The Commentariat -- April 6, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Stupid AND Irresponsible. Molly Beck & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated Tuesday's election Monday, five hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called it off because of the widening coronavirus pandemic. In a brief 4-2 ruling, the court undid an emergency order that Evers issued that would have closed the polls. Their decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers. Monday's on-again, off-again election triggered chaos across the state as election officials told clerks to continue preparing for an election because they did not know whether the polls would open. Before the court acted, at least two local government leaders as of Monday afternoon issued their own orders to block in-person voting.... Four conservatives -- Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley, Brian Hagedorn and Annette Ziegler -- were in the majority. Liberal Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet were in dissent."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that he had a 'friendly' and 'warm' conversation with former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic frontrunner, regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak. 'We had a really wonderful, warm conversation,' Trump told reporters at a regular White House briefing Monday evening on COVID-19.... 'He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that. We just had a very friendly conversation,' Trump said, adding that the call lasted roughly 15 minutes. 'It was really good, really nice,' Trump continued. 'I appreciate his calling.'... 'We agreed that we weren’t going to talk about what we said,' Trump said. 'He had suggestions. It doesn’t mean that I agree with those suggestions.'"

BBC News: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms 'worsened', Downing Street has said. Mr Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise 'where necessary', a spokesman added. The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London with 'persistent symptoms' on Sunday." ~~~

     ~~~ New York Times live updates: "Earlier Monday, British officials had given assurances that [Johnson] was healthy enough to run the country, but some unease arose over a lack of information on his condition. Mr. Johnson wrote Monday on Twitter from a hospital in London that he was 'in good spirits,' and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for him, said Mr. Johnson was working from his bed and remained 'in charge' of the government. But Mr. Raab admitted that he had not spoken to the prime minister since Saturday, and some commentators expressed concern about the persistence of virus symptoms about 10 days after the prime minister’s case was diagnosed.... Mr. Johnson was initially criticized for his slow response to the outbreak, but later moved to place Britain under a virtual lockdown, closing all nonessential shops, banning meetings of more than two people, and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine."

** "When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis." Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities.... The grandiosity of narcissistic personalities belies an extreme fragility.... They're too thin skinned to be told they're wrong.... Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They have galleries of sycophants.... Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.... Narcissistic personalities love nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division.... Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than coordinating a national response.... Every aspect of Trump's crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die, he crows that he's No. 1 on Facebook, which isn't close to true." Read the whole column.

When Orange Trees Grow in Siberia. Jonathan Chait: "... [Trump's promotion of hydroxychloroquine] augurs more broadly about [his] disdain for public-health expertise.... Over the last two days, Trump has visibly balked at social-distancing guidelines and renewed his impatience to reopen the economy soon. His demand to produce a silver-bullet wonder drug right away seems both to grow out of his dissatisfaction with public-health authorities and is feeding into his skepticism of them.... Whether [Rudy] Giuliani and [Peter] Navarro are even qualified to advise the president in their stated areas of expertise -- law and economics, respectively -- is a matter of serious dispute. For both to emerge as self-styled medical authorities during a pandemic is beyond unnerving." (Related stories linked below.) ~~~

~~~ Chandelis Duster of CNN: "White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said he was qualified to engage and disagree with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the use of an anti-malarial drug as a coronavirus treatment -- which is not yet proven as effective.... 'Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I'm a social scientist,' he told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.'" Mrs. McC: I don't think you do. ... Navarro reminds me of this car reservations clerk. (I'll be Jerry): ~~~

Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as 'stupid' in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN. Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either 'too naive or too stupid' to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors. The acting secretary accused Crozier of committing a 'betrayal' and creating a 'big controversy' in Washington by disseminating the warning so widely....Modly's use of the word 'betrayal' is a loaded because saying an officer has betrayed the Navy is a court martial offense. A defense official familiar with Modly's remarks offered his opinion of Modly's address, saying the acting secretary 'should be fired. I don't know how he survives this day.'" Mrs. McC: Modly of course made his remarks before more-or-less the same crew that cheered Crozier as he left the ship.

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The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Sunday are here. "Washington State, once the center of the outbreak in the United States, said on Sunday that it had decided to return more than 400 ventilators to the Strategic National Stockpile after determining that the machines could be better used in states facing more dire conditions. The state had 7,498 known cases on Sunday, with 319 deaths. Referring to the return of the ventilators, to be deployed to states hardest hit, Gov. Jay Inslee said: 'I've said many times over the last few weeks: We are in this together.'... Mr. Inslee said ... mitigation strategies, including a statewide stay-at-home order, woul have to continue to keep Washington's outbreak from resurging." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here. "Apple has sourced more than 20 million protective masks through its supply chain around the world and has also developed 'face shields for medical workers,' chief executive Tim Cook announced Sunday evening on Twitter. The first batch of face shields was shipped last week to Kaiser hospitals in Santa Clara Valley, Calif., Cook said, and the feedback from doctors was positive. He said the company plans to ship 1 million by the end of this week and 1 million per week after that."

Sarah Kliff & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Across the United States, even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers -- many hundreds each day -- the true death toll is likely much higher.... The undercount is a result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision-making from one state or county to the next.... With no uniform system for reporting coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, and a continued shortage of tests, some states and counties have improvised, obfuscated and, at times, backtracked in counting the dead." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Washington Post story is here.

** Michael Biesecker of the AP: "As the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers. By that time, hospitals in several states were treating thousands of infected patients without adequate equipment and were pleading for shipments from the Strategic National Stockpile.... Now, three months into the crisis, that stockpile is nearly drained just as the numbers of patients needing critical care is surging. Some state and local officials report receiving broken ventilators and decade-old dry-rotted masks.... Trump and his appointees have urged state and local governments, and hospitals, to buy their own masks and breathing machines, saying requests to the dwindling national stockpile should be a last resort.... Experts in emergency preparedness and response have expressed dismay at such statements.... 'States do not have the purchasing power of the federal government. They do not have the ability to run a deficit like the federal government. They do not have the logistical power of the federal government,' said [former HHS Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas before serving as the nation's top health care official." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump and Kushner -- who know a lot about spending money they don't have & running up a huge federal deficit -- seems completely unaware that states can't run deficits both because of state laws & because they can't "print money" as the federal government does. ~~~

~~~ Wajahat Ali in the Atlantic: "The federal government's stockpile of medical supplies, gloves, and masks is nearly exhausted..., Donald Trump admitted at a White House briefing on Wednesday. Meanwhile, individual states are scrambling, bidding against one another for the equipment they need. 'The coronavirus pandemic is a damning indictment of this country's health-care system,' Joseph Kantor, the assistant state health office for the Louisiana Department of Health, told me. 'The richest country in the world is scrounging around for ventilators' and personal protective equipment. Kantor is one of a dozen health professionals across the country with whom I spoke this week. Taken together, those conversations reveal a federal government that has failed to protect, supply, and prepare the country and its cities." ~~~

~~~ Alice Ollstein & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The federal government's top public health spokesman invoked World War II as the U.S. heads into a new, deadlier phase of the coronavirus pandemic, warning in interviews Sunday that this is a 'Pearl Harbor moment.' Surgeon General Jerome Adams also told states that are still pleading for medical equipment and aid that they have to 'be Rosie The Riveter' ... and 'do your part.'... Republican and Democratic governors alike pushed back, saying the Trump administration has failed to mount the kind of national coordinated response needed to address the crisis and that shortages of tests, ventilators and protective equipment for physicians persist. 'This is ludicrous,' said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. 'The surgeon general referred to Pearl Harbor. Can you imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "We'll be right behind you, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships?"'... Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker blasted Trump in an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' telling host Jake Tapper that Trump 'does not understand the word "federal."'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I've got news for Dr. Adams: there are hundreds of thousands of "Rosie the Riveters" out there right now; they're called doctors, nurses, EMTs, policemen, firemen, grocery clerks, pharmacists, etc. And millions of citizens are doing their part, too in ways large & small. Adams is saying what he's told to say, but he should know better & STFU. ~~~

