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Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Saturday

Apr182020

The Commentariat -- April 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Steve Eder, et al., of the New York Times: "In recent weeks, the United States has seen the first rollout of blood tests for coronavirus antibodies, widely heralded as crucial tools to assess the reach of the pandemic in the United States.... But for all their promise, the tests -- intended to signal whether people may have built immunity to the virus -- are already raising alarms.... Criticized for a tragically slow and rigid oversight of those tests months ago, the federal government is now faulted by public health officials and scientists for greenlighting the antibody tests too quickly and without adequate scrutiny. The Food and Drug Administration has allowed about 90 companies, many based in China, to sell tests that have not gotten government vetting.... But the agency has since warned that some of those businesses are making false claims about their products; health officials, like their counterparts overseas, have found others deeply flawed.... Even as government agencies, companies and academic researchers scramble to validate existing tests and create better ones, there are doubts they can deliver as promised. Most tests now available mistakenly flag at least some people as having antibodies when they do not, which could foster a dangerously false belief that those people have immunity."

Karen DeYoung, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials.... Senior Trump-appointed health officials ... consulted regularly at the highest levels with the WHO as the crisis unfolded, the officials said. The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trump's charge that the WHO's failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Dana Milbank first revealed U.S. scientists' presence at the WHO in WashPo his column, also linked here yesterday. Putting the onus on the WHO for not informing the U.S. about what it knew about the spread of Covid-19 is another giant lie Trump has repeated multiple times. As U.S. residents began sickening & dying from Covid-19, Trump repeatedly lied about the mortal danger the virus presented to Americans. As Milbank pointed out, Trump has told 18,000 lies since becoming president*, but hiding the truth about the coronavirus is, as Milbank calls it, "a murderous lie." Impeachable? Yep.

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "In a nation where most health coverage is hinged to employment, the economy's vanishing jobs are wiping out insurance in the midst of a pandemic."

Edwin Rios of Mother Jones: "On Sunday, in her first appearance on Fox News since 2017, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that a new $400 billion relief bill could come 'soon' but also slammed ... Donald Trump's 'weak' response to the coronavirus pandemic for failing to put forward science-based plans to address the pandemic. 'He doesn't take responsibility. He places blame -- blame on others,' Pelosi told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.... She also sharply criticized Trump's leadership when it comes to expanding testing for COVID-19, telling Wallace, 'We're way late on it, and that is a failure. The president gets an F -- a failure -- on the testing.'... Her comments came as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicated on CNN that the Trump administration and congressional Democrats could reach an agreement on yet another aid package would include $300 billion to replenish funds for a federal small business loan program that ran out last week."

~~~~~~~~~~

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

Steven Mufson, et al., of the Washington Post: "With the number of the covid-19 tests hovering at an average of 146,000 a day, businesses leaders and state officials are warning the Trump administration that they cannot safely reopen the economy without radically increasing the number of available tests -- perhaps into the millions a day -- and that won't happen without a greater coordinating role by the federal government. Though the capacity of private business to produce those volumes remains unclear, state leaders and health experts say that the administration should move with a greater sense of urgency and could do several relatively easy things to speed the production and distribution of tests. On Friday, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry said there were still critical supply chain issues that stand in the way of ramping up testing, including a lack of protective equipment for technicians who run the tests, and a shortage of swabs and reagents -- chemical solutions required to run the tests.... This week the federal government took one step private industry has been seeking -- Medicare doubled reimbursements from $51 to $100 a test, making covid-19 testing profitable for labs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Keith Collins of the New York Times: "... new estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States cannot safely reopen unless it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering over the next month.... To reopen the United States by mid-May, the number of daily tests performed between now and then should be 500,000 to 700,000, according to the Harvard estimates. That level of testing is necessary to identify the majority of people who are infected and isolate them from people who are healthy, according to the researchers.... The researchers said that expanded testing could reduce the rate [of people testing positive] to 10 percent, which is the maximum rate recommended by the World Health Organization. In Germany, that number is 7 percent, and in South Korea, it is closer to 3 percent." ~~~

~~~ Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: "The sentiment has been mouthed by every fool from Dr. Oz to the Cheetos-dusted flimflam man in the Oval Office: Rather than damage the economy further, we must accept a certain number of coronavirus casualties so the rest of us can go back to restaurants and football games.... There is something deeply suspect about this rush toward sacrificial death for the sake of American dollars, this framing of margin calls as worth dying over.... It's a false moral equation and a false choice. And the people putting it forward smack of panic. How about we ... [take] common-sense measures to prevent the preventable. Such as, a ramped-up national testing and tracing system that would allow Americans to make legitimate personal-risk assessments and reduce the chance of new outbreaks.... It's called informed consent. And right now, we don't have it.... The crudity of the White House's response to the virus resembles nothing so much as [World War I] -- rudimentary, unskilled, disorganized waste with needless carnage, led by a vain martinet kaiser with extravagant hair who never set foot in a trench." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Willman of the Washington Post: "The failure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to quickly produce a test kit for detecting the novel coronavirus was triggered by a glaring scientific breakdown at the CDC's central laboratory complex in Atlanta, according to scientists with knowledge of the matter and a determination by federal regulators. The CDC facilities that assembled the kits violated sound manufacturing practices, resulting in contamination of one of the three test components used in the highly sensitive detection process, the scientists said.... The Washington Post separately confirmed that Food and Drug Administration officials concluded that the CDC violated its own laboratory standards in making the kits. The substandard practices exposed the kits to contamination.... After the difficulty emerged, CDC officials took more than a month to remove the unnecessary [and contaminated] step from the kits, exacerbating nationwide delays in testing...."

MEANWHILE. Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration's failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat. In those two months, the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year -- from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million, according to a Post analysis.... Similarly, shipments of ventilators and protective garments jumped by triple digits.... On Jan. 30, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Fox Business that the outbreak could 'accelerate the return of jobs to North America' because companies would move factories away from impacted areas.... 'Instead of taking steps to prepare, they ignored the advice of one expert after another,' said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.). 'People right now, as we speak, are dying because there have been inadequate supplies of PPE.'"

Campbell Robertson & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis of census data crossed with the federal government's essential worker guidelines. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else." The article is an expansion of an item that appears in Saturday's NYT coronavirus live updates. (Also linked yesterday.)

Debbie Cenziper, et al., of the Washington Post: "Forty percent of more than 650 nursing homes nationwide with publicly reported cases of the coronavirus have been cited more than once by inspectors in recent years for violating federal standards meant to control the spread of infections, according to a Washington Post analysis. Since 2016, the nursing homes accrued hundreds of deficiencies for unsafe conditions that can trigger the spread of flu, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin diseases." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: What is the point of "citing" these Petri dishes if you don't shut them down & sue their owners for their last shiny pennies?

Slaughterhouse 50. Michael Corkery & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "... meat plants, honed over decades for maximum efficiency and profit, have become major 'hot spots' for the coronavirus pandemic, with some reporting widespread illnesses among their workers. The health crisis has revealed how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production<. After decades of consolidation, there are about 800 federally inspected slaughterhouses in the United States, processing billions of pounds of meat for food stores each year. But a relatively small number of them account for the vast majority of production. In the cattle industry, a little more than 50 plants are responsible for as much as 98 percent of slaughtering and processing in the United States.... More than a dozen beef, pork and chicken processing plants have closed or are running at greatly reduced speeds because of the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday.)

Edward Moreno of the Hill: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Congress is 'very close' to a deal on additional funding for the small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).... Pelosi's comments come as the program's coffers ran dry Thursday and the Senate adjourned without reaching an agreement on the terms of the fourth coronavirus relief package. Congressional Democrats have been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about the amount of additional money that will go into the program in the next stimulus bill."

