The Commentariat -- March 29, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Falwell Brings Back Students -- AND Covid-19. Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: Jerry Falwell, Jr. "reopened the [Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.,] last week, igniting a firestorm. As of Friday, Dr. [Thomas] Eppes, [head of the university's health services,] said, nearly a dozen Liberty students were sick with symptoms that suggest Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Three were referred to local hospital centers for testing. Another eight were told to self-isolate.... Of the 1,900 students who initially returned last week to campus, Mr. Falwell said more than 800 had left. But he said he had 'no idea' how many students had returned to off-campus housing.... For critical weeks in January and February, the nation's far right dismissed the seriousness of the pandemic. Mr. Falwell derided it as an 'overreaction' driven by liberal desires to damage Mr. Trump. Though the current crisis would appear epidemiological in nature, Dr. Eppes said he saw it as a reflection of 'the political divide.'"

Andrew Tobias of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio "Gov. Mike DeWine [R] on Sunday sharply criticized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approving only limited use of a new mask-cleaning technology developed by an Ohio research firm, saying the decision would harm the nation's fight to protect front-line medical workers and first responders against the coronavirus.... DeWine issued a scathing statement on Sunday morning, calling the decision 'nothing short of reckless.'... DeWine's uncharacteristic rebuke of the federal COVID-19 response spurred a quick response, prompting ... Donald Trump and U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Stephen Hahn to call him directly within hours, according to DeWine.... Later Sunday morning, DeWine tweeted that he had spoken with Trump about the issue. Trump said he will 'do everything he can to get this approved today,' DeWine said on Twitter."

Our Nero. As the president fiddles, people are dying. -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on CNN Sunday morning ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday President Trump's delay and denial in responding to the coronavirus pandemic has had 'deadly' consequences for Americans. 'His denial at the beginning was deadly, his delaying of getting equipment ... to where it is needed is deadly, and now the best thing would be to do is to prevent more loss of life, rather than open things up so that, because we just don't know,' Pelosi said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'"

Kamram Rahman of Politico: "Joe Biden urged ... Donald Trump on Sunday to 'stop thinking out loud and start thinking deeply' about his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. 'Look, the coronavirus is not the president fault, but the slow response, the failure to get going right away, the inability to do the things that needed to be done quickly -- they are things that can't continue,' the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'"

Alan Smith of NBC News: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he anticipates the coronavirus could kill between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans while infecting 'millions.' Speaking with CNN's 'State of the Union,' the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said however he does not want to be 'held' to that prediction because the COVID-19 outbreak is 'such a moving target.'"

Kamran Rahman of Politico: "The White House Coronavirus Task Force unanimously shunned ... Donald Trump's suggestion of a quarantine in the New York City area, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday. The president 'did very seriously consider' the idea of locking down the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Mnuchin said on 'Fox News Sunday.' But Trump was dissuaded after a meeting with the task force led by Vice President Mike Pence." Mrs. McC: Say what? Are these guys initiating a united front against Trump's bluster? It's not like pence & Mnuchin to stand up to Trump, especially publicly -- and on Fox "News"! (See related WashPo item on pence linked below.)

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Steve Holland of Reuters: "Trump, who initially dismissed the pandemic as 'under control,' is having to adjust his messaging to fit grim times, and some of his allies are pushing him to show more heart.... Two sources familiar with the internal dynamics of the White House said advisers twice intervened during the last week to nudge Trump to drop the strident language that is a hallmark of his presidency and instead seek to unite Americans.... After his outburst [in which he slammed NBC News reporter Peter Alexander for asking him what he had to say to fearful Americans], advisers urged Trump to 'tell people something real, something emotional, something heartfelt,' one source said. The next day, the president tried a softer tone. 'This is a time of shared national sacrifice, but it's also a time to treasure our loved ones,' he said. In the second case, Trump dropped - at least for now - his description of the disease as 'the Chinese virus' at the urging of aides.... In response, Trump sought to tamp down anti-Asian sentiment among some Americans, saying in a post on Twitter that 'it is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Surely both "concessions" were scripted by others. Sorry, Donnie, you're incapable of faking empathy. Andrew Cuomo, who is a lot tougher than you are, is able to show empathy that brings tears to the eyes of TV viewers -- because he means it. Narcissism just doesn't cut it here.

Jonathan Chait: "Trump happens to be enjoying his highest approval ratings at the moment. It is possible he will somehow maintain, or even enhance, his current standing. But his handling of the coronavirus -- even from the narrow perspective of politics, which is how Trump himself views it -- is doing almost everything to ensure that his bump is short-lived, and will eventually be followed by a long, steep decline. Trump's recent polling bump is real. The important context, though, is that every leader is getting approval bumps, and almost all of them are getting much bigger ones than Trump.... Rallying around a leader in the initial stages of a crisis is a well-known public-opinion phenomenon.... He said on camera, 'I don't take responsibility at all,' a line that will appear in almost every Democratic ad, because it violates Americans' most fundamental requirements of their leaders.... If he winds up winning reelection, it will be in spite of everything he has done so far."

Jonathan Swan & Joann Muller of Axios: "A plane from Shanghai arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Sunday morning carrying an extraordinary load: 12 million gloves, 130,000 N95 masks, 1.7 million surgical masks, 50,000 gowns, 130,000 hand sanitizer units, and 36,000 thermometers.... The flight is the start of what might end up being the largest government-led airlift of emergency medical supplies into the United States. That's according to Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, who runs the coronavirus supply chain task force at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He spoke to Axios on Saturday night. The airlift is the most dramatic part of the Trump administration's frantic attempts to catch up with a nationwide medical equipment crisis. Polowczyk told Axios that he's already booked 22 similar flights over the next two weeks. Starting with this weekend's airlift, he said, 'We have essentially a flight a day, mostly from Asia' to expedite the transport of medical equipment that distributors already plan to sell into the U.S. This weekend's first load of medical supplies will go into the New York tri-state area, Polowczyk said, and subsequent flights will distribute supplies to other parts of the country." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump had done this six weeks ago, he would have won re-election. Instead, he's our Nero.

Just a Timeline Reminder. Mike Pompeo Press Statement (Feb. 7): "This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.... Today, the United States government is announcing it is prepared to spend up to $100 million in existing funds to assist China and other impacted countries, both directly and through multilateral organizations, to contain and combat the novel coronavirus." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This would have been a really good thing -- had we had or were developing adequate supplies in the U.S. But, as Sen. Chris Murphy [D-Conn.] tweeted on Feb. 5, two days before Mike's announcement, "Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now." (Story linked below.)

