;)
The Commentariat -- March 13, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump will hold a news conference on Friday afternoon to discuss the coronavirus as cases continue to mount in the U.S. Trump tweeted that he would speak about the virus at 3 p.m. at the White House. He did not specify what he would cover, but Bloomberg News reported he plans to declare a national emergency, a move that had been under consideration for some time."
Rachel Olding of the Daily Beast: "Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with several U.S. officials including ... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during an official visit over the weekend, has denied that he tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus. Brazilian news outlet Jornal O Dia and Fox News, citing Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, reported Friday that Bolsonaro had the flu-like virus. He was tested Thursday after his press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who was part of the visiting Brazilian delegation, tested positive for the virus in a diagnosis confirmed by the president's office.... Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, had earlier confirmed his father's test result to Fox News and said secondary testing was being done on Friday."
Joey Flechas of the Miami Herald: "Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has tested positive for COVID-19 ... four days after the mayor attended a Miami event with a Brazilian government official who later tested positive for the virus.... The mayor was present at Thursday's commission meeting, seated on the dais between City Attorney Victoria Méndez and City Manager Art Noriega for much of the morning. Top-level city administrators who were in close contact with the mayor have been told to self-isolate. Government workers who do not need to be physically present at city offices are being told to work from home. Suarez was one of several politicians, including Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Sen. Rick Scott and ... Donald Trump, who interacted with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his staff during a visit to South Florida last week. The mayor went into isolation Thursday after learning that one of Boslonaro's staffers tested positive."
Veronica Stracqualursi & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Australia's home affairs minister confirmed Friday that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus, less than a week after meeting with Attorney General William Barr, senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump and other White House officials. In a statement, Minister Peter Dutton said that he woke up on Friday morning 'with a temperature and sore throat' and was 'subsequently tested for COVID-19.' Dutton was advised by Queensland Health that his tests returned positive on Friday afternoon. Dutton had met with Trump, Barr, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan in the US less than a week ago."
Yeah, That Was a Hostage Video. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: "As ... Donald Trump jetted back to Washington on Monday after a weekend of golfing and fundraising in Florida, an intervention was awaiting him at the White House. Administration officials, increasingly concerned about the messaging on and response to the coronavirus, had spent the weekend scrambling to craft a strategy to shift the president's response, which had been focused on downplaying the threat and accusing the media of creating undue concern, according to people involved in the effort. So, as Trump stepped off Marine One and walked straight to the West Wing just after 3 p.m. Monday, his top economic and health officials were waiting to make their case for why a more serious fiscal and public health response was urgently needed. Those at the meeting included economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin."
Fred Imbert, et al., of CNBC: "Stocks gave up most of their earlier rally on Friday as Wall Street tried to rebound from the sharp losses suffered in the previous session -- the worst since the 'Black Monday' market crash in 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 125 points higher, or 0.7%. At one point, the Dow was up more than 1,300 points and on pace for its biggest one-day gain since March 2009."
Terry Gross of NPR interviews Politico reporter Dan Diamond where he reports that the Trump administration knew about the need for testing kits back in January. --s
Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "Louisiana will postpone its presidential primaries set for next month, becoming the first state to take the step as fears about the coronavirus outbreak spread. The state will push its presidential nominating contests back to June 20 from the planned date of April 4, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced Friday. It has also delayed its municipal elections until July 25."
Now, This Isn't Funny. John Koblin of the New York Times: "'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,' 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' and 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' are all suspending production next week, NBC and CBS said Thursday, making them the biggest daily American television series to go off the air because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The earliest date that the three shows would return with new episodes is March 30, the networks said. 'Saturday Night Live,' which like 'The Tonight Show' and 'Late Night' tapes at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, is on hiatus until March 28. Its immediate future could be in doubt as well."
~~~~~~~~~~
My name is Lyndon Baines Johnson. I am your president. I am here to make sure you have the help you need! -- Lyndon Johnson, at a New Orleans shelter after Hurricane Betsy, his face illuminated in the dark by a flashlight & speaking through a megaphone, September 1965
~~~ New York Times live updates on the coronavirus pandemic are here. "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s presidential campaign told staff members to work from home, closed all its offices to the public and said it would begin holding smaller events and virtual fund-raisers.... Senator Bernie ... Sanders' ... campaign said that it had asked all staff members to work from home and that it would no longer hold large events or door-to-door canvasses, focusing on digital outreach instead.... The National Collegiate Athletic Association has called off the men's and women's Division 1 basketball tournaments, among the most-watched annual sports events. They joined a long list of event and venue closures and cancellations in a global push to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Major League Baseball halted spring training and postponed the start of the season by at least two weeks. The N.H.L. paused its season with its teams having about a dozen games before the Stanley Cup playoffs, scheduled to begin in about a month.... The Walt Disney Company said on Thursday that it would close the Disneyland resort in Anaheim for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks." Mrs. McC: I heard on the teevee that Disneyworld near Orlando, Fla., also would close beginning this coming Sunday.
New York Times (from the paper's live market updates Thursday): "Stocks continued their plunge on Thursday, as President Trump's latest effort to address the coronavirus outbreak -- a ban on the entry from most European countries to the United States -- disappointed investors who have been waiting for Washington to take steps to bolster the economy. Trading was turbulent, with stocks staging a brief comeback as investors reacted to the Federal Reserve's decision to offer at least $1.5 trillion worth of loans to banks to help smooth out the functioning of the financial markets. But the selling picked up again by midafternoon. The S&P 500 closed down about 9.5 percent, its biggest daily drop since the stock market crashed in 1987, on what came to be known as Black Monday. The decline has left stocks in the United States firmly in a bear market -- a term that signifies a decline of 20 percent from the most recent highs. For the Dow Jones industrial average, the drop of 10 percent was also its worst since the 1987 stock market crash." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Pippa Stevens & Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10%, posting its largest one-day percentage drop since the October 1987 crash. That day, the Dow collapsed by more than 22%. The S&P 500 joined the Dow in closing Thursday's session squarely in a bear market, down more than 20% from the all-time highs set just a month ago. The indexes also ended an 11-year bull run, the longest on record. It took the Dow just 19 trading days fall from a record high into a bear market. The S&P 500's move was even swifter, taking the broad index just 16 trading days to tumble into a bear market. Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, said the economic damage is 'deep and profound' and that 'until we get to spring time when hopefully this goes away, we as investors are all flying blind.' The Federal Reserve announced extraordinary funding actions of more than $1 trillion to ease strained capital markets in the wake of the coronavirus sell-off. The news gave stocks a brief boost before they headed lower again." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe it isn't a coincidence that the markets crash when a Republican is president: 1929, 1987, 2008, 2019. This time an "adjustment" was inevitable, but Trump's indifference & incompetence was the immediate cause for the past week's tumble. BTW, Mr. Bleakley there, with his brilliant belief that the virus will "hopefully go away in the spring," is suffering from a severe case of festering Trumpophilia.
