Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

We won’t go back.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Republican Venality Open Thread: Deliberate, Criminal Negligence

Republican Venality Open Thread: Deliberate, Criminal Negligence

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… “Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?” the playbook instructs its readers, as one early decision that officials should address when facing a potential pandemic. “If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?”

The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.

“Each section of this playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels” within the national security apparatus, the playbook urges, repeatedly advising officials to question the numbers on viral spread, ensure appropriate diagnostic capacity and check on the U.S. stockpile of emergency resources.

The playbook also stresses the significant responsibility facing the White House to contain risks of potential pandemics, a stark contrast with the Trump administration’s delays in deploying an all-of-government response and President Donald Trump’s recent signals that he might roll back public health recommendations…

The NSC devised the guide — officially called the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents, but known colloquially as “the pandemic playbook” — across 2016. The project was driven by career civil servants as well as political appointees, aware that global leaders had initially fumbled their response to the 2014-2015 spread of Ebola and wanting to be sure that the next response to an epidemic was better handled.

The Trump administration was briefed on the playbook’s existence in 2017, said four former officials, but two cautioned that it never went through a full, National Security Council-led interagency process to be approved as Trump administration strategy. Tom Bossert, who was then Trump’s homeland security adviser, expressed enthusiasm about its potential as part of the administration’s broader strategy to fight pandemics, two former officials said…

The NSC playbook would have been especially useful in helping to drive the administration’s response to coronavirus, given that it was intended to guide urgent decisions and coordinate the all-of-government approach that Trump so far has struggled to muster, said people familiar with the document.

The color-coded playbook contains different sections based on the relative risk — green for normal operations, yellow for elevated threat, orange for credible threat and red once a public health emergency is declared — and details the potential roles of dozens of departments and agencies, from key players like the Health and Human Services department to the Department of Transportation and the FBI. It also includes sample documents intended to be used at coordinating meetings.

Look, that was years & years ago, and really what could anyone learn from a bunch of nerds working for That Black Dude, anyways? “We” may not have deserved President Obama, but thousands of innocent victims sure as hell don’t deserve Trump, either.

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  1. 1.

    West of the Rockies

    This needs to be stressed as we near November.  Trump’s cosmic incompetence must be a brand on his fat white ass.

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    OT – but YES! YES! YES!

    just a reminder that if your fellow self quarantining neighbors are being too loud you might be able to connect to their Bluetooth speaker pic.twitter.com/6zi0ozJoWc— Matt O'Brien (@matt_obrien) March 24, 2020

    Now back to your regularly scheduled Fuck-the-Republicans post, because fuck the Republicans.

  3. 3.

    RepubAnon

    Sung to the tune of Davy Crockett:

    “Drooling – Drooling Donald.  Gods, what a useless schmuck…”

  4. 4.

    patrick Il

    just listened  to  Republican Rep Gary Palmer Alabama being interviewed on NPR  All things considered.

    NPR Host:  I know  you belong  to a party  that doesn’t believe in deficits,  but are you  going to  vote for this bill?

    Arrghh

  5. 5.

    joel hanes

    @West of the Rockies:

    It’s not just incompetence.

    Trump deliberately slow-walked the evaluation of the building pandemic because he feared that accurate numbers would make him “look bad”, and affect his “ratings”.

    He was willing for people to die in exchange for a public relations advantage.

    This is negligence with depraved indifference — murder.

    Add to that his naked desire to profiteer off the crisis, or allow his allies to do so, and a decent nation would imprison him for life starting the day after he’s out of office.

  6. 6.

    Doc Sardonic

    @mrmoshpotato: The modern day version of hauling a full Marshall stack up the townhouse stairs, placing it in the closet speakers to the wall, dimeing it out and scorching the opening riff to Mickey’s Monkey through the wall.

  7. 7.

    TheOtherHank

    I’ve said this before, but I really mean it, so I’ll say it again: Fuck those Fucking Fuckers

    ETA: Loud music neighbors or Republicans. It’s all good.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    officially called the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents

    That could have been about anything. How was Trump to know that it was relevant to the current situation?

  11. 11.

    Jeffro

    From now til the election, it is criminal for any news organization to go with

    “the president* is sowing confusion with his misinformation” instead of

    “the president* is lying to the American people for the purpose of avoiding culpability for his incompetence, which resulted in X Americans being killed”.  

    Full stop.

    Let’s hold them accountable, so that they can at least take a shot at holding HIM accountable.

  13. 13.

    West of the Cascades

    Anything Obama did, do the opposite. Libs, owned.

    I’m having trouble with how much more I hate these people every day this pandemic progresses.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    IMHO they might want to rethink the whole open air wildlife-as-food market concept.

    Smuggled pangolins have been found to carry viruses closely related to the one sweeping the world.
    Scientists say the sale of the animals in wildlife markets should be strictly prohibited to minimise the risk of future outbreaks.

    Pangolins are the most-commonly illegally trafficked mammal, used both as food and in traditional medicine.

    In research published in the journal Nature, researchers say handling these animals requires “caution”.

    And they say further surveillance of wild pangolins is needed to understand their role in the risk of future transmission to humans.

