Where's the Bacon?

Who's Up First?  During yesterday’s virus update/campaign rally Trump offered up nothing new on the fight against COVID 19, but he did deliver on one of his promises, not the one about ramping up virus testing, nor the one about ordering the state governors to get in line, instead he suspended funding of the World Health Organization making them the official scapegoat for all things coronavirus.  That’s significant because though he exaggerated the amount of funding that the US provides to the WHO each year, his observation that the US is the organization’s largest funder is, or at least until yesterday was, correct.  To state the obvious, cutting funding to WHO during a pandemic is absurdly stupid and hugely damaging to world health and if anything will foster rather than hinder future pandemics but then again Trump is kind of a moron, or at least has been called one a few times by people in the know.  That’s not to say that WHO is perfect, they’ve made mistakes, they did show too much deference to the Chinese, Trump’s major criticism, but they also warned their members, including US officials, about the virus back in January.  While the government of South Korea responded to that warning by gearing up bigly, successfully protecting its population from much of the virus’ impact, Trump, who was more concerned about winning his trade war with China, responded by expressing his appreciation to China for taking the virus so seriously and dealing with it so transparently.  Making matters far worse, he did nothing to stock up or protect the US except for that very porous travel ban that he put into effect in early February.  Getting back to the governors, Trump’s messaging on that front has been all over the place.  After saying on Monday that as president he could order them to do anything he wanted them to do, Constitution be damned, he started yesterday with an inane tweet comparing himself to Captain Bligh saying “Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!”  That tweet made little sense, it’s not even  clear that Trump understands that the dictatorial Bligh was so cruel to his own crewmen, that they rebelled against him.  In any case, NY’s Governor Cuomo masterfully refused to take Trump’s bait, though he did throw a few barbs Trump’s way, he said that now wasn’t the time to fight.  Anyway, by the time of his evening rally, Trump sounded a bit more conciliatory, he was back to a carrots and sticks approach and came close to admitting that despite his early claims, he couldn’t get the governors to do anything that they didn’t think was in the best interests of their states. 

Testing, Testing, Testing:  Trump wants the states to get back to business as soon as possible. He continues to insist that some will be able to open up within the next two weeks and it’s possible that a few will, but it’s also fair to assume that most won’t and that the few who do might regret acting rashly.  For his part California’s Governor Newsom laid out the beginning of his plan to get California open again.  That plan relies on the ability to monitor and protect communities through testing, contact tracing, isolating, and supporting those who are positive or exposed.  Notice the emphasis on testing, that’s something that NY’s Governor Cuomo is emphasizing too.  He’s called for the federal government to step up and take the lead there saying that it makes no sense for the various states to compete for scarce resources.  Unfortunately for some unfathomable reason Trump refuses to recognize the importance of testing, he continues to assert that he’s done enough on that front, that it’s now the states’ responsibility.  The testing situation is so screwed up that mass testing efforts are still being hampered by a lack of swabs.  SWABS! If only someone in the Oval Office had the authority to use his powers to ramp up super-sized Q tip production.  The scientists weren’t called to the podium during yesterday’s news conference, but someone participating on one of the group governors’ calls reported that Dr Birx acknowledged that the testing situation was a great disappointment, to her at least, and virus guru Dr Fauci told the AP that the US does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation’s economy adding “We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet.” As to those smaller population red states that Trump keeps insisting will be able to open up first, some of them, including South Dakota whose governor has refused to impose work/stay in place restrictions are now home to some very large virus hotspots. If you were hoping to have bacon with your quarantine eggs you might have to do without as Smithfield Farms, one of the nation’s biggest pork processing plants has had to close down its South Dakota facility due to a rather large virus outbreak among its workers.  As to the rest of his daily rally, Trump listed the names of as many of the country’s CEOs as he could pronounce as being part of his new open the country working group but still aside from task force building he doesn’t appear to have a viable plan.     

Democrats:  Yesterday, President Obama formally endorsed his good buddy and former partner Joe Biden.  The endorsement was never in doubt but still it was nice to hear and probably marks Obama’s return from hibernation. In an effort to appeal to recalcitrant Bernie Sanders supporters Obama complimented the progressive Senator for “setting a new agenda for the party” and made it clear that they need to stand up, hold their noses if necessary, and vote for Biden or else.  Obama also spoke out about the current crisis, urging “fortitude in the face of the virus,” using the kind of words and showing the genuine compassion  that the current occupant of the White House would never be able to muster.  As to Trump, Obama took a not so subtle swipe at his competency saying “The kind of leadership that’s guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility, empathy and grace — that kind of leadership doesn’t just belong in our state capitals and mayor’s offices. It belongs in the White House.” Yup. Lacking anything else to say, Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager snidely commented that Obama had no choice but to endorse Biden as he was the only guy left standing, and even worse, that he’d been “beaten to the table” by Sanders.  Whatever.  Expect an endorsement from Senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as another disparaging comment from Parscale and the rest of the Trump camp and Fox echo chamber to follow soon.     

Et Cetera:  Most people getting COVID 19 economic aid checks will receive them virtually, through direct deposit to their bank accounts but those lucky individuals who’ll be receiving real checks will get a to see Donald Trump’s name on their payments.  He won’t be the signatory since that would render the checks worthless, instead his name will appear in the checks’ memo section.  It took a few extra days to work out that logistic  but good old Don wouldn’t have it any other way because though he doesn’t want you to know about all of those missteps that magnified the virus’ spread he does want all the check recipients to know that he’s their money man.