~~~ Yay! The Feds Win Again. Oh. Wait. Ryan Van Velzer of WFPL Louisville: "Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear [D] says his administration is doing everything it can to prepare hospitals to be inundated with cases of COVID-19, but nearly every time the state has placed an order for medical protective gear, the federal government has prevented its transfer.... 'Our biggest problem is that just about every single order that we have out there for PPE, we get a call right when it's supposed to be shipped and it's typically the federal government has bought it,' Beshear said during a Saturday press conference. 'It's very hard to buy things when the federal government is there and anytime they want to buy it, they get it first.'" Mrs. McC: Uh, where's Mitch? And how's Li'l Randy doing? ~~~

~~~ "Corruption AND Profiteering." Josh Marshall of TPM: At Sunday's White House press briefing the subject arose of the U.S.'s "airbridge" of flights from abroad carrying critical medical supplies. "... in answer to a question from Weijia Jiang of CBS News, the Admiral in charge of this effort explained that those supplies mainly are not going to FEMA or the states. They're going to private sector distributors. And that seems to be one of the big reasons why states are having to fight amongst themselves over them, bidding up the price along the way." So the supplies are not being distributed according to need AND states are bidding up the prices. Thanks to Monoloco for the link. See also his commentary below.

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has stumbled in its initial push to implement the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, with confusion and fear mounting among small businesses, workers and the newly unemployed since the bill was signed into law late last month. Small-business owners have reported delays in getting approved for loans without which they will close their doors, while others say they have been denied altogether by their lenders and do not understand why. The law's provision to boost unemployment benefits has become tangled in dated and overwhelmed state bureaucracies, as an unprecedented avalanche of jobless Americans seeks aid. Officials at the Internal Revenue Service have warned that $1,200 relief checks may not reach many Americans until August or September if they haven't already given their direct-deposit information to the government. Taxpayers in need of answers from the IRS amid a rapidly changing job market are encountering dysfunctional government websites and unresponsive call centers that have become understaffed as federal workers stay home."

Max Boot of the Washington Post: "With his catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus, Trump has established himself as the worst president in U.S. history.... We already have more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other country. Trump claimed on Feb. 26 that the outbreak would soon be 'down to close to zero.' Now he argues that if the death toll is 100,000 to 200,000 -- higher than the U.S. fatalities in all of our wars combined since 1945 -- it will be proof that he's done 'a very good job.' No, it will be a sign that he's a miserable failure, because the coronavirus is the most foreseeable catastrophe in U.S. history."

Katherine Eban of Reuters: "In defending his strategy against the deadly coronavirus..., Donald Trump repeatedly has said he slowed its spread into the United States by acting decisively to bar travelers from China on Jan. 31.... But Reuters has found that the administration took a month from the time it learned of the outbreak in late December to impose the initial travel restrictions amid furious infighting.... The National Security Council staff ... ultimately proposed aggressive travel restrictions to high-level administration officials - but it took at least a week more for the president to adopt them, one of the government officials said. In meetings, Matthew Pottinger, deputy national security adviser and a China expert, met opposition from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow.... Each day that the administration debated the travel measures, roughly 14,000 travelers arrived in the United States from China.... Among them was a traveler who came from Wuhan to Seattle in mid-January, who turned out to be the first confirmed case in the United States."

Well, Not a Doctor, But He Has "Common Sense." Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday forcefully touted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a potential means to combat or even prevent the onset of symptoms from the coronavirus, wading further into a medical debate that has put him at odds with some of his top health experts. Trump said the government has stockpiled 29 million pills of the drug, which is also used to treat lupus. For a second consecutive day, he suggested even those without coronavirus symptoms might consider taking the drug despite limited evidence about its efficacy in treating the virus. 'What do you have to lose?' he said. 'I'm not looking at it one way or another. But we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn't do it early.' 'What do I know? I'm not a doctor,' he added. 'But I have common sense.'... The administration's aggressive promotion of the drug has also led to a shortage of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the Food and Drug Administration said last week, raising concerns for those who take the drugs for conditions such as lupus." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Michael Crowley & others, is here. "Mr. Trump's recommendation of hydroxychloroquine, for the second day in a row at a White House briefing, was a striking example of his brazen willingness to distort and outright defy expert opinion and scientific evidence when it does not suit his agenda.... Mr. Trump said that 'there are some very strong, powerful signs' of [the drug's] potential.... When a reporter at Sunday's briefing asked Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... to weigh in on the subject, Mr. Trump stopped him from answering. As the reporter noted that Dr. Fauci ... was the president's medical expert, Mr. Trump made it clear he did not want the doctor to answer. 'You know how many times he's answered that question? Maybe 15 times,' the president said, stepping toward the lectern where Dr. Fauci was standing.... The drug can cause a heart arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest. Dr. Megan L. Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University in Rhode Island, said ... she had never seen an elected official advertise a miracle cure the way Mr. Trump has. 'There are side effects to hydroxychloroquine.... It causes psychiatric symptoms, cardiac problems and a host of other bad side effects.... 'There may be a role for it for some people,' she said, 'but to tell Americans "you don't have anything to lose," that's not true. People certainly have something to lose by taking it indiscriminately." ~~~

     ~~~ Mr.s McCrabbie: Trump either has a financial interest in promoting this drug cocktail, or he is so afraid that Covid-19 is going to kill his presidential bid that he's willing to go wa-a-a-y out on a limb to make guinea pigs of sick Americans in the hopes a miracle drug will save him. Or both.

~~~ Marisa Taylor & Aram Roston of Reuters: "In mid-March..., Donald Trump personally pressed federal health officials to make malaria drugs available to treat the novel coronavirus, though they had been untested for COVID-19, two sources told Reuters. Shortly afterward, the federal government published highly unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, with key dosing information based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.... The episode reveals how the president's efforts could change the nature of drug oversight, a field long governed by strict rules of science and testing.... 'The president is short-circuiting the process with his gut feelings,' said Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah But, Trump pushed the drugs because he was receiving expert advice from his "personal science advisor": ~~~

~~~ Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short circuit the coronavirus epidemic. In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug cocktail that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. He said he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded.... Giuliani's advice to Trump echoes comments the former New York mayor has made on his popular Twitter feed and a podcast that he records in a makeshift radio studio installed at his New York City apartment, where he has repeatedly pushed the drug combination, as well as a stem cell therapy that involves the extraction of what Giuliani termed placenta 'killer cells.'... Giuliani's controversial comments have helped him regain a bit of the prominence he had during impeachment -- last week, he was back in the spotlight when Twitter briefly locked his account for promoting misinformation about covid-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Mrs. McC: Giuliani's involvement suggests a financial motivation. ~~~

~~~ AND He's a Horse's Ass. Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The White House coronavirus task force had its biggest fight yet on Saturday, pitting economic adviser Peter Navarro against ... Anthony Fauci. At issue: How enthusiastically should the White House tout the prospects of an antimalarial drug to fight COVID-19?... Toward the end of the meeting [in the Situation Room, FDA Commissioner Stephen] Hahn began a discussion of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.... Then Navarro ... [dropped] a stack of folders ... on the table.... 'And the first words out of his mouth are that the studies that he's seen, I believe they're mostly overseas, show 'clear therapeutic efficacy,'" said a source familiar with the conversation.... Fauci pushed back against Navarro, saying that there was only anecdotal evidence that hydroxychloroquine works against the coronavirus.... Navarro pointed to the pile of folders on the desk, which included printouts of studies on hydroxychloroquine from around the world. Navarro said to Fauci, 'That's science, not anecdote,'...." And so forth. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Navarro thinks if some pages with words on them look like they comprise a scientific paper, then whatever the preliminary conclusions -- if they agree with Navarro -- must be true. (I'm guessing that since many of the reports on hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment came out of Europe, some of the words on those pages Navarro plopped on the table were not English words.) There's nothing wrong with writing a report about some anecdotal evidence you've obtained that does not meet the standards of a controlled study. But there's plenty wrong with insisting that a report that asserts, say, that 100 Covid-19 patients said they felt better after taking a medication, is scientific proof that the medication "works." No, those are 100 "anecdotes."

