Daily Archives: April 7, 2020

A cardiologist on Monday called for President Donald Trump to cease all in-person contact with Vice President Mike Penceand be placed basically on lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr.Jonathan Reiner, who treatedformer Vice President Dick Cheney, told CNN anchor Erin Burnett that British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons admission to an intensive care unit after his symptoms worsened due to the virus was a terrible cautionary tale.

When I watch our leadership do these daily press conferences, I worry for their safety, Reiner said. This shows anyone can be infected with the virus, and I just dont think that our leadership here is taking this seriously enough for their own safety.I worry about the safety of the president and vice president.

Reiner recalled how former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney were never together in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks because the concern was that the enemy could deliver what would be called a decapitating attack and kill the leadership of this country.

Well, this is an enemy that can do the same thing. So why would you have the president and vice president together frequently when one can infect the other? The president should be basically on lockdown, he said, noting that Trump is 73 and therefore, due to his age, at high risk of dying from this virus.

So I think that for the sake our leadership, there really needs to be very, very limited, physical access to the president of the United States, Reiner added.

Check out the interview here:

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Cardiologist Explains Why Donald Trump And Mike Pence Shouldn't Be Together Right Now - HuffPost

Since the early days of the Trump administration, an impassioned group of mental health professionals have warned the public about the presidents cramped and disordered mind, a darkened attic of fluttering bats. Their assessments have been controversial. The American Psychiatric Associations code of ethics expressly forbids its members from diagnosing a public figure from afar.

Enough is enough. As Ive argued before, an in-person analysis of Donald J. Trump would not reveal any hidden depths his internal sonar could barely fathom the bottom of a sink and these are exceptional, urgent times. Back in October, George T. Conway III, the conservative lawyer and husband of Kellyanne, wrote a long, devastating essay for The Atlantic, noting that Trump has all the hallmarks of narcissistic personality disorder. That disorder was dangerous enough during times of prosperity, jeopardizing the moral and institutional foundations of our country.

But now were in the midst of a global pandemic. The presidents pathology is endangering not just institutions, but lives.

Lets start with the basics. First: Narcissistic personalities like Trump harbor skyscraping delusions about their own capabilities. They exaggerate their accomplishments, focus obsessively on projecting power, and wish desperately to win.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump says weve got plenty of tests available, when we dont. He declares that Google is building a comprehensive drive-thru testing website, when it isnt. He sends a Navy hospital ship to New York and it proves little more than an excuse for a campaign commercial, arriving and sitting almost empty in the Hudson. A New York hospital executive calls it a joke.

Second: The grandiosity of narcissistic personalities belies an extreme fragility, their egos as delicate as foam. They live in terror of being upstaged. Theyre too thin skinned to be told theyre wrong.

What that means, during this pandemic: Narcissistic leaders never have, as Trump likes to say, the best people. They have galleries of sycophants. With the exceptions of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, Trump has surrounded himself with a Z-team of dangerously inexperienced toadies and flunkies the bargain-bin rejects from Filenes Basement at a time when we require the brightest and most imaginative minds in the country.

Debatable: Agree to disagree, or disagree better? Broaden your perspective with sharp arguments on the most pressing issues of the week.

Faced with a historic public health crisis, Trump could have assembled a first-rate company of disaster preparedness experts. Instead he gave the job to his son-in-law, a man-child of breathtaking vapidity. Faced with a historic economic crisis, Trump could have assembled a team of Nobel-prize winning economists or previous treasury secretaries. Instead he talks to Larry Kudlow, a former CNBC host.

Meanwhile, Fauci and Birx measure every word they say like old-time apothecaries, hoping not to humiliate the narcissist never humiliate a narcissist while discreetly correcting his false hopes and falsehoods. They are desperately attempting to create a safe space for our president, when the president should be creating a safer nation for all of us.

Third: Narcissistic personalities love nothing more than engineering conflict and sowing division. It destabilizes everyone, keeps them in control.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is pitting state against state for precious resources, rather than coordinating a national response. (Its like being on eBay, complained Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York last week.) His White House is a petty palace of competing power centers. He picks fights with Democratic officials and members of the press, when all the public craves is comfort.

Narcissistic personalities dont do comfort. They cannot fathom the needs of other hearts.

Fourth: Narcissistic personalities are vindictive. On a clear day, you can see their grudges forever.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is playing favorites with governors who praise him and punishing those who fail to give him the respect he believes he deserves. If they dont treat you right, dont call, he told Vice President Mike Pence.

His grudge match with New York is now especially lethal. When asked on Friday whether New York will have enough ventilators, Trump bluntly answered No, and then blamed the state.

And most relevant, as far as history is concerned: Narcissistic personalities are weak.

What that means, during this pandemic: Trump is genuinely afraid to lead. He cant bring himself to make robust use of the Defense Production Act, because the buck would stop with him. (To this day, he insists states should be acquiring their own ventilators.) When asked about delays in testing, he said, I dont take responsibility at all. During Fridays news conference, he added the tests we inherited were broken, were obsolete, when this form of coronavirus didnt even exist under his predecessor.

This sounds an awful lot like one of the three sentences that Homer Simpson swears will get you through life: It was like that when I got here.

Most people, even the most hotheaded and difficult ones, have enough space in their souls to set aside their anger in times of crisis. Think of Rudolph Giuliani during Sept. 11. Think of Andrew Cuomo now.

