The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Saturday
Apr252020
The Commentariat -- April 25, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Maybe Trump was upset by that tweet -- which went viral -- highlighting Dr. Deborah Birx' horrified reactions to his outlandish remarks (embedded below). So ~~~
Was just informed that the Fake News from the Thursday White House Press Conference had me speaking & asking questions of Dr. Deborah Birx. Wrong, I was speaking to our Laboratory expert, not Deborah, about sunlight etc. & the CoronaVirus. The Lamestream Media is corrupt & sick! -- Donald Trump in a tweet Saturday afternoon
Although not the only time Trump spoke to Birx during that briefing, here's a significant one, from the transcript:
You know what. Deborah, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus? -- Donald Trump, Thursday's Trump Show
Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I know, there was only one "Deborah" on the dais. In any event, Dr. Birx was the "Deborah" who responded -- in the negative but oh, so diplomatically -- to this idiotic question. Who's "corrupt & sick"?
Thanks to Elizabeth & Hattie for the links & to Randy for the laughs:
~~~ As Randy says, "Do not actually drink cleaning fluids."
The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.
Republicans Make People Sick. Teran Powell of WUWM Radio (NPR): "Forty people in Milwaukee County may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of participating in Wisconsin elections on April 7. Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik says data is still being analyzed to show the connection between more people that may have contracted COVID-19 due to election activities, like being a poll worker or voting in person, earlier this month. Kowalik hopes the data will be finalized by May 1."
Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... scores of [cruise] ships ... continued voyages even after early outbreaks on other vessels, carrying thousands of international passengers to far-flung ports and helping seed the virus around the globe, health officials say. A Post review of cruise line statements, government announcements and media reports found that the coronavirus infected passengers and crew on at least 55 ships that sailed in the waters off nearly every continent, about a fifth of the total global fleet. The industry's decision to keep sailing for weeks after the coronavirus was first detected in early February on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan, despite the efforts by top U.S. health officials to curtail voyages, was among a number of decisions that health experts and passengers say contributed to the mounting toll. At least 65 people who traveled or worked on the ships have since died, according to The Post tally, although the full scope of deaths is unknown."
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Adam Cancryn of Politico: "As coronavirus cases climbed daily by the thousands and the nation entered its second month of an economic standstill..., Donald Trump latched onto a sign of hope: A pandemic model ... projected the virus would kill as few as 60,000 Americans, a figure far below what officials previously feared. The new April forecast signaled the worst would soon be over, with some states effectively ending their bout with coronavirus as early as the end of the month.... Trump swiftly adopted the projection from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as his newest measure of success -- while top administration health officials including infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx touted the lower figure as a clear indication the U.S. was winning its fight with the disease. 'It looks like we'll be at about a 60,000 mark, which is 40,000 less than the lowest number thought of,' Trump said during a news briefing on Sunday, April 19, adding the next day that 'the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We could end up at 50 to 60.'... The U.S. is now expected to blow past the 60,000 mark around the beginning of May, earlier than the IHME model had projected and with less of the dramatic leveling-off that its forecast had initially baked in."
Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "The economy shut down almost overnight. It won't start back up that way.... Because the restart will be gradual, with certain places and industries opening earlier than others, it will by definition be complicated.... And it isn't clear what, exactly, it means to gradually restart a system with as many interlocking pieces as the U.S. economy. How can one factory reopen when its suppliers remain shuttered?... The White House released a plan this month for a phased reopening of the economy, with restrictions easing as states meet public health benchmarks.... But those proposals are mostly rough schematics, leaving unanswered crucial questions about how the process will play out at the ground level.... Under the ... plan, many businesses will be allowed to open in the first phase. Schools and day care centers will need to wait for the next phase. That means that millions of working parents could be asked to return to their jobs before they have any way to take care of their children." ~~~
~~~ Sarah Mervosh & Jasmine Lee of the New York Times have created an interactive U.S. map that gives you a rough idea of what states are doing to reopen -- or not. Mrs. McC: But you'll probably have to consult your own state's Website or local newspapers to figure out what you can and can't do in your state and in states you may want to visit. And you'll also have to check with individual businesses, government offices, etc., to see if, when and how you can do business there. I responded Monday to a letter from a state agency that thought I might owe the state money (I didn't). It was several days before anyone called me back, but I did get a call back from a very pleasant tax agent who was working from home without access to a computer.