Billy Bambrough of Forbes: "The U.S. dollar has taken a beating ... dropping almost 4% against a basket of currencies this week -- its biggest weekly loss since the height of the global financial crisis over 10 years ago.... On top the of the massive economic aid package, the Fed has been working hard to prop up plunging markets -- with mixed results despite its shock-and-awe firepower. Potential risks of the combined cross-party rescue bill and Fed's biggest-ever bazooka include out-of-control inflation, the dollar's displacement as the world's funding currency, and the complete destabilization of the U.S. financial system.... [A]ll told the extraordinary measures are expected to grow the Fed's balance sheet by $4.5 trillion this year. Throughout and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis the Fed grew its balance sheet by a paltry $3.7 trillion." [Firewalled] --s

** Cedric Cromwell of the Mashpee Wamponoag Tribe: "At 4:00 pm [Friday] -- on the very day that the United States has reached a record 100,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and our Tribe is desperately struggling with responding to this devastating pandemic -- the Bureau of Indian Affairs informed me that the Secretary of the Interior has ordered that our reservation be disestablished and that our land be taken out of trust. Not since the termination era of the mid-twentieth century has a Secretary taken action to disestablish a reservation." --s

Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden has had limited success with his live-from-Wilmington coronavirus briefings. His longtime adviser, Ron Klain, is a different story. The nation's former Ebola czar recently cut a video for the Biden campaign making an animated case against Donald Trump's handling of the contagion -- a white board presentation that racked up 4.4 million views on Twitter alone. Now, the president's reelection campaign is drawing a bead on Klain. Over the past week, the president's allies have trained its fire on him, seeking to undermine his credibility and use Klain's high-profile role as the face of Biden's coronavirus response to bolster their own arguments about Biden's own competence.... While a new poll shows a majority approves of Trump's coronavirus response, it also reveals that Americans, by a 20-point margin, believe he initially reacted too slowly to the crisis -- a central component of Klain's public critique."

Annals of Drunk Journalism. Thom Geier of the Wrap: "Jeanine Pirro's Fox News show got a late start on Saturday night due to 'technical difficulties' -- but when the former New York state judge did appear nearly 15 minutes into her show, her usually perfectly coifed hair appeared disheveled and she seemed to many viewers to be tipsy in her verbal delivery. 'We apologize for the technical difficulties,' Pirro said when she finally appeared about a quarter into the one-hour broadcast after anchor Jackie Ibanez covered for her initial absence. Pirro's speaking was notably loose throughout the broadcast -- which a network spokesperson attributed to the lack of a teleprompter in the host's first broadcast from home." Mrs. McC: The story includes clips. I can't stand to watch Pirro sober, so I skipped clips of the drunk tank show. And, yeah, lack of a teleprompter is a common reason people slur their words.

Martyn McLaughlin of The Scotsman: "The Rockshiel Trust, listed by Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, among his global portfolio of property holdings, has applied to build a cluster of luxury townhouses and apartments in a conservation area of Edinburgh. Since the revised plans were lodged in January, the proposed development has attracted 41 public comments to date. Every single one has registered an objection.... Mnuchin's disclosures include several other properties in Edinburgh worth up to £8m. However, the US Treasury said he has no financial interest in the trust, and its inclusion in his OGE filings is because of his wife, Louise Linton, the Scots actress."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates on coronavirus developments Sunday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. Access to both is free to nonsubscribers.

From the NYT: "President Trump said on Saturday night that he would not impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut but would instead issue a 'strong' travel advisory to be implemented by the governors of the three states.... Later Saturday night, the C.D.C. issued a formal advisory urging the residents of the three states to 'refrain from nonessential domestic travel for 14 days effective immediately.' The advisory, which was posted to the agency's website and its Twitter account, does not apply to 'employees of critical infrastructure industries,' the agency said. That includes trucking, public health professionals, financial services and food supply workers."

Getting Trump off the Hook. From the WashPo: "Vice President Pence said Saturday that in the coming week his coronavirus task force will bring its recommendations to President Trump on whether to ease social distancing requirements and reopen the U.S. economy. Pence told Fox News's Jesse Watters that the task force was 'following the data' on coronavirus infections in the country and would brief Trump accordingly. 'While the president has said he'd like to open the country up in weeks not months, we're going to be bringing that data forward to him,' Pence said in a Saturday interview. 'Ultimately, the president will make a decision that he believes is in the best interest of all of the American people.'"

Trump Has No Idea What He's Doing, Ctd. Toluse Olorunnipa & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Eager to demonstrate that he is in control of a viral outbreak that is spreading rapidly across the country, President Trump has ramped up efforts to show he is using some of his broadest powers as commander in chief. But the unprecedented push has been plagued by growing confusion about how far his authorities actually extend and how much he is willing to use them. He blindsided New York's governor Saturday by publicly announcing a potential quarantine order on the state's residents, only to retreat from the idea hours later. This came a day after he authorized his government to use the Defense Production Act, a move on which he'd been taking an on-again, off-again stance, but it remains unclear whether that power will be used. And he is due to issue new guidelines next week about whether the country should continue social distancing practices -- but he's vacillated between all but declaring victory against the coronavirus and acceding to experts who say the national slowdown may have to continue for several more weeks."

The New York Times' live updates on coronavirus developments Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. Access to both is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday) ~~~

~~~ From the NYT updates: "President Trump said Saturday that he might order a quarantine of New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut, a dramatic exercise of federal power that would impose restrictions on travel by millions of Americans in order to prevent them from carrying the coronavirus to other parts of the country. Mr. Trump offered no details about how his administration would enforce a ban on the movements in or out of three northeastern states.... Mr. Trump -- who first broached the idea of the quarantines as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York was giving a news conference -- said he had talked with Mr. Cuomo just hours earlier. Asked about Mr. Trump's suggestion, Mr. Cuomo said they had not discussed the possibility of a quarantine." Emphasis added.~~~

     ~~~ A full NYT story by Michael Shear & Annie Karni is here. "Mr. Trump floated the idea of a quarantine even as he left the White House for the first time in more than a week to travel to a naval base in Norfolk so he could trumpet the departure of the 894-foot hospital ship, saying that its 1,000 beds would play a 'critical role' in freeing up capacity at area hospitals. In reality, however, the arrival of the Comfort will help the struggling state only on the margins.... The president's decision to turn the trip to the base into a high-profile photo opportunity raised questions about safety and his use of government resources at a time when the administration's own guidelines advise against most travel and gatherings of more than 10 people." A US News story, by Paul Shinkman, is here. Mrs. McC: Response to a pandemic necessarily must be flexible. It cannot be scattershot, just making up stuff on the fly, with no planning, discussion with principals, etc. This "maybe I'll quarantine millions of people; maybe I won't; whatever" crap is inexcusable. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kelly Mena of CNN: "New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday in an interview with CNN that he didn't believe a possible New York quarantine was legal and that it would be a 'federal declaration of war' after ... Donald Trump said he was considering such a tactic for the New York metro area as US coronavirus cases increase." Mrs. McC: Otherwise, everything is going very smoothly.

Amy Goldstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Feb. 5..., a shouting match broke out in the White House Situation Room between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and an Office of Management and Budget official.... The dispute over funding [the federal supply of medical equipment] highlights tensions over a repository straining under demands from state officials. States desperate for materials from the stockpile are encountering a beleaguered system beset by years of underfunding, changing lines of authority, confusion over the allocatio of supplies and a lack of transparency from the administration, according to interviews with state and federal officials and public health experts. The stockpile holds masks, drugs, ventilators and other items in secret sites around the country. It has become a source of growing frustration for many state and hospital officials who are having trouble buying -- or even locating -- crucial equipment on their own to cope with the illness battering the nation.... It was never intended for an emergency that spans the entire nation." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "... as the deadly virus from China spread with ferocity across the United States between late January and early March, large-scale testing of people who might have been infected did not happen -- because of technical flaws, regulatory hurdles, business-as-usual bureaucracies and lack of leadership at multiple levels, according to interviews with more than 50 current and former public health officials, administration officials, senior scientists and company executives. The result was a lost month, when the world's richest country -- armed with some of the most highly trained scientists and infectious disease specialists -- squandered its best chance of containing the virus's spread.... Three agencies responsible for detecting and combating threats like the coronavirus [-- the CDC, FDA & DHHS --] failed to prepare quickly enough.... None of the agencies" directors conveyed the urgency required to spur a no-holds-barred defense." ~~~

~~~ Suzanne Smalley of Yahoo! News: "Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, says that Trump administration officials declined an offer of early congressional funding assistance that he and other senators made on Feb. 5 during a meeting to discuss the coronavirus. The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, said they 'didn't need emergency funding, that they would be able to handle it within existing appropriations,' Murphy recalled in an interview with Yahoo News' 'Skullduggery' podcast. 'What an awful, horrible catastrophic mistake that was,' Murphy said. On Feb. 5, Murphy tweeted: 'Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren't taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.'"

Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Friday, President Donald Trump signed into law a record $2 trillion stimulus bill to help those suffering from the coronavirus pandemic -- part of which involves one-time cash payments being sent out to tens of millions of American households. But according to The Wall Street Journal, Trump wants those checks to be sent out explicitly in his name. 'Mr. Trump has told people he wants his signature to appear on the direct payment checks that will go out to many Americans in the coming weeks, according to an administration official,' wrote Siobhan Hughes and Natalie Andrews. 'Normally, a civil servant -- the disbursing officer for the payment center -- would sign federal checks, said Don Hammond, a former senior Treasury Department official.'" --s

Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "... Rudy Giuliani posted a tweet featuring misinformation about the coronavirus and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, which was then deleted by Twitter because it violated the platform's rules.... The tweets link now gives users the message 'This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.'" In the tweet, Rudy quotes winger Charles Kirk, who claimed that "Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have 100% effective rate treating COVID-19. Yet Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is threatening doctors who prescribe it"

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Economists and global health experts have called on G20 leaders to provide trillions of dollars to poorer countries to shore up ailing healthcare systems and economies, or face a disaster that will rebound on wealthier states through migration and health crises."--s

Amy Sullivan of ProPublica: "Several disability advocacy organizations filed complaints this week with the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, asking the federal government to clarify provisions of the disaster preparedness plans for the states of Washington and Alabama.... More than 7 million people in the U.S. have some form of cognitive disability. Some state plans make clear that people with cognitive issues are a lower priority for lifesaving treatment." --s

Kennedy Center Management Helps Out in a Time of Crisis. Peggy McGlone & Michael Brodeur of the Washington Post: "Hours after President Trump signed a stimulus bill that includes $25 million for the Kennedy Center, its president Deborah Rutter told the National Symphony Orchestra that their paychecks would end this week.... Ed Malaga, president of Local 161-710 of the American Federation of Musicians, described the decision as outrageous and said the union has filed a grievance challenging what it believes is an illegal action.... Rutter told her staff earlier in the week that she was suspending her $1.2 million salary until the crisis ended, saying she needed to be the first to sacrifice and that more cuts were coming. Weekly payroll for the musicians is $400,00o, an arts center spokeswoman said." A Washington Free Beacon story is here.

The NRA Helps Out in a Time of Crisis. Rashaan Ayesh of Axios: "The National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups filed a lawsuit against California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials on Friday after gun stores were deemed non-essential and required to close for the state's stay-at-home order amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.... Both Second Amendment advocates and gun control backers argue that shutting federally licensed firearms dealers could push buyers to purchase guns online or through private sales without background checks, per AP. Yes, but: Gun control advocates are also concerned about a possible uptick in new owners who don't have access to training and don't understand how to store their weapons as multiple states issue stay-at-home orders." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Oh, Wait. It Gets Worse. Justine Coleman of the Hill: "A federal agency has designated gun sellers as part of the country's 'critical' infrastructure during the coronavirus outbreak. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Saturday included 'workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges' as critical infrastructure on an advisory list.... The federal agency had not originally included the firearms industry on a list of critical infrastructure issued more than a week ago, The Associated Press" Really?? Really??? What? Shoot your neighbor if you think he has Covid-19?

Taryn Luna, et al., of the Los Angeles Times: "The number of coronavirus patients in California's intensive care unit beds doubled overnight, rising from 200 on Friday to 410 on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. The number of hospitalized patients testing positive for the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease known as COVID-19 rose by 38.6% -- from 746 on Friday to 1,034 on Saturday, Newsom said.... California has reported more than 115 deaths and more than 5,500 cases of coronavirus around the state as of Saturday.... A Los Angeles Times data analysis found that California has 7,200 intensive-care beds across more than 365 hospitals. In total, the state has more than 70,000 beds. The Times data analysis shows roughly one intensive-care bed for every 5,500 people in California.... Newsom on Saturday said the federal government sent Los Angeles County 170 ventilators that arrived 'not working,' and now a Silicon Valley company [-- Bloom Energy --] is fixing the equipment.... Newsom said the Trump administration has not yet fulfilled the state's request for ventilators and separately sent the 170 ventilators to L.A. County."

David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "A reporter for the state capital bureau operated jointly by two of Florida's largest newspapers was denied access Saturday to a press conference by Gov. Ron DeSantis detailing the state's latest efforts to contain one of the largest outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in the country. Mary Ellen Klas, the Herald's bureau chief for the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau, said she was refused entry into the Capitol in Tallahassee to attend a press briefing by the governor ... [and other officials] regarding COVID-19... Klas said a reporter for the News Service of Florida was told that he would be shut out as well if he insisted that Klas be allowed to cover the press conference in person.... Klas said later in an interview that [state spokesman Meredith] Beatrice also told her the state was refusing her access into the Capitol because she had requested 'social distancing' at the governor's briefings.... The top editors of the Herald, Times, el Nuevo Herald, Bradenton Herald, Palm Beach Post, Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel made the same request of DeSantis' office in a March 20 letter."

Rupert Neate of the Guardian: "Millions of people across the world have lost their jobs, and trillions of dollars have been wiped off the value of stock markets. But not everyone has lost out.... Regulatory filings show that [Jeff] Bezos sold $3.4bn worth of Amazon shares in the first week of February, just before the stock price peaked. There is no suggestion that Bezos acted improperly by selling the shares or that he was acting on non-public information about the impact of the pandemic. But his timing was near-perfect.... In total US executives sold about $9.2bn in shares of the companies they run in the five weeks before the start of the stock market rout. Selling before the 30% collapse in the market saved them from paper loses of $1.9bn." --s

Juan Cole: "Demonstrating that the technologies of settler colonialism never take a break, Israeli Occupation forces have demolished an emergency clinic set up by Palestinians in a small town inside the Palestinian West Bank, according to the Israeli peace organization, Btselem.... There have already been cases of Covid-19 in the Palestinian West Bank, which is very densely populated and where Israeli Occupation policies force people to line up in crowds at military checkpoints. The Palestinian Authority is doing what it can to encourage social isolation, but it is kept weak by Israeli policy." --s

Champe Burton of The Trace: "The Trump administration has implemented new export rules for American small arms, ammunition, and gun parts -- a major victory for the American gun industry, which has lobbied for the change for more than a decade.... The arrangement [which went into effect on March 9] dramatically reduces restrictions on who can sell weapons internationally and guts oversight of where guns end up. It also eliminates a requirement to notify Congress of gun deals totaling more than $1 million.... These changes were first considered by the Obama administration in 2010, as a way to streamline the export process, but after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the proposal lost steam." --s

Chris Casteel of the Oklahoman: "Former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, a physician who became a powerful voice in Congress on government spending and waste, died early Saturday after a long fight with prostate cancer. He was 72. Coburn, a Republican from Muskogee, served in the Senate from 2005 to 2015 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001. After leaving the Senate, he pushed for a constitutional convention and advocated for a range of conservative fiscal causes." A Washington Post obituary is here.

