Bromance Alert

Testing Follies:  Trump lied about the usual things during yesterday’s virus press conference/campaign rally, used the presence of the General in charge of the Army Corp of Engineers who was there to discuss what have been and continue to be impressive hospital building accomplishments to brag about his border wall construction, slammed a few governors, and expressed undying love for NY’s Governor Cuomo, whose strategy of complimenting Trump while criticizing his failures seems to have earned him a special place in Trump’s head, somewhere between the dreaded Nancy Pelosi and the much loved Vladimir Putin.  Perhaps because Cuomo, who will be visiting Trump today, spent so much of his daily press conference discussing virus testing and the challenges of sourcing testing paraphernalia for machines made by so many different manufacturers, Trump focused his rally on testing, putting on a dog and pony show that was intended to leave the impression that testing is now his numero uno priority, even though he couldn’t resist saying that “many” say testing is overrated. Trump and a few of his minions spent a lot of time talking about the huge number of resources that they’ve provided to the states, once again talking about all of those swabs they’ve located, most of which won’t be available for a few more weeks but failing to say anything at all about the shortage of the chemical reagents needed to complete the tests.  They announced that they’ve given each of the governors a list of the machines previously hidden away in local Federal facilities as if that’s the solution to everything.  Trump used that reveal to bash Maryland’s Republican Governor Hogan who, taking advantage of the connections and language skills of his ethnically Korean wife, managed to secure a large volume of test kits from South Korean manufacturers something that really offended Trump who ratchets back and forth between telling governors that they need to source their own materials to punishing them when they do. To that end, he also slammed Illinois’ Governor Pritzker for managing to source his own protective gear.  Getting back to testing, Trump once again claimed that with 4 million completed the US is the world leader though our per capita ranking still sucks bigly. As a reminder, not too longer ago VP Pence promised that 4 million tests would be completed by the end of March, he was only off by one month!  The bottom line on testing is that we are still woefully behind where we need to be to get the country reopened, resources are still limited, and Trump doesn’t appear to really care, to him saying a problem is solved is far more important that actually solving it. Without irony, Trump said that when the story of how he handled the coronavirus is written up, the truth will come out.  It most certainly will, but its fair to say that he won’t emerge as the hero.  Getting back to Governor Cuomo and his visit, he is likely to repeat what he said on Monday during his daily presser he’ll flatter Trump, agreeing that states need to conduct their own testing but then hammer home that it’s Trump’s job to see that the federal government really sources testing materials.  He will probably be equally focused on getting Trump to commit to providing more funding to the states, particularly the ones like NY with the highest virus caseloads.  Good luck with that.  

Darwin Candidate:  Despite all those demonstrations that keep popping up around the country, three quarters of Americans remain worried that it’s still too early to go back to work.  Democrats and Independents are more concerned than Republicans, a differential that is as much based on political affiliation as it is on source of news and a perception that COVID 19 is something that only affects big cities, coastal states and the “other,” like immigrant workers in meat plants.  Although Georgia is one of the states towards the top of the infection list, Governor Brian Kemp has decided it’s time to start getting back to business so while other state governors are gearing up to ramp up essential businesses, he’s going with gyms, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys on Friday with dine in restaurants and theaters to follow on Monday. Apparently, Governor Kemp believes that his residents will have no trouble maintaining social distance while getting their nails done or sticking their fingers in bowling balls.  He acknowledges that his virus rate might tick up as people get back to their favorite activities, but feels that’s a fair price to pay for the privilege of getting new tattoos.  We should know in about two weeks if he’ll be a qualifier for one of  this year’s Darwin awards, the honor bestowed on those who contribute to evolution by selecting themselves or other like thinkers out of the gene pool.  Although the competition is steep right now, my money‘s is on him.        

Et Cetera:  Another great thinker, North Korea’s Kim Jung Un is reported to be having some troubles of his own.  Intelligence agencies report that he recently had some sort of heart surgery and that his recovery isn’t going well.  Those reports, which are being denied by his spokespeople as well as officials from South Korea and China, are bolstered by his failure to make an appearance at one of his country’s most important events, a celebration of the anniversary of the birth of his grandfather, the country’s founder. Over the weekend Trump claimed to have received a really nice note from the Little Rocket Man, but the existence of that note, like the reports of Kim’s imminent demise was denied by a North Korean representative.  At least with regard to the note, North Korea is probably telling the truth.   In other international news, three times appears to be the charm for Israel.  Instead of moving forward with a fourth election Benny Gantz has agreed to join with Bibi Netanyahu in the formation of a unity government, one that the indicted Netanyahu will lead until October 2021.  Gantz who previously said that he would never go the unity route with Bibi, says that he is doing so now because a fourth election during a pandemic isn’t a good thing.  And lastly, its now reported that Trump is using the pandemic to close down all immigration into the US.  How nice to see that Stephen Miller is working so hard behind the scenes.