"Trump called Russia’s aid to US ‘very nice.’ Putin may use it as a propaganda coup" by Robyn Dixon Washington Post, April 1, 2020
MOSCOW — When Russia announced it was sending the world’s biggest cargo plane, an Antonov-124, to the United States loaded with medical aid, President Trump called it ‘‘very nice,’’ but others wonder if the real beneficiary is the Kremlin, leveraging a chance for some pandemic propaganda.
OMFG!
How $HAMELE$$!
How LOW can Bezos' rag go?
What UNGRATEFUL A$$HOLES!
Of course, if the situation were reversed the Washington ComPost would be heralding and Trump-eting U.S. aid to foreign nations and touting the altruistic character of AmeriKa's mass-murdering war machine.
Readers, AmeriKa's whoreporate pre$$titutes and the media outlets they shill for have become the most disgusting entity on the planet, and that is saying a lot.
The Russian military flight took off Wednesday, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, which gave no details on the plane’s US destination or what kind of equipment it was carrying. The Trump administration has not elaborated on the aid — or on how much else could be coming from other countries.
‘‘China sent us some stuff, which was terrific. Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice,’’ Trump told reporters Monday, apparently mistaken that the Russian plane had already arrived.
Yeah, pick at him WaPo. Never mind the 3 1/2 years worth of lies regarding Mueller and all the rest.
Whadda ya' mean who?
Of course, some people can move in and out and be praised as heroes.
A different type of surprise was registered from some who are critical of Moscow.
The former commanding general of the US Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, tweeted that a shot published by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of thousands of boxes in a plane’s hold was a ‘‘hoax’’ because ‘‘no professional Loadmaster in the world . . . in any air force . . . would load a plane like this, but it’s a gift TO the Kremlin, not FROM it, if it is true,’’ he added.
Isn't that insubordination to the President of the United States along with the self-projection?
The idea that Russia, under US sanctions for its interference in the 2016 presidential election and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, was sending medical aid in a giant military aircraft to the most powerful nation on earth seemed astounding to some.
There is no evidence of Russian interference in 2016, that's just a pre$$ lie that gets repeated and repeated, and before moving on to the astonishment in establishment, Deep $tate circles, let me correct the record:
The Russians did not annex Crimea. The Crimeans voted to secede from the Ukraine after the 2014 Obamacoup, then petitioned the Russian Federation for inclusion. They Russians accepted; therefore, the Washington ComPost has been exposed as a fantastic distorter at best, or a rank rot-gut liar at worst. Your choice.
Not much has changed since 2002-2003, huh?
Furthermore, why is it astounding that Russia would do this when we are being told by all world leaders that the world needs to come together during this time of COVID-19?
So juo is astounded by the move?
The Russia analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Andrew Weiss, tweeted: ‘‘This is nuts,’’ calling it Kremlin propaganda. Nina Jankowicz, a specialist on disinformation at the Wilson Center, said it was ‘‘mind boggling.’’
Why am I not surprised?
Btw, Carnegie was a fake pacifist. He claimed to be against war and violence, yet used Pinkertons to beat down Homestead workers and supplied the steel for Navy ships that resulted in empire.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the plane refueled in Ireland before continuing across the Atlantic. The aid was offered by President Vladimir Putin when he spoke by phone to Trump on Monday.
In Russia, the shipment was framed as part of Russia’s wider help for countries struggling with COVID-19. With Moscow on lockdown, Russia’s reported cases of coronavirus rose by 440 in a day Wednesday, reaching 2,777, slower than the previous day, when the rise was 501.
Why isn't the U.S. helping people out like China and Russia?
Why are we dependent on them right now, and maybe this government should stop being such an asshole to people.
Publicity about the aid would also boost Putin, whose messaging on the coronavirus has been weak and contradictory. Other analysts wondered if a longer-range objective was in play, such as gaining leverage to ease US sanctions in the future.
I am sick of the pre$$ self-projection. It is not a desirable quality.
Trump’s admiration for Putin has sparked criticism and speculation ever since his election, but special counsel Robert Mueller’s report last year did not find evidence Trump colluded with Russia on its election interference.
He didn't find evidence f Russian interference, either, just inferences and speculation. No real proof! It was the Clinton campaign with the Steele Dossier who used Russians (and Ukranians) to interfere.
It is not Moscow’s first shipment of medical aid to a NATO country this month. It sent 15 planeloads of equipment and military virologists and epidemiologists to Italy, in trucks emblazoned with ‘‘From Russia With Love.’’
I wonder if the Italian pre$$ pissed on them the way the WaComPo just did.
‘‘To put it mildly, it’s a propaganda coup for Putin,’’ said Andrew Foxall, director of research at the Henry Jackson Society in London. ‘‘Putin has long argued that democracy is not the sunny uplands that the West professes it to be and in the current crisis the world’s democracies don’t appear to be any more effective than its autocracies in stemming the spread of [the] corona[virus.]”
So? Is the help needed or not?
Won't accept it out of spite, huh?
Foxall also said Putin wants to make a specific point about the United States: Making the case that ‘‘in some senses, Russia is now superior to the US.’’
Well, if the mask fits....
Russian officials have said Putin’s only motive is to lend a hand. He is working remotely, ‘‘as much as possible,’’ his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, after Putin last week shook hands with a doctor who Tuesday came down with covid-19.
Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, said Russia took advantage of a moment when the European Union had failed to help its hardest-hit members.
‘‘In international relations there is no good will without some calculus,’’ Trenin said. ‘‘There is a propaganda element, certainly. While the EU dragged its feet and scratched its head, Russians and Chinese were practicing solidarity, not just preaching it.’’
Trenin said Putin hoped sending aid would lead to improved relations in future.
