The Commentariat -- May 2, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here.

Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Trump administration will send three rapid-results testing machines and 1,000 coronavirus tests to the Senate, according to Health and Human Services chief Alex Azar.... The new supply of machines and tests comes after the Capitol Hill physician informed top GOP officials Thursday that the Senate only had the capacity to test senators and staffers who were ill. The physician also said that test results would take two days or longer -- a contrast to the White House's testing capacity, where anyone who meets with ... Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence receives a rapid-results test." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Respectfully, Fuck You, Your Highness. From Saturday's WashPo live updates, linked above: "In a rare joint statement, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday they are' respectfully' declining the Trump administration's offer to deploy rapid coronavirus testing capabilities on Capitol Hill.... 'There is tremendous CoronaVirus testing capacity in Washington for the Senators returning to Capital (sic) Hill on Monday. Likewise the House, which should return but isn't because of Crazy Nancy P. The 5 minute Abbott Test will be used,' Trump tweeted.... 'Consistent with CDC guidelines, Congress will use the current testing protocols that the Office of the Attending Physician has put in place until these speedier technologies become more widely available,' Pelosi and McConnell's statement said."

The Method to Their Madness. Tina Nguyen of Politico: "Over three weeks ago, hydroxychloroquine was all the rage in MAGA world, despite flawed and scattered evidence about whether the drug could help cure coronavirus. Now there is another drug, remdesivir, with positive early scientific data. Much of MAGA world wants little to do with it ... even as the president expresses optimism.... The unexpected reaction appears to stem from the differences in how the two drugs came into the public spotlight. Hydroxychloroquine bubbled up through the MAGA grassroots -- little-known investors promoted it online, got on Fox News and suddenly the president was talking about it from the White House. Remdesivir's progress came through a government-funded trial that had the blessing of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the bête noire of Trump hardliners who blame the government's top infectious disease expert for undermining the president and causing unnecessary economic damage with his social-distancing guidelines."

David Axelrod in a CNN opinion piece: A team of lawyers working for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign fully vetted contenders for the vice-presidential nominee, including of course Joe Biden. "The comprehensive vet certainly would have turned up any formal complaints filed against Biden during his 36-year career in the Senate. It did not. The team would have investigated any salacious rumors of the sort that travel far and wide in Washington. There were none.... Through that entire process, the name Tara Reade never came up. No formal complaint. No informal chatter. Certainly, no intimation of sexual harassment or assault from her or anyone else. The team of investigators, expert in their work, would not have missed it.... It is striking that when an experienced vetting team put Biden under a microscope before he was chosen to be second-in-line for the presidency, neither her allegations, nor anything resembling them in Biden's history, showed up."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mike Stobbe of the AP: "The U.S. government was slow to understand how much coronavirus was spreading from Europe, which helped drive the acceleration of outbreaks across the nation, a top health official said Friday. Limited testing and delayed travel alerts for areas outside China contributed to the jump in U.S. cases starting in late February, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... The CDC on Friday published an article, authored by Schuchat, that looked back on the U.S. response.... It suggests the nation's top public health agency missed opportunities to slow the spread. Some public health experts saw it as important assessment by one of the nation's most respected public health doctors.... She told the AP, 'I think the timing of our travel alerts should have been earlier.'... Donald Trump has repeatedly celebrated a federal decision, announced on Jan. 31, to stop entry into the U.S. of any foreign nationals who had traveled to China in the previous 14 days.... The article is carefully worded, but [Jason] Schwartz [of Yale's School of Public Health] saw it as a notable departure from the White House narrative. 'This report seems to challenge the idea that the China travel ban in late January was instrumental in changing the trajectory of this pandemic in the United States,' he said."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Trump not only can't handle the truth, he hates the truth and he hates truthtellers. And it doesn't matter how much that truth affects the health & safety of Americans: ~~~

~~~ ** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump moved on Friday night to replace a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who angered him with a report last month highlighting supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. The White House waited until after business hours to announce the nomination of a new inspector general for the department who, if confirmed, would take over for Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who was publicly assailed by the president at a news briefing three weeks ago. The nomination was the latest effort by Mr. Trump against watchdog offices around his administration that have defied him. In recent weeks, he fired an inspector general involved in the inquiry that led to the president's impeachment, nominated a White House aide to another key inspector general post overseeing virus relief spending and moved to block still another inspector general from taking over as chairman of a pandemic spending oversight panel. [The Hill's story is here.]~~~

~~~ "Among several other nominations announced on Friday was the president's choice for a new ambassador to Ukraine, filling a position last occupied by Marie L. Yovanovitch.... Mr. Trump selected Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, a retired 40-year Army officer now serving as the director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. Mr. Dayton speaks Russian and served as defense attaché in Moscow. More recently, he served as a senior United States defense adviser in Ukraine appointed by Jim Mattis, Mr. Trump's first defense secretary." The Hill's story is here.