    Lead researcher Dr Tommy Lam of The University of Hong Kong said two groups of coronaviruses related to the virus behind the human pandemic have been identified in Malayan pangolins smuggled into China.

    “Although their role as the intermediate host of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak remains to be confirmed, sale of these wild animals in wet markets should be strictly prohibited to avoid future zoonotic [animal to human] transmission,” he told BBC News.

    COVID-19 can easily be followed by COVID-21.

  16. 16.

    James E Powell

    @West of the Rockies:

    This needs to be stressed as we near November.  Trump’s cosmic incompetence must be a brand on his fat white ass.

    Totally agree, but it is going to be an uphill climb. The same people who called George W Bush Our Winston Churchill are already set to declare Trump – Changed By Crisis. Savior of America. And keep in mind that ~42% already believe he’s the Savior of America.

  18. 18.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    It wasn’t a sales pitch, and way too many words with more than one syllable! How was he supposed to know it was important?

  20. 20.

    joel hanes

    @trollhattan:

    China closed the “wet markets” some time ago, and has said that they will never be allowed to re-open.

    Yes, they were a horrible idea, but the maladministration’s insistence on identifying the virus with China has nothing to do with infectious disease control practices and everything to do with Trump’s desire to find an external enemy on which he can blame the horrific results of his own ignorant and selfish refusal to lead once the virus got to the states.  He wants a scapegoat.

  21. 21.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I am a tad worried about Trump’s approval numbers jumping up. I know that we’re not in the worst of this yet, but the “rally around the flag” effect has been shown to persist until crises end and we’re likely not to see this end until possibly after this election, which might give Trump the support he needs to at least win the EC

  23. 23.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @James E Powell:

    My concerns aside, I would think tens of thousands of dead, at the very least, would make this “pivot” difficult. As bad as 9/11 was, it didn’t personally touch millions of people like friends/family of 9/11 victims were

  24. 24.

    MattF

    Thrown on a shelf, because there is only one priority, Trump’s ego. Which translates now to Trump’s reelection.

  28. 28.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    I know, but he if he can beat this and come out smelling like fucking roses, we will be a failed democracy. Trump can’t be allowed to get away with that

  30. 30.

    sdhays

    @Baud: The “rally around the flag effect” didn’t help Carter…

    ETA: (Adding to what you were saying.)

    And apparently Lindsey Graham is down 4%(!?) to his Democratic challenger?? There’s a whole lot of stuff going on right now. The situation is very fluid.

  32. 32.

    Betty

    Don’t forget it was Bolton who dismantled the NSC team. Always thought he was dangerous. Did not think it would be this bad.

  40. 40.

    hueyplong

    November is so far off we can’t even imagine the ups and downs between now and then.

    But we can imagine that the things Trump has been saying since late January will look very bad in retrospect. A harsh reality is coming. It will be bad for all of us. Trump will tire quickly of demanding to be perceived as the master and creator of the reality that exists soon.

  41. 41.

    senyordave

    @sdhays: The “rally around the flag effect” didn’t help Carter…

     

    We are in a very different era than the Carter/Reagan era.  Trump’s supporters would vote for him even if they believed he deliberately let people die.  He has 42% no matter what happens.  And that is terrifying, especially in light of the Electral College.

  43. 43.

    patrick Il

    Trump,  a few weeks  ago ” We’re  going to ask  congress for 2 billion .  Congress is  talking about 8 billion,  but I don’t  known why”.

  45. 45.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: China has announced they’ve all been banned. We’ll see how long it takes for reality to match policy, but they tend to not be any worse than the US on this front.

  48. 48.

    JoyceH

    @senyordave: judging by those southern governors, a lot of those Trump supporters are going to be… culled.

    The briefing is on right now, and Trump’s breathing is really bad!

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    Sen. Klobuchar’s husband is on the mend and has been released from the hospital.

    Thanks to all who sent kind words&prayers for my husband John. He has coronavirus & has been in the hospital for pneumonia & low oxygen. He took a good turn, was just released & is now recovering at home! Thanks to those who cared for him &for all front line health care workers.

    Great news.

  51. 51.

    pluky

    @Martin: When the Party Central Committee issues orders, compliance is fairly rapid — a hallmark of authoritarian systems.

  52. 52.

    Quinerly

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m listening. Not watching. He could hardly manage breathing to get thru the list of names of the G 20. He must look horrible based on how he sounds. It’s been months since I’ve seen him.

  54. 54.

    senyordave

    @Ksmiami:

    spoiler alert not gonna  happen there will be between 1.6 and 2 million us dead- doesn’t bode well forMango Mussolini

    I think you are looking at maybe 50k maximum.  I was seeing doomsday projections similar to those numbers a few weeks ago, but fortunately the latest models I have seen are much, much, much lower (I needed three muches).

  56. 56.

    senyordave

    @JoyceH: Maybe he’s got the virus!  Maybe he’ll need a ventilator, and there won’t be one available.  The irony!

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    More of this!