‘‘With the United States, Moscow’s calculus is based on the expectation that COVID-19, like any other major adverse development in world affairs, has the potential to radically change the global agenda,’’ he said. ‘‘On 9/11, you would recall, Putin called Bush to offer support and help. The idea then and now is that a common cause would help make a clean slate and put the more contentious issues to one side, to be dealt with later, and in an improved atmosphere.’’
President Trump (R) attended a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Osaka in June. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images/File 2019).
Yeah, Putin isn't riding to the rescue. He's thrown in with them, too.
Mark Galeoti, director of London-based analytical firm Mayak Intelligence, said the Russian aid delivered Putin some useful optics for his domestic audience after he fumbled his messaging on COVID-19, but it would not damage the United States. ‘‘I think we have to move beyond the usual sort of paranoias at the moment. Of course the Russians are motivated by the desire to look like good citizens, but mainly I think for domestic consumption.....
Good luck with that, and I don't know who he is or what they are.
--more--"
Related:
"Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina will start holding news briefings every Friday to clarify policy changes as the economy gets battered from a nationwide shutdown and the collapse in oil prices. The first meeting will be held online at 3 p.m. Moscow time on April 3 and Nabiullina will discuss past and planned measures, according to a statement on the central bank’s website. Tougher social isolation measures announced Sunday mean the central bank of the world’s biggest energy exporter now has to grapple with an economic slump as well as an oil price crash."
Don't send any our way.
"Protective gear in national stockpile is nearly depleted, DHS officials say" by Nick Miroff Washington Post, April 1, 2020
The government’s emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves, and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving the Trump administration and the states to compete for personal protective equipment in a freewheeling global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging, according to Homeland Security officials involved in the frantic acquisition effort.
Exhibit A:
"A Brooklyn man was arrested for coughing on FBI agents who came to investigate whether he was selling medical supplies, including N95 masks, at inflated prices in what appears to be one of the first cases related to alleged profiteering from the coronavirus pandemic. Baruch Feldheim, 43, was charged with assaulting federal officers and lying to them about his accumulation and sale of medical supplies, the US attorney’s office in New Jersey said Monday. He wasn’t charged with profiteering. The agents had been staking out Feldheim’s residence in Brooklyn, watching people leave with what looked like medical supplies. Prosecutors said that Feldheim sold supplies at as much as a 700 percent markup to doctors and nurses. Hospitals in New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere are running so short on medical equipment that doctors and nurses are being forced to reuse disposable masks for days at a time. That’s spurred a wave of brokers and hustlers who are bombarding purchasing departments with offers, claiming they’ve located sources of supplies. Even if the administrators are willing to pay high prices, they’re having trouble telling who’s legitimate. The Trump administration has said it will crack down on profiteering. One doctor in New Jersey contacted Feldheim on March 18 through a WhatsApp chat group called “Virus2020!” and arranged to buy about 1,000 N95 masks and other goods for $12,000, prosecutors said. Feldheim sent the doctor to an auto repair shop in Irvington, N.J., to pick up his order, according to the statement. The doctor later said that the shop had enough hand sanitizer and surgical supplies to outfit a hospital, prosecutors said."
I'm not even going to comment because, juo know, other than to say what did they arrest him for, coughing or profiteering?
As coronavirus hot spots flare from coast-to-coast, the demand for safety equipment — also known as PPE — is both immediate and widespread, with health officials, hospital executives, and governors saying their shortages are critical and that health care workers are putting their lives at risk while trying to help the surging number of patients.
Two DHS officials said that the stores kept in the Department of Health and Human Service’s Strategic National Stockpile are nearly gone, despite assurances from the White House that there is availability.
Send that Russian plane, though, because it's all propaganda.
‘‘The stockpile was designed to respond to a handful of cities. It was never built or designed to fight a 50-state pandemic,’’ said a DHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the stockpile. ‘‘This is not only a US government problem. The supply chain for PPE worldwide has broken down, and there is a lot of price-gouging happening.’’
Bad governmental planning again, huh?
President Trump said during Tuesday’s White House briefing that the administration has nearly 10,000 ventilators on reserve and that authorities are ready to deploy the lifesaving equipment rapidly to coronavirus hot spots in coming weeks. He also said that large amounts of PPE were being shipped directly from manufacturers to hospitals, but the DHS officials said the stockpile has not been able to handle the load.
Hospitals and states face a real risk of running out of supplies, one of the officials said. ‘‘If you can’t protect the people taking care of us, it gets ugly.’’
Several reports recently have documented a Wild-West-style online marketplace for bulk medical supplies dominated by intermediaries and hoarders who are selling N95 respirator masks and other gear at huge markups.
I hear they are selling the stuff out of auto repair shops.
Forbes reported that US vendors have sold 280 million masks — mostly into the export market — and that US states and local governments were outbid in the frenzy.
There are few signs the Trump administration is making efforts to stop the export shipments or seize the supplies for use in US hospitals, despite statements from Attorney General William Barr last week that US wholesalers hoarding masks and other supplies would get ‘‘a knock on your door.’’
WTF?
Governors have been pleading with federal authorities to ship more equipment and protective gear. Distribution of the supplies has happened unevenly, with some states saying they’ve received a fraction of the supplies they desperately need and some cities having received no assistance from their state governments.
According to the White House, FEMA had shipped or delivered 11.6 million N95 respirator masks, 26 million surgical masks, 5.2 million face shields, 4.3 million surgical gowns, 22 million gloves, and 8,100 ventilators as of March 28.
The government has long viewed the national stockpile supplies as a holdover during an emergency so the government could buy time for manufacturers to boost output and for new supply chains to solidify, according to a senior administration official.
Asked about concerns that the government will not be able to keep pace with the demand for PPE supplies, the official said the government has planes coming in from Asia every day for the next few weeks ferrying new materials, noting that a planeload with 80 tons of PPE arrived from China on Sunday.
Isn't that where the virus came from?
The web version supplied much more:
Having the medical supplies sitting in a warehouse doesn’t serve any purpose, the official said, even though the administration has been holding back thousands of ventilators.
