| The taverns are fair full of gadabouts making merry this eve. Though I may press my face against the window like an urchin at a confectioner’s, I am tempted not by the sweetmeats within. A dram in exchange for the pox is an ill bargain indeed. | |
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Samuel Pepys, 1665English diarist, parliamentarian, on the bubonic plague
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Totus has gone on Faux News again announcing an extension of the stay at home time frame after stating we should be “OK” by Easter. This is just another instance of his creating a problem then retracting it as if he solved the problem. If anyone who currently supports him has any doubt as to his fitness to lead, this should allay all doubts. With the cooperation of the GOP (most of them) TOTUS has in 3 years brought the US to a level of some third world countries in some areas. Our standing in the world has been eroded while the bad actors have ascended to fill in the void created by our lack of engagement and ill advised actions. Voters have the opportunity to right the ship of state starting with Congress and ending with TOTUS out of office. If it is possible to prosecute elected officials for poor performance and damage to the country, that is where we should be going. First we need to elect the best people we can or at the least the ones who have a clue of how to run a government not more self serving miscreants.
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Heading into 2020, it seemed like those online election prediction maps would be the most exciting thing to watch over the coming year. But now, a different map may tell us much more about what the future holds.
While the coronavirus spreads across the nation with no regards to state borders, the nation’s governors are taking wildly different approaches to tackling the disease, resulting in a patchwork national map that undermines our ability to stop COVID-19 effectively. Coupled with the disastrous leadership of a president more interested in retaliating against his perceived enemies than employing his powers for good, the fractured response to coronavirus reveals how much has to be healed in our nation’s system. It also sets in motion an inevitable showdown between Trump and those state leaders who are taking coronavirus seriously, a divide that is only going to get worse given Trump’s toxic tendency to blame others for his own shortcomings.
Trump’s sickness was startlingly evident in his interview with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer last Tuesday. Asked about his administration’s coordination with the states, a basic function of the federal government and a critical one in a crisis moment, Trump’s response displayed his typically transactional view of how things get done under his watch. “It’s a two-way street,” Trump childishly whined, “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.'”
That’s been Trump’s approach to working with others, especially those in need, from the start, a twisted outgrowth of the manipulation tactics he’s used throughout his personal and professional life.
As president, his self-interest and demands for personal loyalty always guide his decision making. At the depressingly dysfunctional level, that has meant a revolving door of White House staffers and administration appointees, including Jeff Sessions, who didn’t satisfy Trump’s insatiable ego enough to stay. At the lawbreaking level, it has meant his bald quid pro quo demand that Ukraine investigate a political rival in order to receive congressionally-mandated foreign aid and putting extreme restrictions on federal aid to Puerto Rico, seemingly in retaliation for how government officials there had criticized his handling of Hurricane Maria.
But where Trump’s pay-to-play expectations of Ukraine, despite the Senate’s judgments, were unconstitutional, his praise-to-play demands of state governors while the health of the nation hangs in the balance are nothing short of unconscionable. Trump’s refusal to take federal action against the virus may be the most disastrous decision of his presidency. His petty privileging of red states and his punishing of blue states may be the most deadly, with consequences for all Americans no matter their politics.
After Andrew Cuomo requested 30,000 ventilators for his coronavirus-ravaged New York, Trump coughed up only 400 machines while, as usual, freely blaming the governor for the state’s situation. “You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators,” an exasperated Cuomo asked at a recent news conference. “You’re missing the magnitude of the problem.”
On Thursday, Trump lashed out at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her criticisms of the administration’s inaction. “We’ve had a big problem with the… woman governor,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “We don’t like to see the complaints.” He later said he’d told Vice President Mike Pence not to call “the woman in Michigan.”
Meanwhile Florida, a state run by a loyal Trump supporter, Gov. Ron DeSantis, has fared better, not surprisingly. Despite DeSantis’ failure to take the disease seriously and limit its escalating spread through the state, Florida has received all the medical supplies it has requested from the federal stockpile, and then some. New Jersey, on the other hand, a state with currently the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, initially got only a small fraction of what it requested.
Other Republican state leaders are making Trump’s abdication of responsibility even easier, propping up his fantastical and fatalist thinking and actively undercutting public health measures. Trump’s arbitrary selection of April 12 as the date he wants the country “opened up” has outraged public health officials who warn we need much more time. But Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s horrific recent comments that grandparents should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the economy is merely putting the public voice to the sort of Machiavellian logic shaping red states’ policies.
In Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday signed an executive order declaring almost all the businesses in the state as “essential,” thereby invalidating any local mayors or state agencies that have tried to implement social-distancing requirements. Reeves’ decision also included religious facilities, despite an earlier directive by the state’s Department of Health that Mississippians avoid church services, weddings, and funerals to help curb the virus’ spread.
In other Republican-led states, the continued lack of prohibitions against public gatherings will spell disastrous consequences. Blue states and places like Ohio and Maryland, led by reasonable Republican governors, cannot combat the virus alone. If Trump keeps picking favorite states to help in the absence of a national approach, everyone will lose.
A moment like this requires leadership, but Trump is no leader. Sulking that he can no longer hold the public rallies that give him life, Trump is incapable of rallying the nation in defense of its own. With potentially millions of Americans at risk of dying from coronavirus, Trump’s only interest, as always, is in tending to his bruised ego, and he’ll ruthlessly play governors against each other to fulfill his needs.
In his Friday press conference, Trump told reporters, “All I want [governors] to do… I want them to be appreciative. We’ve done a great job.” All those governors want is a president who cares about the lives of their constituents, regardless of whether they voted for him.
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President Trump on Sunday said if his administration can keep the coronavirus death toll to 100,000 in the United States, it will have done a “very good job.”
Earlier in the day, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the coronavirus pandemic could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the United States. Trump said while 100,000 is “a horrible number,” if the U.S. can keep its death toll to “100,000, so we have between 100,000 and 200,000, we altogether have done a very good job.”
Trump also announced he is extending social distancing guidelines to April 30, a departure from his earlier declaration of having the U.S. “opened up” by Easter on April 12. That proclamation was “aspirational,” Trump said.
As of Sunday night, there are more than 139,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in the United States, and at least 2,400 people have died from the virus.
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It is apparent that TOTUS either has no idea what his job is or he doesn’t care if he is not the center of attention. MA
By JORDAN MOREAU MARCH 29, 2020 1:21PM PT
UPDATE: President Donald Trump announced in a press conference Sunday afternoon that the country’s social distancing guidelines have been extended to April 30 and that the peak death rate will hit in two weeks.
“Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory has been won. Therefore we will be extending our guidelines to April 30,” he said.
Previously, Trump wanted the U.S. economy reopened by Easter Sunday, April 12, despite medical experts around the country saying that deadline would be unlikely. Trump said he hopes the country and everyone will “be well on our way to recovery” on June 1.
On Sunday morning, Trump also boasted about his growing TV ratings, while Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House Coronavirus Task Force warned that up to 200,000 Americans could die from COVID-19.
Trump quoted an article from the New York Times that provided recent viewership statistics of his coronavirus press conferences. The article states that they have averaged 8.5 million viewers, roughly the same size as audiences for ABC’s “The Bachelor.” Last Monday’s conference drew nearly 12.2 million viewers, putting it on pace with “Monday Night Football.”
“President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of ‘The Bachelor.’ Numbers are continuing to rise…
…On Monday, nearly 12.2 million people watched Mr. Trump’s briefing on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, according to Nielsen — ‘Monday Night Football’ numbers. Millions more are watching on ABC, CBS, NBC and online streaming sites, and the audience is expanding. On Monday, Fox News…
Trump went on to praise Fox News’ 6.2 million viewers, a number normally seen on hit primetime TV shows. He also quoted the New York Times article saying that a recent poll shows only 13% of Republicans trust the news media for coronavirus information. However, the president left out that the article also says that 72% of Democrats trust the media.
…alone attracted 6.2 million viewers for the president’s briefing — an astounding number for a 6 p.m. cable broadcast, more akin to the viewership for a popular prime-time sitcom…
…The CBS News poll said 13 percent of Republicans trusted the news media for information about the virus.” Michael M. Grynbaum @NYTimes
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told CNN on Sunday that coronavirus could kill between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans and infect millions of people.
There are about 125,000 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as of Sunday morning, the highest of any country in the world. At last 2,000 deaths have been reported.
Fauci also spoke about the president’s previous hope that the country’s economy will be back on track by Easter on Sunday, April 12.
“To put a time on it, I don’t know, it’s going to be a matter of weeks, it’s not going to be tomorrow and it’s certainly not going to be next week,” he said. “It’s going to be a little bit more than that.”
