The Commentariat -- May 5, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Nothing Remotely Suspicious or Untoward about This. Ben Tracy, et al., of CBS News: "Discussions are underway about winding down the work of the Coronavirus Task Force, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters Tuesday, even as the number of deaths and new cases continue to mount ... as states begin to reopen. The administration's work on testing and bolstering the national stockpile will continue, Pence said, with some of that work being moved back to agencies.... '... it really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we've made as a country. The president stood up the White House Coronavirus Task Force to marshal -- in January -- to marshal a national response.'... The vice president's announcement apparently had not reached Dr. Anthony Fauci.... Fauci told CBS News only moments before Pence spoke that he had just been at a task force meeting, and no one had said anything to him about disbanding the task force."
** Yasmeen Abutaleb & Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: Dr. Rick Bright, "a former top vaccine official removed from his post last month, alleged in a whistleblower complaint on Tuesday that he was reassigned to a less prestigious role because he tried to 'prioritize science and safety over political expediency' and raised health concerns over a drug repeatedly pushed by President Trump and other administration officials as a possible cure for coronavirus.... Bright portrays himself in the 89-page complaint as one of the administration's health officials trying to sound the alarm about the virus as early as January. He said he called for the rapid development of treatments and vaccines, as well as the stockpiling of additional N95 masks and ventilators, at a time when HHS political leadership, including Secretary Alex Azar, appeared to him to be underestimating the threat. He also notes that he clashed with his boss, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS Robert Kadlec, for at least two years, according to the complaint. Bright alleged that Kadlec and others pressured him to buy drugs and medical products for the nation's stockpile of emergency medical equipment from companies that were linked politically to the administration and that he resisted such efforts." ~~~
~~~ A Politico story is here. Bright's complaint, via Bright's attorneys, is here. ~~~
~~~ Jon Swaine, et al., of the Washington Post: "After Robert Kadlec was confirmed as President Trump's top official for public health preparedness in 2017, he began pressing to increase government stocks of a smallpox vaccine. His office ultimately made a deal to buy up to $2.8 billion of the vaccine from a company that once paid Kadlec as a consultant, a connection he did not disclose on a Senate questionnaire when he was nominated.... The 10-year contract is part of an effort by Kadlec to bolster the nation's stockpile of defenses against biologica and chemical weapons, a focus he made a priority over preparing for a natural pandemic.... Kadlec scaled back a long-standing interagency process for spending billions of dollars on stockpile purchases, diminishing the role of government experts and restricting decision-making to himself and a small circle of advisers...." Thanks to Patrick for the link. See also his comments below.
No, This Is Not Normal. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump said he was allowing Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify before the Republican-led Senate but not the Democrat-led House, calling it a 'set up.' 'The House is a bunch of Trump-haters,' Trump claimed as he was departing the White House for Arizona for a tour of a Honeywell plant. Trump's remarks amounted to an admission that he was looking to prevent Democrats from conducting their oversight duties when it comes to his administration's coronavirus response, even as he's willing to allow Republicans to proceed. Last week, the White House said its attempts to block Fauci from testifying were due to scheduling and time-management issues, which Trump did not mention on Tuesday." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Fauci works for the NIH, not the White House. I don't think Trump has the actual authority to tell him when & where he can testify. The political dynamic is, of course, different.
Yelling the Quiet Part. Brett Samuels: "President Trump rejected the idea of granting statehood to the District of Columbia, arguing in a new interview it would be too politically beneficial to Democrats. 'D.C. will never be a state,' Trump told The New York Post during an Oval Office interview on Monday. 'You mean District of Columbia, a state? Why? So we can have two more Democratic -- Democrat senators and five more congressmen? No thank you. That'll never happen.' The District has a population of roughly 700,000, which is more than that of Wyoming or Vermont. The District does not have any voting power in Congress, as it has no senators and one nonvoting delegate in the House.... Should it become a state, the District would receive one House member based on its current population." Mrs. McC: Trump either has no idea of how representatives are apportioned, or he feels he's surrounded by five times as many black people as he is.
