Government Response to Coronavirus 3: Locked Down

[clueliss]

Another nursing home.  This one in Tennessee.  115 residents and staff

https://www.wmcactionnews5.com/2020/03/30/nursing-home-residents-staff-test-positive-covid-sumner-county/

[GreyhoundFan]

You could not make this up: "Trump Hands Coronavirus Briefing To MyPillow Exec Who Tells Americans To Read Bible"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump used Monday’s White House daily briefing on coronavirus to again parade out private company executives — including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who used the platform to praise Trump and tell Americans amid a global pandemic to “read our Bibles.” 

During the briefing — meant to inform Americans about COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — Trump handed the podium to several CEO’s of private sector companies to tout their efforts to produce sanitizer, masks and other gear for workers amid the pandemic.

MyPillow CEO Lindell said his bedding company would be dedicating 75% of its manufacturing to producing cotton face masks, aiming to get up to 50,000 a day by end of this week. He then said he would read something he wrote “off the cuff.”

“God gave us grace on Nov. 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” Lindell said, referring to the day Trump was elected. “God had been taken out of our schools and lives. A nation had turned its back on God.”

“And I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the ‘Word,’ read our Bibles and spend time with our families,” he added, touting “our great president” and “all the great people in this country praying daily” as key to getting through the pandemic. 

After Lindell finished his remarks, he went to shake Trump’s hand, but the president, observing a social distancing practice he had been ignoring earlier this month, did not reciprocate. When Trump took back the podium, he said he “did not know he was going to do that, but he’s a friend of mine and I do appreciate it.” 

HuffPost did not immediately get a response from the White House for comment.

The U.S. currently has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases of any nation worldwide, with more than 155,000 reported as of midday Monday and more than 2,400 people dead. States and hospitals across the country have been struggling to test, treat and support the ballooning number of people with the illness.

Governors have continued to call out a lack of critical medical equipment, such as ventilators, and hospitals and health workers report a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) they need to stay healthy while treating patients with the virus. 

Others at Monday’s briefing included executives from tech company Honeywell, which intends to produce N95 masks in new facilities; sleepwear company Jockey International, which is donating scrubs to New York doctors; and Proctor and Gamble, which will make hand sanitizer.  

The president cued up the speakers by saying: “We’re gonna introduce you to some of the greatest business executives in the world today.” 

Earlier this month, Trump also used a White House briefing when he was still downplaying the potential threat posed by the coronavirus to praise various corporations and turn the microphone over to their executives.

In Lindell’s “off the cuff” remarks on Monday, he complimented Trump for “just a few short months ago” having the “best economy, the lowest unemployment, wages going up” in the U.S. 

Earlier this month, a record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in one week — more than quadruple the previous record set in 1982 — as businesses nationwide were forced to shutter to combat the further spread of the coronavirus.  

 

[Travlr98]

Arizona is on lockdown as of 5pm tomorrow. Unfortunately my job is considered essential services  so I still have to go to work. I do wish I was able to stay home.  It would be better for me mentally. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I bet all of FJ could hear my eyes rolling when I read this: "Trump Credits Himself For Cuomo’s Approval Ratings: ‘We’ve Helped Make Him Successful’"

Spoiler

President Donald Trump took credit for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s high poll numbers on Monday, saying “one of the reasons why he’s successful is we’ve helped make him successful.”

“You say he’s gotten good marks but I’ve gotten great marks on what we’ve done,” Trump boasted on Fox & Friends when asked about Cuomo’s rising popularity amid the coronavirus pandemic that has hit New York especially hard.

The results of a Siena College poll released Monday gave the Democratic governor a 78% approval rating among New Yorkers, his highest level since early 2013. Among the Republicans polled, Cuomo earned a 70% approval rating. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) also scored a 61% approval rating among New Yorkers for his response to the crisis.

In contrast, Trump’s approval rating among New Yorkers was just 41%.

“One of the reasons why his numbers are so high in handling it is because of the federal government,” Trump said during his Fox News appearance. “Because we give him ships, and we give him ventilators, and we give him all of the things that we’re giving him.”

A U.S. Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds docked in New York Harbor on Monday to help relieve New York medical facilities in treating patients with ailments other than COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Trump said “wouldn’t mind running against” Cuomo in this year’s presidential race,  saying he thought the governor would be a stronger contender than former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

But Trump expressed confidence he would beat Cuomo, saying, “Every poll says I’m going to win,” he said.