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The federal government scrambled Friday to stave off a potential wave of public health emergencies sparked by President Trump's dangerous suggestion that injecting bleach or other household disinfectants into the body might cure people of the novel coronavirus. It was only the latest dubious medical tip from a president struggling to contain a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans.... Trump's latest fantasy cure mushroomed into a potential crisis for public health officials. In Maryland alone, the state government's emergency hotline received more than 100 calls from residents inquiring whether injecting a disinfectant really was a cure.... The extraordinary uproar over ingesting disinfectants underscored what public health experts say is the danger when the president -- who has no training in medicine, a proud aversion to studying details and a supreme confidence in his own expertise -- speculates about science during a pandemic. Compounding the situation is the timidity and at times reluctance with which the physicians advising Trump intervene to correct the president or refute his theories, said Jack Chow..., a former World Health Organization assistant director general.... [Dr. Deborah] Birx was present [at Thursday's Trump show], sitting silently and visibly straining to control her facial expressions as Trump talked up the possibility of disinfectant injections to cure covid-19." ~~~
~~~ Contributor Patrick linked to this amusing evidence of Birx' discomfort, which Daniel Lewis, a CNN digital producer, edited from the regular briefing room feed:
Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/MVno5X7JMA
— Daniel Lewis (@Daniel_Lewis3) April 24, 2020
I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't drink bleach. -- Joe Biden, in a tweet Friday
A reminder to all Americans- PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one. -- Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, in a tweet Friday ~~~
~~~ Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: "As he listened to [a presentation by DHS official Bill] Bryan, the president became increasingly excited, and also felt the need to demonstrate his own understanding of science, according to three of [his] advisers. So Mr. Trump went ahead with his theories about the chemicals.... Mr. Trump's remarks [about ingesting bleach & disinfectant & zapping patients with 'heat and light'] caused an immediate uproar, and the White House spent much of Friday trying to walk them back.... But the president later undermined [their] arguments by insisting that his question to Mr. Bryan in fact had been an elaborate prank that he had engineered to trick reporters. 'I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,' Mr. Trump said on Friday to journalists gathered in the Oval Office. The president said he had posed his theory on cleaning the body with disinfectant 'in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter,' which also was not true -- he had said it unprompted to Mr. Bryan. With more questions likely at the Friday briefing, Vice President Mike Pence ... abruptly ended it shortly after it began." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Anderson Cooper said, "You just witnessed the President* lying about something we all saw & heard him say only yesterday.... He must think we're all morons." This is a slight paraphrase. Here's a clip of Trump's supposed "sarcastic" remarks. He's querying Bill Bryan & Dr. Deborah Birx: ~~~
~~~ The full transcript of Thursday's "press briefing" is here. Mrs. McCrabbie: It's clear that Trump is dead serious in asking Bryan and Birx about injecting disinfectants & light rays into bodies to cure the coronavirus. The clip does show Trump making one sarcastic remark to Phil Rucker of the WashPo after Rucker asks about all the people dying of Covid-19 in warm climates like Florida & Singapore: "... Here we go.," Trump says. "The new headline is 'Trump asks people to go outside. That's dangerous.'" A few moment later (according to the transcript), Trump disses Rucker personally for asking a related question, "Hey, Phil. I'm the President and you're fake news. And you know what I'll say to you, I'll say very nicely... I know you well. I know you well because I know the guy, I see what he writes. He's a total faker...