;)
The Commentariat -- August 3, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: @11:35 am "White House staffers received an email Monday notifying them of a new mandatory system of random coronavirus testing for those working throughout the executive complex, according to senior administration officials. In addition to the stepped-up testing, those expected to come into contact with President Trump and Vice President Pence will continue to be tested beforehand.... Another official said that random testing has been occurring for several months, but until now it had been voluntary. The new move comes a week after the White House announced that Robert C. O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, had tested positive for the coronavirus." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McC: Mind you, Trump is still complaining that there's too much testing going on in the U.S.
Max Cohen of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday slammed White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx after the public health official said the pandemic was 'extraordinarily widespread.' Trump's attack comes shortly after top White House officials admonished House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for undermining trust in Birx. 'So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!' Politico reported last week that Pelosi tore into Birx in closed-door negotiations with administration officials, saying the White House was in 'horrible hands' with the public health expert leading the coronavirus taskforce. Pelosi continued her criticism of Birx on Sunday during an appearance on ABC. Past reporting by The New York Times presented Birx as a coronavirus optimist who told Trump that the United States was on its way to flattening its curve like Italy and that outbreaks were easing." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Birx complained on CNN yesterday that the Times did not contact her for comment when the paper's reporters wrote weeks back that in mid-April, "Dr. Birx was the chief evangelist for the idea that the threat from the virus was fading." But according to Maggie Haberman, who was one of the story's five writers and who spoke today on CNN, the Times did contact Birx before publication, and Brix declined to comment. In fact, in the story, dated July 18, the authors wrote, "Dr. Birx declined to be interviewed." So besides being Dr. Pollyanna, Birx is a liar. As Trump says, "Pathetic!" ~~~
~~~ Betsy Klein of CNN: "While Trump and other top White House officials have publicly attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the tweet marked the first time Birx ... publicly drew Trump's ire. The dust-up comes as the country continues to be ravaged by coronavirus, with more than 150,000 US citizens dead and more than 4 million cases. Trump has consistently lied and misled mostly in attempts to downplay concerns about the virus as he presses for schools and businesses to reopen." Mrs. McC: Worth noting, too, that Trump demeaned two older women in one tweet, calling one "crazy" and the other "pathetic." Trump believes women should "know their place" and not criticize or even disagree with a big, strong boy like him.
Mrs. McCrabbie: This morning when I posted the story about Trump's "signing a healthcare plan," I thought he probably had given some hapless junior G-man the job of coming up with a plan -- in two weeks' time! -- that would provide healthcare benefits only to white people in Trump country. Well, congrats to that junior G-man! Dan Diamond, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Monday aimed at boosting health care in rural areas, where struggling hospitals have faced worsening economic conditions during the pandemic." Now, it's true that people of every ethnic persuasion live in rural areas, but maybe the junior G-man figured out a way to direct funds to the "right" rural areas. Ah, yes: "Under the new plan, the federal Medicare agency will leverage its authority to test new pilot projects...." Whaddaya bet the "new pilot projects" are initiated in rural Iowa, not in the Mississippi Delta?
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "If you spend much of your tenure openly subverting the nation's interests to your own -- while manipulating the levers of government in service of unabashedly corrupt and megalomaniacal ends -- then voters will ultimately grow wise to the scam. We are now learning, via an extraordinary new report in the New York Times, that many scientists fear that Trump will attempt the ultimate 'October surprise.' These scientists -- which include some inside the government -- worry that Trump will thoroughly corrupt the process designed to ensure the safety and efficacy of any new vaccine against the coronavirus." Sargent elaborates on why the scientists are right to be concerned, citing examples of how Trump has done similar things numerous times before.
Russia. Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters (August 1): "Russia's health minister is preparing a mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus for October, local news agencies reported on Saturday, after a vaccine completed clinical trials. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said the Gamaleya Institute, a state research facility in Moscow, had completed clinical trials of the vaccine and paperwork is being prepared to register it, Interfax news agency reported. He said doctors and teachers would be the first to be vaccinated. 'We plan wider vaccinations for October,' Murashko was quoted as saying."
Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump threatened legal action Monday after Nevada's Legislature passed a bill to mail ballots to all active voters, suggesting the measure would make it impossible for Republicans to win there in November's general election. 'In an illegal late night coup, Nevada's clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!'" ~~~
~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's unfounded attacks on mail balloting are discouraging his own supporters from embracing the practice, according to polls and Republican leaders across the country, prompting growing alarm that one of the central strategies of his campaign is threatening GOP prospects in November. Multiple public surveys show a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans about the security of voting by mail, with Republicans saying they are far less likely to trust it in November. In addition, party leaders in several states said they are encountering resistance among GOP voters who are being encouraged to vote absentee while also seeing the president describe mail voting as 'rigged' and 'fraudulent.'"