Yasmeen Abutaleb & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus response being spearheaded by President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has relied in part on volunteers from consulting and private equity firms with little expertise in the tasks they were assigned, exacerbating chronic problems in obtaining supplies for hospitals and other needs, according to numerous government officials and a volunteer involved in the effort.... Although some of the volunteers have relevant backgrounds and experience, many others were poorly matched with their assigned jobs, including those given the task of securing personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospitals nationwide, according to a complaint filed last month with the House Oversight Committee.... The document alleges that the team responsible for PPE had little success in helping the government secure such equipment, in part because none of the team members had significant experience in health care, procurement or supply-chain operations. In addition, none of the volunteers had relationships with manufacturers or a clear understanding of customs requirements or Food and Drug Administration rules, according to the complaint and two senior administration officials.... The team's problems underscore a broader pattern of missteps and missed opportunities that has plagued the Trump administration as it struggles to cope with the pandemic." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, the "lack of expertise" starts at the top with the Boy Wonder & Daddy Dearest. But it is sort of perfect that Unqualified-for-Anything Jared would pick inexperienced "helpers" to manage a task essential to the nation. Since these guy were "consultants" and/or worked for private equity firms, they probably have elite general educations, which made Jared think they could do anything, just as he thinks he can. Update: Anderson Cooper described these volunteers as "friends & associates" of Kushner's, though the WashPo article does not.
Kaitlan Collins, et al., of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr made a last-minute push Monday to persuade the administration to modify its position in the Obamacare dispute that will be heard at the Supreme Court this fall, arguing that the administration should pull back from its insistence that the entire law be struck down. With a Wednesday deadline to make any alterations to its argument looming, Barr made his case in a room with Vice President Mike Pence, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, members of the Domestic Policy Council, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and several other officials. The meeting ended without a decision and it was not immediately not clear if any shift in the Trump administration's position will emerge. Barr and other top advisers have argued against the hard-line position for some time, warning it could have major political implications if the comprehensive health care law appears in jeopardy as voters head to the polls in November." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice that Barr doesn't care a whit about many Americans' ability to get semi-affordable health insurance; instead, he wants to kid voters into thinking Trump won't kill Obamacare if he's re-elected.
Marina Villeneuve & Michael Hill of the AP: "New York state is reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it's protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. At least 4,813 people have died from COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes since March 1, according to a tally released by Cuomo's administration late Monday that, for the first time, includes people believed to have been killed by the coronavirus before their diagnoses could be confirmed by a lab test." Mrs. McC: It's been widely reported that these facilities don't have enough professional nurses & other trained staff to care for residents. So why are they called "nursing homes" if they have few nurses and "care facilities" if they have few staff to care for residents?
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. "Coronavirus in the United States now looks like this: More than a month has passed since there was a day with fewer than 1,000 deaths from the virus. Almost every day, at least 25,000 new cases are identified, meaning that the total in the United States -- which has the highest number of known cases in the world with more than a million -- is expanding by 2 to 4 percent daily.... It is rampaging through nursing homes, meatpacking plants and prisons, killing the medically vulnerable and the poor, and new outbreaks keep emerging in grocery stores, supermarkets or factories, an ominous harbinger of what a full reopening of the economy could bring. 'If you include New York, it looks like a plateau moving down,' said Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine. 'If you exclude New York, it's a plateau slowly moving up.'" ~~~
~~~ There's also an item on the "surreal scene" at the Capitol where the Senate has returned to work. Best sentence: "Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, the sole senator to have tested positive for the virus, was among the only senators walking around without a mask." Mrs. McC: Won't be the first time Li'l Randy has spit on his colleagues. But it might be the most lethal. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.
New York Times: "More than 1,186,900 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 68,800 have died, according to a New York Times database. More than 1,000 additional deaths have been announced every day since April 2.... In recent weeks, more than 20,000 new cases have been announced across the United States each day, keeping the country on a stubborn plateau instead of the sharp downward curve scientists had hoped for." This is a comprehensive analysis that breaks down & highlights developments in various regions & particular localities throughout the country. It appears to be updated daily.
Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "States across the country are moving swiftly to reopen their economies despite failing to achieve benchmarks laid out by the White House for when social distancing restrictions could be eased to ensure the public's safety during the coronavirus pandemic. These governors' biggest cheerleader is President Trump.... Trump and some of his aides have backed away from their own guidelines, opting instead to hail the broad economic reopening that health experts say has started too quickly. The dichotomy comes as the White House also tried to distance itself from a draft federal government report predicting an explosion of new coronavirus cases and 3,000 daily deaths by June 1.... While the president said on April 23, he was 'not happy' with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) for the defying the guidelines, it took him only a week to deny his own remarks. 'I didn't say that,' Trump said Friday when his quote about Kemp was read back to him. 'I said I didn't like the particular place -- a spa, a tattoo parlor. No, no, I think it's wonderful.'"
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer began testing multiple versions of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in healthy young people in the United States this week, a first step toward establishing the safety, dosage and most promising candidate to take into larger trials that will test effectiveness. In an unusual trial design that signals the pressing need to find a vaccine against covid-19, Pfizer is initially testing four versions of the vaccine, side by side. Typically, companies spend years on animal experiments and select a single promising candidate to put into human testing, but the drugmaker decided to create a flexible trial that could rapidly sift out the best option." An NPR story is here.
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** The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. "As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times, nearly double from the current level of about 1,750. The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases now. The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, not much has changed. And the reopening to the economy will make matters worse.... On Sunday, Mr. Trump said deaths in the United States could reach 100,000, twice as many as he had forecast just two weeks ago. But his new estimate still underestimates what his own administration is now predicting to be the total death toll by the end of May -- much less in the months that follow." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The lede there is conveying that Trump is encouraging policies which he knows will cause Americans to get sick & die. ~~~
~~~ Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: "A draft government report projects covid-19 cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a staggering jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day.... The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disavowed the report, although the slides carry the CDC's logo. The creator of the model said the numbers are unfinished projections shown to the CDC as a work in progress.... It was not immediately clear whether the projections, which carry logos of the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, are based on ramped up testing, the attempt to reopen some states, the time lag between a rise in cases and deaths or some combination of those factors. The forecast stops at June 1, but shows both daily cases and deaths on an upward trajectory at that point.... The White House issued a statement Monday that 'this is not a White House document, nor has it been presented to the Coronavirus Task Force or gone through interagency vetting. This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force, or data that the task force has analyzed....'... A senior White House official said the document would not change the White House planning on reopening." The story is free to nonsubscribers. (This story, linked yesterday, has been updated to reflect the "unfinished" nature of the government report.) ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Alice Ollstein & Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "A key model of the coronavirus pandemic favored by the White House nearly doubled its prediction Monday for how many people will die from the virus in the U.S. by August -- primarily because states are reopening too soon. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington's School of Medicine is now projecting 134,000 coronavirus-related fatalities, up from a previous prediction of 72,000. Factoring in the scientists' margin of error, the new prediction ranges from 95,000 to 243,000. Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of IHME, told reporters on a call Monday the primary reason for the increase is many states' 'premature relaxation of social distancing." ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow noted that the UW's IHME model has been prominently featured on the CDC's forecast page. Then, all of a sudden, when the UW institute upped its estimate, the CDC dropped all mention of its model. Maddow pointed out that the CDC is supposed to be science-y, not Trumpy.
Jay Rosen: "The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible -- by telling the governors they're in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by 'flooding the zone with shit,' Steve Bannon's phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial.... Everything will ride on the manufacture of confusion. The press won't be able to 'expose' the plot because it will all happen in stark daylight.... The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump's personality meeting the powers of the presidency. There is no genius there, only a damaged human being playing havoc with our lives."
Lesson Learned! Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "President Trump claimed in a new wide-reaching interview that that the 'one thing' that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic 'has taught us is that I was right.' Trump told the New York Post that Americans are now focused on domestic manufacturing for a variety of products, including medicine currently produced in China. 'You know, I had people say, "No, no, it's good. You keep -- you do this and that."; Now those people are really agreeing with me. And that includes medicine and other things, you know,' he said.... And the president predicted that the U.S. will see a strong fourth quarter during the interview. 'We did the right thing and now we're bringing the country back...,' Trump said.... Trump also rejected a model from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first reported by The New York Times suggesting that U.S. deaths will grow on a daily basis to 3,000 by the beginning of June. 'I know nothing about it. I don';t know anything about it. Nobody told me that. I think it's -- I think it's false, I think it's fake news.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Besides learning from his deadly mistakes that he was right, Trump remains as articulate as ever: "You know, I had people say, 'No, no, it's good. You keep -- you do this and that.'"
Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "President Trump in a series of late-night tweets criticized a group led by George Conway, a lawyer who is a frequent Trump critic and married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, calling its members 'all losers' after it released a video attacking the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump lashed out at the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group that is largely made up by GOP strategists and consultants. 'A group of RINO Republicans who failed badly 12 years ago, then again 8 years ago, and then got BADLY beaten by me, a political first timer, 4 years ago, have copied (no imagination) the concept of an ad from Ronald Reagan, "Morning in America", doing everything possible to ... get even for their many failures,' Trump tweeted.... 'I don't know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad,' Trump tweeted." ~~~
~~~ Conway responded in a tweet, "I guess our next ad should be 'Moron in America.'" And Tim O'Brien, also in a tweet, noted in a Trump "Translation": "I don't understand the difference between 'morning' and 'mourning.'" Mrs. McC: President* Spelling B. Champion's confusion is clear in the tweet where he claims the Lincoln Project "copied (no imagination)" the Reagan ad. Puns & homophones are lost on people who can't spell. Cited by Klar. Also, Klar did a great job of explaining the term "RINO" to us morons: she wrote that it's an acronym for "Republican only in name." That would be "ROIN."
Trump Breaks Federal Law to Conduct Propaganda Show at Lincoln Memorial. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "While Mr. Trump and many other presidents have hosted inauguration concerts and gatherings on the [Lincoln Memorial's] steps, any event meant to draw an audience inside the interior ... is prohibited. The area beginning with the marble staircase where the columns start constitutes a boundary protected by federal law. So on Sunday, when the president sat down with two Fox News anchors at Lincoln's marbled feet during a coronavirus-focused virtual 'town hall,' it was because a directive issued by David Bernhardt, the secretary of the interior, had allowed them to do so. Mr. Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist whose Senate nomination was contested by Democrats who pointed to multiple accusations of conflicts of interest and ethical violations, ordered the memorial temporarily closed for the event, citing the coronavirus.... The directive surprised officials at the National Park Service.... Mr. Bernhardt's action enraged critics, who complained that Mr. Trump had essentially conducted a partisan open mic night." Read on. Mediaite has a summary report here. ~~~
~~~ A CNN story by Paul LeBlanc describes Bernhardt's order as "relaxing the rules," but it isn't "rules" Bernhardt relaxed; it was a law he broke, according to the NYT. That's different. LeBlanc does point out that Trump used the site to compare himself to Lincoln. ~~~
(~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Should Trump ever get a monument on the Mall, I would suggest it be the manure shed for one of the several gardens on or adjacent to the Mall.)
~~~ Whom Did the Press Treat Worse -- Lincoln or Trump? (See yesterday's Commentariat for context.) ~~~
~~~ Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: "Trump loves that many Fox hosts are his loudest cheerleaders -- but any deviation from Trumpian orthodoxy he views as betrayal.... Trump's view that Fox is insufficiently loyal has motivated him to look for a more reliable media partner.... According to sources, an investor group aligned with his son Don Jr. and the Dallas-based Hicks family has acquired a major stake in One America News Network.... As the deal has been moving forward, Trump has been promoting OANN by calling on OANN reporters at White House briefings and tweeting favorably about the network's coverage.... One source told me that if Trump loses, he could use OANN as his post-presidential television platform to host shows." --s
A World Without Us: ~~~
~~~ Another Shameful Moment for the U.S. William Booth, et al., of the Washington Post: "World leaders came together in a virtual summit Monday to pledge billions of dollars to quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight the coronavirus. Missing from the roster was the Trump administration.... Russia and India also did not participate.... The online conference, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a half-dozen countries, was set to raise $8.2 billion from governments, philanthropies and the private sector to fund research and mass-produce drugs, vaccines and testing kits to combat the virus, which has killed more than 250,000 people worldwide." An ABC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Alex Marquardt & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "Intelligence shared among Five Eyes nations indicates it is 'highly unlikely' that the coronavirus outbreak was spread as a result of an an accident in a laboratory but rather originated in a Chinese market, according to two Western officials who cited an intelligence assessment that appears to contradict claims by ... Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 'We think it's highly unlikely it was an accident,' a Western diplomatic official with knowledge of the intelligence said. 'It is highly likely it was naturally occurring and that the human infection was from natural human and animal interaction.' The countries in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing coalition are coalescing around this assessment, the official said, and a second official, from a Five Eyes country, concurred with it. The US has yet to make a formal assessment public....'I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan,' Pompeo told ABC News on Sunday. The US intelligence community issued a statement on Thursday saying it is still working to 'determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.'" ~~~
~~~ Nsikan Akpan & Victoria Jaggard of the National Geographic: "Anthony 'Tony' Fauci ... says the best evidence shows the virus behind the pandemic was not made in a lab in China.... '... Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,' Faucisays. Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn't entertain an alternate theory -- that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped." Mrs. McC: Fauci goes on to discuss the odds a vaccine can be developed & manufactured, possibly by January, so the article in worth reading. Unfortunately, I had to sign up to get NG emails in order to access the interview, so I suppose you will, too. In any event, you can see that Fauci's willingness to express fact-friendly views puts him is on the wrong side of President* von Clownstick.
Igor Derysh of Salon, via RawStory: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday urged the public to take road trips to 'explore America,' even as top health officials warned against non-essential travel." --s
Paging Ivanka. Emily Peck of Yahoo! News: "More than half the states in the U.S. are tentatively opening back up, easing restrictions on retail stores and other businesses shuttered to stop the spread of coronavirus. Most day cares and schools, however, are not reopening, and millions of Americans can't get back to business as usual. They have children at home.... Policymakers throughout this crisis have continually failed to grapple with the reality parents are facing. And as the pandemic drags on the consequences only get worse." --s
Clare Foran of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday defended her decision along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to decline an offer from the Trump administration to deploy rapid coronavirus testing capabilities to Capitol Hill and said that tests should go to Americans on the front lines of the crisis. Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on 'The Situation Room' why she didn't accept the tests, Pelosi responded, 'Because they don't have them.... The testing organization said to us you're not next. We can bump you in line, push other people out of the way, but you're not next in terms of essential workers for this.'" ~~~
~~~ Meagan Vazquez & Jim Acosta of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday slammed the Trump administration's move to restrict coronavirus task force members from testifying before Congress this month. 'I was hoping they would spend more time on the crisis instead of those daily shows that the President put on,' the California Democrat said. 'We will be very strictly insisting on the truth and they might be afraid of the truth,' she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer...."
"Sacrifice". Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that the country needs to reopen, despite separate key coronavirus models forecasting that thousands may die daily in the United States from Covid-19 and that more than 100,000 may die in total. 'Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can -- but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?... Christie, asked Monday what his messaging would be to the American public if he sat in the Oval Office, said, 'The message is that the American people have gone through significant death before.' He pointed to the first and second World Wars as examples of how 'we've gone through it and we've survived it. We sacrificed those lives.'" --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Somebody should ask Christie which of his family members he wants to sacrifice. Not that he has a choice. Indeed, he might be the first to go.
