The Commentariat -- April 7, 2020
Afternoon Update:
** Fair Winds! Jim Sciutto, et al., of CNN: "Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday, a day after leaked audio revealed he called the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt 'stupid' in an address to the ship's crew, according to a US official and a former senior military official. The Navy and Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment. Undersecretary of the Army James McPherson has been tapped to succeed Modly, a US official and a defense official tells CNN. McPherson is a retired rear admiral and was the former judge advocate general of the Navy.... Late Monday night, Modly apologized in a statement for calling Crozier 'stupid' in his earlier remarks.... Defense Secretary Mark Esper [had] ordered Modly to apologize...."
John Kruzel of the Hill: "A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with Texas over its bid to restrict abortion access amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court order halting the restrictions, saying the previous ruling had not adequately considered the temporary burden on abortion access in light of the measure's medical benefits.... Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee, and Jennifer Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, sided with Texas. Judge James Dennis, a Clinton appointee, dissented."
William Wan & Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A leading forecasting model used by the White House to chart the coronavirus pandemic predicted Monday that the United States may need fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment than previously projected and that some states may reach their peak of covid-19 deaths sooner than expected. That glimmer of potential good news came on the same day New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said his state may already be experiencing a 'flattening of the curve.' New York reported 599 new deaths Monday, on par with Sunday's count of 594 and down from 630 on Saturday. Experts and state leaders, however, continued to steel themselves for grim weeks ahead, noting that the revised model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington conflicts with many other models showing higher equipment shortages, deaths and projected peaks." Access is free to nonsubscribers.
Kaitlan Collins & Kate Bennett of CNN: "White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving the job without ever having briefed the press. CNN has learned she is returning to the East Wing as first lady Melania Trump's chief of staff as ... Donald Trump's new chief of staff Mark Meadows shakes up the communications team in the West Wing. Kayleigh McEnany, who served as Trump's 2020 campaign spokeswoman, will replace Grisham as White House press secretary, according to two sources familiar with the situation.Meadows is also tapping Alyssa Farah, the current spokeswoman for the Defense Department, to be the director of strategic communications, the two sources said. Ben Williamson, a Meadows staffer, will become the senior communications adviser." Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. Mrs. McC: The best thing to do during a completely mismanaged international crisis is have a major staff shakeup. This should set the sinking ship aright. ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times has more. "Ms. McEnany has been a vocal defender of Mr. Trump on television, the main role the president has long believed the press secretary should play, according to current and former advisers. Her hiring is the first major personnel move by the incoming White House chief of staff, former Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina." ~~~
~~~ Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast runs down some of McEnany's greatest hits like, "We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here," in response to Trump's travel ban, and "Trump has never lied to the American people."
Kyle Cheney & Connor O'Brien of Politico: "... Donald Trump has upended the panel of federal watchdogs overseeing his implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus law, tapping a replacement for the Pentagon official who was supposed to lead the effort. A panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine -- the acting Pentagon watchdog -- to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort. But Trump on Monday removed Fine from his post, instead naming an EPA inspector general to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog." Mrs. McC: Couldn't be any hankypanky afoot here, could there?
Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine." Read on for more on the excellent "experts" upon whom Trump is relying.
Elise Viebeck, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of voters stood in lines that stretched for blocks in several Wisconsin cities Tuesday morning to cast their ballots amid fears about the spread of the coronavirus, a chaotic start to elections in the state that went forward only after a last-minute legal battle. Morning scenes at the polls across Milwaukee -- which was able to open only five polling locations, down from 180 -- underscored the near-unprecedented challenge facing election administrators one day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sought to suspend in-person voting in light of the covid-19 pandemic, an order that was quickly reversed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The decision was a victory for the state's GOP-controlled legislature, which had declined to postpone the election and filed a legal challenge to Evers's order, arguing it exceeded the governor's constitutional authority." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait: "As House Democrats set to work on the next round of economic relief legislation, they face a more urgent choice than they seem to realize. If they send that bill to President Trump without measures guaranteeing voting rights during the pandemic, they are signing a death warrant for the 2020 election. A vision of the future sits before us in Wisconsin.... Trump may be able to win by following the Wisconsin Republican strategy of using the virus to suppress urban voting.... [But] once Republicans grasp that they need legislation to avert an economic catastrophe, Democrats will have leverage to force them to accept measures to protect voting."