William Rahbaum & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office suggested on Monday that it has been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past. The office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new federal court filing arguing Mr. Trump's accountants should have to comply with its subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump has asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid. The prosecutors did not directly identify the focus of their inquiry but said that 'undisputed' news reports last year about Mr. Trump's business practices make it clear that the office had a legal basis for the subpoena.... The clash over the subpoena comes less than a month after the Supreme Court, in a major ruling on the limits of presidential power, cleared the way for Mr. Vance's prosecutors to seek Mr. Trump's financial records."
Elizabeth Drew, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that the presidential debates should be scrapped: "The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here.
Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is looking at options for unilateral actions it can take to try to address some of the economic fallout caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic if no relief deal is reached with Congress, according to two people with knowledge of the deliberations. The discussions are a reflection of officials' increasingly pessimistic outlook for the talks on Capitol Hill. The White House remains in close contact with Democratic leaders, but a wide gulf remains and deadlines have already been missed." ~~~
~~~ Erica Werner & Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows made clear in separate interviews Sunday that they remain far apart on a coronavirus relief deal that would restore expired unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. The three spoke a day after a rare weekend meeting at the Capitol yielded some signs of progress. They plan to meet again on Monday, but pointed to multiple areas of disagreement that suggest consensus remains elusive, even while saying they would continue to work toward a deal." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It was so heartening to see Steve Mnuchin, a multimillionaire, on the teevee expressing deep concern that a few Americans might receive more money in unemployment benefits than they earned in their crap jobs, knowing that multimillionaire Mitch McConnell would not bring a bill to the Senate floor that displeased Mnuchin & his self-proclaimed billionaire boss Donald Trump, who was taking another day off to play golf at a cost to taxpayers of about $600,000. (It would take someone earning even a $15/hour wage almost 20 years to earn as much as it's cost us for each of Trump's regular weekend golf outings.)
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the US is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the US earlier this year. 'What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas,' Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.'... Asked if it was time to reset the federal government response to the pandemic, Birx said, 'I think the federal government reset about five to six weeks ago when we saw this starting to happen across the south.' But roughly six weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the coronavirus task force, declared in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the US is 'winning the fight' and there 'isn't a "second wave.'" Birx did not address those claims on Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Doina Chiacu & Christopher Bing of Reuters: "U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by ... Donald Trump. 'I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no,' Speaker Pelosi told ABC's 'This Week' when asked if she has confidence in Birx. Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union,' said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "'We're signing a health-care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health-care plan,' Trump pledged in a July 19 interview with 'Fox News Sunday' anchor Chris Wallace. Now, with the two weeks expiring Sunday, there is no evidence that the administration has designed a replacement for the 2010 health-care law. Instead, there is a sense of familiarity. Repeatedly and starting before he took office, Trump has vowed that he is on the cusp of delivering a full-fledged plan to reshape the health-care system along conservative lines and replace the central domestic achievement of Barack Obama's presidency. No total revamp has ever emerged." A related HuffPost story is here. Mrs. McC: What does "signing a plan" even mean? ~~~
~~~ Thanks to PD Pepe for the link to the HuffPost story & video.
** Daniel Villarreal of the New Civil Rights Movement, republished in the Raw Story: "A new report from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that the Trump Administration repeatedly delayed an Obama-era order from the health-technology company Philips for 10,000 ventilators, wasting half-a-billion dollars for machines that won't even arrive until September 2022. According to the report, in 2014, the Obama Administration signed a contract with Philips to add 10,000 ventilators to the nation's stockpile by June 2019. Though Philips delayed the fulfillment until November 2019, had they been held to that deadline, the nation would have had plenty of ventilators for when the coronavirus epidemic started in March 2020." The story gets worse. The House Oversight Committee report is here. ~~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And let's not forget that Trump claimed repeatedly that "We had a ventilator problem that was caused by the fact that we weren't left ventilators by a previous administration. The cupboards were bare, as I say often." It turns out that in addition to the 10,000 the Trumpies paid 5 times as much for as Obama's contract provided, there was an additional 16,000+ stockpiled units.
Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times: "Lord & Taylor, the floundering department store company that traces its roots to 1826, on Sunday became the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy protection as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates the demise of chains that were already teetering. The chain was acquired last year by the clothing rental start-up Le Tote in an unusual $100 million deal. Now Le Tote and Lord & Taylor are both seeking Chapter 11 protection from their creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia."
