington Post has the story: 'Surveying eight Georgia hospitals, researchers found that in a sample of 305 covid-19 patients, 247 were black -- more than 80 percent and more than they expected....'... As the Guardian explained recently: 'Due to occupational segregation, black Americans have often been disproportionately represented in industries and occupations that face the greatest risks of known occupational hazards. The same seems to be the case with Covid-19....'... The businesses that choose to reopen under Kemp's new order, forcing employees to give up unemployment benefits and go back to work in proximity to the public, are likely to have more black employees than businesses still operable via telecommuting." ~~~
~~~ ** "Experiment in Human Sacrifice." Amanda Mull of the Atlantic: "Georgia's brash reopening puts much of the state's working class in an impossible bind: risk death at work, or risk ruining yourself financially at home. In the grips of a pandemic, the approach is a morbid experiment in just how far states can push their people. Georgians are now the largely unwilling canaries in an invisible coal mine, sent to find out just how many individuals need to lose their job or their life for a state to work through a plague.... '... we're also choosing industries where racial- and ethnic-minority communities are disproportionately represented,' [Harry] Heiman, [a public-health professor at Georgia State University,] noted. He said that choosing to restart these industries is likely to deepen the crisis for communities of color in the South. 'They're going back to a job that places them at increased risk for exposure to coronavirus, and they don't have access to Medicaid, because we haven't expanded it,' he explained."
Maryland. Erin Cox & Steve Thompson of the Washington Post: "When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the purchase of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea last week, he called it 'an exponential, game-changing step forward' in the state's effort to get more people tested. The dramatic story drew notice from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a dismissive swipe from ... President Trump. But more than 10 days after the chartered Korean Air plane landed, Maryland has not allowed access to the tests kits, much to the frustration of local, state and federal leaders.... In conference calls with local and federal officials over the past two weeks, the Hogan administration said the tests were hung up by regulatory hurdles and shortages of other supplies that have throttled testing capacity nationwide, according to multiple people who participated. Hogan publicly described a different reality on Wednesday.... He said he would prioritize universal testing in nursing homes and other hot spots.... The governor said the kits would also bolster testing for health-care workers and first responders. As a fifth priority, he would expand the broad, community-based testing experts say is critical to easing shutdown restrictions." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although the Hogan administration is making conflicting statements about the availability of swabs, reagents and labs certified to analyze the tests, I can't see why they didn't start administering the tests, say, eight days ago.
New York. Rosalind Adams & Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed News: "On March 27..., Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to 'START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!' One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: 'We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT.' Its author was Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology..., he ... has ... no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices. But three days later, New York state paid Oren-Pines $69.1 million. The payment was for 1,450 ventilators -- at an astonishing $47,656 per ventilator, at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models.... Not a single ventilator ever arrived.... Nearly a month later, New York has terminated the contract, and the state is now trying to recover all of the money it paid the Silicon Valley electrical engineer.... A state official ... said New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, "the White House coronavirus task force"? Are we talking Jared Kushner here? The shadow task force that Kushner said would bring an "an entrepreneurial approach" to the problem because "In America, some of our best resources are in our private sector"? You have to admit, collecting $69 million for nothing is ever-so entrepreneurial.
Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: "Newly released documents about the origins of the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn show that FBI officials feared that the new Trump White House might view the bureau as 'playing games' if it sought to interview him without disclosing exactly what it was up to. The four pages of records provided to Flynn's defense attorneys last week and unsealed on Wednesday by a federal judge reflect internal brainstorming at the FBI in January 2017 about how to approach the politically explosive investigation into Flynn's contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks earlier, during the presidential transition.... One issue that FBI officials considered was whether to show Flynn that they already knew details of his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time.... Flynn's lawyers and supporters said the notes and emails were 'smoking gun' evidence that he was railroaded by FBI officials intent on bringing him down.... 'What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?' the notes read.... 'Flynn told the Russian ambassador to ignore U.S. sanctions, for goodness sake! FBI had a legitimate purpose and even a duty to question Flynn,' former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Politico via email on Wednesday night. 'The strategy of the agents does not negate Flynn's lies.'"
