Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

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

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thieves & Grifters All the Way Down: Trump & His GOP Cronies Confront A Pandemic

Thieves & Grifters All the Way Down: Trump & His GOP Cronies Confront A Pandemic

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150Comments

  1. 1.

    japa21

    Golly gee, I can’t believe anything underhanded is going on.  They seemed like such nice people.  No way we could see this happening.  //

  2. 2.

    TS (the original)

    “What do I know? I’m not a doctor. I’m not a doctor,” Trump said. “But I have common sense. The FDA feels good about it, as you know, they approved it.”
    The Food and Drug Administration has not approved hydroxychloroquine, or any other drug, to treat covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. It has given a limited emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, which was popularized as a drug to treat and prevent malaria. A few small anecdotal studies suggest the drug may relieve the disease’s acute respiratory symptoms and clear the virus, while health experts warn its well-known side effects could become commonplace with wide use.
    Trump says the government has stockpiled 29 million pills of hydroxychloroquine and is sending them to labs, the military and hospitals “all over.” Vice President Pence later described conversations with officials in Michigan about a program in Detroit that will make hydroxychloroquine “widely available” as part of a study.

    He is stockpiling a drug – needed for other uses – and didn’t stockpile anything needed for the coronavirus. No doubt he sends one of his minions out every day to buy TP so he can also sell that on the black market.

    Deplorable – every last person who voted for him.

  3. 3.

    Duane

    If you know of criminal activity and  don’t say something you might end up a criminal yourself.

  4. 4.

    cmorenc

    If indeed a big grift on CV supply / stimulus hijacking by Trump-cronies is going on, a collateral inference is that they are counting on winning the 2020 election, so as to avoid getting caught and prosecuted.  The incentives are therefore far stronger for Trump & his GOP allies to cheat to win the 2020 election than simply gaining unscrupulous partisan advantage to improve their odds, such as the 2018 Ga election for governor.

  5. 5.

    TS (the original)

    @Duane:

    The US government is now undertaking acts of piracy – when does someone in the administration talk about this as a prelude to being unemployed.

    If state governors talk about it – they lose any hope of support – as well as the goods they ordered.

  6. 6.

    scav

    I think we now know what it feels like to be a company bought by vulture capitalists, stripped for parts before and then abandoned by the guys with the parachutes.

  8. 8.

    Miss Bianca

    I’m not sure I can read about this right now – my head is about to explode with rage.

    Time to take a shower.

  9. 9.

    ThresherK

    Gavin Newsom, tired of waiting for Trump to do something, is building a “consortium of states to buy PPE in bulk” rather than bid up prices against each other.

    If only there was a preexisting entity that could do something like this, some kind of body representing a union of states–Adam Serwer.

  10. 10.

    ThresherK

    I am weighing my options: Is Trump the villain in a remake of Catch 22 or The Third Man?

  12. 12.

    CaseyL

    Someone – either here or on Twitter – mentioned that the MSM (particularly the FTFNYT) called on Bill Clinton to resign – for having an affair with an intern. They wrote page-long editorials about how that affair had besmirched the Oval Office.

    Interesting that not a single major MSM outlet has called on Trump and his entire Administration to resign. It’s interesting that none of them have written page-long editorials about how the US has been taken over by a bunch of mobsters, or how the mobsters are being enabled and protected by the entire GOP.

    IOKIFYAR, to infinity and beyond.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    I have no background in international law, but seizing urgently needed medical supplies already sold to other nations seems uncomfortably close to an act of war. Also too, do the Trumps plan to sit on these supplies and gloat, like Smaug with the dwarvish gold?

  14. 14.

    Another Scott

    His March 27, 2020 signing statement:

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 748, the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” or the “CARES” Act (the “Act”). The Act makes emergency supplemental appropriations and other changes to law to help the Nation respond to the coronavirus outbreak. I note, however, that the Act includes several provisions that raise constitutional concerns.

    Section 15010(c)(3)(B) of Division B of the Act purports to require the Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to consult with members of the Congress regarding the selection of the Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director for the newly formed Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. The Committee is an executive branch entity charged with conducting and coordinating oversight of the Federal Government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. I anticipate that the Chairperson will be able to consult with members of the Congress with respect to these hiring decisions and will welcome their input. But a requirement to consult with the Congress regarding executive decision-making, including with respect to the President’s Article II authority to oversee executive branch operations, violates the separation of powers by intruding upon the President’s power and duty to supervise the staffing of the executive branch under Article II, section 1 (vesting the President with the “executive Power”) and Article II, section 3 (instructing the President to “take Care” that the laws are faithfully executed). Accordingly, my Administration will treat this provision as hortatory but not mandatory.