WHAT?!
Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the government had anticipated the Strategic National Stockpile would be exhausted, and the administration is moving swiftly to procure and distribute medical supplies.
‘‘FEMA planning assumptions for COVID-19 pandemic response acknowledged that the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) alone could not fulfill all requirements at the state and tribal level,’’ Janet Montesi, a FEMA spokesperson, said in a statement. ‘‘The federal government will exhaust all means to identify and attain medical and other supplies needed to combat the virus.’’
The TRIBAL level, huh?
The government has more than $16 billion available to make the acquisitions, she said. ‘‘We remain committed to helping ensure key medical supplies expeditiously arrive at the front lines for our health care workers,’’ Montesi said.
A stockpile of 1.5 million expired N95 masks that US Customs and Border Protection has in storage will be distributed to the Transportation Security Administration and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. The CDC has issued guidelines for the safe use of masks with expiration dates that have passed, potentially leaving their elastic bands too loose to form a proper face seal.
At lest someone profited of making a piece of $hit. That's our $y$tem.
US Representative Nanette Barragán, a California Democrat, said this week she and other lawmakers were told some of the expired Customs and Border Protection masks would be given to hospitals.
‘‘Officials confirmed that the masks would indeed go to health care workers and be prioritized by highest need such as NY and NJ. I will follow up to make sure this happens!’’ the lawmaker tweeted Sunday.
A Customs and Border Protection official on Wednesday confirmed to The Washington Post that the masks would go to ICE agents and TSA officers instead, not to FEMA staff or medical personnel.
--more--"
A person wearing protective clothing donated protective equipment to the Elmhurst Hospital Center in the New York borough of Queens on March 26. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg News)
Related: COVID-19 Crisis is a Mass Simulation Gone Live
Also see:
"New York authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers Wednesday as the statewide death toll from the coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900 and the wail of ambulances in the otherwise eerily quiet streets of the city became the heartbreaking soundtrack of the crisis. As hot spots flared around the United States in such places as New Orleans and Southern California, the nation’s biggest city was the hardest hit of them all, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals, in full view of passing motorists. The nation has recorded about 211,000 infections and about 4,600 deaths, with New York City accounting for about 1 out of 4 dead. More than 80,000 people have volunteered as medical reinforcements in New York, including recent retirees, health care professionals taking a break from their regular jobs, and people between gigs. Governor Andrew Cuomo moved to close the city’s playgrounds because of too much crowding, but people can still use wide-open green spaces as long as they stay 6 feet apart. Louisiana and Georgia have the six counties with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country per capita, followed by New York County in seventh place, according to data presented by Louisiana Governor John Bel Edward at a news briefing Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday, there were more than 8,200 cases and at least 180 deaths in California, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University. Michigan, which has 30 million fewer residents, had about 7,600 cases and at least 259 deaths. Public schools in California will remain closed through the end of the school year and graduation ceremonies are canceled, but students will finish their classes online, Governor Gavin Newsom announced during a news briefing Wednesday."
All lies, folks. Staged and scripted scenes conveniently caught on video and in pictures!
I would say get out of the city and fly to Florida, but....
"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis mandated a 30-day stay-at-home order for the state Wednesday, requiring that its nearly 21 million residents stay indoors unless they are pursuing essential services or activities. His executive order will take effect midnight Thursday. The Republican governor took heavy criticism from state lawmakers for refusing to enact such an order until this week, even as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases have nearly surpassed 7,000 in the state, including at least 85 deaths as of Tuesday. The daily reports from the Florida Department of Health drive the fact home: The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days. Indeed, on the COVID-19 nationwide map maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Florida just turned dark brown, the color signifying more than 5,000 cases. It’s now in the company of California, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey. Of those states, however, Florida had been the only one not under a statewide ‘‘stay-at-home’’ order. DeSantis has until now urged people in Southeast Florida to remain at home and said this week he would issue a ‘‘safer at home’’ order codifying that advice. Even Tuesday, DeSantis said at a news conference that he had no plans to issue a statewide order because the White House had not told him to do so. ‘‘I’m in contact’’ with the White House coronavirus task force, he said at a news conference, ‘‘and I’ve said, ‘Are you recommending this?’ The task force has not recommended that to me,’’ he added. ‘‘If any of those task force folks tell me that we should do X, Y or Z, of course, we’re going to consider it.’’ For this, he won praise from President Trump who called him ‘‘a great governor who knows exactly what he’s doing.’’ He relented after a phone conversation with Trump on Wednesday....."
President Trump finally got his mind right!
Won't let you dock, either:
"The Coast Guard has directed cruise ships to prepare to treat any sick passengers and crew on board while being sequestered “indefinitely’’ offshore during the coronavirus pandemic. The new rules outlined in a memo are required for ships in the district that covers Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico. They also come with a stiff warning: Any foreign-flagged vessels “that loiter beyond US territorial seas’’ should try first to medically evacuate the very sick to those countries instead. Many South Florida cruise ships are registered in the Bahamas, where hospital capacity is limited and people are still recovering from last year’s devastating Hurricane Dorian. Dozens of cruise ships are either lined up at Port Miami and Port Everglades or waiting offshore due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most have only crew aboard, but Carnival Corp., which owns nine cruise lines with a total of 105 ships, notified the SEC on Tuesday that it has more than 6,000 passengers still at sea. Federal, state, and local officials have been negotiating over whether Carnival’s Holland America cruise ships, the Zaandam and Rotterdam, would be allowed to dock at Port Everglades this week, but the company’s Coral Princess is coming, too, with what that ship’s medical center called a higher-than-normal number of people with flu-like symptoms."
It is now being reported that 95% of US counties now report at least one virus case.
"Coronavirus battle creates a global ‘free-for-all’ to find masks" by Keith Bradsher New York Times, April 1, 2020, 4:24 p.m.
