The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, but Akhilleus found this new one that he says is easy to use.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links

Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Apr012020

The Commentariat -- April 2, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Navy Brass Punishes Captain for Trying to Save U.S. Lives. Courtney Kube of NBC News: "The Navy announced it has relieved the captain who sounded the alarm about an outbreak of COVID-19 aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Capt. Brett Crozier, who commands the Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier with a crew of nearly 5,000, was relieved of his command on Thursday, but he will keep his rank and remain in the Navy."

Elizabeth Cohen of CNN: "A prestigious scientific panel told the White House Wednesday night that research shows coronavirus can be spread not just by sneezes or coughs, but also just by talking, or possibly even just breathing. 'While the current specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing,' according to the letter, written by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, chairman of a committee with the National Academy of Sciences. Fineberg told CNN that he will wear start wearing a mask when he goes to the grocery store.... His letter explains that research at a hospital in China shows the virus can be suspended in the air when doctors and nurses remove protective gear, or when floors are cleaned, or when staff move around. Research by the University of Nebraska shows that genetic material from the virus was found in patients' rooms more than 6 feet away from the patients, according to the letter. Fineberg said it's possible that aerosolized coronavirus droplets can hang in the air and potentially infect someone who walks by later."

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "The Democratic National Committee on Thursday postponed its national convention because of the coronavirus, moving it from mid-July to mid-August.... The convention will still be held in Milwaukee, as planned, the week of Aug. 17, officials said, a week before Republicans plan to gather in Charlotte, N.C., to renominate President Trump." A TPM story is here.

"A Textbook Propaganda Campaign. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "A review of hundreds of hours of programming and social media traffic from Jan. 1 through mid-March -- when the White House started urging people to stay home and limit their exposure to others -- shows that doubt, cynicism and misinformation about the virus took root among many of Mr. Trump's boosters in the right-wing media as the number of confirmed cases in the United States grew. It was during this lull -- before the human and economic toll became undeniable -- when the story of the coronavirus among the president's most stalwart defenders evolved into the kind of us-versus-them clash that Mr. Trump has waged for much of his life. Now, with the nation's economic and physical health in clear peril, Mr. Trump and many of his allies on the airwaves and online are blaming familiar enemies in the Democratic Party and the news media."

Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump’s campaign is demanding that Jeff Sessions, the former Attorney General, stop attaching himself to the president in his effort to win back his old Senate seat in Alabama, after Mr. Sessions distributed a campaign mailer that mentioned the president 22 times. In an unusual letter to the Sessions campaign, which was obtained by The New York Times, the Trump campaign called Mr. Sessions' claim that he is the president's top supporter 'delusional.'... Mr. Trump has endorsed Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach, over Mr. Sessions in the runoff to be the Republican nominee taking on the incumbent Democrat, Senator Doug Jones, in the fall. The runoff is currently scheduled for July 14." The Hill has a summary story here.

DeSantis Wins Pandering Prize. And It's a Killer. Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) undercut his own stay-at-home order by exempting religious services from that necessary step to slow the spread of the coronavirus.... If the governor had finally decided to take the threat seriously, his order carved out a large exception for religious services conducted in churches, synagogues and other houses of worship, which are deemed to be 'essential business' and thus exempt from the stay-at-home mandate."

Anneken Tappe of CNN: "The last three weeks have marked one of the most devastating periods in history for the American job market, as first-time claims for unemployment benefits have surged more than 3,000% since early March.... 6.6 million US workers filed for their first week of unemployment benefits in the week ending March 28 -- a new historic high.That was far greater than economists had expected.... Unemployment claims at this level suggest a severe job market decline hardly any American alive has ever seen in their lifetimes." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' business updates are here. "More than 6.6 million people filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, setting a grim record for the second straight week. The latest claims brought the two-week total to nearly 10 million. The speed and scale of the job losses is without precedent. Until last month, the worst week for unemployment filings was 695,000 in 1982.

"Oil prices spiked, lifting shares of energy companies, after President Trump said on Thursday that he expected the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce oil production cuts."

James Glanz, et al., of the New York Times: "Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates, according to an analysis of cellphone location data by The New York Times." Mrs. McC: The maps & charts that are part of this report paint a damning picture of bad behavior by people living in confederate states.

Mrs. McCrabbie: I believe it was safari who was wondering a few days ago whatever had happened to "presidential advisor" Ivanka Trump. Well, now we know. She is putting her valuable time to good use for the American people! ~~~

~~~ Tasos Kokkinidis of the Greek Reporter: "... Ivanka Trump said Tuesday she's mostly working from home during the coronavirus outbreak while also caring for her three children, learning to play guitar -- and now studying Greek mythology. Ms. Trump said she has been using the time 'to expand my own mind and explore things I normally wouldn't have prioritized.' That includes free online courses in Greek and Roman mythology, and learning to play the guitar."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's always heartening when a big movie star takes time out to (write and) read a children's book filled with sage advice to help us out during these trying times. So gather the little kiddies around (or perhaps keep them at a distance of 6 feet), explain bleeps to them, and enjoy! Thanks to -- well, a lot of people -- for the link(s):

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. "The global number of confirmed coronavirus cases edged toward 1 million and deaths neared 50,000 as the outbreak continued to hit the United States, Italy, France and Spain especially hard. Elsewhere, officials battled to maintain earlier successes in the fight against the novel coronavirus, weighing the desire to resume normal business operations against the risk of triggering new cases.... In China, a county of 600,000 people in Henan province has been placed on lockdown, illustrating the dangers of declaring victory too soon as authorities grow anxious to restart economic activity without unleashing a new wave of infections."

Mrs. McCrabbie: One central thing to remember about the coronavirus crisis is that Trump is not only incompetent to handle it, he also is actively & purposely obstructing mitigation of the disease. An ancillary thing to remember is that reporters can't get their heads around this. The writer who best conveys this today is ~~~

~~~ ** Ryan Cooper of the Week: "President Trump is finally starting to take the novel coronavirus pandemic seriously, America's top political reporters inform us.... Have these people been locked in a bunker for the past three years?... To begin with, Trump has still not taken the kind of sweeping action that would put force behind this new 'serious' pose. He has not demanded recalcitrant Republican governors implement lockdowns to keep the virus from spreading.... He has refused to re-open ObamaCare enrollment.... He has not used Defense Production Act powers to take control of the medical supply chain.... He has not demanded Congress set up remote voting measures so they can pass more vitally-needed legislation. In other words, Trump is continuing to botch the coronavirus response just as he has from the start.... And that is because of who Trump is: by far the most ignorant, deluded, shameless, and incompetent person ever to serve as president.... But the sheer enormity of the Trump presidency -- the world's most powerful office being filled by a gormless reality-TV halfwit -- clearly cannot fit into the minds of America's important political reporters."

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "As state governors pleaded with the administration help them battle the outbreak, there was a race within the White House to convince Trump to back off his Easter deadline to reopen the economy, according to a report from Vanity Fair.... The aftermath of Trump's hasty deadline 'consumed the West Wing during the critical week that governors were pleading with the White House to deliver medical supplies before hospital systems began to collapse,' [Gabriel] Sherman [of Vanity Fair] writes. 'Dr. Fauci, Senator Lindsey Graham, and others raced to convince Trump that an Easter opening would be a cataclysmic error that could cost millions of lives.'... Read Sherman's report over at Vanity Fair." ~~~

~~~ Steve M. republishes another aspect of Sherman's report. Steve comments: "According to Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, Donald Trump is so serious about being a 'wartime president' that he's ... replicated the backstabbing chaos of the 2017 White House.... We're in a once-in-a-century crisis and this is what's going on in the White House: battles for power, power vacuums where power should reside, duplicate and conflicting centers of power, and the president relying primarily on people who came to the job with exactly zero expertise relevant to the current crisis."

From the Washington Post's live coronavirus updates for Wednesday: "Vice President Pence issued a dire prediction of the spread of the coronavirus, saying Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, 'may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point.'... Italian officials on Wednesday reported 727 new deaths, with the fatality rate slowing but raising the nation's toll to 13,155, highest in the world." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Klein, et al., of CNN: "Vice President Mike Pence sought to cast blame on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and China Wednesday when asked why the US was so late in understanding the enormity of the coronavirus pandemic.... The vice president denied Trump had minimized the crisis early on, despite repeated statements casting the virus as a problem that would be easily solved. 'I don't believe the President has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus,' Pence said.... US health officials from the CDC took active steps starting in January to prepare for the outbreak as information trickled out of China. Members of Trump's Cabinet also got involved and started briefing lawmakers. While public health officials and medical experts raised the alarm, Trump downplayed their concerns and injected controversial and unproven theories into the conversation." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait: "The term 'Orwellian' has been cheapened over the years, but this lie absolutely fits the tradition of 'we have always been at war with Eastasia.'... There's a pretty good chance Trump will start downplaying the virus again, when he grows impatient with waiting it out and decides to listen to Larry Kudlow again. And when the next turn happens, Pence will be there to shake his head vigorously and deny Trump ever took any positio other than the current party line."

Here's Another Reason We're Doomed. Adam Cancryn & Dan Diamond of Politico: "... Jared Kushner has emerged as perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against the fast-growing pandemic. What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who, alongside a kitchen cabinet of outside experts including his former roommate and a suite of McKinsey consultants, has taken charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government: Expanding test access, ramping up industry production of needed medical supplies, and figuring out how to get those supplies to key locations.... The crisis response team built by the president's son-in-law is distinct from the White House task force led by Pence, and has adopted an all-out, ad-hoc attitude toward beating back the coronavirus pandemic, heedless of normal government boundaries and, to some extent, conflicts of interest." Akhilleus has something to say about Kushner, et al., in today's Comments.

How Trumpbots Respond to Prudent Warnings. Katie Benner & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases..., will receive enhanced personal security after receiving threats..., officials said on Wednesday. Dr. Fauci has been the Trump administration's most outspoken advocate of social distancing rules that have shuttered the nation's schools, forced businesses to close, kept people in their homes and battered the United States economy. That has made him a target of online conspiracy theorists who have accused Dr. Fauci, a longtime scientist and civil servant who has served presidents of both parties, of trying to undermine Mr. Trump during a year in which the president is fighting for re-election." ~~~

