Author: tristero

Get out of the way. Do it now.

Through neglect, lies, opportunism, and sheer incompetence, Trump managed to transform an extremely serious health crisis into a global catastrophe of unprecedented proportions. Thousands, if not millions, more people will die because Donald Trump is in charge instead of a president who knows what s/he is doing. While this virus spread unchecked, Trump wasted weeks and weeks of time, minimizing the obvious problem, obsessing over his ratings and poll numbers, bragging about what a genius he was, flaunting his racism, and flat-out lying to the world.

Just go. And take Pence, Kushner, Miller, and your whole worthless crew with you.

This monumental disaster is fully and completely Donald Trump’s responsibility. And it is just beginning.

This seems, on the surface, to be a totally misbegotten attempt to secure early, exclusive access to a coronavirus vaccine for the United States. It is nothing of the sort. It’s just a cheap publicity stunt.

The entire purpose was to exploit the media and send a potent message to Trump’s base, that he is putting America First during the pandemic and doing everything he can to keep “us” safe.

And every time the media notes how despicable and selfish the Trump administration is behaving by trying to corner the world market on vaccines, they simply make it clearer to his base that Trump has their back — and no one else does.

Just as bad: Because the media, even now, hasn’t caught on to how deeply cynical and manipulative the Trump administration is, Trump is getting all this MAGA-boosting publicity entirely for free.

A few seconds of thought makes it clear that of course, the Trumpists were fairly certain a German company would never give Americans exclusive access to their vaccine, regardless of the cost. But if the Trump administration could leak to the press that “at least we tried,” it would appear to their base like they were actually doing something rather than flailing about (which is the truth).

Yes, the Trump administration really is that calculating. And yes, the MAGA-ts really are that gullible.

And yes, the media really are that naive to fall for such an obvious set-up.

This pandemic is nothing to panic about, but without question, it is a very serious matter. It requires serious leadership, not an immature child.

And this is the behavior of an immature child:

The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.

The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.

Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”

Is there some way just to ignore this ridiculous, narcissistic, opportunistic clown and get done what needs to get done? Let’s hope so. Thousands of lives hang in the balance.

Elon Musk:

“I think college is basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they’re not for learning,” Musk said.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

That’s why, when Elon needs major surgery, he simply goes to the local butcher.

That’s why, when Elon needs an accountant, he just asks his applicants whether they can add and subtract. Percentages also a good thing to know.

That’s why, when Elon wants someone to manage his next rocket project, he hires someone who started a local plumbing business with her sister.

That’s why, when Elon needs some really deep analysis of how a car’s infrastructure can handle high bursts of wind on a highway, he hires a high school kid who’s really good with computer graphics.

Adding: yes, duh, there are plenty of jobs where a college education is besides the point. My field, music, has plenty of great practitioners who never went to college. (But there are also plenty who have.) And yes, duh, college is a place where young people socialize (have fun!) and often build important friendships, romances, and contacts.

But twenty seconds of deeply concentrated thought — something apparently beyond Musk’s capacity these days — brings one to the profoundly trivial conclusion that college is not at all “basically for fun,” that actual knowledge is imparted in college. Yep, even in the so-called party schools.

But billionaires spouting sheer blithering idiocy get listened to and publicized because… I can’t think of a single good reason.

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.

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?

Americans are stocking up on hand sanitizer. They’re clearly really worried about their health and the health of those they might come into contact with. And all across the nation, Americans are laying in supplies of canned goods and other non-perishable foods.

This means that, when it comes to their health, Americans don’t trust Donald Trump at all. They know he’s lying about the seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak and they know he’s incapable of leading a competent response. They are 100% right.

Now, if only we can convince our fellow citizens that there is no reason to trust Trump on anything…

If anyone tries to politicize the worldwide outbreak of an infectious disease, we should rise as one to condemn them. Now, what’s meant exactly by “politicize the worldwide outbreak of an infectious disease?” Here’s a perfect example:

Radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested on Monday that President Barack Obama is refusing to divert flights from Ebola-infected countries and close down America’s borders because he believes that the nation “deserves” to be infected with the virus given its history of perpetuating slavery.

Here’s another outrageous example of politicizing a a health crisis:

“I am starting to think that there is something seriously wrong with President Obama’s mental health,” Trump tweeted in 2014. “Why won’t he stop the flights. Psycho!”

