Monthly Archives: April 2020

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.

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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