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#FloridaMoron#1. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday offered a fiery defense of his response to the novel coronavirus and the nation's testing capabilities as the administration faces growing pressure to ramp up testing. In a lengthy briefing that covered various topics, Trump attempted to cast the United States' response to the virus as far better than other nations in Europe and elsewhere. Trump both lashed out at Democratic criticism of his response to COVID-19 while hammering the previous administration of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, for leaving a bare 'cupboard' of medical supplies for him to pull from." Mrs. McC: Sounds as if his show-of-lies has gone into reruns.

David Fahrenthold & Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Thousands of U.S. hotels have volunteered to help local authorities house doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at reduced rates -- or even free -- during the covid-19 pandemic. President Trump's White House has praised these efforts. But so far, none of Trump's own hotels are known to be participating. In five U.S. cities where President Trump's company operates large hotels -- New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington and Honolulu -- local authorities said the Trump hotel was not involved in their efforts to provide low-cost or no-cost rooms to those fighting the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mary McCord in a Washington Post op-ed: "President Trump incited insurrection Friday against the duly elected governors of the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. Just a day after issuing guidance for re-opening America that clearly deferred decision-making to state officials -- as it must under our Constitutional order -- the president undercut his own guidance by calling for criminal acts against the governors for not opening fast enough.... It's not at all unreasonable to consider Trump's tweets about' liberation' as at least tacit encouragement to citizens to take up arms against duly elected state officials of the party opposite his own, in response to sometimes unpopular but legally issued stay-at-home orders." McCord argues that when a president* does it, it isn't protected free speech since the power of his bully pulpit is likely to lead to lawless action. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

It's More Than November. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "After years of single-minded devotion, the conservative movement is achingly close to dismantling the New Deal political order and turning the clock back to when capital could act without limits or restraints.... In which case, it makes all the sense in the world for Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative movement to push for the end of the lockdown, public health be damned.... And all of this is happening as one of the most progressive generations in history begins to take its place in our politics, its views informed by two decades of war and economic crisis." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence on Saturday addressed the Air Force Academy's Class of 2020, speaking solemnly about the coronavirus pandemic at a significantly scaled-back ceremony. 'We gather at a time of national crisis,' Pence told the 984 senior cadets before him on the academy's parade field, called the terrazzo, with each of them sitting eight feet apart."

Maggie Severns & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "A senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, whose nomination to a post overseeing health insurance floundered in the wake of revelations of his financial ties to UnitedHealth Group, is now playing a key role overseeing a $30 billion recovery program being administered by UnitedHealth. The choice of UnitedHealth, a leading health insurer, to serve as a conduit in funneling billions of dollars to hospitals and other providers, surprised many in health care, including employees at the Department of Health and Human Services who had assumed that HHS would administer the program itself. Though UnitedHealth says it will make no profit off of the deal, its role in handing out billions of federal dollars to hospitals could boost its relationships with the White House and the public during a tumultuous year and possibly provide it with valuable health care data, experts say.... After the White House withdrew [Stephen] Parente's nomination in the face of congressional concerns about his relationships with the healthcare industry -- and UnitedHealth in particular -- and omissions about finances that Parente had made on his financial disclosure form, the president appointed him to his current post, which does not require confirmation."

Meredith McGraw & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "As ... Donald Trump uses the bully pulpit to press state and local governments to ease their virus-related lockdowns, conservative activists and religious leaders are urging his administration to go further by unleashing a wave of lawsuits arguing that the measures are intruding on Americans' legally protected rights to worship, protest and buy guns. In a letter sent to Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday, the Conservative Action Project, a group of conservative leaders including Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots, called governors and local leaders 'petty, would-be dictators' who had committed 'rampant abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties' as part of their response to the coronavirus.... Trump told faith leaders on a call Friday afternoon that while he wants everyone to abide by his administration's guidelines, he affirmed the right of churches to meet and their civil liberties to gather.... The president listened to recommendations from faith leaders, according to the participants, who shared their concerns about getting the economy re-opened."

Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Thousands of people are preparing to attend protests across the US in the coming days, as a rightwing movement against stay-at-home orders, backed by wealthy conservative groups and promoted by Donald Trump, continues to take hold.... While organisers claim the protests are grassroots- and people-driven, a closer look reveals a movement driven by traditional rightwing groups, including one funded by the family of Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos.... As with the Tea Party, the anti-stay-at-home movement has been promoted by a rightwing media eager for the economy to reopen, including Fox News which on Friday aired a segment on protests in Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota. Two minutes later, Trump tweeted to his 77.4 million followers the need to 'liberate' those states." ~~~

~~~ Salvador Hernandez of BuzzFeed News has more on the fake grassroots protests.

#Florida Morons. Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "Aerial snapshots of people flocking to a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Fla., made waves on the Internet on Saturday. Local news aired photos and videos of Florida's shoreline dotted with people, closer than six feet apart, spurring #FloridaMorons to trend on Twitter after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gave the go-ahead for local beachfront governments to decide whether to reopen their beaches during a news briefing Friday. Duval and St. Johns counties have reopened their beaches, while Miami-Dade County officials said they are considering following suit. On the same day that Florida reported 58 deaths from the coronavirus -- its highest daily toll since the pandemic began -- DeSantis told reporters that it's essential that Floridians get exercise outdoors."

Kansas. AP: "A federal judge on Saturday blocked Kansas from limiting attendance at in-person religious worship services or activities to 10 people or fewer to check the spread of the coronavirus, signaling that he believes that it's likely that the policy violates religious freedom and free speech rights. The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Wichita prevents the enforcement of an order issued by Gov. Laura Kelly if pastors and congregations observe social distancing. The judge's decision will remain in effect until May 2; he has a hearing scheduled Thursday in a lawsuit filed against Kelly by two churches and their pastors." Mrs. McC: Broomes is a Trump appointee.

Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "The star-studded Lady Gaga-curated fundraising event 'One World: Together at Home' raised $127.9 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO and $72.8 million for local and regional responders, organizer Global Citizen said in a statement early Sunday.... Saturday's online event honoring and celebrating those on the front lines of the fight against the novel coronavirus was broadcast worldwide and billed as the biggest concert since the 1985's Live Aid, watched by 1.9 billion people. Former first ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama were among more than 70 artists and celebrities to take part from their homes." Mrs. McC: What? No Melanie? ~~~

~~~ Per Capita, This Guy Raised A Lot More. Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post (April 17): "Last week..., 99-year-old veteran [Capt. Tom Moore] set himself a goal to raise money for Britain's widely cherished but chronically underfunded National Health Service during the deadly coronavirus outbreak. He set up a fundraising page and decided to walk the 82-foot length of his garden back and forth 100 times, using his walker for support. He split the journey into chunks of 10 laps with the idea of completing them before his 100th birthday on April 30. Initially, he wanted to raise 1,000 pounds ($1,250).... As of Friday morning, Moore had raised $23 million for Britain's health-care system.... More than 13,000 people in the United Kingdom have died of the virus, including 27 health-care staff."