A Few of Trump's "Good People": ~~~
~~~ Texas. Shawn Langlois of Market Watch: Brandon Hicks, "part of a group that was apparently illegally drinking and smoking around 5 p.m. [in an Austin, Texas, park], was charged with attempted assault on a public servant and jailed on Friday for shoving an Austin park ranger into the lake, the Austin American-Statesman reported. The ranger ... was reportedly just calmly asking everybody to social distance." ~~~
~~~ California. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "Officials have condemned a man in California who was pictured wearing a makeshift Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping at a supermarket. Pictures of the man wearing a white hood similar to one worn by the hate group at a Vons store in Santee, San Diego emerged on social media over the weekend. The incident occurred one day after San Diego imposed a new health order requiring everyone to cover their faces in public if they come within six feet of another person or whenever they enter a place of business from May 1 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus." A couple of tweets embedded in the report claim Santee is a white-supremacist center to the point others calls it "Klantee." Mrs. McC: Other than his headwear, photos suggest he's quite an attractive fellow & a spiffy dresser. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Colorado. Clayton Sandell of ABC News: "A Colorado man arrested after federal agents allegedly discovered pipe bombs in his home had also been helping organize an armed protest demanding the state lift its coronavirus restrictions, an official briefed on the case [said].... FBI and ATF agents served search warrants Friday morning at the Loveland, Colorado, home of Bradley Bunn, 53. Agents discovered four pipe bombs and potential pipe bomb components inside the house, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Attorney for Colorado Jason Dunn." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michigan. Corey Williams & Mike Householder of the AP: "A woman, her adult son and husband have been charged in the fatal shooting of a security guard who refused to let her daughter enter a Family Dollar in Michigan because she wasn't wearing a face mask to protect against transmission of the coronavirus. Calvin Munerlyn was shot Friday at the store just north of downtown Flint a short time after telling Sharmel Teague's daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, according to Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton. Teague, 45, argued with Munerlyn, 43, before leaving. Two men later came to the store. Teague; her husband, Larry Teague, 44; and Ramonyea Bishop, 23; are charged with first-degree premeditated murder and gun charges." ~~~
~~~ Ohio. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Republican Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale, who has been a vociferous critic of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, believes wearing a mask to slow the spread of the disease would violate his 'Judeo-Christian Principles.... One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.'" Mrs. McC: Yes, Vitale does raise serious theological questions. I'm wondering if God wears brassieres, fedoras & Speedo swimwear. Many Christian images of god picture her as a long-haired bearded man dressed in flowing robes. Is that what we all should wear?
John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Monday broke with tradition and held oral arguments by conference call, a first for the famously tech-averse tribunal as the justices adapt to the global pandemic.... As arguments opened, the justices allowed counsel two minutes of speaking time before posing questions, which began with Chief Justice John Roberts and proceeded to the other justices in order of seniority. In another rarity, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who typically remains mum during arguments, posed a series of questions, the first time he has spoken this term. When Thomas spoke during arguments last year, he snapped a three-year silence." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jason Koebler of Vice: "Tim Bray, a well known senior engineer and Vice President at Amazon has 'quit in dismay' because Amazon has been 'firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.' In an open letter on his website, Bray, who has worked at the company for nearly six years, called the company 'chickenshit' for firing and disparaging employees who have organized protests. He also said the firings are 'designed to create a climate of fear.' Amazon's strategy throughout the coronavirus crisis has been to fire dissenters and disparage them both in the press and behind closed doors. There have been dozens of confirmed coronavirus cases at warehouses around the country, and workers have repeatedly said the company isn't doing enough to protect them." (Also linked yesterday.) Mrs. McC: Look, Tim, at least Bezos is not literally defenestrating Amazon whistleblowers. ~~~
~~~ Russia. Christopher Miller of BuzzFeed News: "Alexander Shulepov, a doctor at an ambulance unit in Russia's western Voronezh region, complained in an April 22 post on social media about shortages of medical supplies and being forced to work despite testing positive for COVID-19. Ten days later, he fell from a hospital window under mysterious circumstances, local media reported, making him the third Russian doctor treating coronavirus patients to suffer a similar fate in just the past 10 days. Shulepov, 37, survived the fall from a second-floor window, but he suffered a fractured skull and is now in serious condition. The two other doctors are reported to have died. The falls are being viewed suspiciously by many in Russia, which has a history of targeting and eliminating critics, including several who have mysteriously fallen to their deaths in recent years."