Michigan. Craig Mauger of the Detroit News: "A Michigan senator who has been a vocal critic of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's handling of COVID-19 says he tested positive for the virus after going through a screening process because of his service in the Army National Guard. Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who is viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party, sponsored a bill in April to repeal one of the two state laws that allow the governor to declare emergencies. He becomes the third Michigan lawmaker to test positive for the coronavirus after Democratic State Reps. Tyrone Carter and Karen Whitsett of Detroit got infected early in the pandemic and recovered.... The Senate Business Office plans to contact individuals with whom Barrett had "close and/or sustained" contact, according to the notice.... The Senate plans to take 'special steps to disinfect any Senate spaces that Sen. Barrett may have visited or been present in.'" Mrs. McC: Of course Barrett is "a rising star in the Republican Party." He rejects science, he's unreasonable and he's irresponsible. Also too, he's white.
Jesse Drucker & David Enrich of the New York Times: "Deutsche Bank has opened an internal investigation into the longtime personal banker of President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a 2013 real estate transaction between the banker and a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner. In June 2013, the banker, Rosemary Vrablic, and two of her Deutsche Bank colleagues purchased a Park Avenue apartment for about $1.5 million from a company called Bergel 715 Associates.... Mr. Kushner ... disclosed in an annual personal financial report late Friday that he and his wife, Ivanka Trump, had received $1 million to $5 million last year from Bergel 715.... Mr. Kushner ... held an ownership stake in the entity at the time of the transaction with Ms. Vrablic. When Ms. Vrablic and her colleagues bought the apartment..., Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner were her clients at Deutsche Bank. They had received roughly $190 million in loans from the bank and would seek hundreds of millions of dollars more. Typically banks restrict employees from doing personal business with clients because of the potential for conflicts between the employees' interests and those of the bank. Deutsche Bank said it had not been aware that Ms. Vrablic and her colleagues had done business with a company part-owned by Mr. Kushner until being contacted by The New York Times."
Ryan Browne of CNN: "A controversial Trump administration pick for a top Pentagon post [to become the Department of Defense's undersecretary of defense for policy], retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, has been placed into a senior role [as the official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy] days after his nomination hearing was canceled amid bipartisan opposition to his nomination.... When the nomination hearing for Tata was canceled Thursday..., Donald Trump told aides the plan was to put him in a position he could have without a confirmation hearing.... The role he'll be in now is essentially the deputy of the role he had been nominated for. It was previously reported that Trump had a call with Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe the evening prior and that the Oklahoma Republican bluntly told the President his nominee was in trouble. Tata was expected to face a tough nomination hearing on Thursday before the committee after CNN's KFile reported that he made numerous Islamophobic and offensive comments and promoted conspiracy theories." --safari
Presidential Race
Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass on Sunday walked back 2016 comments praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as scrutiny of her views toward the Communist government threatened her potential selection as former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Evan Semones of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass, a top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate, on Saturday sought to clarify remarks she made in 2010 praising the Church of Scientology.... In her remarks, Bass called on treating humans with respect and fighting oppression, but also spoke highly of the controversial group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wish to clarify or walk back every damned thing I ever said prior to August 2020. One or more of the following applies: "I never said that." "I was misquoted." "Obviously, I was just kidding." "I said 'was' when I meant 'wasn't.'" "My views have evolved." "Since that time, new information has come to light." "I don't recall." "I'll have to get back to you on that." "Fake news." "That's a nasty question." Update: "I have different brain cells now." (See Patrick's comment near the end of yesterday's thread for context.)
Chris D'Angelo & Alexander Kaufman of Mother Jones: "Ken Salazar, the Obama administration's first-term interior secretary, took a job at an industry law and lobbying firm just months after leaving office. There, he refashioned himself as an oil champion and avoided disclosing the companies that paid him to lobby. Now Salazar has a new role: adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.... [A]s Biden seeks to draw stark contrasts with President Donald Trump, government watchdogs say Salazar threatens to undermine the campaign's promises to bring ethics back to Washington, and could help Republicans obscure the Trump administration's uniquely egregious record of self -- dealing and pandering to polluters." --s
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The apparent convergence of Trump's inner circle with an ever-widening cohort of QAnon believers is alarming to scholars of extremism and digital communications.... [Most] worrisome, these observers say, is that the president's messaging is increasingly indistinguishable from some key elements of the conspiracy theory.... As the election has drawn closer, actions by the president and his associates have brought [QAnon cultists] more directly into the fold. The Trump campaign's director of press communications, for example, went on a QAnon program and urged listeners to 'sign up and attend a Trump Victory Leadership Initiative training.' QAnon iconography has appeared in official campaign advertisements targeting battleground states. And the White House's director of social media and deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, has gone from endorsing praise from QAnon accounts to posting their memes himself. The president has repeatedly elevated its digital foot soldiers, sharing their tweets more than a dozen times on the Fourth of July alone. His middle son, Eric, who is 36 and a campaign surrogate, recently posted, and then deleted, an image drumming up support for his father's Tulsa rally that included a giant 'Q' and the [QAnon motto] text, 'Where we go one, we go all.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How crazy is Trump? So crazy that a story about his adopting insane conspiracy theories barely makes a blip. His endorsement of a woman who preaches demon sperm & space alien DNA is so last week. Clorox cocktails? I barely remember that.
