DIY Time

 The Go to Guy: Yesterday’s daily virus conference/pep rally featured a rare appearance by none other than Jared Kushner.  He’s been super busy working behind the scenes on his ever expanding list of responsibilities but managed to take some time off the frontline, or judging from his even paler than usual complexion, from his bat cave to bring us up to date on all the wonderful things he and his team of consultants and friends from his lifetime of accomplishments have been doing to disrupt key equipment supply lines.  A few notable takeaways from his snarky presentation:  most of the state governors “haven’t a clue” about their supplies or needs; he has all this data about ICU capacity; he’s doing his own projections and has “gotten a lot smarter” about this; and the kicker, New York doesn’t need all those ventilators that Governor Cuomo says he’ll run out of in six days.  For the record, virus guru Dr. Anthony Fauci, who speaks with Cuomo daily says that he trusts Cuomo’s estimates.  But what does Fauci know, no one bought his way into Harvard, heck, the Lasker award winning scientist “only” went to Holy Cross and Cornell Med, where he “only” graduated first in his class.  Kushner, who counts buying real estate assets at high prices only to sell them low, and running a newspaper into the ground among his accomplishments now appears to be in charge of the medical equipment supply chain, his reward for failing to deliver that virus website he promised a few weeks ago.  By the way, he appears to share that supply chain responsibility with FEMA and VP Pence.  If that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it’s because it is and it may well explain why Cuomo says that, though he has been getting some resources from the Feds, at the end of the day he and most of the governors, or at least the governors from states that Trump won’t win in November are on their own.  As to those resources that Cuomo has gotten, he did manage to obtain permission from Trump to send COVID 19 patients to the US Army’s pop-up hospital facility at NYC’s Javits Convention Center but is still not permitted to send any to the Navy hospital ship Comfort which, as of yesterday was occupied by only 20 patients. As to the Navy, though they don’t want any COVID patients soiling the Comfort, they do appear to have their own virus problem, one that they’ve been trying to hide at sea.  Yesterday Captain Brett Crozier was “relieved” for sounding the alarm about an outbreak of the virus aboard his ship the USS Theodore Roosevelt after the “strongly worded” letter he sent to Navy leadership about his concerns about the virus spreading among his 5000 sailors was leaked to the media, something that happened only after his concerns had been ignored.   Like Colonel Vindman before him, Captain Crozier has learned the hard way that whistleblowing is so not acceptable in any part of Trump world.

More Viral Musings: Getting back to the daily rally/presser Trump once again asserted that everything is hunky-dory in supply land, informed us that he’d been tested again for the virus, this time using one of those quick result tests, the ones that aren’t really available to the masses even though he insists they are.  He’s still negative and though Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is probably negative too, he did look quite flushed and blotchy while addressing the mechanics of how all those promised checks to individuals will be distributed and how all those qualifying small businesses should be able to start accessing low interest funds by the end of the week.  He wasn’t all that pleased when one reporter asked him to respond to concerns raised by Chase that the banks haven’t yet received adequate directions on how to lend that money. Mnuchin’s frustration with that question could explain why he went into Trump mode, pointing out that during the last financial crisis, it took Obama’s team months to get checks out to people.  When pressured go with the Trump mantra because it’s always Obama’s fault.  As to the blamer in chief, he’s still bragging about all those ventilators that he’s getting built only now he admits that at best they won’t be available until June.  But he’s not all that worried about missing the peak needs here at home because he figures there will be a good market for all those machines overseas.  Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, still another one of those people responsible for getting supplies into the right hands also spoke but was hard to follow because he kept peppering his remarks with praise for “this wonderful president” and his “brilliance” for getting out ahead of the problem.  As to that problem, while our economy is closed and while 10 million Americans have applied for unemployment, South Korea’s economy is humming along.  That’s notable because though South Korea experienced their first COVID 19 case when we did, their leadership took it seriously and really did get out ahead of it while Trump was downplaying concerns, attending rallies and playing golf.  Yesterday, Trump also said that the “this is not the time for politics,” but then sent a scathing letter to NY Senator/Minority Leader Chuck Schumer upset that Schumer had criticized his decision to put Peter Navarro, instead of an experienced military supply chain person in charge of equipment distribution, saying among other things that "I've known you for many years but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York," and it’s because of that "ridiculous impeachment hoax" that New York was "so completely unprepared for the invisible enemy."

Et Cetera:  The Trump team may or may not tell us all to start wearing masks but people in California’s Bay Area and here in NYC are being told that it is time to cover up.  The internet is full of suggested ways to make DIY masks, they range from using scarves, to cutting up old cotton t-shirts and interesting pieces of underwear. Be creative and stay safe. And, lastly for today, the Democratic Convention has now been rescheduled, pushed back a month to August 17.