Chris Hayes on GOP: “This party is intellectually bankrupt, and entirely unable to meet the moment.
It is so corroded … that it will revolt against one of its own members when they do something right to fight the plague to save lives.
It’s becoming a pro-COVID party before our eyes.”
Aired on 7/10/2020.
The Problem With Trump Stripping The CDC Of COVID-19 Data Is Obvious, But Still Terrifying SARAH MIDKIFF, JULY 15, 2020,
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services shared that all further hospital data on coronavirus patients will be sent directly to the Trump administration starting July 16. The information previously went through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first, reports CNN.
According to the report, this decision is being touted as faster and more convenient, but health experts worry that the move could make data — such as infection rates and trends — less transparent. By presenting all information to the Trump administration to filter through the public, experts say that we are running the risk of putting a political spin on coronavirus cases, particularly at a time when White House representatives are urging for reopenings and downplaying the death toll in America.
“Centralizing control of all data under the umbrella of an inherently political apparatus is dangerous and breeds distrust,” Nicole Lurie, who worked as assistant secretary for preparedness and response under former President Barack Obama, told The New York Times… “It appears to cut off the ability of agencies like CDC to do its basic job.”
The database would reportedly collect information about COVID-19 patients in a database called HHS protect, which was created by Palantir, an analytics and data firm.That company “is known most for its controversial contract work with the U.S. military and other clandestine government agencies as well as for being co-founded and initially funded by Trump ally Peter Thiel,” according to The Verge.
“A unique link will be sent to the hospital points of contact. This will direct the (point of care) to a hospital-specific secure form that can then be used to enter the necessary information. After completing the fields, click submit and confirm that the form has been successfully captured,” according to the HHS instructions. “A confirmation email will be sent to you from the HHS Protect System. This method replaces the emailing of individual spreadsheets previously requested.”
That was:
White House calls for hospitals to send coronavirus patient data to Washington, not CDC
The Department of Heath and Human Services may soon collect the COVID-19 data
By Herb Scribner, Jul 15, 2020, 11:07am MDT
Trump administration strips CDC of control of coronavirus dataNew York Times (07/15/20) Stolberg, Sheryl Gay
The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass CDC and send all COVID-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday.
The Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass CDC and send all COVID-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning on Wednesday. In its new guidance, HHS said that going forward, hospitals should report detailed information on a daily basis directly to the new centralized system, which is managed by TeleTracking, a health data firm with headquarters in Pittsburgh.However, if hospitals were already reporting such information to their states, they could continue to do so if they received a written release saying the state would handle reporting. Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus.
Both the CDC network and the TeleTracking system set up by HHS rely on so-called push data, meaning hospital employees must manually enter data, rather than the government tapping into an electronic system to obtain the information.
Public health experts have long expressed concerns that the Trump administration is politicizing science and undermining its health experts.
www - nytimes - com/2020/07/14/us/politics/trump-cdc-coronavirus
All the President’s Lies About the Coronavirus
An unfinished compendium of Trump’s overwhelming dishonesty during a national emergency
CHRISTIAN PAZ, July 13, 2020
www - theatlantic - com/politics/archive/2020/07/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/
Detailed timeline of Trump’s failures shows how America’s coronavirus crisis was man-made
Failures of governance from Jan 3 until March 13 made the situation exponentially worse than it should have been
DAN BENBOW, APRIL 19, 2020
www - salon - com/2020/04/19/detailed-timeline-of-trumps-failures-shows-how-americas-coronavirus-crisis-was-man-made_partner/
‘We have it totally under control’: An inside look at how the Trump administration botched America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic
Sonam Sheth
Apr 4, 2020, 7:30 AM
www - businessinsider - com/how-trump-us-botched-coronavirus-pandemic-response-2020-3
Trump’s attempt to buy a coronavirus vaccine shows why big pharma needs to change
Diarmaid McDonald, March 16, 2020
The president’s shameless bid highlights the need for a drugs industry that prioritises the public interest over profit
Pandemics don’t destroy societies, but they do expose their weaknesses. As the historian of medicine Frank Snowden recentlytold the New Yorker: “Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning … on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities.”