The Commentariat -- March 28, 2020

The New York Times' live updates on coronavirus developments Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. Access to both is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here. "Donald Trump was up early on Saturday, tweeting complaints about 'the Lamestream media'. Various stories have got the president's goat, including one which said he has consulted New York Yankees star, drugs cheat and partner of Jennifer Lopez Alex Rodriguez about how to tackle the crisis. ABC News put that one down to 'multiple sources'. The president said: 'When you see, "five sources say", don't believe the story...'... Trump does have official business to attend to on Saturday, traveling to Norfolk, Virginia to deliver remarks as the USNS Comfort hospital ship sets sail for New York harbour."

"I Have an Article II Where I Have the Right to Do Whatever I Want." Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "When President Trump signed the $2 trillion economic stabilization package on Friday to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, he undercut a crucial safeguard that Democrats insisted upon as a condition of agreeing to include a $500 billion corporate bailout fund. In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress.... Mr. Trump suggested that ... he can gag the special inspector general for pandemic recovery, known by the acronym S.I.G.P.R., and keep information from Congress.... Mr. Trump has a history of trying to keep damaging information acquired by an inspector general from reaching Congress.... The signing statement also challenged several other provisions in the bill, including one requiring consultation with Congress about who should be the staff leaders of a newly formed executive branch committee charged with conducting oversight of the government's response to the pandemic." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump invited no Democrats to the signing ceremony, which is just as well, inasmuch as all the invited GOP fellas (and one woman) huddled together behind Trump while media huddled together in front of him.

Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House of Representatives voted Friday to approve a massive $2 trillion stimulus bill that policy makers hope will blunt the economic destruction of the coronavirus pandemic, sending the legislation to President Trump for enactment. The legislation passed in dramatic fashion, approved on an overwhelming voice vote by lawmakers who'd been forced to return to Washington by a GOP colleague who had insisted on a quorum being present. Some lawmakers came from New York and other places where residents are supposed to be sheltering at home. The procedural move by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) drew bipartisan fury...." Mrs. McC: The part about how the vote went down is quite interesting. This was just Massie's way of compromising the health of other members of Congress, their families, their staff & others they may have come in contact with. The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's story, by Heather Caygle & Sarah Ferris, is here. "In a series of tweets late Friday morning, [Rep. Thomas] Massie confirmed plans to demand a recorded vote, meaning members would physically have to come to the chamber to have their vote recorded. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tried to talk Massie out of it on the House floor, to no avail.... In a plan devised by [House Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer the night before, lawmakers were brought into the chamber, including in the public galleries above the floor to allow them to distance themselves for safety. By having a quorum of members in the chamber -- at least 216 lawmakers, including in the public galleries -- they could block Massie's request for a recorded vote and pass the proposal by voice vote.... Massie was quickly overruled and the bill passed without members having to take a recorded vote. But lawmakers in both parties were still irate that they had to be present at all, endangering themselves and the dozens of congressional and Capitol support staff on hand, all because of Massie's singular objection." ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates of coronavirus developments for Friday: "President Trump on Friday attacked Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, for threatening to hold up passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package scheduled for a House vote at noon. Calling Mr. Massie, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, a 'third rate Grandstander,' Mr. Trump defended the economic stabilization bill passed unanimously in the Senate on Wednesday, and said Mr. Massie should be booted from the Republican Party. House leaders will try at noon to pass the measure by voice vote, but they could fail if Mr. Massie follows through on his threats to object. That would mean a majority of the chamber would have to cast votes in person." (Also linked yesterday.)

"'Think of it, 22 days ago we had the greatest economy in the world,' Mr. Trump said at a news conference. 'Everything was going beautifully. The stock market hit an all-time high again for the over 150th time during my presidency.' He singled out the governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, and the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, for his prime time scorn. Mr. Inslee, he said, was 'a failed presidential candidate' who was 'constantly tripping and complaining.' Ms. Whitmer 'has no idea what's going on,' he said. [More on this linked below.]

"More than 100,000 people in the United States have now been infected with the coronavirus, according to a New York Times database, a grim milestone that comes on the same day the national death toll surpassed 1,500."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump, of course, was wrong when he said, that 22 days ago, "Everything was going beautifully." By that time, briefers had told him again & again that the country was in or about to be in the midst of a devastating pandemic. Update: Speaker Pelosi made the same observation when she appeared on Rachel Maddow's show. The remark is just one more indicator -- as if we needed more -- that Trump is completely incapable of performing his job.

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "Faced with a torrent of criticism from cities and states that have been pleading for help to deal with the most critically ill coronavirus victims, President Trump announced on Friday that the federal government would buy thousands of ventilators from a variety of makers, though it appeared doubtful they could be produced in time to help hospitals that are now overwhelmed. His announcement came shortly after authorizing the government to 'use any and all authority available under the Defense Production Act,' a Korean War-era authority allowing the federal government to commandeer General Motors' factories and supply chains, to produce ventilators. It was the latest example of Mr. Trump's mixed messages about how to ramp up production to meet a national crisis. Just 24 hours before, he had dismissed the complaints of mayors and governors who said that they were getting little of the equipment they needed.... Most of [the ventilators] will have to come from finding existing units, industry executives say, because production lines are already stretched to the limit." This is an update of the story linked below. Mrs. McC: I hope you're able to read it, as it shows how completely irresponsible Trump is & how incompetent his administration is. ~~~

~~~ Michael Wayland & Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "... Donald Trump has ordered General Motors to make ventilators under the Defense Production Act hours after criticizing the company for not acting quickly enough to produce the devices amid the coronavirus pandemic. The ... statute can force certain American companies to produce materials that are in short supply in the face of the growing outbreak. The order comes hours after GM announced plans to build critical-care ventilators with Ventec Life Systems at one of the automaker's component plants in Indiana. The order does not change General Motors' previously announced plans or schedule to produce the ventilators, according to GM spokesman Jim Cain." Mrs. McC: IOW, an "order" signifying nothing. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Update: As Sanger & others write in the story linked above, "Company executives seemed stunned by the president's effort to command them to carry through with an effort they had initiated." ~~~

~~~ David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at General Motors on Friday, blaming it for overpromising on its ability to make new ventilators for critically ill coronavirus patients and threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel the company to do so. In a series of tweets, the president emphasized the urgent need for the ventilators, an abrupt change of tone from the night before, when he told Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, that states were inflating their needs.... With the Federal Emergency Management Agency still evaluating a $1.5 billion proposal from those companies, Mr. Trump declared that General Motors 'MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!' He added, 'FORD, GET GOING ON ventilators FAST!!!!!!' Within an hour, General Motors and Ventec announced that they would begin producing ventilators at the Kokomo plant, and that the machines would be 'scheduled to ship as soon as next month.' But the statement offered no estimates of numbers and ... or whether the Trump administration would be buying and distributing the machines." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lara Seligman of Politico: "... Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday giving the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security the authority to activate the ready reserve components of the armed forces to support the nationwide response to the coronavirus. The executive order provides DoD and DHS -- which oversees the Coast Guard -- emergency authority to order to active duty as many as 1 million members of the ready reserves. However, it is not an order to do so."