Cuomo, despite easily winning a third term in 2018, had been seeing his popularity flagging. A Siena College poll taken in early February showed his favorability rating at 43% ― his lowest mark in office. 

But as governor’s performance and prominence in dealing with the coronavirus crisis has spurred the turnaround in public opinion, his actions have also sparked talk of a presidential bid by him, but he has consistently said that will not happen ― a stance he reiterated at his Monday briefing.

He also declined to in any back-and-forth with Trump about a White House race, saying, “As far as the president’s comment about having a political contest with me, I am not engaging the president in politics. My only goal is to engage the president in partnership. This is no time for politics,”

The governor and the president have generally praised their communication amid the health crisis, though they have also publically sparred at times, particularly over Cuomo’s request for thousands of ventilators for his state.

As of Monday, over 59,000 COVID-19 cases had been confirmed across New York. That’s four times more than the next highest amount reported ― roughly 13,400 ― in New Jersey.

Trump, when asked about Cuomo’s ventilator request last week, brushed it off as unnecessary.

“I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday. “You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes, they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying can we order 30,000 ventilators?”

Cuomo, 62, is the son of another three-term New York governor, Mario Cuomo (D). 

 

[Howl]

43 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You could not make this up: "Trump Hands Coronavirus Briefing To MyPillow Exec Who Tells Americans To Read Bible"

  Reveal hidden contents

This is so far deep into the WTAF weeds, I can't even.  It's a sop to Evangelicals/Fundies, who are eating it up and this very moment. 

[thoughtful]

Is there any tragedy that could happen, that Trump would not turn into trying to pretend he is successful?

Picture this: a dragon thunders into Washington D.C. and gathers up Ivanka, Eric, Don Jr. and Barron. As it toasts them with its breath, then chews them up, their father says:

Spoiler

I make the best, the most delicious children - the top, the tastiest! Look - see, see how satia - (mumble) how satisf- (mumble) how HAPPY Mr. Dragon is! Delicious, the yummiest. That's all me - nobody gives me credit.

I could have made bad-tasting children - I bet the Obama girls and Hunter Biden taste like ass (and I know, I've tasted ass). But not my kids, my kids taste the best. I bet that dragon is going to send me a beautiful letter now.

What's that? Don't I have anything to say about my children being dead? That's a nasty question, that's what I have to say. And anyway, I still have whatshername.

 

[elliha]

New York and Germany now has roughly the same number of known cases and Germany has tested heavily so they have high numbers of known infected compared to many other European countries. Germany has a population that is about 82 million, New York has one of about 8,6 million... Germany is the country with the third highest number of cases in Europe, only Italy and Spain have more cases. That is scary and while I will always salute solidarity, Trump should not send materials to Italy at this point, send them to the parts of the US that need them.

[fraurosena]

Update from Europe and around the world.

• There are calls from Dutch political parties for a new 'Marshall plan' to aid Southern Europe. Italy has called out the Netherlands, who together with Germany, Finland and a few other Northern European countries oppose giving the Southern countries money from the EU emergency fund without the usual strict criteria. To be clear, they don't oppose giving the financial aid at all, they are only opposing the lifting of pay-back criteria. Italy however is furious with the Dutch, whom they say are ringleaders of the opposition. Germany is also very much against the issuing of euro-bonds, which Italy is demanding. They say Europe is doing much in the way of financial aid already; that the European Central Bank can buy state and company bonds instead of euro-bonds, and that the national debt regulations for Italy and Spain have been temporarily eased.  
• Germany has had 128 corona deaths in 24 hrs, with an additional 4615 confirmed cases, bringing the total up to 62.000. 538 people have died from the virus.
• Panama has some rather WTF anti-corona measures in place: people are only allowed outside with others of the same sex. Men are only allowed out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and only for necessary reasons such as grocery shopping or picking up medication. Panamese women are only allowed out on the other days of the week. No one is allowed outside on Sundays.
  For the life of me, I can't fathom the logic behind this strict separation of sexes outside, or what this means for people with different gender-identities.
  Panama has 1075 confirmed cases, with 27 corona related deaths. Last week 2000 people were jailed for not following the quarantine measures, according to their Minister of Security Pino.
• The Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam is now administering plasma from recovered patients to sick corona patients. They are attempting to find out if this plasma, that contains antibodies against the virus, will aid in the recovery of patients who are still ill.
• There are now 1000 confirmed cases in Mexico, with 28 corona related deaths. The Mexican government has declared a state of emergency and the corona-measures have been prolonged until April 30. 
• The UN Security Council cannot meet in person anymore. From now on voting will be done via email.
• For the first time in four days, the new number of Chinese confirmed cases has risen. There were 48 new cases yesterday, with only 17 the day before that. Chinese authorities claim all these cases were infected abroad; the number of national infections has declined enormously. For the seventh day in a row there have been no new infections in Wuhan.
• New Zealand has prolonged its state of emergency with another 7 days.
• Like the Netherlands, Belgium has had problems with 100.000 face masks that were officially donated by China. However, in reality they turned out to come from Columbia. They were packaged in used banana and cornflakes boxes. In one of the boxes animal faecal matter was found.
• The Costa Rican initiative to organise a worldwide database with corona-information has been gaining a lot of support around the world. The pooling of information would save the most lives, but it would entail companies relinquishing their rights to products and technologies. An example is how Pharma company Roche withheld their recipe for a liquid ingredient for disinfectants, until a couple of days of public and political pressure caused them to give out the recipe. Political support for the database initiative therefore is crucial.