But every aspect of Trumps crisis management has been annexed by his psychopathology. As Americans die, he boasts about his television ratings. As Americans die, he crows that hes No. 1 on Facebook, which isnt close to true.

But it is true that all eyes are on him. Hes got a captive audience, an attention-addicts dream come to life. Its just that he, like all narcissistic personalities, has no clue how disgracefully how shamefully, how deplorably hell be enshrined in memory.

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Donald Trump the Narcissist Is Running the Coronavirus Crisis - The New York Times

President Donald Trump is looking to the stars even though much of the country is currently grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday, Trump signed off on an executive order called Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources, which establishes U.S. policy on possessing and utilizing off-Earth resources.

As America prepares to return humans to the moon and journey on to Mars, this executive order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space, Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the U.S. National Space Council, said in a statement.

The order, which has been in the works for about a year, reflects the United States long-held pro-business approach when dealing with space resources. In 1979, the U.S. refused to sign the Moon Treaty that would stipulate non-scientific use of space resources to be governed by an international regulatory framework.

More explicitly, in 2015, Congress passed a law that allowed U.S. companies and citizens to use freely lunar and asteroid resources.

With Trumps executive order, the U.S. now possesses a clearer vision for future off-Earth mining, without the requirement for further international treaty-like agreements.

The order coincides with NASAs push for a crewed lunar exploration. In March 2019, in response to Trumps directive, NASA unveiled the Artemis program's mission to send astronauts to the moon by 2024. A part of the operation would entail establishing a sustainable lunar outpost by 2028, fueled by tapping into lunar resources like water ice that is thought to be plentiful on the polar craters.

The moon, however, is not the final destination for NASAs grand ambitions, as Mars is next in line. In reaching that goal, the Artemis program will help NASA and its partners learn how to support astronauts in deep space with limited resources for long periods of time.

NASA, though, will have strong competition from Elon Musks SpaceX, which has its eyes set on the eventual establishment of a sustainable settlement on the Red Planet and making humanity a multi-planetary species.

Mars, then, would likely be a stepping-stone for future missions to Saturns moons Enceladus and Titan and Jupiters moons Io and Europa. Scientists believe that these particular moons of the gas giants have the best chance to harbor alien life in our solar system.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek and Arirang TV.

Image: Reuters.

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Does Donald Trump Want to Start Mining the Moon? - The National Interest

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters.

A virus can adapt quickly, and so can Donald Trump.

Through the course of the coronavirus crisis, Trump has demonstrated the adaptability that has so often helped his career in business and politics, as he shifted from predator developer to scammy brand-marketer to reality-TV celebrity. And one element of that flexibility is Trumps unparalleled capacity to say whatever he needs at a given moment to gain an advantage or serve a personal interest.

This skill, if it can be called that, was on display at a recent Trump campaign rally, which these days are held daily in the White House, where Trump and members of his coronavirus task force brief reporters and the rest of the world. (Trump has been bragging about the ratings for these briefings, cheering his audience numbers, as Americans perish.) When Trump at this particular session on Sunday wasnt bashing the media, belittling his perceived foes, or praising himself, he made a startling remark: So youre talking about 2.2 million deaths, 2.2 million people from this. And so if we could hold that down, as were saying, to 100,000. Its a horrible number, maybe even less but to 100,000. So we have between 100 and 200,000, and we altogether have done a very good job.

At this briefing, Trump 16 times pointed to the 2.2 million estimate. That number comes from a new British study that Trumps health care advisers had shown him that projects this level of death in the (unlikely) absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour. That is, without social distancing, testing, and the like. (Trumps experts had put this report in front of him so he would see that his idiotic idea to ease social restrictions by Easter would cause hundreds of thousands of deaths.) Trump, who on February 26, when there were 15 reported coronavirus cases in the United States, said the number would soon be down to close to zero, was now tossing out a horrendous number. It was quite the turnaroundand very purposeful.

It appeared Trump had finally realized that the amount of coronavirus death in this country on his watch is going to be astronomical. His weeks of denial, inaction, and dangerous happy-talkdownplaying the threat, claiming the virus would disappear in better weather, saying it was no worse than the flu, hinting social restraints could soon be liftedhad done nothing to stop the lethal threat spreading across the country. (A virus cant be stopped by BS.) Trump, who originally worried that bad coronavirus numbers would spook the markets and undercut his the-economy-is-great! reelection argument, needed to pivot. To adapt.

Now that Trump could no longer pitch himself as the beautiful-economy president, he recast himself as the great lifesaver of America. And he initiated a cynical and loathsome expectations game. If the coronavirus might kill 2.2. million, then what a hero he would be if it only claims the lives of 200,000 Americans. Should this come to pass, Trump will claim that 2 million Americans owe him their lives.

Trump the coronavirus saviorthats his new role. At this particular briefing, he claimed that some advisersno names, of coursehad urged him to ride out the crisis and do nothing: Just ride it. Ride it like a cowboy. Ride that sucker right through. And Trump proudly took credit for not following the dumbest advice imaginable. In fact, Trump portrayed his (eventual) unwillingness to do nothing as a courageous act that will prevent the death of 2.2 million. He repeated this line at the Tuesday press briefing, repeating the nutty notion that a lot of people were saying just ride it out. He added, Think what would happen if we didnt do anything. Imagine a firefighter boasting of not standing by and watching a building burn to the ground.