Coronavirus has exposed the effects of successive budgetary cuts on the NHS, leaving the health service under-resourced and ill-equipped to cope with a pandemic. And like other pandemics before it, coronavirus will disproportionately take the lives of those who are most vulnerable: the elderly, the homeless, prisoners, migrants denied access to healthcare, and those with existing health conditions such as cancer and HIV.
The virus has also shone a light on another fatal weakness in our health system: the profit-driven pharmaceutical innovation model that we rely upon to develop life-saving vaccines and medicines.
The news that Donald Trump has sought to buy up the exclusive rights to a promising Covid-19 vaccine from a German biotech firm has been greeted with anger. During a global crisis, when all of humanity is at risk, our sense of fairness – and our own self-interest – makes this shameless attempt to buy the right to life (with little regard for those it excludes) seem immoral.
In the same way that pandemics show the worst in us, they can also teach us how to make ourselves safer
But this is about more than just Trump. …
W<em>hen Profits over People and ME FIRST mentality rules the nation, things will go off the rails.</em>
So many self-destructive monstrosities, so little time,
March. 13, 2020
To Trump, America Is Just A Series Of Corporate Fiefdoms
By Sarah JonesDonald Trump is not known for telling the truth, but his usual blustery fictions occasionally part to allow some honesty. During a Friday press conference to announce a national state of emergency for novel coronavirus, “I don’t take responsibility at all,” he said of the government’s slow response to the pandemic. Indeed, he does not. Though he announced a few new measures to address the crisis, including drive-through testing and the waiving of some restrictions on nursing home admissions and the length of hospital stays, Trump’s announcement wasn’t notable for its generosity. It was remarkable for a much less heroic reason.
Trump’s answer to a public health emergency to enrich and empower the private sector. He used the occasion of his press conference to lavish praise on several corporations by name: the Swiss drugmaker Roche, which received an FDA patent for a COVID-19 test, and Thermo Fisher, an American company that will partner with the government to provide tests. From there the glad-handing only became more enthusiastic. Trump thanked Google for “developing a website,” upon which 1700 of its engineers are reportedly at work. (This is not quite true, as the Verge later reported. The website will be produced by a subsidiary of Google’s parent company and will initially be available only in the Bay Area.) Dr Deborah Birx, who is overseeing the White House’s coronavirus response, spoke glowingly of the government’s “innovative response,” which is “centered fully on unleashing the power of the private sector.”
That’s great news for corporate executives, several of whom were present for the press conference. Trump paraded them before the cameras, calling them “celebrities in their own right.” Friday’s event was as much an opportunity for Doug McMillan of WalMart to advertise the beneficent qualities of his corporation as much as it was for the public to learn what the president they elected would do to help them. Walgreens got a turn, and so did Target. The corporations kept coming. There was Becton Dickinson, which sells medical devices, and Quest Diagnostics, which processes lab tests; they were followed by Roche, by Signify Health, by Lab Corp, by CVS, and by the mysteriously-named LHC Group, a company Trump called “a tremendously-talented group of people.” (They provide home health services, it turns out, and will test the sick at home.)
The parade seemed like it would never end. Interchangeable men in suits . . .
Wow that is a nightmare that highlights the worst aspect of our profitized health “care” system.
It also leads one to think of why one would be “PRO” COVID-19, might be that the spread of the disease makes for big profits by cronies or potential cronies. Just like some war profiteers in history may have contributed to the onset of wars.
Day 1282: “Just not right.”
By Matt Kiser
7/24/2020
https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com
Welcome to Day 1281.