SHANGHAI — Million-dollar wire transfers to strangers. Rumors of hidden supplies in forgotten warehouses. Wheeler-dealers trying to talk regulators and customs officials into letting that one precious shipment through.
Global desperation to protect front-line medical workers battling the coronavirus epidemic has spurred a mad international scramble for masks and other protective gear. Governments, hospital chains, clinics, and entrepreneurs are scouring the world for personal protection equipment they can buy or sell — and a new type of trader has sprung up to make that happen.
The market has become a series of hasty deals in bars, sudden calls to corporate jet pilots and fast-moving wire transfers among bank accounts in Hong Kong, the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean.
The stakes are high, and so are the prices. Wholesale costs for N95 respirators, a crucial type of mask for protecting medical workers, have quintupled. Trans-Pacific airfreight charges have tripled.
“It’s a global free-for-all, trying to get capacity,” said Eric Jantzen, vice president for North America at Vertis Aviation, an aircraft and air cargo brokerage based in Zurich. “And the prices reflect that.”
The hurdles keep rising. On Tuesday, after complaints from Europe about shoddy Chinese masks and ineffective test kits, China’s Ministry of Commerce ordered manufacturers to provide further assurances that their products met standards.
World leaders are moving to get supplies, but they are still grappling with the vast scope of the problem. The White House announced over the weekend that it had organized 22 flights to airlift personal protection equipment. They are aimed at resupplying hospitals that are within 72 hours of running out of protection equipment, said Gregory Forrester, chief executive of National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, a group that works with US federal and state officials.
“If any one of these planes don’t take off,” Forrester said, “that’s going to be an issue.”
I'm really $ick of excu$es from authority, sorry.
China vacuumed up a big share of global supplies after the outbreak emerged in January. It imported 2 billion masks in a five-week period starting then, according to Chinese customs data, roughly equivalent to 2½ months of global production. It also imported 400 million pieces of other protective gear, from medical goggles to biohazard coveralls.
So the NYT is blaming China for the shortage?
Now, China has become a major part of the solution. Already a giant in mask manufacturing, it has ramped up production to nearly 12 times its earlier level of 10 million a day. It was a huge mobilization effort that involved redesigning freight train routes and sending large numbers of workers across the country in sealed buses.
Related: "Every few days brings another grim milestone in the outbreak. First Italy and Spain surpassed China in reported deaths. Then, this week, the United States and France did, but did they really? Skepticism about China’s numbers has swirled throughout the crisis, fueled by official efforts to quash bad news in the early days and a general distrust of the government. Long lines of people waiting to collect the ashes of loved ones at funeral homes last week revived the debate. There is no smoking gun pointing to a coverup by China’s ruling Communist Party, but intentional or not, there is reason to believe that more people died of COVID-19 than the official tally....."
The “numbers are all inaccurate.’’
They must be using Johns Hopkins simulation tallies, too.
The Chinese government has encouraged global deals, but buying and selling masks is no easy feat. Traders, some just weeks into their unstable careers, have to navigate confusion, fraud attempts, byzantine customs laws, and other barriers.
Many say they sell directly to hospitals and others who need the equipment, not to speculators. Altruism aside, hospitals are also less likely to default on payments and more likely to know precisely what is in demand.
“It becomes so much easier when you deal with the procurement professionals, because they know exactly what they need,” said Blake Noah, a private banking art consultant who now arranges mask shipments in Shanghai.
That qualified him?
Some Chinese companies say they are ready to sell masks globally. Henan Doria Mechanical Equipment, a company in Zhengzhou that once made overhead cranes and electric hoists, has reinvented itself as a maker of N95 respirators and tells traders that it can meet orders for up to 2 million masks within 15 days.
We have GM making ventilators.
Once masks are found, they have to be transported. China’s cancellation of almost all of its international passenger flights to slow the spread of the virus has made it hard to move goods quickly. Half the world’s air cargo used to move in the bellies of passenger planes.
Jason Yuan, a manager at a state-owned trading company in Beijing, said his company had sent out small samples of N95 respirators to Europe, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the United States.
“In other countries, the packages have arrived,” he said, “but in the case of the US, the package is still in Hong Kong.”
Zhang Qing, a senior Chinese aviation regulator, said the Chinese government was making it easier for air freighters to move in and out of the country. Airlines are even operating passenger aircraft as freighters, she said, but China wants the United States to provide the planes for any large-scale shipments of personal protection equipment. Ren Hong, an infrastructure development inspector at the National Development and Reform Commission, said China had only 173 air freighters while the United States had more than 550. “The development of all-cargo aircraft in China is only in the initial stage,” she said.
Regulations can cause confusion. For example, importers are still parsing shifting US regulations regarding respirators designed for use within China. Fredrik Barner, a Shanghai freight agent, said he refused to arrange shipping last week for a cargo of respirators because the American buyer did not have a Food and Drug Administration license for importing medical supplies. He reversed course this week after learning that the cargo involved an industrial grade respirator that the FDA is now allowing to be imported in most cases without a license. Transportation of respirators or masks, Barner said, is “more complicated than auto parts.”
Even though many hospitals in the United States are desperate for masks, selling to them isn’t always easy. Deals have stalled because hospitals, accustomed to paying for supplies after they reach their loading docks, have balked at the stiff terms now being demanded by factories, mask traders said. They also fear fraud.
Producers of N95 respirators and surgical masks now insist that orders come with a 50 percent down payment, with the rest of the money due before the masks ever leave the factory gate, said Michael Crotty, the founder and president of Golden Pacific Fashion & Design in Shanghai. The company has switched from manufacturing curtains to placing orders for respirators and masks with its Chinese fabric suppliers.
Factories sometime fill orders out of sequence, moving the highest-paying customers to the front of the line, he added. “It’s a seller’s market,” Crotty said. “You don’t see this very often.”
The fractious nature of the American medical system, which lacks a centralized purchasing authority, adds to the problems. In the United States, President Trump told state governors on March 16 that they should find respirators and ventilators themselves.