John Ismay of the New York Times Magazine: "Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier's who are close to him and his family." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly, in an extensive interview about the firing of the commander of a disease-threatened aircraft carrier, said he acted because he believed the captain was 'panicking' under pressure -- and wanted to make the move himself, before President Trump ordered the captain's dismissal.... Modly explained that his predecessor, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, 'lost his job because the Navy Department got crossways with the president' in the Gallagher case. 'I didn't want that to happen again.'" Mrs. McC: Uh, who was "panicking"? Modly was so fearful of Trump's wrath that he fired Crozier before he was certain Trump was angry. Sounds panicky to me.

~~~ Lindsay Cohn, et al., in the Washington Post: "Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden condemned the Navy leadership in a tweet. Retired rear admiral and former Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby called the firing 'reckless and foolish.' And retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said relieving Crozier of command 'was a really bad decision.' President Trump ... [said] Saturday [that] .. Crozier's letter was 'not appropriate' and insinuating Crozier was responsible for exposing his sailors to the virus by making a stop in Vietnam -- a stop that was pre-scheduled by the regional command.... Complicating the optics of the situation is the involvement of [acting Navy Secretary Thomas] Modly himself. Last summer, Trump intervened in the Navy's handling of a personnel action involving Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, ultimately resulting in the November 2019 removal of then-Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer and the installation of Modly.... Many questioned the appropriateness of civilian political intervention into internal professional processes.... The fact it was a political appointee associated with another highly politicized case who relieved Crozier ... may contribute to a perception that this is more about political embarrassment than a breach of security.&" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The collapse of the U.S. economy brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the extreme vulnerabilities of millions of undocumented workers..., who are disproportionately employed in industries undergoing mass layoffs as well as high-risk jobs that keep society running while many Americans self-isolate at home. Many of the undocumented, working in construction, restaurants and other service sectors, have already lost their jobs. Others, in industries like agriculture and health care that have been declared essential, work in jobs that typically require close quarters or interacting with the public, putting them at higher risk of getting sick. Unlike many American workers, undocumented immigrants can't count on the social safety net if they lose their jobs or get sick. Most do not have health insurance or access to paid sick leave -- putting them and the people they encounter at risk. Most aren't eligible for unemployment insurance or the cash payments included in the $2 trillion relief package Congress passed last month -- even if they pay taxes or their children are U.S. citizens."

Mike Isaac of the New York Times:"As health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet. But those efforts were hampered by Facebook's automated content moderation systems over the past week.... Facebook's systems threatened to ban the organizers of hand-sewn masks from posting or commenting, they said, landing them in what is colloquially known as 'Facebook Jail.' They said it also threatened to delete the groups.... 'The automated systems we set up to prevent the sale of medical masks needed by health workers have inadvertently blocked some efforts to donate supplies,' Facebook said in a statement. 'We apologize for this error and are working to update our systems to avoid mistakes like this going forward. We don't want to put obstacles in the way of people doing a good thing.'"

Wildlife Conservation Society: "Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo, has tested positive for COVID-19. She, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers, and three African lions had developed a dry cough and all are expected to recover. This positive COVID-19 test for the tiger was confirmed by USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory, based in Ames, Iowa." Via the WashPo's live updates. According to the Post, Nadia "is believed to be the first animal in the United States to contract covid-19."

Mary Spicuzza of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Assembly Republicans are calling on Gov. Tony Evers to allow in-person services for Easter and Passover amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.... Evers declined the request. The [request] came one day before Republicans in the Assembly and Senate stalled Evers' move to push back Tuesday's election due to the coronavirus pandemic...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Aleem Maqbool of BBC News: "Pastor Landon Spradlin wasn't worried about coronavirus when we went to New Orleans to preach during Mardi Gras. A month later he was dead.... A little over a month ago, Pastor Spradlin, who was 66, drove with his wife Jean the 900 miles (1500 km) from their home in Virginia to Louisiana for Mardi Gras.... Pastor Spradlin was one of those who became ill, but tested negative for Covid-19. Even as he was sick, he posted on social media about 'hysteria' surrounding the virus. On the 13th of March Pastor Spradlin shared on Facebook a misleading post comparing swine flu and coronavirus deaths. It suggested that Barack Obama and Donald Trump respectively had been treated very differently by the media and that it was a politically motivated ploy to harm President Trump. Earlier the very same day, the president himself had insinuated something very similar at a news conference.... Pastor Spradlin was taken to hospital in North Carolina where they discovered he had developed pneumonia in both lungs and he now also tested positive for the coronavirus."

Rowena Mason & Peter Walker of the Guardian: British PM "Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus after suffering persistent symptoms for 10 days. Downing Street insisted it was just a precautionary measure but Johnson's admission on a Sunday evening comes after days of rumours that his condition has been worsening.... It is understood Johnson remains in charge of the government, although Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, is poised to take charge if he should worsen." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized on Sunday evening after 10 days of battling the coronavirus, unnerving a country that had gathered to watch Queen Elizabeth II rally fellow Britons to confront the pandemic and reassure them that when the crisis finally ebbed, 'we will meet again.'... The uncertainty generated by his persistent illness underscored the sense of crisis that led the queen to address the country in a rare televised speech that evoked the darkest days of World War II." ~~~

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The intelligence community watchdog removed abruptly late Friday by ... Donald Trump says he believes Trump ousted him because of his evenhanded handling of a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to the president's impeachment. 'It is hard not to think that the President's loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations as an independent and impartial Inspector General,' Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general said in a statement Sunday, 'and from my commitment to continue to do so.... As an Inspector General, I was legally obligated to ensure that whistleblowers had an effective and authorized means to disclose urgent matters involving classified information to the congressional intelligence committees, and that when they did blow the whistle in an authorized manner, their identities would be protected as a guard against reprisals,' Atkinson said in his statement."

The Commentariat -- April 5, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Kliff & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Across the United States, even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers -- many hundreds each day -- the true death toll is likely much higher.... The undercount is a result of inconsistent protocols, limited resources and a patchwork of decision-making from one state or county to the next.... With no uniform system for reporting coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, and a continued shortage of tests, some states and counties have improvised, obfuscated and, at times, backtracked in counting the dead."

John Ismay of the New York Times Magazinke: "Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the Navy captain who was removed from command of the coronavirus-stricken aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to two Naval Academy classmates of Crozier's who are close to him and his family." ~~~

~~~ Lindsay Cohn, et al., in the Washington Post: "Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden condemned the Navy leadership in a tweet. Retired rear admiral and former Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby called the firing 'reckless and foolish.' And retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said relieving Crozier of command 'was a really bad decision.' President Trump ... [said] Saturday [that] .. Crozier's letter was 'not appropriate' and insinuating Crozier was responsible for exposing his sailors to the virus by making a stop in Vietnam -- a stop that was pre-scheduled by the regional command.... Complicating the optics of the situation is the involvement of [acting Navy Secretary Thomas] Modly himself. Last summer, Trump intervened in the Navy's handling of a personnel action involving Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, ultimately resulting in the November 2019 removal of then-Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer and the installation of Modly.... Many questioned the appropriateness of civilian political intervention into internal professional processes.... The fact it was a political appointee associated with another highly politicized case who relieved Crozier ... may contribute to a perception that this is more about political embarrassment than a breach of security."

Marisa Taylor & Aram Roston of Reuters: "In mid-March..., Donald Trump personally pressed federal health officials to make malaria drugs available to treat the novel coronavirus, though they had been untested for COVID-19, two sources told Reuters. Shortly afterward, the federal government published highly unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, with key dosing information based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.... The episode reveals how the president's efforts could change the nature of drug oversight, a field long governed by strict rules of science and testing.... 'The president is short-circuiting the process with his gut feelings,' said Jeffrey Flier, a former dean of Harvard Medical School." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah But, Trump pushed the drugs because he was receiving expert advice from his "personal science advisor": ~~~

~~~ Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Rudolph W. Giuliani ... has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short circuit the coronavirus epidemic. In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug cocktail that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. He said he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded.... Giuliani's advice to Trump echoes comments the former New York mayor has made on his popular Twitter feed and a podcast that he records in a makeshift radio studio installed at his New York City apartment, where he has repeatedly pushed the drug combination, as well as a stem cell therapy that involves the extraction of what Giuliani termed placenta 'killer cells.'"... Giuliani's controversial comments have helped him regain a bit of the prominence he had during impeachment -- last week, he was back in the spotlight when Twitter briefly locked his account for promoting misinformation about covid-19."

Mary Spicuzza of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Assembly Republicans are calling on Gov. Tony Evers to allow in-person services for Easter and Passover amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.... Evers declined the request. The [request] came one day before Republicans in the Assembly and Senate stalled Evers' move to push back Tuesday's election due to the coronavirus pandemic...."

Rowena Mason & Peter Walker of the Guardian: British PM "Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus after suffering persistent symptoms for 10 days. Downing Street insisted it was just a precautionary measure but Johnson's admission on a Sunday evening comes after days of rumours that his condition has been worsening.... It is understood Johnson remains in charge of the government, although Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary and first secretary of state, is poised to take charge if he should worsen."

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April Is the Cruelest Month

Saturday in Mixed Messages. Juan Perez & Marie French of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday warned that America's 'toughest week' of the coronavirus crisis is coming up, predicting 'there will be death' as the number of Covid-19 cases surges in the days ahead. The president said he was committed to supplying hotspots around the country with medical supplies needed to combat the outbreak, noting that the federal government has agreed to handle infected patients at field hospitals in Dallas, New Orleans and New York.... But the president also signaled his growing impatience with the stringent social distancing measures states had put in place around the country.... 'We have to open our country again,' Trump said. '... We don't want to be doing this for months and months and months." ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times' live updates for Saturday: Trump "suggested again that Americans might be able to congregate for Easter Sunday services.... He said he would again like to consider relaxing social distancing rules for Easter services and that he had told advisers, 'maybe we could allow special for churches' gatherings that were possibly outside with 'great separation.'" ~~~