Presidential Race

Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's campaign is preparing to launch a broad effort aimed at linking Joe Biden to China, after concluding that it would be more politically effective than defending or promoting Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision by top campaign advisers, which has met pushback from some White House officials and donors, reflects polling showing a declining approval rating for Trump among key groups and growing openness to supporting Biden in recent weeks.... The shift represents a remarkable acknowledgment by aides to a self-described ... 'wartime president,' leading during what might have been a rally-around-the-flag moment, to effectively decide it is better to go on the attack than focus on his ;own achievements." ~~~

~~~ Here's Biden's response, via the Huffington Post:

News Lede

AP: "A man disguised as a police officer went on a shooting rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday, killing 13 people, in the deadliest such attack in the country in 30 years. Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead. A police officer was among those killed. Several bodies were found inside and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Halifax. Overnight, police began advising residents of the town -- already on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic -- to lock their doors and stay in their basements. Several homes in the area were set on fire as well." An update reports 16 people were killed; it's unclear from the report if that number includes the gunman.

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Friday

Apr172020

The Commentariat -- April 18, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Campbell Robertson & Robert Gebeloff of the New York Times: "One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis of census data crossed with the federal government's essential worker guidelines. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else." This article is an expansion of an item that appears in Saturday's NYT coronavirus live updates.

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So what is the point of "citing" these Petri dishes if you don't shut them down & sue their owners for their last shiny pennies?

Slaughterhouse 50. Michael Corkery & David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: "... meat plants, honed over decades for maximum efficiency and profit, have become major 'hot spots' for the coronavirus pandemic, with some reporting widespread illnesses among their workers. The health crisis has revealed how these plants are becoming the weakest link in the nation's food supply chain, posing a serious challenge to meat production. After decades of consolidation, there are about 800 federally inspected slaughterhouses in the United States, processing billions of pounds of meat for food stores each year. But a relatively small number of them account for the vast majority of production. In the cattle industry, a little more than 50 plants are responsible for as much as 98 percent of slaughtering and processing in the United States.... More than a dozen beef, pork and chicken processing plants have closed or are running at greatly reduced speeds because of the pandemic."

Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post: "The sentiment has been mouthed by every fool from Dr. Oz to the Cheetos-dusted flimflam man in the Oval Office: Rather than damage the economy further, we must accept a certain number of coronavirus casualties so the rest of us can go back to restaurants and football games.... There is something deeply suspect about this rush toward sacrificial death for the sake of American dollars, this framing of margin calls as worth dying over.... It's a false moral equation and a false choice. And the people putting it forward smack of panic. How about we ... [take] common-sense measures to prevent the preventable. Such as, a ramped-up national testing and tracing system that would allow Americans to make legitimate personal-risk assessments and reduce the chance of new outbreaks.... It's called informed consent. And right now, we don't have it.... The crudity of the White House's response to the virus resembles nothing so much as [World War I] -- rudimentary, unskilled, disorganized waste with needless carnage, led by a vain martinet kaiser with extravagant hair who never set foot in a trench."

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. "From the cashier to the emergency room nurse to the drugstore pharmacist to the home health aide taking the bus to check on her older client, the soldier on the front lines of the current national emergency is most likely a woman. One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential, according to a New York Times analysis of census data crossed with the federal government's essential worker guidelines. Nonwhite women are more likely to be doing essential jobs than anyone else." ~~~

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

Christina Ng of ABC News & Dr. Mark Abdelmalek: "The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County[, California,] found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested [for coronavirus antibodies] were positive for antibodies -- a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. Based on the initial data, researchers estimate that the range of people who may have had the virus to be between 48,000 and 81,000 in the county of 2 million -- as opposed to the approximately 1,000 in the county's official tally at the time the samples were taken. 'Our findings suggest that there is somewhere between 50- and 80-fold more infections in our county than what's known by the number of cases than are reported by our department of public health,' Dr. Eran Bendavid..., [of] Stanford University who led the study, said in an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer."

"Death Pits." Farah Stockman, et al., of the New York Times: "... a nationwide tally by The New York Times has found the number of people living in or connected to nursing homes who have died of the coronavirus to be at least 7,000, far higher than previously known.... Overall, about a fifth of deaths from the virus in the United States have been tied to nursing homes or other long-term care facilities, the Times review of cases shows. And more than 36,500 residents and employees across the nation have contracted it. In interviews with more than two dozen workers in long-term care facilities as well as family members of residents and health care experts, a portrait emerged of a system unequipped to handle the onslaught and disintegrating further amid the growing crisis.... The number of cases at these facilities ... is almost certainly still higher since many facilities, counties and states have not provided detailed information."

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I listened to part of the 5 pm Trump Show Friday, and the substantive part, IMO, was this: mike pence said all the states had all the tests they needed; Anthony Fauci followed him & explained why no states were getting all the tests they needed. (Fauci, as is his wont, expressed this in a roundabout way, so some people wouldn't figure out he was saying the veep was lying.) ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "Senate Democrats exploded in frustration during a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence and Trump administration officials on Friday afternoon, with one normally laid-back senator [Angus King (I-Maine)] asserting it was the most maddening phone call he&'s ever taken part in, according to participants and people familiar with the call. The call between ... Donald Trump's coronavirus task force and Senate Democrats on Friday left the Senate minority 'livid,' according to one Democrat on the call, because of the lack of clear answers about national testing for the disease. Sen. Angus King ... called it a 'dereliction of duty,' said a second person on the call. King added: 'I have never been so mad about a phone call in my life.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: Anderson Cooper spoke with a couple of doctors to talk about Trump's death-to-Americans plan, and it's as bad as you already guessed. The administration is not just leaving it up to governors to decide when to authorize reopening various facilities in their states; he also is leaving it up to states to conduct & manage their own testing: a prerequisite to deciding what can be reopened. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York didn't have the money to do the testing (much less the expertise, I'd guess), and you can be sure most other states are in the same position. Besides the costs of the test kits themselves, testing will take a lot of personnel to conduct the tests & analyze them. States can't run deficits the way the feds can. In addition, testing uniformity throughout the nation is essential to make the results meaningful. As one of the doctors said on CNN, right now testing regimens vary not just from state-to-state but even from hospital-to-hospital within the same county. I'm not saying mike pence would have been a great president, but left to his own devices, it's not possible he would have done a worse job than Trump. Every GOP senator except Mitt Romney is responsible for this disaster. On the cusp of the pandemic, they had a chance to get rid of the worst president* in American history, and they blew it.

Today in Trump Projection. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "President Trump went after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a tweet late Friday, attacking the Democratic leader as 'an incompetent political hack' and calling on her to return to Washington as lawmakers wrestle over another coronavirus relief bill. Trump shared a tweet criticizing Pelosi over her appearance on 'The Late Late Show' with James Corden earlier this week. In the clip, Pelosi shows off a stockpile of ice cream packed in her kitchen freezer in San Francisco...." Mrs. McC: Apparently Trump is unaware there is long-distance phone service between the coasts. Trump, of course, is an incompetent political hack who spends most of his waking time watching other people do stuff on the teevee.

... the question of the 2020 election, as Trump and his party attempt to frame it: Are you manly enough to sneer at death, like real men do in the movies (which are fake, of course, but never mind that), or are you one of those pusillanimous patsies who quivers under the bed sheets like some avocado toast-eating intellectual, whining that we have to listen to the experts?... Donald Trump and the Republicans are going to turn the election into a red vs. blue culture war battle.... -- Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast @ 6:28 am ET Friday

LIBERATE MICHIGAN! -- Donald Trump tweet @11:22 am ET Friday

LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege! -- Donald Trump tweet at 11:22 am ET
LIBERATE MINNESOTA! -- Donald Trump tweet @11:28 am ET Friday ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation's governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.... His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Mr. Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base. Echoed across the internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraright conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a president egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervor that in its anti-government rhetoric was eerily reminiscent of the birth of the Tea Party movement a decade ago." The story includes more on governors' reactions to Trump's guidelines & his stunningly bad behavior. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "... Donald Trump can't help but sow division, even at a time when Americans are largely united in supporting stay-at-home orders and social distancing to slow the spread of the coronavirus.... These posts -- which are among the most dangerous of Trump's tenure -- appear to have been inspired by a segment he saw on Fox News minutes earlier.... Asked on Thursday if he thinks protesters in Michigan should listen to local officials like Whitmer, Trump said that such people listen to him instead. 'I think they're listening. I think they listen to me. They seem to be protesters that like me,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: AND, as Chuck Todd (of all people) pointed out, none of the Democratic-led states Trump targeted, even within the context of the limited testing available to them, has reached the point in the arc of infections & recoveries that Trump himself said yesterday evening must be met before they can be "liberated." Worth remembering, too: some of the protesters in Michigan were carrying confederate flags and sporting swastika tattoos. So yeah, they like Trump. ~~~