Patrick Greenfield & Peter Muiruri of the Guardian: "[C]onservation work to protect some of the world's most important ecosystems is facing crisis following a collapse in ecotourism during the Covid-19pandemic.... But the economic consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown have raised fears of a surge in poaching, illegal fishing and deforestation in life-sustaining ecosystems, with tens of thousands of jobs in the ecotourism sector at risk around the world." --s
** All the Best People, Ctd., Looney Tunes Edition. Spencer Ackerman & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "For a nominee to helm the U.S. government's intelligence apparatus, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) draws on some unusual sources of information. Ratcliffe's official, verified campaign Twitter account follows several accounts on the political fringe, including a 9/11 truther account with just one follower besides himself and four promoting the outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that the world is run by a cabal of Democratic pedophile-cannibals -- and has been ruled a potential source of domestic terrorism by the FBI. The conspiracy theorists followed by Ratcliffe, whose nomination for director of national intelligence goes before the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday morning, cover a bizarre range of beliefs. They posit that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death to help Trump to take down the Deep State. Others claim a Democratic sex dungeon exists in ... a Washington pizzeria. But Ratcliffe and the QAnon promoters he follows have one thing in common: utter loyalty to Trump." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ratcliffe is batshit crazy. It's likely Republicans will confirm his nomination. ~~~
~~~ Mary Jalonick & Eric Tucker of the AP: "A Senate panel is considering Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe's nomination for director of national intelligence, holding the in-person hearing amid ... Donald Trump's shakeup of the intelligence community and under drastic new distancing rules to protect Capitol Hill from the coronavirus. Ratcliffe's confirmation hearing in the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday comes nine months after Trump first submitted and then abruptly withdrew the three-term lawmaker's nomination. The August withdrawal came after bipartisan Senate criticism that Ratcliffe, one of the president's most ardent defenders during the Russia investigations and Trump's impeachment, was unqualified to oversee 17 U.S. spy agencies. Trump unexpectedly renominated Ratcliffe in February, and his chances at securing the job appear far better, though confirmation is still not guaranteed.... Last week [Susan Collins (R-Maine)] said that she had spoken with [Ratcliffe] and concluded that he does have the experience 'to meet the statutory standard' for the position."
Presidential Race
Asma Khalid of NPR: "The secretary of the Senate's office said on Monday that it cannot comply with former Vice President Joe Biden's request to search for and release any records of an alleged sexual harassment complaint from Tara Reade. On Friday..., [Biden] had formally written to Secretary of the Senate Julie Adams asking for help in determining whether Reade had filed a written complaint 27 years ago, as she says she did while working as a staff assistant in Biden's Senate office.... The secretary of the Senate's office says that under federal law, it has 'no discretion to disclose any such information as requested in Vice President Biden's letter of May 1.' The statute that lays out how records of the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices, which would have likely handled such a complaint ... are governed[,] states that the records are 'strictly confidential.'" (A Hill report on the same subject was linked yesterday.) Thanks to Hattie for this link.
Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post: "Field organizers for Vice President Joe Biden's presidential campaign ratified a union contract that will give them a $15-an-hour minimum wage, overtime pay and a grievance process. Biden's campaign had previously reached an agreement with its organizers in Iowa.... The new agreement covers all of the campaign's organizers throughout the country. The organizers will be members of the Cedar Rapids-based Teamsters Local 238. 'For the first time in history, the campaign staff for a presumptive nominee of a major political party will be covered under a union agreement,' said Jesse Case, the union's secretary-treasurer. 'We are pleased to announce that Biden for President field organizers, represented by Teamsters Local 238, have ratified a collective bargaining agreement effective May 1.'"
Brian Stelter of CNN: "A lawyer for CNN's parent company WarnerMedia has written a cease-and-desist letter to President Trump's re-election campaign over the misleading contents of a new campaign ad. WarnerMedia says the Trump ad is misusing CNN news coverage in a way that's 'false, misleading and deceptive.'... [According to the Warner Media lawyer's letter,] 'the advertisement purposely and deceptively edits the clip to imply that [Wolf] Blitzer and Dr. [Sanjay] Gupta were crediting the President's travel ban policy issued in January for saving millions of American lives, when in fact Mr. Blitzer and Dr. Gupta were discussing recently implemented social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders issued by state and local governments.' In response to a request for comment from CNN Business, the campaign claimed that the ad is accurate and attacked the network's editorial decisions."