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "... somehow in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has led more than a dozen states to delay their elections, Wisconsin is asking its citizens to come out and vote Tuesday. This is what the complete collapse of a state's political system looks like.... The scorched earth politics that led to this moment dates back long before the polarization of the Trump era. Hundreds of millions of dollars -- much of it from outside groups -- have poured into state races since 2010, when [former Gov. Scott] Walker's [R] first election as governor kicked off years of acrimony that infected the state's political culture at every level." Mrs. McC: "Pretty much a both-siderism take. Being as generous as possible to Republicans, I'd hold confederates 98% responsible for forcing this election in the midst of a pandemic.
Idaho. Give Me Liberty AND Give Me Death! Mike Baker of the New York Times: "In a state with pockets of deep wariness about both big government and mainstream medicine, the sweeping restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the virus have run into outright rebellion in some parts of Idaho, which is facing its own worrying spike in coronavirus cases. The opposition is coming not only from people like [Aamon] Bundy, whose armed takeover of the Oregon refuge with dozens of other men and women in 2016 led to a 41-day standoff, but also from some state lawmakers and a county sheriff who are calling the governor's statewide stay-at-home order an infringement on individual liberties.... Many of the latest claims about the Constitution have come from Idaho's northern panhandle, where vaccination rates for other diseases have always been low and where wariness of government is high."
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Confederates Will Do Anything & Everything to Disenfranchise Democrats
If you live in Wisconsin, your primary election is today.
Stupid AND Irresponsible. Molly Beck & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court reinstated Tuesday's election Monday, five hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called it off because of the widening coronavirus pandemic. In a brief 4-2 ruling, the court undid an emergency order that Evers issued that would have closed the polls. Their decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers. Monday's on-again, off-again election triggered chaos across the state as election officials told clerks to continue preparing for an election because they did not know whether the polls would open. Before the court acted, at least two local government leaders as of Monday afternoon issued their own orders to block in-person voting.... Four conservatives -- Chief Justice Patience Roggensack and Justices Rebecca Bradley, Brian Hagedorn and Annette Ziegler -- were in the majority. Liberal Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and Rebecca Dallet were in dissent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Wait, Wait! It gets way worse! ~~~
~~~ Astead Herndon & Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "Wisconsin voters will face a choice between protecting their health and exercising their civic duty on Tuesday after state Republican leaders, backed up by a conservative majority on the state's Supreme Court, rebuffed the Democratic governor's attempt to postpone in-person voting in their presidential primary and local elections. The political and legal skirmishing throughout Monday was only the first round of an expected national fight over voting rights in the year of Covid-19.... In a 5-4 vote, the majority [of the U.S. Supreme Court] ruled [late Monday] against their attempt to extend the deadline for absentee voting in Tuesday's elections, saying such a change 'fundamentally alters the nature of the election.' The court's four liberal members dissented, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg writing that 'the court's order, I fear, will result in massive disenfranchisement.'... What happens in Wisconsin has far broader implications for both parties.... Many Democrats have advocated a universal vote-by-mail system in November. Republicans in several states and the president himself are pushing for as much in-person voting as possible." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It occurs to me that, in the short run, Republicans may be shooting themselves in their collective big foot. Republican voters are older voters, and it makes sense that, since the coronavirus poses the greatest danger to them, they are the voting bloc most likely to skip the trip to their polling places. ~~~
~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "The Supreme Court's Republican majority, in a case that is literally titled Republican National Committee v. Democratic National Committee, handed down a decision that will effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of Wisconsin voters.... The decision carries grave repercussions for the state of Wisconsin -- and democracy more broadly. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg notes in her dissent, 'the presidential primaries, a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, three seats on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, over 100 other judgeships, over 500 school board seats, and several thousand other positions' are at stake in the Wisconsin election.... The April 7 election is shaping up to be a trainwreck. Most poll workers have refused to work the election, out of fear of catching the coronavirus.... Judge William Conley, an Obama appointee to a federal court in Wisconsin, ordered the deadline for receiving ballots to be extended to 4 pm on April 13. In response to this order, the Republican Party asked the Supreme Court to modify Conley's decision to require all ballots to be postmarked by April 7.... The Supreme Court's Republican majority granted the GOP this very specific request.... Tens of thousands of voters are not expected to even receive their ballots until after Election Day, effectively disenfranchising them through no fault of their own.... The Supreme Court's decision in Republican is the capstone of a weeks-long effort by the Republican Party to make it difficult for voters to actually cast a ballot in Wisconsin."
Congratulations! Great Job!