~~~ Update. David Smith of the Guardian: "At Friday's White House coronavirus taskforce briefing, Trump played down fears that by crowding together, the protesters themselves could spread the Covid-19 illness. 'These are people expressing their views,' he told reporters. "I see where they are and I see the way they're working. They seem to be very responsible people to me, but they've been treated a little bit rough.'... Some protesters have carried guns, waved Trump and Confederate flags and sought to frame the debate as a defence of constitutional freedoms.... On Friday, Trump also stood by his criticism of the Democratic governors, even though they are following his own federal guidelines." Emphasis added.

~~~ Ben Collins & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "When ... Donald Trump tweeted 'LIBERATE MINNESOTA!' on Friday morning, some of his most fervent supporters in far-right communities -- including those who have agitated for violent insurrection -- heard a call to arms.... Trump's tweets ... pushed many online extremist communities to speculate whether the president was advocating for armed conflict, an event they've termed 'the boogaloo,' for which many far-right activists have been gearing up and advocating since last year. There were sharp increases on Twitter in terms associated with conspiracies such as QAnon and the 'boogaloo' term immediately following the president's tweets, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, an independent nonprofit group ... that tracks and reports on misinformation and hate speech across social media.... 'The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies - even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted,' [Gov. Jay] Inslee [D-Wash.] wrote [on Twitter]."

This Seems Sensible. Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump unveiled a proposal this week to reopen America's gyms in spite of the coronavirus outbreak after a phone call that included [Bahram Akradi,] the head of the company that owns luxury fitness brands Equinox and SoulCycle, who also happens to be a high-profile Trump supporter. In a memo issued on Thursday titled 'Guidelines for Opening Up America Again,' the White House included gyms among the businesses that would reopen to the general public during 'phase one' of its plan to jump-start the American economy.... Though the document said gyms could open 'if they adhere to strict physical distancing and sanitation protocols,' their inclusion nevertheless struck public health experts as bizarre. 'Gyms are like a petri dish,' said Laurence Gostin ... [of] Georgetown University. 'People are close to one another, they're sweating, they're coughing and sneezing, they're touching multiple surfaces, they're sharing equipment, they're indoors. Literally all of the heightened risk factors for COVID transmission are all entwined together in a gym.'"

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Donald Trump found himself isolated among western leaders at a virtual G7 summit, as they expressed strong support for the World Health Organization after the US's suspension of its funding. Health officials around the world have condemned the US president’s decision to stop his country's funding for the UN agency.... On Thursday, G7 leaders voiced their backing for the WHO and urged international co-operation. Immediately after the hour-long conference call, a spokesman for Angela Merkel said that the German chancellor had argued that 'the pandemic can only be overcome with a strong and co-ordinated international response'. The spokesman said Merkel 'expressed support for the WHO as well as a number of other partners'.... The White House insisted there was support for US criticism of the WHO in the G7 call, saying 'much of the conversation centred on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO. The leaders called for a thorough review and reform process.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: This week, Donald Trump accused "the World Health Organization of 'covering up the spread of the coronavirus' and failing to 'share information in a timely and transparent fashion.'... The next day he called the WHO a 'tool of China' and floated the vile conspiracy theory that the WHO deliberately concealed the danger of the virus.... This is a damnable and murderous lie. As Trump surely knows..., 15 officials from his administration were embedded with the WHO in Geneva, working full time, hand-in-glove with the organization on the virus from the very first day China disclosed the outbreak to the world, Dec. 31.... In the weeks that followed, they and other U.S. government scientists engaged in all major deliberations and decisions at the WHO on the novel coronavirus, had access to all information, and contributed significantly to the world body's conclusions and recommendations. Everything that the WHO knew, the Trump administration knew -- in real time. As congressional investigators who requested WHO documents and communications are now learning, senior Trump administration officials ... consulted with the WHO throughout the crisis."

Michael Warren of CNN: "Just as cases are starting to plateau in some big cities and along the coasts, the coronavirus is catching fire in rural states across the American heartland, where there has been a small but significant spike this week in cases. Playing out amid these outbreaks is a clash between a frontier culture that values individual freedom and personal responsibility, and the onerous but necessary restrictions to contain a novel biological threat....The bump in coronavirus cases is most pronounced in states without stay at home orders. Oklahoma saw a 53% increase in cases over the past week, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Over same time, cases jumped 60% in Arkansas, 74% in Nebraska, and 82% in Iowa. South Dakota saw a whopping 205% spike. The remaining states, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming each saw an increase in cases, but more in line with other places that have stay-at-home orders. And all of those numbers may very well undercount the total cases, given a persistent lack of testing across the US."

Isaac Stanley-Becker & others of the Washington Post report on what various governors are doing to lift restrictions and what the Trump administration is doing to help them (nothing).

From the New York Times' live updates. Friday: "Facing mounting economic damage and with encouragement from President Trump, governors of some states have started to announce plans for businesses to tiptoe back into operation on May 1, even as cases surge in some parts of the country.... Beaches in Duval County, Fla., where infections appear to be flattening, will reopen with restrictions at 5 p.m. on Friday.... Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin said on Thursday that golf courses could open with certain restrictions and that for-hire lawn care could be carried out if it was performed by one person. Stores selling materials to make face masks can open for curbside pickup, he said." (Also linked yesterday.)

California. Weird News. Jon Passantino of CNN: "... Gov. Gavin Newsom responded Thursday to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's claim that the company had delivered more than 1,000 ventilators to the state's hospitals treating a surge of coronavirus patients.... The governor's office told CNN the state's hospitals had not received ventilators promised last month by the Tesla CEO. Included in [a series of] tweets from Musk was a partial list of hospitals that he said had been sent ventilators.... He said the donations were 'based on direct requests from their ICU wards, with exact specifications of each unit provided before shipment.' 'I was not personally aware of that list,' Newsom said at a press conference. '... I look forward to learning more about where they went and am grateful for his support.' CNN contacted 10 California hospitals identified by Musk in the partial list of recipients he posted on Thursday. Of the four hospitals that responded, all said they had received bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines -- devices that can aid breathing and be used for sleep apnea. None had received ventilators."

Florida. Common Dreams, republished in the Raw Story: "Less than 24 hours after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis relaxed restrictions on social distancing in the state, clearing the way for beaches and parks in some areas to reopen, the city of Jacksonville announced Friday its beaches would reopen at 5pm.... As Miami reporter Brian Entin noted on Twitter, confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida spiked on Thursday as DeSantis issued his order." --s ~~~

~~~ David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "When the Miami Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office last month about COVID-19 deaths in the epicenter of Florida's coronavirus outbreak, attorneys for the state health department moved to block the records from becoming public.... The Herald ... obtained the information Thursday after the county bucked Florida's Department of Health. But the episode is an example of how the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis often has been unwilling or unable to provide crucial information about its coronavirus response -- and at times has actively tried to shield critical details about the depths of the crisis from becoming public.... In recent weeks, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration has refused to name the nursing homes experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, even as the number of cases in longterm care facilities has passed 1,300. The Department of Corrections had until Wednesday declined to acknowledge two inmate COVID-19 deaths at a privately run prison. And the Department of Health has been unwilling to disclose the extent of an undefined backlog of unresolved coronavirus tests at private labs." (Also linked yesterday.)