~~~ Kate Bennett & Evan Perez of CNN: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top medical expert on the coronavirus pandemic and a member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, is facing threats to his personal safety and now requires personal security from law enforcement at all times, including at his home, a source confirms to CNN." --s

From the New York Times' live coronavirus updates for Wednesday: "Speaking at his near-daily White House coronavirus briefing, President Trump said on Wednesday that he still has no plans to institute a national 'stay at home' order that would apply in states whose governors have not mandated strict social distancing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So Wednesday, Trump lined up his AG, Defense Secretary, his National Security Advisor (I think) & a buncha brass to open his coronavirus briefing with an announcement having nothing to do with the coronavirus. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Trump administration officials announced Wednesday that the U.S. military would send naval ships and aircraft to the Caribbean as part of an enhanced counternarcotics operation." ~~~

Reporter asks Trump a question about reports of increased domestic violence.
Trump: Mexican violence?
Reporter: Domestic violence.
Trump: Oh.
     -- Geoff Bennett of NBC News, in a tweet

Jim Acosta of CNN: "Despite White House claims that ... Donald Trump and the administration did everything right in response to the coronavirus, a source close to the task force said tougher social distancing measures implemented earlier in the pandemic could have blunted the severity of the current crisis.... A Trump adviser working with White House officials on messaging for the pandemic response said Trump 'took a gamble' that warmer weather would cause the virus to dissipate, siding with aides who were pushing back on the dire warnings coming from doctors on the coronavirus task force....The adviser said the President took a gamble 'and got it wrong' in reference to Trump's decision to ignore the predictions from the administration's own experts. 'He analyzed the data and opinions of experts and sided with the one that said warm weather will likely slow the virus,' the adviser added." Mrs. McC: Trump "analyzed the data"? Ha ha ha.

Department of State Press Release: "The United States is committed to the global fight against COVID-19. We are a generous and reliable contributor to crisis response and humanitarian action across the world, but we cannot do it alone.... As a follow-up to the March 30 phone call between President Trump and President Putin, the United States has agreed to purchase needed medical supplies, including ventilators and personal protection equipment, from Russia, which were handed over to FEMA on April 1 in New York City." --s

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The government's emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving the Trump administration and the states to compete for personal protective equipment in a freewheeling global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging, according to Department of Homeland Security officials involved in the frantic acquisition effort.... Two DHS officials said the stores kept in the Department of Health and Human Service's Strategic National Stockpile are nearly gone, despite assurances from the White House that there is availability.... President Trump said during Tuesday's White House briefing that the administration has nearly 10,000 ventilators on reserve and that authorities are ready to deploy the lifesaving equipment rapidly to coronavirus hotspots in coming weeks. He also said large amounts of PPE were being shipped directly from manufacturers to hospitals. But the DHS officials said the stockpile has not been able to handle the load.

