Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[Keith&Co.]

If he fires Fauci, though, then he can't prevent him from testifying to the appropriations committee.

 

[lpetrich]

Housing Justice for All NY on Instagram: “NY #RENTSTRIKE HISTORY!⁣⁣ ⁣⁣…”

Mother’s Day Special! This one goes out to all the mamas around the world fighting for the dignity of their and their neighbors’ families. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
1904: Thousands of immigrant Jewish women in the Lower East Side collectively withheld rent in NYC’s first rent strike. The construction of the Williamsburg Bridge had displaced 20,000 people and landlords were attempting to take advantage of the housing shortage by increasing rents 20-30%. Rent strikes were successfully combined with pickets and marches; the overwhelming majority of landlords rolled back rents and some tenants even won leases!⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Images: ⁣⁣
1. “An East Side Eviction” (New Era Illustrated Magazine, May 1904)⁣⁣
2. “An Eviction in the Tenement District of the City of New York,” (Harper’s Weekly, February 1, 1890)⁣⁣
⁣⁣
More rent strike history in our toolkit bit.ly/RentStrikeNY or links in bio #RentStrike #RentStrikeHistory #CancelRent #HomelessCantStayHome #ReclaimOurHomes #MothersDay

 

[Worldtraveller]

1. State and local help
2. Rent and mortgage assistance
3. Cash payments - something like $2000/month
4. Help for workers and businesses
5. Broadband - to rural, low-income, other vulnerable communities
6. Testing, tracing, treatment
7. Postal service
8. Nutrition programs

We can't pay out trillions upon trillions. We will at some point need means testing. People who are employed can't continue to get money. Initially to get payments out there wasn't time, so one size fits all. We need something that can adapt at this point... of course, DC is way behind the curve here and reacting instead of leading... so we then fall back into the "we don't have time to check who needs help".

We're screwed, aren't we.

It's worse than that since the orange shitgibbon and his GOP cronies are trying their best (and currently being fairly successful at it) to funnel the money directly into their and their cronies' pockets. I suspect they don't want means testing in that sense. They only want means testing to keep the 'wrong' people from getting any help.

 

[lpetrich]

US government turned down opportunity to manufacture millions of N95 masks at start of pandemic: report | TheHill

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) turned down an opportunity to access millions of U.S.-manufactured N95 masks in January, according to The Washington Post.

The N95 masks have been in high demand since the pandemic hit the United States and as health care workers scramble to protect themselves while caring for thousands of patients flooding local hospitals.

On Jan. 22, Prestige Ameritech, a medical supply company in Fort Worth, Texas, offered to ramp up production to make an additional 1.7 million N95 masks, noting that the federal government’s stockpile was diminishing.

The government turned down the offer.

Prestige Ameritech offered to make millions of N95 masks in Texas. The government turned him down.. - The Washington Post


Unreleased White House report shows coronavirus rates spiking in heartland communities

The data contained in a May 7 coronavirus task force report are at odds with President Donald Trump’s Monday declaration that “all throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly.”

The top 10 areas had increases of 72.4% or more over the previous week, areas including Nashville TN, Des Moines IA, Amarillo TX, and with 650%, Central City KY.

"Locations to watch": Charlotte NC, Kansas City MO, Omaha NE, Lincoln NE, Minneapolis MN, Montgomery AL, Columbus OH, Phoenix AZ. There were clusters in neighboring counties like WI's Kenosha and Racine counties, near Chicago IL and Milwaukee WI.

The spiking infection rates suggest that the pandemic is spreading quickly outside major coastal population centers that were early hot spots, while governors of some of the states that are home to new hot spots are following Trump’s advice to relax stay-at-home restrictions.

...
Dallas and Fort Bend counties in Texas, where decisions are made locally, are on a “locations to watch” list because they have seen an increase in the number of cases of 116.8 percent and 64.8 percent, respectively.

After these self-styled Real Americans snickered that it was not Real Americans who were suffering, they have started to suffer in a big way.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

link

“In every generation, through every challenge and hardship and danger, America has risen to the task,” Trump said. “We have met the moment and we have prevailed.”

Everyone remember learning in history about that moment when FDR announced that the Allies had defeated the Nazis after the successful storming of Normandy, that WWII was effectively over?

Or when General Washington announced America's freedom after the Battle of Bunker HIll?

Or when the Black Knight indicated that it was just a flesh wound?

 

[lpetrich]

It's as if these heartlanders were looking at New York City and saying "What's there to worry about? The boat's not leaking on our end."

White House Orders Staff to Wear Masks as Trump Misrepresents Testing Record - The New York Times - "At a news conference, the president reiterated that he would not wear a mask himself and again exaggerated the availability of testing for the coronavirus."