Illinois. Flying Under the Radar. Frank Main of the Chicago Sun-Times (April 14): "Gov. J.B. Pritzker is planning to obtain millions of masks and gloves from China and bring those supplies back to Illinois on charter jets -- but he's keeping the details secret out of fear the Trump administration might seize the cargo for the federal stockpile, sources said Tuesday." ~~~

~~~ Chris Tye of CBS Chicago: "A massive shipment of supplies to help fight COVID-19 arrived at [Chicago's] O’Hare [Airport Thursday afternoon].... One state insider called this a wild west kind of mission. Another asked CBS 2 to keep quiet on the landing until it was completed, four minutes ahead of schedule. And now two dozens pallets of the most crucial supplies are headed to Illinois' front lines.... A second flight with similar cargo scheduled for next week. Dubbed by some as secret flights to keep Washington from muddying the pricey delivery. 'It is true that the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are being sent elsewhere in the nation,' [Gov. J.B.] Pritzker [D] said. 'And so I wanted to make sure we receive what we ordered.'" ~~~

~~~ One Reason Pritzker Had to Sneak in the Masks. Chris Boyette & Caroline Kelly of CNN (March 31): "Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that the federal government sent the wrong type of medical masks in a shipment that his state recently received. Pritzker, a Democrat, said at a news conference that the White House told him the state would receive 300,000 N95 masks from the federal government. The N95 respirator mask is what doctors wear when treating individuals infected with a virus. Instead, what Illinois received were surgical masks, which are not considered respiratory protection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are not totally effective in preventing coronavirus transmission."

Michigan. Susan Demas of Michigan Advance writes an excellent column on the protest in Lansing, Michigan, against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Anna Gronwold of Politico: "Gov. Andrew Cuomo embarked on a 20-minute stemwinder during his press briefing Friday, hitting back on a series of presidential tweets accusing him of overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo, who has for weeks said he doesn't want to fight ... Donald Trump, couldn't resist lobbing a few verbal grenades after Trump tweeted during Cuomo's Friday appearance that the governor 'should spend more time "doing" and less time "complaining."'" ~~~

Rachel Seigel & Thomas Heath of the Washington Post: "Stocks flashed green around the world as investors clung to early reports that an antiviral medicine appeared to successfully treat severe symptoms for coronavirus patients. The Dow Jones industrial average initially surged 600 points at Friday's open but was up 350 points, or 1.5 percent, within the hour. The Standard & Poor's 500 jumped 1.5 percent and Nasdaq composite climbed 0.85 percent. U.S. markets appeared headed toward their second straight week of gains, bouncing back from March lows that ended the 10-year bull market. The rally came a day after dismal economic numbers showed the United States had erased all job gains of the past decade due to the pandemic, which continues to force tens of millions of Americans to stay home and disrupt entire industries.... On Thursday, STAT news reported that severely ill coronavirus patients were responding well to remdesivir, a Gilead Sciences drug, at a Chicago hospital. The trial involved only 125 people and the preliminary results were not peer reviewed, but it was welcome news for investors looking for light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and the economic recovery that will come with it. Gilead shares spiked nearly 8 percent after the open." A CNBC story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Mrs. McCrabbie: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN's medical correspondent was pretty unenthusiastic about the Gilead trial of remdesivir. She said what was reported was some doctors who were paid by Gilead speaking enthusiastically about the results. While it's possible the product will work well to curb symptoms, it's just as possible it won't. Remdesivir was initially designed to work to mitigate Ebola symptoms, and it didn't work.

The Majority of Americans Are Not as Dumb as Donald. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "New polling from Pew Research Center suggests that Americans are more likely to side with the experts than with Trump. By a 2-to-1 margin, they are more concerned that distancing measures will be rescinded too quickly than too slowly. There's a partisan split on the question, but not as big as you might think. Among conservative Republicans, views are about split. Among moderate Republicans, a large majority is more worried about moving too quickly than too slowly.... Americans also generally give Trump low marks on his handling of the pandemic -- particularly in terms of his presentation of its risks. A majority think that Trump has made the coronavirus outbreak seem better than it is.... Two-thirds of Americans, according to Pew's polling, think that Trump was too slow to take major steps to address the pandemic." The Pew report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Also Not as Dumb as Dr. Phil. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "After Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, explained the White House's new guidelines for states to slowly reopen their economies in a three-phase process, Fox News host Laura Ingraham ... turned to Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, television psychologist to the masses. He acknowledged that the novel coronavirus is killing Americans — more than 33,000 as of early Friday -- but also wondered why the economy would shut down over the pandemic but continues to function as people die from lung cancer, car crashes and pool drownings. (Unlike coronavirus, none of the causes of death listed by Dr. Phil are contagious.) The conflicting views, one from the most qualified source available on the topic and the other from a talk-show host with questionable credentials, highlighted again how expert advice on the novel coronavirus has frequently been undermined by celebrity doctors with little to no infectious disease experience." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: For those of you who thought Oprah Winfrey should run for president, let me remind you that she made Dr. Phil's career as a teevee personality.

Presidential Race (Sort of)

** The Money Launderer. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "President Donald Trump's campaign is secretly paying one Trump son's wife and another one's girlfriend $180,000 a year each through the campaign manager's private company.... Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of eldest son Donald Trump Jr., and Lara Trump, wife of middle son Eric Trump, are each receiving $15,000 a month.... [The payments] ... are being made by campaign manager Bradley Parscale through his company rather than directly by either the campaign or the party in order to avoid public reporting requirements. 'I can pay them however I want to pay them,' Parscale told HuffPost on Friday, but then declined to comment any further....Stuart Stevens, a top aide to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, was ... blunt: 'That's why Parscale has the job. He's a money launderer, not a campaign manager.'... Trump campaign and the RNC have been getting around [FEC rules] by routing many of their payments through Pascale's private companies. In all, Parscale's firms ― Giles-Parscale and Parscale Strategy LLC ― have been paid $38.9 million by Trump's campaign, the RNC, joint fundraising committees and a pro-Trump super PAC between the day Trump took office through February 2020[.]" --s