i24 News, Israel: "Newly released documents from the FBI suggests that Roger Stone ... had one or more high-ranking contacts in the Israeli government willing to help the then-Republican Party nominee win the presidential election.... Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also in the same post during US President Donald Trump's 2016 run for the White House.... In one exchange specifically mentioning Jerusalem, the document alleges Stone in communication with a high-ranking official in the Israeli capital. 'Roger, hello from Jerusalem,' the document reads. 'Any progress? He is going to be defeated unless we intervene. We have critical intell [sic]. The key is in your hands! Back in the US next week. How is your Pneumonia? Thank you.'" --s
Presidential Race
Lisa Lerer & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "For more than three weeks, progressive activists and women's rights advocates debated how to handle an allegation of sexual assault against Joseph R. Biden Jr. The conversations weren't easy, nor were the politics: Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, faced one allegation; his opponent, President Trump, at least a dozen. Finally, several of the women's groups prepared a public letter that praised Mr. Biden's work as an 'outspoken champion for survivors of sexual violence' but also pushed him to address the allegation from Tara Reade, a former aide who worked in Mr. Biden's Senate office in the early 1990s.... Then ... the group put the letter on hold as it began pressuring Biden advisers to push the candidate to make a statement himself before the end of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Nearly two weeks later, Mr. Biden and his campaign have yet to make that statement, and the advocates have not released their letter.... As two more women have come forward to corroborate part of Ms. Reade's allegation, the Biden campaign is facing attacks from the right and increasing pressure from the left to address the issue.... Republicans and the Trump campaign are already using the accusation to undercut Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party as hypocritical on issues of gender equity." ~~~
~~~ Ruby Cramer & Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed News: "While Joe Biden has remained publicly silent about a sexual assault allegation made against him, his presidential campaign has sought to coordinate and unify Democratic messaging on the matter, advising surrogates earlier this month to say that the allegation 'did not happen.' The Biden campaign circulated talking points among top Democratic supporters shortly after the New York Times
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Joe, you can't pretend to be a champion of women while hiding behind your female staff's skirts. I believe Reade, partially because I have been the victim of very similar attacks (though I didn't get fired because I knew not to complain).* The details of Joe's assault seems to be SOP for powerful men. In any event, I am committed to voting for you instead of the careless, repeat sexual abuser currently occupying the Oval. ~~~ * Oh, wait. I forgot. I did once get fired for complaining about a different kind of sexual attack. My complaint "had upset the talent," the woman who fired me said. ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: "... the way [for Biden] to signal he takes Ms. Reade's case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.... Contemporaneous accounts of Ms. Reade's claim are counterweighted by the denials of her superiors at the time that she reported any misconduct, as well as inconsistencies in her retelling. There are, at the moment, no clear conclusions.... President Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault, including rape, by dozens of women. He has responded by brushing the accusations off, once claiming repulsively, 'She's not my type.' It may seem unfair to hold Mr. Trump's likely rival in the 2020 race to a standard that Mr. Trump has failed to meet again and again. But Mr. Trump shouldn't be allowed to set that standard. A better man could." The editors also recommend that Biden release any related personnel records. ~~~
~~~ Steve M. "... this is working out just the way the Republican Party wants it to. The slow build of the story seems to have lulled Biden into believing that it will disappear as a news item, the way sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump always disappear. (That won't happen, and there'll come a time when Trump will add a Tara Reade riff to his stump speech...). The mainstream press is feeling the need to make up for the lack of early coverage, so ... it's a drip-drip-drip with MSM buy-in. In other words, it's Hillary Clinton's emails and Uranium One all over again. Those slow-simmering stories worked like a charm for the GOP. This scandal can get Trump reelected. Joe Biden needs to realize that it will consume him unless he can persuade us that he's innocent." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Both the WashPo editors & Steve are right. Unfortunately, there's a near-guarantee that if Biden does try to address the charges, he will blow it. Joe Biden is just not a guy who gets it. ~~~
~~~ On the Other Hand. Here is an article posted to Medium that attacks Tara Reade's credibility and posts receipts to at least partially back up its claims. A woman who runs a California non-profit claims Reade manipulated, duped and stole from her & her non-profit. Mrs. McC: We really do need more reporting on Reade. If she has a history of lying & stealing -- and I'm not saying she does -- her accusations will go away. ~~~
~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "The job description for Joe Biden's running mate has suddenly become more complicated: the Democratic vice presidential nominee must now defend him against sexual assault accusations without looking hypocritical. It's a particularly vexing problem for Biden's potential picks, many of whom played lead roles in opposing the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.... Advisers to four of the potential candidates who spoke to Politico -- none of whom would go on record -- ... all said they hoped Biden would speak out soon, but conceded there's no way he -- or those in contention to be his running mate -- can continue to avoid the subject as they run for office or jockey to be on the Democratic ticket."
Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's advisers presented him with the results of internal polling last week that showed him falling behind former vice president Joe Biden in key swing states in the presidential race, part of an effort by aides to curtail Trump's freewheeling daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. The president spoke with campaign manager Brad Parscale, White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among other officials, in calls and meetings last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.... Trump resisted the pleas, saying people 'love' the briefings and think he is 'fighting for them.'... Trump told Parscale that he did not believe the polling that had been presented to him, even though it came from the campaign and the RNC." ~~~
~~~ Nothing Is Trump's Fault, Including His Being the Worst President* in U.S. History. Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump, according to multiple people..., erupted during a phone call with his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, two days after he was presented with polling data from his campaign and the Republican National Committee that showed him trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... in several crucial states. He lashed out at Mr. Parscale and said it was other people's fault that there had been fluctuations in a race they had all seen as his to lose just two months ago. At one point, Mr. Trump said he would not lose to Mr. Biden, insisted the data was wrong and blamed the campaign manager for the fact that he is down in the polls, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. Mr. Trump even made a threat to sue Mr. Parscale, mentioning the money he has made while working for the president, another person familiar with the call said, although the threat did not appear to be serious." ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "As he huddled with advisers on Friday evening..., Donald Trump was still fuming over his sliding poll numbers and the onslaught of criticism he was facing for suggesting a day earlier that ingesting disinfectant might prove effective against coronavirus. Within moments, the President was shouting -- not at the aides in the room, but into the phone -- at his campaign manager Brad Parscale, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It's not clear how serious the President's threat of a lawsuit was." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Only Trump would think of suing somebody else because he himself is a flaming ass.
Kansas. Rick Hasen: "In a major ruling, a 10th Circuit panel (consisting of 2 judges, as a third judge on the panel had passed away), a Tenth Circuit panel has held that a Kansas anti-voting law championed by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach violated both the Constitution's equal protection clause and was preempted by the federal motor-voter law. The law at issue required those who wished to register to vote in Kansas to provide documentary proof of citizenship -- such as a birth certificate or naturalizatio certificate -- in order to register to vote. Until the ACLU secured a preliminary injunction against this law, about 30,000 people had their voter registrations suspended and were not allowed to vote in Kansas elections.... Kobach had claimed that the amount of noncitizen voting was the tip of the iceberg, but the trial court, after an extensive trial where Kobach was given every chance to prove his case, as no more than 'an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Wisconsin. Shawn Johnson of Wisconsin Public Radio: "State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly announced Wednesday he would lift his recusal in a case that could purge up to 200,000 names from Wisconsin's voter list. Kelly, who lost his bid for a 10-year term on the court to Judge Jill Karofsky, had stayed out of the case while he was a candidate, saying it could have influenced his own election. With that race now behind him, he indicated in a brief order Wednesday that circumstances had changed.... Kelly's recusal from the voter purge case had tangible consequences in December, when the court deadlocked 3-3 on whether to hear the case on an expedited appeal.... Kelly was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016." --s
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Reader Comments (18)
You would have thought Biden would have taken the perfect opportunity during the interview with Hillary to follow Bill Clinton's example of public confession about lying about indiscretions and owned up to his own shit - show some heartfelt contrition about his past with Ms. Reade, apologize to her and the American people, talk about the lessons he has learned. Nope. But then I can't imagine what Hillary's response would have been...an awkward atta-boy?
This sexual allegation charge is going to kill Biden. The great irony is that we’ll be left with a sexual predator far more “accomplished” and dangerous. Can’t we find a guy who can keep his hands to himself? Jesus.
So now the Orange Murderer has come up with some other nut job bullshit scheme, this Warp Factor Five vaccine plan, or whatever the hell it is. It took years to develop a vaccine for polio, which didn’t mutate the way the Covid viruses can, and even after the initial success they still had problems.
Hundreds of kids injected with an improperly produced vaccine became partially paralyzed. Some died. And this was after years of research. How much trust do you place in Jared Kushner to get this right?
And here’s Fatso declaring that he can produce a vaccine in eight months or less, to treat a pathogen scientists are still trying to figure out. The lies are bad enough. But endangering millions by trying to rush through a process so he can be re-elected is far worse. Criminal charges need to be brought.
@Akhilleus: A-1 headline, November 1, 2020: "Trump: Covid Vaccine Available November 4." Sub-head: "'Anyone who wants the shot can get the shot.'" A-23 item headline: "Fauci Disappearance Still a Mystery."