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Recent and ongoing rantings of TOTUS have further shown the ineptness of this administration and it’s titular head. The failure of TOTUS to do his job as a National leader was inevitable from the first day. Every rollback of Obama anything regardless of the long and short term effects on the country as a whole and individuals in general has dire consequences. The egocentric actions of TOTUS has alienated us from trusted allies and allowed long time adversaries to rise exponentially. As the current health pandemic continues, TOTUS has threatened to quarantine some and restricted medical supplies to others primarily due to his dislike of the Governors and other administrative officials. The state of this emergency is essentially the result of TOTUS’ ignorance on the subject and his inability to listen to experts on the subject. It is clear that any situation that does not afford a platform for his “genius” is unimportant (paper towels for Puerto Rico). After trying to urge “normalcy” in this Pandemic, TOTUS has failed to lead and thereby exacerbated the situation while pointing fingers at anyone he can including the Obama administration (which put in place a NSC playbook to deal with this type of situation after the Ebola and Flu out breaks). TOTUS ignored that playbook which gave guidelines as to how to deal with just this type of situation and reduced the funding for the CDC. There appears to be no other reason for TOTUS’ actions or lack of other than ineptitude or his own need to be the most important person for which we all bear the ill effects of.
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It is fairly obvious that we have a little bit of incompetence in the current administration and Congress. The list of negative sobriquets (some serious) is long but here are some that include the ending of “in Chief”:
Liar In Chief Conman in chief expounder in chief
Moron in chief miscreant in chief Braggart in chief
Ignoramus in chief blusterer in chief tweeter in chief
Bloviator in chief ranter in chief racist in chief
ego maniac in chief Accidental President in chief
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“Stupid is as stupid does” applies to the administration on a regular basis. MA
Suzanne Smalley, Yahoo News
10 hrs ago
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, says that Trump administration officials declined an offer of early congressional funding assistance that he and other senators made on Feb. 5 during a meeting to discuss the coronavirus.
The officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, said they “didn’t need emergency funding, that they would be able to handle it within existing appropriations,” Murphy recalled in an interview with Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast.
“What an awful, horrible catastrophic mistake that was,” Murphy said.
On Feb. 5, Murphy tweeted: “Just left the Administration briefing on Coronavirus. Bottom line: they aren’t taking this seriously enough. Notably, no request for ANY emergency funding, which is a big mistake. Local health systems need supplies, training, screening staff etc. And they need it now.”
Murphy told Yahoo News that the funding he and other congressional leaders wanted to allocate nearly two months ago would have paid for essential preventative measures, including hiring local screening and testing staff, researching a vaccine and treatments and the stockpiling of needed medical supplies.
“The consequences of that in Connecticut is that we’re going to test less people today than we tested yesterday,” Murphy told “Skullduggery” hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman. “And that means that there are lots of people who are positive who are not going to know it, who are then going to be in contact with other people, who are going to spread the disease.”
An HHS spokesperson said that a few days before the Feb. 5 meeting, Azar had let Congress know he might need to use his “transfer authority” to fund the response to the virus. The Department was already using an Infectious Disease and Rapid Response Reserve Fund, which the spokesperson said was used to pay for CDC technical assistance, medical screening, and more lab capacity, among other things.
Connecticut is so undersupplied that officials have had to cut back on tests administered even as suspected new infections are surging, Murphy said, calling the forced reduction in testing “an abomination.”
Murphy said Connecticut has been particularly challenged in trying to build up its supply of re-agents, the compounds needed to run coronavirus tests. Re-agents are mostly manufactured abroad, and Murphy said “the whole world is competing” for them now.
The world is battling the COVID-19 outbreak that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, which has claimed more than 30,901 lives and infected more than 665,297 people around the world.
The senator said he spent part of Thursday on the phone with a lab official in Connecticut who said he cannot administer enough tests due to the re-agent shortage.
“Had we appropriated money in February to start buying re-agent, we would be in a position to do many more tests today than we are,” Murphy said. ”It was just so clear to us that the administration didn’t think this was going to be a problem. We begged them in that meeting to request emergency funding from the Congress and they told us … that they had everything that they needed on hand, which was false.”
Murphy also criticized the White House’s decision not to take coronavirus test kits offered by the World Health Organization in January, which he said was an especially devastating mistake because that test was ready to go and easily replicable. Murphy said he believes that, as a result of the administration’s testing decisions, only about 20 percent to 30 percent of people who should be tested are able to do so.
“We didn’t appropriate the dollars necessary to build out the testing infrastructure,” Murphy said.
The administration’s laissez-faire approach has also contributed to the country’s soaring infection rate, Murphy said, because Trump had resisted calls to invoke the Defense Production Act. The Defense Production Act, or DPA, allows the president to compel private companies to manufacture products deemed necessary for national security.