    Section 4018 of Division A of the Act establishes a new Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) within the Department of the Treasury to manage audits and investigations of loans and investments made by the Secretary of the Treasury under the Act. Section 4018(e)(4)(B) of the Act authorizes the SIGPR to request information from other government agencies and requires the SIGPR to report to the Congress “without delay” any refusal of such a request that “in the judgment of the Special Inspector General” is unreasonable. I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause, Article II, section 3.

    Certain other provisions (such as sections 20001, 21007, and 21010 of Division B of the Act) purport to condition the authority of officers to spend or reallocate funds upon consultation with, or the approval of, one or more congressional committees. These provisions are impermissible forms of congressional aggrandizement with respect to the execution of the laws. The Congress may affect the execution of the laws only by enacting a new statute in accordance with the requirements of bicameralism and presentment prescribed in Article I, section 7. My Administration will make appropriate efforts to notify the relevant committees before taking the specified actions and will accord the recommendations of such committees all appropriate and serious consideration, but it will not treat spending decisions as dependent on prior consultation with or the approval of congressional committees.

    Finally, several provisions (such as sections 3511(d)(4) and 3862 (creating section 744N(d)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) of Division A of the Act) purport to require recommendations regarding legislation to the Congress. Because Article II, section 3 gives the President the authority to recommend only “such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient,” my Administration will continue the practice of treating provisions like these as advisory and non-binding.

    It’s clear that he’s going to try to get his mitts on every dollar, to reward his minions and his family.

    We were warned about this during the Impeachment…

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  15. 15.

    Barbara

    Haven’t seen this mentioned: Boris Johnson has been hospitalized for “persistent” CV symptoms.

    Kushner, Navarro, and all of them are ghouls.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    Perhaps inevitably,

    Giuliani, a familiar voice in Trump’s ear, promotes experimental coronavirus treatments

    Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was in the center of the impeachment storm earlier this year as an unpaid private attorney for President Trump, has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short-circuit the coronavirus pandemic.

    In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug combination that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. He said he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded.
    […]

    Giuliani said that he has not discussed the treatment with Fauci, but that Trump agrees with him. “I’m sure he thinks I am an ignoramus,” he said of Fauci.

    “They’ve thrown cold water on it because they are academics,” he said of scientists like Fauci. “ ‘You can’t blind test it.’ I know you can’t blind test it. But we’ve got thousands of people dying, sweetheart. And by the time you blind test it, we’ll have 100,000 people who are dead. Why don’t we get in the real world of being a doctor instead of being an academic?”

    Dr. Fauci speaks (or thinks) for all of us.

  17. 17.

    Jinchi

    “This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment, only it’s not going to be localized, it’s going to be happening all over the country and I want America to understand that.”

    I found that comment by the Surgeon General infuriating. Can you imagine if the country had a week’s notice before the Pearl Harbor attack? And then watched as thousands of Americans lost their lives? G.W. Bush at least has the excuse that he didn’t actually believe that Osama bin Laden was going to successfully strike the US on 9/11. But now we’ve got Trump’s administration soberly warning us that bad things are coming, and yet he still hasn’t nationalized the response. He’s telling individuals to try out unproven cures, asking “what have you got to lose?”. He’s insulting and undermining those governors who are trying to get control of the problem. He refuses to direct American industries to ramp up production of medical equipment. He’s seizing the supplies they do manage to muster. And he won’t even tell the 9 remaining Republican governors to get off their asses and order a shelter-in-place.

    This isn’t Pearl Harbor. You idiots are screwing up in real time.

  18. 18.

    tokyokie

    @ThresherK:

    I am weighing my options: Is Trump the villain in a remake of Catch 22 or The Third Man?

    Catch-22. Col. Cathcart never suffers punishment, whereas Harry Lime is gunned down in the Vienna sewers at the end of The Third Man. And besides, Trump resembles Gen. Dreedle.

  20. 20.

    ziggy

    @ThresherK: Good for him, that’s the way to fight this. I can see a block of states making policy decisions together, to get us through the pandemic.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @dmsilev:   My favorite part of that WaPost article:

    “You should be listening to credible scientists, ideally physicians and researchers who approach this issue with a respect for the scientific method. Rudy Giuliani is the opposite of that kind of person,” said David Juur­link, an internist and head of the division of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto.

    You know the reporters enjoyed collecting that quote.

  23. 23.

    J R in WV

    These guys still haven’t realized that they are as vulnerable as the bum they ignore as they drive by in their government limo. If there aren’t sufficient PPE for ambulance staff, or ER staff, these rich thieves will suffer for that lack the same as a regular tax payer.