    Brianna Keilar absolutely shredded Peter Navarro in a CNN interview, telling him he’s “wasting everyone’s time” when he tries to blame former President Barack Obama for the administration not being prepared for the coronavirus crisis.

    Said Keilar: “It’s 2020. The president was elected in 2016. Can you get to a million ventilators?”

    When Navarro attempted to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak, she said “that’s ridiculous” and ended the interview.

  58. 58.

    JoyceH

    Hey, does anyone else wonder if maybe they gave him a bunch of names and statistics to run through in the hopes that he’ll wear out before he goes off in any of those insane riffs if his? He did leave the briefing before it ended the other day.

  59. 59.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @senyordave:

    A lot of states still aren’t taking this seriously, especially Florida. They have a large elderly population, too. I think a few hundred thousand by the end of the year is what we’re looking at

  60. 60.

    Marcopolo

    Apologies, haven’t read the thread & I am about to go start dinner but doesn’t this all depend upon the White House/Executive Branch having people who know how to read?

    Assumes facts not in evidence.

  62. 62.

    Chyron HR

    Yeah but to be fair anybody who writes thing down and makes plans is just a big f*g anyway.

  63. 63.

    terry chay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Also… that 42% approval rating is based on the economy. 42% is dismal when the economy was so strong. Those people will evaporate.

    Even with a strong economy, he was going to lose. Look at 2018, which was just before he crashed the markets after Democrats took power.

    People act like they won’t throw Trump under the bus when they’ve thrown a ton of Republicans under the bus at his behest. The people who don’t, will simply turn “apolitical” as their finances are strained.

    What matters is the votes, and the 1% are, by definition, 1% of voters.

  64. 64.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    This, right here. The Twoers coming down was a drama played out 3,000 miles away on TV and while it was horrifically dramatic and emotionally wrenching we were still far removed from the immediate impact (despite the fact my California clan had to drive to Chicago in the days following 9/11 due to the death of my oldest sister wholly unrelated to 9/11).

    The airlines were soon back to flying, you still went to work the next day and stayed in your normal routine, the only major disruption coming to the families of victims and the impact to NYC and DC.

    This touches literally everyone in the country and what is far different with Covid-19 unlike natural disasters or even terrorist attacks is the unknown.

    The hurricane will do its damage but it will pass. The house will stop shaking. The floodwaters will recede.

    When does the pandemic stop?

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    @senyordave

    Scene at Walter Reed:

    “You shut it off.”

    “No, you shut it off.”

    “I know. Let’s get Mikey. Oh, Mr. Pe-e-e-ence, could you step in here for a minute?.”

  69. 69.

    danielx

    @raven:

    I can no longer watch that. Truth – couple of days ago I leaped to my feet and screamed “you lying lump of horseshit!”, and was immediately informed that I am cut off from watching the daily dose of Trumpian word salad.

  70. 70.

    JMG

    Events are happening way to fast for people on this board, among the maybe top 0.5 percent of the public in terms of political information, to keep up. So imagine what it’s like for the bottom 50 percent. Public opinion measurement right now is basically useless. Everyone’s head is spinning.

  71. 71.

    danielx

    @HumboldtBlue:

    When does the pandemic stop?

    When you can go to the dentist and neither he/she nor you need fear getting infected. Speaking of which, how’s that tooth?

  72. 72.

    terry chay

    @senyordave: Not all of those Trump supporters will bother to vote. Also, 2% of them will be dead come November, probably more given their demographics and behavior.

    It’s not like the rural areas are awash in ventillators.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    @HumboldtBlue:

    The hurricane will do its damage but it will pass. The house will stop shaking. The floodwaters will recede.

    When does the pandemic stop?

    Also, too, where does the pandemic stop? Flood? Escape to high ground. Quake? Escape to where the buildings stand and the utilities function, Fire? Flee to where it’s not burning. Virus? Run awayinside because there is no “away.”

    I was laying out just that difference for the kid when the spouse interrupted me because she had friends stuck in SF after Loma Prieta so my example does not work. No wonder the kid is confused.

  74. 74.

    terry chay

    @Martin: There was a VOX explainer on it. It was making them hundreds of millions, but this virus has lost them trillions so I don’t think these wild animal markets coming back.

  75. 75.

    eric

    wait until the first hurricane of the season.  hospitals wont be able to evacuate so quickly, and other states might not be so quick to welcome the influx.  what happens during peak tornado season.  i am SURE there is no planning for either of those disasters right now

  78. 78.

    Kent

    @trollhattan: I think China finally banned all wet markets a month or two ago.  Shockingly it it was a $61 BILLION business employing hundreds of thousands.   At least that’s what I read.

  79. 79.

    terry chay

    @JMG: Yes. Good point!

    @HumboldtBlue: The pandemic will stop when either we have herd immunity enough to bring Ro<1 (around 65% get it) or a vaccine is developed and is widely available (which, is pretty much the same thing). States like Singapore, South Korea (and possibly China) can hold out for the latter easily and something like that will be the norm in the developed world. (The undeveloped world will have to wait until a vaccine is developed.)

