Month: March 2020

The wingnuts have a right to know:

Conservatives have been desperately trying to find out if they interacted with the CPAC attendee who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Revelations that a man infected with the novel coronavirus hobnobbed with top Republicans at the annual Conservative Public Action Conference last month has prompted a wave of fright among Republican operatives who attended the conference and fear they may have been exposed, too. And as the fear has mounted so too have complaints that the conference’s planners have been too secretive about the man’s identity.

“If you’re not rich and important, you don’t get to know if you were exposed to someone with Coronavirus at CPAC,” Breitbart reporter Brandon Darby tweeted Monday.

The American Conservative Union, which organizes the annual event in National Harbor, Maryland, announced Saturday afternoon that a man who was infected with the coronavirus attended CPAC. Since then, four prominent Republicans—Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ), Rep. Doug Collins (GA), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL)—have announced that they’re self-quarantining after interacting with the man. 

Gaetz has undergone a test for the virus. In contrast, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who also had contact with the infected man, said he won’t self-quarantine. 

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) was told he was in proximity of individual at CPAC who tested positive for coronavirus, according to a Gohmert aide.

Gohmert is choosing not to self-quarantine.

CPAC chief Matt Schlapp was also quarantining himself after shaking the man’s hand. Schlapp later shook hands with President Donald Trump at the event. Collins also shook hands with Trump at an event over the weekend and Gaetz rode with Trump on Air Force One on Monday, raising the prospect that the president may have had secondhand exposure to the potentially fatal virus that’s spreading across the world and shaking the global economy.

While top lawmakers apparently knew the man’s identity, other CPAC attendees were frustrated with the lack of information about the person, whose name hasn’t been released to protect his privacy. Former Breitbart reporter Lee Stranahan, who now co-hosts a radio show on Russian-owned broadcaster Sputnik, said he’s been irritated by the lack of contact from CPAC officials about the potential coronavirus exposure. 

They are upset and I don’t blame them, actually. Here’s one attendee doing his own detective work:

I now know that Rep. Gosar met the person and within the next hour I was shaking Gosar’s hand across the street.

GREAT.

(I’ve been down with the “flu” for the past week).

Here are some of the other people who may have been in the green room on Thursday afternoon at the same time as the CPAC #coronavirus infectee:

– Rep Louie Gohmert;
– Ronna McDaniel
– Michael Knowles
– Kay James
– KellyAnne Conway
– Betsy Devos
– Rep Matt Gaetz
– Diamond/Silk

The GOP is protecting the organization. Of course. This is how they work.

Top Republicans have avoided criticizing CPAC’s organizers, with the lawmakers who attended only announcing their plans to self-quarantine. But if a Democratic convention had had a similar incident, Stranahan said, many of the conservatives who attended CPAC would be quick to mock their political rivals.

“Everybody would be like ‘Look how irresponsible they are,’” he said.  

Indeed they would be. I can’t even imagine the collective right-wing primal scream if the shoe were on the other foot during a crisis like this. Of course, if the Democrats were in charge they would likely have handled this a lot better from the beginning since they believe in government and would not have starved the executive branch of expertise. They aren’t perfect, but they are better than this clown show.

Meanwhile, the virus has now touched the top echelon of the GOP, including the famously germaphobic president.

They say he hasn’t been tested.

Bullshit.

Health care should be a right in this country … if it doesn’t cost too much. Thus saith former Vice President Joe Biden, candidate for president.

Asked by MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell in a taped interview Monday if he would veto a Medicare For All bill (in some form) if it reached his desk as president, Biden provided a somewhat cryptic answer.

Newsweek:

Biden replied: “I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of healthcare being available now. If they got that through by some miracle, there was an epiphany that occurred and some miracle occurred that said ‘OK it’s passed’ then you got to look at the cost. I want to know, how do they find the $35 trillion?”

Biden was citing one estimate of the cost to the government over the next 10 years. Sanders has put the cost at closer to $30 trillion, a figure he has repeated on his campaign trail.

Joe Biden Declares 'Health Care Should Be a Right,' But Then Balks at the Prospect of Signing Medicare for All Bill as President: 'How Are You Going to Find $35 Trillion?'https://t.co/B1VgG3MGJi

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) March 10, 2020

Sanders has cited a Yale study in The Lancet indicating a move to universal health care would save $450 billion in costs and save 68,000 lives per year.

Biden focused on how much treatment costs (not someone you’d want advocating for you in the emergency room). He’d rather tell you why we can’t have nice things.