And a third:

On today’s broadcast of “The 700 Club,” televangelist Pat Robertson claimed that President Obama is unconcerned about the outbreak of Ebola in western Africa, calling Obama a failed leader who “lives in a bubble of happiness.”

“The world is blowing apart because there is no leadership from the leading nation on Earth, we’re not leading and we have to lead. And in this Obama thing — excuse me, this Ebola thing — we can take care of that, it’s not that big a deal, it’s manageable, but if we don’t manage it quickly it’s going to spread and then it will be a worldwide disaster,” he said.

And a fourth:

Conservative eminence grise Phyllis Schlafly believes Obama is allowing it into the country deliberately. “Obama doesn’t want America to believe that we’re exceptional,” she said. “He wants us to be just like everybody else, and if Africa is suffering from Ebola, we ought to join the group and be suffering from it, too.”

I checked to see if the New York Times and Washington Post ran numerous stories from Obama administration officials deploring this politicization. But when I googled “obama administration condemns ebola right wing scare tactics,” I couldn’t find any stories from either source and couldn’t find a single bit of pushback from any Obama official on the politicization of the Ebola outbreak. Perhaps Obama and his colleagues were too busy actually trying to contain the outbreak to bother overly with what Limbaugh, Trump, and his cronies thought.

By the way, at the current rate, in about four months, worldwide deaths from COVID-19 infection might surpass the deaths from Ebola from 2014-2016. Go here and here.

Certainly, there are many differences between Ebola and COVID-19 but it is reasonable to assume that among the many factors that prevented a horror of nightmarish proportions in the US included not just luck but the competent response of the US government and health system. From a CDC overview of the Ebola response:

In the United States, widespread public alarm erupted after Ebola cases were diagnosed in Dallas, Texas, and New York City, New York. CDC, in collaboration with its U.S. and international counterparts, applied proven public health strategies as well as innovative new approaches to help control the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and strengthen public health readiness in the United States. Lessons learned include the recognition that West African and other countries need effective systems to detect and stop infectious disease threats, the need for stronger international surge capacity for times when countries are overwhelmed by an outbreak, and the importance of improving infection prevention and control in health care settings.

Ah yes, “countries need effective systems to detect and stop infectious disease threats. ” But what did Trump actually do prior to the spread of COVID-19? He fired the US pandemic response team.

So let’s be clear.

Criticizing Trump for his utterly incompetent response to COVID-19 is not political. Alarm at the Trump response to COVID-19 is entirely justified. And openly calling for the removal from office of a president that is this dangerously inept, this clueless, this utterly incapable of making rational informed health decisions and implementing rational health crisis policies is not just an act of patriotism but imperative for world health hygiene.

Personally, I think the answer is patently obvious.

It is very likely that this epidemic will create serious problems in the US, both because of the virus itself but also as a result of Trump’s sheer incompetence and public overreaction. What’s needed in a president is someone who can fully grasp the nuances of health crisis policy, hire and manage the experts, and explain what is going on in accessible, plain language.

Warren in a heartbeat. She is highly intelligent, mentally sharp, focused, experienced, compassionate, honest, able to manage complicated projects, and has a will of iron.

We all know that the absolute worst person in the world to manage Covid-19 is the one sitting in the Oval Office right now. Any of the Democratic candidates would do a more than competent job. But if I give the matter some serious thought, it’s clear that Warren is the best presidential candidate to handle a crisis like this one.

Tim Wu is 100% right. Read every single word:

For many traditional liberals, respect for difference is understood as a sacred duty. Consider, for example, Joe Biden’s warm words for his Republican colleagues, or the left’s many paeans to the virtues of empathy. Why demonize your opponents rather than presume that, as fellow human beings, what they want should be given respect and the dignity of fair evaluation?

Such tolerant pluralism has a long and distinguished pedigree, from writings of figures like James Madison and John Locke to the broader Christian ideal of loving one’s enemies; great, high-minded stuff. Many high-profile Republican leaders once also embraced such values, like the recently passed Senator John McCain and President George H.W. Bush.

But as a posture for negotiation, unilateral open-mindedness is a disaster. Facing an uncompromising opponent, it yields a predictable result: getting repeatedly defeated.

Go read the rest. It’s great.