    I will be in my hermitage uppa hollow, laughing at the wealthy thieving crooks in DC as they writhe in horror and approach death. I’m sure MSNBC will report the deaths of K-Street bandits with barely subdued glee. I won’t try to subdue my glee.

  25. 25.

    Another Scott

    Blood donations have come up here recently.

    RollCall (from Thursday):

    The FDA issued a series of recommendations on Thursday that would ease some of these restrictions, but some contend the policies do not go far enough.

    The new guidelines would decrease a recommended deferral period from 12 months to three months for three categories of individuals that have a greater potential of transmitting HIV, according to the FDA.

    The loosened restrictions affect blood donations from men who recently had sex with another man; women who have had sex with a man who had sex with another man; and on individuals who recently received tattoos or piercings.

    In addition, the FDA announced it would lift restrictions on individuals who have traveled to malaria-endemic areas from 12 months to three months and on those who have spent time in certain European countries at risk for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

    […]

    But the policy has been under more intense criticism by LGBTQ advocates in recent days as the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled blood banks to close, at the same time some hospitals experience an onslaught of patients.

    The American Public Health Association has said the policy “is not based in science” and “appears to be modeled after other countries’ choices and fears.”

    A 2014 analysis by the Williams Institute found lifting the ban would increase the blood supply by as much as 615,000 pints, about 4 percent of total supply.

    “It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic and a resulting urgent blood shortage to make progress on this issue,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.

    Human Rights Campaign said the policy change was a step forward, but argues that any waiting period is rooted in stigma.

    The organization says that blood donation policy should be guided by individual determinations of risk factors, not blanket policies based on sexual orientation, gender identity or perceptions about sexual monogamy.

    “To be clear, today’s announcement is not an outright victory, it is only a step forward,” said HRC President Alphonso David on a call with reporters Thursday.

    Advocates also expressed some doubt that changing the period gay and bisexual men have to defer sex in order to donate blood from 12 months to three months would lead to a surge in new donors.

    “I don’t think you’re going to get a whole lot more people who are willing to abstain from sexual activity for three months,” said Scott Schoettes, HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal.

    […]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  30. 30.

    Jinchi

    @dmsilev: “Why don’t we get in the real world of being a doctor instead of being an academic?”

    It’s astounding that experts are typically really good at one thing, but these guys are f***-ups at everything. Couldn’t Rudy just specialize in treason? Why did he decide to add snake-oil salesman to his resume?

  31. 31.

    Robmassing

    What if Trump and his fellow grifters in the Republican party keep intentionally playing down the threat in the hopes of making more people sick? So they can they make a fortune by commandeering and then selling (at a yooooge markup) medical devices gear and devices?

  34. 34.

    James E Powell

    “There are many [in the US] who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.” – Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls

    Our problem is not these thieves & grifters, but the ~42% of Americans who enthusiastically support them, even in the face of a deadly pandemic.

  35. 35.

    chris

    @dmsilev: Kerfuffle in the Canadian version of the village this week because Justin won’t tell them how many are going to die and when it will be over. We’re not that different from the US in some respects. I liked this:

    The Prime Minister leaned out his front door and sized up the bevy of reporters. "What, you want predictions?" he said around a mouthful of toothpaste."How much longer?" "What'll it cost?" "How many will-""Nobody knows" he replied. "Now get the fuck off my lawn." pic.twitter.com/WJjc63ci8G— John Roscoe (@JohnCRoscoe) 5 April 2020

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    @Sister Golden Bear: Can you imagine if the country had 70 days warning before Pearl Harbor or 9/11….

    I was giving him credit for being oblivious to the crisis until the moment he made the comment….. Wait? DId that come before or after he made the comparison with deaths due to smoking?

  37. 37.

    TS (the original)

    Everyone keeps saying “vote them out” – but if this pandemic is not resolved in the near future that will probably be an extremely difficult task. Wisconsin is already showing the lengths the GOP will go to to avoid a fair election – this will happen in every state with a GOP administration. It is already and election like no other – the campaigning is virtually gone – so we might hear from Biden – but what about all the senate candidates, the governors, the positions that the democrats must take to return the US to any sort of competent government.

    Perhaps there might be a silver lining, the US will  get an election process like the rest of the world where campaigning lasts a couple of months, rather than a couple of years – and the billions invested in political campaigns can be spent on more worthwhile endeavors. Members of congress can do the job they are elected to do, rather than spend most of their time fundraising. Perhaps I am dreaming.