"The President as Bystander." Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... President Trump has been assertive in closing borders to many outsiders, one of his favorite policies. But within the United States, as the coronavirus spreads from one community to another, he has been more follower than leader. While he presents himself as the nation's commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president.... Mayors and county executives, hospital executives and factory owners received no further direction from the president as he talked about the virus in the Oval Office on Thursday than they did during his prime-time address to the nation the night before. Beyond travel limits and wash-your-hands reminders, Mr. Trump has left it to others to set the course in combating the pandemic...."
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: President* "Trump's 10-minute Oval Office address Wednesday night reflected not only his handling of the coronavirus crisis but, in some ways, much of his presidency. It was riddled with errors, nationalist and xenophobic in tone, limited in its empathy, and boastful of both his own decisions and the supremacy of the nation he leads.... In the most scripted of presidential settings, a prime-time televised address to the nation, President Trump decided to ad-lib -- and his errors triggered a market meltdown, panicked travelers overseas and crystallized for his critics just how dangerously he has fumbled his management of the coronavirus. Even Trump -- a man practically allergic to admitting mistakes -- knew he'd screwed up by declaring Wednesday night that his ban on travel from Europe would include cargo and trade, and acknowledged as much to aides in the Oval Office as soon as he'd finished speaking.... Jared Kushner ... reassured Trump that aides would correct his misstatement..., and they scrambled to do just that.... Other administration officials rushed to alert the public that U.S. citizens would be exempt from the travel ban.... Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average fell in real time with virtually each word Trump uttered.... The speech was largely written by [Jared] Kushner and ... Stephen Miller, who were still making tweaks to the text until moments before Trump delivered it...." ~~~
~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Two officials in the U.S. State Department told The Daily Beast that foreign service officers and diplomats were unprepared for the president's [travel ban] announcement and spent the early hours of Thursday scrambling to figure out how their work and travel would be affected in the short term. 'It is just total chaos,' said one official currently abroad, adding that they did not know if they would have to return to the U.S. immediately or if they would need to quarantine for two weeks upon arriving. Diplomats and other U.S. staff overseas ... frantically searched for answers that weren't immediately available from Foggy Bottom or the West Wing.... As of Thursday night, U.S. officials abroad said they were still unclear exactly how Trump's proclamation would be implemented in real-time. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had not updated embassies with any guidance or notes on preventive measures.... The [White House's] corrective blitz went late into the night [Wednesday] and then continued well into Thursday, as senior officials held several closed-door meetings into the early afternoon gaming out how to finish cleaning up for the misinformation and inaccurate assertions that President Trump made in his prepared remarks...."
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Three years in office, and the Trump-Kushner-Miller team still doesn't think it's necessary to roll out a coordinated response to anything, even an international crisis. They just make up stuff on the fly and leave it to others to mop up after them. And there's no way in hell they'll learn from this mistake -- the same mistake they have made many times before. See also Akhilleus's account in today's Comments of his trip to the local supermarket. We do have to give Trump a lot of "credit" for his disastrous address to the nation, but I also think we have to give all of the entities that serve Trumpbot nation & have closed up shop have done a double service to the ignoramuses. Not only have these organizations saved the lives of some who directly access the services, they have waked up many who don't go to games or amusement parks. Could all of these sports organizations, restaurants, Disneyland!, etc., really have been willing to lose millions on account of a "Democrat hoax"? ~~~
~~~ Charles Pierce: "This was not a speech.... It was the desperate wailing of a man who has fallen down a well, and there's nobody up there to hear him.... This was a cry for help, an SOS from a guy who knows, as Micheal Ray Richardson once put it, that the ship be sinking. You could almost imagine thousands of tiny feet running for lifeboats behind his eyes. You could see him reacting to storm sirens only he could hear. He is thrashing and floundering and he is surrounded by thrashers and flounderers who owe their entire careers to him now. This isn't chaos. It is surrender to it."
** Washington Post Breaking News: "A Brazilian official who met President Trump and Vice President Pence at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday has tested positive for coronavirus. Fabio Wajngarten, a spokesman for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, tested positive for covid-19, Brazilian officials said. Wajngarten stood next to Trump and Pence, a photograph taken in Florida shows. Trump said he 'isn't concerned' about the development, according to a White House pool report." (From the WashPo's live updates for Thursday.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jim Acosta of CNN: "A source close to Donald Trump said the President is telling people close to him that he is indeed concerned about coming into contact with people who have contracted the coronavirus, including the Brazilian official who tested positive after coming face-to-face with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 'He is very concerned about all the people he met who have it, including the Brazilian,' the source said. Fabio Wajngarten, the press secretary for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, two sources have told CNN. Bolsonaro's health is being monitored." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump may be trying to pin the severity of the coronavirus pandemic on pence, but Mother pence has brought the calico curtains down from the attic & is embroidering "25th Amendment" into the hems. ~~~
~~~ Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is self-quarantining after a trip to Mar-a-Lago where Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was also present. Graham, according to a statement from his office, 'has no recollection of direct contact' with Bolsonaro, who is being monitored for the coronavirus, or his spokesman, who has tested positive.... Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) also announced on Thursday that he will self-quarantine." Mrs. McC: Scott is self-quarantining because he attended the same Mar-a-Lago functions with Graham, Trump, Pence, et al., & the Brazilian delegation.
Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that there has been 'irresponsible rhetoric' from people who have downplayed the seriousness of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. In an interview on the 'Today' show, Savannah Guthrie asked what message Pence sends to people who aren't afraid of the coronavirus and think it's just politics and hype, quoting from ... Donald Trump who said on Monday that the 'fake news media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything to inflame the coronavirus situation.' 'There's been some irresponsible rhetoric, but the American people should know President Trump has no higher priority than the health and safety and well being of the people of this country,' Pence said in response but it was not clear who he was referring to." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mike Stobbe & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "The U.S. lag in coronavirus testing is 'a failing,' a top federal health official said Thursday, and public health experts say they still don't have a good understanding of how widely the new virus has spread. The effort initially was hobbled by delays in getting testing kits out to public health labs, but the stumbles have continued, leading scientists to conclude that the virus has already spread far wider than government officials are reporting. U.S. health officials, for example, promised nearly a month ago to tap into a national network of labs that monitor for flu. That system is only just getting started. On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health agreed that the U.S. needs to improve how it's testing. 'The system is not really geared to what we need right now,' he said. 'That is a failing. It is a failing, let's admit it.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Shawn Boburg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Many Americans who are sick and seeking a coronavirus test continue to be turned away.... The problem persists, doctors and patients across the country say, despite increased production and distribution of the tests in recent days. At a time when U.S. fatalities from the virus have risen, there remain limited numbers of tests and the capacity of laboratories is under strain. The constraints are squeezing out patients who don't meet rigid government eligibility criteria, even if their doctors want them tested, according to dozens of interviews with doctors and patients this week. The gap between real-life obstacles to testing and President Trump's sweeping assurances that 'anybody that needs a test gets a test' has sown frustration, uncertainty and anxiety among patients who have symptoms consistent with covid-19.... The federal government's handling of testing erupted as a political issue Thursday, with even members of the president's party venting...." ~~~
~~~ Farah Stockman of the New York Times: "Many who fear they have the virus have faced one roadblock after another as they try to get tested, according to interviews with dozens of people across the country. Some have been rejected because they had no symptoms, even though they had been in proximity to someone who tested positive. Others were told no because they had not traveled to a hot spot abroad, even though they had fevers and hacking coughs and lived in cities with growing outbreaks. Still others were told a bitter truth: There simply were not enough tests to go around.... Even [where efforts have been made to make testing easier], demand has far outstripped supply. By 11 a.m. at one drive-through lab in the Denver neighborhood of Lowry on Thursday, a three-hour line of cars had formed. The clinic had to stop allowing more vehicles.... In cities that have experienced serious outbreaks -- Seattle; Boston; New Rochelle, N.Y. -- patients who fear they have coronavirus describe Kafkaesque quests to find out their status."
Noam Levey of The Los Angeles Times: "Despite mounting pleas from California and other states, the Trump administration isn't allowing states to use Medicaid more freely to respond to the coronavirus crisis by expanding medical services. In previous emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 flu outbreak, both Republican and Democratic administrations loosened Medicaid rules to empower states to meet surging needs.... One reason federal health officials have not acted appears to be President Trump's reluctance to declare a national emergency.... Another element may be ideological: The administration official who oversees Medicaid, Seema Verma..., has been a champion of efforts by conservative states to trim the number of people enrolled in Medicaid."
Common Dreams in RawStory: "The Trump administration made clear this week that it has no plans to scrap -- or, at the very least, delay -- a rule change that could strip federal food assistance from over a million people in the United States as the coronavirus spreads across the nation, heightening the need for measures to protect the most vulnerable from the economic fallout.... Lauren Bauer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, told BuzzFeed that she estimated prior to the coronavirus outbreak that 1.3 to 1.5 million people could lose federal nutrition assistance under the Trump administration's SNAP rule change. The Agriculture Department's own estimate indicated that the rule would strip benefits from more than 700,000 people." --s
Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "... Congress neared a deal with the White House on a sweeping economic rescue package to respond to the colossal effect of the coronavirus pandemic. After a day of intense negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, Ms. Pelosi told reporters that 'we've resolved most of our differences' and the House would vote on Friday on the measure 'one way or another.' It would then go to the Senate, which called off a recess that had been scheduled for next week in anticipation of a compromise. The legislation, according to a letter Ms. Pelosi sent to her members, will include enhanced unemployment benefits, free virus testing, aid for food assistance programs and federal funds for Medicaid. The package also ensures 14 days of paid sick leave, as well as tax credits to help small- and medium-size businesses fulfill that mandate. Language was still being drafted for provisions related to family and medical leave, according to a Democratic aide, as staff members worked through the night to prepare the bill. Ms. Pelosi, in her letter to lawmakers, also said that the House would soon pursue another package 'that will take further effective action that protects the health, economic security and well-being of the American people.'" ~~~
~~~ The Unflappable Nancy Pelosi. Heather Caygle & John Bresnahan of Politico: “... for all Trump's omnipresence on Twitter and cable TV, [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi remains the dominant figure on Capitol Hill when it comes time to actually getting something accomplished.... The [coronavirus] episode plays to her strengths as the longtime Democratic leader: Figure out your goals, move quickly, and build your support on the fly, while always keeping your eye on the magic 218-vote number. The sheer variety of national emergencies Pelosi has faced during her 17 years as House Democratic leader is stunning, and represents the turbulent nature of 21st century American life -- Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government shutdowns of 2013 and 2018-19, and Trump's recent impeachment, are among the highlights.... 'I've gone through a number of these crises with her as the leader and she is unflappable,' said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). 'The last thing we need is some kind of a hot-headed leader trying to figure out what we can do to hurt the other side,' he added. 'She don't play that game.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Eric Levitz of New York: "In response to this mounting [pandemic] crisis, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Congress to waste no time in commencing its previously planned vacation.... McConnell insisted that the Senate would not pass any legislation addressing the coronavirus emergency until it took a seven-day breather.... Hours later, however, McConnell changed course. After calls from multiple Senate Republicans to cancel the impending recess, the Senate Majority Leader announced that his caucus would work through next week on compromise legislation.... Even [if going ahead with the recess was] a bluff, McConnell's stance was insane. It's hard to imagine a more politically toxic talking point than, 'Democrats may want to take immediate action on this public health emergency, but the Republican Party believes it is entitled to a weeklong break before tackling such a demanding project.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Republicans are holding up progress on legislation for coronavirus because of abortion.... 'A key sticking point in the talks appears to be GOP demands to include Hyde amendment language in the bill to prevent federal funds from being used for abortion,' [Bloomberg News reporter Erik Wasson] tweeted." --s
Katie Porter Saves Lives. In a House hearing Thursday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) nails down a commitment from CDC Director Robert Redfield. to guarantee that all Americans can receive coronavirus tests (assuming the kits become widely available) regardless of ability to pay. Watch Redfield start out arrogant & end up squirming! ~~~
MEANWHILE. Pay for Me But Not for Thee. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is taking two weeks off to self-quarantine at home even though he has tested negative for Covid-19. Gasmask Gaetz, of course, receives paid sick leave, even though he isn't sick. As Lee Fang of the Intercept points out, Gaetz voted against paid sick leave for Florida residents when he was in the state legislature. AND Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who also is self-quarantining after coming into contact with a person sick with the virus, is getting paid, too. As Fang writes, "In 2013, then-Gov. Rick Scott signed Gaetz-backed preemption legislation that barred every city and county in Florida from enacting paid sick leave legislation."
