;)
The Commentariat -- May 2, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here.
Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Trump administration will send three rapid-results testing machines and 1,000 coronavirus tests to the Senate, according to Health and Human Services chief Alex Azar.... The new supply of machines and tests comes after the Capitol Hill physician informed top GOP officials Thursday that the Senate only had the capacity to test senators and staffers who were ill. The physician also said that test results would take two days or longer -- a contrast to the White House's testing capacity, where anyone who meets with ... Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence receives a rapid-results test." ~~~
~~~ Update. Respectfully, Fuck You, Your Highness. From Saturday's WashPo live updates, linked above: "In a rare joint statement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday they are' respectfully' declining the Trump administration's offer to deploy rapid coronavirus testing capabilities on Capitol Hill.... 'There is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital (sic) Hill on Monday. Likewise the House, which should return but isn't because of Crazy Nancy P. The 5 minute Abbott Test will be used,' Trump tweeted.... 'Consistent with CDC guidelines, Congress will use the current testing protocols that the Office of the Attending Physician has put in place until these speedier technologies become more widely available,' Pelosi and McConnell's statement said."
The Method to Their Madness. Tina Nguyen of Politico: "Over three weeks ago, hydroxychloroquine was all the rage in MAGA world, despite flawed and scattered evidence about whether the drug could help cure coronavirus. Now there is another drug, remdesivir, with positive early scientific data. Much of MAGA world wants little to do with it ... even as the president expresses optimism.... The unexpected reaction appears to stem from the differences in how the two drugs came into the public spotlight. Hydroxychloroquine bubbled up through the MAGA grassroots -- little-known investors promoted it online, got on Fox News and suddenly the president was talking about it from the White House. Remdesivir's progress came through a government-funded trial that had the blessing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the bête noire of Trump hardliners who blame the government's top infectious disease expert for undermining the president and causing unnecessary economic damage with his social-distancing guidelines."
David Axelrod in a CNN opinion piece: A team of lawyers working for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign fully vetted contenders for the vice-presidential nominee, including of course Joe Biden. "The comprehensive vet certainly would have turned up any formal complaints filed against Biden during his 36-year career in the Senate. It did not. The team would have investigated any salacious rumors of the sort that travel far and wide in Washington. There were none.... Through that entire process, the name Tara Reade never came up. No formal complaint. No informal chatter. Certainly, no intimation of sexual harassment or assault from her or anyone else. The team of investigators, expert in their work, would not have missed it.... It is striking that when an experienced vetting team put Biden under a microscope before he was chosen to be second-in-line for the presidency, neither her allegations, nor anything resembling them in Biden's history, showed up."
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Mike Stobbe of the AP: "The U.S. government was slow to understand how much coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which helped drive the acceleration of outbreaks across the nation, a top health official said Friday. Limited testing and delayed travel alerts for areas outside China contributed to the jump in U.S. cases starting in late February, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... The CDC on Friday published an article, authored by Schuchat, that looked back on the U.S. response.... It suggests the nation's top public health agency missed opportunities to slow the spread. Some public health experts saw it as important assessment by one of the nation's most respected public health doctors.... She told the AP, 'I think the timing of our travel alerts should have been earlier.'... Donald Trump has repeatedly celebrated a federal decision, announced on Jan. 31, to stop entry into the U.S. of any foreign nationals who had traveled to China in the previous 14 days.... The article is carefully worded, but [Jason] Schwartz [of Yale's School of Public Health] saw it as a notable departure from the White House narrative. 'This report seems to challenge the idea that the China travel ban in late January was instrumental in changing the trajectory of this pandemic in the United States,' he said."