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, and Bill Bryan has not had a career quite as bland as I presumed: according to the NYT report by Rogers, et al., linked above, "Mr. Bryan served 17 years in the Army, followed by yearslong stints as a civil servant at the Defense and Energy Departments. The latter role led to a whistle-blower complaint accusing him, in part, of manipulating government policy to further his personal financial interests, and then lying to Congress about those interests. The United States Office of Special Counsel ... asked the Energy Department last year to investigate the accusations against Mr. Bryan. In January, the Senate returned his nomination to the White House. Mr. Pence's advisers wanted Mr. Bryan to brief the news media on his findings, but several West Wing staff members objected, partly because they were concerned the information had not been verified. Before Mr. Bryan took the lectern in the White House Briefing Room, Dr. Birx and Dr. ... Fauci ... made a few revisions to his presentation, officials said." ~~~
~~~ Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Members of ... Donald Trump's coronavirus task force and aides in the West Wing were shocked on Thursday when he promoted the use of light and disinfectant to treat the deadly respiratory illness, according to administration officials. As Trump went off script to suggest people with the virus could be cured by UV rays or disinfectants 'by injection inside,' White House officials began texting one another to ask where he got that idea because they thought, as one adviser put it, 'this was going to be bad.'... It appears Trump conflated and misinterpreted scientific information discussed with him in the Oval Office before Thursday's daily briefing, according to the officials." ~~~
~~~ Maybe This Is What Confused Trump. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: “The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a 'miracle cure' for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week. In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide -- a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk -- is 'a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body'. He added that it 'can rid the body of Covid-19'.... Grenon styles himself as 'archbishop' of Genesis II -- a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a 'miracle cure' in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, 'miracle mineral solution', and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.... Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as 'an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19'." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems highly unlikely that Trump received and read Grenon's letter, but it is likely that Trump's travels around nutty right-wing media has familiarized him with Grenon's "miracle mineral solution" or some similar elixir. For instance, Will Sommer & others of the Daily Beast report, "Jordan Sather, a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist who promotes MMS, tweeted that Trump's comments proved that MMS was safe to consume. 'How AWESOME would it be if he starts openly looking at Chlorine Dioxide for COVID!' Sather tweeted, adding that it was a good 'lung cleaner.'"
~~~ But What Are They Saying on Fox "News?" Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The morning after President Trump mused at a nationally televised briefing that injecting disinfectant could be a treatment for Covid-19 patients, [Steve] Doocy, a co-host of 'Fox & Friends,' issued a warning.... Injecting disinfectants 'is poisonous,' Mr. Doocy said, holding up his hands for emphasis, during an otherwise upbeat segment that praised Mr. Trump for his other health tip: Get more sunlight.... 'Please don't try this at home,' said the Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney, one of Mr. Trump's favorite hosts. The anchor Chris Wallace -- not a Trump favorite -- felt the need to clarify on-air: 'The answer is no, it's not safe. A lot of the major manufacturers say it isn't.' When Mr. Trump made an effort to walk back his remarks on Friday, claiming ... that he had made the comment 'sarcastically,' John Roberts, Fox News's chief White House correspondent, did not sound convinced. 'I was watching very closely,' Mr. Roberts, who attended the briefing, said on the air. 'At no time did I seem to think that the president was sarcastically asking the question.'... Still, Mr. Trump's defenders in Fox News prime time, the channel's most closely watched portion of day, sidestepped the matter entirely on Thursday." Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh & Breitbart 'News' defended Trump. And Laura Ingraham continued to back Trump's enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine. "On Friday, after the F.D.A. issued its warning [against using the drug to treat Covid-19], Ms. Ingraham retweeted several online articles extolling the use of hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment."