"Forbes reported that U.S. vendors have sold 280 million masks -- mostly into the export market -- and that U.S. states and local governments were outbid in the frenzy. There are few signs the Trump administration is making efforts to stop the export shipments or seize the supplies for use in U.S. hospitals, despite statements from Attorney General William P. Barr last week that U.S. wholesalers hoarding masks and other supplies would get 'a knock on your door.'" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that the federal government is holding 10,000 ventilators in reserve to ship to the hardest-hit hospitals around the nation as they struggle to keep the most critically ill patients alive. But what federal officials have neglected to mention is that thousands more of the lifesaving devices are unavailable after the contract to maintain the government's stockpile lapsed late last summer, and a contracting dispute meant that a new firm did not begin its work until late January. By then, the coronavirus crisi was already underway.... Experts say ... they cannot be stored for lengthy periods without maintenance. So few are surprised that as the nation's hospitals scramble to pull together every usable ventilator they can find, some have come out of storage with depleted batteries, missing oxygen hoses and other issues. California recently discovered that 170 of its ventilators arrived broken, disputing the claim from the Department of Health and Human Services that all of the ventilators shipped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were ready to use." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Ellen Mitchell of the Hill (March 31): "The Pentagon has not shipped out any of the 2,000 ventilators it offered to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month because HHS has not yet provided a shipping location, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday. Though the Defense Department had planned to deliver an initial 1,000 ventilators, HHS asked the department to wait, Lt. Gen. Giovanni Tuck, the Pentagon's top logistics official, told a small group of reporters.... Defense Secretary Mark Esper had announced two weeks ago that the Pentagon would give the deployable ventilators and 5 million respirator masks to HHS in response to the coronavirus pandemic." Mrs. McC: And who knows how many of those 2,000 ventilators are in good working order? ~~~

~~~ David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has admitted the US government's emergency stockpile of protective equipment is nearly exhausted because of the extraordinary demands of the coronavirus pandemic.... The president had urged states to 'make a deal' and buy personal protective equipment (PPE) directly from manufacturers.... But Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, has complained that Fema contributes to a bidding war between states for ventilators, likening the situation to eBay." --s

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post (March 31): "As states across the country have pleaded for critical medical equipment from a key national stockpile, Florida has promptly received 100 percent of its first two requests -- with President Trump and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis both touting their close relationship. States including Oklahoma and Kentucky have received more of some equipment than they requested, while others such as Illinois, Massachusetts and Maine have secured only a fraction of their requests.... There's no direct evidence that Republican states are receiving more favorable treatment overall, and some GOP-led states such as Georgia have had trouble filling their requests. But Trump has contributed to the sense that politics could be a factor by publicly attacking Democratic governors who criticize his handling of the public health crisis."> Mrs. McC: "No direct evidence"?? What about this, from the same report?:

"'The president knows Florida is so important for his reelection...,' said [a White House] official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank. 'He pays close attention to what Florida wants.'"

Turns Out the Trump Administration Can Plan for Some Covid-19 Supplies. Marty Johnson of the Hill: "The Pentagon is looking into providing an additional 100,000 military-style body bags for civilian use, as the expected death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to rise. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has requested 100,000 body bags, officially called human remains pouches, and the Pentagon is looking to buy more body bags, as it dips into its stockpile of 50,000, Bloomberg reports."

Fred Imbert & Maggie Fitzgerald of CNBC: "Stocks sank on Wednesday as Wall Street kicked off the second quarter on a sour note amid concerns the coronavirus will keep the economy shut down longer than expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 973.65 points lower, or 4.4%, at 20,943.51. The S&P 500 slid 4.4% to 2,470.50 along with the Nasdaq Composite, which closed at 7,360.58. The major averages hit their session lows in the final minutes of trading, with the Dow briefly falling more than 1,100 points." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Idrees Ali & Phil Stewart of Reuters: "The U.S. Navy on Wednesday declined to rule out punishing the captain of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt [Captain Brett Crozier], who wrote a scathing letter to Navy leadership asking for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard." --s

Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier Journal: "... Mitch McConnell made a stunning admission Tuesday when he went on the 'Hugh Hewitt Show' and acknowledged that ... Donald Trump has botched the federal government's response to the coronavirus. Oh, he didn't come right out and say, 'Trump has screwed this up.' Oh heavens no.... But here's what he said in explaining how Trump responded in the early days of the pandemic: 'It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment.'... People don't make excuses for their friends who have done nothing wrong. If, in fact, Trump's response had been 'perfect' or 'great' or '10 out of 10,' McConnell would have never, ever needed to cover for misstep after misstep that has led to a lack of sufficient testing, far too few masks, respirators, face shields and gowns to protect our doctors, nurses and first responders -- and far too few ventilators as the pandemic rages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: Florida "has become a coronavirus hot spot.... The number of people testing positive for covid-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days, with 3,274 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 6,741 as of Tuesday evening.The number of people testing positive for covid-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days, with 3,274 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 6,741 as of Tuesday evening.... On Tuesday, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R] said at a news conference that he had no plans to issue a statewide order because the White House had not told him to do so.... For this, he won praise from President Trump who called him 'a great governor who knows exactly what he's doing.'" Mrs. McC: Worth noting: those models Trump was touting yesterday where "only" just less than a quarter-million Americans will die from Covid-19 are predicated on the supposition that all states are under stay-at-home orders by the end of this week. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** UPDATE. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Wednesday that he will sign an executive order requiring the state's residents to limit their movement outside of their homes in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. DeSantis had faced mounting pressure to issue such a directive, as at least 30 other states have issued stay-at-home orders and a number of counties in Florida have implemented their own mandates seeking to limit nonessential activities." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Another GOP Governor Embarrassed into Not Killing off Residents. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said Wednesday he will be issuing a shelter-in-place order in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Kemp said he will sign the order Thursday and it will go into effect Friday, running through April 13. Kemp also announced all k-12 public schools will be closed throughout the rest of the school year. 'I want to encourage my fellow Georgians to hang in there, I know you are tired of this. I know you want to return to business as usual, but we must first overcome the obstacles we have in our path,' Kemp said at his briefing. Kemp reported 4,638 cases and 139 deaths statewide." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, it's not really Kemp's fault that he didn't issue the order sooner because he just now found out "that individuals can be infected and begin to spread coronavirus earlier than previously thought -- even if they have no symptoms. From a public health standpoint, this is a revelation and a game changer." Maybe Kemp was preoccupied trying to stop Sherman's march to the sea. Or emancipated people from voting. Whatever.

Colorado. Ernest Luning of Colorado Politics: "The El Paso County Republican Party asked in a social media post Wednesday whether its followers believe the coronavirus is a hoax meant to manipulate the public -- a suggestion that drew swift and widespread condemnation from other Republicans. 'Hello El Paso County! Do you believe that the Coronavirus is a PSYOP (Psychological Operation)? Post your answer... the definition of (PSYOP) is below,' the post read.... The Facebook post remained online only briefly, until state GOP officials asked Vickie Tonkins, the El Paso County party's chairman, to take it down.... 'I posted a question. I'm sorry people couldn't answer it,' [Tonkins] said. 'Don't get all offended.'" --s

But What Does Devin Nunes Think? Zachary Petrizzo of Mediaite: "Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) stated that it is 'overkill' for schools in his home state of Califonia to be closed in light of the coronavirus pandemic on Laura Ingraham's Fox News program late Tuesday night -- further downplaying the severity of COVID-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The Treasury announced late Wednesday that Social Security beneficiaries who typically do not file a tax return will automatically get the $1,200 payment. The announcement is a reversal from earlier in the week when the Internal Revenue Service said everyone would need to file some sort of tax return in order to qualify for the payments. Democrats and some Republicans criticized the IRS for requiring so many extra hurdles for this vulnerable population to get aid when the government already has their information on file.... More than 15 million Americans on Social Security do not file an annual tax return because their income is so low, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.... Beyond the tax-filing hurdle, millions of other Americans are realizing that they don't qualify for a coronavirus relief check."

Jeanne Sahadi of CNN provides a primer on "what small businesses need to know about the government's new forgivable loan program."

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday night called for moving the Democratic National Convention from mid-July to August, making him the most prominent member of his party to say the convention must be rescheduled because of the coronavirus outbreak. 'I doubt whether the Democratic convention is going to be able to be held in mid-July, early July,' Mr. Biden told Jimmy Fallon on 'The Tonight Show.' 'I think it's going to have to move into August.'... Senior Democratic officials believe Mr. Biden would much prefer to hold a traditional convention attended by thousands as opposed to a virtual convention in which he receives the party's presidential nomination without a made-for-television event. President Trump, who like Mr. Biden hopes to have his nomination be a televised coronation, has pushed Republicans to maintain plans for their convention, which is set to take place in August in Charlotte, N.C." The Hill's story is here.

This. Is. Stupid. Alex Seitz-Wald & Shaquille Brewster of NBC News: "Wisconsin has ordered residents to stay at home, shuttered non-essential businesses, and banned 'all public and private gatherings of any number of people' -- but is still planning to proceed with an election Tuesday amid the coronavirus crisis. Every other state that was supposed to hold a presidential primary contest in late March or April has postponed their elections or switched to vote-by-mail, leaving perhaps the most critical battleground state in the country alone in a now deserted stretch of the electoral calendar. Bernie Sanders, who is to face off against Joe Biden in the election, joined calls to delay the primary Wednesday, but the state's Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders have resisted calls to move the election, prompting lawsuits, strains on election infrastructure and outcry that voters will have to choose between their health and their right to vote.... [Joe] Biden has not yet commented on whether he believes the election should proceed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Joe vs. the Vocano. Joe 1. Volcano 0. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump, having stopped dismissing the threat of the coronavirus and calling criticism of his laggard response 'their new hoax,' has begun insisting everybody was shocked [link fixed]. 'It's something that nobody expected,' he has said. Conservative pundits have picked up this revisionist history.... 'Generalized "Trump didn't take this seriously enough!" stuff is ignoring the timeline, wherein every major Democrat didn't take it very seriously until early March either,' insists Ben Shapiro. One example of a major Democrat who took this seriously would be Joe Biden, who, as the party's presumptive presidential nominee, is arguably the major Democrat. Biden wrote an op-ed on January 27 warning that Trump had left the country unprepared to handle the coronavirus outbreak, and proposing steps to counter it. One of his main advisers, Ron Klain, wrote an op-ed making similar points five days before that."


Mrs. McCrabbie: Hospital administrators are often portrayed as heartless beancounters who care nothing for patients and everything for the bottom line. I'd like to think that's an unfair portrait of the majority of them. But then you read anecdotes like this one from Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: Healthcare workers are "superheroes [who] are at risk partly because we sometimes send them into battle without adequate personal protective equipment, or P.P.E. This should be a national scandal, and now hospitals are compounding the outrage by punishing staff members who speak up or simply try to keep themselves safe. In Bellingham, Wash., an E.R. doctor, Ming Lin, pleaded on social media for better protections for patients and the staff at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, where he had worked for 17 years. 'I do fear for my staff,' Dr. Lin warned. 'Morally, I think when you see something wrong, you have to speak out.' The hospital responded by