News Lede

Hill: "Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill died early Saturday at his home in Pittsburgh at the age of 84, his family told The Wall Street Journal. O'Neill had been undergoing treatment for lung cancer, and his death was unrelated to the coronavirus. O'Neill, who also worked as Alcoa's chief executive, was known for an independent streak that at times led to clashes with former President George W. Bush, in whose Cabinet he served." ~~~

~~~ Update. O'Neill's New York Times obituary is here.

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Friday

Apr172020

The Commentariat -- April 17, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Anderson Cooper spoke with a couple of doctors to talk about Trump's death-to-Americans plan, and it's as bad as you already guessed. The administration is not just leaving it up to governors to decide when to authorize reopening various facilities in their states; he also is leaving it up to states to conduct & manage their own testing: a prerequisite to deciding what can be reopened. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York didn't have the money to do the testing (much less the expertise, I'd guess), and you can be sure most other states are in the same position. Besides the costs of the test kits themselves, testing will take a lot of personnel to conduct the tests & analyze them. States can't run deficits the way the feds can. In addition, testing uniformity throughout the nation is essential to make the results meaningful. As one of the doctors said on CNN, right now testing regimens vary not just from state-to-state but even from hospital-to-hospital within the same county. I'm not saying mike pence would have been a great president, but left to his own devices, it's not possible he would have done a worse job than Trump. Every GOP senator except Mitt Romney is responsible for this disaster. On the cusp of the pandemic, they had a chance to get rid of the worst president* in American history, and they blew it.

... the question of the 2020 election, as Trump and his party attempt to frame it: Are you manly enough to sneer at death, like real men do in the movies (which are fake, of course, but never mind that), or are you one of those pusillanimous patsies who quivers under the bed sheets like some avocado toast-eating intellectual, whining that we have to listen to the experts?... Donald Trump and the Republicans are going to turn the election into a red vs. blue culture war battle.... -- Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast @ 6:28 am ET Friday

LIBERATE MICHIGAN! -- Donald Trump tweet @11:22 am ET Friday

LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege! -- Donald Trump tweet at 11:22 am ET

LIBERATE MINNESOTA! -- Donald Trump tweet @11:28 am ET Friday ~~~

The New York Times' live updates of U.S. coronavirus developments Friday are here. "Facing mounting economic damage and with encouragement from President Trump, governors of some states have started to announce plans for businesses to tiptoe back into operation on May 1, even as cases surge in some parts of the country.... Beaches in Duval County, Fla., where infections appear to be flattening, will reopen with restrictions at 5 p.m. on Friday.... Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin said on Thursday that golf courses could open with certain restrictions and that for-hire lawn care could be carried out if it was performed by one person. Stores selling materials to make face masks can open for curbside pickup, he said." ~~~

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Donald Trump found himself isolated among western leaders at a virtual G7 summit, as they expressed strong support for the World Health Organization after the US's suspension of its funding. Health officials around the world have condemned the US president's decision to stop his country's funding for the UN agency.... On Thursday, G7 leaders voiced their backing for the WHO and urged international co-operation. Immediately after the hour-long conference call, a spokesman for Angela Merkel said that the German chancellor had argued that 'the pandemic can only be overcome with a strong and co-ordinated international response'. The spokesman said Merkel 'expressed support for the WHO as well as a number of other partners'.... The White House insisted there was support for US criticism of the WHO in the G7 call, saying 'much of the conversation centred on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO. The leaders called for a thorough review and reform process.'"

Also Not as Dumb as Dr. Phil. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "After Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, explained the White House's new guidelines for states to slowly reopen their economies in a three-phase process, Fox News host Laura Ingraham ... turned to Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, television psychologist to the masses. He acknowledged that the novel coronavirus is killing Americans -- more than 33,000 as of early Friday -- but also wondered why the economy would shut down over the pandemic but continues to function as people die from lung cancer, car crashes and pool drownings. (Unlike coronavirus, none of the causes of death listed by Dr. Phil are contagious.) The conflicting views, one from the most qualified source available on the topic and the other from a talk-show host with questionable credentials, highlighted again how expert advice on the novel coronavirus has frequently been undermined by celebrity doctors with little to no infectious disease experience." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: For those of you who thought Oprah Winfrey should run for president, let me remind you that she made Dr. Phil's career as a teevee personality.

Susan Demas of Michigan Advance writes an excellent column on the protest in Lansing, Michigan, against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

David Smiley of the Miami Herald: "When the Miami Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office last month about COVID-19 deaths in the epicenter of Florida's coronavirus outbreak, attorneys for the state health department moved to block the records from becoming public.... The Herald ... obtained the information Thursday after the county bucked Florida's Department of Health. But the episode is an example of how the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis often has been unwilling or unable to provide crucial information about its coronavirus response -- and at times has actively tried to shield critical details about the depths of the crisis from becoming public.... In recent weeks, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration has refused to name the nursing homes experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, even as the number of cases in longterm care facilities has passed 1,300. The Department of Corrections had until Wednesday declined to acknowledge two inmate COVID-19 deaths at a privately run prison. And the Department of Health has been unwilling to disclose the extent of an undefined backlog of unresolved coronavirus tests at private labs."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Stupid Trump Tricks, Ctd. -- Generalissimo Trumpo Retreats

Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump told the nation's governors on Thursday that they could begin reopening businesses, restaurants and other elements of daily life by May 1 or earlier if they wanted to, but abandoned his threat to use what he had claimed was his absolute authority to impose his will on them. On a day when the nation's death toll from the coronavirus increased by more than 2,000 for a total over 30,000, the president released a set of nonbinding guidelines that envisioned a slow return to work and school over weeks or months. Based on each state's conditions, the guidelines in effect guarantee that any restoration of American society will take place on a patchwork basis rather than on a one-size-fits-all prescription from Washington that some of the governors had feared in recent days.... The 18-page document released by the White House provided mostly general guidance and did not confront some difficult questions, including how to finance the billions of dollars necessary for expanded testing; whether travel should be restricted between states; when the ban on international travel from Europe and elsewhere would be lifted; and how the states should deal with future shortages of protective equipment if the virus resurged in the fall. The guidelines assume the ability to quickly contain future outbreaks by quarantining sick people and their contacts, but they provide no specifics about how strained public health systems around the country will achieve that goal." ~~~

~~~ Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump released federal guidelines Thursday night for a slow and staggered return to normal in places with minimal cases of the novel coronavirus, moving to try to resume economic activity even amid an outcry from political and health leaders about the nation's testing capacity. Despite Trump's desire for a May 1 reopening, his plan does not contain a date for implementation and is a vague set of recommendations for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools and other gathering places in jurisdictions that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases and hospital loads. (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gov. John Carney (D) of Delaware said on CNN that Delaware and other states do not have the capacity to do the "contact tracing" & other testing necessary to implement the guidance for reopening. As for the guidelines, they seem to be about as useful as your bidding an acquaintance goodbye with something like, "Be safe," or "Stay healthy."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. "President Trump told governors that some could begin reopening their states by May 1 or earlier if they wanted to, but backed down from his confrontation with them by making it clear that he would not seek to impose his will on when they reopen businesses, schools and everyday life.... 'The president will announce a plan in the works to drastically increase the capacity for state and local health departments to do core public health work like testing people, doing contact tracing,' said [a top government] official.... On a conference call Thursday morning, Mr. Trump repeatedly told House lawmakers that people around the country were raring to get the economy moving again. He drew attention to protests in some states, saying that Americans were angry. [Mrs. McC: You knew he would.] And he hinted that 29 states were ready to reopen, telling lawmakers he would have more to say later...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "The White House is exploring ways of drastically increasing coronavirus testing in the U.S., as ... Donald Trump's aides scramble to put measures in place that might make it feasible for him to meet his goal of reopening the economy in parts of the country by May 1, according to four people familiar with the efforts.... The push to ramp up testing reflects an acknowledgment by some of the president's advisers that, despite his insistence that testing is working well, there are problems with access and that significantly increasing the number of tests per day will be critical if the economy is going to reopen." (Also linked yesterday.) Mrs. McC: Apparently the White House's "explorations" have not led to the motherlode.

The Littlest King. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Sen. Mitt Romney is the only GOP senator who was not asked to be on ... Donald Trump's new bipartisan task force focused on reopening the country amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 100 lawmakers from both parties -- including all of Romney's Senate Republican colleagues -- were tapped to join 'the Opening Up America Again Congressional Group,' according to a list released by the White House Thursday. The President reviewed the list of which lawmakers would be on the task force before it was finalized, an official told CNN. Romney was not included and was not asked to be on the call with other senators Thursday, another official confirmed." Mrs. McC: Romney, of course, has had a long & successful career of running complex operations, like the Winter Olympics, and unlike some other senators and President* Trump, probably could make an actual useful contribution to any effort to reactivate sectors of the economy. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait sees the irony in a president* abusing his power for petty political reasons against a Senator who voted to impeach him for his abusing his power for petty political reasons.