  38. 38.

    joel hanes

    @cmorenc:

    I’m beginning to think that

    • they’re afraid of what the summer will bring
    • they think they may have to declare martial law in the fall
    • they’ll try to not have an election at all
    • the pandemic supplies they’re stealing and hoarding, Jared’s “our” reserve, are intended for the Republican ruling class, the healthcare workers who tend them, and the troops and cops who will be enforcing the martial law

    I really really want to be wrong about this

  39. 39.

    ziggy

    @chris: Kerfuffle in the Canadian version of the village

    Keep all your doors locked, and put some headphones on to cover the screams down here.

  41. 41.

    tomtofa

    Try searching Google News for “federal ppe confiscations”, “federal mask confiscations” or some variant.

    A few twitter feeds, an indie news org or two. Nothing at all from the MSM. This whole  – grift? stockpiling for red states? whatever the hell is going on – is invisible to 90% of the population.

  43. 43.

    Jinchi

    @joel hanes: I really really want to be wrong about this

    The optimist in me would point out that, since Trump is basically doing nothing, all the real action has been taken by the governors, and it looks like they’re starting to bend the curve.

  44. 44.

    bemused senior

    Just discharged from 4 day hospital stay for an infection ancillary to my second go at cancer treatment.  I just wanted to thank FSM and wish for the safety of the health workers in overloaded hospitals.  Kaiser Redwood City delivered the most exquisite care. I started in the ER where they analyzed my symptoms before transferring me to a regular floor. Premliminarily ruled out of  Covid 19, followed by negative test reults, then getting down to treating a septic bladder infection. Such kindness, patience and nurturing, both in the ER and when sent for “ordinary” care (nothing ordinary about it.)  Thank every nurse and doctor you know.

  46. 46.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    Trump says, “…we’re not an ordering clerk.”

    Yes, you numbnut, that’s EXACTLY what you are during a pandemic.  I’ve run out of cuss words at this point.  I’m just incoherently muttering to myself and I’ve developed a slight tic in my left eye.

  48. 48.

    chris

    @joel hanes: A thing that has been bothering me. Melania’s tennis pavilion is not as I first thought a sort of big tent. It’s a stone building with a copper roof that takes its design from the Whitehouse.

    Doesn’t that seem… optimistic in the last year of a presidential term? Maybe it’s just their natural tone deafness but…

  49. 49.

    tokyokie

    @joel hanes:

    I’m beginning to think that

    • the pandemic supplies they’re stealing and hoarding, Jared’s “our” reserve, are intended for the Republican ruling class, the healthcare workers who tend them, and the troops and cops who will be enforcing the martial law

    I really really want to be wrong about this

    I think you are crediting them with too much foresight. They’re grabbing the PPE supplies so they can, through their crooked cronies, sell it again, then steal it back, and sell it again, ad infinitum. The thought of their becoming sick doesn’t occur to them, because illness, like laws and taxes, are for little people, not them.

  51. 51.

    Jinchi

    @joel hanes: This is worse than Chernobyl

    Well, sure. Nothing is ever average with Trump. It’s always either the best or the worst…….

    Okay, it’s always the worst.

  53. 53.

    joel hanes

    @Jinchi:

    it looks like they’re starting to bend the curve

    In Washington and California, and thus for the nation as a whole

    which leaves us with three weeks of increasing hell in New York, Connecticut, Michigan, and soon Louisiana and Wisconsin, and then the shit really hits the fan in Florida and Mississippi.

    This site is the best I’ve found for envisioning data.
    Bottom graph.
    Change the display to use “deaths” instead of “confirmed cases”.

    http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/

  54. 54.

    Yutsano

    It’s worse at the IRS than what the Wapo article says. There is exactly one service centre open right now, and it can only be staffed at 50% capacity at any given time. There were mandatory work from home orders issued but only so many employees could make that work. Every local IRS office is closed. Senior leadership staff are all working from home if they can. It’s a massive Charlie Foxtrot and it’s going to get worse as state lockdown orders get extended. It’s probably going to make my agency look worse. There is even the possibility this filing season falls apart even with the time extension. It’s bad. Really bad. And no one can say how this is going to end.

  55. 55.

    West of the Rockies

    This Republican behavior is no less than a collective sociopathic hive-mind.  If four out of ten (mostly white) Americans weren’t comically stupid and xenophobic and afraid of science, the Republican party would have died out in about 1975.

  56. 56.

    joel hanes

    @tokyokie:

    Trump resembles Gen. Dreedle

    right down to the trophy female.

    Remember that Gen. Dreedle, in a fit of temper, instructs Col. Korn to take Major Danby out and shoot him.

  57. 57.

    Sister Golden Bear

    One reason San Francisco has been so aggressive in its response, our health agencies and local government/institutions have living memories of the AIDS plague years.