Personally:

There are now 27 confirmed cases in my town, 11 where my parents live, and 38 where son and DIL live. 

My back is feeling a little better today, although sitting down is still impossible. I can walk around with relatively little pain now and my exercises are getting easier to do. So with a little luck I'll be out of bed within a couple of days. Fingers crossed.

I'll be face-timing with my grandson later today, which I'm really looking forward to. He's been learning how to use his 'walk-bike', which basically is a low bicycle without pedals; he has to use his feet to 'walk' the bike along. It's great practice for learning how to balance on two wheels and a first step in learning how to ride a real bicycle.
He's also been a real little helper for his pregnant mom and taking over the vacuuming whenever he can get his little hands on the vacuum cleaner. Which, for a two-year-old, can be a rather difficult undertaking, so his parents are understandably proud of his spontaneous efforts to help. 

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by fraurosena
forgot a word

[CarrotCake]

Just now, fraurosena said:

Panama has some rather WTF anti-corona measures in place: people are only allowed outside with others of the same sex. Men are only allowed out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and only for necessary reasons such as grocery shopping or picking up medication. Panamese women are only allowed out on the other days of the week. No one is allowed outside on Sundays.
For the life of me, I can't fathom the logic behind this strict separation of sexes outside, or what this means for people with different gender-identities.
Panama has 1075 confirmed cases, with 27 corona related deaths. Last week 2000 people were jailed for not following the quarantine measures, according to their Minister of Security Pino.

Could this have to do with just limiting the number of people on the streets?

Like South-Korea only let people with birthdays ending with a certain number in stores on certain days (e.g. birthday ending with 1 or 2 can go on Monday, 3 or 4 on Tuesday etc.).

With this rule you make sure the maximum number of people on the street is only 50% of the normal amount (assuming equal amount of men and women) and you also avoid families going out as a group.

It does sound a bit strange and the birthday thing is way more inclusive but it does not necessarily have a bad thinking behind it.  

[fraurosena]

41 minutes ago, CarrotCake said:

Could this have to do with just limiting the number of people on the streets?

Like South-Korea only let people with birthdays ending with a certain number in stores on certain days (e.g. birthday ending with 1 or 2 can go on Monday, 3 or 4 on Tuesday etc.).

With this rule you make sure the maximum number of people on the street is only 50% of the normal amount (assuming equal amount of men and women) and you also avoid families going out as a group.

It does sound a bit strange and the birthday thing is way more inclusive but it does not necessarily have a bad thinking behind it.  

I'm sure it has to do with limiting the number of people out on the streets at any one time, which of course is a good thing, but the separation of the sexes is just.. bizarre. But to each their own, and whatever works, I suppose.

[fraurosena]

Yeah, there is no way Trump had this done.

Admittedly, I do have a lot of schadenfreude at the thought of him having to submit to someone (preferably a woman) sticking a swab that far up his nose and him feeling utterly helpless and at their mercy. 

[Cartmann99]

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

You could not make this up: "Trump Hands Coronavirus Briefing To MyPillow Exec Who Tells Americans To Read Bible"

  Hide contents

President Donald Trump used Monday’s White House daily briefing on coronavirus to again parade out private company executives — including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who used the platform to praise Trump and tell Americans amid a global pandemic to “read our Bibles.” 

During the briefing — meant to inform Americans about COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — Trump handed the podium to several CEO’s of private sector companies to tout their efforts to produce sanitizer, masks and other gear for workers amid the pandemic.