"We Don't Know WTF We're Doing" -- RNC Officials. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee says no final decision has been made about whether President Trump's renomination will be held in private at the GOP convention, contradicting previous reports that restrictions on crowd size during the coronavirus pandemic would prevent members of the press from attending. Two RNC officials insisted Sunday that they are still working through the logistics and press coverage options, a break with a statement reportedly made by a GOP convention spokesperson the previous day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate Races
Kansas. James Arkin of Politico: "During [a] presentation [to GOP operatives by the] National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Kevin McLaughlin, McLaughlin warned that if hardline conservative Kris Kobach wins next Tuesday's Kansas Senate primary, it could doom the GOP Senate majority -- and perhaps even hurt ... Donald Trump in a state that hasn't voted Democratic since 1964.... Democrats haven't won a Senate race in Kansas since the 1930s, but with Kobach on the ballot, Republicans would be forced to sink millions into trying to defend a seat party officials believe should have stayed safely in their column.... Democrat Barbara Bollier, a state senator and former Republican, faces only nominal opposition in her primary and has outraised all of her potential GOP foes."
Tennessee. Dave Weigel & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: Tennessee GOP Senate candidate"... Bill Hagerty, most recently ambassador to Japan, has the full backing of President Trump and appeared to be cruising to a victory in the primary, which would make him the prohibitive favorite to win the general election.... But Manny Sethi, a trauma surgeon who runs a health-care nonprofit, has caught a late burst of momentum in the race that drew the attention of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both of whom endorsed Sethi. Cruz and Paul are backing candidates that they believe embody the more true version of Trumpism, more ideologically rooted as anti-immigration.... With the president focused on his own teetering reelection campaign these forces have felt more freedom to challenge candidates that Trump has endorsed or other establishment figures are supporting."
Nevada. Sam Metz of the AP: "State lawmakers passed a bill Sunday that would add Nevada to a growing list of states that will mail all active voters ballots ahead of the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic. The bill now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak [D]. If he signs it as expected, Nevada will join seven states that plan on automatically sending voters mail ballots, including California and Vermont, which moved earlier this summer to adopt automatic mail ballot policies."
Mark Sherman of the AP: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is perhaps the most forthcoming member of the Supreme Court when it comes to telling the public about her many health issues. But she waited more than four months to reveal that her cancer had returned and that she was undergoing chemotherapy."
Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "The first astronaut trip to orbit by a private company parachuted to a safe conclusion in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It was the first water landing by NASA astronauts since 1975, when the agency's crews were still flying to and from orbit in the Apollo modules used for the historic American moon missions. Riding in a capsule built and operated by SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk, two NASA astronauts -- Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley -- splashed down near Pensacola, Fla., on Sunday afternoon. The Crew Dragon capsule, suspended under four giant billowing orange-and-white parachutes, settled upright into the water at a gentle pace of 15 miles per hour at 2:48 p.m. Eastern time.... More than an hour later, after Mr. Behnken and Mr. Hurley were helped out of the spacecraft, Mr. Hurley thanked the employees of NASA and SpaceX who helped make the mission a success." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post has a livefeed on its front page of the SpaceX splashdown. The Post liveblogged the SpaceX landing here, and the New York Times liveblog is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mike Isaac, et al., of the New York Times: "Microsoft said on Sunday that it would continue to pursue the purchase of TikTok in the United States after consulting with President Trump, clearing the way for a potential blockbuster deal between the software giant and the viral social media phenomenon. The announcement came as Mr. Trump has expressed repeated concerns about TikTok and national security in recent weeks because of the app's Chinese origins and backing; on Friday, Mr. Trump threatened to ban the app entirely within the United States, saying any decision could come as soon as Saturday. Those plans appeared to change after several of Mr. Trump's allies and Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, spoke over the weekend with the president." Mrs. McC: Nadella probably promised Trump TikTok would ban Sarah Cooper.