FDA Issues Trump Warning. Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Two anti-malaria medications highly touted by President Trump should not be taken outside a hospital or clinical trial because of the risk of severe heart problems, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Friday. The FDA said it issued the warning because of numerous reports about serious cardiac events and death in patients with COVID-19 receiving hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, either alone or combined with the antibiotic azithromycin." Mrs. McC: This may be a first: a developed country issues a formal warning against advice their leader gives. Thanks, Republicans, for leaving us with this schmuck! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "Citing a 'primary outcome' of death, researchers cut short a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heart beats and nearly two dozen died after taking doses daily. Scientists say the findings, published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, should prompt some degree of skepticism from the public toward enthusiastic claims and perhaps 'serve to curb the exuberant use' of the drug, which has been touted by ... Donald Trump as a potential 'game changer' in the fight against the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ In the meantime, of course, doctors are running around with their hair on fire warning everyone off Trump's disinfectant smoothie: ~~~
~~~ Allyson Chiu of the Washington Post: Trump's musings "spurred doctors, lawmakers and the makers of Lysol to respond with incredulity and warnings against injecting or otherwise ingesting disinfectants, which are highly toxic.... White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany ... accused the media of taking Trump's words out of context." The article is free to nonsubscribers. Of course it is; the story is a life-saving public service announcement. Mrs. McC: Since Republicans in the Senate wouldn't convict him, they should at least agree to pass a law requiring Trump to wear a large skull-and-crossbones Danger! sign on his chest every time he speaks in public. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: Postal workers throughout the nation are putting their lives on the line to do their jobs during a pandemic. As Brian Williams of NBC News pointed out, about 100,000 of them are military veterans. When I go to the Post Office, which I do fairly often since I have a PO box, I thank them profusely for being there for us. Donald Trump has a different idea: ~~~
~~~ Lisa Rein & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday threatened to block an emergency loan to shore up the U.S. Postal Service unless it dramatically raised shipping prices on online retailers, an unprecedented move to seize control of the agency that analysts said could plunge its finances into a deeper hole. 'The Postal Service is a joke,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. To obtain a $10 billion line of credit Congress approved this month, 'The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times,' he said. Trump for years has alleged the Postal Service has charged too little for packages and personally pushed the head of the agency to charge far more to ship goods for big online retailers. Several administration officials..., have said Trump's criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair." ~~~
This is about as catastrophically stupid an idea that anyone could ever imagine. As if anyone from Amazon to the local mom and pop delivery businesses would ever put up with a rate increase like that when they have alternatives. -- Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University Business School
C'mon, Mark. It's not as stupid as injecting yourself with Clorox & Lysol. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump plans to pare back his coronavirus press conferences, according to four sources familiar with the internal deliberations. He may stop appearing daily and make shorter appearances when he does, the sources said -- a practice that may have started with Friday's unusually short briefing.... Trump's daily press conferences -- televised to a largely homebound population -- have dominated the public discourse about the coronavirus.... A number of Trump's most trusted advisers -- both inside and outside the White House -- have urged him to stop doing marathon televised briefings. They've told him he's overexposed and these appearances are part of the reason polls aren't looking good for him right now against Joe Biden. 'I told him it's not helping him,' said one adviser to the president. 'Seniors are scared. And the spectacle of him fighting with the press isn't what people want to see.'" ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Jill Colvin of the AP later fleshed out Swan's report: "For the first time..., Donald Trump cut off his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Friday without taking any questions from reporters. It may not be the last time. There have been discussions within the White House about changing the format of the briefings to curtail the president's role, according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke on condition of anonymity.... Trump was angry after a day of punishing headlines Friday.... For weeks, advisers have been urging the president to scale back his appearances at the briefings, saying that he should come before the cameras only when there is major news or a positive development to discuss, according to the officials. Otherwise, they suggested, he should leave it to ... Mike Pence and health officials to take the lead.... Advisers have argued that while the briefings may appeal to his most loyal base of supporters, they could be alienating some viewers, including senior citizens worried about their health." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As we all know, "Trump plans" is an internallly inconsistent clause. The AP's & Swan's reports might be "Trump's plan" today, but it won't necessarily last long past, say, Monday.
Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump signed a nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus bill on Friday that includes additional money for the small-business loan program, as well as more funding for hospitals and testing. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week by voice vote and was approved by the House on Thursday on a 388-5-1 bipartisan vote." (Also linked yesterday.)