Trump Gets the Test, We Get the Virus. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "At the White House this week, President Trump sat less than six feet from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in the Oval Office. He invited small-business owners to crowd behind the Resolute Desk for a photo shoot. His vice president toured a medical research center without a face mask in defiance of its policy.... Yet even as Trump aides have signaled that he could soon begin regular travel, the reality is that the White House has created a picture of security that is propped up by special access to the kind of wide-scale testing for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, that most of the nation remains without.... It is a cocoon of safety that does not exist almost anywhere else in the country. Governors and municipal leaders have scrambled for basic supplies; hospitals and elderly care facilities, dealing with the most vulnerable, have cried out for more testing; and workers at grocery stores and manufacturing plants are risking their health to keep open critical businesses." ~~~

~~~ Trump Gets the Test, Congress Gets the Virus. Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the tight-lipped doctor who attends to Congress..., told senior Republican officials on a private conference call, cannot screen all 100 senators for the coronavirus when they return to work on Monday. Two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, the story is very different. President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested frequently, aides who come into close contact with them are tested weekly and the list of people who need to be tested daily keeps expanding.... Although the rich and powerful are clearly favored, not even all the powerful have equal access.... At the White House, the medical unit is using a rapid-testing kit developed by Abbott, which yields results in about five minutes. But Dr. Monahan told the Republican aides on Thursday that he lacked such equipment, and that it would take at least two days to get test results.... 'When you add it to the fact that people on Capitol Hill, who after all form an essential part of the government as well, cannot get testing as readily, it just underscores the feeling that this man is principally self-serving,' [presidential historian Richard] Dallek said." Mrs. McC: This is similar to a Politico story I linked yesterday, but the Politico story doesn't emphasize quite as well what a dick Trump is.

Erica Werner & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The White House is blocking Anthony S. Fauci from testifying before a House subcommittee investigating the coronavirus outbreak and response, arguing that it would be 'counterproductive' for him to appear next week while in the midst of participating in the government's responses to the pandemic.... In fact, Fauci is expected to appear at a Senate hearing related to testing the following week, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning." ABC News has the story here. Mrs. McC: Plus, Fauci has wasted hours sitting or standing through Trump's Late-Day Propaganda Shows' testifying before Congress would seem to be a more "productive" use of his time than that.

Another Secret Jared Project. Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times via the Recorder: "The Trump administration is refusing to disclose how it is distributing medical supplies for the coronavirus response that were brought to the U.S. at taxpayer expense through a White House initiative known as Project Air Bridge. The administration instead has allowed six multibillion-dollar medical supply companies that are receiving government aid to import the supplies to block public release of the data, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 'At this time, FEMA does not have the authority to release this information,' a spokesperson for the agency said.... A spokesperson for McKesson Corp., one of the companies, denied making any demand that information be kept secret.... Nevertheless, the lack of disclosure effectively hinders any public accounting of which states are receiving the most assistance and what formulas are being used to distribute the equipment, despite a public investment of tens of millions of dollars in the air-lift operation. The lack of transparency about distributions comes on top of the administration's refusal to provide information about the financial terms the White House struck with the medical distribution companies...."

Bad, Bad Betsy Is Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to garnish the wages of federal student loan borrowers who fall behind on payments even though Congress suspended the practice in the economic rescue package, according to a new lawsuit. An upstate New York woman who works as a home health aide for less than $13 an hour claimed in the lawsuit, filed late Thursday, that the federal government seized more than $70 from her paycheck as recently as last week -- nearly a full month after ... Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law. She is suing on behalf of about 285,000 borrowers whose wages are being garnished, according to the lawsuit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gina Kolata of the New York Times: "... on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval for remdesivir as a treatment for patients severely ill with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.... Remdesivir is approved only for severely ill patients and only temporarily; formal approval must come later.... The story of remdesivir's rescue [from the scrapheap of failed medications] ... testifies to the powerful role played by federal funding, which allowed scientists laboring in obscurity to pursue basic research without obvious financial benefits. This research depends almost entirely on government grants."

Jeanna Smialek & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Monty Bennett's sprawling hospitality company is the biggest known applicant of the government's small-business relief program. The Texas conservative has remained unwilling to return his loans even as public anger builds over large companies getting the funds -- a fact now drawing the scrutiny of a key lawmaker. Hotels and subsidiaries overseen by Mr. Bennett's firm, Ashford Inc., have applied for $126 million in forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program. According to company filings, about $70 million of that has been funded. By comparison, the average loan size in the program's first round was $206,000. On Friday, Senator Chuck Schumer ... sent a letter to the Small Business Administration demanding a thorough review of use of the program by Mr. Bennett's companies, saying that he is 'deeply concerned that large, publicly traded companies, like Ashford, may be exploiting' it.... To Mr. Bennett, a conservative who has donated heavily to Republicans, including supporting Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign and directly providing more than $150,000 so far to his re-election bid, the money is his fair share." Bennett also has a useful retainer in Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas).

Oops! Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors are examining the communications of a New York family doctor whose work has been discussed on Fox News and who has been in touch with the White House to tout an anti-malarial as a treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to people contacted as part of the inquiry. The examination of Vladimir 'Zev' Zelenko's records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another 'Z' name in his address book -- federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi's activities during the 2016 presidential election.... It is unclear how seriously prosecutors are scrutinizing the matter.... But even passing interest from federal authorities into efforts to promote the anti-malarial is likely to chafe the president and his allies, particularly given the involvement of a former member of Mueller's team." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sam Stein & Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: Mitch McConnell's "decision to call back the Senate has been met with criticism by some of its own members, who say it defies basic public safety guidelines to make lawmakers (many elderly) and their staffs -- not to mention the hundreds of workers needed to keep the Capitol and Senate offices running -- cram into the buildings when COVID-19 cases in Washington, D.C. are just about peaking.... Washington, D.C. authorities have extended the city's stay-at-home order through May 15 as the coronavirus' spread has yet to abate sufficiently to reasonably relax social distancing restrictions. On Thursday, the District had its deadliest date yet, while the greater metro region recorded 2,000 new COVID cases. Officials have warned that businesses may not be able to open for another two to three months under the current trajectory." Mrs. McC: If senators had any sense, they would refuse to show up. If all Democrats and Independents and a few Republicans were no-shows, Mitch wouldn't have a quorum and his plot to kill the codgers would be foiled.

Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "Protests against coronavirus-related government restrictions continued to spread on Friday as a coalition of gun activists, vaccine opponents and anxious business owners used the organizing power of social media to build increasingly visible and vocal opposition movements in several states. Crowds waving signs, honking horns and demanding an immediate relaxation of measures imposed to slow the pandemic gathered in Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Raleigh, N.C., on Friday. More protests were planned for the weekend, including in the state capitals of Kentucky, Oregon and New Hampshire, despite polling consistently showing that most Americans support public-health restrictions by governors and mayors even as the economic toll mounts." Mrs. McC: Oh, goodie. There's a nutcase protest coming to a capitol near me.

The New York Times has a handy interactive U.S. map that gives an overview of each state's stay-at-home rules and where they stand when. There are "read more" links for individual states, which give more details. Mrs. McC: I've seen quite a few state-by-state summaries, and this is the first that seems actually helpful.

New York. Caroline Lewis of Gothamist: "... the state has started tracking the number of deaths from the virus in nursing homes, but it seems some are still masking the grim reality inside. Isabella Center, a nursing home in Washington Heights owned by the nonprofit health system MJHS, reported 13 deaths from COVID-19 to the state. In reality, at least 98 residents have died since the start of the pandemic, according to a new investigation by NY1.... Loyola Princivil-Barnett, chief operating officer at Isabella, said in a statement [that] the lack of access to testing for coronavirus has 'hampered our ability to further limit loss of life by swiftly separating anyone with the virus. Some of the deaths that went unreported took place in a hospital, rather than onsite at the nursing home; others were suspected, but not confirmed, coronavirus cases. A refrigerated trailer on the premises that houses dead bodies has reportedly been visible to nursing home residents, but hidden from the public passing by outside by a tarp hung over the fence."

Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "The federal government has launched 'Operation Warp Speed' to deliver a covid-19 vaccine by January, months ahead of standard vaccine timelines. The last time the government tried that, it was a total fiasco. Geral Ford was president. It was 1976. Early that year, a mysterious new strain of swine flu turned up at Fort Dix in New Jersey.... Ford raced to come up with a response, consulting with Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, the scientists behind the polio vaccine, and in late March he announced an audacious plan for the federal government to produce the vaccine and organize its distribution.... Almost immediately, there was chaos.... And then more problems emerged.... As tests progressed, more scientific problems emerged — even as there were few, if any, signs that a pandemic was materializing.... By December, following 94 reports of paralysis, the entire program was shut down." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One big difference between then & now: "The program 'appears clearly to have been based on concern for the public good,' [political scientist Max] Skidmore wrote, 'not to achieve political advantage.'"

Lisa Kaczke of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader: "... Donald Trump plans to see the fireworks over Mount Rushmore in person this year. Trump told conservative podcast host Dan Bongino on Friday that he plans to attend the July 3 event. 'For 20 years or something it hasn't been allowed for environmental reasons. You believe that one? It's all stone,' Trump told Bongino.... Trump told [Gov. Kristi] Noem in January that he would try to attend the fireworks, which will be held this year for the first time since 2009.... Trump has previously said that no one knows why the fireworks were stopped a decade ago.... Trump said in January, '... 'So nobody knew why [the fireworks display was shut down]. They just said environmental reasons.' Concerns about the pine beetle infestation's impact on the forest ended the fireworks display after 2009, but Noem announced last year that improvements in the forest and fireworks technology mean the display will be safe." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If Trump doesn't know something, "nobody knows." Trump has not advanced past the stage in life when a toddler covers his eyes and says, "You can't see me." Also too, 2009 was a decade ago, not two decades ago, as Trump said.

Another Tawdry Trump Emolument. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service rented a room at President Trump's Washington hotel for 137 consecutive nights in 2017 -- paying Trump's company more than $33,000 -- so it could guard Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin while he lived in one of the hotel's luxury suites, according to federal documents and people familiar with the arrangement. Mnuchin, a financier from New York, lived in the Trump International Hotel for several months before moving to a home in Washington. Mnuchin paid for his hotel suite himself, a Treasury Department spokesperson said. For [the Secret Service's] room, the Trump hotel charged the maximum rate that federal agencies were generally allowed to pay in 2017: $242 per night, according to the billing records.... For the Trump hotel it was also a steady rental at a time when only about 42 percent of rooms were occupied, according to previously released data." (Also linked yesterday.)

New White House Press Secretary Conducts Her First Lie-a-Thon. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "A White House press secretary held a briefing for the first time in more than 13 months Friday, with newcomer Kayleigh McEnany dusting off the old mainstay for at least one day. And while the briefing carried promises of no lies and featured a relatively steady performance, the old, factually challenged mainstays of past briefings -- and President Trump's own commentary -- were readily present.... For one, McEnany echoed Trump's false claim about the Russia investigation, saying it had amounted to 'the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.'" Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's worth reading the story, if you have access to the WashPo, to see how many lies McEnany was able to stuff into her debut briefing. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "Kayleigh McEnany's first briefing as White House press secretary started off on a hopeful note -- with a promise from her not to lie. That lasted for about all of 15 minutes." If you can't access Blake's column, Rupar has his own list o' lies, including some overlap with Blake's. ~~~

     ~~~ As Akhilleus points out in today's thread, McEnany's first answer during her first briefing was a lie: "Kayleigh McEnany sez 'I will not lie to you!' Oops! Lie number one." ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "She came with charts, a Trumpian 'invisible enemy' reference and a video with the production value that ... Donald Trump loves. Her responses to most of the questions asked amounted to little more than talking points drawn from Trump.... Though McEnany pledged to be honest with reporters, she grew somewhat heated when discussing the legal issues surrounding Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. McEnany raised Flynn's case without prompting from reporters.... But McEnany, who repeatedly glanced down at notes on her lectern when discussing the issue, inaccurately described ... 'a handwritten FBI noted that says "We need to get Flynn to lie," and get him fired.'... In truth, the handwritten notes McEnany was referring to, dated the day Flynn was interviewed in 2017, show more of a debate about how forthcoming to be with him or others at the White House about the nature of the FBI investigation. They reflect deliberation about whether confronting Flynn with a lie in real time would be helpful to their investigation."

"Trump's Fundamental Gaslight." Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "A full-on freakout on the right over the revelation that the FBI planned for the prospect that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn would lie in a January 2016 interview, has, inevitably, drawn in political operative Roger Stone.... Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he may pardon both Flynn and Stone, each of whom was found to have lied to federal investigators about the Trump Russia scandal. 'What they did to Gen. Flynn, and by the way, to Roger Stone and to others, was a disaster and a disgrace, and it should never be allowed to happen in this country again,' Trump said when asked about pardoning Flynn. Notably, Trump and his backers, by and large, are not saying that Flynn and Stone didn't lie to federal investigators. Instead they are implying that lying to investigators doesn't matter.... In pardoning Stone and Flynn, the president would reward them for [covering up for him].... While conservative pundits have treated the [recently-released FBI] notes as smoking gun evidence that Flynn was framed, legal experts have noted that the FBI's tactics with Flynn were not unusual. Federal agents often try to catch targets in situations where they will admit crimes or lie, opening themselves to prosecution. In a guilty plea, Flynn admitted to knowingly lying to the FBI agents. (He also said under oath that he did not believe the FBI entrapped him.)"

Victor Ordonez of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will not be leaving prison to serve out the rest of his term in home confinement, according to sources familiar with the matter. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had notified Cohen that he would be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 outbreak.... It appears that other prisoners at Otisville who were granted home confinement have also lost those privileges, according to the sources." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "The top spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services repeatedly directed crude and sexist comments toward women in now-deleted tweets, a CNN KFile review finds. Michael Caputo, who just started at the department in April, called several women on Twitter 'dogface' and made crude insinuations and sexist comments aimed at former FBI attorney Lisa Page prior to joining HHS.... Caputo's ire against Page seemed to stem from his own involvement in the Russia probe.... In other tweets from 2020, Caputo repeatedly referred to different women as 'dogface,' telling them 'look at this dogface,' 'you have a dogface,' and 'I would never sleep with you, dog-face.' In another tweet Caputo told a woman to 'go f**k yourself,' saying she was 'ugly,' and calling her 'honey.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday denied an allegation of sexual assault by a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, breaking a monthlong silence that had frustrated some Democratic activists as his presidential campaign grapples with issues of accountability and gender that are vitally important to many members of his party. Sounding emphatic and at times agitated in an interview on MSNBC, Mr". Biden ... tried to address concerns about Ms. Reade's claim by saying that she had a right to be heard while also insisting that he had not assaulted her." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Canada. Rob Gillies of the AP: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is banning the use and trade of assault-style weapons immediately. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms, including two weapons used by the gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States[.]... The Cabinet order doesn't forbid owning any of the military-style weapons and their variants but it does ban the use and trade in them. H said the order has a two-year amnesty period for current owners, and there will be a compensation program that will require a bill passed in Parliament.... 'Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,' Trudeau said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

North Korea. He's Ba-a-a-ack! (In What Was Literally a Shit Show.) Jack Kim & Heekyong Yang of Reuters: "When North Korea broke a three-week silence on leader Kim Jong Un's public activity on Saturday, it offered no clue where he has been during a period of intense global speculation about his health and whereabouts, or why he was hidden from the public for so long. Instead, state media simply showed him surrounded by aides and appearing confident at a gleaming fertiliser factory that is believed by outside experts to be part of a secret nuclear-weapons programme." ~~~

~~~ Kim Tong-Hyung of the AP: "The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim attended the ceremony Friday in Sunchon with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, who many analysts predict would take over if her brother is suddenly unable to rule. State media showed videos and photos of Kim wearing a black Mao suit and constantly smiling, walking around facilities, applauding, cutting a huge red ribbon with a scissor..., and smoking inside and outside of buildings while talking with other officials."