Earth
Harry Cockburn of The Independent (UK): "The scientists who were among the first to declare the world's sixth mass extinction event was already underway in a 2015 study, have published new research revealing the rate at which wildlife is being destroyed is accelerating and is a direct threat to human civilisation. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich and colleagues at other institutions report in the new paper that the extinction rate is likely much higher than previously thought and is eroding nature's ability to provide vital services to people.... The huge increase in extinctions and rate of wildlife destruction will have a disastrous impact on humans too.... 'What we do to deal with the current extinction crisis in the next two decades will define the fate of millions of species,' said study lead author Gerardo Ceballos, a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Institute of Ecology. 'We are facing our final opportunity to ensure that the many services nature provides us do not get irretrievably sabotaged.'" --s
News Ledes
Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is expected to regain hurricane strength before it pushes ashore into the Carolinas later Monday with strong winds, flooding rainfall and storm surge flooding. The storm will then spread its impacts up the East Coast as far north as New England through Tuesday night. A hurricane warning has been issued for a portion of the upper South Carolina and lower North Carolina coasts since Isaias is forecast to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane tonight. The hurricane warning includes Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. Tropical storm warnings extend as far north as Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Tropical storm watches extend as far north as Maine." ~~~
~~~ New Lede: "Hurricane Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is expected to push ashore into the Carolinas late Monday or early Tuesday with life-threatening storm surge flooding, damaging winds and flooding rainfall. Some additional strengthening is possible before landfall and Isaias will only slowly weaken as it spreads those impacts up the East Coast as far north as New England through early Wednesday."
New York Times: "John Hume, a moderate Roman Catholic politician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his dogged and ultimately successful campaign to end decades of bloodshed in his native Northern Ireland, died on Monday, the Social Democratic and Labour Party said. He was 83."
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Reader Comments (23)
Although a daily reader, I haven’t contributed in a while and want to first of all thank Marie, et. al. for being an oasis of sanity, grace (the occasional 'fuck' aside) and insight during what often look like dark and despairing times. I really appreciate the work that goes into the day-to-day effort to keep the web site up and to help clarify the daily Sturm und Drang. Thank you so much for Reality Chex.
On the Biden VP horse race - Seems to me that it doesn’t matter who he picks because the Republicans will not allow themselves to be bounded by truth or accuracy. They will falsely accuse her of unfounded dastardly deeds. Are there really any confederates who could possibly even consider voting for a ticket that included both a woman AND a woman of color?
Too bad AOC isn’t old enough to be President, because a Biden/AOC ticket would surely make their heads explode.
It’s difficult to continue working up anger at the venality, perfidy, and hypocrisy that inform the thoughts and actions of the millionaires and billionaires Trump has selected to fuck the country while lining their own pockets, but to listen to that Munchkin bastard lecture Americans out of work because of the incompetence and vicious indifference of the administration* he “works” for, about how $200 a week—an amount he spends on lunch—is plenty, sets my rage meter ablaze. The fucking nerve of these people!
He and his do-nothing gold digger wife gouge taxpayers for tens of thousands every year on things like luxury hotels and fights, then he has the audacity to wag his finger at Americans trying to hold their lives together on less than she would spend on a pair of shoes! It’s a goddam outrage.
@Akhilleus: $600/week -- which is what Democrats demand -- works out to $15/hour. The obvious answer to multimillionaire Mnuchin's disingenuous wailing about the immorality & fiscal irresponsibility of paying some workers more than they're earning is, "Well, why not just raise the minimum wage to $15/hour and eliminate the disincentive?"
To my knowledge --no interviewer has even asked an administration official or a Senate Republican that simple question, even though Republicans have been pushing this same line for months.
Oh, my, this is good one: A great ad reviewing Trump claiming he has the best, the greatest," you're goona love it, folks," nonexistent health care. We are still holding our breath for the one he told Chris Wallace that would be out in two weeks––past due, Bud, past due! (like you).
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/meidastouch-trump-no-plan-ad_n_5f27415cc5b656e9b09d264c
Either my brain's been fried by COVID-19 or I'm just worn out from the flurry of information/misinformation. But this from above confuses me:
"According to the report, in 2014, the Obama Administration signed a contract with Philips to add 10,000 ventilators to the nation’s stockpile by June 2019. Though Philips delayed the fulfillment until November 2019, had they been held to that deadline, the nation would have had plenty of ventilators for when the coronavirus epidemic started in March 2020."
So, over the course of 5 years Philips produced 10,000 ventilators that were added to the stockpile, but missed the completion date by 5 months. If they fulfilled the order in Nov. 2019, isn't that 4 months before Mar. 2020 when COVID started? Therefore, the nation did have plenty of ventilators when the pandemic began?
Help.
@unwashed: Whether or not Philips produced the ventilators, I don't know (I'm guessing not). But they did not deliver the ventilators to the Feds because the Trump administration kept postponing the fulfillment date. “'On January 21, 2020, when the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States,' the report states, 'Philips approached the Trump Administration about accelerating the delivery of ventilators under its existing contract. The Trump Administration ignored this opportunity, and for six weeks, it did not respond to Philips’ offer.'”