    That’s what a “novel” virus is. A virus not seen in humans before. And when that happens the only options are either widespread immunity or containment (which failed because China didn’t stop people leaving Wuhan and the U.S. failed to lead the response worldwide). That’s why containment was so important; that’s why epidemologists “overreacted” when to SARS, MERS, H1N1, and Ebola. When containment fails it’s a math problem. And the math doesn’t look good.

  80. 80.

    japa21

    As to approval ratings, I just check Rasmussen. Currently he is at 46/52 approve/disapprove. Which is like being at a real number of 40/58.

  82. 82.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue:

    When does the pandemic stop?

    Vaccine or everyone infected, ATM.

    China has closed all of their borders. Despite having things largely under control, their biggest problem now is the threat from non-native infections. I guess they’ve decided they can’t get enough control over that right now.

    The US is going to be in a pattern of constant outbreaks if we don’t get a national policy as different states open and close and people travel around the nation reinfecting places that got things under control.

  83. 83.

    Kent

    @Betty:Don’t forget it was Bolton who dismantled the NSC team. Always thought he was dangerous. Did not think it would be this bad.

    I doubt he did something that significant without sign-off from the White House. Maybe not Trump himself, but someone.  In any event, it doesn’t really matter.  Trump is President and these are all his people.

  84. 84.

    Citizen_X

    @senyordave: Huh? This one came out yesterday, and you only get below a million US deaths if the mortality is less than 1% (i.e. the medical system in NYC or elsewhere doesn’t collapse), and the shutdown lasts longer than three weeks. Those may not apply to us, unfortunately.

  85. 85.

    HumboldtBlue

    @danielx:

    Still swollen. My dentist ignored me after initially stating I could be seen Monday. Working on an alternative and until then I am managing. It’s better than it was but far from being healthy. I had my first beer in eight days yesterday after finally getting a solid meal in my belly.

    @trollhattan:

    Yeah, there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    @terry chay:@Martin: There was a VOX explainer on it. It was making them hundreds of millions, but this virus has lost them trillions so I don’t think these wild animal markets coming back.

    Apparently “Wet Markets” are the Chinese term for open-air farmers markets of the sort that you see in every Latin American town.  They didn’t actually ban the markets themselves, they banned the raising and selling of wildlife within them.  Some authors got the numbers confused between the total value of rural markets vs the subset that is wildlife trade and not things like carrots and onions.  The value I remember reading was $61 BILLION but that may be for all markets, not just the subset that is wild animal trade.

  90. 90.

    Hoodie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Another problem with Florida (and other places like Arizona) – the annual snowbird migration.  They all went down there in November/December of last year and, around April 1, a vast fleet of them will head back north as their short term winter rentals run out.  Thousands of potentially infected dispersing across the Northeast and Midwest, and infecting rest areas, gas stations, etc. along the way.

  92. 92.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But 9/11 generally had unity between state and federal efforts. NY was a bit outspoken at times, but that was it. There wasn’t a ton of criticism against Bush until a fair bit later, when the intelligence failures were examined.

    We’re now seeing considerable friction between state and federal efforts, and there’s virtually nobody defending him. People rally behind those that they feel are helping them get thorough a crisis. I don’t see many people feeling Trump is helping. Mayors, governors, sure. but not Trump.

  95. 95.

    HumboldtBlue

    @terry chay:

    Understood, I was asking more rhetorically and thanks for the explainer.

    @Martin:

    You’re just Mr. Data-Sunshine in all this ain’t ya?

    Elsewhere, I had a long conversation with my close friend and editor of the North Coast Journal last night, our local weekly.

    They’ve laid off six employees and moved six others to drastically cut hours and two editors and one copy editor are trying to keep the news afloat.

    They lost their major source of ad revenue (both print and online) with the closing of all live events and there are also serious issues with ownership that only exacerbate the problems.

    The fallout from this will be felt for years.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    just walked by my muted TV and it looked like The Beast left the briefing room and left others to have the spotlight? I think that’s a first?

  97. 97.

    Kent

    @p.a.:@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): With any ‘luck’ (pls forgive me) this will be trump’s katrina, not 9/11.

    Not Trump’s Katrina.  This is more like Trump’s Chernobyl.   Gorbachev actually attributed Chernobyl as the tipping point that led to the fall of the Soviet Union.

  98. 98.

    Ruckus

    @West of the Cascades:

    Let’s see, I’ve run out of disgust, out of pissed off, out of mad as hell, out of Fuck No, out of resignation, out of start terror, out of giving a fuck, out of a desire to burn it all down……

    What I haven’t run out of is the little bit of human kindness that mom instilled in me, plus the amount that I’ve learned over the decades, and, the desire that republicans all be loaded in Space X and shot towards the sun. And any that don’t fit inside could be tied to the outside.

  99. 99.

    Martin

    @Betty: The original sin here will be seen as removing the CDC expert who was embedded in China’s CDC agency. That position was designed to give us information on contagious diseases emerging there without it being filtered through the Chinese govt/media. That position was eliminated late last year.

    When Trump says ‘we didn’t know’. That’s a tell. We should have known, but he eliminated that position. There’s not a lot that we didn’t know that we needed to know.  Most of us armchair epidemiologists had enough information to say ‘do something kind of like this’, and they did nothing.