Venezuela. Ralph Ortega of the AP: "A secret military operation to overthrow Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro Moros was simple, but perilous. Some 300 heavily armed volunteers would sneak into Venezuela from the northern tip of South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the socialist country and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro's arrest. What could go wrong? As it turns out, pretty much everything.... Authorities in the US and Colombia are asking questions about the role of [a] former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau.... This bizarre, untold story of a call to arms that crashed before it launched is drawn from interviews with more than 30 Maduro opponents and aspiring freedom fighters who were directly involved in or familiar with its planning.... An Associated Press investigation found no evidence of US government involvement in the plot.... Goudreau [was reportedly] looking to capitalize on the Trump administration's growing interest in toppling Maduro. He had been introduced to Keith Schiller, President Donald Trump's longtime bodyguard, through someone who worked in private security." --s

The Commentariat -- May Day! 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times has a handy interactive U.S. map that gives an overview of each state's stay-at-home rules and where they stand when. There are "read more" links for individual states, which give more details. Mrs. McC: I've seen quite a few state-by-state summaries, and this is the first that seems actually helpful.

Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday denied an allegation of sexual assault by a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, breaking a monthlong silence that had frustrated some Democratic activists as his presidential campaign grapples with issues of accountability and gender that are vitally important to many members of his party. Sounding emphatic and at times agitated in an interview on MSNBC, Mr. Biden ... tried to address concerns about Ms. Reade's claim by saying that she had a right to be heard while also insisting that he had not assaulted her."

Another Tawdry Trump Emolument. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service rented a room at President Trump's Washington hotel for 137 consecutive nights in 2017 -- paying Trump's company more than $33,000 -- so it could guard Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin while he lived in one of the hotel's luxury suites, according to federal documents and people familiar with the arrangement. Mnuchin, a financier from New York, lived in the Trump International Hotel for several months before moving to a home in Washington. Mnuchin paid for his hotel suite himself, a Treasury Department spokesperson said. For [the Secret Service's] room, the Trump hotel charged the maximum rate that federal agencies were generally allowed to pay in 2017: $242 per night, according to the billing records.... For the Trump hotel it was also a steady rental at a time when only about 42 percent of rooms were occupied, according to previously released data."

Bad, Bad Betsy Is Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is continuing to garnish the wages of federal student loan borrowers who fall behind on payments even though Congress suspended the practice in the economic rescue package, according to a new lawsuit. An upstate New York woman who works as a home health aide for less than $13 an hour claimed in the lawsuit, filed late Thursday, that the federal government seized more than $70 from her paycheck as recently as last week -- nearly a full month after ... Donald Trump signed the CARES Act into law. She is suing on behalf of about 285,000 borrowers whose wages are being garnished, according to the lawsuit."

Victor Ordonez of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will not be leaving prison to serve out the rest of his term in home confinement, according to sources familiar with the matter. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had notified Cohen that he would be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 outbreak.... It appears that other prisoners at Otisville who were granted home confinement have also lost those privileges...."

Oops! Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors are examining the communications of a New York family doctor whose work has been discussed on Fox News and who has been in touch with the White House to tout an anti-malarial as a treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to people contacted as part of the inquiry. The examination of Vladimir 'Zev' Zelenko's records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another -Z' name in his address book -- federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi's activities during the 2016 presidential election.... It is unclear how seriously prosecutors are scrutinizing the matter.... But even passing interest from federal authorities into efforts to promote the anti-malarial is likely to chafe the president and his allies, particularly given the involvement of a former member of Mueller's team."

Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of CNN: "The top spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services repeatedly directed crude and sexist comments toward women in now-deleted tweets, a CNN KFile review finds. Michael Caputo, who just started at the department in April, called several women on Twitter 'dogface' and made crude insinuations and sexist comments aimed at former FBI attorney Lisa Page prior to joining HHS.... Caputo's ire against Page seemed to stem from his own involvement in the Russia probe.... In other tweets from 2020, Caputo repeatedly referred to different women as 'dogface,' telling them 'look at this dogface,' 'you have a dogface,' and 'I would never sleep with you, dog-face.' In another tweet Caputo told a woman to 'go f**k yourself,' saying she was 'ugly,' and calling her 'honey.'"

Rob Gillies of the AP: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is banning the use and trade of assault-style weapons immediately. Trudeau cited numerous mass shootings in the country, including the killing of 22 people in Nova Scotia April 18 and 19. He announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms, including two weapons used by the gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States[.]... The Cabinet order doesn't forbid owning any of the military-style weapons and their variants but it does ban the use and trade in them. He said the order has a two-year amnesty period for current owners, and there will be a compensation program that will require a bill passed in Parliament.... 'Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,' Trudeau said."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. "The straightforward orders that have kept roughly nine out of 10 Americans at home gave way on Friday to a more complicated and sometimes dangerous patchwork of state and local measures that would allow millions of Americans to return to restaurants, movie theaters and malls for the first time in a month or more. That is, if they have the money and are actually willing to patronize them. Alabama, Maine, Tennessee and Texas are all allowing stay-at-home orders to expire and governors in about half the states in the union have announced plans to gradually ease restrictions in coming days." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Charisse Jones of USA Today: "About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks.... Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country. While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental, and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates, linked above: "If anything, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate, according to many economists. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn't even try because they found the process too formidable.... As Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano [of the NYT] reported, systems that were devised to treat each unemployment case as potentially fraudulent are now rushing to deal with millions of newly unemployed people."

** Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "The federal government placed orders for well over 100,000 new body bags to hold victims of COVID-19 in April, according to internal administration documents obtained by NBC News, as well as public records. The biggest set was earmarked for purchase the day after ... Donald Trump projected that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 people.... The 'human remains pouches' have not been paid for or shipped to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yet, according to the company's marketing manager, Mike Pryor.... Around the same time it wrote the contract for the body bags, FEMA opened up bidding to provide about 200 rented refrigerated trailers for locations around the country.... Body bag contracts bid by Homeland Security and the Veterans Affairs Department are just one illustration of how Trump's sunny confidence about the nation's readiness to reopen is in conflict with the views of officials in his own administration who are quietly preparing for a far worse outcome.... The documents show that task force members remain worried about several major risks ahead, including insufficient availability of coronavirus tests, [test facilities & staff,] the absence of a vaccine or proven treatments for the coronavirus, and the possibility of a 'catastrophic resurgence' of COVID-19."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded one million. The American death toll surpassed that of the Vietnam War. And the economy was reported to have shrunk by nearly 5 percent. But the White House on Wednesday declared its response to the crisis 'a great success story.' As states begin to lift quarantines, President Trump is trying to recast the story of the pandemic from that of an administration slow to see and address the threat to one that responded with decisive action that saved lives. Recognizing that the crisis jeopardizes his chances of re-election, he and his allies want to convince his supporters that the cascade of criticism is unwarranted.... 'I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel very strongly,' Mr. Trump said [Wednesday, Mrs. McC: in one of those curious, non-idiomatic and, in this case, ungrammatical 'strongly' sentences].... In the revised history of the pandemic that Mr. Trump and his team offered, his actions were not belated and inadequate, but bold and effective. 'We did all the right moves,' Mr. Trump said. 'If we didn't do what we did, you would have had a million people die, maybe more, maybe two million people die.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not "revised history." This is lying about what happened in the past few weeks or months. Somebody should tell NYT reporters & editors that using accurate, if negative, language is good journalism. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Unhappy he has not done enough stupid stuff, Trump plans some more: ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming the country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would probably lead to retaliation by Beijing.... 'Punishing China is definitely where the president's head is at right now,' one senior adviser said. Some political advisers have also encouraged Trump to take a more forceful swing at China because they think it will help him politically.... [So] senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.... Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait on how President Americ. A. First has undermined any chance of getting China to "pay" for Covid-19: "The reason you generally can't collect money from other countries is that we don't have a world government. To the limited extent it is possible to force other countries to pay you back without invading and occupying them, it is through the enforcement of international bodies like the World Trade Organization. But Trump has ignored or weakened transnational authorities.... The closest thing to a feasible option would be repudiating debt held by China, though the blowback to that move would be so enormous -- other potential buyers of Treasury bills would be demanding higher interest rates forever -- that this would be more like an act of financial self-harm than the collection of reparations.... The only discernible endgame here seems to be creating a predicate for Trump to publicly demand repayments from China as his solution to the crisis. If he could insist Mexico would pay for the wall, he can say China will pay for the coronavirus. The obvious fact that neither is going to happen is immaterial to their value as nationalistic campaign slogans." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic. Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus.... Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS. Mr. Trump's aides and Republicans in Congress have sought to blame China for the pandemic in part to deflect criticism of the administration's mismanagement of the crisis in the United States, which now has more coronavirus cases than any country." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's pretty extraordinary that a U.S. president* would tell intelligence agencies to "prove" a conspiracy theory. ~~~

~~~ Update. Joby Warrick, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, the U.S. intelligence community released an assessment formally concluding that the virus behind the coronavirus pandemic originated in China. While asserting that the pathogen was not man-made or genetically altered, the statement pointedly declined to rule out the possibility that virus had escaped from the complex of laboratories in Wuhan that has been at the forefront of global research into bat-borne viruses linked to multiple epidemics over the past decade.... Despite the intense scrutiny, the novel coronavirus's origins remain as murky now as they did when the first cases emerged in China five months ago. While intelligence analysts and many scientists see the lab-as-origin theory as technically possible, no direct evidence has emerged suggesting that the coronavirus escaped from Wuhan's research facilities. Many scientists argue that the evidence tilts firmly toward a natural transmission: a still-unknown interaction in late fall that allowed the virus to jump from a bat or another animal to a human." ~~~