“My opposition isn’t to the principal that there should be Medicare, healthcare should be a right in America, my opposition relates to whether or not, A—it’s doable, two, what the cost is and what the consequences for the rest of the budget are?

“How are you going to find $35 trillion over the next 10 years without having profound impacts on everything from taxes for middle classes and working class people, as well as the impact on the rest of the budget,” Biden told O’Donnell.

Like most TV these days, the interview played between pharmaceutical company ads for prescription drugs that promise to make your life better. Not one talks about how much the drugs cost. NOT ONE. Presumably, consumers buy what they are selling.

“Inspire through outcome, not process,” says progressive messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio, citing an example from a pollster.

“When we are walking through the grocery aisle and want to buy brownies,” she begins, “what is the image on the brownie box? The brownie! What’s not staring you in the face? The recipe! … We need to stop messaging our policy and talk about what our policy achieves.”

Biden would rather fret about costs and obstacles.

In the 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait, quarterback Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is “accidentally taken away from his body by an overanxious angel before he was meant to die.” He returns in the body of an eccentric millionaire. Pendleton explains to a boardroom full of executives why their tuna fishing operation should spend more to save “porpoises” (dolphins) and avoid lawsuits and controversy. One “suit” brings up the added expense.

“But we don’t care how much it costs,” Pendleton argues. “We just care how much it makes.”

The same for universal health care. We just care how much it saves and how many people’s lives. Talk about that. Talk about how much more money families will have in their pockets at the end of each month. Talk about not worrying the next health care crisis will bankrupt you.

Your kids will get well and stay well. You’ll be able to go to the doctor without risking your home. We’ll save 68,000 lives per year. One of them might be yours.

Go big or go home. “Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is, you’re fired.”

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This is MAGA:

BUSINESS INSIDER: U.S. Only Has Record of 1,707 Coronavirus Tests Being Conducted Nationwide (U.S. Population: 329,000,000); U.S. Testing Rate of 5 People Per Million Is Exponentially Worse Than Anywhere Else Testing Data Is Available (South Korea: 3,692 Tests Per Million People)

The number today is up to something like 4300 which doesn’t really change that chart much.

Aaaaand:

If you’re a boomer hater, this is a good week for you. Not only are we at most risk of getting sick from this deadly virus, we look to be on track to lose our nest eggs for the second time since we hit 50. Good times.

Gabe Sherman reports on Trump hysteria inside the White House:

Ever since the coronavirus exploded outside of China at the end of January, Donald Trump has treated the public health crisis as a media war that he could win with the right messaging. But with cases now documented in 34 states and markets plunging, Republicans close to Trump fear his rosy assessments are fundamentally detached from reality in ways that will make the epidemic worse. “He is trying to control the narrative and he can’t,” a former West Wing official told me.

The problem is that the crisis fits into his preexisting and deeply held worldview—that the media is always searching for a story to bring him down. Covid-19 is merely the latest instance, and he’s reacting in familiar ways. “So much FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted this morning. “He wants Justice to open investigations of the media for market manipulation,” a source close to the White House told me.

The story goes on to discuss his anger at his own staff’s inability to magically spin the virus away.

Trump’s efforts to take control of the story himself have so far failed. A source said Trump was pleased with ratings for the Fox News town hall last Thursday, but he was furious with how he looked on television. “Trump said afterwards that the lighting was bad,” a source briefed on the conversation said. “He said, ‘We need Bill Shine back in here. Bill would never allow this.’”

Trump’s press conference on Friday at the CDC was a Trumpian classic, heavy on braggadocio and almost entirely lacking a sense of the seriousness of the crisis. “I like this stuff. I really get it,” Trump told reporters, his face partly hidden under a red “Keep America Great” hat. “People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.” At another point Trump compared the situation to the Ukraine shakedown. “The [coronavirus] tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect,” he said.

By now many of the president’s advisers are numb to this kind of performance. “There’s very little that fazes anyone now,” a former official said. But one person who spoke to the president over the weekend saw the press conference as an ominous sign. “He’s just now waking up to the fact that this is bad, and he doesn’t know how to respond.”

As Trump pushes a nothing-to-see-here message in public, sources said he’s privately terrified about getting the virus. “Donald is a famous germaphobe. He hates it if someone is eating nachos and dips a chip back in after taking a bite. He calls them ‘double dippers,’” a prominent Republican said. Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg recalled Trump’s response to the last major outbreak in 2014. “When I worked for Trump, he was obsessed with Ebola,” Nunberg told me. (One Mar-a-Lago guest disputed this and said Trump was handshaking with gusto this past weekend. “He was acting like the opposite of a germaphobe,” the source said.)