Of course, Trump had not rushed to the fire. He completely botched and bungled the first weeks of the crisis, with a stretch of neglect and screwups that will likely lead to the deaths of thousands of Americans, if not more. But as a reality-TV president more focused on PR than policy, he believes he can rewrite the script as the first act plays. Like a virus, he can change with no regard of past actions. At that Tuesday briefing, Trump appeared more somber than usual and deferred to the experts to discuss the projected death tollsthough he did suggest he deserved praise for the job thats been done. (Trump is well skilled in goal-post-shifting. He did this repeatedly through the Russia and Ukraine scandals. For instance, he defined wrongdoing in the Russia controversy as only direct collusion between his circle and Moscows attack on the 2016 election; this drew attention from his actions and those of his campaign that aided and abetted the Russian assault.)

There is a limit on Trumps mutability: his deeply rooted pathologies. As Trump has tried in recent days to demonstrate (intermittently) that he comprehends the gravity of the crisis and is heeding the recommendations of the experts, he has been unable to restrain his never-ending flow of dark impulses. He spent days attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and threatening other governors. (If they dont treat you right, I dont call.) Here he was yielding to his obsession with revenge and his fixation on petty grievanceseven though it possibly could cause Michigan voters to view him negatively. Trump won Michigan in 2016 and will need a victory there in 2020 to keep his hold on the White House. The smart political move would be to avoid alienating Michigan voters. Yet Trump could not stop his warped psyche from winning the day.

Trump is now attempting to set the stage for a grand finale in which he can claim victory and demand reelection while standing on the corpses of 200,000 or so dead Americans. This will be an absurd argument but the nation has already seen a flood of absurdity from Trump and an overflow of credulity from his cultlike followers. Still, meeting his own 200,000-dead mark of success could (unfortunately for the nation) be an arduous task for Trump. On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for Trumps coronavirus task force, appeared on NBCs Today show and said, If we do things together well, almost perfectly, we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities. And she added, Were not sure all of America is responding in a uniform waymeaning we are not doing things almost perfectly.

If Birx is correct, Trump might have outsmarted himself by establishing 200,000 as his ghoulish I-win benchmark, for her grim prediction reaches higher in the real world where the response is not almost perfect. (Where are the tests? Where are the ventilators? Where is the PPE? Where are the lockdown orders in areas about to be hit by coronavirus?). But Trump, the onetime owner of bankrupt casinos, appears to be betting on this 200,000 estimate. That horrific level of death will still be a tremendous tragedy for which Trump will bear partial responsibility. And the number of fatalities is likely to be higher. Should that be the case, Trump will, no doubt, adapt once more and concoct a new strain. A virus has no conscience. It only exists to survive and spread.

Image credits: Oliver Contreras/CNP/ZUMA; Kevin Dietsch/CNP/ZUMA; Yuri Gripas/CNP/ZUMA

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How Donald Trump Plans on Spinning 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths as a Win - Mother Jones

Political fact-checkers have flourished under Donald Trump, a president who according to one count uttered more than 16,000 misleading or false claims during his first three years in the White House.

The coronavirus outbreak has seen Trump add to that total. Here are some of his most misleading and most often repeated claims about Covid-19, his administrations response to the outbreak and what might lie ahead.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his surprise at the scale of the coronavirus as it spread around the world and raced across the US.

I would view it as something that just surprised the whole world, he said in a press conference earlier this month. Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion.

In a separate briefing, Trump said: I just think this is something that you can never really think is going to happen.

There is evidence, however, that not only was the Trump administration warned about the potential of a pandemic and its dangers to Americans, it was given a plan on how to deal with it, which it promptly shelved.

During the Obama administration, the national security council drew up a 69-page playbook on fighting pandemics, Politico has reported. The document, crafted in the wake of the 2016 Ebola outbreak, contained advice on tracking the spread of a new virus, how to ensure testing was conducted effectively and the need to stockpile emergency resources.

The incoming Trump administration was briefed on the playbook but it was was thrown on to a shelf, according to an anonymous official quoted by Politico.

This wasnt the administrations only insight into the threat posed by a pandemic. In October, an internal federal government report warned how underprepared and underfunded the US would be in terms of tackling a virus without a cure.

Trumps reaction to coronavirus has spanned disbelief, a severe understating of the problem and an optimism that appears unmoored from reality.

In February, Trump said the virus could maybe go away. Well see what happens. Nobody really knows. He predicted it is going to disappear. One day its like a miracle it will disappear.

This position has been repeatedly contradicted by public health experts who predicted the sharp increase in Covid-19 infections, blunted only by social distancing measures and the shut down of large gatherings.

Even in China, which instituted the most severe crackdown on the movement of people, it has taken several months for cases to start tapering off.

Youve got to be realistic, and youve got to understand that you dont make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently.

Without basis, Trump has claimed the US has done an excellent job in testing people for the coronavirus. As early as January, the president said the situation was totally under control. Just six weeks later the US had emerged as the new global center of the pandemic.

In reality, healthcare providers faced a severe shortage of testing kits as coronavirus hit the US, with the situation exacerbated by faults in the testing system and restrictions on who could actually take a test. A big disparity opened up whereby rich or famous people were able to get tests while others struggled to do so.

Mike Pence, the vice-president, has admitted we dont have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand. Dr Fauci told a congressional hearing the US system was not really geared to what we need right now regarding the test kits. He added: That is a failing. Lets admit it.