~~~ Michelle Stoddart of ABC News: "... Donald Trump pushed to reopen the country Saturday ... while talking at a briefing with the White House coronavirus task force.... '... The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. We've got to get our country open,' Trump said. The president discussed a Saturday morning call he had with commissioners of most of the major sports to discuss the effects of coronavirus to the industry, emphasizing that he wants fans 'back in the arena' as soon as they can be.... 'No, I can't tell you a date, but I think it's going to be sooner rather than later.' He said that sports aren't 'designed' for closures, which he said is also true of the country, emphasizing that he wants citizens to get back to work. 'It has to get open. This country was not designed to be closed,' Trump said. 'Think of it. We're paying people not to go to work, how about that? How does that play?'" ~~~

~~~ Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has directly urged Americans worried about Covid-19 to take a little-studied anti-malaria drug for the disease, despite potentially serious side effects and a lack of data on safety and efficacy in treatment of the pandemic virus. At a lengthy, rambling and combative briefing on Saturday afternoon, the president also sought to discredit media reports of his administration's failures and called some outlets in the White House press corps 'fake news'. Media reports about shortages of ventilators and personal protective equipment, he claimed, relied on state governors asking for more supplies than they needed.... The drug repeatedly pushed by Trump, hydroxychloroquine, has only shown anecdotal promise.... [Trump] said he 'may take it' himself, though he would 'have to ask my doctors about that'. The president's own public health advisers, who stood with him in the briefing room on Saturday, have warned against taking hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19." ~~~

     ~~~ Katherine Seley-Radtke in the Conversation (April 3), republished by Yahoo! News: "On Saturday [March 28] the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of two antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and a related medication, chloroquine, for emergency use to treat COVID-19. The drugs were touted by President Trump as a 'game changer' for COVID-19. However, a study just published in a French medical journal provides new evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not appear to help the immune system clear the coronavirus from the body. The study comes on the heels of two others - one in France and one in China - that reported some benefits in the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 patients who didn't have severe symptoms of the virus.... There are already other clinical studies that showed it is not effective against COVID-19 as well as several other viruses. And, more importantly, it can have dangerous side effects, as well as giving people false hope."

~~~ Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday defended his decision to fire the intelligence community's top watchdog, calling the sacked official a' total disgrace' over his handling of a whistleblower complaint that led to the president's impeachment. 'I thought he did a terrible job. Absolutely terrible,' Trump said of Michael Atkinson, who was let go from his role as the inspector general of the intelligence community on Friday night. 'He took this terrible, inaccurate whistleblower report and he brought it to Congress,' Trump added. The initial report was largely corroborated by witnesses testimony and the summary describing Trump's phone call with the president of Ukraine, which was the subject of the whistleblower complaint. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump mused about House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) being the whistleblower's 'informer,' without citing evidence.... 'They give this whistleblower a status that he doesn't deserve. He's a fake whistleblower,' Trump concluded. 'And frankly, somebody ought to sue his ass off.'... Some Republican senators expressed uneasiness with the president's actions and praised Atkinson. Sen. Chuck Grassley, for example, said the firing of Atkinson 'demands an explanation.'... Also on Saturday, the office of the director of national intelligence announced that Thomas Monheim, who has served in top legal positions throughout the intelligence community, was named acting inspector general." ~~~