    “That perspective and that focus on responding appropriately to data science and facts was in some ways, perhaps in many ways, informed by the city’s response in the early days to the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” says Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s public health director. “Just as in that epidemic, we did not wait, we could not wait for outside direction. We took it really upon ourselves.”

    Part of that, he says, comes from the institutional memory. San Francisco’s Department of Public Health is full of doctors and scientists who led the fight against HIV then, and lead the fight against coronavirus now. Colfax himself moved to San Francisco in the 1990s to work on San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5B, the nation’s first ward for AIDS patients. The experience shaped him.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    There is no stockpile.They sent it to China and didn’t replenish it. THAT is why they are literally taking shipments.

     

    The drug thing? Yeah, they are involved in it

  60. 60.

    Mary G

    The Intelligence IG Twitler fired in the Friday night news dump has issued a statement, a strong statement:

    JUST IN: Striking new statement from IC inspector general Michael Atkinson, who was fired by Trump on Friday. “It is hard not to think that the President’s loss of confidence in me derives from my having faithfully discharged my legal obligations…” pic.twitter.com/qBLi59v9GB— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 6, 2020

    Pretty much “I got fired for doing my job, and whistleblowers are patriots who should keep it up.”

  62. 62.

    tokyokie

    @Yutsano: From working as a lowly seasonal 1040 coder years ago, I know that somebody still has to go through and mark up millions of paper forms, and that’s not work one can do from home.

  68. 68.

    Chris Johnson

    @rikyrah: I’m gonna bet it’s Russia.

    This is to send masks to Russia. He’s going full traitor.

    Putin doesn’t want him, but maybe with enough of this sort of thing he’ll get to fly the coop at last. The guy drives a very hard bargain for useless and ungovernable assets. In order for Putin to accept Trump into his country and under his protection, Trump’s gonna have to kill a million Americans first, plus ship Putin ten million stolen masks.

  69. 69.

    burnspbesq

    @Yutsano:

    My good friend and former colleague Erin Collins, the new National Taxpayer Advocate, will not lack for work any time soon.

  70. 70.

    Feathers

    @Yutsano: the IRS is where the COBOL programmers are, if the governor of New Jersey is still looking. Verizon laid off a ton of programmers in the 2008 meltdown. Everybody old enough to know COBOL marched right over to the IRS.

  71. 71.

    JoyceH

    Trump’s Katrina? Trump’s 9/11? Trump’s Chernobyl? Can’t it please be Trump’s Waterloo?

  72. 72.

    tokyokie

    @joel hanes:

    Trump resembles Gen. Dreedle

    right down to the trophy female.

    Remember that Gen. Dreedle, in a fit of temper, instructs Col. Korn to take Major Danby out and shoot him.

    And Kushner does remind me a lot of Lt. Col. Moodus (Austin Pendleton).

  74. 74.

    Kattails

    And then there’s the message from Her Majesty, in case you hadn’t seen it. Made me cry a bit. She mentions, and there’s a brief photo of, her first radio broadcast to the nation, as she and her sister comforted the other children who had to be evacuated.  In 1940. I guess no wonder she has the quiet resolution thing down so well.

    Anything to avoid thinking about the murderers and thieves running destroying our own government right now.

  75. 75.

    p.a.

    We’ll know if trump’s internal polling shows trouble in the base when Fux News goes 24/7 minority crimes… the snark abt the 27% isn’t funny when it seems it’s more like 40% of Americans.

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    @Feathers:

    The IRS mainframes are so old that the agency can no longer get parts from the manufacturers. They have a little factory/workshop in Martinsburg, WV where they make their own.

  80. 80.

    Dan B

    @Sister Golden Bear: So true.  Seattle had the same response.  Healthcare workers stepped up as did the lesbian and gay millionaires Microsoft created.  A number of organizations that arose are still doing great work in the PNW.

    A friend who was Microsoft’s first or second employee  (Was Paul Allen first?) left $60 million to a number of LGBT organizations.  I believe our culture changed so we get people like Inslee in charge.  He’s not perfect but he’s been far above average.

  82. 82.

    joel hanes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Smaug, in fury and frustrated at being unable to locate and kill the dwarves + hobbit that have infested The Lonely Mountain, flies off to destroy nearby Laketown.    At the height of his attack, with much of Laketown ablaze and the population fled in small boats, Bard the Bowman sees the bare unarmored spot in Smaug’s breast, and shoots his best arrow.    Smaug is mortally wounded, and falls in agony full on the blazing ruins of Laketown, to die in the cold water.