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump not only can't handle the truth, he hates the truth and he hates truthtellers. And it doesn't matter how much that truth affects the health & safety of Americans: ~~~
~~~ ** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump moved on Friday night to replace a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who angered him with a report last month highlighting supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. The White House waited until after business hours to announce the nomination of a new inspector general for the department who, if confirmed, would take over for Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who was publicly assailed by the president at a news briefing three weeks ago. The nomination was the latest effort by Mr. Trump against watchdog offices around his administration that have defied him. In recent weeks, he fired an inspector general involved in the inquiry that led to the president's impeachment, nominated a White House aide to another key inspector general post overseeing virus relief spending and moved to block still another inspector general from taking over as chairman of a pandemic spending oversight panel. [The Hill's story is here.]~~~
~~~ "Among several other nominations announced on Friday was the president's choice for a new ambassador to Ukraine, filling a position last occupied by Marie L. Yovanovitch.... Mr. Trump selected Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, a retired 40-year Army officer now serving as the director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. Mr. Dayton speaks Russian and served as defense attaché in Moscow. More recently, he served as a senior United States defense adviser in Ukraine appointed by Jim Mattis, Mr. Trump's first defense secretary." The Hill's story is here.
Trump Gets the Test, We Get the Virus. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "At the White House this week, President Trump sat less than six feet from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in the Oval Office. He invited small-business owners to crowd behind the Resolute Desk for a photo shoot. His vice president toured a medical research center without a face mask in defiance of its policy.... Yet even as Trump aides have signaled that he could soon begin regular travel, the reality is that the White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale testing for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, that most of the nation remains without.... It is a cocoon of safety that does not exist almost anywhere else in the country. Governors and municipal leaders have scrambled for basic supplies; hospitals and elderly care facilities, dealing with the most vulnerable, have cried out for more testing; and workers at grocery stores and manufacturing plants are risking their health to keep open critical businesses." ~~~
~~~ Trump Gets the Test, Congress Gets the Virus. Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the tight-lipped doctor who attends to Congress..., told senior Republican officials on a private conference call, cannot screen all 100 senators for the coronavirus when they return to work on Monday. Two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, the story is very different. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested frequently, aides who come into close contact with them are tested weekly and the list of people who need to be tested daily keeps expanding.... Although the rich and powerful are clearly favored, not even all the powerful have equal access.... At the White House, the medical unit is using a rapid-testing kit developed by Abbott, which yields results in about five minutes. But Dr. Monahan told the Republican aides on Thursday that he lacked such equipment, and that it would take at least two days to get test results.... 'When you add it to the fact that people on Capitol Hill, who after all form an essential part of the government as well, cannot get testing as readily, it just underscores the feeling that this man is principally self-serving,' [presidential historian Richard] Dallek said." Mrs. McC: This is similar to a Politico story I linked yesterday, but the Politico story doesn't emphasize quite as well what a dick Trump is.
Erica Werner & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The White House is blocking Anthony S. Fauci from testifying before a House subcommittee investigating the coronavirus outbreak and response, arguing that it would be 'counterproductive' for him to appear next week while in the midst of participating in the government's responses to the pandemic.... In fact, Fauci is expected to appear at a Senate hearing related to testing the following week, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning." ABC News has the story here. Mrs. McC: Plus, Fauci has wasted hours sitting or standing through Trump's Late-Day Propaganda Shows' testifying before Congress would seem to be a more "productive" use of his time than that.
Another Secret Jared Project. Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times via the Recorder: "The Trump administration is refusing to disclose how it is distributing medical supplies for the coronavirus response that were brought to the U.S. at taxpayer expense through a White House initiative known as Project Air Bridge. The administration instead has allowed six multibillion-dollar medical supply companies that are receiving government aid to import the supplies to block public release of the data, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 'At this time, FEMA does not have the authority to release this information,' a spokesperson for the agency said.... A spokesperson for McKesson Corp., one of the companies, denied making any demand that information be kept secret.... Nevertheless, the lack of disclosure effectively hinders any public accounting of which states are receiving the most assistance and what formulas are being used to distribute the equipment, despite a public investment of tens of millions of dollars in the air-lift operation. The lack of transparency about distributions comes on top of the administration's refusal to provide information about the financial terms the White House struck with the medical distribution companies...."
Bad, Bad Betsy Is Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to garnish the wages of federal student loan borrowers who fall behind on payments even though Congress suspended the practice in the economic rescue package, according to a new lawsuit. An upstate New York woman who works as a home health aide for less than $13 an hour claimed in the lawsuit, filed late Thursday, that the federal government seized more than $70 from her paycheck as recently as last week -- nearly a full month after ... Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law. She is suing on behalf of about 285,000 borrowers whose wages are being garnished, according to the lawsuit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Gina Kolata of the New York Times: "... on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval for remdesivir as a treatment for patients severely ill with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.... Remdesivir is approved only for severely ill patients and only temporarily; formal approval must come later.... The story of remdesivir's rescue [from the scrapheap of failed medications] ... testifies to the powerful role played by federal funding, which allowed scientists laboring in obscurity to pursue basic research without obvious financial benefits. This research depends almost entirely on government grants."