The White House on Monday ordered all West Wing employees to wear masks at work unless they are sitting at their desks, an abrupt shift in policy after two aides working near the president — a military valet and Katie Miller, the vice president’s spokeswoman — tested positive for the coronavirus last week.

In an internal email obtained by The New York Times, people who work in the cramped quarters around the Oval Office were told that “as an additional layer of protection, we are requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or face covering.”

Asked at a Rose Garden news conference whether he had ordered the change, Mr. Trump — who did not wear a mask and has repeatedly said he sees no reason to — said, “Yeah, I did.” But officials said the new requirement was not expected to apply to Mr. Trump or to Vice President Mike Pence.

...
During Mr. Trump’s afternoon news conference, senior White House aides could be seen standing along the side of the Rose Garden — all of them wearing masks.

But why not for himself or the VP? Someone who gets tested every day ought to be more proactive.

He claimed yet again that “if somebody wants to be tested right now, they’ll be able to be tested,” but when someone contradicted him on that in an earlier press conference, he acted very affronted. He claimed that he was working with the states on doing 12.9 million tests in May.

“We are testing more people per capita than South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Sweden, Finland and many other countries,” he said, ignoring countries where testing on a per capita basis is higher, including Germany, Russia, Spain, Canada, Switzerland and at least 20 others, according to statistics compiled by Our World in Data.

Flanked by large posters that proclaimed “America leads the world in testing,” Mr. Trump also declared victory over the pandemic, saying that “we have met the moment and we have prevailed.” Later, under questioning, he revised his comments, saying he only meant to say the country had prevailed on increasing access to testing.

Then if that was what he meant, then why didn't he say so? He seems like a pathological liar.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Testing - Statistics and Research - Our World in Data

 

[ideologyhunter]

Mission Accomplished. Thank you, Donald. Let's rent out the Astrodome and get all your most loyal supporters in there. And you. Batten the hatches and have the celebration you deserve.

 

[lpetrich]

Coronavirus: Fauci to warn of 'needless' deaths if US opens too early

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top member of the White House coronavirus task force, plans to warn a panel of Senators on Tuesday about the danger of new COVID-19 outbreaks if states start to reopen their economies too quickly amid the pandemic.

In a hearing, which senators are forced to hold by videoconference rather than in person because of newly discovered cases within the White House, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, plans to stress "the danger of trying to open the country prematurely."

"If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to 'Open America Again,' then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal," Fauci said in an email to The New York Times that outlined what he planned to say at the hearing.

Virtual hearings? Will Congress be doing more of that?

Schumer tells Fauci before Senate coronavirus testimony: 'Let it rip' | Fox News

"Until now, we've mostly heard from the members of the coronavirus task force through the distorted lens of the White House press conference where the president often prevents them from answering fully, interrupts their response, or even contradicts their fact-based evidence," Schumer said on Monday.

"This will be one of the first opportunities for Dr. Fauci to tell the American people the unvarnished truth without the president lurking over his shoulder. Dr. Fauci, let it rip," he added.

Senator Tammy Baldwin: Trump has testing strategy for the White House, but not the rest of the co… - YouTube

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, is scheduled to take part in a hearing Tuesday with Dr. Anthony Fauci and several of the Trump administration's top health officials. She spoke to CBSN's Tanya Rivero about what she wants to find out, as well as the impact of the coronavirus at meatpacking facilities in her state, her conversations with the Biden campaign, and Wisconsin's special election scheduled for Tuesday.

From the looks of it, the Trump Admin often ends up doing the right thing, but it has to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing so.

 

[Horatio Parker]

...The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants. This accounts for 90% of all transmission events. In contrast, outbreaks spread from shopping appear to be responsible for a small percentage of traced infections. (Ref)

Importantly, of the countries performing contact tracing properly, only a single outbreak has been reported from an outdoor environment (less than 0.3% of traced infections). (ref)

So back to the original thought of my post.

Indoor spaces, with limited air exchange or recycled air and lots of people, are concerning from a transmission standpoint. We know that 60 people in a volleyball court-sized room (choir) results in massive infections. Same situation with the restaurant and the call center. Social distancing guidelines don't hold in indoor spaces where you spend a lot of time, as people on the opposite side of the room were infected.

The principle is viral exposure over an extended period of time. In all these cases, people were exposed to the virus in the air for a prolonged period (hours). Even if they were 50 feet away (choir or call center), even a low dose of the virus in the air reaching them, over a sustained period, was enough to cause infection and in some cases, death.