MyPillow CEO Lindell said his bedding company would be dedicating 75% of its manufacturing to producing cotton face masks, aiming to get up to 50,000 a day by end of this week. He then said he would read something he wrote “off the cuff.”

“God gave us grace on Nov. 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” Lindell said, referring to the day Trump was elected. “God had been taken out of our schools and lives. A nation had turned its back on God.”

“And I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the ‘Word,’ read our Bibles and spend time with our families,” he added, touting “our great president” and “all the great people in this country praying daily” as key to getting through the pandemic. 

After Lindell finished his remarks, he went to shake Trump’s hand, but the president, observing a social distancing practice he had been ignoring earlier this month, did not reciprocate. When Trump took back the podium, he said he “did not know he was going to do that, but he’s a friend of mine and I do appreciate it.” 

HuffPost did not immediately get a response from the White House for comment.

The U.S. currently has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases of any nation worldwide, with more than 155,000 reported as of midday Monday and more than 2,400 people dead. States and hospitals across the country have been struggling to test, treat and support the ballooning number of people with the illness.

Governors have continued to call out a lack of critical medical equipment, such as ventilators, and hospitals and health workers report a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) they need to stay healthy while treating patients with the virus. 

Others at Monday’s briefing included executives from tech company Honeywell, which intends to produce N95 masks in new facilities; sleepwear company Jockey International, which is donating scrubs to New York doctors; and Proctor and Gamble, which will make hand sanitizer.  

The president cued up the speakers by saying: “We’re gonna introduce you to some of the greatest business executives in the world today.” 

Earlier this month, Trump also used a White House briefing when he was still downplaying the potential threat posed by the coronavirus to praise various corporations and turn the microphone over to their executives.

In Lindell’s “off the cuff” remarks on Monday, he complimented Trump for “just a few short months ago” having the “best economy, the lowest unemployment, wages going up” in the U.S. 

Earlier this month, a record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in one week — more than quadruple the previous record set in 1982 — as businesses nationwide were forced to shutter to combat the further spread of the coronavirus.  

 

Lindell claims that he was addicted to cocaine, crack cocaine, and alcohol and that he was healed of his addiction by prayer. Trump appears to be his new drug of choice.

[fraurosena]

 

[fraurosena]

He's so busy handling the pandemic, he hasn't watched television for days... just kidding!

If you really want to know what Nancy has to say, then you should talk to her yourself. From 6 feet away, of course. But we know you won't, because you really don't like what she has to say to you.

[apple1]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Lindell claims that he was addicted to cocaine, crack cocaine, and alcohol and that he was healed of his addiction by prayer. Trump appears to be his new drug of choice.

I thought nothing would surprise me with the "press conferences". This one surprised me. Good on CNN for dropping coverage until the advertising-by-company-leaders portion was over. Such a disgusting use of taxpayer money and the Covid-19 pandemic as sales opportunities - I apply this not only to Lindell but to the other companies in question. Highly inappropriate and opportunistic.

Lindell annoys me even in regular TV ads. I mute him even in those.

Aside: In this "press conference" - When Trump showed the Abbott ID NOW analyzer (that can do a new "rapid" test for Covid-19) - He sat the analyzer on its back, causing the lid that covers the testing compartment to fall open, instead of sitting it on its base. Completely stupid.

BTW - The ID NOW is an existing Point of Care analyzer that is already in use in many US healthcare facilities for Point of Care Strep, flu, and RSV testing. The Covid-19 test is new. We will see what Abbott is able to ship in the way of test cartridges (none received yet by my institution).

[clueliss]

CNN's Chris Cuomo has covid19

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/media/chris-cuomo-coronavirus/index.html

[HerNameIsBuffy]

28 minutes ago, clueliss said:

CNN's Chris Cuomo has covid19

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/media/chris-cuomo-coronavirus/index.html

Cross posted with you in another thread.

[fraurosena]

The look on his face says it all.

[clueliss]

Holy cow - Texas issued a stay at home

Louisiana extends stay at home for another month.

Missouri had an increase of 269 cases to total over 1300 (but hey still no state wide stay at home) (FYI - almost half of those are in STL city/STL county)

Amazon fired a worker who led a walk out (I believe the reasoning is that said worker had also tested positive and showed up to work)

Oh FFS  - nobody has told the Department of Defense where to send items for the national stockpile 

Quote

2 hr ago

US Department of Defense still hasn't been told where to send its ventilator stockpile

From CNN's Barbara Starr and Michael Conte:

Despite having committed to transferring 2,000 ventilators in military stocks to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to fight the coronavirus, none of the ventilators have been shipped by the Department of Defense because the agencies have not asked for them or provided a shipping location, the Pentagon’s top logistics official said Tuesday.