     ~~~ Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Two weeks before he was fired, Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson told the Senate's top Democrat that the past six months had been 'a searing time for whistleblowers,' and rebuked public officials who fail to defen whistleblowers when the stakes are highest. In a letter to ... Chuck Schumer dated March 18, Atkinson took a thinly veiled swipe at those who had failed to defend the intelligence official who first reported concerns about Trump's conversation with the president of Ukraine last summer.... Atkinson ... wrote the letter in response to Schumer's request one month earlier that all inspectors general investigate 'instances of retaliation against anyone who has made, or in the future makes, protected disclosures of presidential misconduct.' Trump waged rhetorical war on the whistleblower last fall, calling for the anonymous official to be 'exposed' and 'questioned,' while accusing him of having 'ties to one of my Democratic opponents' and perpetrating a 'hoax.' Some lawmakers used closed-door hearings during the impeachment probe to gather information about the whistleblower and get his alleged identity into the congressional record." ~~~

~~~ Trump Knocks Another American Hero. Juan Perez of Politico: "A Navy commander's written alarms about a coronavirus outbreak aboard his aircraft carrier 'looked terrible'..., Donald Trump said Saturday, as he praised military leaders who removed the USS Theodore Roosevelt's top officer [Capt. Brett Crozier] from his post.... 'I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter,' Trump said.... Trump said he fully supported Crozier's removal, though he said, 'I didn't make the decision.'" ~~~

     ~~~ David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "The sudden firing of Capt. Brett Crozier ... has created another unsettling moment for a country traumatized by the worsening pandemic -- and for a Navy already rocked by President Trump's remarkable intervention last year in disciplinary cases involving the elite Navy SEALs. Crozier's crew cheered him as a hero as he walked alone down the gangway.... Former vice president Joe Biden tweeted his support for Crozier.... A half-dozen former top Navy officials said in interviews Saturday that [Acting Navy Secretary Thomas] Modly's intervention was a mistake that they feared would have a chilling effect on commanders and encourage them to suppress bad news that might upset political leaders.... By Wednesday, Modly told a colleague he was thinking of relieving Crozier and that Trump 'wants him fired.'... The acting secretary had the authority to sack Crozier but in doing so undermined the uniformed officers who normally oversee such personnel decisions." ~~~

     ~~~ Juan Cole: "The Trump administration has forced [Capt. Brett Crozier] to retire because his letter warning of large scale deaths on his ship somehow made its way to the San Francisco Chronicle. [Thomas Modly,] one of those grey 'acting' high officials -- with whom Trump has surrounded himself in preference to actual confirmed cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries -- forced Crozier out.... Modly got the go-head for the ouster of Crozier from secretary of defense Mark Esper.... Crozier is a better man than Modly, by orders of magnitude. As Acting Navy Secretary Modly was certainly briefed repeatedly in January and February on the dangers of the coronavirus.... What did he do about that, as he sat around watching Trump call the deadly pandemic a 'hoax,' a 'nothing,' 'like the flu,' and promising it would go away quickly whatever it was? Modly knew that Trump was lying to the American public and that his lies would cost hundreds of thousands of American lives." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. "At least 276,000 people in the United States have tested positive for the virus, and officials believe the number of people who have been infected is far higher. More than 7,000 people have died, including at least 3,565 in New York State." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here. "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is trying to convince the United States not to block the export of 3M respirator masks to Canada. By stopping shipments of critical medical supplies, the United States would be 'hurting itself as much as Canada' because essential goods and services flow both ways across the border, Trudeau said Saturday at a news conference. On Friday, 3M revealed it is under pressure to stop exporting masks to other countries, including Canada, after the White House used the Defense Production Act to order the company to prioritize U.S. orders and cease shipments to Canada and Latin America." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** The Fish Rots from the Head. Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president -- and the coronavirus the enemy -- the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.... The United States will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation.... It took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force that had outflanked America's defenses and was poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens. That more-than-two-month stretch now stands as critical time that was squandered. Trump's baseless assertions in those weeks, including his claim that it would all just 'miraculously' go away, sowed significant public confusion and contradicted the urgent messages of public health experts.... Other failures cascaded through the system." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "In January, when Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first tried to brief President Trump about the coronavirus threat, the president got distracted and wanted to talk about vaping instead. That same month, Trump told a CNBC reporter that he was not worried about a pandemic; by March, he was claiming, 'I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.' After declaring a national emergency, Trump fumed about the images of empty airports and grounded planes on television. He has publicly compared his poll numbers with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's. He has responded to anodyne questions from reporters by saying they are 'nasty' and demanding that journalists 'be nice.' In other words, not even a crisis as massive as the novel coronavirus has stopped the president from behaving like a cranky toddler. Trump's toddler traits have significantly hampered America's response to the pandemic.... For Trump's staff, crisis management revolves around managing the president's temper, not managing the actual problem."

This Week in Narcissism. Ashley Parker & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The novel coronavirus has decimated the economy, turned hospitals into battlefields and upended the daily lives of every American. But in Trump's White House, certain symptoms remain: a president who governs as if producing and starring in a reality television show, with each day a new episode.... Trump still seems to lurch from moment to moment, with his methods and messages each day disconnected from -- and in some cases contradictory to -- the ones just prior."

Nancy Cook of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump exacted revenge Friday night by ousting the chief watchdog for the intelligence community, it was just one more instance of the president's addiction to sideshows.... In the weeks since the coronavirus first hit the U.S., Trump has continued to pursue pet projects dating back to his 2016 campaign such as rolling back Obama-era regulations, building the border wall and fighting with the Federal Reserve. A new White House personnel director, 29-year-old Johnny McEntee, has meanwhile been hunting for political appointees who have shown any hint of disloyalty to Trump and ordering them transferred or fired."

** Elise Viebeck, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump and a growing number of Republican leaders are aggressively challenging efforts to make voting easier as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts elections, accusing Democrats of opening the door to fraud -- and, in some cases, admitting fears that expanded voting access could politically devastate the GOP. Around the country, election officials trying to ensure ballot access and protect public health in upcoming contests face an increasingly coordinated backlash from the right. Much of the onslaught of litigation has been funded by the Republican National Committee, which has sought to block emergency measures related to covid-19, such as proactively mailing ballots to voters sheltering at home.... Democrats and their allies in the civil rights community are also seizing the moment, arguing that the current crisis has created an urgent need for many of the voting policies they have pushed for years, including mass expansion of mail balloting and relaxation of voter ID, signature and witness requirements." See related story linked below under "Presidential Race."

Ken Delanian & Stephanie Ruhle of NBC: "The co-founder of a huge private equity firm sent an email this week to Jared Kushner and other Trump administration policymakers seeking to relax rules on coronavirus relief money in a way that would benefit the company, according to sources familiar with the matter. Kushner's family real estate business has financial ties to the company, Apollo Global Management. A source close to Kushner says there was nothing remarkable about his receipt of the email, from Apollo co-founder Mark Rowan.... But Apollo is not just any business: It made a $184 million loan in 2017 to Kushner Companies[.]" --s

Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Thousands of National Guardsmen around the country are in contact with people who've contracted COVID-19. But while the federal government has called on them for frontline assistance in battling the pandemic, it's not giving them what they need to protect themselves: access to the military's health insurance.... According to the National Guard's advocates and the U.S. governors' association, the guardsmen are activated on orders that last 30 days. That puts them one single day shy of the requirement allowing the military health insurance system known as TRICARE -- think of it as Medicare For All In Uniform -- to cover them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dana Hedgpeth, et al., of the Washington Post: "... experts say more than 5 million people who identify as American Indians and Alaskan Native are especially vulnerable [to the coronavirus]. 'When you look at the health disparities in Indian Country -- high rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, asthma and then you combine that with the overcrowded housing situation where you have a lot of people in homes with an elder population who may be exposed or carriers -- this could be like a wildfire on a reservation and get out of control in a heartbeat,' said Kevin Allis, chief executive of the National Congress of American Indians. 'We could get wiped out,' Allis said. About half of Native Americans ... live in small homes, where the virus can easily spread through families. Houses often lack electricity and running water so washing hands is more challenging, health experts at Johns Hopkins University said." Access to this story is free to nonsubscribers.

Marty Johnson of The Hill: "Some cash-strapped states have dipped into their election security funds provided to them by the $2.2 trillion stimulus package to help pay for their responses to the coronavirus outbreak. The money from the from the mammoth bill was included to help states protect the 2020 elections from malicious cyber activity. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Tennessee, and Alabama have either used or intend to these funds, as the pandemic continues to plague the country ABC News reports." --s

Brian Kemp Is One Stupid Governor. J.D. Capelouto & J. Scott TrubeyAtlanta Journal-Constitution: "Elected leaders in two coastal Georgia communities on Saturday blasted Gov. Brian Kemp's statewide shelter-in-place order, which allows beaches to reopen with social distancing, saying the mandate undermines local efforts to contain the coronavirus.... Local officials previously closed beaches on Tybee and St. Simons islands, while the state-owned Jekyll Island also closed its beaches. Kemp's order, which took effect Friday, nullified local ordinances that did not match the statewide shelter-in-place order, doing away with many local actions such as beach closures.... Early Saturday morning, a reporter with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution walked St. Simons main beaches and they looked as they did in pre-coronavirus days. People were walking dogs jogging and just strolling. Barricades the county erected last month to close beach parking lots were set aside, and Georgia State Patrol cruisers patrolled beachside neighborhoods." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As you may recall, "Kemp said he wasn't aware that asymptomatic people could transmit coronavirus as he announced he was preparing to issue a state-wide shelter-in-place order.... He said his decision to issue the shelter-in-place order came after he found out that people could transmit the virus before they started showing symptoms.... Researchers and health officials have long said that coronavirus can be transmitted by carriers before they show symptoms or those who don't ever show symptoms." You can bet that some of the folks cavorting on Georgia beaches thanks to Kemp, are asymptomatic carriers.

Bill Bowman of the Franklin Reporter & Advocate: "Somerset County's entire 35,000-mask order of N-95 and surgical masks targeted for various health care workers has been 'commandeered' by the federal government, the Somerset County Freeholder Director said on April 3.... Freeholder Director Shanel Robinson ... said the vendor did not say which federal agency confiscated the order.... Robinson said Gov. Phil Murphy's administration 'has gotten involved' and is trying to find out why the masks were taken.... 'We've been waiting on that order for two-and-a-half, three weeks. 'You don't just take them,' [Robinson] said. 'You have a conversation.'" --s ~~~

~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: "[W]hat I'm more interested in are reports of federal authorities confiscating physical shipments en route to states, local governments or regional hospital systems.... It's also very unclear just who is seizing the supplies, what they're being used for or who is getting access to them. The assumption seems to be that they are being handed over to FEMA for distribution to other parts of the country.... In any case, we need to know more.... But these seizures of shipments are at best causing confusion for desperate states and hospitals. And they seem so haphazard that they are raising legitimate questions about whether they are being allocated to states in a preferential or politicized fashion. We need to know more." --s

Maureen Dowd interviews somebody worth interviewing about being a shut-in & other matters: Larry David. "I asked what he fears most and he replied: 'Anarchy and a potential dental emergency -- and not necessarily in that order.'"

From the Dept. of Stupid. Matt Shuham of TPM: "Anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy led a meeting last week where he agitated for Idahoans to physically defy the state's stay-at-home order, which is meant to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.... In American history, Bundy argued, dying for liberty's sake had been celebrated. 'Now it's the exact opposite, flipped upside down,' he said. 'In order to save lives, we have to take freedom. That's where we're at right now.' Bundy told the AP that he wasn't opposed to social distancing in itself, but that he objected to the state forcing him to do so." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The core of right-wing "philosophy" is a child pouting: "You aren't the boss of me!"

Presidential Race

Wisconsin's Republican Leaders Are Vicious AND Irresponsible. Natasha Korecki & Zach Montellaro of Politico: "Wisconsin's Republican-led legislature refused to delay Tuesday's primary election, formally rejecting on Saturday a call from the state's Democratic governor, Tony Evers, to halt in-person voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes as Republicans on Saturday also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling that expanded absentee balloting in the state. State Republicans on Saturday gaveled into a special session called by Evers then immediately closed the session without taking action. Republicans indicated they had adjourned until Monday. It is now up to the governor to try to find other emergency measures to delay the election. Evers suggested on Friday that he would attempt to do so.... Mayors across the state have pleaded for a delay, amid a severe shortage of poll workers sickened by coronavirus or fearful of contamination.... Wisconsin's health officials have reported more than 2,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 56 deaths." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There is no excuse for Wisconsin's GOP. None. In many if not most states, officials pretty much leave it to the parties to decide how their nominees are selected. Particularly in this unique life-and-death crisis, both parties should be free to make whatever decisions they wish on when & how their primaries are run.

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "A small group of Bernie Sanders's top aides and allies -- including his campaign manager and his longtime strategist -- have encouraged the independent senator from Vermont to consider withdrawing from the presidential race, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. The group includes campaign manager Faiz Shakir and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a top Sanders surrogate and ally, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive private discussions. Sanders himself has become more open to the prospect of dropping out..., especially if he suffers a significant defeat in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, which polls suggest Joe Biden will win handily."

Marianna Sotomayor of NBC News: "In a virtual fundraiser with donors Friday night, former Vice President Joe Biden said that he has formally alerted Sen. Bernie Sanders that he will move forward with a vice presidential vetting process even though neither has become the Democratic nominee. He also disclosed to donors participating in the billed 'fireside chat' that he has had casual conversations with emerging leaders in the Democratic Party about possibly serving in his administration if he's elected President of the United States." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- April 4, 2020

Afternoon Update:

April Is the Cruelest Month. The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. "At least 276,000 people in the United States have tested positive for the virus, and officials believe the number of people who have been infected is far higher. More than 7,000 people have died, including at least 3,565 in New York State." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here. "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is trying to convince the United States not to block the export of 3M respirator masks to Canada. By stopping shipments of critical medical supplies, the United States would be 'hurting itself as much as Canada' because essential goods and services flow both ways across the border, Trudeau said Saturday at a news conference. On Friday, 3M revealed it is under pressure to stop exporting masks to other countries, including Canada, after the White House used the Defense Production Act to order the company to prioritize U.S. orders and cease shipments to Canada and Latin America."

** The Fish Rots from the Head. Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president -- and the coronavirus the enemy -- the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.... The United States will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation.... It took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force that had outflanked America's defenses and was poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens. That more-than-two-month stretch now stands as critical time that was squandered. Trump's baseless assertions in those weeks, including his claim that it would all just 'miraculously' go away, sowed significant public confusion and contradicted the urgent messages of public health experts.... Other failures cascaded through the system."

Juan Cole: "The Trump administration has forced [Capt. Brett Crozier] to retire because his letter warning of large scale deaths on his ship somehow made its way to the San Francisco Chronicle. [Thomas Modly,] one of those grey 'acting' high officials -- with whom Trump has surrounded himself in preference to actual confirmed cabinet secretaries and undersecretaries -- forced Crozier out.... Modly got the go-head for the ouster of Crozier from secretary of defense Mark Esper.... Crozier is a better man than Modly, by orders of magnitude. As Acting Navy Secretary Modly was certainly briefed repeatedly in January and February on the dangers of the coronavirus to the United States public and to the US Navy What did he do about that, as he sat around watching Trump call the deadly pandemic a 'hoax,' a 'nothing,' 'like the flu,' and promising it would go away quickly whatever it was? Modly knew that Trump was lying to the American public and that his lies would cost hundreds of thousands of American lives."

Marianna Sotomayor of NBC News: "In a virtual fundraiser with donors Friday night, former Vice President Joe Biden said that he has formally alerted Sen. Bernie Sanders that he will move forward with a vice presidential vetting process even though neither has become the Democratic nominee. He also disclosed to donors participating in the billed 'fireside chat' that he has had casual conversations with emerging leaders in the Democratic Party about possibly serving in his administration if he's elected President of the United States."

Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Thousands of National Guardsmen around the country are in contact with people who've contracted COVID-19. But while the federal government has called on them for frontline assistance in battling the pandemic, it's not giving them what they need to protect themselves: access to the military's health insurance.... According to the National Guard's advocates and the U.S. governors' association, the guardsmen are activated on orders that last 30 days. That puts them one single day shy of the requirement allowing the military health insurance system known as TRICARE -- think of it as Medicare For All In Uniform -- to cover them."

