Now That Trump's President... (not any more!)

[dingformung]

2 hours ago, zkom said:

In high school we had a couple of classes about Australian English also and then the text book decided to get really woke about the aboriginals and we had to listen to the "Beds are burning" by Midnight Oil in the class. Funnily enough the British colonialism or Ireland never came up when the Brits were concerned. Also I think  learned much later that UK has actually more than one native language and they are not just all "English".

It's the privilege of (former) empires if not to write history then at least to dictate the narrative & interpretation, and to decide what to talk about and focus on and what's rather be swept under the carpet.

[may be rude]

The White House Has Erected A Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE

Quote

Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify.

Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though, in addition to abandoning the states to their own devices in a time of national emergency, the federal government has effectively erected a blockade — like that which the Union used to choke off the supply chains of the Confederacy during the Civil War — to prevent delivery of critical medical equipment to states desperately in need. At the very least, federal authorities have made governors and hospital executives all around the country operate in fear that shipments of necessary supplies will be seized along the way. In a time of pandemic, having evacuated federal responsibility, the White House is functionally waging a war against state leadership and the initiative of local hospitals to secure what they need to provide sufficient treatment.

Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country. It’s worth reading the correspondence, written by an executive running a small health system, at some length:

Quote

Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

A lead came from an acquaintance of a friend of a team member. After several hours of vetting, we grew confident of the broker’s professional pedigree and the potential to secure a large shipment of three-ply face masks and N95 respirators. The latter were KN95 respirators, N95s that were made in China. We received samples to confirm that they could be successfully fit-tested. Despite having cleared this hurdle, we remained concerned that the samples might not be representative of the bulk of the products that we would be buying. Having acquired the requisite funds — more than five times the amount we would normally pay for a similar shipment, but still less than what was being requested by other brokers — we set the plan in motion. Three members of the supply-chain team and a fit tester were flown to a small airport near an industrial warehouse in the mid-Atlantic region. I arrived by car to make the final call on whether to execute the deal. Two semi-trailer trucks, cleverly marked as food-service vehicles, met us at the warehouse. When fully loaded, the trucks would take two distinct routes back to Massachusetts to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected.

Hours before our planned departure, we were told to expect only a quarter of our original order. We went anyway, since we desperately needed any supplies we could get. Upon arrival, we were jubilant to see pallets of KN95 respirators and face masks being unloaded. We opened several boxes, examined their contents, and hoped that this random sample would be representative of the entire shipment. Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure. I remained nervous and worried on the long drive back, feelings that did not abate until midnight, when I received the call that the PPE shipment was secured at our warehouse.

In this instance, the executive managed to secure the supplies, but what is most horrifying about his account is that this experience was not all that surprising to him — he expected interference from federal officials, and did everything he could (including staging the shipment in food-service trucks to avoid detection) to get around that interference.

Those measures do not seem unusual, horrifyingly enough. Last month, 3 million masks ordered by the state of Massachusetts were seized by the federal government. Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, was arranging secret chartered flights of supplies as a way of outmaneuvering federal interference. “The governor has clearly outlined the challenges this administration has faced as we’ve worked around the clock to purchase PPE for our health-care workers and first responders,” a spokesperson for the governor told the paper. “The supply chain has been likened to the Wild West, and once you have purchased supplies, ensuring they get to the state is another Herculean feat,” he continued. “These flights are carrying millions of masks and gloves our workers need. They’re scheduled to land in Illinois in the coming weeks and the state is working to ensure these much-needed supplies are protected and ready for distribution around the state.” A source “knowledgeable about the flights” told the paper that the governor didn’t want to be more open about the shipments “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”

This is not just the federal government telling states they are on their own, as it has done repeatedly over the last few weeks — a sign that the president, often thought to harbor authoritarian impulses, will invariably choose to unburden himself of responsibility even when seizing it would offer remarkable new powers, and itself an moral outrage demonstrating incredible political sadism, given that states lack the resources of the federal government to pay for this stuff. That’s in part because, in many cases, states are legally barred from deficit spending, which means in times of crisis, especially those producing huge budget shortfalls through collapsing tax revenue, they are functionally unable to respond at all. In such situations, the federal government is designed to serve as a backstop, but over and over again throughout this crisis, the White House has said states will get little to no help — that they are entirely on their own. (The federal medical stockpile isn’t meant for the states, as Jared Kushner has said, as though the country is anything more than its states.)

On top of that outrage, the Feds are bidding against states who are trying to buy their own supplies, and refusing to interfere in those auctions between states, which have driven prices up by ten times or more. But while you might think that was as bad as federal management of this crisis could be, it is not. This new outrage is deeper: Even those states that are trying to manage their own resources, buying equipment themselves with incredibly scarce resources to aid in a time of crisis, are being stopped, and those resources seized on the way to delivery.