Stories about Trump’s coronavirus fears have spread through the White House. Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me. The source also said Trump has asked the Secret Service to set up a screening program and bar anyone who has a cough from the White House grounds. “He’s definitely melting down over this,” the source said.

He is refusing to shut down his rallies though. Nothing can stop him from getting comfort from his cult.

You may have heard that Matt Gaetz was exposed to the virus at CPAC and is now on a 14-day self-quarantine. He traveled with Trump on Airforce One this morning. Doug Collins was with him at the CDC. He was exposed as well.

He is an admitted germophobe, by the way. This story from last summer discusses how he turned the White House into a sterile environment. He is beyond neurotic about this and has got to be completely losing his shit at this point.

It is beyond poetic justice that this is the crisis that is overwhelming his presidency. Nothing could be more perfect.

This NYT story about Trump’s “campaign manager” is something else:

 President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal disclosure.

Working under the aegis of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, with the cooperation of Trump appointees at the Republican National Committee, the operatives have consolidated power — and made money — in a way not possible in an earlier, more transparent analog era. Since 2017, businesses associated with the group have billed roughly $75 million to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and a range of other Republican clients.

The takeover of the Republican Party’s under-the-hood political machinery parallels the president’s domination of a party that once shunned him, reflected in his speedy impeachment trial and summary acquittal. Elected Republicans have learned the political peril of insufficient fealty. Now, by commanding the party’s repository of voter data and creating a powerful pipeline for small donations, the Trump campaign and key party officials have made it increasingly difficult for Republicans to mount modern, digital campaigns without the president’s support.

The process has not been exactly frictionless, shot through with accusations of empire-building and profiteering by the campaign manager, Brad Parscale, and his allies. Mr. Parscale’s flagship firm, Parscale Strategy, has billed nearly $35 million to the Trump campaign, the R.N.C. and related entities since 2017 — the vast bulk of it, he says, passed along to advertising and digital firms.

The money involved is unbelievable. And it sure does explain one big reason why Republican officials are such sycophantic cowards. Trump owns the voter files. He can sabotage them if they make him mad. And he’s a vindictive SOB.

QOTD:

Dr. Jonathan S. Reiner, a prominent cardiologist who treated former Vice President Dick Cheney and wrote a book with him, said he was convinced that the Trump administration failed to move more quickly to test for the virus after it emerged in China because the White House did not want to admit the scope of the threat.

“When the story is finally written,” he said on Sunday, “we’ll come to understand that tens of thousands of lives were placed at risk because of a political decision made by the president.”

Well, yeah. And the entire administration is led by Trump sycophants or cowards who enable him. What did we expect?

If you’ve been following the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak, you probably saw at least some snippets of President Trump’s visit to the CDC last Friday. It will stand as one of the most astonishing appearances by this or any other president — and that’s saying something. When asked if he regretted firing the entire staff of the Office of Pandemic Preparation, Trump said, “This is something that you can never really think is going to happen.” He said that everyone who wants to be tested for this virus can get tested, which is not even close to true. He called Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state, who is on the front lines dealing with this epidemic, a “snake.”

He made it clear that he wants to cook the numbers so it doesn’t look as if the nation is in the midst of an epidemic. This has been obvious from the outset, but for the president to come out and say it is something else again:

"I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship" — Trump explains that he doesn't want to let people off the Grand Princess cruise ship because he doesn't want the number of coronavirus cases in the country to go up pic.twitter.com/ELhZDjiZW9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2020

Mostly, however, he patted himself on the back:

You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT. He taught at MIT for, I think, like a record number of years. He was a great super genius. Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, “How do you know so much about this?” Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for President.

As Wired science reporter Adam Rogers wrote:

As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions.

Let’s put that another way: The CDC was considered one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions. It has not been covering itself in glory during this crisis.

The most unnerving aspect of the government response so far has not been Trump’s gibberish. He’s in over his head and it shows, as usual. And we know from his response to Hurricane Maria and other natural disasters that his only concern in a crisis is for his own political well-being. But I wouldn’t have expected to hear the director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, laud Trump like a Fox News pundit:

"First I want to thank you, for your decisive leadership … I also want to thank you for coming here today … I think that's the most important thing I want to say" –CDC Director Redfield slathers Dear Leader-style praise on Trump during his tour of CDC headquarters pic.twitter.com/erxQxbYh1x

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2020

It’s a full-blown ritual at this point for members of the Trump cabinet and Republicans in Congress to genuflect to the president as if he were a 15th-century pope. And we know that public health experts have had to tread very softly in order not to upset him.