Jeanna Smialek & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Monty Bennett's sprawling hospitality company is the biggest known applicant of the government's small-business relief program. The Texas conservative has remained unwilling to return his loans even as public anger builds over large companies getting the funds -- a fact now drawing the scrutiny of a key lawmaker. Hotels and subsidiaries overseen by Mr. Bennett's firm, Ashford Inc., have applied for $126 million in forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program. According to company filings, about $70 million of that has been funded. By comparison, the average loan size in the program's first round was $206,000. On Friday, Senator Chuck Schumer ... sent a letter to the Small Business Administration demanding a thorough review of use of the program by Mr. Bennett's companies, saying that he is 'deeply concerned that large, publicly traded companies, like Ashford, may be exploiting' it.... To Mr. Bennett, a conservative who has donated heavily to Republicans, including supporting Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign and directly providing more than $150,000 so far to his re-election bid, the money is his fair share." Bennett also has a useful retainer in Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas).
Oops! Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors are examining the communications of a New York family doctor whose work has been discussed on Fox News and who has been in touch with the White House to tout an anti-malarial as a treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to people contacted as part of the inquiry. The examination of Vladimir 'Zev' Zelenko's records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another 'Z' name in his address book -- federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi's activities during the 2016 presidential election.... It is unclear how seriously prosecutors are scrutinizing the matter.... But even passing interest from federal authorities into efforts to promote the anti-malarial is likely to chafe the president and his allies, particularly given the involvement of a former member of Mueller's team." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sam Stein & Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: Mitch McConnell's "decision to call back the Senate has been met with criticism by some of its own members, who say it defies basic public safety guidelines to make lawmakers (many elderly) and their staffs -- not to mention the hundreds of workers needed to keep the Capitol and Senate offices running -- cram into the buildings when COVID-19 cases in Washington, D.C. are just about peaking.... Washington, D.C. authorities have extended the city's stay-at-home order through May 15 as the coronavirus' spread has yet to abate sufficiently to reasonably relax social distancing restrictions. On Thursday, the District had its deadliest date yet, while the greater metro region recorded 2,000 new COVID cases. Officials have warned that businesses may not be able to open for another two to three months under the current trajectory." Mrs. McC: If senators had any sense, they would refuse to show up. If all Democrats and Independents and a few Republicans were no-shows, Mitch wouldn't have a quorum and his plot to kill the codgers would be foiled.
Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Protests against coronavirus-related government restrictions continued to spread on Friday as a coalition of gun activists, vaccine opponents and anxious business owners used the organizing power of social media to build increasingly visible and vocal opposition movements in several states. Crowds waving signs, honking horns and demanding an immediate relaxation of measures imposed to slow the pandemic gathered in Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Raleigh, N.C., on Friday. More protests were planned for the weekend, including in the state capitals of Kentucky, Oregon and New Hampshire, despite polling consistently showing that most Americans support public-health restrictions by governors and mayors even as the economic toll mounts." Mrs. McC: Oh, goodie. There's a nutcase protest coming to a capitol near me.
The New York Times has a handy interactive U.S. map that gives an overview of each state's stay-at-home rules and where they stand when. There are "read more" links for individual states, which give more details. Mrs. McC: I've seen quite a few state-by-state summaries, and this is the first that seems actually helpful.
New York. Caroline Lewis of Gothamist: "... the state has started tracking the number of deaths from the virus in nursing homes, but it seems some are still masking the grim reality inside. Isabella Center, a nursing home in Washington Heights owned by the nonprofit health system MJHS, reported 13 deaths from COVID-19 to the state. In reality, at least 98 residents have died since the start of the pandemic, according to a new investigation by NY1.... Loyola Princivil-Barnett, chief operating officer at Isabella, said in a statement [that] the lack of access to testing for coronavirus has 'hampered our ability to further limit loss of life by swiftly separating anyone with the virus. Some of the deaths that went unreported took place in a hospital, rather than onsite at the nursing home; others were suspected, but not confirmed, coronavirus cases. A refrigerated trailer on the premises that houses dead bodies has reportedly been visible to nursing home residents, but hidden from the public passing by outside by a tarp hung over the fence."
Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "The federal government has launched 'Operation Warp Speed' to deliver a covid-19 vaccine by January, months ahead of standard vaccine timelines. The last time the government tried that, it was a total fiasco. Geral Ford was president. It was 1976. Early that year, a mysterious new strain of swine flu turned up at Fort Dix in New Jersey.... Ford raced to come up with a response, consulting with Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, the scientists behind the polio vaccine, and in late March he announced an audacious plan for the federal government to produce the vaccine and organize its distribution.... Almost immediately, there was chaos.... And then more problems emerged.... As tests progressed, more scientific problems emerged — even as there were few, if any, signs that a pandemic was materializing.... By December, following 94 reports of paralysis, the entire program was shut down." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One big difference between then & now: "The program 'appears clearly to have been based on concern for the public good,' [political scientist Max] Skidmore wrote, 'not to achieve political advantage.'"
Lisa Kaczke of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader: "... Donald Trump plans to see the fireworks over Mount Rushmore in person this year. Trump told conservative podcast host Dan Bongino on Friday that he plans to attend the July 3 event. 'For 20 years or something it hasn't been allowed for environmental reasons. You believe that one? It's all stone,' Trump told Bongino.... Trump told [Gov. Kristi] Noem in January that he would try to attend the fireworks, which will be held this year for the first time since 2009.... Trump has previously said that no one knows why the fireworks were stopped a decade ago.... Trump said in January, '... 'So nobody knew why [the fireworks display was shut down]. They just said environmental reasons.' Concerns about the pine beetle infestation's impact on the forest ended the fireworks display after 2009, but Noem announced last year that improvements in the forest and fireworks technology mean the display will be safe." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump doesn't know something, "nobody knows." Trump has not advanced past the stage in life when a toddler covers his eyes and says, "You can't see me." Also too, 2009 was a decade ago, not two decades ago, as Trump said.
Another Tawdry Trump Emolument. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service rented a room at President Trump's Washington hotel for 137 consecutive nights in 2017 -- paying Trump's company more than $33,000 -- so it could guard Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin while he lived in one of the hotel's luxury suites, according to federal documents and people familiar with the arrangement. Mnuchin, a financier from New York, lived in the Trump International Hotel for several months before moving to a home in Washington. Mnuchin paid for his hotel suite himself, a Treasury Department spokesperson said. For [the Secret Service's] room, the Trump hotel charged the maximum rate that federal agencies were generally allowed to pay in 2017: $242 per night, according to the billing records.... For the Trump hotel it was also a steady rental at a time when only about 42 percent of rooms were occupied, according to previously released data." (Also linked yesterday.)
New White House Press Secretary Conducts Her First Lie-a-Thon. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A White House press secretary held a briefing for the first time in more than 13 months Friday, with newcomer Kayleigh McEnany dusting off the old mainstay for at least one day. And while the briefing carried promises of no lies and featured a relatively steady performance, the old, factually challenged mainstays of past briefings -- and President Trump's own commentary -- were readily present.... For one, McEnany echoed Trump's false claim about the Russia investigation, saying it had amounted to 'the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.'" Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's worth reading the story, if you have access to the WashPo, to see how many lies McEnany was able to stuff into her debut briefing. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Kayleigh McEnany's first briefing as White House press secretary started off on a hopeful note -- with a promise from her not to lie. That lasted for about all of 15 minutes." If you can't access Blake's column, Rupar has his own list o' lies, including some overlap with Blake's. ~~~
~~~ As Akhilleus points out in today's thread, McEnany's first answer during her first briefing was a lie: "Kayleigh McEnany sez 'I will not lie to you!' Oops! Lie number one." ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "She came with charts, a Trumpian 'invisible enemy' reference and a video with the production value that ... Donald Trump loves. Her responses to most of the questions asked amounted to little more than talking points drawn from Trump.... Though McEnany pledged to be honest with reporters, she grew somewhat heated when discussing the legal issues surrounding Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. McEnany raised Flynn's case without prompting from reporters.... But McEnany, who repeatedly glanced down at notes on her lectern when discussing the issue, inaccurately described ... 'a handwritten FBI noted that says "We need to get Flynn to lie," and get him fired.'... In truth, the handwritten notes McEnany was referring to, dated the day Flynn was interviewed in 2017, show more of a debate about how forthcoming to be with him or others at the White House about the nature of the FBI investigation. They reflect deliberation about whether confronting Flynn with a lie in real time would be helpful to their investigation."