~~~~~~~~~~

Your Late Friday Night News Dump. We interrupt our continuous coronavirus coverage to bring you this late-breaking news of a bit of Trump's unfinished impeachment business: ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "... Donald Trump has fired the intelligence community's chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an 'urgent' complaint he'd received from an intelligence official involving Trump's communications with Ukraine's president. Trump formally notified the Senate and House intelligence committees of his intention to fire Atkinson and remove him from his duties, to take effect 30 days from Friday, according to two congressional officials and a copy of the letter obtained by Politico dated April 3.... Trump said in the letter that he 'no longer' has the fullest confidence in Atkinson.... In a statement, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) described the firing as 'retribution' and called it 'yet another blatant attempt by the President to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing. At a time when our country is dealing with a national emergency and needs people in the Intelligence Community to speak truth to power, the President's dead of night decision puts our country and national security at even greater risk.'..." ~~~

~~~ Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: Trump "has weighed removing [Atkinson] for months, officials said, but has been periodically talked out of it. ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Mr. Atkinson's fate was sealed after the trial on impeachment charges ended, said one administration official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. The official described the move as part of a broader shake-up of the intelligence community that the president has set in motion in the past several weeks.... Mr. Atkinson had been nominated to the position by Mr. Trump and confirmed unanimously by the Senate.... Rather than being permitted to serve for another month [as required by law], the White House has told Mr. Atkinson that he is being placed on administrative leave, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The move effectively circumvents the 30-day safeguard by sidelining him immediately." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you're wondering about the kind of inspector general Trump prefers, scroll on down the page to read about his nomination of his impeachment lawyer Brian Miller as the special inspector general under the pandemic recovery act.

Somehow, sitting in the Oval Office behind that beautiful Resolute Desk, wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens -- I just don't see it. -- Donald Trump, at a press briefing Friday, though he stopped receiving foreign dignitaries weeks ago

Carly Simon should update "You're So Vain." -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Update: Oh wait. Simon did allow the song to be used in an anti-Trump ad. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. "President Trump said at his daily White House briefing on Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that Americans use basic 'nonmedical, cloth' masks. 'You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it,' Mr. Trump said. 'It's only a recommendation.'... He stressed that medical masks should be reserved for health care workers and that masks are not a substitute for social distancing.

"President Trump would not say, in response to a question, whether he is taking steps to ensure that the 2020 presidential will take place as scheduled if the coronavirus is still present this fall, but he insisted the election would not be postponed. 'The general election will happen on Nov. 3,' Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump added that he does not approve of voting by mail, an idea gaining currency amid concerns that in-person voting would expose people to the coronavirus. 'I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in in voting,' he said. 'It should be, you go to a booth and you proudly display yourself.'

"At least one million [coronavirus] infections have been detected worldwide, but experts suspect the true number is far larger because of asymptomatic cases and delays in widespread testing. The Australian medical chief estimated that there are between five million and 10 million cases. As Beijing and Washington declared a détente in their sniping, it emerged that the C.I.A. had been warning the White House since at least February that China was vastly underestimating the scale of the crisis, limiting the usefulness of its data in predictive models.

[Leader of the Free World Gets High Marks.] "Germany has been held up as a model across Europe as its laboratories work around the clock to process coronavirus tests, a key measure that has resulted in its relatively low number of casualties.... Chancellor Angela Merkel returned to her office on Friday, ending 14 days in quarantine after a doctor who administered a vaccine to her tested positive. The chancellor has seen her approval ratings jump over her government's handling of the crisis."

The Washington Post's live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. Bill Barr Appears Human. "Significant outbreaks of the novel coronavirus at three federal prisons have prompted Attorney General William P. Barr to order the release of vulnerable inmates to home confinement. In a memorandum obtained by The Washington Post, Barr asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move elderly inmates and those with preexisting conditions from facilities in Danbury, Conn.; Oakdale, La., and Elkton, Ohio." C'mon. Bill Barr is Bill Barr. There has to be an angle here. Why do I think Paul Manafort & Roger Stone are going to figure into this story?

CNBC's live updates of coronavirus develops Friday are here. The updates include quite a few items of interest.

Frank Rich: "... the catastrophic failure of the Trump White House to mobilize government to procure and distribute medical essentials where needed is just the most visible piece of this Boschian landscape of chaos and horror. Now that Congress has enacted a $2 trillion stimulus package, we're sure to see the Trump family and its kleptocratic cohort play political and personal favorites with economic relief as well. The Trumps are nothing if not impressive in their ability to help themselves and their fellow grifters to every buck not nailed down. At a time when the president is insinuating that New York City hospital employees are stealing masks, inquiring minds want to know if the administration scheme to have FEMA bid against states for PPE, thereby driving up prices, was sheer dereliction of duty or a concerted effort to benefit war profiteers in or close to the White House."

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The C.I.A. has been warning the White House since at least early February that China has vastly understated its coronavirus infections and that its count could not be relied upon as the United States compiles predictive models to fight the virus, according to current and former intelligence officials.... Obtaining a more accurate count of the Chinese rate of infection and deaths from the virus has worldwide public health implications.... For American officials, the totals are critical to getting a better understanding of how Covid-19 will affect the United States in the months to come and of the effectiveness of countermeasures like social distancing.... But American intelligence agencies have concluded that the Chinese government itself does not know the extent of the virus and is as blind as the rest of the world.... Bureaucratic misreporting is a chronic problem for any government, but it has grown worse in China as the Communist leadership has taken a more authoritarian turn in recent years under Mr. Xi." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Mrs. McCrabbie: Barnes doesn't report it, but the fact that "the White House" has known since early February that China was underreporting the severity of the outbreak gives "the White House" -- i.e., Trump -- even less excuse for misleading Americans about the threat that Covid-19 posed here and for failing to prepare for the coming pandemic.

** The Dictator We've Been Waiting for. Arelis R. Hernández & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "President Trump has used emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic to implement the kind of strict enforcement regime at the U.S. southern border he has long wanted, suspending laws that protect minors and asylum seekers so that the U.S. government can immediately deport them or turn them away. Citing the threat of 'mass, uncontrolled cross-border movement,' the president has shelved safeguards intended to protect trafficking victims and persecuted groups, implementing an expulsion order that sends migrants of all ages back to Mexico in an average of 96 minutes. U.S. Border Patrol agents do not perform medical checks when they encounter people crossing into the country.... During White House briefings on the pandemic, Trump has repeatedly brought up his border wall project, unprompted, and has touted construction progress, overstating the number of miles crews have completed as he says he is fulfilling his 2016 campaign promise." And Ivanka played flamenco as the Constitution burned. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Chuck Schumer & Rachel Maddow & I don't know who-all else are proposing that a military logistics expert head up the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. If Trump were a normal Democratic president, I'd say that was a good idea. But Trump is Trump, and if he puts a military person in charge, the next thing you know we'll have martial law. Maybe there's someone at FEMA who could do it; maybe there's a retired general who could do it. But it must be a civilian who is not Jared Kushner or one of Trump's other flunkies. ~~~