~~~ Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump contradicted a rare on-the-record statement from his own intelligence community by claiming Thursday that he has seen evidence that gives him a 'high degree of confidence' the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but declined to provide details to back up his assertion. The comments undercut a public statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued just hours earlier which stated no such assessment has been made and continues to 'rigorously examine' whether the outbreak 'began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.' 'Yes, I have,' Trump said when asked whether he's seen evidence that would suggest [give him 'a high degree of confidence'] the virus originated in the lab. Later, asked why he was confident in that assessment, Trump demurred. 'I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that,' he said." Mrs. McC: Actually, it's because the "evidence" is all in his own mind. (Re: the change in text from the report: I listened to the reporter's question.)

David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely distributed by the beginning of next year, despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety. The White House has made no public announcement of the new effort, called Operation Warp Speed, and some officials are apparently trying to talk the president down, telling him that it would be more harmful to set an unreasonably short deadline that might result in a faulty vaccine than to wait for one that is proved safe and effective.... Mr. Trump's order came after he grew frustrated by warnings from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... and other experts on the coronavirus task force, that development of a vaccine would take a year to 18 months, and that even that schedule might be ambitious. He told Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, to come up with a faster program. According to one official, the idea would be to indemnify the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from liability if the vaccines cause sickness or death...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that U.S. officials and scientists are working as quickly as possible to produce a coronavirus vaccine, and he asserted that he's in charge of its development in 'Operation Warp Speed.' 'I hope we're going to have a vaccine and we're going to fast-track a vaccine like you've never seen before if we come with a vaccine. I think they probably will,' he told reporters during a White House meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.... 'I'm really in charge of it,' he said. 'I think probably more than anything I'm in charge.'" Mrs. McC: How reassuring is it that a guy who thinks it might be good to ingest Lysol & Clorox has put himself "in charge" of managing release of a vaccine that holds harmless its developers & manufacturers? I never imagined I could become an anti-vaxxer, but Holy Cow! (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci ... said the goal is production of hundreds of millions of doses by January, an effort dubbed 'Operation Warp Speed.' 'We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it's safe and it's effective,' he said on NBC's 'Today' show. 'I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.' Fauci ... said manufacturers of the best potential vaccine candidates would ramp up production 'at risk,' meaning before they are proven to work, to speed up the process. Bloomberg News, which reported on the effort Wednesday, found taxpayers rather than drug companies would shoulder the financial risk of failed vaccine candidates. Though costly, this could result in one being available months earlier than under the typical process."

Donald Trump Cares More about Victims of the Coronavirus Than You Do. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump has led no national mourning. In his daily news conferences, he makes only perfunctory references to those who have died as he stiffly reads opening remarks, exhibiting more emotion when grieving his lost economic record than his lost constituents.... To the extent that he discusses the deaths caused by the virus, he generally does so in clinical and at times even self-congratulatory terms. 'Our death totals, our numbers per million people, are really very, very strong,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'We are very proud of the job we have done.'... Only after he was asked about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s calling on him to lower the flag at the White House to honor the dead did Mr. Trump say he would consider the idea. 'I don't think anybody could feel any worse than I do about all of the death and destruction that's so needless. Nobody,' he said. 'But I also have to make sure that we handle the situation well.'"

Who Was That Masked Man? Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Vice President Mike Pence was photographed on Thursday wearing a mask while visiting a General Motors plant in Indiana in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment of the criticism he has received for traveling the country without one. Mr. Pence drew intense criticism for flouting the guidelines of the Mayo Clinic, which asks all visitors to its campus in Minnesota to wear masks, during a stop there this week." ~~~

~~~ Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence's office has threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence's office had told journalists they would need masks for Pence's visit to the Mayo Clinic -- a requirement Pence himself did not follow.... Pence's wife, Karen Pence, said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that he was unaware of the mask policy until his visit was over. But Steve Herman, who covers the White House for Voice of America, suggested that there was more to the story.... 'All of us who traveled with [Pence] were notified by the office of @VP the day before the trip that wearing of masks was required by the @MayoClinic and to prepare accordingly,' tweeted Herman, who covered the trip as part of his rotation as one of the pool reporters.... The tweet apparently enraged Pence's staff, which told Herman that he had violated the off-the-record terms of a planning memo that had been sent to him and other reporters in advance of Pence's trip. Herman said he was notified by the White House Correspondents' Association that Pence's office had banned him from further travel on Air Force Two, although a spokesperson in Pence's office later told VOA managers than any punishment was still under discussion, pending an apology from Herman or VOA." A Raw Story summary story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, mikey, when your super-Christian wife lies on national teevee, it's news, and Herman had a duty to report it. The purpose of an "off-the-record planning memo" is to protect the veep and those traveling with him from terrorists or others who might misuse the information. Once the event is over, the purpose of the secrecy is, too (except to the extent it could endanger future travel). Say, maybe you & the missus can sit down with your staff, pull out your Bibles, and explain the turn-the-other-cheek thing.

Peter Bergen of CNN in an opinion piece: "What is most galling as the nation faces its worse crisis since World War II is how the Trump family keeps demanding recognition for their brilliant work and also our thanks for the catastrophic mess they have helped land us all in. Case in point is Jared Kushner, who has fallen upwards throughout his life.... According to officials cited by The New York Times, early on in the Covid-19 crisis, Kushner privately agreed with his father-in-law that this whole coronavirus thing was being overblown by the lamestream media.... And now, Kushner comes to Fox News, the Pravda of the Trump administration, to marvel on Wednesday that the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus is 'a great success story,' claiming that that 'we have all the testing we need to start opening the country' and state his hope that 'by July, the country's really rocking again.'... There is widespread agreement among experts that we don't have the testing capabilities to return to any semblance of normal life, and also that a second wave of infections could hit the country badly later in the year. This is the kind of thing we expect in a banana republic: the nepotistic incompetence and the demands from the public to lavish praise on the brilliant ruling family."

Sam Mintz of Politico: "A tiny airport in Devils Lake, N.D., scored enough money under the federal stimulus law to cover its expenses for 50 years. But one of the country's busiest airports, JFK International in New York, got barely enough aid to make it through three months of operations. Congress and the Federal Aviation Administration wrote the legislation to give an edge to small airports, according to House aides and airport analysts -- but in the process, they created massive disparities in funding from one airport to another. Now the FAA is trying to clean up the botched funding effort.... The story behind the $10 billion in airport funding effort is simple: Airports with little or no debt and a decent amount of cash on hand were entitled to receive a relatively large share of the money. But that inherently benefited small airports because they don't have the huge amounts of debt associated with capital projects at larger airports."

Sarah Okeson of DC Report: "A former lobbyist is using the Trump pandemic ... to ease safety rules intended to reduce deaths by monster trucks. Jim Mullen, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, temporarily waived a rule regarding work breaks ... if their trucks are delivering essential supplies. Medical supplies, food and fuel are counted as essential.... Some of the horrific crashes have involved Werner Enterprises, the Omaha, Neb., trucking company where Mullen was ... vice president and general counsel.... In 2015, Mullen told senators the Obama trucking regulations were 'government overreach of the worst kind.'... Derek Leathers, the president and CEO of Werner Enterprises, joined Trump at a Rose Garden ceremony in 2018 to celebrate the Trump tax plan being passed." --s

Kate Linthicum, et al. of The Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. government has mounted a campaign to persuade Mexico to reopen many factories that were closed because of the country's social distancing guidelines, warning that the supply chain of the North American free-trade zone could be permanently crippled if factories don't resume production soon.... Pressure has also come from American CEOs, more than 300 of whom sent a letter to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador saying they were 'deeply concerned' about the shuttering of factories, and from the U.S. Department of Defense, which has implored Mexico to reopen plants that make parts for defense contractors.... Mexican officials have begun to cave, despite warnings from health authorities here that reopening factories too soon could lead to widespread death." --s

Burgess Everett & Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Capitol's attending physician said Thursday that coronavirus tests will be available for staffers and senators who are ill, but not enough to proactively test all 100 senators as the chamber comes back in session, according to two people familiar with the matter. In a conference call with top GOP officials, Dr. Brian Monahan said there is not sufficient capacity to quickly test senators for coronavirus -- a contrast with the White House, where any people meeting with ... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested for the disease. Monahan said test results in the Senate will take two or more days, while the White House has rapid testing. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Monday after more than a month away.... Roughly half the senators are 65 or older and at increased risk for the coronavirus.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly vowed that the Senate can operate safely amid the pandemic with proper social distancing and masks. Though House Democrats originally planned to come back next week, they decided against returning after consulting with Monahan." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The same apparently applies to Senate staffers who have to return, too. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Wednesday, "I have not yet seen, personally ... a safety plan to protect those people who have to come back to the Capitol in order for us to do anything. Nor a plan to make sure that we are not spreading the virus ourselves or to the employees."

"The Swamp". Common Dreams via RawStory: "A new analysis of financial disclosure documents found that Republican and Democratic members of Congress [27 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 1 independent] made nearly 1,500 stock transactions worth up to $158 million between February and April as the coronavirus.... spread across the U.S., heightening suspicions that elected officials in charge of the federal response to the pandemic have opportunistically cashed in on it." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

California. Amy Taxin, et al., of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a memo was sent to the group's members Wednesday so they have time to plan ahead of Newsom's expected announcement Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Monique Madan of the Miami Herald: "Citing conditions that amount to 'cruel and unusual punishment,' a Miami federal judge ordered U.S. immigration authorities Thursday night to release hundreds of detainees held at three South Florida detention centers. In a strongly worded 12-page order filed late Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acted with 'deliberate indifference' to the condition of its detainees. She ordered the agency to report to her within three days how it plans to cut its non-criminal and medically vulnerable populations by the hundreds.... Within two days, she ordered, ICE shall also provide masks to all detainees and replace them once a week.... The judge said that detainees with non-violent criminal records or underlying health conditions who qualify for release can be subject to detention alternatives like parole, telephone monitoring, physical check-ins or GPS monitoring through electronic ankle bracelets. The judge's decision came just hours after the Miami Herald published a story detailing the conditions inside the Krome Processing Center in Miami-Dade County. The story detailed ICE's practice of segregating together as many as a hundred detainees who have been exposed to COVID-19 and isolating them in large dormitories with no masks, no sanitizer and no possibility of social distancing." Mrs. McC: Cooke is a Bush II appointee.

Indiana. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "Nearly 900 workers at a Tyson Food plant in Indiana have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. The coronavirus infected 890 of the 2,200 people at the plant located in Logansport, Ind., local station WISH TV reported Wednesday. The updated number is more than 700 additional confirmed cases at the plant than the Cass County Health Department reported last week, according to the Indianapolis Star. Tyson announced last week that the company would voluntarily close its facility and work with county officials on a plan to reopen.... On Tuesday President Trump signed an executive order using the Defense Production Act (DPA) to order meat processing plants to stay open and designate them as critical infrastructure. 'So there is some worry there that might force them to flip a switch and go, but we are continuing with our plan,' [County Commissioner Ryan] Browning reportedly said."

Michigan. Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Hundreds of people protested outside the Michigan Capitol building in Lansing on Thursday, with some pushing inside while the Legislature was debating an extension of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's state of emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Protesters held signs, waved American flags and even carried firearms, while some chanted 'Let us in!' and 'This is the people's house, you cannot lock us out. Others tried to get onto the House floor but were blocked by state police and sergeants-at-arms, according to NBC affiliate WDIV of Detroit. A state police spokesman told NBC News that it is legal in Michigan to carry firearms as long as it's done with lawful intent and the weapon is visible." With a few photos & dancing girls. ~~~