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments for Tuesday are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here. "Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who warned that this week could be the 'Pearl Harbor' of the coronavirus, sounded a more optimistic note Tuesday, saying that deaths in the United States could fall under the range of 100,000 to 240,000 suggested by the White House. 'That's absolutely my expectation, and I feel a lot more optimistic again because I'm seeing mitigation work,' Adams said during an appearance on ABC's 'Good Morning America,' in which he highlighted the social distancing efforts of Washington state and California."
** You should say 'congratulations, great job,' instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question. -- Donald Trump, to a female reporter Tuesday in response to a legitimate question about the dearth of coronavirus tests (video at the link is worth watching) ~~~
~~~ Brianna Ehley & Alice Ollstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday blasted his health department's watchdog for a new report revealing supply shortages and testing delays at hospitals responding to the coronavirus crisis, claiming the findings were inaccurate and politically motivated. 'It's just wrong,' Trump said during a briefing of the White House coronavirus task force, without providing evidence detailing what was incorrect. 'It still could be her opinion. When was she appointed? Do me a favor and let me know. Let me know now...,' the president said.... Trump's comments were directed at Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm and prompted by a report based on interviews with administrators from 324 hospitals and health systems between March 23 to March 27. Grimm was appointed to the post in January. The career official joined the inspector general's office in 1999.... The report found many hospitals lacked enough thermometers to monitor the temperatures of its own staff and a sufficient number of masks to protect their workers.... Hospitals also reported shortages of ventilators, IV poles, bed sheets, toilet paper, cleaning supplies and other basic equipment.... HHS Assistant Secretary for Health [Mrs. McC: and Major Chickenshit] Brett Giroir refused to defend Grimm at the briefing.... Giroir also complained that he only learned about the findings from the media on Monday, suggesting that the inspector general's office was 'ethically obliged' to more quickly inform him of problems. The report casts a different light on conditions Trump administration officials have portrayed as improving thanks to their response to the pandemic." ~~~
~~~ Dan Diamond & David Lim of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday said that 3M would produce 166.5 million masks over the next three months, cementing a commitment from a company the administration had blamed for exacerbating a shortage for health workers responding to the coronavirus pandemic.... The new 3M masks are overwhelmingly N95 and KN95 masks and will go toward frontline workers, the official said. The White House and 3M had sparred in recent days over accusations the mask-maker was prioritizing sales to other countries. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on Thursday in an effort to ramp 3M's production." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Wait a minute. I'm confused. Trump had to invoke the dreaded DPA to get 3M to produce more masks for American healthcare workers because there is a shortage in the U.S., but he "blasted" an inspector general for a report that said, in part, that there aren't enough masks for American healthcare workers?? Congratulations, great job. ~~~
~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has said he asked US pharmaceutical companies working on experimental coronavirus drugs to approach Boris Johnson's doctors and offer their help, after it emerged that the British prime minister was in intensive care. In an evening press briefing, Trump did not name the companies or the drugs, but earlier in the day he held a conference about therapeutic drugs with the heads of four US pharmaceutical and biotech companies: Amgen, Genetech, Gilead, and Regeneron." Mrs. McC: Trump could solve his problems with Dr. Anthony Fauci by sending Fauci to London to minister to Johnson.
~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that he had a 'friendly' and 'warm' conversation with former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic frontrunner, regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak. 'We had a really wonderful, warm conversation,' Trump told reporters at a regular White House briefing Monday evening on COVID-19.... 'He gave me his point of view and I fully understood that. We just had a very friendly conversation,' Trump said, adding that the call lasted roughly 15 minutes. 'It was really good, really nice,' Trump continued. 'I appreciate his calling.'... 'We agreed that we weren't going to talk about what we said,' Trump said. 'He had suggestions. It doesn't mean that I agree with those suggestions.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Uh-Oh. Connor O'Brien & Lara Seligman of Politico: "... Donald Trump pledged Monday to 'get involved' in the Navy's decision to fire of the aircraft carrier commander who sounded the alarm about an outbreak of coronavirus on his ship. 'I'm going to get involved and see exactly what's going on there,' Trump told reporters. 'Because I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.' The news that Trump may intervene in the case could spell trouble for acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who made the decision to fire Capt. Brett Crozier, commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, for broadly emailing a letter last week requesting assistance as more crew members tested positive for the coronavirus. Modly was already under fire on Monday after leaked audio revealed a profanity-laced speech to the Roosevelt crew on Sunday in which he called the former commander's decision to write the letter 'naive' and 'stupid.' A transcript, as well as the audio of Modly's remarks to the crew, were leaked to several media outlets Monday. Modly did not share his remarks with the White House or Defense Secretary Mark Esper's office ahead of time...." ~~~