EU. Jennnier Rankin of the Guardian: "The European Union has weathered the storms of eurozone bailouts, the migration crisis and Brexit, but some fear coronavirus could be even more destructive. In a rare intervention Jacques Delors, the former European commission president who helped build the modern EU, broke his silence last weekend to warn that lack of solidarity posed 'a mortal danger to the European Union'." --s

Brazil. Dom Phillips of the Guardian: "Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro is facing a growing backlash over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, with the state governors responsible for more than 200 million of the country's 210 million people refusing to follow his commands over the pandemic. Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the dangers of Covid-19 and last week urged Brazilians to get back to work.... The president has argued the damage caused by shutting down Brazil's economy will be worse than that caused by the virus, and has also suggested state governors were inflating the numbers of coronavirus victims to justify restrictive lockdown measures. But as well as facing a rebellion from regional chiefs, Bolsonaro now also appears increasingly isolated from his own cabinet." --s

Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "Through rampant overfishing, pollution and coastal destruction, humanity has inflicted severe damage on the oceans and its inhabitants for centuries. But conservation successes, while still isolated, demonstrate the remarkable resilience of the seas. The scientists [in a new major scientific review] say there is now the knowledge to create an ocean renaissance for wildlife by 2050 and with it bolster the services that the world's people rely on, from food to coastal protection to climate stability. The measures needed, including protecting large swathes of ocean, sustainable fishing and pollution controls, would cost billions of dollars a year, the scientists say, but would bring benefits 10 times as high." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

Israel. Rosie Perper of Axios: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shared a clip from the 2007 Hallmark mini-series 'Pandemic' and claimed it as evidence that Iran is concealing its real coronavirus death toll and is dumping dead bodies into trash piles.... Netanyahu discussed the clip during a conference call with his Cabinet ministers on Monday night, claiming that it showed Iranian soldiers loading coronavirus victims into garbage trucks and disposing of them in a ditch. Two ministers who were on the call [said] that Netanyahu claimed that his national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, had initially shown him the video." --s

News Lede

New York Times: "Ellis Marsalis, a pianist and educator who became the guiding force behind a late-20th-century resurgence in jazz, while putting four musician sons on a path to prominent careers, died on Wednesday. He was 85. The cause was complications of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his son Branford said in a statement, which did not specify where he died. Mr. Marsalis spent decades as a working musician and teacher in New Orleans before his eldest sons, Wynton and Branford, who embodied a fresh-faced revival of traditional jazz, gained national fame in the early 1980s."

Comments Off
Tuesday
Mar312020

The Commentariat -- April 1, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's always heartening when a big movie star takes time out to (write and) read a children's book filled with sage advice for these trying times. So gather the little kiddies around, explain bleeps to them, and enjoy! Thanks to -- well, a lot of people -- for the link(s):

From the Washington Post's live coronavirus updates for Wednesday: "Vice President Pence issued a dire prediction of the spread of the coronavirus, saying Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, 'may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point.'... Italian officials on Wednesday reported 727 new deaths, with the fatality rate slowing but raising the nation's toll to 13,155, highest in the world."

From the New York Times' live coronavirus updates for Wednesday: "Speaking at his near-daily White House coronavirus briefing, President Trump said on Wednesday that he still has no plans to institute a national 'stay at home' order that would apply in states whose governors have not mandated strict social distancing."

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The government's emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving the Trump administration and the states to compete for personal protective equipment in a freewheeling global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging, according to Department of Homeland Security officials involved in the frantic acquisition effort.... Two DHS officials said the stores kept in the Department of Health and Human Service's Strategic National Stockpile are nearly gone, despite assurances from the White House that there is availability.... President Trump said during Tuesday's White House briefing that the administration has nearly 10,000 ventilators on reserve and that authorities are ready to deploy the lifesaving equipment rapidly to coronavirus hotspots in coming weeks. He also said large amounts of PPE were being shipped directly from manufacturers to hospitals. But the DHS officials said the stockpile has not been able to handle the load.

"Forbes reported that U.S. vendors have sold 280 million masks -- mostly into the export market -- and that U.S. states and local governments were outbid in the frenzy. There are few signs the Trump administration is making efforts to stop the export shipments or seize the supplies for use in U.S. hospitals, despite statements from Attorney General William P. Barr last week that U.S. wholesalers hoarding masks and other supplies would get 'a knock on your door.'" Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that the federal government is holding 10,000 ventilators in reserve to ship to the hardest-hit hospitals around the nation as they struggle to keep the most critically ill patients alive. But what federal officials have neglected to mention is that thousands more of the lifesaving devices are unavailable after the contract to maintain the government's stockpile lapsed late last summer, and a contracting dispute meant that a new firm did not begin its work until late January. By then, the coronavirus crisis was already underway.... Experts say ... they cannot be stored for lengthy periods without maintenance. So few are surprised that as the nation's hospitals scramble to pull together every usable ventilator they can find, some have come out of storage with depleted batteries, missing oxygen hoses and other issues. California recently discovered that 170 of its ventilators arrived broken, disputing the claim from the Department of Health and Human Services that all of the ventilators shipped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were ready to use."

Fred Imbert & Maggie Fitzgerald of CNBC: "Stocks sank on Wednesday as Wall Street kicked off the second quarter on a sour note amid concerns the coronavirus will keep the economy shut down longer than expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 973.65 points lower, or 4.4%, at 20,943.51. The S&P 500 slid 4.4% to 2,470.50 along with the Nasdaq Composite, which closed at 7,360.58. The major averages hit their session lows in the final minutes of trading, with the Dow briefly falling more than 1,100 points."

Another GOP Governor Embarrassed into Not Killing off Residents. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said Wednesday he will be issuing a shelter-in-place order in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Kemp said he will sign the order Thursday and it will go into effect Friday, running through April 13. Kemp also announced all k-12 public schools will be closed throughout the rest of the school year. 'I want to encourage my fellow Georgians to hang in there, I know you are tired of this. I know you want to return to business as usual, but we must first overcome the obstacles we have in our path,' Kemp said at his briefing. Kemp reported 4,638 cases and 139 deaths statewide."

Joseph Gerth of the Louisville Courier Journal: "... Mitch McConnell made a stunning admission Tuesday when he went on the 'Hugh Hewitt Show' and acknowledged that ... Donald Trump has botched the federal government's response to the coronavirus. Oh, he didn't come right out and say, 'Trump has screwed this up.' Oh heavens no.... But here's what he said in explaining how Trump responded in the early days of the pandemic: 'It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment.'... People don't make excuses for their friends who have done nothing wrong. If, in fact, Trump's response had been 'perfect' or 'great' or '10 out of 10,' McConnell would have never, ever needed to cover for misstep after misstep that has led to a lack of sufficient testing, far too few masks, respirators, face shields and gowns to protect our doctors, nurses and first responders -- and far too few ventilators as the pandemic rages."

Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: Florida "has become a coronavirus hot spot.... The number of people testing positive for covid-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days, with 3,274 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 6,741 as of Tuesday evening. The number of people testing positive for covid-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days, with 3,274 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 6,741 as of Tuesday evening.... On Tuesday, [Gov. Ron] DeSantis [R] said at a news conference that he had no plans to issue a statewide order because the White House had not told him to do so.... For this, he won praise from President Trump who called him 'a great governor who knows exactly what he’s doing.'" Mrs. McC: Worth noting: those models Trump was touting yesterday where "only" just less than a quarter-million Americans will die from Covid-19 are predicated on the supposition that all states are under stay-at-home orders by the end of this week. ~~~

     ~~~ ** UPDATE. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Wednesday that he will sign an executive order requiring the state's residents to limit their movement outside of their homes in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. DeSantis had faced mounting pressure to issue such a directive, as at least 30 other states have issued stay-at-home orders and a number of counties in Florida have implemented their own mandates seeking to limit nonessential activities."

This. Is. Stupid. Alex Seitz-Wald & Shaquille Brewster of NBC News: "Wisconsin has ordered residents to stay at home, shuttered non-essential businesses, and banned 'all public and private gatherings of any number of people' -- but is still planning to proceed with an election Tuesday amid the coronavirus crisis. Every other state that was supposed to hold a presidential primary contest in late March or April has postponed their elections or switched to vote-by-mail, leaving perhaps the most critical battleground state in the country alone in a now deserted stretch of the electoral calendar. Bernie Sanders, who is to face off against Joe Biden in the election, joined calls to delay the primary Wednesday, but the state's Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders have resisted calls to move the election, prompting lawsuits, strains on election infrastructure and outcry that voters will have to choose between their health and their right to vote.... [Joe] Biden has not yet commented on whether he believes the election should proceed."

What Does Devin Nunes Think? Zachary Petrizzo of Mediaite: "Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) stated that it is 'overkill' for schools in his home state of California to be closed in light of the coronavirus pandemic on Laura Ingraham's Fox News program late Tuesday night -- further downplaying the severity of COVID-19."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of the coronavirus pandemic for Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here.

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Tuesday is here. "The top government scientists battling the coronavirus estimated Tuesday that the deadly pathogen could kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans, in spite of the disruptive social distancing measures that have closed schools, banned large gatherings, limited travel and forced people to stay in their homes. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, who is coordinating the coronavirus response, displayed that grim projection at the White House on Tuesday, calling it 'our real number' but pledging to do everything possible to reduce those numbers even further.... President Trump, who on Sunday extended for 30 days the government's recommendations for slowing the spread of the virus, made it clear that the data compiled by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx convinced him that the death toll would be even higher if the restrictions on work, school, travel and social life were not taken seriously by all Americans. The data released on Tuesday was the first time that Mr. Trump's administration has officially estimated the breadth of the threat to human life from the coronavirus, and the disease it brings, known as Covid-19. In the past several weeks, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci have resisted predicting how many people might die in the pandemic, saying that there was not enough reliable data.

"President Trump said at his daily White House coronavirus briefing that 'this is going to be a very painful, very very painful two weeks,' but that Americans will soon 'start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel.' 'I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We're going through a very tough few weeks,' Mr. Trump said, later raising his two weeks to three. Striking perhaps his most somber tone on the subject to date, Mr. Trump said the virus is a 'great national trial unlike any we have ever faced before.'... Mr. Trump, who spent weeks downplaying the threat of the virus -- and who has retreated from his recent suggestion that social distancing could be scaled back in mid-April -- congratulated himself for projections showing that public health measures may dramatically limit the national death toll." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's main story, by Philip Rucker & William Wan, on the presser is here. ~~~