You mean SINGLE PAYER would have WORKED BETTER?
Crotty said he had been working on a request from the state of New York but had struggled to figure out the paperwork.
“It’s nuts because we’ve had to fill out the form two different times,” he said, “and they call and say we need to fill out the form again.”
It's almost as if they don't want you to have the stuff, huh?
--more--"
Bo$ton is still in good shape, and at least they still have time for lunch:
"Food banks say unnecessary paperwork is stalling handouts, endangering staffers" by Jenna Johnson Washington Post, April 1, 2020
WASHINGTON — As hours-long lines form at food banks across the country, staff and volunteers handing over emergency staples have been required to collect information from those in need through extended conversations that threaten to violate the guidance of health officials about minimizing contact with others, yet the US Department of Agriculture has dragged its feet in approving requests from states to speed up the distribution by lessening the paperwork, appearing not to understand the depth of the economic crisis hitting the country, say officials in affected states.
It IS a PANDEMIC!
The paperwork, I mean!
To hand someone a box of groceries that includes food provided by the government, food banks must collect information — typically name, address, household size, and income, which has to be below a threshold set by each state, but the process can take several minutes and has created a dangerous speed bump.
Government a$$i$tance always comes with $trings!
At least four states have tried to suspend this intake process by asking the USDA to let them distribute food using disaster protocols, as often happens after a hurricane. USDA initially pushed back, said food bank officials in some states. Under pressure — including a barrage of bipartisan pleas from Pennsylvania — US officials on Friday approved disaster plans for Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Virginia that will ease the process for them for about a month. It is considering a plan from Ohio, and more states are expected to submit their own plans. The USDA is refusing, however, to lift the rules in states that have not formally submitted requests.
‘‘It just, it defies logic,’’ said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. ‘‘We are addressing unprecedented circumstances . . . This should be a national declaration. I can’t believe that I’m wasting time, bureaucrats are wasting time, my colleagues are wasting time, trying to plead our cases.’’
On Tuesday, the USDA said its Food and Nutrition Service has been ‘‘reviewing requests on an ongoing basis and is working closely with states to maximize available assistance.’’
Meanwhile, your stomach growls!
The USDA said income eligibility requirements ‘‘cannot be waived,’’ but under the national emergency declared by President Trump March 13, USDA gained the authority to approve state requests for ‘‘disaster household distribution’’ of food — a program that does not require the same level of documentation required under normal circumstances. In evaluating requests, USDA officials have to make sure there is enough food in storage to meet the expected demand and that the supply can be replenished.
How are you feeling about government and the National Guard being put in charge of securing the food supply chain if this goes on, readers?
Their track record isn't too good, is it?
Even as donations of money have increased, many orders placed by food banks were canceled as suppliers struggled to keep up with panic buying. Donations of food from grocery stores often decreased, making many food banks even more reliant on federal supplies.
That's part of the plan!
The number of volunteers has also fallen, especially as retirees or those with health conditions were urged to stay at home. In Ohio and Louisiana, National Guard members have been dispatched to help assemble boxes of food and distribute them. Pennsylvania has set up large central packing plant for food banks in Harrisburg.
‘‘We don’t have PPE,’’ said Hamler-Fugitt, of personal protective equipment. ‘‘I don’t have masks and gloves . . . because we want to make sure that our health professionals have that.’’
Kind of the buzz word today.
--more--"
Soon you will have to wear face coverings when leaving home, like non-medical masks, T-shirts or bandannas to cover the nose and mouth when, for instance, at the grocery store or pharmacy if Dr. Fineberg has anything to say about it.
Also see:
Fauci’s security is stepped up as doctor and face of U.S. coronavirus response receives threats
More WaComPo cowflop with the stench of a false flag, and to all considering such things, don't waste your time on the likes of him.
Related:
Obamacare markets will not reopen, Trump decides
President Donald Trump arrived at a news conference with members of the coronavirus task force at the White House in Washington, Tuesday. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
What do you think he sees in the mirror?
President Trump spoke during a Coronavirus Task Force news conference in Washington on Tuesday. (Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg).
He feels about that tall, huh?
Related: "Many are rallying around Trump. A recent Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans approve of how the president is handling the pandemic. Flabbergasted Democrats ask: How is that possible?"
He's a WAR PRESIDENT, and it's not like you have to marry the guy!
President Trump speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus on March 14 at the White House. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press).
Read through the love letters and see them take shots at the guy.
"Obama seeks path for action during virus" by David Nakamura Washington Post, April 1, 2020
Oh, look, Mr. Swine Flu himself!
WASHINGTON — For weeks, former president Barack Obama has chosen not to respond to the taunts as President Trump seeks to deflect responsibility for the widespread coronavirus outbreak in the US by shifting some blame to his predecessor, but on Tuesday, Obama appeared to fight back.
Not too much, though; otherwise, the Obama spying operation on the Trump campaign may have to be ripped wide open.
Confined to his Washington home with wife Michelle Obama and their two daughters, Obama has told aides that he is determined to use his influential social media platforms to disseminate information — grounded in facts and science — to help the public stay safe, as well as lifting up examples of human empathy and goodwill in a national crisis.
Go away!
People close to Obama, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his views, said he also made clear he is not interested in getting sucked into a political catfight with Trump, leaving it to his former aides — most prominently Ron Klain, who served as Ebola czar in the Obama administration — to parry Trump’s partisan attacks and correct the public record over misinformation put out by the Trump White House.
‘‘I think there’s a tricky balance here,’’ said Jen Psaki, a White House communications director under Obama. ‘‘As much as former president Obama has an enormous microphone and people still look to hear what he has to say, he also, especially at a time of global crisis, does not want to create a moment that’s perceived as political — a battle between a former Democratic president and a sitting Republican president, even if President Trump is completely mishandling this.’’