Still, it was surprising to hear such a slavering tribute from a scientist in the midst of a global health crisis. Likewise, it was strange to hear the highly esteemed U.S. global AIDS coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, make similar comments when she was introduced as part of the coronavirus task force back on March 2:

It is clear the early work of the president over travel restrictions and the ability quarantine has bought us the time and space to have this task force be very effective. I have never worked with such incredible scientists and thoughtful policy leaders…

It seemed just a bit over the top. But these two weren’t the only ones:

Here's Surgeon General Jerome Adams telling Jake Tapper that President Trump "sleeps less than I do and he's healthier than what I am." 😳 pic.twitter.com/bDpQWWAgUU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 8, 2020

There’s something important happening under the surface here. It may not simply be that these health policy professionals are trying to keep the kooky president happy so they can do their work on behalf of the country. They may be Trump true believers.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, for instance, is a Mike Pence crony who previously served as the Indiana state health commissioner. He was intimately involved in the horrific HIV outbreak in that state, where Pence refused to authorize a needle exchange program until a number of people had died unnecessarily. Naturally, Trump appointed him surgeon general.

Redfield and Birx are both evangelical Christians who have been associated with HIV research for many years, going back to the 1980s. Birx runs PEPFAR, George W. Bush’s global AIDS initiative, and both she and Redfield have been involved with Children’s AIDS Fund International, which lobbies for abstinence-only sex education around the world.

The Washington Post reported back in 2018 that they belong to a network run by an important power broker in the evangelical world:

Evangelical activist Shepherd Smith has spent more than three decades cultivating relationships with leading AIDS researchers and policymakers to promote abstinence-only sex education and other programs. Those connections now could influence government programs and funding within the Trump administration. Among the most prominent: Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

[His wife] Anita Smith is now a consultant within PEPFAR to Deborah Birx, a physician and ambassador at large who oversees the program’s estimated $5 billion annual budget. Birx is also a former board member of Children’s AIDS Fund International and served until she was hired by the CDC in 2005, a PEPFAR spokesman said.

Anita Smith was hired by Birx to “improve prevention programs aimed at preteen girls.” I’m pretty sure we know what she recommended.

Redfield and Birx both served in the military doing AIDS research in the mid-1980s. Redfield is well-known for recommending measures that were considered extreme even within the Reagan administration, including the forced quarantine of AIDS patients. He later had a financial interest in an HIV vaccine that didn’t work, but which he continued to push. Birx, on the other hand, has maintained a stellar reputation.

To be clear, none of this means that these people aren’t qualified for the jobs they hold. They both have medical degrees and relevant experience. But they seem to be part of a conservative subculture of evangelical Christians who have found a foothold in the Trump administration clustered around Mike Pence’s office. Along millions of other evangelicals, it appears they really believe in Donald Trump.

Setting ideology aside, however, what Trump wants these people to do — cover up his own ignorance and incompetence — is totally at odds with what they must know is best for the health of the American public. Is their worshipful admiration for this man blinding them to the need to communicate honestly with the American people about this crisis? Because that would explain a lot. 

My Salon column reprinted with permission

I know, I know, coronavirus, but read this, read it all.

President Trump’s campaign manager and a circle of allies have seized control of the Republican Party’s voter data and fund-raising apparatus, using a network of private businesses whose operations and ownership are cloaked in secrecy, largely exempt from federal disclosure.

Working under the aegis of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, with the cooperation of Trump appointees at the Republican National Committee, the operatives have consolidated power — and made money — in a way not possible in an earlier, more transparent analog era. Since 2017, businesses associated with the group have billed roughly $75 million to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and a range of other Republican clients.

The takeover of the Republican Party’s under-the-hood political machinery parallels the president’s domination of a party that once shunned him, reflected in his speedy impeachment trial and summary acquittal. Elected Republicans have learned the political peril of insufficient fealty. Now, by commanding the party’s repository of voter data and creating a powerful pipeline for small donations, the Trump campaign and key party officials have made it increasingly difficult for Republicans to mount modern, digital campaigns without the president’s support.