~~~ An AP story, by Aamer Madhani & others, on Tuesday's White House coronavirus briefing, is here. "It was an abrupt reversal for Trump, who spent much of last week targeting April 12 as the day he wanted to see Americans 'pack the pews' for Easter Sunday services. Trump called the data 'very sobering,' saying it was his understanding that 100,000 deaths was a minimum that would be difficult to avoid. He also sought to rewrite his past minimization of the outbreak, saying he rejected those who compared the new coronavirus to the flu -- when in fact he repeatedly did so publicly." ~~~

~~~ In the Alternative Universe of the Dear Leader. Daniel Dale, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump tried Tuesday to cast himself as the wise leader who rejected the advice of a 'group' of people who had portrayed the coronavirus as a mere flu and had argued that life should go on as normal. He did not mention that he had been the most powerful member of that group. Trump's marathon coronavirus press conference included the usual barrage of specific false claims. But it was more notable for the dishonesty of the broad story he was telling -- an audacious attempt to erase the memory of his relentless efforts to suggest the coronavirus was not a crisis.... He also made a claim that he prevented a much higher death toll, as high as 2.2 million, by taking the virus much more seriously than some other intelligent people.... 'A lot of people have said..., "Ride it out. Don't do anything, just ride it out and think of it as the flu." But it's not the flu. It's vicious,' he said. Trump himself repeatedly told Americans in January and February to think of the coronavirus as the flu.... Asked Tuesday about the period when he was downplaying the coronavirus, Trump said that, during that time, 'people didn't know that much about it, even the experts.'... Trump also accused New York on Tuesday of getting off to a 'very late start' in fighting the virus -- implicitly contrasting New York's leaders with himself.... Trump claimed that it was unknown early on how contagious the coronavirus was.... Since late January and February researchers and health experts were warning the virus was likely highly contagious." ~~~