** Arlana Cha of the Washington Post: "Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged ... in many ... hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus -- are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of its connected disease, covid-19.... Three large U.S. medical centers are preparing to publish data on the stroke phenomenon.... Even as the virus has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe -- impacting nearly every major organ system in the body." The story is free to nonsubscribers. Mrs. McC: The anecdote at the top of the story includes a science-fiction-scary element; unfortunately, it is not fiction. If you're a young or youngish person who thinks it might be safe for you to be a bit cavalier about precautionary measures, this story could make you think twice. ~~~
~~~ AND There's This. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is currently 'no evidence' showing that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are not at risk of becoming infected again. Several countries, including the United States, have considered the idea of written documentation proving the holder is either immune or no longer infected with the coronavirus so they can return to the workforce.... Anthony Fauci ... said earlier this month that such a system has been discussed by the Trump administration's coronavirus task force." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here I go with an ignorant Trump-style observation. The WHO's warning seems to be consistent with a report I linked several days back that cited virologists who were unsure that an effective vaccine could be developed against Covid-19. If the presence of antibodies don't prevent re-infection, then a vaccine containing antibodies might not protect against infection. In a way, Trump's Clorox shot is a more effective than a vaccine: sure, the shot will kill you, but as you go, so goes the virus!
Florida. Ben Cornarck & Daniel Chang of the Miami Herald: "About 6 percent of Miami-Dade's population -- about 165,000 residents -- have antibodies indicating a past infection by the novel coronavirus, dwarfing the state health department's tally of about 10,600 cases, according to preliminary study results announced by University of Miami researchers Friday. The study, spurred by Miami-Dade County officials, will be an ongoing weekly survey based on antibody testing -- randomly selecting county residents to volunteer pinpricks of their blood to be screened for signs of a past COVID-19 infection, whether they had tested positive for the virus in the past or not. The goal is to measure the extent of infection in the community. Friday's results, based on two weeks of countywide antibody testing and about 1,400 participants, found that about half of the people who tested positive for antibodies reported no symptoms in the 14-17 days before being tested."
The Diabolical Mr. Miller Has a Plan. Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call this week that the president's new executive order curbing immigration will usher in the kind of broader long-term changes to American society he has advocated for years, even though the 60-day measures were publicly characterized as a 'pause' during the coronavirus pandemic. Miller, the chief architect of the president's immigration agenda and one of his longest-serving and most trusted advisers, spoke to a group of Trump surrogates Thursday in an off-the-record call about the new executive order, which had been signed the night before.... Miller told the group that subsequent measures were under consideration that would restrict guest worker programs, but the 'the most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor,' he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. Miller indicated that the strategy is part of a long-term vision and not seen only as a stopgap." A New York Times report, by Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman, is here.
Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Capt. Brett E. Crozier should be restored to command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy's top officials recommended on Friday. But Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who was briefed on the recommendations, has asked for more time to consider whether to sign off on reinstating the captain of the nuclear-powered carrier. Mr. Esper received the recommendation from the chief of naval operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday, and the acting Navy secretary, James McPherson. Defense Department officials said earlier that they expected to announce the results of the Navy's investigation into the matter on Friday afternoon. Mr. Esper's decision to hold up the investigation has surprised Navy officials, who believed that the defense secretary would leave the process in the hands of the military chain of command."
Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "AutoNation, a national network of auto sellers, received more than $77 million in federal small-business funds despite being a company worth billions that employed more than 26,000 people before the pandemic. In response to questions from The Washington Post, AutoNation Executive Vice President Marc Cannon said that the company's board voted Thursday to return the funds even though the company had acquired them under the rules created by Congress and intended to use the money only to pay employees.... Documents show the company may have received even more money, a total of $95 million, spread across dozens of locations, an amount that would be more than triple the amount any company is known to have received through the fund. AutoNation disputes the $95 million figure.... AutoNation used separate tax identification numbers assigned to dozens of its more than 300 locations to apply for at least $266 million in funds for separate dealerships.... Because the [SBA] has refused to release data on which companies received loans and the amount of those loans, it's impossible to know whether even larger companies received funding from the program." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears the Post learned of these loans only because of a tip or tips from Auto Nation employees. I don't know why Congress is allowing the SBA to keep the loans secret. Public money is funding these loans/grants. Maybe it's because it was Congress that structured the law so as to allow so many big, publicly-held companies to grab up the majority of the funds.
Chait IDs Donald Trump's "Sophisticated" Friend. Jonathan Chait: "In his remarks to reporters [Friday], before preposterously asserting that his proposals for wild new coronavirus treatments were an elaborate deadpan practical joke on the media, President Trump revealed a conversation with an unidentified friend. This friend 'a very sophisticated man,' Trump noted -- was unaware that there are more than 184 countries in the world, and thought there are far fewer[.] Chait does a little sleuthing of past remarks by Trump and concludes that this "anonymous, geographically ignorant man" is none other than Donald Trump himself. Mrs. McC: The U.N. recognizes 195 countries; it's 197 if you include the Vatican & Palestine.