    Not sure the NSC CDC issue mattered that much. We had a serviceable pandemic plan that committee was responsible for developing, but nobody followed it. That group doesn’t do the execution of it. Not, this is just a widespread failing of leadership. Trump, but also most of the flunkies he hired who don’t know how government works, what it can do, and how to do it.

  101. 101.

    Martin

    @pluky: Sort of. We tend to rely on more self-reinforcing incentives so that less policing is needed. China’s authoritarian rules have a lot of non-compliance in many areas as a result – particularly in economic areas. More black market activity than the US would see.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @bemused:

    He has been exposed, I believe on more than one occasion.

    Maybe the virus got to him and said “What an unhealthy place to be and left. Then saw what a shit he is and said “We all have to do our part.” And invaded again.

  104. 104.

    Archon

    We had a month on China yet if it ends up costing 10x the number of lives lost as China and 100x the financial cost we will consider ourselves lucky.

    If future historians needed an event to signify American decline they got one.

  108. 108.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue: You know, I’m actually a pretty optimistic person. I’m quite optimistic about CA. I mean, we’ll likely to still see thousands of fatalities but compared to the alternatives, that’s relieving.

    But people need to understand realistically what will happen so they can make good decisions. Fundamentally, this is a massive collection action problem. Leaders can tell us what we need to do, but they can’t make us do it. We need to choose to do it, which means we need to know the consequences if we don’t. That requires individual sacrifice from everyone, something we suck at.

    Pretty sure we’re looking at 100,000 fatalities, without people going to visit relatives this summer. Don’t do that. Don’t take the business trip. Don’t risk infecting others.

  109. 109.

    The Dangerman

    @Ruckus:

    He has been exposed, I believe on more than one occasion.

    PHRASING! :)

    Actually, you are accurate; he is the embodiment of the Emporer Has No Clothes (sorry for my phrasing!). This won’t end well until this fucker goes away. 25th Amendment, impeach him again, whatever, he needs to go away. Yesterday. More like a few months ago.

  114. 114.

    beth

    I was listening to the briefing and Trump said something about the tremendous testing we are doing now and how they are building up the testing because it was terribly depleted when they took over. How could tests for a yet unseen virus be depleted???? How can anyone trust this asshole?

  115. 115.

    lamh36

     

    Orleans Parish has highest per-capita coronavirus death rate of American counties — by far https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_907e7d92-6fa3-11ea-9fcd-f3c3cf974ef1.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share via @nolanews

    “One possibility: The virus has been around longer and thus spread much more widely within the city and its environs than was initially understood. There’s a growing consensus that the virus was on the move by Mardi Gras, which landed on Feb. 25, though the city would not record its first known case until 13 days later”

     

  116. 116.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Martin: The US is going to be in a pattern of constant outbreaks if we don’t get a national policy as different states open and close and people travel around the nation reinfecting places that got things under control.

    @Hoodie: Another problem with Florida (and other places like Arizona) – the annual snowbird migration. They all went down there in November/December of last year and, around April 1, a vast fleet of them will head back north as their short term winter rentals run out. Thousands of potentially infected dispersing across the Northeast and Midwest.

    I soldered these two together for the Jackaltariat’s edemafication.

    …The Snowbirds bring the virus home with them
    And their Northern towns & suburbs to pandemic will condemn…

    (Apologies to Anne Murray & lyricist Gene McClellan. Dang, that ditty is over 50 years old!!!)

  117. 117.

    pat

    Program on Nature (PBS) last night about the traffic in pangolins.  They are the only mammal with keratin scales and these scales are used in Chinese “medicine.”

    BTW, I posted a couple of weeks ago from Austria.  We got one of the last (I assume) good flights out, came through Amsterdam and Atlanta, very few people in those airports, got home, loaded up on groceries and so far… no temps, cat is happy, we are isolating for as long as it takes.  Maybe months, who knows.

  121. 121.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @beth: Cheeto Benito is of course guilty, guilty, guilty of something the Thuglicans routinely (& falsely) accused Bill Clinton of: Never telling the truth when a lie would do.

    It’s always, always, always projection with those mofos.

  123. 123.

    japa21

    According to the John Hopkins chart, the US has passed both Italy and China in number of cases. We are number one.

  124. 124.

    Martin

    @lamh36: My data suggests you record cases an average of 13 days after infection, so yeah, it was definitely spreading around at Mardi Gras.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan: Did you see that Mulvaney was tested before he went to CPAC and told the mouth-breathers it was all a hoax?

    Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1
    Mick Mulvaney told CPAC last month that the media was exaggerating the threat posed by covid-19. But unbeknown to attendees, Mulvaney had already received a coronavirus test, at the recommendation of the White House physician.

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    More from DeLong:

    […]

    In the two months since the threat of a pandemic became obvious, the United States has tested an estimated 484,062 people—South Korea has tested tens of thousands in a single day. There has been no nationwide random-sample time series constructed for the US. Many people who have shown up in health-care settings with symptoms have not been tested, and have instead been sent back into the community. Judging by the rate of growth in the number of reported cases, the US has performed worse than any other country, including Italy, Spain, and possibly even Iran.