Mrs. McCrabbie: Joe Biden gave a speech Thursday on what is needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The contrast between Biden's remarks and Trump's robotic teleprompter performance Wednesday night was jarring. Biden's speech was fairly perfect. I hope Trump watched to get a glimpse of what it means to "be presidential." ~~~
A short time later Thursday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered remarks on the coronavirus pandemic:
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There isn't clearer evidence of Trump's monumental inability to do his job than to contrast Sanders' and Biden's remarks with his.
Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "The U.S. Capitol will cease all public tours through at least the end of March amid mounting fears of a widespread coronavirus outbreak, according to multiple people familiar with the decision. Speaker Nancy Pelosi informed members of the decision in a Wednesday afternoon meeting, which is intended to help prevent the spread of the virus across the sprawling Capitol campus, where many senior-aged lawmakers are already at higher risk. The restriction applies to all tours -- public, staff-led and member-led. By the end of the week, the Capitol complex will be restricted to official business only, people familiar with the decision said. The move -- which was made jointly by congressional leaders, Capitol security officials and medical staff -- comes amid mounting pressure from lawmakers and aides to restrict public access to the building." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Getting Real. Issam Ahmed of AFP: "Between 70 to 150 million people in the United States could eventually be infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a projection shared with Congress, a lawmaker said Thursday. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made the remarks during a hearing of the House of Representatives with members of the president's coronavirus task force, confirming earlier reports by US media outlets including Axios and NBC News. 'Congress's attending physician told the Senate that he expects between 70 to 150 million people to eventually contract the coronavirus in the United States,' Tlaib said. Axios had reported that doctor Brian Monahan conveyed the projection to Senate senior staff on Tuesday.... The upper end of the projection is about 46 percent of the US population of 327 million people. By comparison German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned this week that up to 70 percent of her country's population could get the virus." ~~~
~~~ Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "A top health official in Ohio estimated on Thursday that more than 100,000 people in the state have coronavirus, a shockingly high number that underscores the limited testing so far. Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton said at a press conference alongside Gov. Mike DeWine (R) that given that the virus is spreading in the community in Ohio, she estimates at least 1 percent of the population in the state has the virus. 'We know now, just the fact of community spread, says that at least 1 percent, at the very least, 1 percent of our population is carrying this virus in Ohio today,' Acton said. 'We have 11.7 million people. So the math is over 100,000. So that just gives you a sense of how this virus spreads and is spreading quickly.' She added that the slow rollout of testing means the state does not have good verified numbers to know for sure.... The state currently has just five confirmed positive cases, and 30 negative tests. Acton said Thursday that it appears that the number of cases of the virus doubles every six days."
Johnny Diaz & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "Walmart, Uber and other major companies announced new policies this week to grant paid leave or other compensation to workers who contract the new coronavirus or are quarantined by order of the government or their companies. The changes could help hourly and gig-economy workers in the service industry who do not normally receive paid time off, and who would bear an especially difficult burden of lost wages. But the policies may not go far enough to protect delivery people, store clerks, restaurant workers, taxi drivers and others whose public-facing and often low-paying jobs cannot be done remotely." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Someone suggested recently (sorry, I don't recall who) that businesses that do not provide paid sick leave to their employees should be required to post prominent notices that their workers do not get paid if they get sick. An excellent suggestion. Would you eat in a restaurant where there was a good chance the salad chef was sneezing Covid-19 globules on the romaine? I didn't think so.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "... over the past several weeks, top hosts and personalities on [Fox 'News'] downplayed concerns about the virus, baselessly accusing credible news organizations of overhyping the crisis to hurt Trump politically. At other times, Fox News hosts and personalities pointed to the death toll of the seasonal flu, misleading the network's audience into thinking that the coronavirus was receiving more attention because it is novel.... A significant part of Fox News' coverage had been aimed toward framing the response to coronavirus as unwarranted hysteria. The often-dismissive messaging from Fox News hosts was particularly notable, given that, like other cable news channels, the viewers who make up the network's audience skew older and are, thus, the most vulnerable to the disease.... Meanwhile..., Fox Corporation, the parent company of the network..., has restricted all non-essential travel. And, in a Thursday email..., Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace announced several sweeping measures to protect employees, including asking staff able to work from home to do so starting Monday."