~~~ Barbara Starr, et al., of CNN: "The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as 'stupid' in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN. Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either 'too naive or too stupid' to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors. The acting secretary accused Crozier of committing a 'betrayal' and creating a 'big controversy' in Washington by disseminating the warning so widely....Modly's use of the word 'betrayal' is a loaded because saying an officer has betrayed the Navy is a court martial offense.A defense official familiar with Modly's remarks offered his opinion of Modly's address, saying the acting secretary 'should be fired. I don't know how he survives this day.'" Mrs. McC: Modly of course made his remarks before more-or-less the same crew that cheered Crozier as he left the ship. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "Like much in the Trump administration, what began as a seemingly straightforward challenge -- the arrival of coronavirus onboard a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier -- has now engulfed the military, leading to far-reaching questions of undue command influence and the demoralization of young men and women who promise to protect the country. At its heart, the crisis aboard the Theodore Roosevelt has become a window into what matters, and what does not, in an administration where remaining on the right side of a mercurial president is valued above all else.... In an emailed statement late Monday, Mr. Modly apologized 'for any confusion' his choice of words during his remarks to the Roosevelt crew may have caused. 'I do not think Capt. Brett Crozier is naïve or stupid,' Mr. Modly said in the statement. But his earlier remarks had echoed comments by the president, who on Saturday had lashed out at Captain Crozier as well."
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's see, you said Capt. Crozier was either too naive or too stupid, but we're all "confused" because that doesn't mean Crozier is naive or stupid. I think we understood you the first time. BESIDES, if anyone was "confused," you cleared that up earlier in the day, didn't you? ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Kheel of The Hill: "Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said on Monday he stands by [his] speech...'The spoken words were from the heart, and meant for them,' Modly continued. 'I stand by every word I said, even, regrettably any profanity that may have been used for emphasis.'" --s ~~~
~~~ CNN has the transcript as delivered of every word Modly meant, tho it leaves out at least one "fucking." If you wonder if this was a "political" speech delivered to our supposedly apolitical military, Modly said, "Vice President of the United States Joe Biden suggested just yesterday that my decision was criminal." In fact, what Biden said was that removing Crozier was "close to criminal" and that Crozier "should ... have a commendation rather than be fired."
** "When a Narcissist Runs a Crisis." Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities.... The grandiosity of narcissistic personalities belies an extreme fragility.... They're too thin skinned to be told they're wrong.... Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They have galleries of sycophants.... Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.... Narcissistic personalities love nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division.... Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than coordinating a national response.... Every aspect of Trump's crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die, he crows that he's No. 1 on Facebook, which isn&r't close to true." Read the whole column. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: Over the weekend, former ABC News anchor Carole Simpson pointed out on MSNBC that one of the effects of Trump's late afternoon teevee show is to preempt many local news reports, which prevents viewers from hearing how many of their neighbors are sick & dying of Covid-19.
James Hamblin of the Atlantic: "Two weeks ago, French doctors published a provocative observation ... [that] six patients with COVID-19 [who took a cocktail of] ... hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin ... tested negative for the virus [after six days]. The report caught the eye of the celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, who has since appeared on Fox News to talk about hydroxychloroquine 21 times. As Oz put it to Sean Hannity, 'This French doctor, [Didier] Raoult, a very famous infectious-disease specialist, had done some interesting work at a pilot study showing that he could get rid of the virus in six days in 100 percent of the patients he treated.' Raoult has made news in recent years as a pan-disciplinary provocateur; he has questioned climate change and Darwinian evolution. On January 21, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Raoult said in a YouTube video, 'The fact that people have died of coronavirus in China, you know, I don't feel very concerned.' Last week, Oz, who has been advising the president on the coronavirus, described Raoult to Hannity as 'very impressive.' Oz told Hannity that he had informed the White House as much.... Over the course of these two weeks, the president of the United States has become the world's most prominent peddler of medical misinformation.... On Saturday, Trump ... said, 'so there's a study out there that says people that have lupus haven't been catching this virus. Maybe it's true; maybe it's not.' There is no such study." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~
~~~ The Plot Thickens??? Donald Shaw of Sludge: "It's unclear why Trump has been such a proponent of hydroxychloroquine, but one answer may lie with the millions of dollars in political support he has received from the founder of a pharmaceutical industry-funded group that has been pushing him to make the drug available. On March 26, Job Creators Network, a conservative dark money nonprofit, launched a petition, a series of Facebook ads, and a blast text message campaign calling on Trump to 'cut the red tape' and immediately make hydroxychloroquine available to treat patients.... The Job Creators Network was founded in 2011 by billionaire Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, a major GOP donor who spent more than $7 million through outside groups to help elect Trump in 2016. Marcus has said that he plans to spend part of his fortune to help re-elect Trump in 2020. Job Creators Network has been funded by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a drug industry trade that counts among its members leading hydroxychloroquine makers Novartis, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer." ~~~
~~~ Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "It just so happens that one of the largest manufacturers of the drug, Novartis, previously paid Trump's now-incarcerated former personal attorney Michael Cohen more than $1 million for healthcare policy insight following Trump's election in 2016.... After details of the deal were leaked by the now-jailed Michael Avenatti..., the company&'s CEO issued a public apology saying Novartis 'made a mistake' in contracting with the president's personal attorney.... Cohen is currently in federal prison serving a three-year sentence for campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. Novartis, on the other hand, just agreed to donate up to 130 million doses of the unproven drug to help fight COVID-19."