I don't, and why is he trying to undermine the current President of the United States when we are all supposed to be pulling together -- oops, bad metaphor -- and hunkering down.
Yet Trump’s allies quickly seized on Obama’s tweet Tuesday to amplify the political fight in a presidential election year. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, sarcastically suggested Obama was calling for ‘‘the overwhelming electoral defeat of Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi’’ — the Democratic presidential delegate leader and Democratic House speaker — because they ‘‘opposed & demagogued Trump’s China travel ban, which helped slow the coronavirus pandemic.’’
Getting some of your own medicine doesn't feel too good, does it?
Judd Deere, a Trump White House spokesman, said in a statement: ‘‘It is unfortunate that the former president would rather try to create division instead of working to bring us together. During these uncertain times, Americans are receiving comfort, hope and resources from President Trump. The American people have tremendous spirit and they continue to respond to the president’s all-of-America call in unprecedented ways.’’
Well, he is a Demorat.
Obama associates argued that his tweet was consistent with his pledge to speak out judiciously when Trump’s efforts to roll back his signature policies threaten to undermine the public good. Obama has mounted public defenses against the Trump administration’s bid to unwind the Affordable Care Act, the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and a deferred action program for younger undocumented immigrants, yet the former president’s restraint at other times has frustrated some liberals, who have sought a powerful Democratic counterweight to Trump’s bully pulpit and willingness to sow disinformation. As the coronavirus crisis has accelerated, Biden and fellow Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, unable to campaign at rallies, have been confined to their homes and mostly drowned out by Trump’s televised White House briefings.
That's where the print copy dropped the story.
This month, Trump deflected blame of his own handling of the pandemic by criticizing Obama and Biden for their response to the H1N1 virus in 2009 and falsely accusing their administration of imposing burdensome regulations on the ability of private industry to create virus test kits.
Like most of the country, Obama’s public life has been curtailed. He and Pelosi were scheduled to participate in an event in March at American University to mark the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, but it was canceled.
Awwwwww!
Obama and his staff have privately deliberated over ways to more fully engage in the public discourse, according to people close to him. He has begun to increase the tempo of his tweets, linking to news articles on the importance of social distancing, the risks incurred by medical professionals, the efforts of grocery store workers, and a list of charities.....
Don't worry; I will keep mine from him.
--more--"
"Democrats fear for their convention. For Republicans, ‘the show must go on.’" by Reid J. Epsteinand Annie Karni New York Times, April 1, 2020
WASHINGTON — Taking their cue from President Trump, Republicans at every level of the party are pushing ahead with plans to put on their national convention this summer and provide Trump the kind of gauzy coronation he seeks.
Oh, look, more New York Times character assassination of the man.
Democrats, by contrast, are mired in uncertainty. Access to their convention arena in Milwaukee is contingent on the state of the NBA playoffs, and they won’t have an undisputed nominee until at least early June, while state parties scramble to rewrite rules governing delegate selection.
They always are!
Even former vice president Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, has said “it’s hard to envision” his party’s convention taking place as planned in July. “The fact is, it may have to be different,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday night.
The last thing he wants to do is get out in front of 20,000 people and millions watching.
Both parties are finding every aspect of their national convention planning upended by the coronavirus pandemic, but the Republicans’ late-August convention slot — five weeks after the Democratic dates — and their near-unanimity behind Trump have them in far greater alignment than their rivals. “The bottom line is, the show must go on,” said Justin Riemer, the counsel for the Republican National Committee.
The Demorats have now postponed theirs until August so they can go head-to-head with Trump and spoil his gauzy coronation (don't they mean gaudy?).
The disparate approaches extend in some cases to the state level, most evident in Texas, where Republicans have moved their state convention to later in the summer, while Democrats last week canceled theirs and are looking into conducting a half-day virtual event instead.
Related: 28 University of Texas spring breakers who flouted public health advice test positive for coronavirus
Many state Republican leaders acknowledge the threat from the virus and are in the process of weighing whether to move conventions online, but Trump has so far been adamant that the national convention proceed as planned, and a campaign and party committee that faithfully follow Trump’s lead have adopted that party line, with no talk yet of canceling the event in Charlotte, N.C.
Democratic officials have tried tamping down speculation about the increasing likelihood that the national convention won’t take place as planned. Seema Nanda, the party’s chief executive, recently urged state chairmen not to speak publicly about that possibility, according to multiple state party leaders who were on the call.
The DNC has the legal right to use the Fiserv Forum, the home arena of the Milwaukee Bucks, during the four scheduled days of the convention, July 13-16, but the agreement stipulates that convention planners can’t begin retrofitting the 17,000-seat venue until after the Bucks are finished in the playoffs — which, if the NBA’s season restarts, could last into mid-July.
They might as well cancel the rest of the season right now, especially with the military wanting to repurpose the sites.
Past national conventions have required three to four weeks to build stages and turn arenas used for basketball and hockey into a setting made for a nationally televised political extravaganza.
“If we’re fortunate enough to host the convention and playoffs, we’ll figure out how to make it work,” said Alex Lasry, a senior Bucks official who led Milwaukee’s convention bid. “These will be two of our biggest events, so we’re going to figure it out, make them successful and put Milwaukee on the map.”
Little inferiority complex up there, huh?
“The 2020 Republican convention is going to be the coronation of Trump,” said Scott Reed, senior political strategist for the US Chamber of Commerce, who also directed preparations for the Republican convention in 1996.
Reed said he saw little downside to hosting a virtual convention, if it comes to that.....
--more--"
FILE -- Delegates recite the Pledge of Allegiance during the Texas Republican Convention in San Antonio on June 16, 2018. As the coronavirus disrupts the campaign, GOP officials are taking their cue from President Donald Trump, while former Vice President Joe Biden said “it’s hard to envision” the Democrats holding an in-person convention in July. (Tamir Kalifa/The New York Times)
Where is the social distance.... oh, that photo is from 2018!