Boss Trump: "I Want Them to Be Appreciative." Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "After days of desperate pleas from the nation's governors..., Donald Trump took a round of steps Friday to expand the federal government's role in helping produce critically needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic even as he warned the leaders of hard-hit states not to cross him. 'I want them to be appreciative,' Trump said after the White House announced that he would be using the powers granted to him under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to try to compel auto giant General Motors to produce ventilators. Yet Trump -- who hours earlier had suggested the need for the devices was being overblown -- rejected any criticism of the federal government's response to a ballooning public health crisis that a month ago he predicted would be over by now. 'We have done a hell of a job,' Trump said, as he sent an ominous message to state and local leaders who have been urging the federal government to do more to help them save lives.... 'We've had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from, you know who I'm talking about, from Michigan. You know..., we don't like to see the complaints.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As if we could not have guessed, it's clear that Trump sees the presidency as the world's top patronage position. This applies not just to doling out jobs & favors, but also to performing the basic & essential functions of government. If this means loss of life, he doesn't care. ~~~

~~~ If Your Governor Does Not Praise Trump, He Will Kill You. Chad Livengood of Crain's Detroit Business: "Gov. Gretchen Whitmer [D-Michigan] suggested Friday that a growing rift with the White House is affecting shipments of medical supplies to Michigan amid exponential growth in confirmed coronavirus cases. 'When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on,' Whitmer said Friday.... 'What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It's really concerning.'... On Monday, Whitmer said one unnamed hospital received a shipment last weekend from the federal government of 747 N95 protective masks, 204 gowns, 40,467 gloves and 64 face shields.... 'With the exception of the gloves, that allotment of PPE didn't cover one shift'Whitmer said Thursday.... Whitmer didn't say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from ... Donald Trump's administration. In a Friday afternoon appearance on CNN, Whitmer did not back away from her earlier claim." ~~~

~~~ Kelly Mena of CNN: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in an interview Friday that her state is not getting the health and safety equipment needed to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus because contractors are sending their products to the federal government first.... '... we've entered into a number of contracts, and as we get closer to the date when shipments are supposed to come in, they are getting canceled -- getting delayed, ... Whitmer, a Democrat ... told [CNN anchor Wolf] Blitzer. Whitmer said her state was notified that shipments of protective equipment such as face masks are going "first to the federal government" ahead of the states.... Whitmer's comments came after she said in a local radio interview earlier on Friday that the federal government has been told not to send medical supplies to Michigan....

"Trump publicly criticized Whitmer in a phone call Thursday with Fox News for her "lack of response" to Covid-19. 'The governor of Michigan, she's not stepping up. I don't know if she knows what's going on but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesn't get it done and we send her a lot,' Trump said in the Thursday night interview. Trump repeated his criticisms of Whitmer on Friday during the daily coronavirus press briefing. He repeatedly referred to Whitmer as 'the woman in Michigan' and said he wants the governors in the US to appreciate the work he and other federal officials are putting into fighting the outbreak. At one point, Trump said he has told Vice President Mike Pence not to call Whitmer and other governors who have been critical of the federal government. 'He calls all the governors -- I'm a different person. I say, "Mike, don't call the governor of Washington, you're wasting your time with him. Don't call the woman in Michigan,'" Trump said, stating that he felt Whitmer and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, another Democrat, will criticize him no matter what. 'You know what I say? If they don't treat you right, don't call. He's a different type of person. He'll call, quietly, anyway.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If, like me, you have wondered if mike pence -- with his many limitations -- would be a better president* than Trump, there's this from CNN's Jim Acosta: "Pence on Easter reopening...: 'The president expressed really an aspirational goal as we continue to follow the data.'" Given pence's refusal to invoke the 25th Amendment, Jeanne & Akhilleus have some alternative ideas at the top of today's commentary on how to rid us of this useless president.

Brett Murphy & Letitia Stein of USA Today: "... America's chance to contain the coronavirus crisis came and went in the seven weeks since U.S. health officials botched the testing rollout and then misled scientists in state laboratories about this critical early failure. Federal regulators failed to recognize the spiraling disaster and were slow to relax the rules that prevented labs and major hospitals from advancing a backup.... The nation's public health pillars -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration -- shirked their responsibility to protect Americans in an emergency like this new coronavirus, USA TODAY found in interviews with dozens of scientists, public health experts and community leaders, as well as email communications between laboratories and hospitals across the country.... CDC leaders not only bungled their role in developing the first coronavirus test permitted in the country, they also misrepresented the efficacy of early solutions to state health authorities." (Also linked yesterday.)

<Trumpsters Take on Fauci. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: “A cadre of right-wing news sites pulled from the fringes in recent years through repeated mention by President Trump is now taking aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the ­nation's top infectious diseases expert.... [Trump] has found support from a chorus of conservative commentators who have cheered his promise to get the U.S. economy going again as well as his decision to tout possible coronavirus treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 'The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,' [pre-eminent medical expert] Lou Dobbs said Monday on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine.... The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that everyone has an agenda." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Katherine Stewart in a New York Times op-ed: "Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown. At least since the 19th century, when the proslavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney attacked the physical sciences as 'theories of unbelief,' hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States.... This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis.... Religious nationalism has brought to American politics the conviction that our political differences are a battle between absolute evil and absolute good.... One of the first casualties of fact-free hyper-partisanship is competence in government." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Robert Costa & Phil Rucker of the Washington Post: "'Our country wasn't built to be shut down,' the president said at a news conference last Monday, opening five straight days of public declarations raising the specter of easing social-distancing guidelines and other restrictions by mid-April -- a timeline that most experts studying the pandemic say is dangerously premature.... The president is not technically the decider, however. The battle to reopen the country pits Trump against multiple governors, Democratic and Republican alike, who are scrambling to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus in their communities and marshal medical supplies for their hospitals. They will have the final say on when restaurants, stores and other gathering places in their states can reopen.... Trump has fostered a transactional dynamic -- in which he insinuates that loyalty and praise could be helpful for states seeking federal help.... Trump's highly charged approach has prompted some governors to band together and discuss their own timelines for closures and other issues, with bipartisan and strong but under-the-radar partnerships driving many decisions."

Peter Beinart of the Atlantic: "The lesson of this plague isn't that America should stop cooperating with China. It's that America must rebuild the public-health cooperation that the Trump administration helped destroy. U.S.-Chinese collaboration against infectious disease isn't a globalist fantasy. It has proved immensely effective in the past. And one of its greatest champions was George W. Bush.... [The Bush administration's] efforts saved American as well as Chinese lives.... By Barack Obama's second term, the United States and China were expanding this public-health cooperation to the rest of the world.... On Obama's final trip to China in 2016, the two governments agreed to jointly finance a headquarters for the African Union's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention so that the continent could better fight infectious diseases itself. The Trump administration is now trying to prevent that headquarters from being built. That's just one example of the wrecking ball it has taken to public-health cooperation with Beijing." Mrs. McC: Surprise! Trump's stupid "America First" policy kills Americans in a global pandemic.