Angela Dewan of CNN: "More and more of the world is working from home as the novel coronavirus spreads -- and so is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada's leader is currently trying to run his country in self-isolation as his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, awaits the results of a coronavirus test, his office confirmed on Thursday. The indiscriminate virus has caused dozens of government officials around the world -- from administrators to heads of state -- to take precautionary measures after finding that they have been infected or have been in contact with infected people.... The president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, is also self-isolating for two weeks as a precaution, after going to Italy over the last weekend. On Tuesday, he chaired a European Union meeting in Brussels by video-conference." Mrs. McC: Rachel Maddow reported that Sophie Trudeau tested positive for the virus. Other outlets, including the NYT in its Thursday live updates linked above, have since reported Sophie Trudeau's positive test result.
Lily Kuo of the Guardian: "One of the most popular topics on the Chinese microblog Weibo on Thursday was ... a conspiracy theory that has been gaining traction over the past two weeks in China -- that the coronavirus did not originate in China but may have come from the US instead." --s
Eric Schmitt & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "United States warplanes struck five targets in southern Iraq on Thursday night, hitting back at an Iraqi militia with ties to Iran that is believed to have been part of a rocket attack on Wednesday that killed two Americans and a British soldier, American officials said. The airstrikes, which were supported by the British military, targeted the militia Kataib Hezbollah and facilities that were believed to store the type of rockets used in the attack on coalition forces on Wednesday. It is not known how many militia members, if any, were killed, a military official said." ~~~
~~~ Juan Cole: "Tom O'Connor at Newsweek reports that 18 katyusha rockets slammed into al-Taji Air Base in Iraq on Wednesday, killing two Americans and one Briton, and leaving 12 other Coalition personnel injured. In response, US fighter jets conducted air strikes against the Haydariyun brigades of the Kata'ib Hizbullah, a Shiite Iraqi militia, in Albu Kamal on the Iraq-Syria border, allegedly killing 40 officers and fighters, including the commander of the Haydariyun, Gen. Wisam al-Tufayli. It is alleged that officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the base were also killed.... Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sairun Party is the largest single party in parliament, accused Donald Trump of creating the novel coronavirus and unleashing it on Iraq as an act of biological warfare.... [T]he fact is that Trump's rashness [killing Soleimani] just got two US soldiers killed." --s
Lauren White & Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel of CREW: "Donald Trump Jr.'s Mongolian trophy hunting trip cost taxpayers $17,704 in Secret Service charges alone, according to records obtained by CREW.... The eight day trip was already controversial for many reasons: Don Jr. was retroactively awarded his permit to hunt the endangered argali sheep after killing it, he had a private meeting with Mongolia's president that we still don't know much about, and hunted alongside a major Republican donor." --s
Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon has asked a federal court to give it 120 days to 'reconsider certain aspects' of a controversial decision to award an important cloud computing contract known as JEDI to Microsoft, according to a court document made public Thursday. Amazon is suing the Defense Department over the decision, which it claims fell in Microsoft's favor because of improper meddling by President Trump. The decision comes just days after U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge Patricia Campbell-Smith sided with Amazon on a motion to halt contract performance. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, known as JEDI, is meant to create a powerful centralized computing system through which military agencies can harness data centers and technology from a commercial tech company. The Pentagon awarded it to Microsoft in late October, spurning a bid from Amazon's market-leading cloud computing division."
Ryan Mac, et al. of Buzzfeed: "Last month, a BuzzFeed News investigation found that people at more than 2,200 organizations have tried Clearview's facial recognition technology.... Prior to BuzzFeed News' report, Clearview insisted its tool was strictly for law enforcement.... Clearview, however, has shared its technology with organizations it designated as friends, conservative think tanks, Republican lawmakers, and more than 20 potential investors around the world, according to company documents seen by BuzzFeed News. Some of those entities have connections to the far right and the Trump administration, as do Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That, a MAGA-supporting mobile app developer, and cofounder Richard Schwartz, who was once an adviser to ... Rudy Giuliani." --s
Ryan Goodman & Julia Brooks of Just Security: "Several commentators have said that the president's action toward Ukraine fit a pattern of his calling on foreign governments to interfere in US elections.... We ... provide a timeline of events surrounding an earlier incident at the Trump White House involving Qatar and the Kushner Companies. We leave it to readers and further investigation to reach any conclusions -- whether this was a shakedown of a foreign partner motivated or clouded by personal financial interests or something quite innocent. At a minimum, we believe it raises important questions and concerns that deserve further scrutiny.... The following is a timeline of events related to the Kushners' pursuit of funding from Qatar for 666 Fifth Avenue and the Trump-Kushner support for the Saudi-UAE blockade of Qatar." --s
Presidential Race
Kate Sullivan & Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will win California's Democratic primary, CNN projects, after holding a lead in the state since Election Night.... CNN's delegate estimate in the state currently shows Sanders winning 184 delegates to [Joe] Biden's 144, with 81 delegates left to be allocated. Six delegates in the state thus far have been estimated to go to candidates who have already dropped out of the race: Elizabeth Warren (five) and Michael Bloomberg (one)."
Gary Fineout of Politico: "Joe Biden is in line to deliver a knockout punch to Bernie Sanders in Florida in Tuesday's Democratic primary, according to a new poll that gives the former vice president a staggering 44-point lead over his opponent. Biden is lapping Sanders in voter support, with support from 66 percent of likely Democratic primary voters to 22 percent for Sanders, according to a University of North Florida poll taken March 5-10." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Mrs. McC: Florida's primary is Tuesday, March 17.
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will be released from jail after being held for 10 months because testimony she refused to give to a secret grand jury is no longer needed, a federal judge said on Thursday. Manning's release comes because 'the business of (the grand jury) had concluded,' Judge Anthony Trenga of the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, wrote on Thursday. 'The Court finds that Ms. Manning's appearance before the Grand Jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose.' Manning was fined $256,000 in fines for refusing to testify, according to the judge. She had not been released from jail as of Thursday evening and was still being held in the Alexandria Detention Center, her lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, told CNN."
Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Monsanto secretly funded academic studies indicating 'very severe impacts' on farming and the environment if its controversial glyphosate weedkiller were banned, an investigation has found. The research was used by the National Farmers' Union and others to successfully lobby against a European ban in 2017.... The secret funding of the ADAS studies was uncovered by a German transparency campaign group, LobbyControl." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Sara Swann of The Fulcrum: "It's a startlingly bold move, the legality of which is now being challenged in court: Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, already an enemy of voting rights groups nationwide, has canceled an election and says he'll fill a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court all by himself.... When justices leave in the middle of a term, Georgia law permits the governor to fill the vacancy. In this case, however, Justice Keith Blackwell said two weeks ago he was no longer seeking re-election and would resign a few weeks early -- eight months from now, in November. For a few days, it looked like the race for his spot on the becnch [sic] would feature the two remaining candidates: John Barrow of Athens, a former Democratic congressman, and former Republican state legislator Beth Beskin of Atlanta. But a week ago, Kemp's successor as secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, said he was deferring to the governor's wishes and calling off a contest that was to be decided in the May 19 nonpartisan judicial elections."--s
North Carolina. Ames Alexander of The Charlotte Observer: "The public can now listen to the secret recordings that formed the core of the federal government's corruption case against Durham billionaire Greg Lindberg. On March 5, a jury convicted the insurance mogul of using the promise of millions in campaign money to bribe North Carolina's insurance commissioner Mike Causey. Causey cooperated in the federal sting and wore a clandestine recording device to capture his conversations with Lindberg and two associates.... Lindberg and his associates repeatedly asked Causey to replace a regulator named Jackie Obusek, who was responsible for overseeing one of Lindberg's companies[.]" --s
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Cleanup in Aisle—well, Every Aisle.
How successful was the Orange Menace at reassuring citizens that he knows what’s going on, has things under control, and is working tirelessly in their best interests to keep them as safe as possible?
I’ll tell you.
Today, I visited a large grocery store in the biggest city in my area. It was a nightmare. The place was packed with shoppers looking stunned. Expressions ran from chagrined resignation to anger to panic.
Whole aisles were denuded. The general tone of fear was made clearest by the sight of two middle aged women fighting (seriously) over the last roll of toilet paper available. Signs were posted warning that certain items could only be purchased in quantities of three or less. One poor woman dragging two carriages full to the brim, one of which also held a small child, looked on the verge of tears. I helped one elderly woman straining to reach a can of tuna that had fallen under a display. It was like being dropped into the middle of a zombie apocalypse. When I finally made it to a register, I asked a beleaguered cashier how long this madness had been going on. “Since the minute we opened, at seven o’clock” she sputtered.
Another day in Trump’s Amerika. Good job calming everyone’s fears, you fat fuck. People must have watched him stumblebum his way through that hostage video speech, co-written by a mustache twirling Nazi and a kid whose dad had to buy his way into college, and concluded that they were completely on their own and prepared to hole up and wait for the coming disaster. Help from Trump would not be arriving anytime soon.
But I guarantee you that plenty of those thunderstruck shoppers went home to hear Fatty and Fox blame Democrats, China, and the media for all their problems, and most of them will try to vote him back for four more years of this horror show.
I did say it was like the zombie apocalypse, didn’t I?
One more note about that shopping expedition. In high school, I worked at a grocery store in the northeast. Everyone was used to runs we’d have after reports of significant snow accumulation on the way. Bread and milk would disappear off the shelves, but everyone went about it with more bemusement than anything. It was a “Well, here we go again” sort of approach, with a smile and a shrug.
I never saw anything like what I witnessed yesterday. That was pure panic. There were no smiles, there was no sense of humorous resignation. It was nuts. And it was triggered by seeing the guy who is supposedly in charge, looking like he didn’t have a clue, and didn’t care that that was the case.
Less than twelve hours after watching Fatty squirm his way, like a disgruntled teenager told to finish his broccoli, through that hollow, horrifying speech, scared citizens were waiting for the doors to open and stocking up for Armageddon.
If I were Biden, I’d use that thing as exhibit one in my quest to oust this dangerous maniac.
“Costcopalypse Now”
RockyGirl,
Starring Fatty as president* Kurtz. The real Heart of Darkness.
“The horror! The horror!”
I wish I hadn't read that shopping report since I have to go today
for the necessaries. And it's Friday the 13th. What could possibly
go wrong?
Thoughts and prayers from pence don't seem to calm anyone.
The more they talk and spin the less information we get. Too many
people don't seem to take this seriously, only the stock market
tumble seems to register. I don't get it.
I was thinking about some snarky comment about how hard it must be for all the MAGA American Exceptionalists that this pandemic has exposed so many holes to the narrative is the "best" across the world. Turns out we're pretty mediocre when morons are in charge.
Alas, my theory falls flat. The MAGAs are loud, beating their chests, wiping their snot on doorhandles and booking cruise ship tickets all the while yelling hoax. Introspection and self-awareness don't factor into this cohort of citizens.
Joe got up at five this morning and was at our local Stop and Shop at six, with gloved hands thinking there would be scant humans milling around, but lo and behold, the place was packed. In the middle of his shopping the electricity went out which prompted large sheets of protective covering over the diary department so people had to wait in line to get their milk and eggs and whatnot for at least a half hour plus the check-out lanes had lines because of the power outage. The thing that depressed Joe the most was overhearing two older women fighting over a last box of a certain kind of cereal and berating a clerk for not stocking more of it.
Upon returning home he showered and we cross our fingers.
"Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera
Forrest and Safari,
Forrest, you don’t get it because you’re a decent chap who doesn’t look at people Not Forrest as expendable pawns in the game of Aren’t We Great? A similar sense of personal greatness at the expense of everyone else has infected Safari’s ignorant and aggressively stupid MAGA morons.
Stephen (the Xenophobe) Miller and Young Jared, he whose dad bought him a seat in his Harvard class, at the expense of some truly deserving (and not bumbling and mediocre) student, came up with their completely insane travel ban without even the most rudimentary vetting of this idea. Why? Because once they, in their hermetically sealed Trump bubble where facts, ethics, competence, and basic humanity fear to tread, devised the mustache twirling concept of Covid-19 as a “foreign virus”, ie the fault of dirty furriners.The next logical step (for ideological zealots) was obvious: keep out people we don’t like.