~~~ Dara Lind of ProPublica: "For the first time since the enactment of the Refugee Act in 1980, people who come to the U.S. saying they fear persecution in their home countries are being turned away by Border Patrol agents with no chance to make a legal case for asylum. The shift... [is] the biggest step the administration has taken to limit humanitarian protection for people entering the U.S. without papers..., [allowing] Border Patrol agents to simply expel migrants with no process whatsoever for hearing their claims. The administration gave the Border Patrol unchallengeable authority over migrants seeking asylum by invoking a little-known power given to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. public health agency, to ban the entry of people or things that might spread 'infectious disease' in the U.S." --s

Here's How Jealous Trump Is of President Obama. Adam Cancryn, et al., of Politico: "Insurers were prepared to extend [Obamacare] coverage, HHS officials were largely on board, but the White House refused to reopen enrollment.... The White House ... rejected the prospect of allowing new sign-ups across the 38 Affordable Care Act marketplaces it controls -- a decision that shocked the health care industry, triggered widespread criticism and prompted a scramble within the administration to find a new way to care for the growing population left exposed to the pandemic. 'You have a perfectly good answer in front of you, and instead you're going to make another one up,' said one Republican close to the administration. 'It's purely ideological.'... 'It's a bad decision optics-wise,' one administration official said in the immediate aftermath. 'It politicizes people's access to health services during a serious national health emergency.'... Several states with control over their own health exchanges had already flung their doors open in the last month, in an acknowledgment of the deepening crisis that's already killed thousands and threatens to persist well into the summer."

Shawn Boburg, et al., of the Washington Post: "... on Feb. 8, one of the first CDC [coronavirus] test kits arrived ... at a public health laboratory ... [in] Manhattan. By then, the virus had reached the United States.... For hours, lab technicians struggled to verify that the test worked. Each time, it fell short, producing untrustworthy results. In the 21 days that followed, as Trump administration officials continued to rely on the flawed CDC test, many lab scientists eager to aid the faltering effort grew increasingly alarmed and exasperated by the federal government's actions.... In their private communications, scientists at academic, hospital and public health labs -- one layer removed from federal agency operations -- expressed dismay at the failure to move more quickly and frustration at bureaucratic demands that delayed their attempts to develop alternatives to the CDC test.... By then, the virus had spread across the country."

Rachana Pradham of Kaiser Health News: "A coronavirus test made by Abbott Laboratories and introduced with considerable fanfare by President Donald Trump in a Rose Garden news conference this week is giving state and local health officials very little added capacity to perform speedy tests needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic.... A document circulated among officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week shows that state and local public health labs were set to receive a total of only 5,500 coronavirus tests." --s ~~~

~~~ Update. Stephanie Lee & Dan Vergano of BuzzFeed News: "State labs are scrambling to get their hands on a new in-demand coronavirus test that can find a positive result in 'as little as five minutes.' But the federal government has planned to order it in quantities far below what would be needed to achieve widespread testing, according to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News.... According to the spreadsheet, all 50 state health departments, as well as some local health departments, would each receive 10 to 15 devices for a total of 780 devices distributed nationwide.... [BUT. A spokesperson for the test's manufacturer Abbott Laboratories] ... said Friday afternoon that the company started sending tests on Wednesday, and by the end of Friday 'will have shipped more than 190,000 of those rapid tests to 21 states.... In a press conference over the weekend in the Rose Garden..., Donald Trump praised the test.... On Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told the Washington Post, 'We've talked to Abbott. They're shortly supposed to have a small amount of testing machines out to the states. No governor in America has received any yet.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It isn't clear from the BuzzFeed report how many -- if any -- test-reading devices above & beyond the original 780 ordered are going out to states now or shortly. The test swab doesn't read itself. Administering a so-called 15-minute test that has to be carried hundreds of miles to the nearest reading device means it's hardly a 15-minute test.

Jon Swaine of the Washington Post: "In September 2018, the Trump administration received detailed plans for a new machine designed to churn out millions of protective respirator masks at high speed during a pandemic. The plans, submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by medical manufacturer O&M Halyard, were the culmination of a venture unveiled almost three years earlier by the Obama administration. But HHS did not proceed with making the machine. The project was one of two N95 mask ventures -- totaling $9.8 million -- that the federal government embarked on over the past five years to better prepare for pandemics. The other involves the development of reusable masks.... Expert panels have advised the government for at least 14 years that reusable masks were vital. That effort, like the quick mask machine, has not led to a single new mask for the government's response." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Trump, the Obama & Bush II administrations did not do as much as they should have to prepare for future pandemics, either. Since it's impossible to foretell when a virus will strike, but a certainty that one will, the federal government should have been better prepared all along. ~~~

     ~~~ For instance, there's this fact-check by Matthew Brown of USA Today: "The claim: The Obama administration used and did not replenish the nation's emergency stockpile of medical supplies, including N95 masks[.]... We rate this claim TRUE because it is supported by our research. There is no indication that the Obama administration took significant steps to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile after it was depleted from repeated crises during Obama's tenure. Calls for action came from experts at the time concerned for the country's ability to respond to future serious pandemics. Such recommendations were, for whatever reason, not heeded." ~~~

     ~~~ Then again, there's this crap from the Crapper-in-Chief: ~~~

Jon Greenberg of Politifact: "... Donald Trump deflected blame for the slow start of testing for the new coronavirus in the United States. 'We inherited a broken test,' he said on Fox News' 'Fox and Friends' March 30.... [Obviously!] That flies in the face of logic. There could be no test for the virus that causes COVID-19 until the virus emerged." Mrs. McC: Trump's nonsensical claim also shows that he doesn't under the first thing about a disease that has overwhelmed the country & consumed his presidency*, notwithstanding the claim he made last month while visiting CDC HQ: "I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this? ' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

Nancy Cook & Dan Diamond of Politico: "The Trump White House is doubling down on a strategy to govern the coronavirus pandemic: pushing authority and responsibility for the response onto the states.... The approach could give the White House an opportunity to extract Trump from future criticism as the virus spreads throughout the nation and threatens to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans." --s

The notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use. -- Jared Kushner, White House press briefing Thursday ~~~

Here's What Happens When Jared Says Something Ignorant & False. Quint Forgey of Politico: "The official government webpage for the Strategic National Stockpile was altered Friday to seemingly reflect a controversial description of the emergency repository that White House adviser Jared Kushner offered at a news conference Thursday evening. According to a [new] brief online summary on the Department of Health and Human Services website, the stockpile's role 'is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well.' But just hours earlier, the text characterized the stockpile as the 'nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.' The previous language stated that when 'state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.' Also stripped from the new summary is a sentence that affirmed the stockpile 'contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously.'" ~~~