As is the case with many of Trumps statements, his claim he has always taken the pandemic seriously deviates wildly from his previous comments. Perhaps most infamously, Trump said I dont take responsibility at all when asked about the faltering US response.

The president has repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by Covid-19, criticising concern over the crisis as a hoax, fretting that letting infected Americans off a cruise ship would increase the number of confirmed cases and claiming that only a couple of Americans had it as cases began to soar across the country.

He has compounded this by suggesting social distancing restrictions be lifted around Easter a timeline wildly out of kilter with public health experts who warn this would cause hospitals to overflow with sick and dying patients.

In a White House meeting with pharmaceutical company bosses and public health officials, Trump suggested a vaccine for Covid-19 will be available over the next few months.

He was contradicted by Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, who pointed out: You wont have a vaccine. Youll have a vaccine to go into testing.

Dr Fauci and others at the meeting confirmed that clinical trials standard for any new vaccine would have to take place first. A vaccine is more likely to be a year or 18 months away.

Despite being told this, Trump told a rally in North Carolina on 2 March that there will be a vaccine relatively soon.

On more than one occasion in recent weeks, Trump has questioned states sudden surge in demand for equipment such as masks and ventilators essential tools in doctors battle against coronavirus.

During his daily White House briefing, the president has said states are stocked up with medical equipment, adding: Theres a question as to hoarding of ventilators, some hospitals and independent hospitals and some hospital chains, as we call them they are holding ventilators, they dont want to let em up.

Trump also questioned why hospitals in New York City suddenly needed 300,000 masks when they previously needed 10,000 masks. So I think people should check that, because theres something going on, whether I dont think its hoarding, I think its maybe worse than hoarding. But check it out.

Trumps re-election campaign has since claimed the president was merely echoing Andrew Cuomo, New Yorks governor, who has said that he has asked the state police to investigate the theft of masks. But no evidence has been forthcoming on Trumps seemingly baseless assertion of hoarding or worse than hoarding by hospitals.

Governors from several states have said they have received just a small fraction of the medical equipment they need to deal with the pandemic. New York, for example, has said it needs tens of thousands of ventilators but has only received a few thousand. The reason for the sudden surge in demand for these items is obvious there is a pandemic of a new virus that is putting a huge and sudden strain on healthcare systems.

On 27 March, Trump made the above claim despite warnings from public health experts that coronavirus should not be conflated with seasonal flu. Fauci, for example, has said that Covid-19 is transferred between people far more easily than the flu and has a mortality rate around 10 times higher.

While there was initial confusion over coronavirus when Chinese authorities described it as an unusual form of pneumonia, the world has been well aware of the dimensions of the virus since January, when China acknowledged the severity of the condition and released the genetic information of Covid-19.

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Seven of Donald Trump's most misleading coronavirus claims - The Guardian

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President John F. Kennedy famously observed during a gathering of Nobel Prize winners: I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

And so it is again with President Trumps daily assemblies at the White House featuring some of the worlds leading public health experts, epidemiologists, business leaders and economists.

Clearly, Mr. Trump listens carefully to his panels of experts. And clearly these experts often clash.

One of the funniest and most ridiculous displays of media idiocy during this whole Wuhan pandemic came over the weekend when one Beltway-revered blog breathlessly reported that there was a major disagreement in the Situation Room down in the bowels of the White House between government doctor Anthony Fauci and Trump economist Peter Navarro over the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drughydroxychloroquine in combating COVID-19.

You mean the very same disagreement over hydroxychloroquine that plays out in plain view every single day among Mr. Trumps team out in the Rose Garden and in the press briefing room and in the press?

News flash! Breaking News! Hold the presses! Situation Room! Anonymous sources! Administration official! Background!

Never in the history of the world has such a serious global threat been met by such a ridiculously unserious press. I guess we should just be glad that it wasnt yet another breathless breaking newsflash about how some racist Trump administration official anonymously told reporters that the Wuhan virus originated in China.

Luckily, Mr. Trump has the great wisdom to float above the nonsense except when he impishly delves into the media fracas to tune up some idiot reporter just for the giggles. Strictly speaking, these displays are rarely constructive. But, boy, they sure are entertaining.

Instead, Mr. Trump mostly sticks to his assembly of experts.

But he should do so with extreme caution.

Because while his assembly of expert advisers may be the most extraordinary collection of talent and human knowledge since Thomas Jefferson dined alone in the White House, none of them Jefferson included has the finely honed political instincts of Mr. Trump alone.

Despite all the caterwauling and hysteria, Mr. Trump is absolutely right to be questioning his medical experts on the wisdom of shutting down the American economy to fight this pandemic.

It doesnt make Mr. Trump or anyone else a Nazi or evil for weighing the costs and benefits of every federal action and edict during these unprecedented times.

In fact, the very instincts that got Mr. Trump elected in the first place are precisely the instincts he should fall back on for dealing with this crisis.

First, there is an Evil Empire in this world. And, just as Mr. Trump identified during his campaign, it is China.

The communist country lies about everything, disappears political opponents and has a long-term strategy for destroying America. Every decision Mr. Trump makes going forward should be about curtailing Chinas influence in the world and delivering America from reliance on the country.

Second, free trade in the world is great and all. But there are limits. Selling Americas soul for cheapest goods possible from China is one thing when we are talking crappy plastic trinkets.