As They Lay Dying. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "Roadside mannequins are inviting residents of Moss Point Miss., to resume shopping at a local clothing store, restaurants are returning their dine-in services, and churches are re-opening their doors for services ... after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued an executive order Tuesday that overruled local measures meant to stop the virus' spread.... Despite the order's clear wording, Reeves' office has seesawed back and forth on what exactly it does. On Wednesday night, the governor's office claimed to other media that a Jackson Free Press report on the order, discussed on the Rachel Maddow Show, was incorrect in reporting that it supersedes local orders. By Thursday afternoon, though, Reeves himself confirmed the reporting at a press conference and then issued a follow-up supplement to the executive order confirming that it does indeed supersede local orders that interfere with the 'essential' businesses or services in his original executive order." (Also linked yesterday.)

Arek Sarkissian of Politico: "Florida will set up road checkpoints along the Panhandle border to direct motorists who have been to Louisiana to quarantine, escalating efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to keep visitors from coronavirus 'hot spots' from spreading the disease in his state. The Florida Highway Patrol will install checkpoints on roadways crossing the Alabama state line. Visitors from Louisiana will be told to isolate for 14 days and will be required to tell troopers where they plan to stay. That information will be relayed to local authorities.... The road checkpoints won't apply to commercial traffic, DeSantis said.... Roughly half of people in Florida who tested positive for the virus are in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, prompting DeSantis to crack down on people traveling to those areas from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Jack Evans of the Tampa Bay Times: "More than 900 Florida healthcare workers have signed an open letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis in which they urge the governor to take stronger action to slow the spread of coronavirus on several fronts, including issuing an immediate statewide shelter-in-place order." Mrs. McC: DeSantis has declined to order this and other requested initiatives.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "'Y'all, we are not Louisiana, we are not New York state, we are not California,' [Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R)] said on Thursday, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. "Right now is not the time to order people to shelter in place.'... Shelter-in-place orders are meant to address is the spread of the virus. And on that metric, things in Alabama don't compare ... well.... Alabama's [rate of increase in coronavirus cases] is rising faster than California's. Over the past seven days, the number of confirmed cases in California has increased by an average of 22 percent each day. The number of cases in Louisiana has grown by an average of 29 percent. In New York, the rate has averaged 33 percent -- slightly higher than the 32 percent average increase in Alabama."

BBC: "Mexican protesters have shut a US southern border crossing amid fears that untested American travellers will spread coronavirus. Residents in Sonora, south of the US state of Arizona, have promised to block traffic into Mexico for a second day after closing a checkpoint for hours on Wednesday. They wore face masks and held signs telling Americans to 'stay at home'." --s

Trudeau Opposes War with U.S. Politico: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian officials have made it clear to the United States that it would be a mistake to position troops near the border. 'We certainly hope that they're not going to go through with that,' he said this morning during his daily briefing outside his home at Rideau Cottage, speaking a day after news broke that the U.S. was considering the move.... The Wall Street Journal reported [Thursday] night that they'd been told by a U.S. official that the plans for troops changed after hearing vigorous objections from Canadian officials."

Louise Aronson in the Atlantic: "There are many logistical and political reasons why America's response has been weaker compared with other countries'. But as a doctor, I've encountered evidence that suggests ageism is playing a role too, in part because ageism has always shaped the kind of medical care that older Americans receive.... Public responses to the coronavirus pandemic on social media have laid bare the not-so-subtle interplay between medical culture and American culture at large. Reactions to the virus's spread in the U.S. range from blatantly ageist (the nicknaming of COVID-19 as 'the Boomer remover' among some young people) to genuinely helpful and empathetic (some grocery stores reserving certain hours for elderly customers).

The Commentariat -- March 27, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Paul Kane, et al., of the Washington Post: "The House of Representatives voted Friday to approve a massive $2 trillion stimulus bill that policy makers hope will blunt the economic destruction of the coronavirus pandemic, sending the legislation to President Trump for enactment. The legislation passed in dramatic fashion, approved on an overwhelming voice vote by lawmakers who'd been forced to return to Washington by a GOP colleague who had insisted on a quorum being present. Some lawmakers came from New York and other places where residents are supposed to be sheltering at home. The procedural move by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) drew bipartisan fury...." The Hill's story is here. Mrs. McC: This was Massie's way of compromising the health of other members of Congress, their families & others they may have come in contact with.

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump lashed out at General Motors on Friday, blaming it for overpromising on its ability to make new ventilators for critically ill coronavirus patients and threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel the company to do so. In a series of tweets, the president emphasized the urgent need for the ventilators, an abrupt change of tone from the night before, when he told Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, that states were inflating their needs.... With the Federal Emergency Management Agency still evaluating a $1.5 billion proposal from those companies, Mr. Trump declared that General Motors 'MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!' He added, 'FORD, GET GOING ON ventilators, FAST!!!!!!' Within an hour, General Motors and Ventec announced that they would begin producing ventilators at the Kokomo plant, and that the machines would be 'scheduled to ship as soon as next month.' But the statement offered no estimates of numbers and ... or whether the Trump administration would be buying and distributing the machines."

Mrs. McC: Specs fixed.

From the New York Times live updates of coronavirus developments Friday: "President Trump on Friday attacked Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, for threatening to hold up passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package scheduled for a House vote at noon. Calling Mr. Massie, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, a 'third rate Grandstander,' Mr. Trump defended the economic stabilization bill passed unanimously in the Senate on Wednesday, and said Mr. Massie should be booted from the Republican Party. House leaders will try at noon to pass the measure by voice vote, but they could fail if Mr. Massie follows through on his threats to object. That would mean a majority of the chamber would have to cast votes in person."

Brett Murphy & Letitia Stein of USA Today: "... America's chance to contain the coronavirus crisis came and went in the seven weeks since U.S. health officials botched the testing rollout and then misled scientists in state laboratories about this critical early failure. Federal regulators failed to recognize the spiraling disaster and were slow to relax the rules that prevented labs and major hospitals from advancing a backup.... The nation's public health pillars -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration -- shirked their responsibility to protect Americans in an emergency like this new coronavirus, USA TODAY found in interviews with dozens of scientists public health experts and community leaders, as well as email communications between laboratories and hospitals across the country.... CDC leaders not only bungled their role in developing the first coronavirus test permitted in the country, they also misrepresented the efficacy of early solutions to state health authorities."

As They Lay Dying. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "Roadside mannequin are inviting residents of Moss Point, Miss., to resume shopping at a local clothing store, restaurants are returning their dine-in services, and churches are re-opening their doors for services ... after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued an executive order Tuesday that overruled local measures meant to stop the virus' spread.... Despite the order's clear wording, Reeves' office has seesawed back and forth on what exactly it does. On Wednesday night, the governor's office claimed to other media that a Jackson Free Press report on the order, discussed on the Rachel Maddow Show, was incorrect in reporting that it supersedes local orders. By Thursday afternoon, though, Reeves himself confirmed the reporting at a press conference and then issued a follow-up supplement to the executive order confirming that it does indeed supersede local orders that interfere with the 'essential' businesses."