Time to count the fraud:
"Census Day arrives with US almost paralyzed by coronavirus" by Mike Schneider Associated Press, April 1, 2020
ORLANDO, Fla. — The spread of the novel coronavirus has forced the US Census Bureau to suspend field operations for a month, from mid-March to mid-April, when the hiring process would be ramping up for up to 500,000 temporary census takers. The bureau also has delayed the start of counts for the homeless and people living in group quarters like college dorms and nursing homes, and has pushed back the deadline for wrapping up the head count from the end of July to mid-August.
They are still “laser-focused on the statute’s Dec. 31 deadline.’’
The head count started in late January in rural, native villages in Alaska, but the rest of the country wasn’t able to start answering the questionnaire until the second week of March when the Census Bureau’s self-response website went live and people received notices in the mail that they could start answering the questions, but that was only a week before many governors and mayors started issuing stay-at-home orders to slow the virus’s spread, greatly hindering in-person rallies, meetings, and door-knocking by activists to raise awareness about the 2020 census.
Who want's to go knocking on doors?
Experts say connecting with trusted community leaders in person is the best way to reach people in hard-to-count groups that may be wary of the federal government. The Census Bureau is spending $500 million on outreach efforts, including advertising, and it’s relying on more than 300,000 nonprofits, businesses, local governments, and civic groups to encourage participation in their communities. Those outreach efforts have been hamstrung by the nationwide shutdown.
I would say keep your distance, and can't they divert that money to respond to the crisis?
WTF?
Groups are switching to digital efforts to get out the word. On Wednesday, the activist group Faith in Action was holding a Twitter chat to encourage people to fill out their census forms, and Census Bureau deputy director Ron Jarmin was heading to Reddit to spread the word. Comcast NBCUniversal and Telemundo on Wednesday unveiled census public service announcements starring TV hosts Joy Reid and Jose Diaz-Balart, and said it was providing $2 million in grants and in-contributions kind to community groups in hard-to-count areas.
$ure $mells like propagandi$ing to me!
It will all go into the database that will be in your microchip!
Two surveys by the Pew Research Center suggest the messaging was reaching an audience — at least before the coronavirus outbreak. Researchers at the Urban Institute worry that changed accommodations made in response to the coronavirus may present a distorted picture of where people are living on Census Day. Some people have left their usual residences to move back in with parents or elderly relatives, escaped to vacation homes, or had to move because they couldn’t pay rent due to lost jobs during the pandemic, they said.....
They are like an overbearing parent, wanting to know where you are every minute!
--more--"
What do you mean “there’s no way reliable counts are going to be generated by the end of December?’’
It's Wisconsin that will put Biden over the top:
"Wisconsin governor deploys National Guard to help at polls" by Todd Richmond Associated Press, April 1, 2020
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s governor said Wednesday that he will use National Guard soldiers to staff undermanned polling sites in next week’s presidential primary.
At least the illegal immigrants won't be voting this time.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined others who have called for the state to postpone the election.
The longer it goes, the weaker Joe gets.
Local election clerks across the state say poll workers are quitting in droves out of fears of contracting the coronavirus during Tuesday’s election, which also features a state Supreme Court race and hundreds of local races. More than 100 municipalities have reported they lack enough people to staff even one polling site.
Democratic Governor Tony Evers told a federal judge in a filing that he will use members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard to help as poll workers but that even that move likely won’t fill all staffing needs. The court filing said the Guard was determining how many soldiers it can make available in each county.
It's almost as if the vote is the excuse for martial law.
Guard spokesman Joe Trovato told The Associated Press in an e-mail that commanders were working closely with election officials to determine how many soldiers will be needed and how to train them.
Talk about a hyper-militarized police state! Wow!
US District Judge William Conley hinted during a hearing Wednesday that he was looking at a number of options, including extending time for sending in absentee ballots and moving the election to May 12, the same day as a special election to replace retired US Representative Sean Duffy.
Both Evers and Republican legislative leaders have wanted to keep the Tuesday date. Evers says postponement could leave countless local offices vacant, but the two sides have sparred over how to conduct the election, including whether to relax photo ID requirements to make the absentee voting process easier.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, both Republicans, told reporters that they support using Guard soldiers at the polls.
Sanders issued a statement Wednesday saying, “People should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote.’’
How do you think we got it in the first place, Bernie?
--more--"
Time to get out of the country:
A man walked past boarded-up bars in Glasgow Wednesday, as Britain continues its lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus (Andrew Milligan/PA via Associated Press/PA via AP).
You can add that one to the Bo$ton Globe photo album.
"Five lenders have temporarily withdrawn from the UK government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme because they can’t handle the soaring demand for emergency loans from small- and medium-sized businesses. Four of these small lenders have disappeared from the list of participating institutions on the program’s website. A spokeswoman for the British Business Bank, the state-owned organization administering the plan, confirmed the lenders have asked to be removed until they can work through the applications they’ve received since the program went live on March 23. A similar program in the United States, under the Small Business Administration, begins acccepting applications on Friday."
Related: Edinburgh’s summer fests canceled for the first time
Wasn't the only thing cancelled in Scotland:
"The United Nations plans to postpone a pivotal climate conference scheduled for November amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, delaying an international effort to head off the worst consequences of climate change. The gathering, scheduled to be hosted by the United Kingdom in November in Glasgow, was envisioned as a moment for nations to offer more ambitious plans to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and transition away from reliance on fossil fuels. The arena where the massive event was to take place, the SEC Centre, is being converted into a field hospital for patients with COVID-19, the Scottish government said this week. Officials said the UN gathering is likely to be rescheduled for the middle of 2021, although no date has been set....."
So 2020 is going to be the year of the Great Cull, 'eh?