  83. 83.

    chris

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That guy’s a piker. Gorilla Tape or GTFO! One application guarandamnteed to last until the vaccine or the heat death of the universe. (Also excellent for removing wanted/unwanted hair. True story.)

  87. 87.

    Yutsano

    @burnspbesq:  I haven’t seen enough from her yet, but I know she has some big shoes to fill after Nina Olson. I’m pretty sure she’ll be up to the challenge, but there’s going to be a HUGE demand for TAS services after all this is over. And TAS was already overwhelmed before all this. They were pulling massive overtime because there was a drag on hiring authority. Collins is going to need bodies like mad. Granted that’s true for the entire service, but especially there.

    @Feathers:  I will say something for COBOL and magnetic tapes. They’re pretty much impossible to hack.

  90. 90.

    different-church-lady

    MASSACHUSETTS, THIS MONTH:

    • Massive purchase of masks by the Commonwealth is seized by the Feds in New York.
    • Gov. Baker finds a new supply in China, but is afraid the Feds will just seize them again, starts calling around.
    • Eventually hooks up with New England Patriots owner Robert Craft, asks if they could have the team plane pick up the masks in China.
    • As I understand it, the Patriot’s plane avoided US airspace until it got to Logan in Boston.
    • Once in Boston, Baker has a certain percentage of masks sent to New York where they are even more desperately needed.
    • Hell freezes over, and the New York Post prints a headline that says “THANK YOU PATRIOTS!”

    So… this is where we are: the states are HIDING CRITICAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

    If the dems don’t use this fact to pound Trump into sand, then there is no hope.

  95. 95.

    Ohio Mom

    Bill in Glendale: hmmm…how to describe the Red Green show? It’s a sitcom about a Canadian middle-aged would-be handyman who creatively McGyvers broken things with duct tape, mostly, and he’s the smart one in the group.

    I see that there is no way to adequately describe the show. I’m sure there are episodes on YouTube.

    On the topic of the post, I’ve yet to see anything in the Cincinnati paper on the stockpile shenanigans, which alarms me.

  97. 97.

    joel hanes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    not the way I remember it

    No?

    I left out the thrush …
    what do you remember differently than the way I’ve recapped? Genuinely curious.

  100. 100.

    JaySinWA

    @mrmoshpotato: Kids these days, who can keep up with the terminology. Red would probably like to have been handsy, but didn’t have the dexterity. OTOH he had perfect plausible deniability.

  103. 103.

    chris

    @different-church-lady: Thread

    When you piece together today’s AP story and the various reports of seizures of shipments to states, what looks likely is that these states and hospital systems made their orders well before the feds did. When the feds finally got around to ordering stuff, a lot of …— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) 6 April 2020

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JaySinWA:

    Kids these days, who can keep up with the terminology. 

    Don’t you try to pull this shit.  The definitions of “handy” and “handsy” never changed.

  105. 105.

    West of the Rockies

    @p.a.:

    40% is the figure I used above.  40% of our fellow Americans are cosmically ignorant and wretched.

  109. 109.

    Gvg

    @joel hanes: stop with the first sentence, they are afraid to think about what will happen….

    i don’t think Trump and his immediate lackeys actually know what to do or even understand how viruses work. They definitely don’t know how the Federal government works. Trump especially seems frozen in fear and ignorance plus he is unable to admit he is is pig ignorant and ask questions or learn. He undoubtedly is trying to profit in the same type of ways he always has out of habit but I don’t think he really has plans in this situation. It is so totally beyond what he ever bothered to imagine what was involved in being President that he doesn’t know what to do. His main thing has always been manipulating media reactions but this won’t be spun away. It’s too real. He doesn’t even understand enough to predict people’s reactions and yet normal humans think it’s obvious.

    Since he isn’t in control, I think multiple others are taking their own actions mostly to benefit themselves and it’s not really coordinated. There were already GOP governors trying to suppress voting before Trump was elected. States control elections. Different states are going to have different results. We’ll have to watch them all. There is stealing and there is political corruption going on at the same time.

  111. 111.

    Mary G

    Collateral damage is already occurring:

    Collateral damage of #COVID19: nearly everything I’ve operated on this week was gangrenous. Limbs, gallbladders, appendix, bowel. Delay in ED presentations for surgical problems 2/2 fear of Hospital. Can’t deny that fear, but must be prepared for these downstream consequences
    — David Cron, MD (@dcron09) April 4, 2020

    I think of Twitler as Theodan, with Putin as Wormtongue.

  112. 112.

    joel hanes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Trump is, at most, Saruman

    Grishnakh

    Saruman was actually learned, and in an earlier age of the world had been wise

    Trump has always been profoundly ignorant, and has never had an iota of wisdom.  He’s an orc: irredeemably selfish, vindictive, greedy, and driven by fear.   And he’s not his own master.

