War Feet

Viral Musings:  The good news is that the administration appears to really get, finally, that we’re facing a deadly and bigly black swan event, the bad news is that Trump is still in charge.  Yesterday, during the daily coronavirus news conference he once again monopolized the mic, promising and asserting a lot of things that sounded good but that weren’t true, or at the very least weren’t true yet.  He said that two US Navy hospital ships were on their way, one to New York and one to an as yet undisclosed location on the west coast but then the Navy reported that the ships are as yet unstaffed, are undergoing maintenance and will take weeks to deploy.  When they finally arrive, the ships won’t treat virus victims but will take care of other patients, freeing up critical care beds for the virus stricken. Trump and the rest of the team also talked COVID 19 test kits, once again promising more availability than currently exists.  When asked why certain people like really rich basketball players have managed to be tested while many poor slobs in the rest of the country have been left begging, Trump actually said “that’s the story of life.” Well at least in that regard he was telling the truth. On the positive front, Trump invoked the war powers Defense Productions Act, part of an effort to get production of needed hospital protective gear and breathing apparatus ramped up and though nothing is happening yet, yesterday after the major auto companies announced the closing of all their North American factories through March 30 for thorough sanitizing, two of them, GM and Ford, said that they together with the UAW were in discussions with the Trump administration about redeploying their resources to the production of medical equipment like ventilators.  Tesla’s Elon Musk said that he’s also ready to do the same.  On the diplomatic/racist front, Trump and people in his orbit continue to slam China, referring to COVID 19 as that Wuhan or Chinese virus or worse.  When asked if he thought it was okay that someone in the White House was referring to the virus as the Kung Flu, Trump essentially said so what, even when it was pointed out to him that such rhetoric was resulting in often violent scapegoating of Asian Americans.  For her part, Kellyanne Conway dismissed the anti-Asian sentiment by pointing out that no one could consider her racist as her frequently estranged husband, George Conway, is part Filipino, a variation of the “I know a black person” defense.   As to China, it’s not like its government is all that innocent either.  There’s no question that the country’s leadership’s early efforts to hide the virus from the rest of the world has had dire consequences and that the country’s leadership has been engaging in some unwarranted conspiracy theories and finger pointing of their own, as have a lot of Russian bots, but there’s no point in getting into a public pissing match with China right now.  For better or worse, we need their trade and a lot of their products, think facemasks and other protective garb, right about now. We also need facts and accurate reporting and Trump’s public kvetching and finger pointing is giving President Xi the ammunition he needs to “justify” the expelling of US reporters at a time when we need them and their on the ground truth telling more than ever.  We also need the Army Corps of Engineers to start doing what they do, and though Trump keeps saying that he’s going to send them on their way, they’re ready but  still haven’t received marching orders to start building and/or refurbishing facilities to serve as interim hospitals.  Instead of verbally attacking China, Trump ought to take a page from Xi, not with regard to misdirection and press suppression, but with regard to rapid deployment of forces.

Legislative Front:  The Senate passed the House’s Coronavirus Relief legislation yesterday by a vote of 90 to 8.  I haven’t figured out who didn’t vote but the eight naysayers, all Republicans, include Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe and James Langford, Utah’s Mike Lee, Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and South Carolina’s Tim Scott.  The naysayers wanted some combination of offsetting budget cuts and/or less “burdensome” requirements for small businesses to provide sick pay to afflicted employees. Clearly, the “concerned but not concerned enough to do anything” eight probably won’t be all that happy with what’s next, because while the relief legislation addressed things like free virus testing and paid emergency leave the really big trillion dollar package now under development is going to focus on way more including those $1000 or more checks to all or some, depending on what actually goes in the bill, and bailouts of essential industries, or industries that Trump deems essential.  By the way many of those businesses spent their really huge tax cuts on stock buybacks instead of building up reserves for rainy days and deluges.  Speaking of deluges and other mother nature eruptions, yesterday Utah experienced a 5.7 magnitude earthquake, the biggest since 1962.  #WTF.  I’d like to blame that on Mike Lee but I suspect some of those fanatical Trumpers are instead blaming it on Utah’s other Senator, Mitt Romney.  And because Congress is no more immune than the rest of us, two representatives are now virus positive, Florida Republican Mario Diaz-Balart and Utah Democrat Ben McAdams, though RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel says she is not.  Lastly, though no refugees are being allowed in at the moment, at least for now the INS is only going after criminals and Trump has ordered HUD to suspend evictions and foreclosures.     

Demo Dance:  Bernie Sanders hasn’t pulled out of the race for president but he’s clearly feeling the pressure.  Yesterday when a CNN reporter asked him what he was thinking, he snapped “I’m dealing with a f---ing global crisis, right now, I'm trying to do my best to make sure that we don't have an economic meltdown and that people don't die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?" Though I am sure that he really is concerned about the virus, who isn’t, that was a strange outburst because it’s not like he’s a driver of legislation under the best of circumstances and aren’t presidential candidates supposed to feign calmness.  Although his campaign manager insists that Sanders is still in the race, he also admitted that internal discussions were ongoing and that Sanders has been reaching out to his supporters for input, and some, though not all have told him it’s time to throw in the towel.  Additionally, on Wednesday, Sanders campaign canceled all digital ads, including online fundraising spots that were launched as recently as Tuesday.  In other election news, Dan Lipinski, the anti-abortion, anti-Obamacare Democratic Congressman from Illinois lost his primary to a Congresswoman AOC supported social democratic candidate who is expected to win in November, assuming that the elections really take place then.