Marie,
If, as seems entirely likely, especially in the professional opinion of real scientists like Fauci, as opposed to a shockingly obtuse and dangerously unqualified dilettante with a black market Harvard degree, the novel coronavirus comes roaring back in the fall and winter, expect an avalanche of lies, phony promises, finger pointing, and spurious claims of imminent salvation as Election Day approaches.
This, to go along with round the clock attacks on Joe Biden as an assaulter of women (Tara Reade will become a fixture on Fox) as the pro-death crowd exhibits their appropriately horrified expressions that a presidential candidate should have done that to a woman. How awful!
But now that I think of it, it’s even more likely that there will be no roaring back of the death toll in the fall and winter. Since Fatty and friends are insisting on “reopening” the country right now, and the Party of ☠️ is forcing people back to work by threatening to take away financial assistance if they dare to put their lives above the re-election of the Orange Monster, the death toll will spike—and stay there— long before we get close to September.
This will be a year or more of largely avoidable horror and death, sponsored, abetted, and cheered on by Fatty, Fox, Kushner, the half pence, Barr, and the Turtle. It’s gonna be Arma-fucking-geddon.
And that, right soon.
Akhilleus Re:
“But now that I think of it, it’s even more likely that there will be no roaring back of the death toll in the fall and winter (but) the death toll will spike—and stay there— long before we get close to September.”
These have been my very thoughts.
And terrifying fears.
Re: the Reade accusation. When I first got wind of this I smelled something fishy: Joe Biden was vice president for eight years and yet our lady in question never raised the issue. Her description of the alleged assault without going into graphic detail sounded weird as well as puzzling. The fact that she told her mother and a few others at the time does not mean it happened–-it might have been something she wished had happened. Because of the Me-too movement and the outing of all those famous sexual predators we tend to believe the women who come forward with their accusations–-for good reason. But we need to be careful here––women can also manipulate and lie–-I'm thinking here of the Miss Hooters/Playboy gal who helped bring Al Franken down and was cozy with Roger Stone.
Then this morning I read the Medium piece (see above) and it's pretty clear––at least to me–-that Tara Reade is one slick manipulator. If Biden wants to address this––and he should–-this information might be mighty helpful to him. And again, it's almost laughable that Trump would dare use this against Biden.
And while reading about Reade I recalled a woman I knew well who was a colleague at the school where I was teaching. She sounded a lot like Tara–-she lied, she cheated, and manipulated her way through years of pretense. She even cheated when buying clothes leaving the tags on and after wearing said clothes she'd return them. This woman was so clever in her manifestations that the administration had a blind eye here until–––she claimed that one of the male teachers, a mild mannered married, (his wife teaching at the same school) well respected man had "made love" to her on many occasions and told her he loved her.( a complete fabrication). At this same time I, along with a few other teachers, proved that she had graded some exams without reading them. After many weeks of probing and prodding she was suspended.
I tell this story because once you've had the experience of knowing someone like this your antenna is always on high alert.
This morning the remaining states with Rt numbers at 1 or above:
Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, and Delaware.
Will be interesting to watch those numbers as the states "open up."
Still have that "faze" funny on my mind this AM.
Maybe we should have been calling the near-daily presentation of Pretender non sequiturs, misstatements, outright lies and general incoherence "Faze the Nation."
I'm hoping the Pretender will follow though on his promise to take his show back on the road. Soon.
When he does, "Faze the Nation" won't be carried live, and only those who like it will experience the show's interminable assault on sense.
I was looking for dementia syndromes which describe what der Trumpenfuhrer has, and found this in The Alzheimers Society UK:
"A person with alcoholic dementia often has:
1. poor planning and organisational skills, and problems with decision-making, judgement and risk assessment
2. problems with impulsivity (eg rash financial decisions) and difficulty controlling emotions (eg irritability or outbursts)
3. problems with attention and slower reasoning
4. lack of sensitivity to the feelings of other people
5. behaviour which is socially inappropriate."
It's possible that Trump never drank a drop of alcohol, but maybe the part of the brain that alcohol affects may be deteriorating all on its own.
Just sayin' - but this is a form of dementia.
@ PD
Yes indeedy, when we view sexual politics being played at a great distance, we can't, as you say, help but see the performance through eyes informed by our own experience.
On another subject, I don't expect anything to come of this since it runs smack into the Barr Barrier, but since it echoes my sentiments, will link it:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/these-lawyers-say-donald-j-trumps-name-should-not-be-on-stimulus-checks/2020/04/29/086ac1bc-88cc-11ea-9759-6d20ba0f2c0e_story.html
@Victoria
Interesting. It could be.