  113. 113.

    randy khan

    @cmorenc:

    If indeed a big grift on CV supply / stimulus hijacking by Trump-cronies is going on, a collateral inference is that they are counting on winning the 2020 election, so as to avoid getting caught and prosecuted.

    It could be the other way – they think this is it, so they need to grab up everything they can.

  114. 114.

    Ohio Mom

    Original TS@27: In my darkest moments, I think of Ohio’s botched primary as a test run of election throwing.

    What the Republicans in Columbus have come up with is guaranteed to depress turnout. For people who voted early, they are set; all others, who expected to walk into the polls on March 17, must ask for a mail-in ballot. That entails dealing with a convoluted web site or calling into the Board of Elections.

    Why didn’t they mail anything out? Not even an announcement about how to get a ballot? They are practicing to steal the election.

  117. 117.

    debbie

    @japa21:

    And only in blue states, too. Jeez, I was so hoping not to go to bed angry. Alas.

    There better be a bunch of AGs jumping on this real quick.

  118. 118.

    PenAndKey

    @Ohio Mom: I see that there is no way to adequately describe the show. I’m sure there are episodes on YouTube.

    The entire show is on YouTube, and as far as I can tell they’ve officially uploaded all the episodes for your viewing pleasure. The only thing missing that I can see is their movie “Duct Tape Chronicles”. Which is too bad, because it’s absolutely hilarious.

  119. 119.

    Raven Onthill

    Me, on Friday.

    George Takei: “Jared Kushner isn’t qualified to run a lemonade stand, let alone tell governors how to manage critical supply chains.”

    Me: “Competent to hold the bag, though, while Mnuchin fills it.” – Tweet

  120. 120.

    Raven Onthill

    Someone, several someones, somewhere, has a vision of a purified America without black or brown people, without weakness or illness and so they intend to wreck the US health care system and then ration health care. This is the culmination of a 75-year program of rationing health care in the USA. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a modest limited reversal of this program and look how much opposition has been raised to it!

    (Full article at https://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2020/04/they-intend-to-wreck-us-health-care.html.)

  121. 121.

    opiejeanne

    @Chris Johnson: Russia just delivered 60 tons of PPE and other much-needed equipment to the US. Meanwhile, the hospitals there are crying out for these items.

  122. 122.

    Jay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    bought 3 boxes of 100 MN-95’s today, 5 boxes of 100 MS-235’s -MS-325’s today at a local small neighborhood store for $52.75 plus GST, PST.

    dropped all but one of each off at the Hospital. The other two boxes will go to the Street Medics and unHoused.

    Still handing out N95’s at work to the Contractors and workers who need them.

    Also have toilet paper.

    I’d ship it to Jackals in need but the Facists in the USA would just seize it for gifting on to Russia.

  123. 123.

    debbie

    @different-church-lady:

    Hell freezes over, and the New York Post prints a headline that says “THANK YOU PATRIOTS!”

    And you just know Trump’s grinning from ear to ear because he thinks the Post is referring to him and Jared.

    ETA: Didn’t see your recap of your adventure until last night. Whew, glad you’re better!

  125. 125.

    Jay

    @West of the Rockies:

    so Red Green built impossible stuff out of duct tape and found crap at Possum Lodge almost a decade before Tim Taylor created the hybrid dishwasher/pressure washer that removed the patterns from her Royal Dolton heritage china.

  127. 127.

    Kent

    @JoyceH:Trump’s Katrina? Trump’s 9/11? Trump’s Chernobyl? Can’t it please be Trump’s Waterloo?

    How about Trump’s Stalingrad?  Might as well go out big while remaining in denial until the last.

  128. 128.

    Duane

    @debbie: As I recall if anyone were attempting to manipulate the PPE market US AG Barr would take care of it. So not to worry.

  132. 132.

    Jay

    @Duane:

    yeah, It’s not so bad here. The Corner Store owner brought in 100 boxes of 100, donated 75 to the Hospital and other First Responders.

    through the Corp, ( essential, you know, not enough for a living wage, but enough to keep consumerism alive),

    I get boxes of N95’s, Surgicals, gloves, sanitizer, etc for my Department, ( always needed long before Covid19), so I share them out, other departments, employees, ( personal/family use) contractors.

  135. 135.

    Kent

    @joel hanes: The 91,000 German soldiers who survived until the surrender at Stalingrad (out of the 1 million+ in the original invasion force) were shipped into slave labor in Siberia.  Only 6,000 survived to return to Germany after the war.