    Worse, the 80,000 cases reported in the US (as of March 26) are just the tip of the iceberg. From the 1,046 US deaths so far recorded, we can infer that 15,000-50,000 cases were active at the start of March, and that this figure will reach anywhere from 120,000 to one million in the next week. But that is just a guess; in the absence of testing, we really have no idea where we stand.

    As such, the US has few options. The longer the government delays imposing a Wuhan-style lockdown, the less effective future social-distancing measures will be in the weeks and months ahead. Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin appear to want to roll the dice, placing an existential bet on America’s future by hoping that the pandemic will peter out with warmer weather. A more likely outcome is that many states’ health systems will collapse before that happens, leading to a spike in the COVID-19 mortality rate as the number of symptomatic cases soars—perhaps to as many as 50 million—in the coming months.

    This potential disaster is entirely unnecessary. A lockdown could be rolled back within just three or four weeks if it is properly implemented. During that time, the public-health system could do its job: testing a random sample of the population, tracking the contacts of those with symptoms, and resupplying an already sapped health-care system while scaling up efforts to develop a vaccine and more effective treatments.

    After a month or so of this, the businesses that were functioning as of March 1 could probably restart. The policy response could ensure that nobody loses their livelihood as a result of anything that happened between March 1 and May 1. In the meantime, the production and distribution of medical tests, food, utilities, and activities that do not involve human contact would represent the full extent of the economy. Absolutely everything else would be temporarily shut down.

    After a month would come a Jubilee: the government would assume all debts incurred during the shutdown, sparing businesses from bankruptcy. The significant increase in government debt would then justify a highly progressive tax on income and wealth, both to reassure investors that long-term public finances are sound, and to recoup some of the unearned gains of those who have managed to profit from the lockdown.

    Unfortunately, what the US should do is not what it will do. The country is desperately short of tests and other critical supplies, and the Trump administration has shown no inclination to do anything about it. Here in Berkeley, hospitals are running short of surgical masks and asking for donations. Their plight is symptomatic of an underlying condition that has inevitably aggravated the current public-health crisis.

    Yup. It’s criminal what Donnie caused to happen to the US and her people.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    dmsilev

    @Martin:

    Pretty sure we’re looking at 100,000 fatalities, without people going to visit relatives this summer. Don’t do that. Don’t take the business trip. Don’t risk infecting others.

    I was talking with my parents this past weekend. In normal years, I’d usually visit them around July Fourth. This time, I said ‘how does Jewish New Year sound?’. I mean, maybe early July will be ok, but why risk it?

  129. 129.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue: Thank you. I admit almost every day I wake up and question the reality of all of this. I can’t say that’s ever happened to me before. Very disorienting.

  130. 130.

    WereBear

    @Ruckus:

    What I haven’t run out of is the little bit of human kindness that mom instilled in me, plus the amount that I’ve learned over the decades, and, the desire that republicans all be loaded in Space X and shot towards the sun. And any that don’t fit inside could be tied to the outside.

     

    Okay, you made me laugh.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1
    Trump said he would be going to Norfolk, VA on Saturday to see the USNS Comfort before it goes to NY: “I think I’m going to go out and I’ll kiss it good-bye. It’s in Virginia as you know. I will go and we’ll be waving together … It’s a great ship.”

    The CEO of a publicly traded company would be eased out to pasture

  132. 132.

    lol chikinburd

    could someone who can post images take a screenshot of the Wash. Post’s front page right now…slightly unfortunate juxtaposition near the top headline

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’m not sure of this.

    I was on a plane flying south to ATL when the buildings were hit and the pilot told us over the intercom about the first one, then the second one, about being grounded – after telling us he has 25 yrs as a pilot and he’d never heard anything like this. After landing we sat on the taxiway for over an hour and I found out my seat mate worked for a company in the WTC and she was terrified that all her friends were dead and that the pilot said fuck it use your phones and hers didn’t work. I loaned her mine and she repaid that an hour later by sharing her room with 2 strangers, me and a fellow male employee on the same flight. Yes we got a separate room, it was just too strange. Then having to wait for a rent car to drive back north because our event we were on our way to was of course canceled. And finding out that another event that I was responsible for the promoter wouldn’t cancel. Lost his ass, served him right. And being escorted out the terminal and stuffed into a cab with a National Guard escort with M16s at the ready, with magazines in.

    This is as fresh in my mind as the day it happened, over 18 yrs ago. 

    So no, I wasn’t in NYC but it sure feels like I was a small part of it. I’d bet I’m by far not the only one. I did my navy tour 30 yrs before that and at times carried a loaded weapon but it’s not the same as being escorted by people with loaded automatic weapons at the ready. It was not inspiring at all.

  137. 137.

    debbie

    @patrick Il:

    Yeah, I heard it. When he was bitching about funding for CPB, I wish Chang had come back with a “Do you think the president should spend less taxpayer money on his golfing outings?” A good interviewer would have asked.

  139. 139.

    joel hanes

    @schrodingers_cat:

    He did good yesterday in his role as Senate gadfly.