The Trump administration also threw out the contract price Philips had negotiated with the Obama administration (around $10K/unit) and instead accepted Philips' first offer of $50K/unit. According to a WashPo fact-check I linked above re: the ventilator story, the government did have more than 16,000 units on hand. I recall reading stories about how the units the feds sent to hospitals this past spring didn't work, so it's certainly plausible that after sitting in storage for several years, the ventilators needed tune-ups.
As for the 10,000 $50,000 Philips units, not only did Philips not deliver them, they're not due to be delivered until September 2022 under the Trumpies' contract. Just good work all around.
It isn't just that Trump can't manage his way out of a paper bag, neither can the people he hired.
@unwashed
I had to go to the story itself for clarification (and then it wasn't as clearly stated as it might have been).
This languages comes later.
"However, the Trump Administration granted Philips three extensions."
Seems the Obama ventilator order was never fulfilled as promised, that Philips waited around until they could turn a good deal for the country into a great deal for them.
And, as usual with the Pretend administration, it's hard to tell if it was just another fuck up or per SOP corruption.
The only certainty: Whatever happened, it was Obama's fault.
.
As reported in April by Kaiser Health News, the current administration* failed to renew the maintenance contract on the ventilators in the stockpile in the summer of 2019 so yes, they were not ready to go in March 2020.
SLOPPY JOE
Yesterday was reading a piece by Louis Menand on Joe McCarthy–-one of many failed humans that have been compared to Trump. As much as we can connect some dots ( they did have the same Roy Cohn) McCarthy was, to be blunt, a drunk; Fatty fears alcohol, not because his brother died from it, but because it would render him "out of control and control is something that is imperative to Trump's machinations, his "control is chaos"–- that signature piece he's been spouting for years.
But back to Joe––what I found most interesting is Menand's concentration on the Army/McCarthy hearings that finally exposed not only Cohn but thanks to the Army's hired council Joseph Welch, managed to drain McCarthy of his bluster and reduce him to a puddle. Welch was a crafty courtroom performer of the "I'm just a simple country lawyer" variety.
"Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness"-––and the phrase we all remember–-" Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?"
This was June 9, 1954, the thirteenth day of the hearings. Welsh had let McCarthy talk himself into his own trap––"the bamboozler was bamboozled." When Welch arrived in Washington many of the people involved were shocked that he did not "seem to have studied the case. They worried that he was unprepared." But Welsh knew that he could not beat someone like Joe who just kept lying about everything––making up "new" facts––.
" He saw that the only way to destroy McCarthy was to give him the opportunity to destroy himself. He let McCarthy rant and bully and interrupt for thirty days, and then, as the clock was winding down, he closed in for the kill. It was pure rope-a-dope, and a lesson, possibly for Joe Biden."
P.S. Menand finds puzzling that both McCarthy and Trump, once they were in a position of power, were both incapable of modifying their behavior. Both could not shut it off even when those around them begged them to change. McCarthy had a single explanation for everything, and the only way he knew how to do his job was by threatening and prevaricating. Fatty, too, is a one-trick pony. He says the same things on every issue and in response to every crisis.
Voters weary of one-trick ponies –––at least that's what we've been led to believe.
@Ken Winkes: Right you are. Trump has repeatedly blamed the lack of ventilators on Obama even though the Obama administration had ordered a stockpile that, serendipitously, would have been on tap for the first wave of coronavirus cases in the U.S. It was the Trump administration that delayed delivery -- three times, as you write.
This is what happens when you don't "believe in" science. Scientists had predicted another virus based on what the knew about viruses, though of course they could not predict exactly when & where & what kind of virus it would be. Turns out it was a "novel" one. But they did warn that it was necessary to be ready for one at any time, and the Trump administration, ignoring the science, decided not to be prepared, even though the Obama administration had left them the tools & even walked senior Trump admin officials through the process of gearing up for an epidemic.
I do think it's true that "stockpiles" are problematic. Apparently many of the stockpiled ventilators didn't work. I think I read that many of the masks were past their expiration dates. Obviously, mask material can deteriorate just as mechanical parts of a ventilator can. What is needed, I would think, is a system to regularly cycle stockpiled items into the hands of users before they expire & to replenish the stockpiles with new product. This would also require invoking the Defense Procurement Act whenever an emergency hit, forcing U.S. manufacturers to produce life-saving equipment.
U.S. manufactuers built no automobiles (except for military use) for 3-1/2 years during WWII; they can do a mini-version of that for medical emergencies like Covid-19.
Thank you bigly all you peoples, especially Marie, that tried to get your heads around the Phillips ventilator saga ––at the end I think Ken captured it:
The only certainty: Whatever happened, it was Obama's fault.