Trumpsters Take on Fauci. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "A cadre of right-wing news sites pulled from the fringes in recent years through repeated mention by President Trump is now taking aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases ­expert.... [Trump] has found support from a chorus of conservative commentators who have cheered his promise to get the U.S. economy going again as well as his decision to tout possible coronavirus treatments not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 'The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,' [pre-eminent medical expert] Lou Dobbs said Monday on his show on the Fox Business Network, referring to the use of experimental medicine.... The smear campaign taking root online, and laying the groundwork for Trump to cast aside the experts on his own coronavirus task force, relies centrally on the idea that there is no expertise that rises above partisanship, and that everyone has an agenda."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I stepped on my specs. All typos till I get them repaired due to astigmatism. Past typos due to carelessness.

New York Times live updates of coronavirus developments for Friday are here. "Congress was set to take up a $2 trillion economic stabilization plan designed to save jobs and bail out companies that will also fundamentally transform the relationship between the government and private industry. In a sign of the times, the House is expected to approve the measure on Friday by voice vote, rather than having hundreds of lawmakers travel from their homes and violate restrictions on mass gatherings.

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the coronavirus and is suffering mild symptoms, the British government said on Friday. He is the first leader of a major Western country known to have contracted the virus." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post live updates for Friday are here.

New York Times live updates of coronavirus developments for Thursday are here. "In the United States, at least 81,321 people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus, including more than 1,000 deaths -- more cases than China, Italy or any other country has seen, according to data gathered by The New York Times.... The United States ... is a sprawling, cacophonous democracy, where states set their own policies and President Trump has sent mixed messages about the scale of the danger and how to fight it, ensuring there was no coherent, unified response to a grave public health threat. [Full story by Don McNeil of the NYT here.]

“President Trump said on Thursday that the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort will disembark on Saturday from Norfolk, Va., and arrive at Manhattan's Pier 90 on Monday, three weeks earlier than expected. The ship should bolster the capacity of New York's hospitals, which are straining with patients suffering from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Mr. Trump said that he would personally see off the ship. 'I'm going to go out and kiss it goodbye,' he said -- a photo opportunity that would mark his first departure from the White House in weeks." Access to the updates is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ Washington Post live updates are here. Access is free. (Also linked yesterday.)

Abigail Hauslohner, et al., of the Washington Post: "... just two months after America's first confirmed case..., the coronavirus has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States, a toll that is increasing at an alarming rate.... Experts fear the worst is still to come, pointing to a rapid acceleration of cases in communities across the country. The Washington Post is tracking every known U.S. death, analyzing data from health agencies and gathering details from family and friends of the victims." The story is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday.)

You're going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression. -- Donald Trump, making up stuff Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Though the question of the overall impact of recessions on mortality remains unsettled, experts disputed Mr. Trump's claim that an economic downturn would be more deadly than a pandemic. (The White House did not respond when asked for the source of the president's conjecture.)... For the general population, studies have found that death rates from other causes were either unchanged or actually decreased [during economic downturns].... In comparison, projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that deaths from the coronavirus in the United States could range from 200,000 to 1.7 million.... [Also,] if efforts to mitigate the coronavirus abate and cases and deaths spiral out of control, the economy would also be affected by self-imposed lockdowns."

Robert Costa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Tensions between President Trump and governors from states hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic are rising at a time when the White House is pushing to loosen restrictions on social distancing.... The president's upbeat assessment ... has distressed the leaders in states where the virus is spreading exponentially.... On Thursday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) pleaded with Trump during a conference call with the governors to take more dramatic federal action to secure medical supplies for his state.... After Trump told the group that his administration was ready to be the 'backup' for states in crisis, Inslee interjected: 'We don't need a backup. We need a Tom Brady.'... Trump responded defensively, two ... people said, and told Inslee that he and the federal government have already done much for Washington and other states in recent days, ticking off several initiatives.... At a White House news briefing, Trump called reports of tension on his call with the governors 'fake news,' insisting that Brady's name was raised 'in a positive way.'... 'I would say one person -- a little, tiny bit of a raising of a voice, a wise guy a little bit,' Trump said, without identifying the governor. 'But he's usually a big wise guy -- not so much anymore. We saw to it he wouldn't be anymore.'" ~~~

~~~ Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "... Donald Trump told America's governors in a letter on Thursday that his administration will soon set new social distancing guidelines as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. Trump said in the letter that new coronavirus testing capabilities would allow his administration to identify 'high-risk, medium risk and low-risk' counties. And these new guidelines will assist governors and other officials to decide on 'maintaining, increasing or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place.' The president said by doing 'robust surveillance testing,' officials will be able to 'monitor the spread of the virus throughout the country.'" Mrs. McC: Oh, I'm sure the testing with be just as "robust" as it has been until now. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) A reproduction of Trump's letter, via NPR, is here.

... you don't make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline. -- Dr. Anthony Fauci, on CNN Wednesday night ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Kristof & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "We created an interactive model [included on the linked page] with epidemiologists to show why quickly returning to normal could be a historic mistake that would lead to an explosion of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.... A skeptic will note that these measures don't seem to prevent a surge in infections so much as delay them (in some cases so that the impact is pushed beyond the period that this model tracks). There's something to that: We may see a resurgence whenever we let up, at least until we have a vaccine or herd immunity. Yet social distancing still is beneficial in two ways. First, we can use the time to buttress hospitals and test treatments. Second, interventions can flatten the curve and spread infections over a longer period of time, so that the health care system does not become overwhelmed." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I suppose if someone showed the chart above to President Me-Me-Me, it would make no difference, as he doesn't give a fig how many people he kills in the name of Trump.

Elena Renken of NPR: "Over a thousand people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19, and over a third of those deaths have taken place in New York. Nearly half the confirmed cases in the United States are in New York. The state has become a coronavirus hot spot -- anyone leaving New York City is being asked to self-quarantine for two weeks.... Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, says other states need to prepare to take on outbreaks of this scale."

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "The White House had been preparing to reveal on Wednesday a joint venture between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems that would allow for the production of as many as 80,000 desperately needed ventilators to respond to an escalating pandemic when word suddenly came down that the announcement was off. The decision to cancel the announcement, government officials say, came after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it needed more time to assess whether the estimated cost was prohibitive. That price tag was more than $1 billion, with several hundred million dollars to be paid upfront to General Motors to retool a car parts plant in Kokomo, Ind., where the ventilators would be made with Ventec's technology.... And they contend that an initial promise that the joint venture could turn out 20,000 ventilators in short order had shrunk to 7,500, with even that number in doubt.... 'Ford, General Motors and Tesla are being given the go ahead to make ventilators and other metal products, FAST! @fema,' [Donald Trump falsely] wrote [last Sunday]." ~~~

~~~ So Then. Allyson Chiu & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "President Trump cast doubt Thursday on New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's assertion that his state, which has become the epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, will need 30,000 ventilators to properly care for the influx of patients anticipated to flood hospitals in coming weeks. 'I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they're going to be,' Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a phone interview. 'I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes they'll have two ventilators, and now all of a sudden they're saying, "Can we order 30,000 ventilators?"'" Mrs. McC: Yeah, two sounds good.