    I’m done about him with respect to the Democratic nomination, because he’s not going to get it.

  140. 140.

    joel hanes

    @Martin:

    China closed down the wet markets in the wake of SARS, but that wasn’t awful enough, and the populace wanted to return to their accustomed ways, and so, eventually, it was allowed.

    I don’t think that’ll happen this time.

  142. 142.

    WereBear

    @Martin: It mentioned the patchwork they have now: county by county with contradictory rules. So people actually travel more, have more contacts to negotiate around the rules, won’t take any of it seriously.

  144. 144.

    JMG

    For those of you seeking a different doomsday scenario, Dr. Strangelove is on TCM right now. It’s been all Sterling Hayden day. He was in some pretty good flicks, Asphalt Jungle, The Killing. Also some pretty bad ones. An authentic war hero with the OSS.

  145. 145.

    Martin

    @WereBear: Yeah, I understood some of the delayed orders in NY- they’ll just drive to CT or NJ and spread it farther. Patchwork can make things worse in some cases. Thankfully nobody lives near CAs borders. Not many people are willing to drive to Vegas for a beer.

  146. 146.

    Marcopolo

    Just got a flash update on my phone. Trump should feel proud.
    The US is now #1 for COVID-19 cases internationally.
    Yeehaw!

  147. 147.

    Martin

    @JMG: 

    Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.

     
    Yeah, hits a little too close to home.

  148. 148.

    raven

    My niece is going back to UC Santa Cruz to live in her on campus apartment and take online classes. I guess it’s better than being in LA.

  149. 149.

    Miss Bianca

    @JMG: You know, the older I get, the more I appreciate “Dr Strangelove”. Didn’t really like it all that much when I first saw it as a relative tad of 18, it was too dark for me. Now I love it. It’s become a favorite of mine in the Trump era, for some reason.

  152. 152.

    joel hanes

    @HumboldtBlue:

    The Crest ProHealth mouthwash might help.  Frequently and long, use a waterpik if you have one or can get one.

    If that doesn’t start to help in short order, ask the dentist if you can at least get a prescription for a chlorhexidine mouthwash such as Paroex

  153. 153.

    Mike in NC

    @trollhattan: I recall reading somewhere that Putin had approved a Russian TV script which blamed the Chernobyl disaster on the CIA. No idea if it went into production.

  154. 154.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Some good news courtesy of a reporter from (of all places) FOX Business News:

    Almost 40 million medical masks are waiting for U.S. hospitals in desperate need.
    That’s thanks to the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), which said it located 39 million N95 masks, available for purchase, in the last five days and is now connecting health providers with the respective suppliers.

    The union said it has no financial interest in the transactions.

    “SEIU-UHW members and health care workers all over California are desperate for more protection, so we are seeking out supplies wherever we can get them,” SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan said in a statement sent to FOX Business, adding that they will “turn over every rock to find more equipment to make sure health care workers, who are heroically putting their own health on the line to care for patients, can do their jobs.”

    N95s are in high demand among both workers deemed “essential” and worried U.S. residents as people across the country fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

    SEIU-UHW said it launched its search in response to pleas from workers on the front lines of the pandemic, including doctors and nurses. The California-based union has 97,000 members who work in hospitals in the state.

    To find the masks and other personal protective equipment, the union called a number of leads within a 48-hour period before finding a distributor that had all 39 million. It said it has since found another that said it can make 20 million more masks in a week.

    So far, according to SEIU-UHW, buyers are already purchasing the $5-apiece masks, including the Greater New York Hospital Association and the state of California.

    UNION YES!

    (if a bit pricey)

  156. 156.

    Martin

    The uneven response is going to be a big part of the fallout from this.

    Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West announced Thursday that it located 39 million N95 masks and will make them available to state and local governments and health care systems that are fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak.

    Union officials said they also found a supplier that can produce some 20 million protective masks per week and another that can supply millions of protective face shields.

    I mean, good on CA for the extra masks, but CA is doing pretty well relative to other states because we had much larger stockpiles and are getting more donations. This is what the feds are supposed to be doing.

  158. 158.

    catclub

    @sdhays: The “rally around the flag effect” didn’t help Carter…

     

    The  killer for Carter was the real GDP fell by 5% in 1980.

    That could happen this year. It wasn’t carter’s fault then,

    and it won’t be Trump’s fault this time. But everybody hates a loser.

  162. 162.

    trollhattan

    @Marcopolo:

    Sterilize those foam fingers before donning, yo.

    a·void·a·ble
    able to be avoided or prevented
    a·void·a·ble

    Use it in a sentence, Donald.

  165. 165.

    mrmoshpotato

    #BREAKING PM Trudeau confirms @globalnews story White House wants to put American troops near the Canadian border to monitor for illegal border crossers. Trudeau says they are in discussions with US officials & in best interests of both countries to remain demilitarized #cdnpoli— Mercedes Stephenson (@MercedesGlobal) March 26, 2020

    People might try fleeing to Canada?? Why, you Soviet shitpile mobster manchild?

  166. 166.