Today in one sentence: The U.S. surpassed four million coronavirus cases a little over two weeks after reaching three million;
another 1.4 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment insurance last week;
the White House and Senate Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a coronavirus legislative package;
and Trump insisted that the cognitive test he recently took was “difficult" and “not that easy” because he had to correctly recall the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.”
1/ The U.S. surpassed four million coronavirus cases a little over two weeks after reaching three million, doubling the total number of infections in six weeks.
New cases climbed by more than 71,000 and the nation’s overall death toll topped 140,000 with more than 1,100 coronavirus deaths reported Wednesday – the first time since May 29 that the daily count exceeded that number.
Public health experts have warned that the actual number of infections are potentially 10 times higher than what’s been reported and could be as much 13 times higher in some regions. (Wall Street Journal / USA Today / New York Times / Washington Post)
and Trump insisted that the cognitive test he recently took was “difficult” and “not that easy” because he had to correctly recall the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.”I gotta wonder if any of T's fans get embarrassed by their dumb ass leader?
@ Timb Wow that is a nightmare that highlights the worst aspect of our profitized health “care” system.
Lobbyists connected to Trump reap windfall in coronavirus aid money, report says
… Shortly after Trump took office, he issued an executive order prohibiting former administration officials from lobbying their former agency or office for a period of five years. Another section of the order forbids lobbying of the administration by former political appointees for the remainder of Trump’s time in office.
Yet five lobbyists who are former administration officials have potentially done just that during the coronavirus lobbying boom:
— Courtney Lawrence was a former deputy assistant secretary for legislation in the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017 and 2018. She became a lobbyist for Cigna in 2018 and is listed as part of a team that has lobbied HHS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and at least two other agencies. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.
— Shannon McGahn, the wife of former White House counsel Donald McGahn, worked in 2017 and 2018 as a counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. She then joined the National Assn. of Realtors as its top lobbyist and is listed on disclosures as part of a team that has lobbied both houses of Congress, plus six agencies, including the Treasury Department. The Realtors association did not respond to a request for comment.
— Jordan Stoick is the vice president of government relations at the National Assn. of Manufacturers. Stoick’s biography on the association’s website indicates that he is “NAM’s lead lobbyist in Washington,” where he started working after serving as a senior advisor at the Treasury. Disclosures indicate that Stoick and his colleagues lobbied both houses of Congress, plus at least five executive branch agencies, including Treasury.
“NAM carefully adheres to the legal and ethical rules regulating lobbying activity, including ensuring that its employees comply with all applicable prohibitions on contacting their former employers,” Linda Kelly, the organization’s general counsel, said in a statement.
— Geoffrey Burr joined the firm Brownstein Hyatt after serving as chief of staff to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The firm’s lobbying disclosure for the first quarter of 2020 includes Burr on a list of lobbyists who contacted the White House and Congress on coronavirus-related matters on behalf of McDonald’s.
— Emily Felder joined Brownstein Hyatt after leaving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where she worked in the legislative office. Felder is listed on a disclosure from the first quarter of 2020 that shows she was part of a team that lobbied Congress and the White House.
WASHINGTON — Forty lobbyists with ties to President Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump’s own ethics policy, according to a report.The lobbyists identified Monday by the watchdog group Public Citizen either worked in the Trump executive branch, served on his campaign, were part of the committee that raised money for inaugural festivities or were part of his presidential transition. Many are donors to Trump’s campaigns, and some are prolific fundraisers for his reelection.
I gotta wonder if any of T’s fans get embarrassed by their dumb ass leader?No, and I have two degrees (B. Sc. Civil and M. Sc. Structural) in engineering. What have you got?
Seems to me that a structural engineer would want the nation to get into building our infrastructure back, better. A meaningful and non-corrupt infrastructure national program, will require Democratic control of the Congress and the Presidency.)
Let your dumbass leader go. Let him slide silently into the cold dark depths of his disapproval polls. It is for the best, for all.
Heck I don’t even like Rich Hayes, but a news story is a news story. Listen to this insanity, what is it with the Republican mind.