Devin Nunes' Nuisance Suits Are Nuisance Suits. Kate Irby of the Fresno Bee: "The attorney representing Rep. Devin Nunes in six lawsuits has received two recent, rare warnings from judges that raise the prospect of courts sanctioning him. People and organizations that Nunes' attorney, Steven Biss, is suing have begun asking judges to punish him in several other instances. Three of the requests for sanctions -- from National Public Radio, Twitter and a government whistleblower advocate -- mark an escalation in their defense against defamation lawsuits Biss has filed. Nunes sued Fusion GPS last year and lost the case in February, when a federal judge dismissed it. The judge in tossing the case advised Biss that he'd need to file a more substantive complaint to avoid sanctions. Biss and Nunes resubmitted the case in early April with a complaint that largely resembles their original argument. Fusion GPS' lawyers last week called Nunes' new complaint 'absurd' and asked the judge to sanction Biss and Nunes.... In dismissing [a] case [Biss filed] for [a] Russian graduate student [-- Nunes is not a litigant here --] in February, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia warned Biss against filing 'further inappropriate pleadings.'... Both of those rebukes are 'quite unusual,' according to Kevin Martingayle, a former Virginia State Bar president who has worked on ethics or disciplinary committees for over a decade." (Also linked yesterday.)
Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Green economy recovery packages for the coronavirus crisis will repair the global economy and put the world on track to tackle climate breakdown, but time is running out to implement the changes needed, new analysis has shown.... The Oxford study compared green stimulus projects with traditional stimulus, such as measures taken after the 2008 global financial crisis, and found green projects create more jobs, deliver higher short-term returns per pound spent by the government, and lead to increased long-term cost savings." --s
Beyond the Beltway
Indiana. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "Rich Jackson, a 54-year-old journalist who worked as the top editor of The Herald-Times, a Gannett-owned newspaper in Bloomington, Ind., received the bad news [that the paper was laying him off] in the parking lot next to the paper's headquarters. He was also told he would have to vacate the apartment in the same building, where he had been living for 10 months. Unable to go to the newsroom, Mr. Jackson [moved to a Motel 6 and] started a blog. He called it The Homeless Editor.... The decision [to lay off Jackson, a spokesperson for Gannett] said, had to do with a merger last year between Gannett and the parent company of GateHouse Media, not the economic fallout from the coronavirus."
** Mississippi. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The state of Mississippi allowed tens of millions of dollars in federal anti-poverty funds to be used in ways that did little or nothing to help the poor, with two nonprofit groups instead using the money on lobbyists, football tickets, religious concerts and fitness programs for state lawmakers, according to a scathing audit released on Monday. According to the report, released by the state auditor's office, the money also enriched celebrities with Mississippi ties, among them Brett Favre, a former N.F.L. quarterback whose Favre Enterprises was paid $1.1 million by a nonprofit group that received the welfare funds. The payments were for speaking engagements that Mr. Favre did not attend, the auditors said. Other large sums went to a family of pro wrestlers whose flamboyant patriarch, Ted DiBiase, earned national fame performing as the 'Million Dollar Man.'... In 1996, the TANF program converted the old federal welfare system, in which cash benefits to poor families were deemed an entitlement, to a system of block grants issued to the states. The new program created work rules and time limits on aid -- and, notably, gave each state much more leeway on how to spend the money." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a reminder of what a low-life political opportunist Bill Clinton is. Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs in Jacobin (2016): "When Clinton signed the bill, the New York Times reported that in a 'sweeping reversal of Federal policy, President Clinton today ended six decades of guaranteed help to the nation's poorest children' and thereby 'eliminated a pillar of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal social welfare program, delighting the Republican-controlled Congress in this election year and incensing many of his fellow Democrats.' Clinton's labor secretary, Robert Reich, said Clinton had outright 'ended the promise of help to the indigent and their children which Franklin D. Roosevelt had initiated more than sixty years before.'... Three senior officials in the Clinton administration resigned almost immediately.... Bill Clinton was open about the fact that his decision was at least in part motivated by political considerations (although George Stephanopoulos had told him that he was assured of reelection even if he did not sign the bill)."
Washington State. Omar Younis & Dan Whitcomb of Reuters: "Hundreds of Asian giant hornets, an invasive, predatory insect dubbed the 'murder hornet,' have turned up in Washington state near the Canadian border, where they pose a threat to humans and the beekeeping industry, state agriculture officials said on Monday." --s
Way Beyond
China. Reuters: "An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters. The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said. As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers[.]" --s
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