Social distancing rules are really to protect you with brief exposures or outdoor exposures. In these situations there is not enough time to achieve the infectious viral load when you are standing 6 feet apart or where wind and the infinite outdoor space for viral dilution reduces viral load. The effects of sunlight, heat, and humidity on viral survival, all serve to minimize the risk to everyone when outside.

When assessing the risk of infection (via respiration) at the grocery store or mall, you need to consider the volume of the air space (very large), the number of people (restricted), how long people are spending in the store (workers - all day; customers - an hour). Taken together, for a person shopping: the low density, high air volume of the store, along with the restricted time you spend in the store, means that the opportunity to receive an infectious dose is low. But, for the store worker, the extended time they spend in the store provides a greater opportunity to receive the infectious dose and therefore the job becomes more risky.

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

Very interesting post.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Not that it needs repeated but Dotard's continued downplaying of the danger and outright lying didn't help:

Six weeks lost

 

[ideologyhunter]

And he did it again YESTERDAY. Virus is clearing up. Testing available for all. Go away, Asian lady. I, Trump, have spoken. Toto in The Wizard of Oz had more experience with con men than today's Republican faithful.

 

[lpetrich]

House Democrats unveil coronavirus rescue bill that would direct more than $3 trillion to states, individuals, health systems - The Washington Post

House Democrats unveiled a sprawling coronavirus rescue bill Tuesday that would direct more than $3 trillion to state and local governments, health systems, a second round of stimulus checks and more -- from funding the Postal Service to requiring passengers to wear masks on airplanes and public transit.

Republicans rejected the legislation even before they saw it, describing it as a liberal wish list that would go nowhere in the Republican-led Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he was at work on crafting liability protections for businesses instead. “This is not a time for aspirational legislation,” McConnell said.

The massive new Democratic bill was assembled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants without input from Republicans or the Trump administration. It’s less an opening bid in a bipartisan negotiation than an expression of House Democrats’ priorities that they hope will resonate with the public as the nation suffers through the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression.

...
“We must think big for the people now, because if we don’t it will cost more in lives and livelihood later,” Pelosi said at a press conference. “Not acting is the most expensive course.”

The bill itself - The "Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions" Act - the HEROES act. The House is expected to vote on it Friday.

House Democrats unveil $3 trillion coronavirus relief package | TheHill

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

McConnell says "DOA". Of course, with the gargantuan spending cuts at the state level due to the Economic Freeze... well... that'll lead to a substantial recession. Why the fuck even have government at this point? Granted, that is what the GOP wants.

 

[lpetrich]

That bill contains:

• $915 billion for state, local, territorial, and tribal governments
• $200 billion “Heroes Fund” to extend hazard pay to essential workers
• A second $1,200 each to most Americans, including adult dependents
• Nutrition assistance benefits would increase by 10%
• $175 billion in housing assistance
• $75 billion for coronavirus testing, contract tracing, and the like
• $100 billion in grants for hospitals and medical providers
• Mandates a comprehensive testing strategy
• $25 billion for the U.S. Postal Service
• Inspectors general may only "be removed for specific reasons like neglect of duty, knowingly violating laws, abuse of authority or a felony conviction." (TheHill)
• All voters can have access to absentee voting, and they have 15 days of early voting.
• Passengers and employees on public-transit systems, Amtrak trains, and airliners must wear masks.
• $3 billion to increase mental-health support.

 

[lpetrich]

Republicans are already squealing that they weren't consulted about that bill.

From The Hill:

The House is also expected to vote Friday on rules changes to allow lawmakers to vote remotely and conduct committee work virtually. House Democrats are planning to vote on permitting proxy voting, which would allow absent lawmakers to authorize colleagues physically present in the Capitol to cast votes on their behalf.

A bipartisan task force has been discussing options for the House to operate during the pandemic, but so far no agreement has been reached. Hoyer, a member of that group, told reporters on Tuesday that Democrats will still move forward with the rules changes even if they can't come to a bipartisan agreement.

"I've indicated that if we can't reach agreement that we will nevertheless present a path forward to ensure the Congress can do its duties," Hoyer said.

House Democrats to move ahead with historic rules change allowing for remote voting - CNNPolitics

According to a notice sent to members, the panel is scheduling a Thursday committee meeting to approve the rules change and send it to the full House for consideration by the chamber on Friday.

The rules change would last during the course of the current crisis and would allow members to vote on the floor "by proxy" -- in other words lawmakers would designate another member to vote at their direction and on their behalf. Doing so would significantly reduce the number of members present in the chamber during a vote and allow members who are unable or unwilling to travel across the country to still cast a vote.