Reporter Who Broke Gohmert Coronavirus News Shares Reports From GOP Staffers | All In | MSNBC
Jul 30, 2020
Jake Sherman, on twitter:
We are getting more and ore messages from deep inside the trump administration from aides and senior officials who feel like they cannot work safely during COVID, and who are being told NOT TO WEAR MASKS.
Pls,pls continue reaching out. We want to tell your story.
Intellectually bankrupt, morally bankrupt, democratically bankrupt, honesty bankrupt…they run the whole gambit.
I think when Trump loses bigly (fingers crossed) you’ll see the party shift back toward being more sane. Everyone on both sides right now has these impossible purity standards that they hold their own to. For Democrats it’s never racist, never misogynistic, never against LGBT rights, ever in your life. I grew up in the '80s. I may have never worn blackface or anything, but I still probably couldn’t pass any one of those tests. “What do you tell a woman with 2 black eyes? Nothing! You’ve already told her twice!” Yeah, that’s funny to a teenager in the '80s who has never known domestic violence or how very not funny it is. That’s funny to a kid who doesn’t understand the reality it comes from.
For the right, it’s Trump ball sucking. Their purity test is to be as big a jackass as Trump. Never disagree, never call him out, let the country burn before you say out loud that he’s wrong. His base loves him and they are hard-core Republicans. Good luck winning election if you don’t make them happy. Because a racist, misogynistic tool who’s going to champion, not just tax breaks for himself and other rich people, but also any fringe nutty idea a hard-core Republican might have, that’s exactly what they’ve been waiting for. “If you 'ain’t like me go swing from a tree” is EXACTLY what they’ve been longing to hear since everything started getting all screwed up in the '60s with all the talk of “rights” and “voting” and “minorities”.
Gosh, I hope you’re right. Sadly it seems like the 30% is simply digging into delusional thinking deeper and deeper.
When trying to share rational factual information and engage in the learning process is perceived as politics and a mortal assault on one’s values, then the future promises yet more nightmares.
If we aren’t changing minds we are losing.
30% isn’t so much. Remember Mitt Romney said that 47% were “takers” who would never vote for Republicans and he still thought he had a chance to win. Granted, Republicans only need 46.1% of the vote to beat the Democrat who got 48.2% of the vote, and they could theoretically still win with a 2/3 larger deficit than that (don’t get me started), but there is a whole LOT of interest in this election. Democrats are registering to vote at a much higher rate than Republicans. Felon voting rights have been restored in 2 states now in time for this election. And the Trump cronie in charge of the USPS realized he’s busted and undid all of his changes intended to impede mail-in voting until after the election so that we have to play along when he pretends it totally wasn’t about rigging an election for Trump. Biden is up in every poll (<shudder> uncomfortable flashback there). And the best indicator of whether an incumbent president will be reelected, the second quarter economy, says Trump will go. And when Biden talks about policy it’s like a choir of angels singing. Kamala Harris (my favorite in the primaries) only improves his chances. Almost everybody is happy with her.
I’m not saying take it easy and assume it’s in the bag or anything, but the Magic 8 Ball says, “All signs point to yes”. I have one kid I sent off to college and I made sure he registered. I had another kid come back from college and I made sure he changed his address (or I would have driven him 3 damned hours to vote!).
At this point I think the thing we REALLY need to fear is the violence Trump will incite from his rabid 30% when he loses. Because that will happen. He won’t say, “Go shoot someone” or anything like that, but he will spin a web of crazy involving a deep stated Democrat conspiracy in which every Democrat is complicit and should be “punished”…by the law, of course…but that’s never going to happen because the Democrats run everything now…so… And there WILL be crazies like the MAGA bomber and the MAGA shooter, except less inept. There WILL be at least a handful of crazy people doing crazy things to fight the deep state Q cabal that stole the election from Trump, and Trump WILL encourage it.