In order to ship the badly needed equipment, the Defense Department has to have a location from civilian authorities who have to decide where the items are most needed.

“There was discussion with HHS on where to send them. And then they said hey wait, we’re trying to take a look at the demand that’s required, and so we were asked to just wait while there was just some sorting through on that. And I won’t speak on behalf of them, but we were in a position to provide 2,000,” said Lt General Giovanni Tuck.

Tuck said he had no details on the HHS decisions, but added “we haven’t provided any, because as of last night, we were asked to just hold on the ones that we have, and then we will push them when they’re ready for them.”

Tuck emphasized there are 1,000 ventilators now fully ready to be immediately shipped as soon as the Pentagon gets a destination of where to send them. The other 1,000 can also be assembled and shipped within days of getting the order he indicated.    ��      

Civilian Pentagon officials have publicly said they were making ventilators and five million N-95 respirator masks available. However, so far only 1.5 million masks have been shipped by DoD. Another 500,000 are to be shipped within days. But HHS and FEMA have given DoD no indication of when or where they precisely want the other 3 million items to go.   

 

[fraurosena]

Yes, of course! By all means, do an advertorial for cars. Because that's what everybody needs in a pandemic with stay at home and social distancing measures. A new car is exactly what people who are losing their jobs because of the pandemic can afford, right? A new car is what's really essential for overwhelmed healthcare workers without PPE's. A new car is what people sick and dying from the virus actually need to survive, isn't it?

 

[fraurosena]

Finally.

 

[Dandruff]

13 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Yes, of course! By all means, do an advertorial for cars. Because that's what everybody needs in a pandemic with stay at home and social distancing measures. A new car is exactly what people who are losing their jobs because of the pandemic can afford, right? A new car is what's really essential for overwhelmed healthcare workers without PPE's. A new car is what people sick and dying from the virus actually need to survive, isn't it?

I've been seeing tons of car ads on TV and every time I see one I wonder wtf kind of idiot would be out test driving cars now, barring emergency.

[clueliss]

I bought a new car in January I am now getting like two emails a week one from Kia US and one from the local dealership are telling me how safe they are and how much the dog take care of me when I’m buying a new car yeah it’s annoying

[GreyhoundFan]

Moscow Mitch and Twitler are now asserting that the impeachment proceedings are what caused the delay in federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They need to start wearing hip waders for all the shit they are shoveling. "Why the new effort to blame coronavirus fumbles on the impeachment trial falls so far short"

Spoiler

As far as political rhetoric goes, it doesn’t get much tidier. What if the still growing coronavirus epidemic could be blamed not on President Trump and missteps by the federal government but, instead, on Democrats? What if Americans could be convinced that thousands of them are dying because Democrats were focused earlier this year on kicking Trump out of the White House and not through any fault of the White House itself?

Trump himself made this connection during an interview with Fox News on Monday.

“All she did was focus on impeachment,” Trump said, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “She didn’t focus on anything having to do with pandemics, she didn’t focus on — she focused on impeachment and she lost. And she looked like a fool.”

The message soon propagated outward. Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the trial following Trump’s impeachment was a distraction from the public health emergency.

“It came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial,” McConnell said. “And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.”

The Republican Party’s rapid response director, Steve Guest, subsequently sent out an email criticizing Democrats and impeachment for drawing attention away from the virus.

Identifying Jan. 15 as “[t]he day the CDC reports the coronavirus arrived in America,” the email criticizes Pelosi’s actions the same day.

“What were D.C. Democrats up to?” it reads. “After delaying sending over the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a month, Pelosi was all smiles, gleefully handing out pens while signing her sham articles of impeachment.”

Again, it’s easy to see why this particular line of argument is appealing. It’s similarly easy to see where it comes up short.

The virus emerged in China late last year. On Dec. 31 — after Trump had been impeached by the House — Chinese officials acknowledged that they’d detected a new virus that was making people ill in Wuhan. Within weeks, infections from the new virus were reported around the world, including in the United States.

While Guest points to Jan. 15 as the date of the virus’s arrival in the United States, that wasn’t immediately known. That date marks the arrival of the first known infected patient, a fact that didn’t become known publicly until five days later. In other words, it’s not as though Pelosi was signing the articles of impeachment knowing that the virus had appeared here.