The thought that people infected with the virus could easily get to the US by going to the U.K. seems never to have entered the bubble, and because both Miller and Kushner have been stymied at times by pain in the ass types who insisted that they make room for considerations outside their immediate, infantile desires, they never bothered to check with any other departments, agencies, or foreign allies to see what problems might arise.
Whenever I have worked on a project involving major changes to the workflow, I always insist on tracing the entire program to see how and where things would break down. It’s criminal not to because you’re not only wasting everyone’s time, you’re coughing up money that’s not yours to lose. But no one in the Trump bubble ever thinks this is important. They’re not gonna let some engineer or pencil pusher or lawyer or efficiency expert fuck up all their beautiful wickedness. And thus we have clusterfuck followed by bigger clusterfucks, followed by smack downs by the (non-Trumpy) courts. Which enrages the Trump bubble inhabitants. As Marie points out, they never learn. And they never will.
Likewise, the MAGA droolers have adopted the Trump bubble dismissive attitude towards things like rules, laws, and basic common sense. That shit is for weenie Demycraps and losers. THEY are glorious revolutionaries, soldiers for Jesus and Donald and they can do whatever the fuck they want.
They’ve been infected, fatally so, by the Fatty-45 virus.
And there’s no hope for a cure.
So what do we have? Insulated, vicious, hate-filled autocrats who continue to fall down because of ignorance, ineptitude, and an astonishing lack of respect for how things work in the real world. And then we have the Trumpbots cheering wildly at their every failure, blaming everyone else for these (entirely avoidable) miserable fiascos.
And now, they’re putting people’s lives on the line. Because no one is going to tell THEM they shouldn’t be doing that.
@PD Pepe: Wow! Forrest is in for a bad day! I was going to advise him to leave right away to avoid the Friday afternoon crowds. I guess that advice is obsolete.
I do have one word of advice, though. I have quit eating almost anything that isn't cooked, as cooking kills the coronavirus beasties. But I usually don't bake my own bread, so that was going to be a problem. However, many markets sell bread that is "almost baked"; you have to bake it for 10 or 15 minutes, & I'm operating on the theory that the 10 or 15 minutes will kill any beasties. If your supermarket doesn't seem to have bake-at-home bread, you might try asking. One market I go to doesn't have it out on the shelves, but if you ask a bakery employee, she will go to the bakery's supply room & get you a loaf or two of the specialty breads they sell in the store which they normally bake themselves for those last few minutes. I've done this several times at that one market. So no kneading bread dough for me. At least not yet.
PD wrote "Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.”
Unless you’re a Trump moron. Wisdom could call and leave message after message, chase them around all day, calling their names, waving madly, hang signs on their windows and string banners across the shower curtain; cause their cereal bits to spell out “Call me, it’s Wisdom!”, send them hand delivered packages of smarts, teach their dogs and cats and goldfish to shout wisdom at them, but still, it would never so much as chip a flake of lead paint off their freshly whitewashed, marble domes, even if it could no longer do any good.
Garcia Marquez never met a Trump idiot. Otherwise he’d have opted for a thousand years of solitude.
Sent this to the local paper last night. Thought to get it there before it closes too.
"I watched Mr. Trump sniff, squint and stumble his way through his response to the corona virus.
It was very disturbing.
Trump is now admitting what others have known for months: the corona virus threat is real. It’s not the familiar influenza, but at least ten times more lethal (who.int). He even contradicted his earlier silly advice and told people who were sick to stay home, not go to work and infect others.
But what the “plans” Mr. Trump presented revealed about his state of mind was as disturbing as those sudden course corrections. Replaying his evident xenophobia, he called the virus “foreign,” and naturally enough called for another travel ban, this time from Europe.
In some cases, a ban may be a reasonable way to limit transmission, but three things about this announcement were worth noting. It was characteristically vague, and at least three misstatements required later “clarifying” tweets (businessinsider.com). The ban will have exceptions, but who and why were left unsaid; and cargo shipments from Europe will, in fact, continue. Perhaps most intriguingly, the ban exempts the United Kingdom which has more corona cases than do most other European countries (wikipedia.com). Many have wondered if Trump’s three U. K. resorts influenced that decision (politico.com).
Mr. Trump also attacked the Social Security he has repeatedly promised to protect, proposing a freeze on the FICA tax through the fall election that will cost Social Security and Medicare $880 billion (finance.yahoo.com). Relief for workers in the current crisis is certainly necessary, but why attack workers’ strongest safety net to fund it? How about an immediate capital gains tax surcharge of ten percent? I’d bet the Democrat-controlled House would sensibly jump on that.
So which is really scarier?
For individuals, surely Covid-19 is.
For the nation? Undoubtedly this very erratic president."
Both ghoulish and grisly:
"Another element may be ideological: The administration official who oversees Medicaid, Seema Verma..., has been a champion of efforts by conservative states to trim the number of people enrolled in Medicaid."
I would add that in CA's case, as it would be for any home to left-leaning urban areas too smart to fall for the Pretender's snake oil, the motives stemming from the White House are likely both political and personal as well.
Kinda neat how all those conservative impulses fit so well together, holding hands as one.
Ideological, political, personal. In short, mean.
GOP: All those horrible poors are just going to squander any money we give them on abortions anyway ...
I wish that there was a Congresswoman at Large position so we could all vote to keep Katie Porter in Congress until she either dies or at least gets things whipped into shape.
@ProjectLincoln has a new 30 second video up with an annoying "Ivanka" voice over about "daddy." Guaranteed to drive daddy over the edge.
@ Anonymous, we can only hope that you are right. The sooner, the better.
Here's a link to the video.