Cities to Trump: Save Lives, Pay Your Bills. Dave Levinthal of the Center for Public Integrity, republished by NBC News: "Here's how some city leaders say ... Donald Trump could immediately help them grapple with the coronavirus crisis: Pay bills they already sent his campaign committee months or years ago. Fourteen municipal governments -- from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Wildwood, New Jersey -- want Trump's campaign committee to clear a combined $1.82 million worth of public safety-related debt connected to Trump's 'Make America Great Again' campaign rallies, according to interviews with local officials and municipal records obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.... Many cities that hosted Trump rallies chose not to bill his campaign for police and public safety costs, explaining they have policies against doing so or didn't bother because of Trump's history of nonpayment.... Trump frequently touts his support for law enforcement.... But in a statement to Public Integrity, the Trump campaign indicated it's not responsible for reimbursing cities for police and public safety costs...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Steve Benen of MSNBC on Trump's threat to adjourn Congress: "Let's ... not forget that many of Trump's nominees are ridiculous and are currently stuck in committee because Senate Republicans aren't sure they can advance the president's picks in good conscience. It's probably why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) demurred yesterday in response to Trump's misguided threat.... Part of the problem is that Donald Trump has never fully familiarized himself with how the federal government works, and his civic blind-spots lead him to blurt out ideas he doesn't recognize as foolish. But the other part of the equation is nearly as important: Trump wants to appear strong and powerful, unaware of the extent to which these efforts backfire when he discovers that he doesn't have the authority he wishes he had." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate scheduled another two weeks of pro forma sessions Thursday, just a day after President Trump demanded senators either return to town or adjourn. The Senate is now slated to meet roughly every three days until May 4, when senators are expected to return to Washington.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday that he was extending the recess in consultation with medical professionals and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, Trump is out of luck. He can't make his horrible recess appointments because there's no recess. And tho the Hill story doesn't say so, he can't just adjourn the Congress, either. Under the Constitution, "in case of disagreement between the [two chambers of Congress], with respect to the time of adjournment, he [the president*] may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper." But the House & Senate agreed a long time ago to adjourn January 3, 2021. There's no disagreement between the House & Senate. So Trump has no Constitutional option to adjourn Congress.

Ryan Lizza of Politico describes attending a couple of Trump 5 p.m. shows. Note to White House reporters on how to get Trump to pick you to ask a question: give him a thumbs-up.

** Frank Rich of New York: "Nothing will stop Trump's attempts to grab power. His novel theory of presidential governance, as he himself has defined it, is to seize 'total' authority while bearing no responsibility. He will throw any power move against the wall to see if it sticks. When the coastal coalitions of governors chose to flatly ignore or, in Andrew Cuomo's case, mock his bid to set himself up as a king, he pivoted in a blink to his dead-on-arrival push to adjourn Congress so he could staff governmental vacancies with a new round of C-list hacks who wouldn't be subject to Senate approval. Every day a new tantrum, a new search for scapegoats for his catastrophic mismanagement of America's public-health catastrophe, and a new attempted end run around the rule of law."

How Not to Run a Rodeo. Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post (April 15): "The Trump administration has awarded bulk contracts to third-party vendors in recent weeks in a scramble to obtain N95 respirator masks, and the government has paid the companies more than $5 per unit, nearly eight times what it would have spent in January and February when U.S. intelligence agencies warned of a looming global pandemic, procurement records show.... Large U.S. companies such as Honeywell and 3M have received the biggest orders, but the Trump administration also has signed high-dollar deals with third-party vendors selling masks for many times the standard price. [FEMA] awarded a $55 million contract for N95s this month to Panthera Worldwide LLC, which is in the business of tactical training.... Panthera's parent company had not had any employees since May 2018.... It also has no history of manufacturing or procuring medical equipment.... Panthera Worldwide's parent company filed for bankruptcy last fall, and the LLC is no longer recognized in Virginia -- where it has its main office -- following nonpayment of fees...."

The Turbo-Tax Glitch. Heather Long & Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post: "Many Americans woke up Wednesday expecting to find a payment of $1,200 or more from the U.S. government in their bank account, but instead they realized nothing had arrived yet -- or the wrong amount was deposited. Parents of young children complained they did not receive the promised $500 check for their dependent children.... Several million people who filed their taxes via H&R Block, TurboTax and other popular services were unable to get their payments because the IRS did not have their direct deposit information on file, according to the Treasury, companies and experts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The CARES Act Glitch. David Dayen in the American Prospect: "A charged-off account with overdraft fees or other debts attached to it [can] receive the IRS payments [distributed under the CARES Act], and then use them to offset those debts. Treasury officials told bank compliance officers in a webinar last week that 'there is nothing in the law that precludes that action,' seen as a green light to enable banks to take the CARES Act payments. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin knew about this for two weeks, after being directly informed by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). The Treasury Department has the authority under the CARES Act to write a rule exempting the direct payments from private debt collection by financial actors, including banks like USAA. Treasury has so far chosen not to do so.... [So, for instance,] USAA, the veteran-serving financial institution, took $3,400 in CARES Act payments from the family of a disabled veteran to offset an existing debt, denying the family emergency funds during a time of personal economic stress.... According to the wife of the veteran, a USAA representative told her in a phone conversation that they 'shouldn't have gotten into debt in the first place,' and refused to give back the $3,400 CARES Act payment." --s ~~~

~~~ Not a Glitch But a Feature. Josh Marshall of TPM: "We have some new data on which states are getting the biggest share of the forgivable loan funds (the biggest percentage of a state's payrolls covered) from the Payroll Protection Program, which is part of the CARES Act, the federal rescue bill. It turns out generally red and/or rural states are doing quite well while big blue states, which are among the hardest hit in the country, are doing much less well." Mrs. McC P.S. Thanks to Akhilleus for reminding us about that old Jim Nabors meme.

So Much Intelligence; So Few Brains to Use It. Times of Israel: “US intelligence agencies alerted Israel to the coronavirus outbreak in China already in November, Israeli television reported Thursday. According to Channel 12 news, the US intelligence community became aware of the emerging disease in Wuhan in the second week of that month and drew up a classified document.... US intelligence informed the Trump administration, 'which did not deem it of interest,' but the report said the Americans also decided to update two allies with the classified document: NATO and Israel specifically the IDF.... The intelligence also reached Israel's decision makers and the Health Ministry, where 'nothing was done,' according to the report. Last week, ABC News reported that US intelligence officials were warning about the coronavirus in a report prepared in December by the American military's National Center for Medical Intelligence."

Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago: "A coalition of seven Midwestern governors today announced they are working together to judge when best to start easing stay-at-home restrictions and reopen their states' economies. The move mirrors similar efforts on the West Coast and in the Northeast Corridor.... Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been reaching out to his Midwest counterparts to coordinate efforts. Today, the coalition becomes official, with Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Wisconsin's Tony Evers, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Kentucky's Andy Beshear signing on to a multistate pact."

Florida. Carol Miller of the Miami Herald: "The decades-long quest of Florida elder-care facilities to secure greater protections against negligence lawsuits may get a boost from the unlikeliest of events: a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.... A trade group for Florida's nearly 700 nursing homes is asking Gov. Ron DeSantis to extend the state's sovereign immunity provisions to the industry and other healthcare sectors during the course of the coronavirus pandemic. If the request is granted, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other providers would be protected against negligence suits. DeSantis is already doing the industry a favor by refusing to name nursing homes and ALFs where positive tests have occurred." --s

New York. Noah Higgins-Dunn, et al., of CNBC: "New York and other East Coast states are extending their shutdown of nonessential businesses to May 15 as officials grapple with how to reopen parts of the economy without leading to a resurgence in coronavirus cases, New York Gov. strong> Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. Cuomo announced the move at his daily briefing in Albany and via Twitter, saying 'New York on PAUSE' will be extended in coordination with other states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jarrett Renshaw of Reuters: "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has tapped high-powered consultants to develop a science-based plan for the safe economic reopening of the region that can thwart pressure from ... Donald Trump to move more rapidly, state government sources told Reuters.... McKinsey & Company is producing models on coronavirus testing, infections and other key data points that along with other research and expert opinions will help underpin decisions on how and when to reopen the region's economy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. Just as I Suspected. Anna Nichols & Susan Demas of Michigan Advance: "More than 3,000 people -- including some brandishing Confederate and militia flags, as well as guns -- piled into downtown Lansing for hours on a snowy Wednesday. They were supposed to be there to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay home order during the COVID-19 pandemic, but much of the event effectively turned into a pro-... Donald Trump rally.... Many had anti-Whitmer signs likening her to Adolf Hitler and calling for her removal from office. Nazi Germany was referenced in several signs. One sign used a swastika to claim Whitmer and Democrats as dictators taking away liberty from citizens, while some protestors had swastika tattoos.... Michigan has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, with the fourth-most cases in the country, per Johns Hopkins University tracking." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

This @joshuabickel photo is worthy of a Pulitzer. It absolutely and perfectly captures the wackjobbery of Trumpism and the grievance of people who have surrendered any vestige of common sense or normalcy to the altar of freak show politics and the dogmas of political cultism. https://t.co/kxE7STOH4J
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) April 15, 2020

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bickel took the photo April 13 during a press conference by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) at the Ohio Statehouse. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the protesters, "crowded together and yelling," are demanding an end to Ohio's stay-at-home order.

Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Uncertainty and fear over the economic impact of stay-at-home orders is fueling a sort of culture war between conservatives, whose political strength now comes from rural America, right now less affected by the virus, and liberals, whose urban strongholds have been most affected by it.... Like the tea party protests of 2009, the 'reopen' protests were heavily touted on conservative radio and Fox News, which helped fuel turnout, which then became part of the story." ~~~