Bill Barr Promotes Still-Secret Investigation to Help Trump. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Investigators for John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut leading the investigation [into FBI actions re: the Trump campaign's ties to Russia], have asked witnesses about news articles published in early 2017 that former administration officials blame for prompting the chaos that dominated the early days of the Trump presidency, according to three people familiar with the inquiry. Among them was a Washington Post column [by David Ignatius] about Michael T. Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, one of the people said.... New details show that Mr. Durham's inquiry is broader than previously known.... Attorney General William P. Barr has promoted the investigation in recent days [on Laura Ingraham's Fox 'News' show], saying that Mr. Durham has uncovered 'troubling' problems and indicating that some results could [be] made public before the general election in November." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Barr is unfamiliar with irony. He's leaking tidbits of an investigation into leaks.
Presidential Race
Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "A new piece of evidence has emerged buttressing the credibility of Tara Reade's claim that she told her mother about allegations of sexual harassment and assault related to her former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden. Biden, through a spokesperson, has denied the allegations. Reade has claimed ... that she told her mother, a close friend, and her brother about both the harassment and, to varying degrees of detail, the assault at the time. Her brother, Collin Moulton, and her friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, both confirmed that they heard about the allegations from Reade at the time. Reade's mother died in 2016.... In interviews with The Intercept, Reade also mentioned that her mother had made a phone call to 'Larry King Live' on CNN, during which she made reference to her daughter's experience on Capitol Hill.... A listener [to a podcast on which Grim spoke] managed to find the call and sent it to The Intercept." Video of the call to Larry King is included in the report.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Hyonhee Shin, et al., of Reuters: "China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.... Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim's health."
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Reader Comments (20)
It wasn’t sarcasm. It wasn’t a joke, a jest, a clever bit of business. It wasn’t humorous or light hearted or snarky or sardonic. It was 100% Trump idiocy. Scary, and frighteningly ignorant. Not in any way sarcastic. Clearly someone in the White House pointed out how insane Fatty’s latest Big Idea is and he’s lying to save face. Or what’s left of it.
But if it WAS sarcasm...Jesus. Is a press conference convened to update the public on the ravages of a terrible pandemic the place for sarcastic remarks?
Only Trump would think covering up his stunning ignorance at such a venue by pretending he was just being a smart ass would be a great idea.
A fucking jerk, any way you look at it.
"Eleanor Rigby" may be one of the songs that captures our present moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuS5NuXRb5Y
Have been thinking about how often in the last 300 of so years nationalism and authoritarianism have joined hands...and how often that marriage didn't turn out very well, both for the neighbors and for the wedded couple itself.
Throughout our own brief history we've toyed with the alliance. We have chosen leaders who promised to put America first, some of whom did exactly that on our road to empire. There was Polk and his Mexican War of Conquest, and the combative first Roosevelt who happily crossed swords with Spain and gave us the Puerto Rico the Pretender doesn't know what to do with.
In fact nationalism and democracy have always relied on and released conflicting forces. Me first-ism means you think this all people are created equal is nice-sounding bunk. People who believe in democracy reach out to one another, offer a helping hand, care for their neighbors and the less fortunate. Unfortunately for a purported democracy, America has never figured out which horse it really wants to ride.
But the 2016 election did tell us something. The America-firsters certainly had their say.
So where has that pursuit of nationalism by a supposedly free people brought us in this age of irony (if not sarcasm)?
To this moment of irony's supreme jest.
In pursuit of obviously inflated promises of renewed national strength we elected a man who in three years of Me First-ism has rendered everything about our nation, our foreign policy, our sense of justice and fairness and now the institutions that would allow us to act together in the face of a common enemy, far weaker than it has been at any time in my memory.
The gods may be laughing, but I'm not.
The joke's on us.
