Monday, March 23, 2020

Trump Is Considering Lifting "Social Distancing" Guidelines In 15 Days As US Covid-19 Cases Skyrocket; Then He Refuses To Answer If He'll Get Millions In Hotel Bailout Money While Out-Of-Work Americans Get Nothing

Donald Trump:
Every time I commit to do something ... instead of being thanked ... I get excoriated all the time.
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 23, 2020:
'Going to Get Millions of People Killed': In All-Caps Tweet, Trump Again Undermines Expert Warnings on Coronavirus

Just 10 minutes before midnight on Sunday, President Donald Trump fired off a cryptic all-caps tweet that was interpreted as an alarming signal that—despite warnings from health experts—he could soon lift the federal social distancing guidelines issued by the White House last week to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

"WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF," Trump tweeted, suggesting the economic impacts of preventative measures could be more harmful than the further spread of coronavirus. "AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!"

Trump proceeded to retweet a number of approving responses from his supporters, including one Twitter user who said the U.S. should "isolate the high risk groups and [let] the rest of us get back to work before it's all over for everyone."
Miles Mogulescu, Common Dreams, March 20, 2020:
What Is Trump Waiting For? Companies Must Be Ordered To Make Medical Supplies—Right Now

Within two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American auto factories were already converting to make tanks instead of cars. ...

On Wednesday, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, that empowers the federal government to direct private companies to meet national security needs. But for inexplicable reasons, Trump said he has no immediate plans to use it. ...

On Tuesday, Trump told governors on a conference that state and local governments should find their own equipment. "Respirators, ventilators, of the equipment - try getting it yourselves." On Thursday, he doubled down, saying, the Federal Government "is not a shipping clerk," and that Governors should fend for themselves. ...

Other countries are already rushing to build more ventilators. The U.K. has already asked carmakers Rolls-Royce and Jaguar to make ventilators. In Germany, where there is currently a surplus of ventilators, the government has ordered 10,000 more ventilators from Draegerwerk AG, the company's largest single order ever. American automakers, including Ford and G.M., have already offered to shift manufacturing capacity to medical equipment.

What's Trump waiting for?

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 20, 2020:
GOP Stimulus Plan Would Cut Taxes for Corporations While Denying Benefits to Poorest

[T]he Senate GOP's newly unveiled trillion-dollar economic stimulus package ... would completely deny direct cash payments to the poorest Americans while cutting taxes for corporations, dishing out tens of billions in bailout funds to major industries, and restricting paid leave benefits that were just signed into law this week.

"The Senate GOP package is an utter disgrace," tweeted Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. "It gives free money to corporations, ignores the health crisis, and does nothing to keep people working or help the unemployed." ...

"I don't know how else to describe this but wantonly wicked," said Daniel Hemel, a tax expert at the University of Chicago Law School. "The poorest get zero; low-income households get half of what middle-income households get ..." ...

While skimping on aid low-income Americans, the Republican proposal—formally known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act—contains generous gifts for big corporations and billions in relief for industries hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, including $50 billion for airlines.
Jon Queally, Common Dreams, March 23, 2020:
Trump: Taxpayer Bailout for My Hotels Is Capitalism, But Ordering Industries to Produce Medical Supplies Is Un-American Socialism

Despite urgent demands from public health experts, frontline nurses and doctors, and Democratic lawmakers that President Donald Trump urgently utilize his authority under the Defense Production Act to order private companies to produce critically needed medical equipment ... the president on Sunday explained that to do so would be akin to "nationalization" of industries and "socialism"—a claim he made even while suggesting that a taxpayer bailout of his personal hotel empire might be necessary. ...

At the same press conference, Trump refused to promise—in an evasive, rambling response to the question—that no money contained in the $500 billion corporate "slush fund" put forth by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over the weekend would go to bail out his personal hotel empire. ...

Do I have this right?" asked journalist and policy analyst Marcy Wheeler following Sunday's press conference: "Trump says bailing out his own luxury hotel company is acceptable capitalism. But having the Feds guarantee a market for respirators for doctors during a pandemic is socialism?

"It even sounds like Trump hotel properties like Mar-a-Largo could receive huge bags of cash—and then fire their workers—if [Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin decides to do a solid for his boss with taxpayer dollars," tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday.

And as economist and former labor secretary Robert Reich noted on Saturday, Trump's latest comments fit a clear pattern: "Throughout this crisis Trump and Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they believe in generous socialism for banks, airlines, and the cruise industry, but think the American people should mostly fend for themselves."

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 23, 2020:
Nigeria Reports Chloroquine Overdoses After Trump—Without Evidence—Touted Drug as Possible Coronavirus Treatment

Nigerian health officials are urgently warning people not to self-medicate with unproven treatments after three Nigerians overdosed on chloroquine, an anti-malarial drug U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted—without evidence—as a possible treatment for the novel coronavirus.