~~~ Amber Ainsworth of WDIV TV 4: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Order on Thursday extending the State of Emergency through May 28. The Republican-led Legislature refused to extend the declaration. Whitmer was asking [the Legislature] for a 28 day extension before she extended it herself."

New Jersey. Ave, Ave, Truvmpvs! Samantha Maldonado of Politico: "Hours after meeting with ... Donald Trump at the White House, Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday that New Jersey will receive hundreds of thousands of pieces of personal protective equipment and coronavirus test kits from the federal government. The Trump administration will ship PPE -- which New Jersey has struggled to procure -- to 358 nursing homes in the state, Murphy said, including 220,000 masks, 19,000 goggles, 200,000 gowns and 1 million pairs of gloves. The virus has struck particularly hard in the state's nursing homes." Mrs. McC: Who knows if New Jersey will actually get the PPE & test kits, but it's disgusting that the governor had to go hat-in-hand to honor Trump in order to get even a promise of vital equipment to save lives.

Texas. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "The day before Texas began its first wave of business reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic, the latest figures from the state health department brought some grim news. Another 50 Texans had died from the virus -- the most in a day yet -- and an additional 1,033 had tested positive -- the third most in a day yet. The numbers instantly sparked a fresh round of second-guessing about Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to let stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls reopen at 25% capacity Friday.... Abbott has zeroed in on two figures: the state's infection rate -- the ratio of positive cases to tests conducted -- and the hospitalization rate -- the proportion of infected Texans who are requiring hospitalization. Both rates have generally trended downward since high points in the first half of April.... He pointed out that, 'even with today's number, we have one one of the lowest deaths per capita in any state in America.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Safari was able to read a Houston Chronicle story on the same topic, but the Chron blocked me.

** John Laureman of Bloomberg: "The coronavirus pandemic is likely to last as long as two years and won't be controlled until about two-thirds of the world's population is immune, a group of experts said in a report. Because of its ability to spread from people who don't appear to be ill, the virus may be harder to control than influenza, the cause of most pandemics in recent history, according to the report from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. People may actually be at their most infectious before symptoms appear." (Firewalled) --s

Elie Mystal of the Nation: "... if you listen to various state governors or the president of the United States, you'd think that the only parts of the country that need to be reopened are businesses and churches. Politicians want people to get back to work as soon as possible, but they seem to have no idea that without child care, a huge swath of the workforce will remain tied to their homes.... These reopening plans fail to show even a cursory appreciation for the practical challenges working parents are facing during the pandemic. The crisis should be showing us how essential affordable child care is to economic vitality, something other industrialized nations have already figured out."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Millions of Americans are stuck at home with nothing to do but check the news to find out if they'll ever be allowed out. So how is this possible? ~~~

~~~ Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "Americans divide evenly when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way ... Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus situation in the U.S., with 50% approving and 48% disapproving. Approval of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis is down 10 percentage points from last month, including a 10-point decline among independents and a 16-point decline among Democrats.... Gallup's April 14-28 poll finds Trump's overall job approval at 49%, the same as in a March 13-22 poll but higher than his reading of 43% in an April 1-14 survey. To the extent that these variations are not a function of sampling error, they could be tied to Americans' changing outlook on the coronavirus situation in general and Americans' increasingly evaluating Trump on the COVID issue alone." Mrs. McC's suggestion to the 49 percent: Drink a big Lysol cocktail & go to bed. (Also linked yesterday.)

Timothy Gardner et al. of Reuters: "As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom.... The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that led to a landmark global deal to slash oil supply as demand collapsed in the coronavirus pandemic - scoring a diplomatic victory for the White House.... The kingdom's de facto leader was so taken aback by the threat that he ordered his aides out of the room so he could continue the discussion in private[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Sean Sullivan & Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "... Joe Biden on Friday denied that he sexually assaulted a former Senate aide, addressing the allegation publicly for the first time under increasing pressure from his party to speak about it. 'I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago,' Biden said in a written statement released by his campaign. 'They aren't true. This never happened.' The statement was released shortly before Biden was to appear on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' Biden also called on the National Archives to release any record of a complaint Reade says she filed. 'If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there,' he said.... President Trump ... said Thursday that Biden 'should respond' to the accusation, which Trump said he 'didn't know anything about.' The president suggested that Reade's account could be a 'false accusation,' a topic he said he was knew well. More than 20 women have accused the president of sexual misconduct over the years, prompting a series of denials." ~~~

     ~~~ Biden posted the statement to Medium. ~~~

~~~ Here's a clip of the MSNBC interview. Joe did all right, IMO:

>~~~ Say It Ain't So, Joe. Lisa Lerer & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. will publicly address an allegation of sexual assault for the first time in an appearance on morning television on Friday, after weeks of silence on the issue that had prompted frustration from Democrats and attacks from Republicans seeking to weaken him for a general election contest against President Trump. Mr. Biden will discuss the allegation on 'Morning Joe' on MSNBC, according to a Twitter post from the network. The decision followed intensive discussions in the Biden campaign about how to more forcefully confront the allegation." A Politico story is here. Mrs. McC: Great material for the kiddie hour. ~~~

~~~ Michael Stern, a former federal prosecutor, makes the case against Tara Reade in a USA Today op-ed. ~~~

~~~ Oh, and Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Online sleuths discovered a passage in a novel written by Reade's father, Bob Moulton, that sounds somewhat similar to the graphic account she began telling publicly about Biden in March: '... As soon as he closed and locked the door he put his hands up her skirt grabbed her buttocks slid his hands under her panties spread her cheeks and rammed his fingers into her....'"

Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "The president and his allies have embraced optimism as a central part of his new reelection push, offering a rosy message about a swift return to normal life despite the rising death toll and jobless claims resulting from the outbreak. Vice President Pence predicted the virus's impact will be largely over by Memorial Day. Much of the country will be back to normal by June, Jared Kushner ... told Fox News on Wednesday.... For his part, Trump has already declared that the economy has begun a 'comeback,' predicting 'phenomenal' growth in the fourth quarter an arguing that he will quickly reconstruct what he describes as history's 'greatest economy.'... As economists and health experts warn that this crisis is likely to linger longer and have a more severe impact than anything in recent memory, Trump is essentially risking his reelection on proving them wrong." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Race. South Carolina. Jessica Taylor of the Cook Report: "It's hard to think of a politician who has undergone a bigger evolution over the past four years than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. But could that very political makeover hurt him at the ballot box in 2020, even in a reliably red state?... [Graham] has emerged as one of President Trump's fiercest defenders.... Likely challenger Jaime Harrison, the state's former Democratic Party chairman and a DNC associate vice chairman..., had a record-setting fundraising haul during the first quarter of this year.... Harrison's compelling ads highlight his early biography. He's used his money to run positive spots in every major media market in the state.... Meanwhile, the likely Democratic nominee has been largely unanswered on TV.... So we are moving [the] South Carolina [U.S. Senate race] from Solid to Likely Republican." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "A top donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is switching sides. Richard Wilkerson, former head of Michelin's North America unit, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has endorsed Democrat Jaime Harrison.... Though Graham leads in limited polls, Harrison is outraising him this year so far, bringing in $7.36 million over the first three months versus $5.6 million for Graham." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Commentariat -- April 30, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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

Charisse Jones of USA Today: "About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks.... Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country. While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental, and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley." ~~~

~~~ From the New York Times live updates, linked above: "If anything, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate, according to many economists. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn't even try because they found the process too formidable.... As Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano [of the NYT] reported, systems that were devised to treat each unemployment case as potentially fraudulent are now rushing to deal with millions of newly unemployed people."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The total number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeded one million. The American death toll surpassed that of the Vietnam War. And the economy was reported to have shrunk by nearly 5 percent. But the White House on Wednesday declared its response to the crisis 'a great success story.' As states begin to lift quarantines, President Trump is trying to recast the story of the pandemic from that of an administration slow to see and address the threat to one that responded with decisive action that saved lives. Recognizing that the crisis jeopardizes his chances of re-election, he and his allies want to convince his supporters that the cascade of criticism is unwarranted.... 'I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel very strongly,' Mr. Trump said [Wednesday, Mrs. McC: in one of those curious, non-idiomatic and, in this case, ungrammatical 'strongly' sentences].... In the revised history of the pandemic that Mr. Trump and his team offered, his actions were not belated and inadequate, but bold and effective. 'We did all the right moves,' Mr. Trump said. 'If we didn't do what we did, you would have had a million people die, maybe more, maybe two million people die.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is not "revised history." This is lying about what happened within the past few weeks or months. Somebody should tell NYT reporters & editors that using accurate, if negative, language is good journalism. ~~~

~~~ Unhappy he has not done enough stupid stuff, Trump plans some more: ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump has fumed to aides and others in recent days about China, blaming the country for withholding information about the virus, and has discussed enacting dramatic measures that would probably lead to retaliation by Beijing.... 'Punishing China is definitely where the president's head is at right now,' one senior adviser said. Some political advisers have also encouraged Trump to take a more forceful swing at China because they think it will help him politically.... [So] senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy.... Other administration officials are warning Trump against the push to punish China, saying the country is sending supplies to help the American response." ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Chait on how President Americ. A. First has undermined any chance of getting China to "pay" for Covid-19: "The reason you generally can't collect money from other countries is that we don't have a world government. To the limited extent it is possible to force other countries to pay you back without invading and occupying them, it is through the enforcement of international bodies like the World Trade Organization. But Trump has ignored or weakened transnational authorities.... The closest thing to a feasible option would be repudiating debt held by China, though the blowback to that move would be so enormous -- other potential buyers of Treasury bills would be demanding higher interest rates forever '' that this would be more like an act of financial self-harm than the collection of reparations.... The only discernible endgame here seems to be creating a predicate for Trump to publicly demand repayments from China as his solution to the crisis. If he could insist Mexico would pay for the wall, he can say China will pay for the coronavirus. The obvious fact that neither is going to happen is immaterial to their value as nationalistic campaign slogans." ~~~

~~~ Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as President Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic. Some intelligence analysts are concerned that the pressure from administration officials will distort assessments about the virus.... Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS. Mr. Trump's aides and Republicans in Congress have sought to blame China for the pandemic in part to deflect criticism of the administration's mismanagement of the crisis in the United States, which now has more coronavirus cases than any country."

David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump is pressing his health officials to pursue a crash development program for a coronavirus vaccine that could be widely distributed by the beginning of next year, despite widespread skepticism that such an effort could succeed and considerable concern about the implications for safety. The White House has made no public announcement of the new effort, called Operation Warp Speed, and some officials are apparently trying to talk the president down, telling him that it would be more harmful to set an unreasonably short deadline that might result in a faulty vaccine than to wait for one that is proved safe and effective.... Mr. Trump's order came after he grew frustrated by warnings from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... and other experts on the coronavirus task force, that development of a vaccine would take a year to 18 months, and that even that schedule might be ambitious. He told Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, to come up with a faster program. According to one official, the idea would be to indemnify the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from liability if the vaccines cause sickness or death...." ~~~

~~~ Berkeley Lovelace of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that U.S. officials and scientists are working as quickly as possible to produce a coronavirus vaccine, and he asserted that he's in charge of its development in 'Operation Warp Speed.' 'I hope we're going to have a vaccine and we're going to fast-track a vaccine like you've never seen before if we come with a vaccine. I think they probably will,' he told reporters during a White House meeting with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.... 'I'm really in charge of it,' he said. 'I think probably more than anything I'm in charge.'" Mrs. McC: How reassuring is it that a guy who thinks it might be good to ingest Lysol & Clorox has put himself "in charge" of managing release of a vaccine that holds harmless its developers & manufacturers? I never imagined I could become an anti-vaxxer, but Holy Cow!

"The Swamp". Common Dreams via RawStory: "A new analysis of financial disclosure documents found that Republican and Democratic members of Congress [27 Democrats, 21 Republicans, and 1 independent] made nearly 1,500 stock transactions worth up to $158 million between February and April as the coronavirus spread across the U.S., heightening suspicions that elected officials in charge of the federal response to the pandemic have opportunistically cashed in on it." --s

Timothy Gardner et al. of Reuters: "As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom.... The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that led to a landmark global deal to slash oil supply as demand collapsed in the coronavirus pandemic - scoring a diplomatic victory for the White House.... The kingdom's de facto leader was so taken aback by the threat that he ordered his aides out of the room so he could continue the discussion in private[.]" --s

Amy Taxin, et al., of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore last weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said a memo was sent to the group's members Wednesday so they have time to plan ahead of Newsom's expected announcement Thursday."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Millions of Americans are stuck at home with nothing to do but check the news to find out if they'll ever be allowed out. So how is this possible? ~~~

~~~ Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "Americans divide evenly when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way ... Donald Trump is handling the coronavirus situation in the U.S., with 50% approving and 48% disapproving. Approval of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis is down 10 percentage points from last month, including a 10-point decline among independents and a 16-point decline among Democrats.... Gallup's April 14-28 poll finds Trump's overall job approval at 49%, the same as in a March 13-22 poll but higher than his reading of 43% in an April 1-14 survey. To the extent that these variations are not a function of sampling error, they could be tied to Americans' changing outlook on the coronavirus situation in general and Americans' increasingly evaluating Trump on the COVID issue alone." Mrs. McC's suggestion to the 49 percent: Drink a Lysol cocktail & go to bed.

Presidential Race. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "The president and his allies have embraced optimism as a central part of his new reelection push, offering a rosy message about a swift return to normal life despite the rising death toll and jobless claims resulting from the outbreak. Vice President Pence predicted the virus's impact will be largely over by Memorial Day. Much of the country will be back to normal by June, Jared Kushner ... told Fox News on Wednesday.... For his part, Trump has already declared that the economy has begun a' comeback,' predicting 'phenomenal' growth in the fourth quarter and arguing that he will quickly reconstruct what he describes as history's 'greatest economy.'... As economists and health experts warn that this crisis is likely to linger longer and have a more severe impact than anything in recent memory, Trump is essentially risking his reelection on proving them wrong."

Senate Race. South Carolina. Jessica Taylor of the Cook Report: "It's hard to think of a politician who has undergone a bigger evolution over the past four years than South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. But could that very political makeover hurt him at the ballot box in 2020, even in a reliably red state?... [Graham] has emerged as one of President Trump's fiercest defenders.... Likely challenger Jaime Harrison, the state's former Democratic Party chairman and a DNC associate vice chairman..., had a record-setting fundraising haul during the first quarter of this year.... Harrison's compelling ads highlight his early biography. He's used his money to run positive spots in every major media market in the state.... Meanwhile, the likely Democratic nominee has been largely unanswered on TV.... So we are moving [the] South Carolina [U.S. Senate race] from Solid to Likely Republican." ~~~

~~~ Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "A top donor to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is switching sides. Richard Wilkerson, former head of Michelin's North America unit, based in Greenville, South Carolina, has endorsed Democrat Jaime Harrison.... Though Graham leads in limited polls, Harrison is outraising him this year so far, bringing in $7.36 million over the first three months versus $5.6 million for Graham."

~~~~~~~~~~

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. deaths from covid-19 passed 60,000 on Wednesday, a figure President Trump had once projected would be the upper limit, as hopes rose for a drug treatment that the top U.S. infectious-disease expert said has shown a clear benefit in an early trial. Trump welcomed the promising early signs that an experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, can be effective in speeding the recovery time for covid-19 patients. 'The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,' Anthony S. Fauci said alongside Trump at the White House on Wednesday. 'That is really quite important.' The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which Fauci leads, is overseeing a ... double-blind, placebo-controlled trial ... of more than 1,000 patients.... The study showed that patients treated with remdesivir were ready to be discharged from the hospital within 11 days, on average, compared with an average of 15 days for patients who had received a placebo.... The study showed only a marginal benefit in the rate of death." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

From the New York Times' coronavirus live updates Wednesday: "U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014 and the worst quarterly contraction since 2008, when the country was in a deep recession. Things will get much worse. Widespread layoffs and business closings didn't happen until late March, or the very end of the last quarter, in most of the country. Economists expect figures from the current quarter, which will capture the effects of the shutdown more fully, to show that G.D.P. contracted at an annual rate of 30 percent or more." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The United States has suffered at least 66,000 more deaths than expected this year, a toll that includes the devastation directly caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a sharp rise in fatalities not attributed to the virus, the government reported late Wednesday. The new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows 33,756 covid-19 deaths and 32,325 from all other causes since Jan. 1.... [The number] also could include people who died of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at home but whose deaths were incorrectly attributed to another cause. The numbers are almost certainly a substantial undercount of the actual total. On Wednesday, the death toll from the coronavirus alone passed 60,000 since Feb. 29, according to data collected by The Washington Post." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Joel Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "The number of nursing homes publicly reporting cases of covid-19 has doubled in the past week, with more than 1 in 6 facilities nationwide now acknowledging infections among residents or staff, a Washington Post analysis of state and federal data found. The rise is driven in part by newly released information about previous novel coronavirus infections from states including Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky and South Carolina. Some states have not yet publicly released the names of affected nursing homes." The article is a freebie.

Joanne Kenen of Politico: "The Trump administration's 'Stay at Home' guidelines will quietly expire Thursday with little fanfare -- letting states decide what's next. But as ... Donald Trump repeatedly declares that 'we're opening our country again,' the inconsistent patchwork of state, local and business decision-making is exactly what could drive a second wave of the coronavirus -- or potentially prolong the current outbreak.... The White House is leaving states with a set of CDC recommendations. They aren't binding, and they aren't all specific. That could lead to unexpected spikes across the country -- sometimes in new places that didn't see a bad outbreak, but also in cities that were recovering, only to suffer a setback." ~~~