Would be better news on Nov. 3 (or a few weeks thereafter?), but this will do for a Monday morning:
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/897202359/2020-electoral-map-ratings-trump-slides-biden-advantage-expands-over-270-votes
Thanks, all. I read the complete article as well and from what I recall, from (only?) 5 months ago, of the ventilator fuck-up that that statement about being "fulfilled" was not correct. Remember that GM converted one of their assembly facilities to make ventilators? Maybe I haven't lost my mind. Yet.
@unwashed: Yeah but. The GM ventilators were an entirely different order, and the ventilators GM was producing were different from the Philips ventilators, too.
@Bea, true. If I recall, the GM models were less complicated, easier to assemble and less expensive as were the original Philips model. Drumpf "negotiated" buying a more complicated and more expensive (x5) version from Philips. They chose the Bentley over the VW.
Howdy Captruss: the VP horserace. I love the idea of AOC. Too young, yes. She's not willing to wait her turn: I love that. Rep. Karen Bass (according to wiki) has the district south of Beverly Hills and east of Santa Monica in California. She likely hired PR to advance her name to Biden's attention. She has 7 years as a Rep. Like Harris, why chose from California when the Dems already have that state in the bag? Because the Republican spin-machine wants to politic against the Golden Shores, Republicans advance both Harris and Bass. Duckworth and Demings bring into play Illinois and Florida and they are both people with much more substantial CV credibility. Duckworth and Demings have real cajones, not those things 'attached' to President Bone-spurs. Do they have the fire in the belly? Because Biden has waited so long to get to this position, he has to realize the necessity of power and will to succeed. The fortitude of the rehabilitation that Duckworth has done during her adult life shows that she's a strong character. Demings was a cop. The in-group bias culture of cops and prosecutors makes now not their moment in history, for me.
“How the Pandemic Defeated America”, Ed Yong @edyong209 in September issue of the The Atlantic. Must read piece. Not behind a paywall.
https://bit.ly/33ntuQU
The Answer is Always the Same
Wingers, and especially Trump and the brigands, fools, and errand boys surrounding the Dung Throne, are not big on logic, or even basic math. And this is why they hate science and rational thinking. They might not get the answers they're looking for if they, even once, consider facts.
This weekend I took a break from the madness, sat down with a cup of tea, a couple of Mozart sonatas for piano and violin (Daniel Barenboim and Itzhak Perlman will punch your bus ticket, baby!), and a book about four colors.
It doesn't matter what the colors are (except for orange; that shit is right out), it matters more that there are four and that's all you need. For a map, that is. The four color, or map problem, as mathematicians know it, lingered for more than a century before a proof was finally produced.
Here's the short version. Victorian mathematician Augustus De Morgan 'round about 1852, hypothesized that four colors would suffice to delineate a map of countries, counties, cities, or any other contiguous areas, such that neighboring areas would all be colored differently. Sounds pretty simple, right? But it befuddled an amazing collection of mathematicians, amateur puzzlers, and logicians for many years. So, okay, what's the big deal? Maps? Colors? Four of 'em? Okay, got it. That and a sawbuck'll get me a big-ass grande macchiato Sumatra something, something at Starbucks, right?
Wrong, oh Trump vodka breath. And here's why. Problem solving is an essential aspect of humanity. We need to know how and why stuff works. Well, some of us do, anyway. And that's the real problem. Working out the proof for a mathematical-cartographical puzzle like the map problem requires logic, reason, persistence, and patience (or, as Sister Marie Peter in the fifth grade used to call it, Sticktoitivity), and an appreciation for the requirements of a true proof.
In mathematics, a proof has to be iron clad. It can't be, "Well, we did this thing a hundred million times and it always came out A, so A must be true". There might be that hundred millionth and one example where A doesn't work. Black swans are a big no-no. They are very much avis non grata in mathematics. And answering questions like "Are four colors enough?" allows us to create the sort of theoretical machinery necessary to solve other problems (as the map problem has done). Working towards a proof for this answer created mental problem solving tools that have helped other logicians and mathematicians in work that has real world benefits.
So, okay, proofs are not required (or even--mostly--possible) in politics, but problems should still be solved using logic, reason, persistence, and patience. And, in the case of working with human beings as opposed to abstract numbers and lines on a paper, heart.
None of these things are in evidence the way problems are "solved" in Right Wing World (especially heart). Because the result they want might not be the one that answers. If you always need to be right, and your enemies wrong, the integers never matter. If Mitch McConnell needs 1+1 to equal -1,090 when the beneficiaries are the wrong color or economic bracket, that will be the answer. If Trump needs 1+1 to equal 5,090,345,098 when his family or billionaire pals will benefit, THAT will be the answer.