"The coronavirus pandemic has brought global commerce to a near standstill. Now it’s threatening to obscure the ability to even make forecasts based on weather data. The World Meteorological Organization said it’s concerned about the virus’s impact on the quality and quantity of weather observations and forecasts. Maintenance on satellite systems and weather stations could be affected if lockdowns continue in the coming weeks. Accurate weather predictions are critical for commodities markets including agriculture, natural gas, electricity, and coal. Farmers and food-crop traders rely on forecasts for planting schedules and prices. Gas markets are particularly sensitive to weather data to help predict demand. The amount of weather-related information collected from commercial aircraft has already plummeted as airlines across the globe ground flights....."
Then stick your head out the damn door and see what it is like outsi..... wait a minute, can you do that?
"A group of 17 endangered sea turtles that were stranded on Cape Cod this winter were flown to Georgia and released back into the ocean with extra precautions due to the COVID-19 crisis, the New England Aquarium said in a statement. Most of the sea turtles were found in the Barnstable area during November and December, said Pam Bechtold Snyder, a spokeswoman for the aquarium. The turtles had developed life-threatening medical conditions from hypothermia and starvation during the stranding season, which starts at the end of fall. During the season, sea turtles who didn’t head south in time to escape plunging ocean temperatures often wash up on the coast of New England, the aquarium said. The rescued turtles spent the past several months recovering at the aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy, where 14 sea turtles are still recovering , according to the aquarium."
That means the turtles were freezing in the warming ocean water!
I wonder if they can swim this far:
"Saudi Arabia asked Muslims to put on hold plans to perform the obligatory annual hajj pilgrimage this year as the kingdom grapples with the coronavirus. ‘‘We have asked our Muslim brothers around the world to wait’’ on making hajj plans ‘‘until there is clarity,’’ Mohammad Benten, the minister of hajj and umrah, told state-run Al Ekhbariya TV. Saudi Arabia reported 110 cases of the virus on Tuesday, bringing the total to 1,563, including 10 deaths. Halting the hajj, which attracts millions of pilgrims to Islam’s birthplace, would be unprecedented in recent history. The kingdom suspended the lesser, non-obligatory umrah pilgrimage last month. The country has put the holy cities of Mecca and Medina on lockdown. The hajj is due begin in late July."
"As Iran struggles with a devastating coronavirus outbreak, a broken economy, and a severe shortage of medical equipment, it says that US trade sanctions are taking Iranian lives and has called for the United States to lift them on humanitarian grounds. Iran’s plea is gaining traction around the globe, winning support from allies like Russia and China, but also the European Union, the United Nations secretary-general, rights groups, and nearly three dozen members of Congress, who have appealed to the Trump administration to suspend the sanctions. Iran, a global epicenter of the virus, has confirmed more than 47,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths, although public health specialists estimate the real toll to be several times higher. In a sign of desperation, Iran requested a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the first time it has applied for such a loan since the 1960s. The European Union has said it would support the loan, but the United States is expected to block it (New York Times)."
Somehow, the virus didn't affect the invasion plans as they set Iran up for blame?
The final holdout!
"As cases and deaths mount in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has remained defiant, the last notable holdout among major world leaders in denying the severity of the coronavirus. Brazilians, he declared last week, are uniquely suited to weather the pandemic because they can be dunked in raw sewage and “don’t catch a thing.” Defying guidelines issued by his own health ministry, the president on Sunday visited a busy commercial district in Brasília, the capital, where he called on all but elderly Brazilians to get back to work. Then he insisted that an antimalaria pill of unproved efficacy would cure those who fall ill. “God is Brazilian,” he told a throng of supporters. “The cure is right there.” Several world leaders — among them President Trump — were slow to grasp the menace of the highly contagious virus, and reluctant to embrace disruptive and economically painful social distancing measures that have become the norm in much of the world, but Bolsonaro remains the highest profile holdout in eschewing the scientific consensus on the lockdown measures required to keep health care systems from being overwhelmed (New York Times)."
The truth is the truth, even if you are a minority of one.
Related:
"A member of the Brazilian indigenous group known for its forest guardians who fight illegal deforestation in their territory was killed Tuesday, marking the fifth slaying of a Guajajara tribesman since November. The body of Zezico Guajajara, a teacher who had repeatedly denounced illegal logging, was found shot on a road near his village in Maranhao state, the state’s human rights secretary said on its social media accounts. The federal government’s indigenous affairs agency, Funai, said it had alerted Brazil’s federal police and Maranhao’s public security secretariat and added that it was willing to collaborate with investigations into the indigenous leader’s death....."
Also see:
"A roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday killed at least eight civilians, including six children. The victims were all from a single family, according to Helmand police spokesman Zaman Hamdard. The family had just left the southern district to Greshk when the bomb hit their car, Hamdard added. Two more family members were wounded, he said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both the Taliban and the Islamic State militants are active in the province......"
"The US military is facing more allegations of killing civilians with airstrikes in Somalia, and now says it will address the issue more fully in upcoming public reports. Amnesty International said in a new report Wednesday that the US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, killed two civilians and injured three others in two airstrikes in February as it struck back at the Somalia-based, Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremist group. One airstrike on Feb. 2 struck a home in the Middle Juba region as a family sat down to dinner, the Amnesty report says, and an 18-year-old girl was killed. Her sisters, ages 12 and 7, and their grandmother were wounded. The other airstrike, on Feb. 24 near Jilib, killed a farmer who also worked for Hormuud Telecom, Somalia’s largest telecom company. After both airstrikes, the US military said al-Shabab fighters had been killed. “The US military should not be allowed to continue to paint its civilian victims as ‘terrorists’ while leaving grieving families in the lurch,” Abdullahi Hassan, Amnesty International’s Somalia researcher, said in a statement. The human rights group has been investigating US airstrikes in Somalia for years. In a report a year ago, it described how 14 civilians had been killed in just five airstrikes in the previous two years (Associated Press)."
At least we are carrying out the airstrikes with love, and not for hateful propaganda purposes like those icky Russians.