It is an entirely different matter when we are talking about American security, such as the manufacture of drugs, face masks and medical gear. President Trump should immediately establish long-term contracts with American companies to manufacture anything deemed vital to national security.

Finally, borders matter. They always have mattered. But, unbelievably, both U.S. political parties have been in competition to see who can abandon Americas borders the fastest. If we have learned nothing from the Wuhan virus, it is that our borders must be enforced.

Exactly as Mr. Trump promised when he got elected.

Charles Hurt can be reached at [emailprotected] or @charleshurt on Twitter.

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Donald Trump should stick to his assembly of experts -- with extreme caution - Washington Times

President Trump said Monday he is going to get involved in settling a heated dispute between Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly and former USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier, who was fired last week after writing a letter about a worsening coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship that was later published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

During a press conference at the White House, the president praised both men and said he doesnt want Capt. Croziers career to be ruined because of a bad day.

Ive heard very good things about the gentleman, both gentlemen, Mr. Trump said. I may just get involved you have two good people and theyre arguing. And Im good, believe it or not, at settling arguments.

Capt. Croziers career prior to that was very good, the president continued, so Im going to get involved and see exactly whats going on there. Because I dont want to destroy somebody for having a bad day.

Mr. Trump did not specify exactly how hell get involved or what steps hell take to settle the controversy.

The presidents comments came on the heels of Mr. Modly addressing the 4,000 crew members of the Roosevelt which is now docked in Guam after more than 150 sailors tested positive for COVID-19 and blasting Capt. Crozier.

If he didnt think, in my opinion, that this information wasnt going to get out into the public in this day and information age that we live in, then he was either A too naive or too stupid to be commanding officer of a ship like this. The alternative is that he did this on purpose, Mr. Modly said, according to a transcript and recording of his message over the ships public address system.

Democratic lawmakers and other critics blasted Mr. Modly for his remarks. The president cast it as a very strong statement but stressed that the letter shouldnt have been sent.

Military officials have argued that in writing a letter that ultimately found its way to the press rather than speaking in private to his superiors, Capt. Crozier sent a signal to adversaries that the U.S. military had been compromised.

Mr. Trump offered a similar assessment.

Its unfair to the families on the ship because they get nervous and it shows weakness, he said. And theres nothing weak about us now.

After departing the Roosevelt last week, Capt. Crozier tested positive for COVID-19, according to media reports.

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Donald Trump 'to get involved' in Thomas Modly-Capt. Brett Crozier dispute - Washington Times

The American military is suffering from the novel coronavirus pandemic. At time of writing over 1,600 Department of Defense staff have tested positive, including a major outbreak on the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where over 100 sailors out of a crew of over 4,000 have been infected. The lack of proper quarantine facilities onboard prompted the ship's Captain Brett Crozier to plead for help in a letter to his superiors which was later obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. "Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset our Sailors," he wrote.

The Roosevelt was eventually docked in Guam and evacuated. But Crozier has now been relieved of his command. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said Crozier showed "extremely poor judgment" in creating a "firestorm." Translation: He embarrassed President Trump, who has installed toadies like Modly in a number of senior military leadership positions.

As Crozier departed the Roosevelt, the remaining crew sent him off to wild cheers. "One of the greatest captains you ever had the man for the people," said one sailor. Such a sight ought to freeze the blood of any American politician. Historically, treating the armed forces with gratuitous contempt runs a serious risk of mutinies or revolution. He surely does not know it, but Trump is playing with fire.

In his history of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky wrote that the state's grip on the armed forces was one deciding factor in any potential revolution. "Against a numerous, disciplined, well-armed and ably led military force, unarmed or almost unarmed masses of the people cannot possibly gain a victory." The ground for revolt in 1917 was only laid because disgruntled soldiers disgusted by Tsar Nicholas II's appalling performance in the First World War turned against the regime. That followed an example set in the quasi-revolution of 1905, when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin famously mutinied after their captain murdered a sailor for complaining about being fed rancid meat.

It is of course exceedingly difficult to imagine American sailors and soldiers turning against the Trump administration. But extreme crises can sometimes change attitudes very, very quickly. There's a reason why in previous crises, like the standoff over the debt ceiling in 2013, the government always took care to make sure the military paychecks kept flowing. But Trump's titanic narcissism and ignorance make this danger impossible for him to grasp.

On the contrary, Trump has made it abundantly clear that the only qualification that matters for top military personnel is personal loyalty to him. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper fired Undersecretary for Policy John Rood because he was involved with the aid to Ukraine that got Trump impeached. As of early March, over "a third of all Senate-confirmed civilian positions at the Department of Defense are now vacant or filled by temporary officials," Politico reports, in part because "a 29-year-old Trump loyalist ... is now trying to exert more control over the Pentagons nominating process." Trump is a man so petty that his administration ordered the USS John McCain hidden behind a tarp during a Trump visit to Japan because the president previously feuded with the ship's namesake, and they did not want to trigger a temper tantrum.

Trump's treatment of Captain Crozier also makes a jarring contrast with what he did for Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was turned in by his own fellow troops for allegedly murdering civilians and a captured prisoner in cold blood. Trump interfered in his prosecution and reversed his demotion. The message is clear: Commit war crimes and Fox News will get the president to turn you into a right-wing celebrity grifter, but try to save your troops from a disease pandemic and your career is toast.