While we are concentrating on the "inject a little Clorox into your veins" guy, my eye is still glued to that other vector in the senate: that shell-bearing reptile who suggests states like New York just plead bankruptcy which led to Andrew C.'s absolute fury at that suggestion.
I keep remembering what Norman Ornstein said about him knowing every Senate Majority Leader in the past fifty years and that McConnell "will go down in history as one of the most significant people in destroying the fundamentals of our constitutional democracy–-there isn't anyone remotely close. There's nobody as corrupt, in terms of violating the norms of government."
So while we keep an eye on one miscreant, we grabble with a president who doesn't arrive in the oval office until 11 a.m. after spending the morning in his bed chambers watching T.V. –-and I imagine taking some time with his hair and makeup–-finally making an appearance but, so say some, grumpy and in bad spirits. And since he can't get his dose of his "addictive love"from his rallies he's showing signs of withdrawal symptoms which makes him crazier than he already is.
And within this new world of ours there are so many heroes and helpers and people who are trying their very best to comply with ways to save themselves and others. Ayn Rand's makers are now the ones on the front line–-the ones that actually do the work; her takers are those who sweat only in the gym and see no reason for not opening all of them at this time.
@Ken Winkes: I think what's essentially undemocratic about Trump is that which is essentially Trump: narcissism. A narcissist, by definition, cannot be a small-"d" democrat. He believes he is superior: "I alone can fit it," "I'm president* and you're not," etc. Ergo, everyone else is inferior. A democracy is a form of government where, as Jimmy Carter and other real presidents have said in their farewell addresses, "In a few days, I will lay down my official responsibilities in this office — to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of president, the title of citizen." (Ha ha, imagine Trump's saying that.)
The Republican party, on the whole, is anti-democratic, too, because Republicans/conservatives tend to favor authoritarian, top-down government. And an authoritarian, whether it's Trump or not, sees himself as a ruler of the rest of us, whom he arranges & rearranges into a hierarchical structure, based largely on fealty to him. Not content with the usual political spoils, Trump has exaggerated them by dispensing favors to the favored, many of which we probably won't know about for years.
And, I would add, most Americans (and probably most people) seem to believe in authoritarian government or at least believe that's what we have here. Otherwise, why would they blame or credit the president for everything, including the weather? Even pretty smart people will tell me "Trump did this" or "Obama did that" in instances when it was the Congress or the courts that did this or that. I feel silly telling a college graduate, "Congress makes the laws, not the president," but it's a sentence I've uttered more than once. I sort of get why all presidents want to increase executive power; after all, the public figures whatever happens on their watch is their doing.
"In pursuit of obviously inflated promises of renewed national strength we elected a man who in three years of Me First-ism has rendered everything about our nation, our foreign policy, our sense of justice and fairness and now the institutions that would allow us to act together in the face of a common enemy, far weaker than it has been at any time in my memory."
And, the matter Ken, might be that our country has finally been exposed for its adherent weaknesses and faulty systems––they, like cockroaches who only appear by turning on the lights, are revealed starkly and horrifically. We have now experienced how fragile our system can be without careful leadership. We have always had horrific inequalities, for instance, but now we have been hit smack in the face with its grim reality. And isn't that what Trump set out to expose? It's as though he took the semi-sturdy structure of a nation and instead of building on it, destroyed it; one of the real deals of his "real" estate.
Obviously–-it worked.
@PD Pepe: You and Ornstein are right, of course. One of the many reasons Mitch is happy to have Trump as president* must be that with Trump's remarkable crimes against common sense & common decency and common law sucking all of the oxygen out of the air (we all need ventilators!), McConnell can go about his dirty deeds with much less public scrutiny.
I listened to Terry Gross interview Jane Mayer the other day, about her article in the New Yorker about Moscow Mitch, and it chilled me to the bone. Unlike the presidunce, McConnell operates in the dark, with precision and absolute impunity. He IS the Senate-- it has NO power that is not his. And Mayer assures us that he has no basic belief system except that he treasures power, absolute power. The others, McCarthy, Graham, etc. are children beside him. Nothing will move him, because he is every bit as psychotic as the presidunce. It has always been his aim and ambition to be rich, marry rich and possess all the power. So far, it is working magnificently.