On the state of his general health, I've also noticed over time a more pronounced cocking of the head toward a speaker, whether he's sitting side by side with a dignitary, like Desantis the other day, or when he's engaged with a reporter, listening to a question.
We know he's dumb. I think he's getting deaf.
Mrs. Bea McC -
I’ve known very few women throughout my lifetime who have *not* been harassed, stalked, threatened or / and sexually assaulted. While not surprised by your experience/s, I am saddened to learn of them.
It’s been raining heavily here in NYC.
And reminded of a Stevie Ray Vaughn title, “The Sky Is Crying”.
Fintan O'Toole has had a gimlet eye on whom he calls the "Vector in Chief" for many years. Last night he was on Lawrence because he had written a scathing piece in the Irish Times about how Trump has mis-handled this pandemic. He told us how Ireland has, for the most part, held America fondly in their hearts–-was looked at as a country to emulate but now Ireland pities us.
In another piece that he wrote about our situation he cites a Mass-General Hospital study that showed more than three thousand counties in the US reported that poor public health was significantly associated with the additional Republican presidential votes cast in 2016 over those from 2012.
" For every marker of the prevalence of poor health...there was a marked shift toward voting for Trump. Trump has acted in relation to Covid19 like the God who tells the Jews to mark their homes with a sign so that the plague he is inflicting on Egypt will pass by their doors––with the malign twist that he has instead marked out his own chosen people for special harm."
O'Toole says that to understand why Trump's personal germaphobia has not resulted in a coherent public policy for containing this virus we have to understand Trump's incoherence; we have to take into account two contradictory impulses within the right-wing mindset: paranoia and risk. "The right appeals to the fear of invasion, of subversion, of contamination. But it also valorizes risk. The contemporary Republican Party, through Trumpism, has managed to ride both of these horses at the same time."
And we the people who are pitied by, I imagine, more countries than Ireland struggle with what we now know for sure: We have got to rid ourselves of this malignant power that has ruined millions of lives. It's no longer a matter of "if", it's a matter now of life or death.
Well, we got the 1200 bucks today--for a woman whose estate we're handling, who died last May.
Have to check with the estate's accoutant and attorney to see how to handle it. The envelope does say if the recipient is deceased to return the check...and we likely will (tho' a college friend who just called suggested we frame and hang it). We certainly didn't keep her death a secret. Her ashes haven't received a SS payment for a year now....Makes one wonder aboutthe Pretender's well-oiled machine..
And the Pretender's campaign ad in the bottom left hand corner of the check is (shudder) really there.
Masha Gessen in the New Yorker. Interesting view of the effect of COVID on the traditional expectations of college kids, from her own experiences teaching online.
https://bit.ly/3f8sOlw
I'm with PD on the Tara Reade accusation & there are legitimate questions. It would have made sense to disclose when Biden was a candidate for VP. The Larry King call? Reade says it was her mother who is dead, can't corroborate and she never identified the accuser's name. Certainly King's staff would have pressed relentlessly on the caller at the time for identifying information, including reverse phone directories. It would have been a huge story coup regardless of the identity of the Senator.
Trump finally got his (-)5 percent economic growth!
I'm thinking this anti-China move might appeal to his rabidly xenophobic base, but won't change many hearts or minds.
Unlike Mexicans who very visibly live in some parts of the country, are often undocumented, have some association with drugs and gangs in the public mind, and have competed for real Americans' jobs (but mostly jobs real Americans don't want), to most China is a relatively distant manufacturing and trading rival, more often out of both sight and mind.
While China has definitely displaced American workers by the millions it has done so with the encouragement and complicity of American corporations and our public policy.
American workers knew that even before the Pretender made it an issue in his campaign in the years thereafter.
And further focus on China will (with a little help from opposition political ads) only remind people of how little Tariff Man has done to fix the trade problems he said he would fix and how much his huffing and puffing has cost the nation.
@Bea, re: "...there's a near-guarantee that if Biden does try to address the charges, he will blow it".
If he doesn't come clean soon I can see Biden becoming a tragic figure at some point, with that blank stare - checked out look he gets when confronted with a previous bad decision (e.g. Harris and the school busing issue). It's the first hard thing he has to do to be a noteworthy leader in my mind, otherwise he'll be just another lying politician ~ who I will vote for because there is a higher probability that his administration will do marginally better things for the people.