~~~ At about a minute in, Brian Williams begins a sickening reprise of Trump's Tuesday presser:

Harry Stevens & Shelly Tan of the Washington Post: "As cases increased and stocks tumbled, the presiden's attitude toward the threat of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has evolved from casual dismissal to reluctant acknowledgment to bellicose mobilization. Below, we trace the winding path of the president's response to the virus, in his own words." ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "President Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats reassured and inspired the nation through Depression and war. During impeachment last fall, President Trump fancied himself likewise addressing Americans 'perhaps as a fireside chat on live television.'... I have therefore taken the liberty of drafting for Trump a fireside chat for our times -- using entirely his own words. [The chat begins,] The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We have it totally under control. I'm not concerned at all. It's one person coming in from China. We pretty much shut it down. It will all work out well. We're in great shape. Doesn't spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions that myself and my administration took. There's a chance it won't spread. It's something that we have tremendous control over.... [The chat ends,] So you're talking about 2.2 million deaths. If we could hold that down ... between 100,000 and 200,000, and we all together have done a very good job. START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! Invoke 'P'. I want our life back again. It was nobody's fault. No, just things that happened. I don't take responsibility at all."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "... the Defense Production Act has been used to place hundreds of thousands of orders by President Trump and his administration to ensure the procurement of vital equipment, according to reports submitted to Congress and interviews with former government officials. Yet as governors and members of Congress plead with the president to use the law to force the production of ventilators and other medical equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic, he has for weeks treated it like a 'break the glass' last resort, to be invoked only when all else fails. 'You know, we're a country not based on nationalizing our business,' Mr. Trump said earlier this month.... The law's frequent use ... has prompted those most familiar with it to question why the administration has been so hesitant to tap it for a public health emergency that as of Tuesday has killed more than 3,60 Americans and sickened 181,000. 'What's more important? Building an aircraft carrier or a frigate using priority ratings or saving a hundred thousand lives using priorities for ventilators?' said Larry Hall, who retired in August as the director of the Defense Production Act program division at [FEMA]...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd invest in another hypocrisy meter (Trump broke my old one long ago), but in fairness to Trump, I don't think he has any idea he's used the Defense Production Act many times. Any time he may have signed a document authorizing its use, he probably considered it another manifestation of his "Article II right to do whatever I want" without understanding what he was authorizing. Who knew the government could be so complicated?

The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here. "On Tuesday, the number of reported coronavirus deaths in the United States for the first time topped 800 in a day, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. The total U.S. death count exceeds 3,700, which is more than the numbers reported by China. The previous highest U.S. daily toll was more than 500. Most deaths Tuesday were in New York, where 332 people were reported dead. Michigan reported 75 deaths, New Jersey reported 69 and Louisiana reported 54. Nationwide, there were more than 24,000 new confirmed cases reported Tuesday. The new total did not include deaths from Washington, where officials are working to fix a glitch in the health department's system for tracking the outbreak.

"The [federal] Bureau of Prisons is restricting all federal inmates to their cells, with limited exceptions, for the next two weeks to try to reduce the spread of the coronavirus behind bars, authorities announced Tuesday.... Attorney General William P. Barr also directed the bureau to increase the use of home confinement for those who had already served a substantial portion of their sentence, were deemed to pose no threat and might suffer from preexisting conditions that would make them particularly vulnerable."

~~~ "Not Winning." David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "... the other three countries with the world's largest number of confirmed [coronavirus] cases -- Italy, China and Spain -- were all making significant progress at a similar point in their outbreaks. But the response in the United States has been slow and uneven.... The United States is badly behind. Both South Korea and the United States had their first confirmed case around the same day, in late January.... South Korea has suffered only about 150 deaths, one-twentieth as many as the United States." Mrs. McC: I don't think you people believed me yesterday when I linked to Leonhardt's column without posting the graph! Now do you believe Trump has established a new definition of "American exceptionalism"? (Also linked yesterday.)

Boston Globe Editors: "Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world's richest country to a season of untold suffering. The United States, long a beacon of scientific progress and medical innovation with its world-class research institutions and hospitals, is now the hub of a global pandemic that has infected at least 745,000 people and already claimed more than 35,000 lives worldwide.... Much of the profound impact [the novel coronavirus] will have here in the United States was preventable.... What we have instead is a president epically outmatched by a global pandemic.... [We] have a White House marred by corruption and incompetence, whose mixed messages roil the markets and rock their sense of security. Instead of compassion and clarity, the president, in his near-daily addresses to the nation, embodies callousness, self-concern, and a lack of compass." Mrs. McC: Not sure why this editorial came up for me -- could be a freebie, could be I'm under my limit. Anyway, it's mighty damning & worth a read if you can access it.

Cristina Alesci & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "As he was facing intense criticism for a lack of adequate testing..., Donald Trump announced in the Rose Garden in mid-March that the federal government would partner with private companies to set up drive-thru coronavirus testing sites. He invited chief executives from Target, Walgreens, Walmart and CVS to the microphone and showered them with praise over the new effort.... But the President's celebrated announcement hasn't come close to being fulfilled. While these retailers have approximately 30,000 locations combined, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that there are only five locations from these major retailers that are currently offering drive-thru testing -- and none are [is!] open to the general public." Mrs. McC: This pie-in-the-sky project was part of one of Jared Kushner's shadow side deals, so you knew from the git-go it would be a flop. But a grift with potential!

No, the Right Hand Doesn't Know What the Left Hand Is Doing. Natasha Bertrand, et al., of Politico: ">Last week, a Trump administration official working to secure much-needed protective gear for doctors and nurses in the United States ... [was] informed by the puzzled voices on the other side of the line that a U.S. shipment of the same supplies, the second of two so far, was already on its way to Bangkok. Trump aides ... immediately put the shipment on hold while they ordered a review of U.S. aid procedures.... The incidents have spurred the Pence-led coronavirus task force to scrutinize all of USAID's deliveries to countries requesting personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to fight the outbreak, according to people directly involved in the discussions.... The administration has also placed a moratorium on overseas shipments of USAID's stockpiles of protective gear and is asking that the equipment be sent to the U.S. instead, other officials said.... 'The problem is, there's not one person who's in charge of this, which is why we're instituting a review process that is led by the White House coronavirus task force,' a person directly involved with the review said."

Lena Sun & Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal officials debating whether to recommend that face coverings be routinely worn in public are responding to increasing evidence that infected people without symptoms can spread the coronavirus, according to internal memos provided to the White House by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Simple cloth masks that cover the mouth and nose can prevent virus transmission from such individuals when they are out buying groceries or seeking medical care, according to the memos obtained by The Washington Post. But the documents note that widespread public use of masks is not culturally accepted in the United States the way it is in many Asian countries, where face coverings helped reduce the spread of the virus. The memos were drafted in recent days by the CDC and sent to officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House coronavirus task force for consideration of masks as an additional measure to slow the pandemic." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I went to the grocery store at 6 am Tuesday, and at least half the people there -- including me -- were wearing masks or some other kind of mouth & nose covering. I found the look "culturally acceptable."

Sadly, This Is Not an April Fool's Joke. Susannah Luthi of Politico: "The Trump administration has decided against reopening Obamacare enrollment to uninsured Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, defying calls from health insurers and Democrats to create a special sign-up window amid the health crisis.... Donald Trump and administration officials recently said they were considering relaunching HealthCare.gov, the federal enrollment site, and insurers said they privately received assurances from health officials overseeing the law's marketplace. However, a White House official on Tuesday evening told Politico the administration will not reopen the site for a special enrollment period, and that the administration is 'exploring other options.'" Mrs. McC: They're just meaner than a pack of junkyard dogs.

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "New information from the IRS on Monday shines more light on what people can do to get the checks from the government as quickly as possible while many families worry about paying the bills and buying food during the coronavirus crisis that has cost millions of people their jobs. For Americans eligible for stimulus cash under the new relief law, the fastest way to receive it is to make sure they've filed a tax return for 2019 or 2018 with bank information so the government can directly deposit the money. The IRS says it will use a person's 2019 return to calculate eligibility and automatically send the money to those who qualify. If they haven't filed a 2019 return, it'll be based on the 2018 return. The agency said it would publish additional information about the new forms soon on irs.gov/coronavirus. Mrs. McC: If your income fluctuated considerably from 2018 to 2019, seems as if some strategic filing decision might be in order. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "The captain of the nuclear aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt is begging for help while the coronavirus quickly spreads among the crew. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that between 150 and 200 sailors have tested positive for COVID-19 on the carrier of more than 4,000. Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a four-page letter begging the Navy for help while they're docked in Guam." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mitch McConnell on How to Blame Democrats for the Crisis. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blamed the Democrats' push to impeach President Trump in January for distracting the Trump administration from the threat posed by the coronavirus. 'It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment,' McConnell said in an interview on 'The Hugh Hewitt Show.'" ~~~