"Trump's Fundamental Gaslight." Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "A full-on freakout on the right over the revelation that the FBI planned for the prospect that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would lie in a January 2016 interview, has, inevitably, drawn in political operative Roger Stone.... Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he may pardon both Flynn and Stone, each of whom was found to have lied to federal investigators about the Trump Russia scandal. 'What they did to Gen. Flynn, and by the way, to Roger Stone and to others, was a disaster and a disgrace, and it should never be allowed to happen in this country again,' Trump said when asked about pardoning Flynn. Notably, Trump and his backers, by and large, are not saying that Flynn and Stone didn't lie to federal investigators. Instead they are implying that lying to investigators doesn't matter.... In pardoning Stone and Flynn, the president would reward them for [covering up for him].... While conservative pundits have treated the [recently-released FBI] notes as smoking gun evidence that Flynn was framed, legal experts have noted that the FBI's tactics with Flynn were not unusual. Federal agents often try to catch targets in situations where they will admit crimes or lie, opening themselves to prosecution. In a guilty plea, Flynn admitted to knowingly lying to the FBI agents. (He also said under oath that he did not believe the FBI entrapped him.)"
Victor Ordonez of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will not be leaving prison to serve out the rest of his term in home confinement, according to sources familiar with the matter. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had notified Cohen that he would be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 outbreak.... It appears that other prisoners at Otisville who were granted home confinement have also lost those privileges, according to the sources." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "The top spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services repeatedly directed crude and sexist comments toward women in now-deleted tweets, a CNN KFile review finds. Michael Caputo, who just started at the department in April, called several women on Twitter 'dogface' and made crude insinuations and sexist comments aimed at former FBI attorney Lisa Page prior to joining HHS.... Caputo's ire against Page seemed to stem from his own involvement in the Russia probe.... In other tweets from 2020, Caputo repeatedly referred to different women as 'dogface,' telling them 'look at this dogface,' 'you have a dogface,' and 'I would never sleep with you, dog-face.' In another tweet Caputo told a woman to 'go f**k yourself,' saying she was 'ugly,' and calling her 'honey.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday denied an allegation of sexual assault by a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, breaking a monthlong silence that had frustrated some Democratic activists as his presidential campaign grapples with issues of accountability and gender that are vitally important to many members of his party. Sounding emphatic and at times agitated in an interview on MSNBC, Mr". Biden ... tried to address concerns about Ms. Reade's claim by saying that she had a right to be heard while also insisting that he had not assaulted her." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
Canada. Rob Gillies of the AP: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is banning the use and trade of assault-style weapons immediately. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms, including two weapons used by the gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States[.]... The Cabinet order doesn't forbid owning any of the military-style weapons and their variants but it does ban the use and trade in them. H said the order has a two-year amnesty period for current owners, and there will be a compensation program that will require a bill passed in Parliament.... 'Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,' Trudeau said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
North Korea. He's Ba-a-a-ack! (In What Was Literally a Shit Show.) Jack Kim & Heekyong Yang of Reuters: "When North Korea broke a three-week silence on leader Kim Jong Un's public activity on Saturday, it offered no clue where he has been during a period of intense global speculation about his health and whereabouts, or why he was hidden from the public for so long. Instead, state media simply showed him surrounded by aides and appearing confident at a gleaming fertiliser factory that is believed by outside experts to be part of a secret nuclear-weapons programme." ~~~
~~~ Kim Tong-Hyung of the AP: "The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim attended the ceremony Friday in Sunchon with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, who many analysts predict would take over if her brother is suddenly unable to rule. State media showed videos and photos of Kim wearing a black Mao suit and constantly smiling, walking around facilities, applauding, cutting a huge red ribbon with a scissor..., and smoking inside and outside of buildings while talking with other officials."