~~~ When Orange Trees Grow in Siberia. Jonathan Chait: "... [Trump's promotion of hydroxychloroquine] augurs more broadly about [his] disdain for public-health expertise.... Over the last two days, Trump has visibly balked at social-distancing guidelines and renewed his impatience to reopen the economy soon. His demand to produce a silver-bullet wonder drug right away seems both to grow out of his dissatisfaction with public-health authorities and is feeding into his skepticism of them.... Whether [Rudy] Giuliani and [Peter] Navarro are even qualified to advise the president in their stated areas of expertise -- law and economics, respectively -- is a matter of serious dispute. For both to emerge as self-styled medical authorities during a pandemic is beyond unnerving." (Related stories linked yesterday.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Chandelis Duster of CNN: "White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said he was qualified to engage and disagree with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the use of an anti-malarial drug as a coronavirus treatment -- which is not yet proven as effective.... 'Doctors disagree about things all the time. My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I'm a social scientist,' he told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'I have a Ph.D. And I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it's in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.'" Mrs. McC: I don't think you do. ... Navarro reminds me of this car reservations clerk. (wherein I play the part of Jerry): (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Navarro Is Sometimes Right. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death. The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump's trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China's leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States. 'The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,' Mr. Navarro's memo said. 'This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.' Dated Jan. 29, it came during a period when Mr. Trump was playing down the risks to the United States, and he would later go on to say that no one could have predicted such a devastating outcome.... [The memo] reached a number of top officials as well as aides to Mick Mulvaney, then the acting chief of staff, they said, but it was unclear whether Mr. Trump saw it."
Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept brings all of the receipts in a bid to remember (and never forget) how monumentally reckless Republicans have been in this Covid-19 disaster. Read on. --s
Mrs. McCrabbie: Way back early yesterday morning, when I was still thinking I'd make my own face masks, it occurred to me that the black fabric I planned to use might make me look like a burglar. So what? thought I, nobody will really take an old lady for a robber. Not everyone has the luxury of "presumed innocence by reason of demography": ~~~
~~~ Aaron Thomas in a Guardian op-ed: "On Saturday I thought about the errands I need to run this week, including a trip to the grocery store. I thought I could use one of my old bandanas as a mask. But then my voice of self-protection reminded me that I, a Black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandana covering the greater part of my face if I also expect to walk out of that store. The situation isn't safe and could lead to unintended attention, and ultimately a life-or-death situation. For me, the fear of being mistaken for an armed robber or assailant is greater than the fear of contracting Covid-19."
Fred Imbert & Yun Li of CNBC: "Stock futures pointed to a Tuesday opening jump in early morning trade, building on a steep rebound in the previous session. At around 8 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 762 points, pointing to a gain of more than 600 points at Tuesday's open. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures also pointed to strong opening gains.... Stocks surged on Monday as a slew of coronavirus headlines pointed to a potential stabilization in the U.S. The Dow soared 1,600 points, posting its third biggest point gain ever. The S&P 500 jumped 7% to its highest level since March 13. With Monday's rally, the S&P 500 bounced about 20% from its 52-week low on March 23."