~~~ George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "There should have been shame enough ... in turning the Senate impeachment trial into a sham by refusing to hear a single live witness. But it turns out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was just getting started. On Tuesday, he added to the disgrace by claiming that impeachment distracted officials from dealing with the coronavirus..... This is gaslighting of the highest order.... The impeachment trial ended on Feb. 5. In reality, it was over before it even started, thanks in large part to McConnell. The only drama was about whether there'd be any witnesses -- and that ended on Jan. 31, when the Senate voted not to hear testimony. That left plenty of time to deal with the virus. And ... impeachment didn't consume the government. Trump managed to get to Mar-a-Lago at least four times in January and February.... He held five campaign rallies around the country during the impeachment trial.... Most importantly, impeachment didn't keep U.S. intelligence agencies from warning the president and Congress in January and February about the danger of the virus.... The problem wasn't impeachment -- it was the president."

Tia Mitchell & Chris Joyner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler's [R-Ga.] most recent financial disclosures show that millions of dollars in stocks were sold on her behalf at the same time Congress was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus. The largest transactions -- and the most politically problematic -- involve $18.7 million in sales of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals dated Feb. 26 and March 11. Loeffler is a former executive with ICE, and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, is the CEO of the company, which owns the New York Stock Exchange among other financial marketplaces. During the same time period reflected on reports filed late Tuesday, the couple also sold shares in retail stores such as Lululemon and T.J. Maxx and invested in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments.... Previous reports -- which have put Loeffler in the national spotlight -- covered her trading during [only] the first six weeks of 2020.... The newer stock sales came as the broader markets were diving, and they are likely to fuel allegations that Georgia's new senator used her insider knowledge about the severity of the pandemic to dump holdings while simultaneously releasing statements about the strength of the American economy and complimenting ... Donald Trump on his response. The STOCK Act, a law that went into effect in 2012, makes it illegal for senators to use inside information for financial gain."

From the Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday: "New York City's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic passed 1,000 on Tuesday, according to the city health department, as officials warned that it could be nearly another week before the outbreak peaked.... Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Tuesday pleaded with President Trump to send thousands more ventilators to treat people with severe cases of covid-19, and called on oral surgeons, plastic surgeons and veterinarians to offer up their devices as well.

"Louisiana reported by far its largest number of new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period Tuesday afternoon, with reported infections and deaths each jumping about 30 percent, as state leaders renewed calls for residents to comply with social distancing rules, and crackdowns on violators continued.

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is in regular communication with the White House's coronavirus task force and that, to this point, it has not recommended a stay-at-home order for the state.... President Trump was asked during a White House briefing about DeSantis's comments. He dodged the question by saying that the governor 'knows exactly what he's doing' and punted to Vice President Pence." ~~~

~~~ Actually, DeSantis Doesn't Seem to Know Exactly What He's Doing. ... Lawrence Mower of the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau: "Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington ... [and] an epidemiologist advising the White House..., told the Herald/Times that he told DeSantis' surgeon general, Scott Rivkees, that the state should issue a blanket stay-at-home order mandating the closure of non-essential businesses and social distance to slow the spread of the coronavirus. DeSantis expressed surprise about the [Herald/Times] story, which had been published Tuesday hours before his news conference. 'Who recommended that?' he asked the reporter. After given more explanation, DeSantis said he has heard no such direction from anyone with the White House Task force team."

Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "While the federal response [to the pandemic] led by ... Donald Trump largely sought to keep the public in the dark about the extent of the crisis, [New York Gov. Andrew] Cuomo's briefings are hailed as the most reliable source of public information in the country. But in recent days, it's become clearer and clearer that Cuomo's initial response to the crisis lagged behind that of some of his fellow Democratic governors -- most notably Washington's Jay Inslee and California's Gavin Newsom. Newsom and Inslee both reacted more swiftly and forcefully to the crisis in ways that are saving lives on the West Coast...."

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Tennis courts in Queens that are part of the U.S. Open complex will reportedly be turned into temporary hospitals as New York City works to relieve pressure on medical centers struggling to manage an influx of patients due to the coronavirus pandemic. An indoor training area at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is expected to house 350 medical beds starting Tuesday, a USTA spokesman told The Wall Street Journal." (Also linked yesterday.)

Some Setbacks for Misogynists. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Federal judges on Monday lifted restrictions Texas, Ohio and Alabama imposed on abortion during the coronavirus pandemic in decisions that could have repercussions for several more Republican-led states that have deemed the procedure non-essential during the crisis.... Iowa, Mississippi and Oklahoma are among the other states that recently moved to suspend access to the procedure as the pandemic intensified, arguing it would preserve desperately needed medical supplies." (Also linked yesterday.)

Bethany Biron of Business Insider: "As Hobby Lobby continues its mission to keep doors open in the face of the coronavirus, the arts-and-crafts retailer is quietly reopening stores around the country, defying states' stay-at-home policies. On Monday, the company resumed business in several states where it had been forced to temporarily close. A March 28 memo obtained by Business Insider equipped managers with talking points for 'how to respond and communicate if visited by a local authority that asks why we are open.' In a separate leaked note sent last week, executives wrote that the company 'is going to make every effort to continue working the employees.' The reopenings include stores in Ohio and Wisconsin -- which both enacted strict shelter-in-place orders on March 24 -- where nearly all Hobby Lobby locations have been reopened after shuttering for only one week.... Elsewhere, in states such as Colorado and North Carolina -- which enacted stay-at-home protocols in the past few days -- Hobby Lobby is avoiding shutting down altogether, insisting it is 'essential' because it sells educational materials and products for home-based businesses."~~~

     ~~~ BUT, But, how could this be? Hobby Lobby is a totally "Christian company" dedicated to "Christian principles" and rabid advocates for "life." Of course the company does seem to think you should knit or tat instead of having sex for any reason other than procreation, making crafts supplies "essential."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Covid-19. He is feeling well, and will continue to anchor his 9 p.m. program ... from his home.... 'I have been exposed to people in recent days who have subsequently tested positive and I had fevers, chills and shortness of breath,' he wrote [on Twitter].... Cuomo was most recently at CNN's offices in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of New York City last Friday. He anchored from his home on Monday, and interviewed his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo."

Alexandra Petri of the New York Times: At the prompting of [Gui] Cavalcanti -- "the founder of the Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies, a Facebook group that is crowdsourcing solutions to address the diminishing stock of medical equipment around the world -- ... the world's open-source enthusiasts have banded together to dig up and catalog blueprints of critical do-it-yourself gear and tools that can save lives. Mr. Cavalcant ... initially intended to focus on ventilators. A front-line surgeon in the Bay Area convinced him to go after the low-hanging fruit: sanitizer, gloves, gowns and masks for medical professionals. Stacks of ventilators wouldn't do the public any good if there were no health care workers to operate them.... In just over two weeks, the Facebook group has grown to nearly 50,000 people. Members share their designs or mock-ups for various pieces of equipment, and offer moral support and encouragement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Yes, There Are Leaders Worse Than Trump

(1) Joanna Kakissis of NPR: "The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan claims it has no coronavirus cases. But if you happen to utter the word 'coronavirus' while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there's a good chance you'll be arrested. That's because the Turkmen government, run since 2006 by the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has reportedly banned the word, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF)."

(2) From today's New York Times live coronavirus updates: "Putting even more pressure on a news media sector already under assault by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's Supreme Court released an order Tuesday night requiring news organizations to publish everything that the government says about the coronavirus.... Anyone who creates a panic can be punished by up to a year in jail, the court said. The Indian ruling echoes the actions of other governments, who have used the pandemic as a pretext to grab power or impose authoritarian restrictions.

"Global desperation to protect front-line medical workers battling the coronavirus epidemic has spurred a mad international scramble for masks and other protective gear. Governments, hospital chains, clinics and entrepreneurs are scouring the world for personal protection equipment they can buy or sell -- and a new type of trader has sprung up to make that happen. The market has become a series of hasty deals in bars, sudden calls to corporate jet pilots and fast-moving wire transfers among bank accounts in Hong Kong, the United States, Europe and the Caribbean.... Wholesale costs for N95 respirators, a crucial type of mask for protecting medical workers, have quintupled. Trans-Pacific airfreight charges have tripled. 'It's a global free-for-all, trying to get capacity,' said Eric Jantzen, the vice president for North America at Vertis Aviation, an aircraft and air cargo brokerage based in Zurich. 'And the prices reflect that.'"

Comments Off
Monday
Mar302020

The Commentariat -- March 31, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "New information from the IRS on Monday shines more light on what people can do to get the checks from the government as quickly as possible while many families worry about paying the bills and buying food during the coronavirus crisis that has cost millions of people their jobs. For Americans eligible for stimulus cash under the new relief law, the fastest way to receive it is to make sure they've filed a tax return for 2019 or 2018 with bank information so the government can directly deposit the money. The IRS says it will use a person's 2019 return to calculate eligibility and automatically send the money to those who qualify. If they haven't filed a 2019 return, it'll be based on the 2018 return. The agency said it would publish additional information about the new forms soon on irs.gov/coronavirus. Mrs. McC: If you income fluctuated considerably from 2018 to 2019, seems as if some strategic filing decision might be in order.

"Not Winning." David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "... the other three countries with the world's largest number of confirmed [coronavirus] cases -- Italy, China and Spain -- were all making significant progress at a similar point in their outbreaks. But the response in the United States has been slow and uneven.... The United States is badly behind. Both South Korea and the United States had their first confirmed case around the same day, in late January.... South Korea has suffered only about 150 deaths, one-twentieth as many as the United States." Mr.s McC: The graph at the top of Leonhardt's column is jarring. Trump has established a new definition of "American exceptionalism."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "The captain of the nuclear aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt is begging for help while the coronavirus quickly spreads among the crew. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that between 150 and 200 sailors have tested positive for COVID-19 on the carrier of more than 4,000. Capt. Brett Crozier wrote a four-page letter begging the Navy for help while they're docked in Guam."

Alexandra Petri of the New York Times: At the prompting of [Gui] Cavalcanti -- "the founder of the Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies, a Facebook group that is crowdsourcing solutions to address the diminishing stock of medical equipment around the world -- ... the world's open-source enthusiasts have banded together to dig up and catalog blueprints of critical do-it-yourself gear and tools that can save lives. Mr. Cavalcant ... initially intended to focus on ventilators. A front-line surgeon in the Bay Area convinced him to go after the low-hanging fruit: sanitizer, gloves, gowns and masks for medical professionals. Stacks of ventilators wouldn't do the public any good if there were no health care workers to operate them.... In just over two weeks, the Facebook group has grown to nearly 50,000 people. Members share their designs or mock-ups for various pieces of equipment, and offer moral support and encouragement." ~~~

Some Setbacks for Misogynists. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Federal judges on Monday lifted restrictions Texas, Ohio and Alabama imposed on abortion during the coronavirus pandemic in decisions that could have repercussions for several more Republican-led states that have deemed the procedure non-essential during the crisis.... Iowa, Mississippi and Oklahoma are among the other states that recently moved to suspend access to the procedure as the pandemic intensified, arguing it would preserve desperately needed medical supplies."

Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Tennis courts in Queens that are part of the U.S. Open complex will reportedly be turned into temporary hospitals as New York City works to relieve pressure on medical centers struggling to manage an influx of patients due to the coronavirus pandemic. An indoor training area at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is expected to house 350 medical beds starting Tuesday, a USTA spokesman told The Wall Street Journal."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates for coronoavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stocks rose on Monday, building on a strong rally from last week as the U.S. extended measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 690.70 points, or 3.2%, at 22,327.48. The S&P 500 climbed 3.4% to 2,626.65 while the Nasdaq Composite closed 3.6% higher at 7,774.15. Tech stocks such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon led the way higher for Wall Street. Microsoft jumped 7% while Alphabet and Amazon climbed 3.3% and 3.4%, respectively. The Dow is now up 20% from its coronavirus sell-off low reached on Monday while the S&P 500 has risen more than 17% from those levels. The Nasdaq has bounced more than 13%."

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Millions of Americans already have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis and the worst of the damage is yet to come, according to a Federal Reserve estimate. Economists at the Fed's St. Louis district project total employment reductions of 47 million, which would translate to a 32.1% unemployment rate, according to a recent analysis of how bad things could get."

Ben Kesslen of NBC News: "The White House coronavirus response coordinator said Monday that she is 'very worried about every city in the United States' and projects 100,000 to 200,000 American deaths as a best case scenario. In an interview on 'Today,' Dr. Deborah Birx painted a grim message about the expected fatalities, echoing that they could hit more than 2 million without any measures...."

Trump Denies He's Heard What Governor Just Said. Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump [suggested to] governors on a conference call on Monday that ... a chronic lack of kits to screen people for the coronavirus was no longer a problem. But governors painted a different picture on the ground. Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, a Democrat, said that officials in his state ... 'don't have adequate tests,' according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The New York Times. Literally we are one day away, if we don't get test kits from the C.D.C., that we wouldn't be able to do testing in Montana,' Mr. Bullock said.... 'I haven't heard about testing in weeks,' the president said. 'We've tested more now than any nation in the world. We've got these great tests and we're coming out with a faster one this week.'... Mr. Trump added, 'I haven't heard about testing being a problem.'... At the daily White House briefing on Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump described the call as an opportunity for the governors to thank his administration. 'I think for the most part, they were saying, Thank you for doing a great job,' he said." The Times has the audio here. A CBS News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One reason I don't hold high public office: I would have started shouting at Trump when he said, "I haven't heard that" immediately after I had spelled it out for him. I'd do the same if I were a White House reporter. ~~~