The rules change would also provide for procedures so committees can conduct their business remotely, a move that will allow rank-and-file lawmakers to participate given that party leaders have been the ones leading the charge over Congress' legislative responses to the crisis so far.

...
"A Member casting a vote on behalf of another Member would be required to have exact direction from that Member on how to vote and would have to follow that direction," McGovern said in a statement last month about his recommendation.

 

[lpetrich]

House Judiciary GOP on Twitter: " #NEWS: Last night, @Jim_Jordan and @RepKenBuck sent a letter to @RepJerryNadler denouncing the Chairman’s decision to hold virtual “forums” instead of in-person Committee hearings.
It’s time for House Democrats to show up and do their job. https://t.co/fEWo5O95pK" / Twitter

I like this response:
Zombie Jesus on Twitter: "House Democrats want to show up to work remotely but you clowns would rather expose the whole House to a highly contagious disease that has killed over 80,000 Americans. Spare us the “time to get to work” nonsense and just eat shit you fucking assholes @Jim_Jordan @RepKenBuck" / Twitter

I've been doing lots of stuff remotely for years, and those politicians strike me as a bunch of big babies.


White House and Congress clash over liability protections for businesses as firms cautiously weigh virus reopening plans - The Washington Post - "McConnell says liability protections for businesses are a requirement; Pelosi and Democrats say no. And there’s no sign of compromise."

The debate over legal liability and tort reform has divided the parties for years, with Democrats accusing Republicans of doing the bidding of big business while Republicans contend that Democrats are in the pocket of trial lawyers. Powerful business lobbies like the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the insurance industry are now lobbying heavily in support of liability shields for businesses, while trial lawyer associations, unions and groups representing plaintiffs and consumers are pressuring Democrats to oppose any such measures.

I've seen right-wingers make big villains out of trial lawyers. They seem like a very obedient bunch.

 

[lpetrich]

Confronted with horrendous jobs report, White House and congressional Democrats aren’t even talking - The Washington Post

Trump on Friday dismissed Democrats as “stone cold crazy” and said he couldn’t work with them. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Republicans who failed to act would be “taking the same misguided path as Herbert Hoover,” who failed to pull the nation out of the Great Depression.

I agree with Chuck Schumer on this one. Trump makes Hoover seem like a great leader.

Trump says he will block coronavirus aid for U.S. Postal Service if it doesn’t hike prices immediately - The Washington Post - "The president said the postal agency should quadruple its package delivery prices, otherwise he would block congressionally approved funding"

Several administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said Trump’s criticism of Postal Service rates is rooted in a desire to hurt Amazon in particular. They have said that he fumes publicly and privately at Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, for news coverage that Trump believes is unfair.

But raising USPS prices so sharply may not have the impact the president desires, analysts said, as it would put postal services prices far above those of UPS and FedEx, allowing them to raise prices a little and still gain market share, they said.

“This is about as catastrophically stupid an idea that anyone could ever imagine,” said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University Business School. “As if anyone from Amazon to the local mom and pop delivery businesses would ever put up with a rate increase like that when they have alternatives.”

What pettiness.

Trump is badly botching the virus. New polls show Americans know it. - The Washington Post
President vs. their state's governor:

• Approval: Pres 43%, Gov 71%
• Approval in MI: Pres 39%, Gov 72%
• Approval in PA: Pres 45%, Gov 72%
• Doing enough to help people go back to work safely: Pres 42%, Gov 69%
• Lifting restrictions? 16% not fast enough, 56% about right, 28% too fast
• Should keep trying to slow the virus at the expense of many businesses being closed: 74%
• Trump not doing enough to enable the nation to reopen safely: 57%
• Trump not doing enough about the shortage of testing: 57%
• Trump not doing enough to prepare for a second wave: 58%
• Trump trustworthy about the virus: 36%
• Worst is yet to come: 52%
• Trump's handling: 42% approve, 55% disapprove

All of that is a stunning indictment of Trump’s failures: Large majorities grasp that he’s putting people in danger by urging a reopening on his timetable — which we all know is largely dictated by his reelection needs — and large majorities understand this is precisely because he failed to do enough to ensure it can be done safely.

Trump is dissembling furiously to try to make these accurate public perceptions disappear. He just claimed once again that coronavirus rates are “coming down in most parts of our Country,” which “wants to open and get going again.”

...
One thing that has been remarkable is the sputtering rage of Trump’s propagandists as they witness large majorities refusing to prioritize Trump’s reelection needs — oops, sorry, I meant refusing to prioritize “getting the economy going” — over their own health and lives.

...
They are pushing utter nonsense, such as pretending those criticizing Trump for failing to scale up testing so we can reopen carefully are waging class war on oppressed workers who just want to resume livelihoods.