And now you know why no Republicans can afford to cross Trump. It is an incredible feat of reporting by Danny Hakim and Glenn Thrush.

On my drive back from a conclave deep in the mountains Saturday, the car radio scanned to a classic rock channel out of Knoxville(?) broadcasting a Rolling Stones weekend:

Oh, a storm is threat’ning
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away

The DJ immediately afterwards read a public service announcement for coronavirus preparedness. Store two weeks’ worth of food and water, as many extra over-the-counter and prescription medications as you need, and wash your hands regularly, etc., etc.

Knoxville. Jesus.

“And if zombies attack, a head shot works best. A jacketed, low-velocity round leaves less brain spatter,” he might have added.

I once visited a militiaman’s compound east of Knoxville (long story) where he was prepared for just that. Or for Obama’s jack-booted thugs to come to the end of the valley to confiscate his guns. He’s still stockpiling and waiting, one supposes. Since there are no cases reported within miles of East Tennessee, there’s still time to grab extra ammo at the Newport Walmart.

The rest of you, grab your Clorox wipes and hang onto your bank balances.

Global Markets Plunge as Cornavirus and Oil Shake Investrors, reads the New York Times landing page at this writing. “London and Frankfurt Stock Markets Were Down 8 Percent” reads the subhead.

Meanwhile, the acting president is over his head, as usual. After his CDC freakshow on Friday, Adam Rogers wrote for Wired:

As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions. It was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and—most importantly—misinformation about the virus and the US response.

The germophobe-in-chief may have more than his rally schedule disrupted by the virus. An attendee of last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus:

Trump was photographed shaking hands with Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, who confirmed that he had been in direct contact with the infected man during the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

The handshake at CPAC put Trump just two degrees of separation away from the virus that he has sought to minimize as it has rocked financial markets and tested his leadership skills. While the White House has maintained that Trump was never in direct contact with the infected person and does not have any symptoms, the potential close call at a political event underscores how the outbreak threatens to upend the president’s routine as he campaigns for reelection.

On the upside, there’s a John Carpenter movie in there somewhere. Perhaps Trump Jr. will open a chain of Trump-branded outbreak hotels.

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This blog (and this blogger) doesn’t often approvingly quote conservatives because, well, they typically have problems with consensual reality. But when conservatives do touch base with reality, as rare it is, we should acknowledge that. And Jennifer Rubin is absolutely correct here. She is talking about using Bloomberg’s oodles of money to remind voters that:

Trump is mentally unfit to hold office — any office, but especially the presidency.

Trump’s statements about the coronavirus, filled with self-congratulations, inanities, falsehoods and non sequiturs, remind us that he is unable to cope with reality; his sole aim is to elevate himself (although his antics make him look ridiculous). He wants a cruise ship to stay offshore so the number of reported cases in the United States will remain artificially low? That’s just nuts, and worse, it is dangerous.

Over the past month, President Trump has regularly sought to downplay the coronavirus threat with a mix of facts and false statements.

Trump seems to believe that he “knows more about” everything (energy, medicine, diplomacy, nuclear weapons, intelligence, law enforcement, trade, etc.) than anyone, and yet his gaping ignorance and refusal to learn the basic facts imperil the country and the economy. Bloomberg should point this out over and over again.

Trump thinks North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un loves him, so Trump gives up leverage that might force North Korea to denuclearize. Trump trusts the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin over the U.S. intelligence community’s, so Trump refuses to secure America’s elections and tries to extort Ukraine, a U.S. ally. Trump is obsessed with Barack Obama, so he tries to wreck whatever bears his predecessor’s name or is associated with Obama’s legacy, despite his own failure to devise a better alternative (e.g., the Iran deal, Obamacare).

It is not simply that Trump is an ignorant narcissist; rather, the concern is that his ignorant narcissism poses a risk to the country — one that brings us to the brink of war with Iran, emboldens Russia and leaves the United States vulnerable to a pandemic, which in turn may bring on a recession.

Perhaps some voters who cast their ballots for Trump in 2016 did not realize how bad he would be once in office, or they had bet on the Republicans restraining him. Maybe they deeply loathed Hillary Clinton. Now there is no excuse to keep him in power. And Bloomberg’s bottomless wallet should pay for ads to blanket the airwaves reminding them just how dangerous he is.

I do disagree with something earlier in Rubin’s op-ed, namely that ads shouldn’t be used to taunt Trump “but to mobilize voters and remind those who voted for him in 2016 why they cannot do so again.”

Why not both?