    Dan B

    In the timeline “What doesn’t kill you now there will be other possibilities!”  The EPA is suspending environmental regulations for the duration of the pandemic.

     

    I grew up in Ohio near Akron.  All surface water was polluted.  We got weird odors from all the factories.  One smell meant heavy rain in a few hours.  It was not a high humidity smell, more toxic slightly sulfur smell.  Visitig the relatives in Cleveland meant driving through the hellscape of refineries and mills in the Cuyahoga valley.  My grandfather was sent to the railroads as an orphan in Chicago and all the descendants have neurological issues.  So it makes me wonder what fresh hells will bloom even if it will do nothing to restart the economy.

  168. 168.

    Immanentize

    @Martin: The whole relationship to Italy is a bit of a red herring.   We are like at least 50 Italys with various physical barriers increasing that to more like 60.  As you have pointed out, the nation is not following one curve, we are following scores of curves.

  171. 171.

    WereBear

    NY seems to be trying the South Korea strategy, and we have testing underway. We also have a buffer zone of NJ and CT being a team all locking down in unison. I hope that will give us an edge on the recovery curve, whenever we might get one.

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    @beth:

    Never forget, trump’s world rotates around the stick up his butt. It’s a small world, a world that no sane person wants to visit, that no sane person wants to have anything to do with and he’s president. He’s ours to deal with, like it or not. Asking sane questions, expecting any kind of logic from this dipshit never gets a reasonable answer, because he is totally unreasonable and lives on that small world that rotates about that stick.

  175. 175.

    Sab

    @patrick Il: It would be helpful to name the host. NPR people aren’t Faux. They don’t speak with one voice, although a lot of them are pretty awful.1

  177. 177.

    TruthOfAngels

    @Baud: GHWB didn’t, although admittedly hint that was with hint a strong hint third party hint candidate Baud 2020! hint.

    No pressure, our kid.

  178. 178.

    J R in WV

    @joel hanes:

    Add to that his naked desire to profiteer off the crisis, or allow his allies to do so, and a decent nation would imprison him for life starting the day after he’s out of office  tomorrow.

    Fixed that for you.

  179. 179.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Another Scott: At Joe’s inauguration, I hope he grabs Dump by his Soviet shitpile pumpkinhead and beats him about his orange face with Obama’s pandemic playbook.

    (Yes, I’m in a mood.  Why?)

  180. 180.

    Martin

    Ok, 5PM PST update:

    • Italy still more or less stalled out on new fatalities, with the caveat of possible unreported cases. It may take another week or maybe longer before they see a true drop, but they have some relief in sight. I’d expect them to see true drops in fatalities in 1-2 weeks, get caught up on their testing, etc. I don’t know how ragged things are there and if front-line workers are breaking down faster than the caseload, but if they can hold tight a bit longer they should get some real relief. I expect they’ll still see 20K fatalities. They’re going to have to figure out what to do next. Not at all obvious.
    • US stays right on track. My model expected 1224 fatalities, we hit 1221 (that’s a fluke, it’s not that good of a model). Figuring around 1600 tomorrow. By Mon we should be near or exceeding Italy’s highest  fatalities per day. I don’t expect the US numbers to show any real sign of slowing until we hit nearly 10K deaths per day. It’s grim, folks.
    • NY looks better. Not good mind you, but their curve is a little shallower with another data point. Still apocalyptic, but less apocalyptic. Improves from increasing 10x every 4.5 days to every 6. But it’s still a pace faster than Italy at Italy’s worst. I’m expecting it’ll improve more with more data points. It’s still saying an impossible number of fatalities before the lockdown has time to work so I’m guessing some vulnerable population is still somewhat dominating the early data and with time the true rate will continue to reveal itself. But that may not matter much if the health care system is so swamped, all roads lead to the same terrible place. They need help, now.
    • CA improved ever so slightly. I shifted to work from home over 3 weeks ago now, and I’ve gone  out 4 times over that period. I know others in the state moved to work from home near that time, so we may be seeing some of these small voluntary efforts contributing to small gains. Lots of tech workers here set up to do it. Still expecting fatalities in the thousands despite all of the small improvements.
  184. 184.

    lgerard

    It’s funny how the clause preventing trump and his ilk from benefiting from the bill was ” accidentally” left out of the version brought to the floor of the Senate.  It is only the eagle eye of Schumer and his staff that rectified that.

  189. 189.

    smintheus

    @Jeffro:  My m-i-l sent this joke.

    One morning a guy wearing an improvised facemask is standing on the street in NYC outside a hospital waiting to be admitted with Covid-19 symptoms. The queue is going nowhere and after a few hours several people start sitting or lying on the pavement. Finally he says to the woman next to him “Screw this crap, there’s no hope any longer, I’m just going to go kill Trump. Hold my place for me.” And he stalks off down Fifth Ave. Getting toward late afternoon he comes back and resumes his place, now about 50 feet closer to the ER entrance. “Did you do it?” the woman asks. “Nah, the frickin’ line was too long.”

  193. 193.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Depraved indifference to human life.

    This is what is going on, and nearly every last member of the GOP involved in the Federal Government is guilty of it.

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