Finally, the coronavirus pandemic comes after two decades of ceaseless imperialist warmongering, at a cost of perhaps $6.4 trillion and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops killed, maimed, or psychologically injured, for no benefit whatsoever. America invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 2001; nearly 20 years later that country is in worse shape than it was when we started. America invaded Iraq on false pretenses and turned it into a dystopian nightmare hell. Fifty-eight percent of veterans say the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting; 64 percent say the same thing about the war in Iraq.

American soldiers generally come from the middle of the income distribution, with the poorest and especially the richest neighborhoods underrepresented. The military is also considerably more diverse than the general population (except for the Marines, the smallest of the service branches). It is surely unlikely that dipping morale among the troops could suddenly curdle into boiling, insurrectionary rage, but it's not impossible. American soldiers have been pointlessly shoveled into a meat grinder for two decades, and now their officers have to sacrifice themselves to get Trump to protect them from a viral pandemic?

Make no mistake, segments of the military in open conflict with the president would be a terrifying development. Full-blown military revolts often end with some strongman general installing himself as dictator. America is hopefully still a long ways from that, but with Donald Trump as the commander-in-chief, with the lockstep backing of almost the entire Republican Party, and with potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans dying in the pandemic, would you really rule it out?

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Donald Trump is playing with revolutionary fire - The Week

Carlos Fernndez de Cosso, head of the U.S. desk at Cubas Foreign Ministry, recently accused the U.S. government of terrible moral decadence. He was reacting to U.S. threats against nations confronting the COVID 19 pandemic and assisted by Cuba. He was also criticizing poor pre-epidemic preparations in the United States.

His critique strayed from Cubas usual denunciations of imperialist and plutocratic excess. In suggesting that U.S. leaders disregard basic human values, the diplomat was venturing into deep waters.

In fact, U.S. decision-making on the COVID 19 epidemic and on some U.S. interventions abroad reveal easy tolerance of people dying in the one case and foreknowledge of that outcome in the other. The implications are not trivial: Thou shalt not kill is arguably the most basic moral and legal principle in any society, according to a scholar on various rationalizations of killings.

President Donald Trump on March 24 indicated measures for slowing down the spread of COVID 19 infection would be relaxed by April 12. He indicated U.S. people could then return to work and the economy would recover. In that scenario, the epidemic and the dying presumably would continue. That day Bloomberg News reported that, Business leaders in the U.S. are getting impatient with the national economic shutdown and are backing President Trump.

Soulmate and Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick indicated on March 23 he would take a chance for the sake of preserving America for your children and grandchildren. He and other old people would die for the greater good, as he sees it.

Trump retreated later on, claiming his words had been aspirational. But the head of state and lead defender of capitalism had revealed that for him human survival ranks second to the imperatives of capital.

The U.S. government is used to letting people die. In Afghanistan U.S. bombs descend from the air and bystanders die. In the 1990s U.S. strategists accepted that Iraqi people would die from economic sanctions they were imposing. The deaths there of 500,000 children were worth it, declared then Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

U.S. governments treat Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela similarly. In 1960 Cuban leaders knew what was in store for their people. A State Department memo that year called for a line of action which makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government. But only a few Cubans have died due to the U.S. economic blockade. Cubas government has left no stone unturned to protect all of their lives.

A side note: shortages alone may not be enough to provoke the desperation required for rebellion. People perhaps need to fear for their lives. Persons dying in their midst might do the trick.

In Iran now, conditions are worsening. On March 26, the U.S. government added sanctions targeting shipping, constriction and the chemical industry. The fear-inducing COVID 19 pandemic serves U.S. purposes. Iran now accounts of for 11.2 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the world. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February claimed that, things are much worse for the Iranian people, and we are convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime.

The combination of pandemic and sanctions is terrible for Venezuela. In mid-February, the U.S. government sanctioned Russias state-owned oil corporation Rosnef, claiming it had transported 55 million barrels of oil for Venezuelas PDVSA oil company.

Because of sanctions, Venezuelas daily oil output, already reduced, dropped 50 percent between 2017 and 2019. Oils sales provide Venezuelas government with 90 percent of its income. Oil exports pay for social support. Tens of thousands of Venezuelan deaths due to sanctions have been documented. Now Venezuela appears to be on the verge of a massive [COVID 19] outbreak. The mix of sanctions and pandemic at work in Iran, Venezuela, and elsewhere could kill tens of thousands [of people] if not far more.

Accusations that U.S. sanctions violate international law have long flooded the Internet. Heres one, chosen at random and appearing in a 2019 medical-journal article: U.S. sanctions fit the definition of collective punishment of the civilian population, as described by the Geneva (Article 33) and Hague conventions, to which the USA is a signatory.

At issue here, however, is the U.S. governments moral-values deficit. Indeed, editorialists of The New York Times declared on March 26 that piling on more sanctions while Iran bleeds is morally wrong and looks terrible. In their zeal to protect capitalism in crisis, U. S. political leaders clearly stop at nothing. Let the economy roll and people would die. Punish uppity subaltern nations and people do die.

The present-day reality of the U.S. states ready acceptance of peoples deaths harks back to the crimes of far-right political movements in early 20th century Europe. Worried capitalists inside U.S. power structures are seemingly on the verge of doing what their earlier counterparts did. They latched on to thuggery and gave themselves up to the terrible simplifiers, labeled as such in 1889 by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt.