Tia Mitchell of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "U.S. Sen. David Perdue's financial portfolio saw heavy trading during the month of March, a period during which Congress passed three different spending bills to address the spread of COVID-19 and the markets took a turn for the worse.... Compared with the 26-month period before the coronavirus swept across America, Perdue&'s portfolio activity has increased nearly threefold.... For example, he made a number of purchases of stock in DuPont de Nemours, a chemical company that supplies personal protective equipment used by people trying to avoid exposure to the virus. That includes buying shares worth as much as $65,000 on Jan. 24, the same day that the Senate held a members-only briefing on the novel coronavirus." --safari: Even if the stock trading were legal, Perdue has clearly more concentrated on his own financial well-being than serving the public.
New York. Liam Stack of the New York Times: "The [Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York], which describes itself as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, said on Monday that its 600-foot-long nave and equally large subterranean crypt would be turned into an emergency hospital as part of the fight against the pandemic. Nine climate-controlled medical tents capable of holding a total of at least 200 patients will be erected inside the cathedral by the end of the week, said the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, the dean of the cathedral.... The field hospital will be staffed with personnel from Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, which sits next door to the cathedral complex...."
Michigan. John Bowden of The Hill: "Hundreds of staff at a Detroit-area hospital system have tested positive for coronavirus, the hospital's chief clinical officer said Monday evening. Nonprofit news site BridgeMI.com reported that Dr. Adnan Munkarah of the Henry Ford Hospital Campus confirmed 731 cases of the coronavirus among employees at the hospital, accounting for 2 percent of the hospital system's 31,600 employees. As many as 1,500 at another hospital system in the state have reported symptoms similar to coronavirus, though those numbers are not confirmed cases." --s
>Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country. A Trader Joe's worker in Scarsdale, N.Y., a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19 ... in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday. Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to close and told residents to stay home to stem the spread of the virus, supermarkets are among the retailers that remain open. Thousands of grocery employees have continued to report to work as U.S. infections and death rates continue to climb, with many reporting long shifts and extra workloads to keep up with spiking demand. Many workers say they don't have enough protective gear to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Dozens of grocery workers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks."
Capitalists Are Awesome. Jim VandeHei & Mike Allen of Axios: "Top CEOs, in private conversations and pleas to President Trump, are warning of economic catastrophe if America doesn't begin planning for a phased return to work as soon as May, corporate leaders tell Axios.... Several of these leaders told us they want to have a hard national conversation about tradeoffs involved in any widespread lockdowns beyond the middle of next month. They know most wouldn't return until June or later, but fear a lack of urgency on many going back sooner. They realize it sounds callous to talk about work when people are scared of death, but believe it's an urgent debate the nation needs." --s
Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "Neo-Nazi groups in the US are looking for ways to exploit the coronavirus outbreak and commit acts of violence, according to observers of far-right groups, law enforcement, and propaganda materials reviewed by the Guardian. The watchdog group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) raised the alarm last week about opportunism from far-right so-called 'accelerationist' groups who believe sowing chaos and violence will hasten the collapse of society, allowing them to build a white supremacist one in its place." --s
Rowena Mason of the Guardian: British Prime Minister "Boris Johnson remains in intensive care but without the need for a ventilator, as [Foreign Secretary] Dominic Raab prepares for his first day in charge of the country, [Cabinet Minister] Michael Gove has said.... Hours after his comments, Gove said he [himself] was now isolating at home because a member of his family had been displaying Covid-19 symptoms since Sunday. He will not be able to take the government's daily press conference in No 10 but can still chair and attend meetings from home."
~~~ BBC News: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care in hospital after his coronavirus symptoms 'worsened', Downing Street has said. Mr Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise 'where necessary', a spokesman added. The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in London with 'persistent symptoms' on Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ New York Times live updates: "Earlier Monday, British officials had given assurances that [Johnson] was healthy enough to run the country, but some unease arose over a lack of information on his condition. Mr. Johnson wrote Monday on Twitter from a hospital in London that he was 'in good spirits,' and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in for him, said Mr. Johnson was working from his bed and remained 'in charge' of the government. But Mr. Raab admitted that he had not spoken to the prime minister since Saturday, and some commentators expressed concern about the persistence of virus symptoms about 10 days after the prime minister's case was diagnosed.... Mr. Johnson was initially criticized for his slow response to the outbreak, but later moved to place Britain under a virtual lockdown, closing all nonessential shops, banning meetings of more than two people, and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
Washington Post: "Authorities on Monday recovered the body of a member of the Kennedy family who, along with her young son, went missing in the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday, according to the Maryland Natural Resources Police. The body was identified as Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40. Police said the search for her 8-year-old son, Gideon, will resume Tuesday. Police said McKean's body was found 2½ miles south of the waterfront home of McKean's mother in Shady Side, Md., where the McKean family had been staying to isolate from the novel coronavirus."
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