~~~ Juan Cole: "Trumpism is a form of fascism, of course, but at its core is a whiny rebellion against the achievements of human and civil rights since the 1960s.... The puerile rebellion syndrome of Trumpism was on full display on Wednesday in Lansing, Michigan.... The two organizations backing the gridlock are allegedly funded in part by Trump's secretary of education Betsy DeVos, sister of mercenary warlord Erik Prince of former Blackwater fame (a buddy of Trump's).... They are behaving like vaxxers, whose reluctance to inoculate their children against deadly diseases puts everyone's children at risk.... This juvenile contrarianism aims to be a counter-revolution, de facto rolling back the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act and the National Environment Policy Act of 1969." --s ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Cole is quite right. I would go further and say so-called conservatism, whether advocated by David Brooks of the NYT or practiced by Bart O'Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court, is the same damned thing: a "whiny rebellion" against the country's greatest achievements in the last half of the 20th century.

~~~ Peter Kafka of Vox: "Americans don't trust the government, and they don't trust the media. That trend has been evident for years, but the Trump era has accelerated it. Don't expect it to get better, says journalism critic Jay Rosen.... 'The fight to keep Americans from understanding what happened from December to March is going to be one of the biggest propaganda battles in American history,' he told me recently. 'The Republican Party and the Trump campaign and the MAGA coalition are going to have to produce confusion and doubt on a scale that is unlike anything you've ever seen before.'"--s ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A story about the dystopian nation of Trump's America is kind of perfect for someone named Kafka to write.

If the Virus Don't Kill You, the Mercury Will. Lisa Friedman & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Thursday weakened regulations on the release of mercury and other toxic metals from oil and coal-fired power plants, another step toward rolling back health protections in the middle of a pandemic. The new Environmental Protection Agency rule does not eliminate restrictions on the release of mercury, a heavy metal linked to brain damage. Instead, it creates a new method of calculating the costs and benefits of curbing mercury pollution that environmental lawyers said would fundamentally undermine the legal underpinnings of controls on mercury and many other pollutants. By reducing the positive health effects of regulations on paper and raising their economic costs, the new method could be used to justify loosening restrictions on any pollutant that the fossil fuel industry has deemed too costly to control."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mark Meadows has officially been President Trump's fourth White House chief of staff for less than three weeks. In that time, he has shaken up the communications office, angering supporters of the press secretary he chose to replace. He has tried to put in place other speedy changes, hoping to succeed where his three predecessors failed. He has hunted aggressively for leaks. But administration officials say he has been overwhelmed at times by a permanent culture at the White House that revolves around the president's moods, his desire to present a veneer of strength and his need for a sense of control. It is why, no matter who serves as chief of staff, the lack of formal processes and the constant infighting are unavoidable facts of life for those working for Mr. Trump. In the case of Mr. Meadows, it has not helped him with his White House colleagues that the former North Carolina congressman, who has a reputation for showing his emotions, cried while meeting with members of the White House staff on at least two occasions." Via safari. An ABC News story is here.

Kara Scannell of CNN: "The federal Bureau of Prisons has notified Michael Cohen..., Donald Trump's former personal attorney, that he will be released early from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter and his lawyer. Cohen is serving a three-year sentence at the federal prison camp in Otisville, NY, where 14 inmates and seven staff members at the complex have tested positive for the virus. Cohen was scheduled for release in November 2021, but he will be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence from home confinement, the people said. He will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine at the prison camp before he is released. Cohen was notified on Thursday of his pending release, and his lawyer, Roger Adler, confirmed it to CNN." Mrs. McC: Sure hope this irritates Trump.

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The federal judge overseeing the trial of longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on Thursday denied his motion for a new trial, which was based on a claim of juror bias. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Stone's lawyers failed to demonstrate that a woman selected as a juror was biased against ... Donald Trump, that she failed to disclose those views during jury selection and that she should not have been allowed to serve.... During a hearing in late February, two jurors testified that the woman -- later selected as the jury foreperson -- never tried to pressure them during deliberations to reach any particular conclusion or told them about news articles or internet postings she saw. To the contrary, one of the jurors said, the forewoman insisted that the jurors be more careful about one of the counts against Stone and that they make sure the government had met its burden of proof.... [Stone's] lawyers will almost certainly appeal his conviction and ask that he be allowed to remain out while the case is on appeal." Mrs. McC: Sure hope this irritates Trump.

Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has spent nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funds renting an office from a longtime friend, adviser, campaign donor and legal client. Both men said in separate interviews Gaetz paid below market rent for the space -- although Gaetz later shifted, saying the rent was 'at or below market rate.' House rules explicitly state such arrangements are not allowed.... House rules state that all leases for district offices must be 'at fair market value as the result of a bona fide, arms-length, marketplace transaction. The Lessor and Lessee certify that the parties are not relatives nor have had, or continue to have, a professional or legal relationship (except as a landlord and tenant).'" Mrs. McC: But not as bad as keeping bribe money in the freezer!

Way Beyond the Beltway

Steve Hendrix & Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Israel ran into another wall -- actually, the same wall -- in its quest to break a year-long political impasse early Thursday when another deadline passed without the country's main rival factions able to strike a deal and form a government. The two sides, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former army chief Benny Gantz, were still talking when midnight came and went, marking the end of Gantz's official window to assemble a ruling coalition. The rivals, spurred by the coronavirus crisis, have been struggling for weeks to agree on a power-sharing arrangement in which they would take turns in the prime minister's office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "John Horton Conway, the English-born Princeton mathematician whose body of work ranged from the rigorously highbrow to the frivolously fun, earning him prizes and a reputation as a creative, iconoclastic and even magical genius, died on Saturday in New Brunswick, N.J. He was 82. His wife, Diana Conway, said his death, at a nursing home, was caused by Covid-19."

New York Times: "Brian Dennehy, a versatile stage and screen actor known for action movies, comedies and classics, but especially for his Tony Award-winning performances in 'Death of a Salesman' in 1999 and 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' in 2003, died on Wednesday in New Haven, Conn. He was 81."

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