Positively Negative

Business as Usual:  As expected Trump headed to Michigan yesterday where he visited a Ford factory manned by United Auto Workers.  He gave one of his political speeches where he badmouthed the UAW for endorsing VP Biden, attacked Biden, claimed again that he’d once been awarded a Michigan man of the Year award that he never got and  praised the “good bloodlines” of the family descended from the firm’s founder, Henry Ford, a “notorious anti-Semite and favorite of Adolf Hitler.”  Though Trump did wear a facemask for a part of his facility tour, he took it off before meeting with the press saying that he didn’t want any of them to get him on camera because why would he want to set an example for the nation, but of course one of them did snap a photo so his covered face found its way to the nightly news.  Personally, I prefer him with a mask.  With the COVID 19 mortality count closing in on 100,000, Trump finally ordered that flags be flown at half mast, but don’t be too impressed, he’s only doing that because Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer shamed him into it by first issuing a public request. While in Michigan Trump continued to press for the opening of the country and all the states are moving in that direction, even NYC is expected to start opening up in early June.  That’s good news, assuming we all continue social distancing and face masking, as if. The more disturbing news is that several states have justified their opening decisions by reporting total virus testing numbers that count both the antigen tests, the ones that indicate that someone is currently COVID positive, and the antibody tests, the ones that indicate that someone once had the disease in one total.  That matters because combining the two tests' results into one total “provides an inaccurate picture of where and when the virus spread and can also overstate a state’s ability to test and track active infections -- a key consideration as states ease coronavirus restrictions.”  The concern is that if the two tests are combined together, you fool yourself into thinking you've done more testing than you have.  It’s not clear that this has been done with nefarious intent, it could just reflect incompetence, but the impact on reopening decisions is concerning. On the heartbreaking side, yesterday Columbia University disease modelers revealed how much the failure of government inaction cost the country, and by cost think loss of lives.  They estimate that had the US begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died as a result of COVID 19. And “if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided.” Although it’s fair to say that a number of state and local politicians should have acted sooner, at the end of the day only one person had the power and the full picture of what was coming.  Never one for remorse, that person, Trump, called the study a “political hit job.”  As to what he knew, he and those around him have taken to blaming his daily intelligence briefer, saying that she understated the virus threat. The NY Times reported yesterday that the team briefing him, currently led by a CIA analyst with three decades of experience, can’t get him to focus, has had to water down and spoon feed him information to maintain his interest and has even reached out to outside consultants for ideas on how to get him to be more attentive.  And worst of all he rejects information that doesn’t conform to his world views, preferring to rely on his friends and Fox news pundits. We’ve kind of known most of this for a while but more than ever the pandemic crisis highlights how having a science denying, set in his ways, mean spirited moron in the Oval Office, one who surrounds himself with fawning toadies and like-minded relatives, endangers the country. Its unlikely that any of this will change as yesterday the Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as Trump’s newest Director of National Intelligence.  Ratcliffe was previously passed over for the job due to his lack of experience and for misstating his meager qualifications.

VP Sweepstakes:  The Biden team has started interviewing and vetting potential VP candidates;  as promised only women are being considered. The list includes the frequently cited Senators Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren, Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer, New Mexico’s Governor Michele Lujan Grisham, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and Florida Congresswoman Val Demings.  Additionally both New Hampshire Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have been invited into the group though apparently Shaheen has demurred. The final decision isn’t expected to be released until July but I’d put my money on a woman of color or a Latina, someone younger than 65 and though Kamala Harris appears on the top of lots of lists, don’t be surprised if Biden decides that picking someone from a swing state does a better job of boosting his chances of winning.  So basically it’s still anyone’s guess.  

Et Cetera: It’s not clear that it will matter but the facts behind Secretary of State Pompeo’s request for Trump to fire the State Department’s Inspector General who was investigating his misdeeds keep rolling in.  It turns out that in addition to pushing the disputed Saudi arms deal forward, having staff walk his dog and pick up his cleaning, and holding two dozen questionable fancy dinners for donors, Pompeo also had his security guys move his mother in law into an assisted living facility on our dime.  The Inspector General was also investigating some violent actions by Pompeo’s underlings that he chose to ignore. So much for swamp draining. And it looks like Trump’s former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen whose early coronavirus release from jail was mysteriously put on hold has finally been let out to serve the rest of his term in home confinement.  Did I mention that Trump has no idea what per capita means and thinks that having a negative COVID test means that he’s positive, or something totally incoherent like that?

Enjoy Memorial Day but stay safe and keep on social distancing!