    That seems about right for the end of the Trump Administration.

  136. 136.

    James E Powell

    @Kent:

    I just wrote then deleted a long comment – fueled by red wine and an anger that’s been smoldering since 2016 – wishing evil things to happen to Trump, Republicans, the press/media, Comey, Cillizza, and everyone who voted for that a hole. I deleted it because it was just getting out of hand and what difference does it make?

    Even through my Valpolicella induced haze I can see that they are all going to get away with it. All of them. Several are going to get rich off this, at the expense of the poor and powerless, and no one is going to do a damn thing about it.

    We are learning some hard lessons about our country, about the people we stand in line with, about the things we thought we all agreed on.

  139. 139.

    Jack Canuck

    @chris: Please please please tell me this is actually true and not an exaggeration! After all, he’s just following in his father’s footsteps with this sort of thing!

  140. 140.

    Aleta

    @Ben Cisco:

    Astronomy photo of the day for tomorrow (= today):

    barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672.

    Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole.

    Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years across. NGC 1672  appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish (Dorado) [in Portuguese].

    Damn that family of frauds.  Hard to believe how the testing is still allowed to be so messed up.   I hope you feel OK.

  141. 141.

    Jay

    "When I think of Right-Wingers, I think of terrorists …'Right-wing' is the foulest, dirtiest insult a person could be called.These people hate minorities … they will perform mass extermination of everything that is not white, god-fearing, and right-wing."– Kurt Cobain pic.twitter.com/I0DoQoyai0— Black Socialists in America (@BlackSocialists) February 20, 2020

  142. 142.

    Jay

    Trump announces that faith-based institutions will be eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program, which is interesting because THEY DON'T PAY TAXES.— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 4, 2020

  143. 143.

    Jay

    Last one, off to bed,
    Stay safe,
    6 feet,
    wash your hands,
    Stay home.

    My dad’s an ER doctor. He just got off of a conference call. His hospital is cutting his salary – and everyone else’s that works on the front lines – because they’re losing money from non-COVID patients. Cutting medical personnels’ salaries right now. I mean… what the fuck?— Cameron Beach (@CameronNBeach) April 3, 2020

  144. 144.

    cain

    @J R in WV:

    actually to treat them, there will suddenly be masks and ventilators  available just for that. No.. they need to die by the disease. It’s what they deserve.

  145. 145.

    cain

    I swear to God, the Democrats when they get in charge.. they better not pull some dumb ass shit and try to make peace with everyone – because I know the media will demand it. I’m basically sick of us cleaning up the messes, but also sick of our party leaders desperately wanting to be loved by Trump supporters.

    It’s no wonder they are entitled fucks, everyone is chasing after their favor. We need complete and utter investigations with air tight convictions – and everyone goes to jail. EVERYONE.

  146. 146.

    TS (the original)

    @Ohio Mom:

    I do not understand why 60% of the country are not calling for him to resign. Because they are corrupt the Senate will not remove him & with the voter suppression that is going to happen – and is happening – they are going to retain the Senate – if trump can’t stop the election.

  148. 148.

    cmorenc

    @TS (the original):

    … if trump can’t stop the election.

    Historical perspective:

    • WW2 ongoing did not stop the elections of 1940 or 1944;
    • the Civil War ongoing did not stop the election of 1864.

    And so it’s unlikely Trump and his minions will try to actually stop the election of 2020, but they certainly will try to steal it in states where the GOP controls the election machinery in whole (Fla, Ga) or in part (Pa, Wisconsin, & Michigan have Dem governors, but the state legislatures are still R-majority).  The more that their own internal models show a likely loss in a fair election the closer we get to the election, the more egregiously aggressive the means will likely be.  The effort by the Wisconsin GOP legislators to block extension of mail-in voting in the Wisconsin primary is an example of the sort of means they’ll employ in states where control is divided between a D governor and an R-majority legislature.  And that’s just a sampler – they will use every means at their disposal (including ways related to the CV pandemic) to throw sand in D efforts to turn out D-inclined voters, and ease the way for R-inclined voters to turn out.

  149. 149.

    SFAW

    @tokyokie:

    Catch-22. Col. Cathcart

    Might ThresherK  have been referring to Milo Minderbinder? Since he was a big supply-chain guy. Although there was enough evil to go around in that book.

  150. 150.

    SFAW

    @Mary G:

    I think of Twitler as Theodan, with Putin as Wormtongue.

    Oh, come ON. Theoden was a good king before being semi-corrupted by Wormtongue, and returned to his former self with Gandalf’s help. The Murderer-in-Chief has NEVER been a good person, and thus could not return to being one.

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