...
Other Trump partisans are urging ordinary Americans to “patriotically” adopt a “military mind-set” to resume normal life, even as Trump benefits from the safety of testing and tracing in a way they do not. And these armchair warriors refuse to acknowledge that Trump himself is to blame for failing to make reopening a lot safer than it currently is.

One has to ask why they are so desperate to defend that incompetent jerk at whatever the cost to them. They had plenty of opportunity to support another Republican candidate in this election, but they didn't.

 

[lpetrich]

Now New York can test its theory - The Washington Post

If at one end of the spectrum regarding politicians’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic is President Trump — impulsive, rumor-mongering, partisan, anti-science — then New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) is at the other end. For Cuomo, responding to the novel coronavirus in a state where the pandemic has been deadliest, the crisis demands a dizzying array of data, expert opinions solicited from around the world, enlistment of former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg to create a mammoth tracking program and, most of all, a carefully designed set of metrics to evaluate each of 10 New York regions, beginning a multistep process to reopen the state.

...
We soon will have a comparison between Cuomo’s careful approach and the highly politicized approach of red-state governors who were egged on to open prematurely by the president.

NYC is rather badly hit, so Cuomo and De Blasio are not likely to open up that city any time soon. So we should watch what other blue-state governors are doing.

 

[lpetrich]

Which came first: The rotten polls or the raving? - The Washington Post

President Trump seems to have taken his paranoia to a whole new level. He has reverted to accusing President Barack Obama of some unexplained crime. And he stalked out of a White House press appearance on Monday following confrontations with two female reporters. (Notice it’s the women who really get under his skin and flummox him.)

...
One major reason for his break from reality could well be his rotten polling and growing, unavoidable evidence that his reelection campaign is in deep trouble. The New York Times reports that Trump’s failed response to the pandemic has “cost President Trump support from one of his most crucial constituencies: America’s seniors.”

Anxious About the Virus, Older Voters Grow More Wary of Trump - The New York Times - "Surveys show the president’s standing with seniors, the group most vulnerable to the coronavirus, has fallen as he pushes to reopen the country."

A recent Morning Consult poll found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating on the handling of the coronavirus was lower with seniors than with any other group other than young voters. And Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, in recent polls held a 10-point advantage over Mr. Trump among voters who are 65 and older. A poll commissioned by the campaign showed a similar double-digit gap.

Joe Biden on Twitter: "Donald Trump just doesn't understand: We have an economic crisis because we have a public health crisis — and we have a public health crisis because he failed to act. https://t.co/hRrueGgx2C" / Twitter - then an ad about how badly Trump has handled the pandemic.

Back to Jennifer Rubin's WaPo editorial:

So which came first: Trump’s accelerating emotional tailspin or the terrible polling, leading to heightened concern that he is heading for defeat? Actually, both have their origin in the undeniable reality that Trump has utterly failed to combat the worst domestic crisis in a hundred years. To the contrary, his penchant for denying unpleasant facts, aversion to experts, self-absorption, dearth of empathy and utter incompetence allowed the virus to fester and spread. His fixation on “opening” the economy while the pandemic is still raging as a means to boost the markets and his reelection prospects has only made matters worse.

 

[lpetrich]

Businessweek on Twitter: "The next housing crisis is here, and this time, it’s about rentals https://t.co/LIzOUiC2k6" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "We are on the brink of an enormous housing crisis, one where renters and small landlords alike are on the brink of getting wiped out.
Who wins? Major corporations willing to gobble them up.
So far, Congress is letting it happen. We *must* protect people before the worst hits." / Twitter

Back in April 28,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Congress gave a $4 TRILLION check to Wall Street while sending mom+pops on a wild goose chase for PPP.
That is major, oligarchic, economy-shaping power Congress just gave the wealthy.
The LEAST we should do is halt big mergers during COVID to slow the consolidation of sectors." / Twitter
noting
Sahil Kapur on Twitter: "Scoop: @EWarren and @AOC team up on a new proposal to halt big mergers during the coronavirus pandemic. Warren sees "private equity vultures" looking to "gobble up" small biz.
AOC warns of "decades-long economic consequences" of inaction for consumers. https://t.co/zd7H4w73PB" / Twitter

Zephyr Teachout on Twitter: "We need a merger moratorium. Also, devastated restaurants lose even more power if this goes through. Uber sets terms, extracts. https://t.co/xzWtkILsNA" / Twitter
noting
Uber Said to Be in Talks to Acquire Grubhub - The New York Times - "A deal would unite two large players in food delivery as more people order in meals during the pandemic."