You could call this piracy. You could call it sanctions. The federal government is choking supply chains to states like it chokes supply chains to Iran and North Korea. These blockades aren’t as complete as those surrounding sanctioned regimes, of course, and some amount of the disruption may be honest confusion in a time of crisis. But the disruption is being brought about by federal interference, and unlike the kind of disruptions you’d want to engineer against antagonistic states, the purpose seems completely unclear — indeed the policy is inexplicable and indefensible.

Which may be one reason why no explanation has been given. We don’t know where these supplies are going. We don’t know on what grounds they are being seized, or threatened with seizure. What business do the DHS and FEMA have with ventilators and PPE purchases by governors and local hospitals? “This is like a story out of the last days of the Soviet Union,” David Frum wrote on Twitter, of the NEJM letter. “This is what it means to be a failed state,” wrote the essayist Umair Haque, echoing him. In the absence of an explanation, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that this is simply mafia government, exerting control for the sake of control, not in spite of but because of the crisis-led demand, and squeezing the American people, as they die in hospital beds and attend — with inadequate protection — to the sick and scared.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html?utm_source=tw

 

so trump is intercepting orders and shipments of PPE on the way to states who badly need it. and the observed pattern is he distributes them to red states disproportionately more than blue states. for weeks i've been seeing the individual reports of states getting their orders tossed because the feds stepped in, and i've been seeing stories about red states getting abundant supplies and more than they asked for, and blue states getting nothing or much less than they asked for. glad to see the overarching story covered.

Edited April 20, 2020 by very honest

[zero]

^ smart. donnie's following the lead of the great crime boss Tony Montana and building himself a mask empire. he's establishing trade routes, determining where to best distribute product, and using corrupt cops to take down competition. 

[chenGOD]

On 4/18/2020 at 2:49 AM, azatoth said:

Even after three years it's still unbelievable that Donald fucking Trump is the president of the USA. I mean what kind of country sees a man like that and thinks 'yeah, he'll be a good head of state'.  Americans have been so brow-beaten with stories of American exceptionalism and overall just-world fallacy that even the thought to even slightly improve things and elect people that are even a little accountable is seemed as some far-way dream or simply impossible. I just don't get how Americans are fine with how the county is run and how the wealth keeps going to fewer and fewer people as millions starve or dies from a lacking healthcare system if not getting shot to pieces in some pointless massacre that happen seemingly every week somewhere. At least the past March month was the first month since 2002 where there wasn't someone shooting up a school. Sure, sounds like a completely fine country to have.

I just wanted to point out that while America has plenty of problems, millions starving to death is not one of them.

[chenGOD]

3 hours ago, very honest said:

"Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system’s urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks."

I mean, how else would you expect the FBI to proceed? Criminals are 100% exploiting this situation, and loading the masks onto trucks that are disguised as something else is exactly what a criminal organization would do. Ultimately they let them go.

As for the WHO angle discussed elsewhere: if Trump and McConnell's senate had bothered to confirm a nominee for the WHO, China would have far less influence.

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Experts say that left the U.S. without a well-established senior voice in the U.N.’s global health body, surrendering influence to China as it worked to cover up the extent of the growing COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, and weakened America’s influence on the body during critical early-February meetings when the response to the emerging crisis was debated.

 

[Nebraska]

 

[azatoth]

54 minutes ago, chenGOD said:

I just wanted to point out that while America has plenty of problems, millions starving to death is not one of them.

I concede that. lets say hundreds of thousands are malnourished and thousands die due to lacking health care. 

[may be rude]

2 hours ago, chenGOD said:

I mean, how else would you expect the FBI to proceed? Criminals are 100% exploiting this situation, and loading the masks onto trucks that are disguised as something else is exactly what a criminal organization would do. Ultimately they let them go.

no, i'm talking about orders being canceled.

[zero]

1 hour ago, Nebraska said:

 

I see he brought "MAGA" back. I thought he moved past MAGA and was onto KAG. Shouldn't MAGA be something new now? MAGA largely implied America had gone to shit under Obama. If he made it great and has now gone back to shit again, what does that imply? 

Edited April 20, 2020 by zero

[Nebraska]

12 minutes ago, zero said:

 If he made it great and has now gone back to shit again, what does that imply? 

the democrats have house majority- hence, it's all their fault

[chenGOD]

1 hour ago, very honest said:

no, i'm talking about orders being canceled.