Trump announced Friday that he was finally invoking the DPA to force General Motors to produce badly needed ventilators. But Murphy said the president had dragged his feet in using the DPA because some of his allies pressured him against invoking it.
“The president is getting push back from right-wing ideologues, from those who believe that the private sector can fix any and all problems that confront the nation,” Murphy said.
“The national Chamber of Commerce and other conservative, free-market ideologues inside the White House are arguing for the president to not use the DPA simply because they philosophically disagree with the idea that government should play any role in the management of supplies at a time like this.”
Sabrina Fang, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce, did not respond to Yahoo News’ requests for comment.
Calling the president’s coronavirus management strategy an “abysmal failure,” Murphy said the lack of federal leadership continues to directly correlate with cities’ and states’ inability to perform enough tests and stop the disease from spreading in the U.S. He said that supply shortages have led to a “‘Lord of the Flies’ environment in which every single state and every single hospital is left to essentially fend for themselves and try to scrounge together as much equipment as they can.”
Asked what he considers to be the most important thing Trump could do to help the country turn the corner in its effort to contain the coronavirus, Murphy said the president should rethink his recent assertion that the country might be able to return to normal by Easter, which falls this year on April 12.
“What I’m most worried about right now is that the president is just going to get sort of tired of these emergency measures,” Murphy said, referring to the social distancing efforts most Americans are now undertaking. “The result will be that people will start coming out of their homes and we will end up with a health care system in absolute, catastrophic failure.”
Murphy also said he is now close to proposing legislation that will bolster coordination between the U.S, and other countries for pandemic preparedness and protection so that next time a virus emerges, leaders are better able to respond.
“There could be another one at our doorstep next spring at the same time that we’re responding to the current virus,” he said.
He also hailed the passage of a $2 trillion stimulus package late Wednesday. The package is meant to boost an economy staggering under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic and includes billions of dollars in tax credits for hard-hit industries and direct cash payments to individuals, among other provisions.
But while he said he was happy the bill would help the economy recover, “until hospitals have what they need in order to continue to respond to this … our salvation is really in all of our hands.”
“There is no danger of overreacting right now,” Murphy said. “As the number of people infected grows by leaps and bounds every single day, as more hot spots are created all across the country, we need to take drastic measures.”
He said he is gravely worried about the administration’s “mixed messages” to the public about the duration and importance of social distancing.
“Everything in that bill is meaningless,” Murphy said of the stimulus, “unless we are all personally very serious about engaging in the best practices necessary to repel the virus.”
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Did you ever wonder how the Government is supposed to work? In A nutshell: we the people select the people we think we want to represent us and hope that they will. These representatives in some cases do well for us and other times do well for themselves at our expense. How it is supposed to work is that our representatives speak for us in seeking the best deals that our tax dollars can buy! Over the years that basic premise has been subverted and lost. We (voters) have allowed it to happen by allowing ourselves to be distracted by “shiny objects” and buzzwords. The political society spends millions on getting the “correct” wording and phrasing out to the public. This careful wording is designed to coerce or persuade us to vote for them based on what they tell us rather than what they actually accomplish.
If the last 12 years have not enlightened you as to the extent of misrepresentation or lack of comprehensive representation we are and have been experiencing then this current emergency should serve as an “aha” moment for us all. If you are a “star Wars” fan just remember the story line from beginning to end.
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TOTUS again being his same vindictive self serving self, as I state again-Dude! it is not about you but now it is because of you! MA
By ZEKE MILLER, JILL COLVIN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
10 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — After days of pleading from the nation’s governors, President Donald Trump took steps Friday to expand the federal government’s role in helping produce critically needed supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet the president rejected any criticism for the federal government’s response to a ballooning public health crisis that a month ago he predicted would be over by now.
“We have done a hell of a job,” Trump told reporters Friday, as he sent an ominous message to state and local leaders who have been urging the federal government to do more to save lives.
“If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said, shortly after telling reporters: “I want them to be appreciative.”
But after days of saying such a move was not needed, Trump on Friday signed an order aimed at compelling General Motors to prioritize the production of ventilators under the Defense Production Act. Hours earlier, Trump had taken issue with the very idea that states would need an influx of the machines.
One month after predicting the U.S. was days away from being “close to zero” coronavirus cases, Trump in recent days had increasingly tried to shift the blame to state and local leaders as the spread tops more than 100,000 cases nationwide.