Original post:

Donald Trump, Capitalism, and Letting Them Die - CounterPunch

In reality, Americans needed authorization from a doctor to get tested -- and even many people who did have a doctor's order could not get access.

This was Trump deceiving the country about one of the most critical problems of the crisis.

The most revealing false claim: Trade with Europe

During his Oval Office address to the nation about the coronavirus on March 11, Trump, speaking from a script, announced that he was imposing restrictions on travel from Europe -- and then added that "these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing."

The most absurd false claim: Handshakes in India

Trump is regularly willing to make false claims that can be disproven using widely available video footage.

The coronavirus

'Control' of the coronavirus

Facts First: Experts said the US did not have the virus even close to under control. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at this same briefing after Trump left the room: "The worst is, yes, ahead for us. It is how we respond to that challenge that's going to determine what the ultimate end point is going to be. We have a very, very critical point now."

Expectations of the pandemic

"This was foreseeable, and foreseen, weeks and months ago, and only now is the White House coming out of denial and heading straight into saying it could not have been foreseen," Harvard University epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch, director of Harvard's Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said on Sunday.

"Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat," Lipsitch said in an email. "One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House's response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US's lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection."

Obama and coronavirus testing

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who was principal deputy commissioner of the FDA under Obama and is now professor of the practice at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, "There wasn't a policy that was put into place that inhibited them. There was no Obama policy they were reversing."

The availability of coronavirus tests

Coronavirus testing

Trump was asked about a case in which a doctor in Houston reported being unable to obtain permission to get a patient tested despite the patient having "symptoms of something" and having tested negative for the flu.

Facts First: It was simply not true that testing had been going smoothly or that, as Trump suggested, it was simple to get a test by contacting the proper authorities.

Health officials in states around the country continued to report a shortage of tests and other problems. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Congress the same day: "The system does not -- is not really geared to what we need right now ... that is a failing. It is a failing, let's admit it."

Dr. Fauci said, "The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countr(ies) are doing it: we're not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But we're not."

The timeline

Facts First: The US had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus on January 21, more than six weeks before Trump spoke here, so it's not true that the US had not really seen even "some possible effects" until three weeks ago.

People's knowledge of the number of flu deaths

The CDC estimates that between 12,000 and 61,000 people have died in the US in each flu season between 2010-2011 and 2018-2019; its preliminary figure for 2018-2019 is 34,157 deaths.

Flu deaths in 1990

Polling on Trump and the coronavirus

Facts First: Trump does not have a "78% approval rating" for his handling of the coronavirus, nor "the highest rating ever" for a president's handling of an outbreak.

Travel from Europe

Facts First: Trump was incorrectly describing his own policy.

His travel suspension did not apply to "all travel from Europe"; it applied to the 26 countries in the Schengen Area, a European zone in which people can move freely across internal borders. (Trump later added the United Kingdom and Ireland, which are not in the Schengen Area, to the restricted list.)

Trump did not mention that he was exempting a variety of non-US citizens, including permanent US residents and certain family members of both citizens and permanent residents. And by referring to "Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings," he did not make clear that US citizens can return from Europe even if they have not been screened before they take off for the US. The screening comes after they land in the US.

European goods

"There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing." -- March 11 Oval Office address to the nation on the coronavirus

A "rally" in Tampa

Google's coronavirus website

"I want to thank the people at Google and Google Communications because, as you know, they substantiated what I said on Friday. The head of Google, who's a great gentleman, said -- called us and he apologized. I don't know where the press got their fake news, but they got it someplace...And how that got out -- and I'm sure you'll apologize. But it would be great if we could really give the news correctly. It would be so, so wonderful." -- March 15 coronavirus press conference

So it was fair for Trump to applaud the second statement, but its existence does not mean that media reports about the first statement were inaccurate.

New York coronavirus deaths

"And then, when you do have a death, like you have had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California -- I believe you had one in New York..." -- March 4 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity

The coronavirus situation in Italy

"...I hear the numbers are getting much better in Italy." -- March 6 exchange with reporters after tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Facts First: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in Italy was continuing to increase at the time Trump made this comment. As of Saturday, March 7, the day after Trump spoke here, Italy had 5,883 confirmed cases and 233 deaths; as of Monday, March 9, there were 9,172 cases and 463 deaths.

The coronavirus in the US and elsewhere

Facts First: Trump was exaggerating. The US did have fewer confirmed coronavirus cases than some countries, including China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France and Germany. But it had more confirmed cases than big-population countries like India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia and Nigeria, plus neighbors Mexico and Canada, plus many other high-income countries.

In addition, the number of confirmed cases is dependent on how many people are tested. The US was conducting fewer tests than some countries with much smaller populations.

A remark by Nancy Pelosi

Canadians on the Grand Princess

People on the Grand Princess

Trump's student loan plan

Border closures

The Europe restrictions and testing

Facts First: It's not true that Americans or others returning from Europe "have to be" tested for the coronavirus -- and no system is being set up to actually test these returning travelers.

Instead, travelers are funneled to specific airports and put through an inspection known as enhanced screening, which cannot prove whether someone has the virus. Previous US airport screening for the coronavirus has involved temperature checks, questions about travelers' health and travel history, and an inspection for symptoms like a cough or breathing trouble. The administration's statements about the enhanced screening for travelers from Europe made no mention of coronavirus tests being conducted.