~~~ "Trump to Governors: I'd Like You to Do Us a Favor, Though." Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "True, Trump is not demanding that governors investigate Joe Biden in exchange for federal help. But he's strongly suggested that if governors speak candidly about his monumental incompetence, he'll penalize them and their states as they struggle to contain the coronavirus.... 'There are a lot of parallels between the president's behavior now and during the whole Ukraine scandal,' Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who led Trump's impeachment prosecution, told me. 'Certainly the most apparent is his demand that the governors basically pay fealty to him, praise him, or they'll suffer consequences.'... The Washington Post reported that Florida, governed by the Republican Trump sycophant Ron DeSantis, has had its requests for equipment from America's emergency stockpile entirely fulfilled, while other states are receiving only a fraction of what they ask for.... [Trump's] campaign just rolled out a new ad ... featuring appreciative quotes from [Gov] Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.... Republican senators knew who Trump was and they refused to remove him. Now we're all, as the president said of the former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, going to go through some things."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Trump's virus defense is often an attack, and the target is often a woman. Now part of the long list of women the president has insulted: a governor [Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.)], a reporter [Yamiche Alclindor], the head of General Motors [Mary Barra] and, of course, the House speaker [Nancy Pelosi].

Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps you're thinking, as some reports would have it, that Trump finally got real about Covid-19's ongoing devastation because the disease was starting to hit some of his friends and/or because it had hit particularly hard in the borough where Trump was reared. Well, not entirely. ~~~

~~~ Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Aides and advisers say the president was heavily influenced by briefings from scientific and public health officials, as well as by the stark reality of the virus, including projections of greater deaths depending on what measures the government takes. But Trump campaign officials and political allies had also briefed the president in recent days about their fears of reopening the economy too soon, arguing that a spike in deaths could be even more politically damaging in November than the current economic downturn, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions. Public health officials warned Trump that many rural areas -- which form the bedrock of the president's political support -- do not have the necessary hospitals and doctors to handle an outbreak, should it come."

Dana Milbank:"On Sunday, Trump's public health advisers said that even with strict countermeasures, deaths from the coronavirus in the United States could be between 100,000 and 200,000 -- worse than even the worst-case scenarios just a month ago, and a spectacular failure of leadership for a president who claimed 'we have it totally under control.'... But Trump reasoned that, because 2.2 million Americans could die without any attempt at controlling the virus, 'if we can hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000 -- it's a horrible number -- maybe even less, but to 100,000, so, we have between 100,000 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.' How does a human being use the phrase 'a very good job' in contemplation of the deaths of 100,000 to 200,000 souls? Trump seemed more moved by the number of people watching him. He tweeted Sunday that 'the "ratings" of my News Conferences etc. are so high, "Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers" according to the @nytimes.'"

From the New York Times live updates for Monday: "Mr. Trump said Monday that he and his advisers expected the number of people who test positive to peak around Easter, though he cited no data to back up his claim. 'That's going to be the highest point, we think, and then it's going to start coming down from there,' Mr. Trump said during an interview on Fox & Friends. 'That will be a day of celebration, and we just want to do it right so we picked the end of April.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that he wouldn't mind running against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for president, adding that he thought Cuomo would make a better candidate than former Vice President Joe Biden.... 'I think probably Andrew would be better,' Trump continued. 'I'm telling you right now, you know, I want somebody [for] this country that's gonna do a great job, and I hope I'm going to win.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for criticizing his response to the coronavirus pandemic.... 'It's a sad thing,' Trump said during a call-in interview on 'Fox & Friends' Monday morning after he was asked to respond to Pelosi's criticism a day prior. 'She's a sick puppy in my opinion. She's got a lot of problems.' Pelosi on Sunday accused Trump of downplaying the public health crisis in a way that cost American lives, saying that 'his denial at the beginning was deadly' on CNN's 'State of the Union.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nick Visser of the Huffington Post: "Former Vice President Joe Biden castigated ... Donald Trump for questioning how many protective masks hospitals were using amid the spread of COVID-19, calling such statements 'among the most reckless and ignorant' he had made during the ongoing pandemic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Shadow Knows. Robinson Meyer of the Atlantic: "On March 13..., Donald Trump promised Americans they would soon be able to access a new website that would ask them about their symptoms and direct them to nearby coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was helping. That wasn't true. But in the following days, Oscar Health -- a health-insurance company closely connected to ... Jared Kushner -- developed a government website with the features the president had described.... [But it never launched.] The site would not have helped many Americans even if it had launched. Today, more than two weeks after the president promised a national network of drive-through test sites, only a handful of such sites have opened, and fewer than 1 million Americans have been tested. The partnership between the administration and the firm suggests that Kushner may have mingled his family's business interests with his political interests and his role in the administration's coronavirus response.... For the past several weeks, Kushner has led a 'shadow task force' on the coronavirus, separate from Vice President Mike Pence's official committee, according to The Washington Post."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, decades-old malaria drugs championed by ... Donald Trump for coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence. The agency allowed for the drugs to be 'donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible,' HHS said in a statement, announcing that Sandoz donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the stockpile and Bayer donated 1 million doses of chloroquine." Mrs. McC: Take 'em now; we'll test 'em later. Good luck! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post story is here; it's free to nonsubscribers.

Rachel Roubein of Politico: "The Trump administration has approved the first system for sterilizing specialized face masks worn by front-line health workers battling the coronavirus, potentially easing the severe shortage of the protective gear. The FDA also reversed course on a daily cap for the decontamination system, less than 24 hours after Ohio's Republican governor criticized the FDA on Sunday morning for the limit. As of Sunday night, the agency will let the machines be deployed to sites around the country and there won't be a limit on the number of masks they're allowed to clean each day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Actually, the NSC Was Sounding Alarms Early on. Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Throughout January and much of February, senior Trump administration officials heatedly debated the scope and scale of the coronavirus pandemic, which had emerged from China and was spreading around the world. New national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger, were among those pushing early for strong action. Pottinger, who lived in China as a Wall Street Journal reporter during the SARS crisis, had witnessed how the Chinese government deals with internal crises and knew they were underplaying the problem.... [The two] repeatedly pressed other top officials to take the threat more seriously.... It's also been widely claimed that the NSC cut back on its pandemic expertise under Trump. Yet those assertions don't hold up to scrutiny."

The Stupidest Man in the Senate Has Some Thoughts. Joseph Zeballos-Roig of Business Insider: "Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called to reopen parts of the American economy to avoid throwing it into a recession or depression. He said 'death is an unavoidable part of life' in a USA Today op-ed published Monday."

Michael Wayland of CNBC: "Ford Motor and GE Healthcare plan to produce 50,000 ventilators within the next 100 days at a facility in Michigan to assist with the coronavirus pandemic. Production of the critical care devices is expected to begin with 500 United Auto Workers union members the week of April 20, according to executives at both companies. Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, will be able to produce 30,000 ventilators a month after early July, officials said. The companies expect to produce 1,500 by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4, officials said." ~~~

~~~ Edward Ongweso of Vice: "On Monday, General Electric factory workers launched two separate protests demanding that the company convert its jet engine factories to make ventilators. At GE's Lynn, Massachusetts aviation facility, workers held a silent protest, standing six feet apart. Union members at the company's Boston headquarters also marched six feet apart, calling on the company to use its factories to help the country close its ventilator shortage amid the coronavirus pandemic. These protests come just after General Electric announced it would be laying off 10 percent of its domestic aviation workforce, firing nearly 2,600 workers, along with a 'temporary' layoff of 50 percent of its maintenance workers in a bid to save the company '$500 million to $1 billion.'"

Will Sommer & Tracy Connor of the Daily Beast: "A controversial Florida pastor who refused to stop holding packed church services, in violation of coronavirus restrictions, was arrested Monday by a local sheriff who said the preacher was putting his follower' lives at risk. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was booked on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and violation of public health rules after flouting social distancing orders at The River at Tampa Bay church. Howard-Browne -- an ally of ... Donald Trump -- has been an outspoken opponent of social distancing requirements, claiming his church has machines that can stop the coronavirus and vowing to personally cure the state of Florida himself."

What's Wrong with This Picture? Julia Marsh, et al., of the New York Post: "Crowds of gawkers ignored New York's social-distance regulations and packed the west side of Manhattan on Monday to watch a US Navy hospital ship arrive to give badly needed coronavirus aid. The throngs of people stood shoulder to shoulder and took photos of the USNS Comfort as it pulled into Pier 90 near West 50th Street at about 10:40 a.m., photos of the scene show. Some waved American flags and others huddled against one another at the fence of the pier. Meanwhile, joggers out for a morning run brushed past the onlookers. At least a dozen NYPD cops stood by and initially did not disperse the bone-headed bystanders as they gathered and snapped cellphone photos of the ship pulling into the pier. After members of the City Hall press corps tweeted about the throngs of people, Mayor Bill de Blasio's communications team directed the NYPD to get the crowds to disperse."

Jake Offenhartz of the Gothamist: "On Tuesday morning, a makeshift tent hospital in Central Park will begin treating overflow patients from Mount Sinai, as the spread of COVID-19 begins to overwhelm local hospitals. Announcing the 68-bed respiratory unit this weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, responsible for funding and erecting the facility. The mayor did not mention that the group is led by Franklin Grahamm [Billy's son,] a notorious anti-LGBTQ and Islamophobic preacher with a track record of using humanitarian missions to proselytize an evangelical agenda." Mrs. McC: Yesterday I cited an item in the WashPo's updates about this makeshift hospital; the item presented the organization in a positive, or at least neutral, light. I apologize.

Mrs. McCrabbie: So Sunday, I was wondering why the NRA thought gunsellers provided "essential" services, and I joked that maybe NRA members figured they should go out & shoot the neighbors if they suspected the neighbors might be coronavirus carriers. Well, not so funny. "A Maine man..." ~~~

~~~ Alaa Elassar of CNN: "A Maine man said armed neighbors descended on his home and chopped down a tree to block his road and prevent him from leaving because they believed he may have coronavirus.... Officers learned that some residents believed the [man's] roommates needed to be quarantined. None of the roommates, who were from New Jersey and were renting a home in Vinalhaven while working a construction job since September, showed symptoms consistent with Covid-19, deputies said. The residents had been on the island for nearly a month before the incident took place." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Selam Gebrekidan of the New York Times: "In Hungary, the prime minister can now rule by decree. In Britain, ministers have what a critic called 'eye-watering' power to detain people and close borders. Israel's prime minister has shut down courts and begun an intrusive surveillance of citizens. Chile has sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters. Bolivia has postponed elections. As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance.... Critics say some governments are using the public health crisis as cover to seize new powers that have little to do with the outbreak, with few safeguards to ensure that their new authority will not be abused.... And there are few sunset provisions to ensure that the powers will be rescinded once the threat passes."

Presidential Race

Marianna Sotomayor of NBC News: "... Joe Biden took his virtual presidential campaign to the next level Monday when he launched a podcast as the coronavirus forces him to get creative in reaching voters otherwise distracted by a global pandemic. The podcast 'Here's the Deal' is intended to provide listeners 'a voice of clarity during uncertain times' by delving into pressing subjects affecting Americans' day-to-day lives in conversations between Biden and 'national top experts,' according to a description of the podcast shown to NBC News." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You can get to Biden's first podcast here; I had to maneuver past a fundraiser page to find it.

Nitasha Tiku & Jay Greene of the Washington Post: "Millions of consumers are turning to Instacart, Amazon and Whole Foods as essential resources during the novel coronavirus pandemic, something that has given workers at those companies unprecedented leverage. Now they are conducting walkouts, strikes and sickouts to demand hazard pay and safety protections that match what they say is the high risk they take in showing up to work.On Monday, some workers for grocery delivery app Instacart began a nationwide strike to demand hazard pay of $5 per order and better health protections. Meanwhile, some warehouse employees at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, N.Y., walked out because they said the e-commerce giant isn't doing enough to protect them. And on Tuesday, some staff at Amazon-owned Whole Foods around the country plan to call in sick to demand the grocer offer hazard pay of double their current hourly wages, along with other health protections." ~~~

~~~ Annie Palmer of CNBC: "Amazon has fired a Staten Island warehouse worker who organized a strike to demand greater protections for employees amid the coronavirus outbreak. Chris Smalls, a management assistant at the facility..., said he was fired Monday afternoon following the strike. Smalls and other employees walked out to call attention to the lack of protections for warehouse workers. The workers are also urging Amazon to close the facility after a worker tested positive for the coronavirus last week. The organizers said that at least 50 people joined the walkout."

Comments Off
Page 1 ... 550 551 552 553 554 ... 1738 Next 3 Entries »