Venezuela. Ralph Ortega of the AP: "A secret military operation to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro Moros was simple, but perilous. Some 300 heavily armed volunteers would sneak into Venezuela from the northern tip of South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the socialist country and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro's arrest. What could go wrong? As it turns out, pretty much everything.... Authorities in the US and Colombia are asking questions about the role of [a] former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau.... This bizarre, untold story of a call to arms that crashed before it launched is drawn from interviews with more than 30 Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters who were directly involved in or familiar with its planning.... An Associated Press investigation found no evidence of US government involvement in the plot.... Goudreau [was reportedly] looking to capitalize on the Trump administration's growing interest in toppling Maduro. He had been introduced to Keith Schiller, President Donald Trump's longtime bodyguard, through someone who worked in private security." --s
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Reader Comments (14)
On Fauci:
If I possessed any talent in that direction I would produce a cartooned lineup of all those functionaries the Pretender has muzzled--complete with hangdog expression and muzzles.
The Orange Menace’s latest press something, something, something, Kayleigh McEnany sez “I will not lie to you!”
Oops! Lie number one.
That didn’t take long.
First, you cannot work for the most dishonest president* in US history and hope (or even pretend) to tell the truth. To paraphrase Mary McCarthy’s famous dig at Lillian Hellman, everything these people say is a lie, including articles, prepositions, and conjunctions.
So, good start Kayleigh. As of today, your forced resignation timer has been started. Enjoy.
Revision required, I guess.
Guess Fauci will be allowed to testify to the Senate, so the earlier decision was just an Eff Yoo to Nancy.
But I'd still like to see that cartoon lineup.
It appears that people need to reach out and get in touch with old acquaintances during this time of crisis. Yesterday an old colleague of Joe's called bringing Joe up to date on his complicated life–-they talked for over an hour and at the very end politics inched into the discussion and Joe was dismayed to learn that this old friend started praising Trump. Joe made a few futile attempts at dissuading his old buddy of his mindset but by this time was eager to say bye, bye.
"What", I asked, "did this guy teach?" "History" was the answer but then a sigh, and "But he wasn't very good at it."
Yeah, the right-wing New York Times reported back on 8 April, "New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that travelers brought in the virus mainly from Europe, not Asia." The story doesn't indicate when the "research" was done, or when CDC might have been able to get the information. I remember seeing reports through at least the middle of April that people who were already in ICUs with severe symptoms could not be tested because they had not traveled to Wuhan, so the CDC rule didn't allow a test to be used. Granted the tests were still as precious as pearls, the strict rules were a big hindrance in getting a handle on the spread of the virus.
They All Lie, pt. 5,789,900
So Fatty Furioso is outraged, outraged, I tells ya, that his buds, the self-serving traitor Flynn and the rat bastard con man Roger Stone were caught in their lies and summarily punished. “This should never be allowed to happen ever again in our country!*” he squealed. What is that, you might ask. Why, telling the truth, natch.
Of course FF will pardon the self-serving traitor and the rat bastard con man, because HE is a self-serving traitor and a rat bastard con man. But more importantly, Trump is outraged that lies should be considered a bad thing. Especially if employed to help him out of legal peril or having to face unwanted consequences. I mean, he does it dozens of times a day.
So, yeah. I’m making fun of the Fat Fuck and his penchant for surrounding himself with the lowest of the low, crooks, schemers, liars, traitors, and greedy, grasping pigs, which include his whole nest of nepotistic vipers. Again.
But this isn’t funny at all. We’ve become so inured to his criminality, lies, thievery, and treasonous schemes that we can’t do much more than laugh or cry about it. It must be like living in the depths of the old Soviet Union where people winked at each other whenever state media fed them another helping borschty bullshit.
But come November, we need to make absolutely certain that THIS is the sort of thing we should not allow to happen ever again in our country. There’ll be more crooks and con men in our future (lookin’ at you, Turtle Man) but getting rid of this vicious pathogen (and I don’t mean Covid), will be a great day in the history of the republic.