Case in point: a few months ago, just as the Trump virus was starting to kill a lot of people and he was out golfing and jerking off, claiming it was all a hoax, a Fatty supporter and card carrying bigot preacher named Rick Wiles announced (when the virus was hitting Democratic strongholds and black people very hard), that, of COURSE, it was sent by god to punish the infidels and gays and Democrats and anyone who didn't vote for Trump. So, 1+1 was coming out to "Our enemies are horrible and god is punishing them". Last week, however, using the exact same integers (with the exception that NOW, Evangelicals and red state Trump droolers were dying in droves), Wiles piped up with something different. It's not the flaming sword of Jesus punishing the evil doers (that would include him and his throng). NOW it's Democrats and the Chinese have cooked up this terrible plague to hurt Trump at the polls. So, now, 1+1 comes out to "Our enemies are horrible and invented a virus to punish Trump for being wonderful". They manipulate facts to suit their ideological requirements.
Same numbers, different answer. Logic, critical thinking, facts, persistence, and reason are very much not required. This is why Republicans can base all their economic positions on a few lines scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin. It's why medical advice can be colored by alien sperm and sex crazed demons. And why disproven treatments, up to and including double shots of Clorox, can be waved about with impunity. If truth and the desire for reliable knowledge is paramount, then fuck that. We'll adjust things to suit our political needs of the moment. Magical thinking is the blue plate special. Every day.
The last Republican president was famous for his largely indifferent, incurious nature. The current president* doesn't even rise to the level of incurious. At the top of this rant I mentioned that humans, as a species, are still around and kicking (at least for a while), because of their curiosity, and their need to understand how and why things work. What works, what doesn't, and why. Along the way, they've been waylaid by whacko thinking (usually in the form of religion or bigotry or garden variety ignorance), but eventually enough of us cottoned on to answers that seemed to work. We trusted the real answers, not the ones we wanted.
If human nature started out with the Trump-Bush-Wiles gene dominant, we'd still be hitting each other over the head with clubs and drinking out of puddles.
Because if you're not interested in actually solving the problems facing human beings, here and now, then you can always get the same answer. "We're right, you're wrong. Nyah, nyah", no matter what the numbers say. And we'll be headed straight back to living in cavedominiums.
"Honey, I'm taking my club and heading off to the puddle. You want I should bring you back a handful of muddy water?"
Life in the Right-Wing cave.
@Akhilleus: I'd love to find out how the four-color book came out. I tried drawing about 15 squiggly "gerrymandered" districts, and sure enough, using four colors I could draw them without the same district being contiguous to another of the same color. Seventy-five years am I, and this is nothing that every occurred to me.
Update: Just checked the Wikipedias. Turns out the theorem has been proved by a computer, and mathematicians have come to accept the proof.
Maybe his Covid-positive test explzinx O'Brien's WAPO op-ed from yesterday, zrguing that the Pretender is really, really tough on Russia.
He wzs clezrly fevered when he wrote it..
As sure as cow pies in a feed lot every presidential election produces an "October Surprise". More and more the bets are that Trump will announce that his "Operation Warp Speed" has produced a vaccine for C-19. He will have done what they said couldn't be done and produced a totally safe, totally effective vaccine in record time. Uh-huh, sure.
I'm no anti vaxxer, just like my dog, my shots are up to date, but I'll be damned if I'm fighting for a place in line for that shot when it first comes out. Sorry, but I want to see who turns green and how many turn their toes up first.
Marie,
I'm not all the way through the book yet but I peeked at the last few chapters (I wanted to know too) to get a preview of the solution. Yeah, some people are kvetching that they used a computer to run through the enormous numbers of possibilities of "ring sizes" to arrive at the "unavoidable set".
Even the computing part of this detective story is fascinating. These guys took into account as many variables as they could cram into their program and accomplished something others had been working towards for a hundred years. The mathematicians who formulated the proof figured the computer saved them several years of manually going through the forms (which is not bad).
I don't recall anyone whining when Fermat's Last Theorem was solved with a computer. It's a tool. Use it. In any event, they took care to do it right. Not like Fatty handing off his "healthcare" proposal to some nimrods whose sole connection to healthcare is their ability to walk into a CVS and not mistake a suppository for ibuprofen (although I might be too quick with that assumption) and who have two weeks to whip up something McA-ninny can tout as the greatest blah, blah medical blah, blah of all time.
The book I'm reading is "Four Colors Suffice" written with clarity, verve, and gusto by a British mathematician who has taught at Oxford, Robin Wilson. It's worth a read, and although he does include plenty of real math, he tempers it with a large dose of history and thoroughly engaging personalities along the way. Good stuff.
Sorry.. Called away by Zoom and didn't have time to link the O'Brien dreck I cited (should anyone care):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/02/president-trump-is-committed-defending-us-russia-knows-it/