@Jeanne,
Yes, the Turtle is the king cockroach who, as Bea says, hides in the large dark shadow cast by the Pretender, but he is hardly alone.
The Republicans have a panoply of evildoers working in the dark and many of their machinations pre-date the Pretender.
Thanks to the SCOTUS, think of all those impenetrable PACs that have for years funneled millions to poison democracy at its root.
Our corrupt Attorney General is only a natural and visible consequence of the Citizen United decision that firmly and heavy-handedly placed corporations and the very wealthy above the people, crushing them (us) to a pulp.
Many in the Pretender administration do as much of their evil as obscurely as possible, but now we have Billy Barr in a very public position, perverting the justice his department is supposed to dispense, using the law itself to confuse, obfuscate and cloak ever more Republican depredations.
But unlike McConnell, Barr and the Pretender are so bold as to practice their perversions in public.
The question: Will voters notice? And if they do, are our institution already so weakened by moral rot they will not stand November's test.
Now, Petri dish time!
As mini-me Trump morons supposedly in charge of certain states (that is, have a responsibility to discharge their duties in ways that help, not kill, their citizens) gleefully “reopen” their domains (c’mon in, folks, the water’s fine, pay no attention to those millions of squiggly Virus thingies floating your way), thus exposing millions to the Trump Virus and tens, if not hundreds of thousands more to certain death, we have only to wait a few weeks to see the body count start to shoot up.
And it won’t just be the bodies of like-minded MAGA morons either. It could be low income workers desperate for a paycheck who have no recourse but to take a chance and go back to work. Such is the greed of the Party of Death that supports the insane blather of the little king.
And as these murderers turn their states into giant Petri dishes, we’ll all see the black shit forming in clumps across the agar gel, representing completely avoidable deaths. Wonder what excuse president Clorox and his mini-me morons will concoct when that starts to happen. I’m sure it will be a case of Trump claiming he never said what he said and any additional unnecessary deaths are on the heads of state governors who followed his lead.
Party of Fucking Death ☠️
Rt, reporting the end of yesterday's numbers, now has 11 states below the magic number 1.0, but states are still trading places with their varying ups and downs.
Well, that was quick. Randy Rainbow performs "A Spoonful of Clorox":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDPzbLFeP4
“Just A Spoon Full Of Clorox”
from
The Talented Mr. Rainbow
https://youtu.be/DPDPzbLFeP4
Randy Rainbow: quickest "draw" (of music) in the West! How does he do it??
I hope someone will compile a list of all the companies that are screwing everybody over at the moment so that I can try to be a conscientious consumer when I have the opportunity. I was reading about Philips being given a government contract in 2014 (thanks Obama) to make a cheap ventilator that's design was just approved last July by the FDA. Of course they are only making the more expensive version for sale. And now the Trump administration is buying a bunch of the expensive machines even though the US taxpayers paid for much of the development costs. Trump could have used the DPA to get Philips moving on the cheaper machines, but they are less profitable to the company. It is money over lives with the big corporations and the conservatives, contract killers. I've heard some scientists saying that we won't be able to get back to some simblance of normal until 2022. The whole world is going to be dealing with the waves of covid-19 until then and probably after. So a ventilator that is simpler to make and less expensive would save so many lives in the next couple years and beyond.
Tho' not a formal criterion for NPD, my experience (n=3) is that certified narcissists can neither apply nor understand irony or sarcasm. They do laugh at potty-talk, however.
Here is a sweet little granddaughter taking Trump's advice and helping her grandma say safe from covid-19 with a little "heat and light."
Elizabeth - Me thinks a simultaneous post-gasm? ;)
(Great Minds re: Great Humor as Antidote?)
Jeanne - He (may still?) solo-create the.vids within his Queens (NY) apartment. The guy’s a genius. And a sweetheart, too: Lucked-out big-time some months back re: his one NYC performance. As brilliant Live as recorded.
There's always more to the story.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/stanford-coronavirus-study-bhattacharya-email
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/25/world/americas/bolsonaro-moro-brazil.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
What country am I reading about? Kinda hard to tell.