Ok, it’s just that the letter that gets cited in that article is almost always accompanied by click bait headlines. The other examples in your post are much worse, but because that one got published in NEJM, it gets the most attention. 

[may be rude]

47 minutes ago, chenGOD said:

Ok, it’s just that the letter that gets cited in that article is almost always accompanied by click bait headlines. The other examples in your post are much worse, but because that one got published in NEJM, it gets the most attention. 

google "governors ppe order canceled because fema" and choose your own sources. every day a governor mentions it.

Edited April 20, 2020 by very honest

[chenGOD]

3 hours ago, very honest said:

google "governors ppe order canceled because fema" and choose your own sources. every day a governor mentions it.

I believe you, it's just that one letter that gets cited - (where the order doesn't actually get cancelled) has gotten so much traction, cause it got posted in the NYT.

[Nebraska]

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

[zero]

^ lol. pot calling kettle. wonder how much ice cream is packed away in those WH freezers just waiting for little donnie "two scoops." 

and I disagree that the ad is "brutal". more like incredibly obvious simple video editing that takes her segment way out of context and makes it look like she's saying something she's really not. y'know, the same thing he accuses the media of doing every single day...

Edited April 21, 2020 by zero

[may be rude]

23 hours ago, chenGOD said:

I believe you, it's just that one letter that gets cited - (where the order doesn't actually get cancelled) has gotten so much traction, cause it got posted in the NYT.

i see what you mean. yeah, the FBI investigating to prevent fraud is defendable. that article touches on FEMA bidding against states, but doesn't mention that it results in orders being cancelled. manufacturers/distributors seem to be defering to the feds.

Edited April 22, 2020 by very honest

[chenGOD]

4 minutes ago, very honest said:

i see what you mean. that article touches on FEMA bidding against states, but doesn't mention that it results in orders being cancelled. manufacturers/distributors seem to be defering to the feds.

Yeah - that's why I think the other examples you posted are better - much clearer in the point they're trying to make. It's still a totally fucked situation.

[ignatius]

this aired tonight. lot's of good info on covid19. some science i hadn't heard. it's kind of a recap of how it got here int he USA and some political reality of governors vs trump etc.. it's crazy. about an hour long worth a watch. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/coronavirus-pandemic/

[chenGOD]

31 minutes ago, Mesh Gear Fox said:

*not yet one of them

I don't think that will ever be a problem, America produces a lot of food. There are issues with food insecurity, but I don't like how the USDA defines (or rather doesn't define) a lot of the issues. From that link for example "97 percent [of households that reported very low food security(4.8% of all households in 2018)] reported that an adult had cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money for food." What is the size of the meals they are cutting?

"94 percent of respondents [of that same cohort] reported that they had eaten less than they felt they should because there was not enough money for food." How much food do you feel you should eat?

The USDA defines food insecurity as "[the household] lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members." What is an active, healthy life? USDA guidelines suggest up  to 3,200 calories for an adult! 3,200 calories is a lot of food.

I realise I sound callous here - that is not my intention. It's awful that households would have to think about budgeting to ensure that they know where their food is coming from (at least they don't have to hunt for it, lol), or have to make choices about whether to pay the phone bill vs meals for the week. That is really fucked up. But I also think that starvation is not going to be an issue for america, unless they had a real blight on their croplands. There's just way too much food produced in the US. On a related note: this series of maps from VOX explains food production in the US quite well.

 

[chenGOD]

6 hours ago, Mesh Gear Fox said:

i'm just saying, once papa trump decides to redirect all the food to the states he likes....

Once he directs all the food to his family...

[EdamAnchorman]

To be fair, he's probably asking where is the farm that grows Big Macs.

[ignatius]

bomb bomb bomb 

bomb bomb iran

bomb bomb bomb

bomb bomb iran

bomb iiiirrraaaaaaaa aaaa aaa aaaa nnnnnn

Quote

Trump Instructs U.S. Navy To Fire On Iranian Boats If Harassed

The president's Wednesday morning tweet came shortly after Iran announced it had successfully launched a military satellite into orbit for the first time.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/840955446/trump-instructs-u-s-navy-to-fire-on-iranian-boats-if-harassed

 

[zero]

^ just more tough guy posturing from an idiot, who honestly has no clue what to do in any situation. donnie was jealous because they made an announcement, so he has to make a bigger splash than them. another useless threat that is nothing more than showmanship.

[ambermonk]

We could have a 5-year-old calling the shots and no one would tell the difference.

[chenGOD]

5 minutes ago, timbre monke said:

We could have a 5-year-old calling the shots and no one would tell the difference.

5 year olds have a regular schedule, and are less likely to suffer emotional breakdowns than Trump though.