Handshakes in India

"You know, I just got back from India, and I didn't shake any hands there. And it was very easy because they go like this. (Takes slight bow.)" -- March 12 exchange with reporters before meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar

Here is the full list of 71 false claims from the two-week period:

Obama, the coronavirus and swine flu

Trump said of H1N1, also known as swine flu: "And they didn't do anything about it." -- March 4 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity

"If you go back and look at the swine flu and what happened with the swine flu, you'll see how many people died and how actually nothing was done for such a long period of time, as people were dying all over the place." -- March 12 exchange with reporters before meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar

Facts First: The Obama administration did respond to H1N1, and it's not true the administration did not even start "thinking" about testing until it was too late.

Unemployment in Pennsylvania and Scranton

"This area of Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania itself, has the best numbers it's ever had. It's got the best economy it's ever had. It has the best unemployment numbers it's ever had. And Scranton has the lowest and best unemployment numbers they've -- and employment numbers too -- that they've ever had, by far." -- March 5 Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Facts First: Neither the unemployment rate for Pennsylvania nor the unemployment rate for the Scranton area is at its lowest level ever. And both rates have crept higher over the past several months.

Social Security and Medicare

Trump's budget is a request to Congress, not a law, so the cuts may not happen. And Republicans are free to note that the proposed cuts would reduce projected future spending, but not be reductions from the current level of spending. Still, Biden had a reasonable factual basis for saying what he did.

Trade with Japan

"I just made a deal with Japan where they're paying $40 billion. They never gave us anything. All they do is sell us cars for no tax coming into the -- to the country." -- March 5 Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania

"Japan is not paying $40 billion dollars to the United States as part of the mini trade deal," Mireya Solis, director of the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, said in an email. She added: "US-Japan digital trade is worth $40 billion, but again that does not mean Japan is paying the US that amount."

Matthew Goodman, senior vice president and senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said there are "no hard numbers or commitments in the US-Japan deal to support that figure, as far as I know."

China and drugs

Facts First: It is simply not true that China has no "drug problem," though Trump did not define what he meant by "drug problem." Joe Amon, director of global health at Drexel University and a clinical professor of community health and prevention, said the statement is "definitively" false. Ann Fordham, executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, a global network of non-governmental organizations, said, "There is so much data that refutes this claim from Trump."

Repeats

Here are the repeat false claims we have previously included in one of these roundups:

Ukraine and impeachment

The whistleblower

Trump called the whistleblower who complained about his dealings with Ukraine a "phony whistleblower" and claimed this person had described "a call that didn't exist." -- March 5 Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Hunter Biden's career

Trump claimed that, before Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of directors of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden "didn't have a job." -- March 5 Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Economy

Prescription drug prices

Hispanic home ownership

Facts First: The number of Hispanic homeowners had indeed increased by more than 500,000 during Trump's presidency, according to data provided by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals -- it rose by 176,000 in 2017, 365,000 in 2018, 277,000 in 2019. But this total gain of 818,000 was not the largest net gain ever recorded. In 2001, 2002 and 2003, the first three years of George W. Bush's presidency, the total gain was 930,000, according to the association's data. (The net gain during the 2003-2005 period, also under Bush, was 940,000.)

Median household income and energy

Facts First: It's not true that median household income gains under Trump were almost $10,000 in three years. A firm called Sentier Research says real median household income, pre-tax, was $65,666 in December 2019 -- up from $61,496 (in inflation-adjusted December 2019 dollars) in January 2017, a difference of $4,170. Trump habitually adds an additional $5,000-plus on account of his loosening of regulations and supposed energy savings, but these explanations do not make sense mathematically.

Ivanka Trump and jobs

"We're also promoting workforce development through our Pledge to America's Workers. Four hundred and thirty companies have already committed to providing new jobs and training opportunities to over 15 million Americans. And I give my daughter, Ivanka, a lot of credit for that ... she started off with 500,000 jobs, and she just broke 15 million." -- March 3 speech to the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference

Facts First: Ivanka Trump has obviously not created more than "15 million jobs." Before the coronavirus crisis, roughly 7 million jobs had been created during the entire Trump presidency.

Unemployment

Facts First: Trump was exaggerating, though the February unemployment rate was indeed impressive.

Unemployment for women

Trump said women had the lowest unemployment rate "in 71 years."=- March 4 interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity

An LNG plant in Louisiana

"I opened up LNG plants in Louisiana where they were for years -- for 10, 12, 14 years and longer -- trying to get permits. They couldn't get permits. I got them built: a $10 billion plant in Louisiana..." -- March 5 Fox News town hall in Scranton, Pennsylvania

The estate tax

Trump falsely claimed to have eliminated the estate tax. -- March 2 campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina

Facts First: Trump has not eliminated the federal estate tax. His 2017 tax law raised the threshold at which the tax must be paid, from $5.5 million to $11.2 million for an individual, but did not get rid of the tax entirely.

Foreign affairs

Venezuela's wealth

"The tragedy in Venezuela is a reminder that socialism and communism bring misery and heartache everywhere they're tried. I remember so many years ago -- 20, less -- it was the wealthiest country." -- March 4 speech to the Latino Coalition Legislative Summit

Facts First: Venezuela was not the wealthiest country in Latin America 20 years ago, as Trump has claimed previously, and certainly not one of the wealthiest countries in the world, as Trump has also claimed previously. (Trump didn't say this time which one he meant.)

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Trump made 33 false claims about the coronavirus crisis in the first two weeks of March - CNN