~~~ Then Trump Defended the Clown Prince. Savannah Behrmann of USA Today: "... Donald Trump accused a reporter of asking a 'gotcha' question on Friday when asking about ... Jared Kushner's comments in which he referred to the national stockpile of medical supplies as 'our stockpile' and not one belonging to states.... CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pressed Trump at Friday's briefing to clarify the Kushner's use of the word 'ours,' as Trump has become defensive over states needing resources from the national stockpile, claiming they should have their own, and the previous administration left them with hardly anything.... 'I mean, it's such a basic, simple question, and you try to make it sound so bad. You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' Trump continued, saying Jiang 'asked your question in a very nasty tone.'" The article includes a transcription of the full exchange, most of which also appears in Brian Williams' summary report embedded above. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course she's nasty. Not only did she challenge Slumlord Dynasty Boy, she's a minority woman, for Pete's sake.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump intends to nominate White House lawyer Brian D. Miller to serve as the inspector general overseeing the Treasury Department's implementation of the newly enacted $2 trillion coronavirus law, the White House said Friday night. If confirmed by the Senate, Miller would become Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery for the Department of Treasury, a key post in preventing fraud and abuse in the enormous new program. Currently, Miller is a special assistant to Trump and senior associate counsel in the White House Office of Legal Counsel. He played a role in attempting to defend Trump during the recent impeachment probe in Congress.... But critics pointed out that inspector generals are typically apolitical.... Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who played a leadership role in Congress's response to the 2008 financial crisis, called the pending nomination 'contemptuous' and a 'blatant conflict of interest.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes but, at least we know now that this won't be a problem: ~~~

     ~~~ Nepotism Normalized. Maggie Severns of Politico: "Jared Kushner's family business could be a prime beneficiary of a provision in the federal recovery bill that allows owners of apartment buildings to freeze federal mortgage payments on low- and moderate-income properties. Kushner Companies, the real estate firm started in 1985 by Kushner's father, Charles, controls thousands of low- and moderate-housing units across the country, some of which are funded through an $800 million federally backed loan the firm received in 2019." --s

Mark Niquette & Michael Sasso of Bloomberg: "The Small Business Administration has bumped up to 1% the interest rate lenders may charge small businesses under a $350 billion U.S. relief program after lenders complained that the previous approved rate of 0.5% was below even their own cost of funds.... Banks and other lenders that are key to carrying it out had said they lacked guidance on how to complete the loans, including what documentation is required from borrowers and how to verify it.... The program, part of the $2 trillion stimulus package signed by President Donald Trump on March 27, is central to help small businesses survive the devastating impact of the coronavirus outbreak..." --s (Firewalled.)

Chad Garland of Stars & Stripes reports on Capt. Brett Crozier's sendoff after the Navy relieved him of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. More on Crozier's removal linked yesterday.

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, et al., of the New York Times: "In cities across America, many lower-income workers continue to move around, while those who make more money are staying home and limiting their exposure to the coronavirus, according to smartphone location data analyzed by The New York Times. Although people in all income groups are moving less than they did before the crisis, wealthier people are staying home the most, especially during the workweek. Not only that, but in nearly every state, they began doing so days before the poor, giving them a head start on social distancing as the virus spread, according to aggregated data from the location analysis company Cuebiq, which tracks about 15 million cellphone users nationwide daily." ~~~

~~~ Akilah Johnson & Talia Buford of ProPublica: "No, the coronavirus is not an 'equalizer.' Black people are being infected and dying at higher rates." The article explains why, based on historical data & on the scant data available that suggests race is a significant factor in the spread of Covid-19.

Mike Cason of AL.com: “Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris have issued an order for Alabama residents to stay at home except for 'essential activities' effective at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The governor announced the update to state measures to control the coronanvirus pandemic at the Capitol this afternoon. The order states that it will remain in full force and effect until 5 p.m. on April 30. 'Prior to 5:00 p.m. on April 30, 2020, a determination shall be made whether to extend this Order -- or, if circumstances permit, to relax this Order.'... The governor also issued a proclamation granting temporary relief from disclosures and evictions from residences." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Howell Raines, the former executive editor of the New York Times & an Alabama native said on MSNBC that the order was surprisingly strong and all the more remarkable because, "People down here don't want a governor like Andrew Cuomo who goes out looking for problems to solve." (Could be a slight paraphrase, but close.)

This is happening daily in New York City (and in other hard-hit cities around the world:

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lachlan Markay & Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: 'Amid the mushrooming coronavirus crisis, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are girding for a pandemic of public-interest lawsuits over misinformation and conspiracy theories dispensed by certain Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network personalities such as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Trish Regan. According to a top Murdoch executive, the father-and-son media moguls are ready to go to war with potential plaintiffs such as the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics -- aka WASHLITE -- an activist non-profit that filed suit on Thursday against Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, and other defendants. The 10-page complaint, first reported by The Times of San Diego and filed in the superior court of Washington state's King County, seeks a judgment that the Murdoch-controlled outlets violated the state's consumer protection laws by 'falsely and deceptively disseminating "News" via cable news contracts that the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 was a "Hoax," and that the virus was otherwise not a danger to public health and safety.'"

Daniel Lippman, et al., of Politico: "The White House is close to selecting a nominee to be the Pentagon's policy chief, following the ouster of John Rood in February as part of President Donald Trump's loyalty purge. Douglas Macgregor, a retired Army colonel and frequent Fox News commentator, and Anthony Tata, a retired Army brigadier general, former state bureaucrat and also a Fox News regular, are the leading candidates for the job of undersecretary of defense for policy[.]" --s

Presidential Race

Natasha Korecki & Zach Montellaro of Politico: "In a reversal, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced he wants to postpone his state's Tuesday election. The Democrat called the state legislature into a special session on Saturday to take up legislation that would avoid in-person voting and create an all-mail election with a deadline of May 26 to return ballots -- which was swiftly rejected by Republican leaders in the state. Evers had previously called for a predominantly mail-in election, but not for the election to be postponed. Republicans rejected Evers' earlier push for ballots to be mailed to every registered voter.... 'If they take no action, we'll be looking at whatever action we can take,' he said. 'We will continue to find ways to make sure Wisconsinites are safe, and that's the bottom line.'"

Andrew Desiderio & Besty Woodruf Swan of Politico: "A key Senate committee is vowing to press forward with its investigation targeting former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter, despite logistical challenges posed by the global coronavirus pandemic. The probe, which Democrats vigorously oppose, has fueled tension among the Senate's ranks, even breaking out into a rare and previously unreported verbal altercation between senators during a classified briefing.... Democrats have said the investigation targeting Hunter Biden threatens the integrity of the 2020 election and undermines U.S. national security, saying it could aid Russian intelligence.... Meanwhile, the delayed timeline for the investigation makes it likely that any information related to Hunter Biden could be released closer to Election Day." --s

Florida's 'Sh!t Sandwich'. Gary Fineout & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Already anxious about Trump's chances in the nation's biggest swing state, Republicans now are dealing with thousands of unemployed workers unable to navigate the Florida system to apply for help. And the blowback is directed straight at Trump's top allies in the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.... Privately, Republicans admit that the $77.9 million system that is now failing Florida workers is doing exactly what Scott designed it to do -- lower the state's reported number of jobless claims after the great recession. 'It's a sh-- sandwich, and it was designed that way by Scott,' said one DeSantis advisor.... 'It was about making it harder for people to get benefits or keep benefits so that the unemployment numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about.'" --s

News Lede

CNN: "The search for two members of the Kennedy family -- Maeve Kennedy McKean and her son, Gideon -- was suspended 26 hours after they were reported missing in the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, the Coast Guard said Friday night. Authorities confirmed McKean and her 8-year-old son were the missing individuals. They were last seen on Thursday evening."