CNN reported Monday that "three people were hospitalized in the [Nigerian city of Lagos] after taking the drug." ...

Despite warnings from health experts that chloroquine has not been tested for treating COVID-19, Trump falsely claimed during a press briefing Sunday that the evidence for chloroquine's effectiveness in treating the coronavirus is "very strong." ...

"Now, a drug called chloroquine—and some people would add to it 'hydroxy-.' Hydroxychloroquine. So chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. Now, this is a common malaria drug," Trump said during a briefing last Thursday. "The nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if it—if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody." ...

As ProPublica's Charles Ornstein reported Sunday, Trump's decision to boost chloroquine as a possible coronavirus treatment has "triggered a run on the drug" in the United States, causing a shortage of the medicine for those who need it to treat other serious conditions.

"Healthy people are stocking up just in case they come down with the disease," Ornstein reported. "That has left lupus patients... and those with rheumatoid arthritis suddenly confronting a lack of medication that safeguards them."
Bill Blum, The Progressive, March 18, 2020:
Unequal Justice: Where Are Impeachment and the 25th Amendment When We Need Them?

[J]ust when you thought Trump couldn't get any crazier or more incompetent in his handling of the coronavirus crisis, he took another wild leap into bizarro land with comments at Tuesday's White House press conference ...

In an exchange with reporters, Trump was asked by NBC's Kristen Welker whether he had changed his once-dismissive attitude about the perils posed by the virus. Trump responded:

"I have seen that where people actually liked [my tone during a press conference held the day before], but I didn't feel different. I've always known this is a real—this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. . . . I've always viewed it as very serious." ...

By any rational standard, Trump's comments qualify as either some of the most egregious political lies of the twenty-first century or as yet another indication that he suffers from a personality disorder that allows him to dissociate from reality and disclaim responsibility for any of his actions. ...

Perhaps the most loathsome of all of Trump's lies was his oft-repeated claim that test kits for the virus were widely available to anyone who desired one.

In fact, as other countries rolled out thousands of testing kits, the Centers for Disease Control was slow to act, and resisted using tests produced by the World Health Organization. Kits manufactured in the United States are only now being provided on a large scale to hospitals around the country, but at a pace that continues to lag that achieved by many other nations. ...

If the first duty of a President is to level with the American people and tell the truth in times of crisis, Trump has been a colossal failure. Whether that failure is due to ineptitude, malfeasance, a psychological impairment or some combination of factors, the country needs to remove him from office.
Ralph Nader, Counterpunch, March 23, 2020:
For America's Urgent Health and Safety, Trump Needs to Resign!

Leaning on sober-minded experts in infectious diseases at his daily news conferences, Trump is frantically trying to look good. But the old delusionary Trump keeps resurfacing. On Monday, he rated his coronavirus performance at a perfect ten. ...

Donald J. Trump is so consumed by his all-defining ego as to be occupationally insane. He is imperiling the public health of the entire country. If Trump endangered his family as he has endangered the country, he would be institutionalized. Again and again, Trump replaces realities with fantasies. He fibs, flails, fails, scapegoats, and never admits he was wrong or mistaken. Trump insists that the media heap undeserved praise on him, and solicits fawning, obsequious compliments from his cabinet members and staff. He just cannot absorb essential information. ...

It is clear that Trump's failed administration is responsible for our staggering unreadiness as the current catastrophe metastasizes, leaving America greatly vulnerable. But Trump doesn't see it that way. When asked about the role he played in the U.S. government's gross failure to anticipate and contain coronavirus, Trump responded, "I don't take responsibility at all."

Trump is crazily still pressing to weaken nursing home regulations designed to reduce deadly infections among millions of elderly residents. He stubbornly persists even after COVID-19 interrupted his golf game. He hates these rules because Obama issued them – his vendetta against Obama is all-consuming. ...

Would a sane president be fanatically disabling disease and injury prevention programs at federal agencies and boast about such "deregulation"? ...

It gets worse. Year after year, Trump tried to cut the budgets of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, and the US contribution to the World Health Organization, including their pandemic prevention work. This is criminal negligence. His recent federal budget sent to Congress on February 10, 2020 still advocated these capricious cuts, along with more money for the bloated Pentagon budget than asked for by the Generals. ...

[Donald Trump] should be a patriot for the sake of America and just resign. ... The ship of state is sailing toward disaster and the President is incapable of transforming his temperamental dysfunctions.

1 comment:

allan said...

John Oliver sums up Trump's response:
"I didn't do it. I didn't know anything about it. Maybe something in the administration did it. Maybe Tony did it. These things happen. I don't know again. We're doing a great job."