~~~ Christina Maxouris of CNN: "A second round of the coronavirus is 'inevitable,' the nation's top infectious disease doctor says, but just how bad it is will depend on the progress the US makes in the coming months. 'If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well,' Dr. Anthony Fauci said. 'If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter.' If states begin lifting restrictions too early, Fauci says he predicts the country could see a rebound of the virus that would 'get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,' adding that the country could see many more deaths than are currently predicted.... Being able to test for the virus, track cases and isolate every infected American will be key factors in ensuring that second wave isn't as deadly, Fauci says. The US continues to lag behind in testing, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The nation has performed 16.4 tests per 1,000 people, according to the report. Spain and Italy, with the second and third highest number of cases after the US, have conducted 22.3 and 29.7 tests per 1,000 people respectively." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Trump Determined to Make Fauci's Point a Reality. Brooke Singman of Fox "News": "President Trump on Wednesday said the administration will be 'fading out' the federal social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus that are slated to expire Thursday.... The 'fading out' of the White House social distancing guidelines comes as the states across the nation begin Phase One to reopen their economies amid the coronavirus crisis." Mrs. McC Translation: Trump means "fazing out." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Erika Edwards of NBC News: "As a handful of states begin to ease stay-at-home restrictions, no state that has opted to reopen has come close to the federally recommended decline in cases over a 14-day period.... Daily case counts continue to rise in many states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Even Trump's Testing Czar Says He Lied. W.J. Hennigan of Time: "... Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn't feasible given current technology. Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government's testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that 'there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.'... Five hours later, when a reporter asked Trump at the White House if the country would reach five million daily tests, as the Harvard study recommended, Trump responded: 'We'll increase it, and it'll increase it by much more than that in the very near future.' Asked to clarify if he meant the U.S. would 'surpass 5 million tests per day', Trump said, 'We're going to be there very soon.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ As Jonathan Chait points out, "Trump's underlings usually know to steer clear of directly contradicting the boss's lies, but in this case, Time asked Giroir about testing levels in the morning, and then Trump decided to go ahead and lie about it that afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "On Wednesday..., Donald Trump retracted his claim that the U.S. will soon be able to administer 5 million COVID-19 tests every day after his own testing director on the White House task force, Admiral Brett Giroir, emphatically rejected the possibility of that goal. 'Somebody started throwing around five million,' Trump told reporters, referring to a Harvard University study that found that reopening the economy would only be feasible if the government were able to do at least five million tests daily by early June, and then ramp it up to 20 million tests each day by late July. 'I didn't say 5 million,' Trump said, despite the fact that he had said exactly that the day before." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I would not say Trump "retracted his claim." I would say, "Trump lied about making a claim he made a day earlier." Trump does not retract; he lies.

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to visit Arizona next week and potentially Ohio 'very soon,' marking one of the few times the president has left the White House in several weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic."

Rama Venkat of Reuters: "The Trump administration is quietly planning a major undertaking to speed the development of a coronavirus vaccine, with a goal to have 100 million doses ready by year's end, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Called 'Operation Warp Speed,' the project will join private pharmaceutical companies with government agencies and the military in trying to cut the development time for a vaccine by as much as eight months, Bloomberg News said bloom.bg/2YgpC1j." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've seen a few "Where's Jared?" stories this past week. After all, we heard he was in change of saving us from the coronavirus, and things have not been going well. Or so we thought. ~~~

~~~ "This Is a Great Success Story." Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Jared Kushner ... praised himself and the rest of the administration on Wednesday morning for its efforts to reopen the U.S. economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kushner's comments came after the nation's death toll from coronavirus surpassed the Vietnam War. 'I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed,' Kushner said during an interview on 'Fox and Friends.' 'So, the government -- federal government -- rose to the challenge and this is a great success story and I think that that's really what needs to be told.'" Hard to say why the White House keeps the boy genius under wraps. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Navy will open a full investigation of the coronavirus outbreak aboard an aircraft carrier, acting Navy secretary James McPherson said Wednesday, days after the service's top officer recommended the reinstatement of a captain who raised concerns about the handling of the issue. McPherson said Wednesday that after carefully reviewing a preliminary inquiry into what happened, he has 'unanswered questions' that 'can only be answered by a deeper review.'"

Dan Keating & Lauren Tierney of the Washington Post: "A majority of the country's 43.8 million renting households have lost at least some of their income in the coronavirus shutdown, a much higher share than homeowners, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll done in mid-April. This means an increasing number of households are at risk of missing rent payments, which could cascade into a national flood of evictions and forced homelessness. Facing the coronavirus pandemic, state governments have adopted special rules to protect renters. Landlords, attorneys, judges, sheriffs and renters are all trying to keep up with daily changes in the system.... The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has created a scorecard to measure protections for renters. Each state gets a rating from zero to five stars based on how many renter protections and supports it has in place." The article includes a map of state ratings & some additional data.

Alex Woodward of The Independent (U.K.): "Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines. As many as 30 church leaders from the nation's largest African American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.... The virus has had a wildly disproportionate impact among black congregations, many of which have relied on group worship." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Kathleen McGrory & Rebecca Woolington of the Tampa Bay Times: "State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida's medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state's published count. The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners' death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted. They've now been withholding it for nine days, without providing any of the information or specifying what they plan to remove. Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Lawrence Mower & Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald: Florida "Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will start lifting stay-at-home orders starting Monday, with restaurants and shops being allowed to reopen with limited capacity. In the first phase of a three-phase plan, DeSantis said Florida will closely follow guidelines from the White House. The order does not apply to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the pandemic has hit hardest, however. He said he will consider issuing an order for those counties soon."

Georgia. Ed Kilgore of New York: "It's been well-established for a while that African-Americans are being hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus.... But the degree to which COVID-19 has victimized this demographic is dramatized by a new CDC study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Georgia, the state that is in the process of discarding restrictions on businesses and public gatherings via an order from Republican governor Brian Kemp. The Washington Post has the story: 'Surveying eight Georgia hospitals, researchers found that in a sample of 305 covid-19 patients, 247 were black -- more than 80 percent and more than they expected....'... As the Guardian explained recently: 'Due to occupational segregation, black Americans have often been disproportionately represented in industries and occupations that face the greatest risks of known occupational hazards. The same seems to be the case with Covid-19....'... The businesses that choose to reopen under Kemp's new order, forcing employees to give up unemployment benefits and go back to work in proximity to the public, are likely to have more black employees than businesses still operable via telecommuting." ~~~

~~~ ** "Experiment in Human Sacrifice." Amanda Mull of the Atlantic: "Georgia's brash reopening puts much of the state's working class in an impossible bind: risk death at work, or risk ruining yourself financially at home. In the grips of a pandemic, the approach is a morbid experiment in just how far states can push their people. Georgians are now the largely unwilling canaries in an invisible coal mine, sent to find out just how many individuals need to lose their job or their life for a state to work through a plague.... '... we're also choosing industries where racial- and ethnic-minority communities are disproportionately represented,' [Harry] Heiman, [a public-health professor at Georgia State University,] noted. He said that choosing to restart these industries is likely to deepen the crisis for communities of color in the South. 'They're going back to a job that places them at increased risk for exposure to coronavirus, and they don't have access to Medicaid, because we haven't expanded it,' he explained."

Maryland. Erin Cox & Steve Thompson of the Washington Post: "When Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced the purchase of 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea last week, he called it 'an exponential, game-changing step forward' in the state's effort to get more people tested. The dramatic story drew notice from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and a dismissive swipe from ... President Trump. But more than 10 days after the chartered Korean Air plane landed, Maryland has not allowed access to the tests kits, much to the frustration of local, state and federal leaders.... In conference calls with local and federal officials over the past two weeks, the Hogan administration said the tests were hung up by regulatory hurdles and shortages of other supplies that have throttled testing capacity nationwide, according to multiple people who participated. Hogan publicly described a different reality on Wednesday.... He said he would prioritize universal testing in nursing homes and other hot spots.... The governor said the kits would also bolster testing for health-care workers and first responders. As a fifth priority, he would expand the broad, community-based testing experts say is critical to easing shutdown restrictions." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although the Hogan administration is making conflicting statements about the availability of swabs, reagents and labs certified to analyze the tests, I can't see why they didn't start administering the tests, say, eight days ago.

