Stir Crazy Yet?

Viral Musings:  A perhaps too candid Dr Anthony Fauci, the now famous immunologist who is doing his best to keep us informed about COVID 19, candidly told an interviewer from Science magazine this weekend that “when things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual” there is only so much that he can do because he “can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down.”  And by him, he’s referring to Trump and his lies and exaggerations.   He went on to say that he does his best to correct Trump’s statements “the next time.”  Sometimes that next time occurs moments after Trump speaks, other times later in the day or in a subsequent daily news conference.  As to news conferences, it seems that every time Trump speaks the markets turn down because even when he has something constructive to say, he quickly follows up with a slam or a lie that devalues his prior statement.  On Friday, Trump stuck his foot in his mouth when he attacked NBC’s Peter Alexander calling him out as a “terrible reporter” for asking if he had anything to say to scared Americans.  Trump called the question “nasty” and accused Alexander, NBC and Comcast, which he called Con-cast, of sensationalism.  Later when asked a similar question, VP Pence responded with some reassuring words.  Leave it to Trump to make Pence sound like an empathetic genius.  Over the weekend, in subsequent daily news conferences, Trump continued along a similar line, even when he had good things to say about assistance being provided to the states most hit, he couldn’t help but stray off of his prepared remarks, going after the press, a governor or two and “sleepy Joe,” especially ironic because he started all of those meetings saying how much he was appreciating the current spirit of bipartisanship and how well he was working with the governors that he then went on to slam in the meetings or in subsequent tweets.  The bottom line, more equipment and resources are being made available to severely stressed hospitals, and that’s a good thing, the problem is that there’s been confused messaging, there are pipeline and delivery delays and it’s likely that a lot of what’s on its way will follow the patient surge that is already taking place.  Moreover though he has the power, Trump continues to want to rely on market forces rather than taking control of critical manufacturers, he pretty much tipped the reason for that when he said that he’s heard from some of those companies’ CEOs that they wouldn’t be  happy if he took them over, and he keeps insisting that the automakers will have respirators and ventilators available very soon and they won’t.      

Legislative Front:  Mitch McConnell returned from his beer with Kavanaugh hiatus, to inject some more partisanship into the fraught legislative process.  After a few moments of what appeared to be a “working across the aisle” moment, he went back to his usual “I am in charge of the Senate so we are going to do it my way or else” mode. Has he forgotten about Nancy P? He then presented Democrats with a package that they found too skewed to the corporate sector, left too much discretion about the dispensing of rescue money to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and involved too little in the way of aid to the suffering masses.  As a result the big kahuna stimulus package that was promised wasn’t agreed to over the weekend, that doesn’t mean that a package isn’t forthcoming soon, it’s just not done yet, expect some compromising today.  To say the least, the stock market gods aren’t happy.  We also learned this weekend that no one’s favorite Senator Rand Paul, who says that he has no symptoms, has tested positive for coronavirus.  We won’t even get into how someone with no symptoms, assuming he really has none, got tested while here is NYC, virus central, you only get tested if you are a health worker. member of the police or about to be admitted to a hospital.  Anyway, while Paul was waiting for his results to come in, he hung with a bunch of his colleagues worked out in the still open (WTF!) Senate gym and went swimming in its pool.  A number of those colleagues, including Utah’s Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, have now self-quarantined, making them unavailable for Senate voting, which for some reason still has to be done in person.  And a number of others like Florida’s Marco Rubio who was seen in a dining tete a tete with Paul haven’t but should.  Did I mention that Paul also attended the all hands on deck Republican Senate luncheon this weekend?  When Trump learned about Romney, he positively gloated, in public during a press conference, something that says a lot about him and the veracity of those assertions that he has an extreme narcissistic personality disorder.  By the way, in addition to being 72 years old, Romney’s wife Ann has multiple sclerosis so he’s rightfully more concerned than the average guy about turning up positive.  Not wanting to be outdone, Attorney General Barr who as far as anyone knows is still negative, about everything, is trying to get authorization from Congress to suspend certain civil rights during the crisis.  Of course he is.

Et Cetera:  Trump has reached out to his bestie North Korea’s Kim Jung un, offering him virus assistance because why not? There’s no indication , or at last public indication that he’s done the same for Italy though he has offered a helping hand to Iran and anyway what kind of assistance is he planning to provide because last I checked we weren’t exactly swimming in excess gloves, masks, hospital beds, respirators or ventilators.  Trump continues to blame the crisis on the obsolete system that he inherited from Obama, swatting away questions about his decision to disband the pandemic work force that Obama set up to improve the system.  He also said that he has no need to consult with any past presidents because he’s smarter than them.  Remember when George W Bush enlisted his father and Bill Clinton for moral support and fundraising after 9.11, forget about it.  Germany’s Angela Merkel, having learned that a doctor who just gave her a vaccination for something not COVID 19 has now tested positive and has put herself in self-quarantine. It’s fair to assume that her quarantine space is a bit nicer than the one now occupied by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, who, like Rand Paul, has tested positive.  At least so far, and hopefully, for a long time to come, NY’s Governor Andrew Cuomo is still healthy and receiving lots of accolades for his in your face, fact driven, daily news conferences and crisis management.  He appears to be navigating these treacherous waters well, serious but with his sense of humor and charisma intact, still sparring with his brother, CNN’S Chris Cuomo, over which one of them is Matilda’s favorite son.  Sweet.