Opening arguments in Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate began on Jan. 22, two days after the announcement of the virus’s American arrival. On Jan. 23, the Senate Health Committee scheduled a briefing for the following day intended to update senators on the virus. Also on Jan. 23, Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) requested that the Department of Health and Human Services and the State Department provide information “about their response to the novel coronavirus originating out of Wuhan, China.”

Trump spent a big chunk of Jan. 23 flying to Miami for a meeting of the Republican National Committee at his privately owned golf club, Trump National Doral Miami.

Over the course of February and into March, Trump repeatedly traveled to his own properties, including for multiple rounds of golf. He visited Mar-a-Lago three times, his hotel in downtown Washington once and his hotel in Las Vegas for a three-day stay in late February.

The two-week impeachment trial began after noon on each day so that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who presided, could attend to Supreme Court business in the morning. Senate Republicans repeatedly criticized the trial for failing to introduce new evidence and generally for being a waste of time. The trial ended on Feb. 5 with the Senate’s vote to acquit.

That same day, there was a tense meeting in the White House according to a report from The Washington Post.

“[A] shouting match broke out in the White House Situation Room between Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and an Office of Management and Budget official, according to three people aware of the outburst,” Amy Goldstein, Lena H. Sun and Beth Reinhard reported. “Azar had asked OMB that morning for $2 billion to buy respirator masks and other supplies for a depleted federal stockpile of emergency medical equipment. ... The $2 billion request from HHS was cut to $500 million when the White House eventually sent Congress a supplemental budget request weeks later.”

The day after his acquittal, Trump gave a lengthy address at the White House celebrating the outcome of the trial. At no point did he mention the coronavirus which, by that point, had infected 12 people in the United States.

While the trial was ongoing, attention to the virus was growing. On Jan. 26, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the administration to declare a public health emergency focused on the virus. It did so five days later. Former vice president Joe Biden criticized Trump as being the “worst possible leader to deal with coronavirus outbreak” in a Jan. 27 op-ed piece in USA Today. Former Obama administration Ebola response coordinator Ronald Klain wrote a piece for the Atlantic on Jan. 30 warning Trump that the virus was coming — and worrying that Trump wasn’t ready for it.

The next day, Trump was back at Mar-a-Lago. Over the course of February, Trump sent 52 tweets that were spurred by something he was watching on television. Between the emergence of the first case on Jan. 20 and early March, Trump also held eight political rallies in eight different states. At one on Feb. 28, Trump decried criticism of his handling of the virus as the new hoax from his Democratic opponents — the most recent prior hoax having been the impeachment.

By then, more than three weeks had passed since the end of the trial. The first public briefing by the White House coronavirus task force came exactly three weeks after Trump’s acquittal on Feb. 26. That same day, the first case of community spread of the virus — transmission not linked to someone traveling from China — was reported. The White House briefing didn’t address it. Three days later, the first coronavirus-related death in the United States was recorded.

Arguing that the impeachment trial was distraction from fighting the virus ignores a few other points. First, that the trial didn’t effect the administration offices which should have been pressing forward on preparing any response and ensuring that material was in place should the virus spread across the country. Second, Trump and his advisers actually held a meeting in the middle of the trial focused on the virus. Trump tweeted about it.

As that meeting was going on, senators were posing questions to Trump’s attorneys about the evidence before them. Somehow, despite what was going on in the Capitol, Trump and his team managed to focus on the threat posed by the coronavirus. Despite that, they failed to scale up production of a working test for the virus and declined to push manufacturers to scale up production of ventilators — decisions that would later prove to be significantly missed opportunities.

It would be useful for Trump and his allies if the impeachment effort could be blamed for the government’s faltering response to the pandemic. Unfortunately, even the neatest rhetorical effort can fall victim to reality.

 

[Howl]

17 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Moscow Mitch and Twitler are now asserting that the impeachment proceedings are what caused the delay in federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Trump endlessly creates chaos at the top, WH and GOP leadership issue talking points to be amplified and weaponized by MAGAT foot soldiers on social media, and once they have issued talking points, they stay the f**k on message.  It drives me crazy, but it's a strategy that has been brutally efficient and effective.  Trump's approval for all things among Republicans is shockingly high. 

Democrats have not been able to come up with an effective way to counter this, partly because of the MSM's proclivity to cover Trump and then talking heads discuss his bull shit endlessly.  Trump started sucking the air out of the room during the campaign and he hasn't stopped.