*Whenevet Fatty Furioso says things like “our country”, he doesn’t mean the United States of America. He loathes and despises the United States of America. He means the Dysfunctional State of Trumpland, of which he is the owner and chief dysfunctioner.
@Procopius: The point of the AP story is not that the CDC report contained new information but that a top federal official was admitting federal agencies were slow to respond. This is a criticism of the CDC (and other agencies & departments and the White House) by the CDC.
The Times reporters got their info from researchers at private institutions: Mt. Sinai Hospital (Bronx) & NYU. It's not clear from the AP story what research CDC did other than collect case data (the story links the CDC report, but I'm too lazy to read it, & the abstract doesn't reveal enough to let me cheat & pretend I did). NYU & Mt. Sinai researchers did not just count noses, but "analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March," according to the NYT.
And–-to continue with Ak's piece––let's not laugh too hard at our new press secretary; she will be the best of her predecessors because she has spent many years preparing for exactly this position. By defending Trump even before he became president (while severely criticizing Obama) she had planted the seed for being Trump's girl Friday. There will be NOTHING that "her president" will do that she will find faulty––nothing. His lies will become her truth and she will defend him by truthfully lying. To watch her in action is like listening to a priest tell the story of redemption while back in the rectory bad things are happening.
Shades of Charlottesville! Those very fine people are back again, this time in Michigan, and Captain Cheeto is right there to support them. He's urging the governor to "cut a deal and put out the fire," Funny how only right wing protesters are worthy of his attention.
The new press sec is as shameless as they come. A deader version of zombie hag Kellyanne Conjob. Her only job so far has been to go on CNN & Fox Nexs and shill for any position that paints Dear Leader in sublime light, without batting an eye for falsehoods and without missing a breath in her North Korean-like praise defense on the Great Orange One.
After a few tough questions she'll break down and revert back to form, peeling off the fake mask and revealing the empty hole where her soul own rested. I don't give her two weeks before she loses any shreds of credibility some might afford her.
If she doesn't debase herself by then, Tang will do it for her by putting her in impossible positions where lies are the inly way out. That's the true test of loyalty, and the ring must be kissed early and often.
I always thought that human sacrifice was a thing of the past. Trump and a number of the Republican Goveners and CEOs are willing to let many people die in the hope that the Economy God will be pleased and show them favor. Some of our fellow human beings have made such little progress since they were chopping heads in hopes of receiving their bountiful harvests. Trump sending people back to the meat packing labyrinths to each day try to navigate their way out alive only to have to get up tomorrow and do it all again. Or the Govenor of Iowa saying if a person quits their dangerous job then they will get no help from the government for themselves or their families. Fight the mighty invisible beast day after day or starve. I remember reading about societies that killed in order to please their Gods and thought they were from a time long since passed. Now I know better. Heads may not be rolling down the steps of a pyramid, but the hundred thousand body bags are waiting for those that fall.
Jeanne - Thank you for your post (yesterday?). I will - of course - also vote for Biden. As for the matter-at-hand, I find myself absent any solid sense as to who did - or didn’t do - what to whom.
Biden came off as limp and unconvincing but often does for me. Then again, there’s much to question about the allegations, certainly given the timing as PD stated re: Al Franken’s “victim”: a Breitbart Bestie, no less. Then again (again) there’re such diverse behavioral reflexes following sexual assault, many seeming contradictory or implausible. The kind of content that scores zero points for victims - male or female - in a courtroom.
True or false, the impact on Biden and November will be / is huge.
(I’d had an instantaneous thought while reading about the terms of delaying document disclosure while one’s still serving in office: might that have inspired Biden’s decision for a presidential run?)
Management by and for the media:
"I'm pleased to announce that Gilead now has an EUA from the FDA for remdesivir. And you know what, that is because that's been the hot thing also in the papers and in the media for the last little while," (The Pretender) said..." quoted in Newsweek.
As if we didn't already know there is no there there in the Pretend brain.
Bea McC Re:
“Mika showed no respect, just badgered Biden with repeated questions even when he had just answered them in satisfactory ways. You just don't treat a former veep like this, even if it's fucking Dick Cheney.”
Agreed. Felt Mika was relishing / dragging out her solo spotlight. Were it Cheney? A post-interview upchuck backstage followed by a vigorously scrubbed showering back home. Done.