New York. Rosalind Adams & Ken Bensinger of BuzzFeed News: "On March 27..., Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to 'START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!' One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: 'We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT.' Its author was Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology..., he ... has ... no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices. But three days later, New York state paid Oren-Pines $69.1 million. The payment was for 1,450 ventilators -- at an astonishing $47,656 per ventilator, at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models.... Not a single ventilator ever arrived.... Nearly a month later, New York has terminated the contract, and the state is now trying to recover all of the money it paid the Silicon Valley electrical engineer.... A state official ... said New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, "the White House coronavirus task force"? Are we talking Jared Kushner here? The shadow task force that Kushner said would bring an "an entrepreneurial approach" to the problem because "In America, some of our best resources are in our private sector"? You have to admit, collecting $69 million for nothing is ever-so entrepreneurial.

Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: "Newly released documents about the origins of the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn show that FBI officials feared that the new Trump White House might view the bureau as 'playing games' if it sought to interview him without disclosing exactly what it was up to. The four pages of records provided to Flynn's defense attorneys last week and unsealed on Wednesday by a federal judge reflect internal brainstorming at the FBI in January 2017 about how to approach the politically explosive investigation into Flynn's contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks earlier, during the presidential transition.... One issue that FBI officials considered was whether to show Flynn that they already knew details of his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time.... Flynn's lawyers and supporters said the notes and emails were 'smoking gun' evidence that he was railroaded by FBI officials intent on bringing him down.... 'What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?' the notes read.... 'Flynn told the Russian ambassador to ignore U.S. sanctions, for goodness sake! FBI had a legitimate purpose and even a duty to question Flynn,' former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Politico via email on Wednesday night. 'The strategy of the agents does not negate Flynn's lies.'"

i24 News, Israel: "Newly released documents from the FBI suggests that Roger Stone ... had one or more high-ranking contacts in the Israeli government willing to help the then-Republican Party nominee win the presidential election.... Israel's current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also in the same post during US President Donald Trump's 2016 run for the White House.... In one exchange specifically mentioning Jerusalem, the document alleges Stone in communication with a high-ranking official in the Israeli capital. 'Roger, hello from Jerusalem,' the document reads. 'Any progress? He is going to be defeated unless we intervene. We have critical intell [sic]. The key is in your hands! Back in the US next week. How is your Pneumonia? Thank you.'" --s

Presidential Race

Lisa Lerer & Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "For more than three weeks, progressive activists and women's rights advocates debated how to handle an allegation of sexual assault against Joseph R. Biden Jr. The conversations weren't easy, nor were the politics: Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, faced one allegation; his opponent, President Trump, at least a dozen. Finally, several of the women's groups prepared a public letter that praised Mr. Biden's work as an 'outspoken champion for survivors of sexual violence' but also pushed him to address the allegation from Tara Reade, a former aide who worked in Mr. Biden's Senate office in the early 1990s.... Then ... the group put the letter on hold as it began pressuring Biden advisers to push the candidate to make a statement himself before the end of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Nearly two weeks later, Mr. Biden and his campaign have yet to make that statement, and the advocates have not released their letter.... As two more women have come forward to corroborate part of Ms. Reade's allegation, the Biden campaign is facing attacks from the right and increasing pressure from the left to address the issue.... Republicans and the Trump campaign are already using the accusation to undercut Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party as hypocritical on issues of gender equity." ~~~

~~~ Ruby Cramer & Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed News: "While Joe Biden has remained publicly silent about a sexual assault allegation made against him, his presidential campaign has sought to coordinate and unify Democratic messaging on the matter, advising surrogates earlier this month to say that the allegation 'did not happen.' The Biden campaign circulated talking points among top Democratic supporters shortly after the New York Times published a story earlier this month about the allegation by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden's Senate office who says he assaulted her in 1993.... The messaging shows that ... aides were taking the claims seriously enough behind the scenes to coordinate messaging among other Democrats to try to cast the matter as one that's been thoroughly vetted and determined to be unfounded." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Joe, you can't pretend to be a champion of women while hiding behind your female staff's skirts. I believe Reade, partially because I have been the victim of very similar attacks (though I didn't get fired because I knew not to complain).* The details of Joe's assault seems to be SOP for powerful men. In any event, I am committed to voting for you instead of the careless, repeat sexual abuser currently occupying the Oval. ~~~ * Oh, wait. I forgot. I did once get fired for complaining about a different kind of sexual attack. My complaint "had upset the talent," the woman who fired me said. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "... the way [for Biden] to signal he takes Ms. Reade's case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.... Contemporaneous accounts of Ms. Reade's claim are counterweighted by the denials of her superiors at the time that she reported any misconduct, as well as inconsistencies in her retelling. There are, at the moment, no clear conclusions.... President Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault, including rape, by dozens of women. He has responded by brushing the accusations off, once claiming repulsively, 'She's not my type.' It may seem unfair to hold Mr. Trump's likely rival in the 2020 race to a standard that Mr. Trump has failed to meet again and again. But Mr. Trump shouldn't be allowed to set that standard. A better man could." The editors also recommend that Biden release any related personnel records. ~~~

~~~ Steve M. "... this is working out just the way the Republican Party wants it to. The slow build of the story seems to have lulled Biden into believing that it will disappear as a news item, the way sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump always disappear. (That won't happen, and there'll come a time when Trump will add a Tara Reade riff to his stump speech...). The mainstream press is feeling the need to make up for the lack of early coverage, so ... it's a drip-drip-drip with MSM buy-in. In other words, it's Hillary Clinton's emails and Uranium One all over again. Those slow-simmering stories worked like a charm for the GOP. This scandal can get Trump reelected. Joe Biden needs to realize that it will consume him unless he can persuade us that he's innocent." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Both the WashPo editors & Steve are right. Unfortunately, there's a near-guarantee that if Biden does try to address the charges, he will blow it. Joe Biden is just not a guy who gets it. ~~~

~~~ On the Other Hand. Here is an article posted to Medium that attacks Tara Reade's credibility and posts receipts to at least partially back up its claims. A woman who runs a California non-profit claims Reade manipulated, duped and stole from her & her non-profit. Mrs. McC: We really do need more reporting on Reade. If she has a history of lying & stealing -- and I'm not saying she does -- her accusations will go away. ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of Politico: "The job description for Joe Biden's running mate has suddenly become more complicated: the Democratic vice presidential nominee must now defend him against sexual assault accusations without looking hypocritical. It's a particularly vexing problem for Biden's potential picks, many of whom played lead roles in opposing the Senate confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.... Advisers to four of the potential candidates who spoke to Politico -- none of whom would go on record -- ... all said they hoped Biden would speak out soon, but conceded there's no way he -- or those in contention to be his running mate -- can continue to avoid the subject as they run for office or jockey to be on the Democratic ticket."

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's advisers presented him with the results of internal polling last week that showed him falling behind former vice president Joe Biden in key swing states in the presidential race, part of an effort by aides to curtail Trump's freewheeling daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations. The president spoke with campaign manager Brad Parscale, White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among other officials, in calls and meetings last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.... Trump resisted the pleas, saying people 'love' the briefings and think he is 'fighting for them.'... Trump told Parscale that he did not believe the polling that had been presented to him, even though it came from the campaign and the RNC." ~~~

~~~ Nothing Is Trump's Fault, Including His Being the Worst President* in U.S. History. Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump, according to multiple people..., erupted during a phone call with his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, two days after he was presented with polling data from his campaign and the Republican National Committee that showed him trailing Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... in several crucial states. He lashed out at Mr. Parscale and said it was other people's fault that there had been fluctuations in a race they had all seen as his to lose just two months ago. At one point, Mr. Trump said he would not lose to Mr. Biden, insisted the data was wrong and blamed the campaign manager for the fact that he is down in the polls, according to one of the people familiar with the conversation. Mr. Trump even made a threat to sue Mr. Parscale, mentioning the money he has made while working for the president, another person familiar with the call said, although the threat did not appear to be serious." ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "As he huddled with advisers on Friday evening..., Donald Trump was still fuming over his sliding poll numbers and the onslaught of criticism he was facing for suggesting a day earlier that ingesting disinfectant might prove effective against coronavirus. Within moments, the President was shouting -- not at the aides in the room, but into the phone -- at his campaign manager Brad Parscale, three people familiar with the matter told CNN. Shifting the blame away from himself, Trump berated Parscale for a recent spate of damaging poll numbers, even at one point threatening to sue Parscale. It's not clear how serious the President's threat of a lawsuit was." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Only Trump would think of suing somebody else because he himself is a flaming ass.

Kansas. Rick Hasen: "In a major ruling, a 10th Circuit panel (consisting of 2 judges, as a third judge on the panel had passed away), a Tenth Circuit panel has held that a Kansas anti-voting law championed by former Secretary of State Kris Kobach violated both the Constitution's equal protection clause and was preempted by the federal motor-voter law. The law at issue required those who wished to register to vote in Kansas to provide documentary proof of citizenship -- such as a birth certificate or naturalizatio certificate -- in order to register to vote. Until the ACLU secured a preliminary injunction against this law, about 30,000 people had their voter registrations suspended and were not allowed to vote in Kansas elections.... Kobach had claimed that the amount of noncitizen voting was the tip of the iceberg, but the trial court, after an extensive trial where Kobach was given every chance to prove his case, as no more than 'an icicle, largely created by confusion and administrative error.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Wisconsin. Shawn Johnson of Wisconsin Public Radio: "State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly announced Wednesday he would lift his recusal in a case that could purge up to 200,000 names from Wisconsin's voter list. Kelly, who lost his bid for a 10-year term on the court to Judge Jill Karofsky, had stayed out of the case while he was a candidate, saying it could have influenced his own election. With that race now behind him, he indicated in a brief order Wednesday that circumstances had changed.... Kelly's recusal from the voter purge case had tangible consequences in December, when the court deadlocked 3-3 on whether to hear the case on an expedited appeal.... Kelly was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2016." --s