He lashed out at governors, continued to diminish the risk posed by the virus and insisted that the federal government was only a “backup” as he looked to avoid political costs from a pandemic that has reshaped his presidency and tested his reelection plans.
In a Thursday night interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump declared that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee “should be doing more” and “shouldn’t be relying on the federal government.” He dismissed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s requests for additional ventilators to keep patients alive, saying, “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000” of the devices, which force air into the lungs of those too sick to breathe. And he said he was still weighing Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request for a disaster declaration, saying, “We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor from, you know who I’m talking about, from Michigan.”
“You know,” he added from the White House, “we don’t like to see the complaints.”
The administration’s mantra, frequently articulated by Vice President Mike Pence, has long been that the fight against the virus must be “locally executed, state managed, and federally supported.”
But Trump appeared to show little empathy for the states’ predicament, with his emphasis skewed toward the “locally executed” portion of that trifecta.
At the same time, governors’ complaints about federal support have been mounting as state leaders grow more open to airing their frustrations, despite the perceived risks. They had faulted Trump’s refusal to use the DPA to force companies to manufacture critical supplies and his insistence that it should be up to states to purchase things like masks and testing agents on the open market. That has forced states to compete both against one another and the federal government, driving up prices, even as federal officials have pledged their help if states fail.
Whitmer, in particular, has criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic –- including on national cable TV shows — saying that the federal government should do more and that Michigan’s allotment of medical supplies from the national stockpile is meager.
“It’s very distressing,” the Democratic governor told radio station WWJ. “I observed early on, like a lot of governors on both sides of the aisle, that the federal preparation was concerning. That apparently struck a nerve, and I’ve been uniquely singled out despite my voice not being the only one that observed that,” she said.
“I don’t go into personal attacks. I don’t have time for that,” she said. “I need partnership out of the federal government. We have to be all hands on deck here.”
Cuomo has also been on the forefront, some days criticizing the administration’s failure to act and at other times commending federal assistance. But the New York Democrat has remained clear that the state, which is now the epicenter of the crisis, needs many more ventilators than it has at the ready.
“That’s what the data and the science said,” Cuomo said Friday as he defended his ask for additional ventilators and issued a new request to Washington for an additional 41,000 beds in temporary hospitals.
Trump has repeatedly referred to himself as a “wartime president” — and now Cuomo and others have called on the federal government to act like it’s a war.
“What is unclear to me is why the federal administration refuses to direct industries to manufacture critical PPE,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said Wednesday, referring to personal protective equipment. “I’m not exaggerating when I say this outrageous lack of action will result in lost lives. Including those of our health care workers.”
Inslee, also a Democrat, tweeted: “We need a national mobilization of the industrial base in this country. That’s how we won WWII. To get that, we need a president to lead. Washingtonians’ lives depend on it.”
Even as Trump has publicly doubted the need for a massive increase in ventilators, the White House has been working behind the scenes to get more of them manufactured. Disagreements burst into the open Friday when Trump lashed out at General Motors and its CEO on Twitter, alleging that the company promised to build thousands more breathing machines than it can deliver.
“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out,” Trump wrote, adding that the company promised 40,000 ventilators quickly but now says it will build only 6,000 in late April and at a high price. He said they should reopen a now-closed factory in Lordstown, Ohio — even though that factory has been sold.
The White House later announced that Trump had signed the order aimed at forcing the company to accept and prioritize federal contracts to produce ventilators. He also named trade adviser Peter Navarro to lead the government’s production effort.
“Today’s action will help ensure the quick production of ventilators that will save American lives,” he said in a statement.
Trump also authorized Defense Secretary Mark Esper to call up an unspecified number of federal reservists to help with the coronavirus response.
He said in a letter to Congress on Friday that he had authorized Esper to order units and individual members of the Selected Reserve, as well as certain Individual Ready Reserve members, to active duty. They are separate from, and in addition to, National Guard members who have been mobilized by state governors.
The reserve call-up likely is intended to fill gaps in medical expertise as the military deploys field hospitals to cities hard hit by COVID-19 and provides other forms of medical support to state and local authorities.
Pence, meanwhile, skirted the question of whether responsibility for the outbreak should be borne by the state or federal government in an interview with CNBC.
“I think it’s a responsibility of all of us at every level to bring our very best science, our very best recommendations, our very best counsel to the American people, and to American businesses,” he said Friday.
___
Associated Press writers David Eggert in Lansing, Mich., Tom Krisher in Detroit, Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon and Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report.
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