Hard to look away from all the aspects of the nation's viral meltdown, but haven't lost interest in this one:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/pentagon-asks-judge-to-let-it-reconsider-its-jedi-cloud-contract-award.html
It appears that Barr is at it again. Working hard to cover his boss' ass, which because of its size, is a very big, pretty much full-time job.
Who'd have thought so critical a contract might have been awarded on the basis of personal animus? (I did.)
I'm guessing that Barr is trying to duck the public trial and airing of just that.
Darn. I was looking forward to it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/trump-will-hold-a-press-conference-at-3-pm-et-to-discuss-coronavirus-response.html
So covfefe-19 finally got close enough to the Pretender. Now that he's personally at risk, the man who can't tell the difference between himself and the country has decided the emergency is national.
Wonder if he'll use his emergency powers to divert money from the military to wage war on the foreign virus.
Donald McNeil, is a NYT science reporter specializing in plagues and pestilences. He was on Maddow last night talking about how China had handled quarantine. I thought their protocol made a lot of sense, but I'm obviously not an expert. The Chinese have specialized testing sites for COVID away from doctors offices and hospitals. They conduct a graduating series of specific tests and at any point, the patient could be released if they were negative for COVID-19. However, they remain at the testing facility while waiting the outcome of the tests. The positive patients were not sent home to self quarantine as McNeil indicated 80% of those positive were infected in family clusters. Hmmm. We're being told to go home and isolate. There are specialized facilities with only COVID positive patients receiving several levels of care prior to a severity requiring hospitalization. Its about a 6.5 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxReAkyqals
As far as I can tell, this is a reliable report, as is the young man's scraping site:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/updated-every-minute-17-year-old-whiz-kids-coronavirus-site-used-by-millions
Colbert did his show last night with his staff sitting in as the audience. Kinda bizarre, and he seemed a little buzzed sipping on his bourbon.
I was going to suggest that if you needed TP you could order some from whogivesacrap.org. It's good stuff and is more sustainable being made from bamboo rather than trees. They also contribute half of their profits to help build toilets in needy areas. Unfortunately they're sold out of everything, even tissues and towels. Glad we reordered a few weeks ago.
Just in time Medicago announces a corona-19 vaccine to begin trials. After passing trials, regulations, etc it may be available to the public as early as Nov. Nov. 2021 that is.
OMG. How many times did Prez Dumbf*uck just shake hands on live TV?
Just listened, slack-jawed, to the latest abomination of a press conference, brought to you by Fatty Productions. It was like some kind of weird pep rally unreality show. Lots of vague promises, peppered, comme d'habitude, with the usual yuuuuge pats on the back for his own amazing wonderfulness, and interrupted, just like a TV show, for commercials for huge corporations.
Representatives of giant private sector businesses were trotted out (Fatty having basically farmed out the work of the federal government to for-profit operations) to take a bow and kiss Trump's ass. "Hey, let's bring up Joe Blow from CVS, Joe's been a great friend for a long time [three hours] and he'll be blah, blah, blah. C'mon up Joe. Say a few words." "Well, thank you Mr. President. I'd like to suck your dick for the rest of my time on stage, but I see that there's a line up of other CEO's waiting to do that." "Well, thank you, Joe. You can blow me later. Let's hear from Google. They're doing blah, blah, blah, and it will be the greatest blah, blah, in the history of the world. Of course, I invented it all."
No word about when Google's greatest blah, blah, blah will be available or even what it will do, but hey, that would only interrupt the Giant Trump Jerk Off.
And on and on. One woman (didn't get her name) went waaaay out on a limb in offering her unearned encomiums to Fatty, lying that "The president realized that the old fashioned (read: Obama) way was not up to the present situation so he personally directed us to blah, blah, blah..."
Directed you to what? Make sure he doesn't continue to look like a fucking schmuck who couldn't find a communicable disease in the Black Hole of Calcutta. That's what.
It was disgusting. A smoke and mirrors Trump pep rally where he got to do things he loves to do....praise himself for being wonderful, declare a National Emergency where I Trump will save everyone! At one point, he slid into his trademarked form of self praise about how he has personally created the situation for the US energy self-sufficiency. (How did we get to energy while talking about a medical emergency??) "They all said it couldn't be done, but I did it in six days. No one else in the history of the world could do it, but I did it."
Did what? Oil prices are at rock bottom because of a pissing contest between two dictators on the other side of the world. Trump had NOTHING to do with anything. But somehow that gets translated into "energy sufficiency" created personally by the Orange Menace. Just incredible.
There were zero details. Lots of bullshit. The half-pence was led out on his leash (embroidered by Mother, no doubt) to announce that there would be hundreds of thousands of testing kits available. At some point. Soon. Sometime soon. Maybe. Hundreds of thousands? How about tens of millions? This is a huge step forward? Hell no. This is something that should have been accomplished a fucking month ago. This is a FIRST STEP, not the final solution for which they should all be crowned with laurel wreaths. "Oh look at how wonderful we all are!" It's like telling troops going into battle that a tenth of them will have a weapon. Soon. And they might even get ammunition! So, good luck. And don't forget to thank us.
Ronald Reagan had it half right. Government IS the problem. Government run by Republicans, that is.
Appalling.
@Ak: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't have to watch that
BS after a shopping day from hell (Hell?). Even considering it's
Friday the 13th people in our fly-over-area were very polite and no
fights over TP or Kleenex, cause there weren't any. No diapers, no
bottled water, no liquid soap or sanitizer.
Only reason I went with my husband was to get some stuff for the
upcoming landscaping season, like alcohol to sterilize the tools, and
stuff like that. No alcohol, so I bought Vodka, dual use, if you know
what I mean.
@Forrest Morris: Alcohol is the first ingredient in homemade hand sanitizer. The second ingredient is aloe vera gel, & my local supermarché was out of that yesterday.
@Forrest, standard vodka is not strong enough at 80 proof (40%). You need to buy Everclear or Graves at 190 proof (85%) and dilute to at least 60% from there. I'm keeping a bottle of Jamaican "Overproof" rum at 126 proof (63%) in my back pocket. Not sure if I should spray it or swig it.
Also, too, keep away from open flame.