A Fake Excuse Falls Apart. Richard Harris of NPR: "When asked why the United States didn't import coronavirus tests when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ran into difficulty developing its own, government officials have frequently questioned the quality of the foreign-made alternatives. But NPR has learned that the key study they point to was retracted just days after it was published online in early March. Top officials in the Trump administration have alluded to this study, including Dr. Deborah Birx, who coordinates the White House coronavirus task force. 'It doesn't help to put out a test where 50% or 47% are false positives,' she said at a White House briefing on March 17, explaining why health officials didn't accept tests from other countries. Food and Drug Commissioner Stephen Hahn cited the figure as well during an interview on Morning Edition on Friday.... 'Scientists shouldn't be depending on the results of as scientific paper when the authors are saying through the retraction that they do not have confidence in the results,' says Dr. Steven Goodman, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford."

Mrs. McCrabbie: NiskyGuy wrote in yesterday's Comments, "... I heard MA governor Charlie Baker (R rational) ... [say] MA had a contract for PPE, had cut a check, when the vendor called to say that FEMA had outbid the state, and the supplies were going to the Feds. How the fuck does that line up with trump's 'The states should be getting the stuff on their own' ??!!??!!??!" I looked in vain to find a print version of the story, which Rachel Maddow also featured on her show. However, I found this week-old report: ~~~

~~~ "Trump Chuckled." Eliza Relman of Business Insider (March 20): "During a conference call with governors on Thursday [a week ago], Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told Trump his state was denied three major orders of equipment because the federal government had outbid him.... 'We took very seriously the push ... that we should not just rely on the stockpile, that we should go out there and buy stuff and put in orders and try to create pressure on manufacturers and distributors, and I gotta tell you that on three big orders, we lost to the feds.' Baker, a moderate Republican, added, 'I've got a feeling that if someone has the chance to sell to you and to sell to me, I am going to lose on every one of those.' Trump chuckled at that and then said the federal government probably offered the manufacturers a better price.... Later on the call, after the New Mexico government made a similar complaint, Trump said he would tell FEMA to ensure state orders aren't turned down over a conflict with his administration."

SEIU-UHW: "The Service Employees International Union -- United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) has located 39 million critically needed N95 masks and is connecting states, counties, health systems and individual hospitals to the supplier so they can purchase them in quantity. The 3M™ N95 masks (model 1860) are cleared for use as surgical masks and are approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

** Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak. The temporary policy, for which EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of industries to skirt environmental laws, with the agency saying it will not 'seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations.'... The memo says companies should try to minimize 'the effects and duration of any noncompliance' with environmental laws, and should also keep records of their own noncompliance, along with identifying how the coronavirus was a factor." --s

Mark Miller of the New York Times: "Medicare already covers its enrollees for much of what they might need if they contract the [corona]virus and become seriously ill -- and it has expanded some services and loosened some rules in response to the crisis. Here's a look at what enrollees can expect from Medicare, some problems to look out for and some additional changes that advocates think still need to be made." Mrs. McC: Not sure if this is a freebie; if not, MSN has reprinted the story here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jesse Drucker of the New York Times: "The federal government's planned $2 trillion economic rescue package ... includes a potential bonanza for America's richest real estate investors.... [Donald] Trump and [Jared] Kushner, as well as other wealthy real estate developers, have the potential to score big tax savings.... Senate Republicans inserted an easy-to-overlook provision on page 203 of the 880-page bill that would permit wealthy investors to use losses generated by real estate to minimize their taxes on profits from things like investments in the stock market. The estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion.... A draft congressional analysis this week found that the change is the second-biggest tax giveaway in the $2 trillion stimulus package.... Among the possible beneficiaries of the change are real estate investors in President Trump's inner circle."

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "For the third time in three days, people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were pepper-sprayed on Wednesday as the coronavirus pandemic raises tensions within immigration jails. All of the pepper-spraying incidents have occurred at detention centers run by the private prison giant GEO Group.... A draft of a court declaration from Mariel Villarreal, an immigration attorney at Pangea Legal Services..., states that the pepper-spraying occurred as women received a presentation about the coronavirus [Wednesday] morning. '[My client] stated that the women's questions were going unanswered and their concerns were being ignored by the officers.'" Thanks to Hattie for the link.

Blair Miller of ABC Denver 7: "Six Republican state lawmakers from Douglas County [Colorado] -- including the House and Senate minority leaders and a senator who has COVID-19 and is quarantined at his second home in California -- called for county commissioners to terminate the county's relationship with the Tri-County Health Department after it issued a stay-at-home order Wednesday morning.... The lawmakers said they felt the order was 'heavy-handed' and should not have come from the health department, though it has the authority to issue such an order." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Lucas Sullivan of the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch: "Pharmacists across Ohio this week provided details to The Dispatch of questionable prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, or chloroquine, that have poured in from doctors in the past week. The prescriptions were filed as soon as an hour after ... Donald Trump promoted them last Thursday as a possible treatment for coronavirus.... The Dispatch interviewed 12 pharmacists from across the state who work in major hospitals, chain stores and independent stores. Each said in the past week that they had received six to eight questionable prescriptions from dermatologists, OB/GYNs, dentists and allergists. The state has now moved to restrict prescribing so only patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 can receive the drug." (Also linked yesterday.)

A.J. Vicens of Mother Jones: A large company owned by Kushner Companies is pressing tenants to pay their full rents on time by "credit or debit card ... for a fee, or by e-check without additional charge." The emails to renters also said the company would close gyms & provide fewer maintenance services during the coronavirus crisis. Thanks to Hattie for the link.

Claudio Cancelli & Luca Foresti of Corriere Della Sera [Italy], via TPM: "Nembro, in the province of Bergamo, is the municipality most affected by Covid-19 in relation to the population.... The number of deaths officially attributed to Covid-19 is 31.... In this case, the number of abnormal deaths compared to the averagethat Nembro recorded in the period of time in consideration is equal to 4 times those officially attributed to Covid-19.... The numbers of Nembro also suggest that we must take those official deaths and multiply them by at least 4 to have the real impact of Covid-19 in Italy, at this moment." [Emphasis added] --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I have heard & read anecdotal evidence that the same undercount is occurring in the U.S.

Karen McVeigh of the Guardian: "The fight to ban plastic bags, many of which end up polluting oceans and rivers, has taken a step backward as conservative US think-tanks exploit the fear of Covid-19, campaigners have said. Articles warning that reusable cloth bags are worse than plastic ones for spreading coronavirus have been linked to major rightwing nonprofits such as the Manhattan Institute, and contain misinformation aimed at defeating or repealing plastic bag bans, said Greenpeace USA.... Last week a number of US states and cities nevertheless took the decision to roll back plastic bag bans, citing the coronavirus." --s

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "One of the first deaths in Virginia from coronavirus was a 66-year-old Christian 'musical evangelist' who fell ill while on a trip to New Orleans with his wife. As the Friendly Atheist's Bo Gardiner points out, Landon Spradlin had previously shared opinions that the pandemic was the result of 'mass hysteria' from the media. On March 13, Spradlin shared a misleading meme that compared coronavirus deaths to swine flu deaths and suggested the media is using the pandemic to hurt Trump."

Bradley Bowman, et al. of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies: "As the Coronavirus crisis escalated earlier this month in the United States, Moscow repeatedly sent Tu-142 long-range reconnaissance aircraft to probe America's homeland defenses. The incursions into the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) air defense identification zone (ADIZ) demonstrated Moscow's continued aggressive policy toward the United States and underscored the need to maintain U.S. military readiness, even in the midst of an historic pandemic. This month, Moscow tested U.S. and Canadian homeland aerospace threat detection and reaction three times over a one-week period." --s