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| Trump orders GM to make ventilators, without contract, at someone else's factory, by tweet |
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| Red vs. Blue on Coronavirus Concern: The Gap Is Still Big but Closing
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| Congress' new stimulus bill doesn't do enough to protect voting in November. The next bill must |
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| Trump orders GM to make ventilators, without contract, at someone else's factory, by tweet |
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A day ago, Donald Trump claimed that governors were exaggerating their need for ventilators, apparently after watching some Fox News segment making the claim (not joking). Friday morning, he was screaming on Twitter about the need for more ventilators. Our resident coronavirus expert, Mark Sumner, writes about the absurdity of it all:
After spending the evening telling Sean Hannity that those greedy governors—especially pushy female governors—didn’t really need the ventilators they were desperately requesting, Donald Trump appears to have realized that literally cutting off air to Americans is a bad look. So on Friday morning, Trump did an all too typical 180 and took to Twitter to do what he does best: Blame other people for his mistakes.
On Thursday evening, The New York Times explained how Trump completely blew off an all-but-complete deal to have GM manufacture thousands of desperately needed ventilators while refusing to invoke the Defense Production Act. But on Friday, Trump demanded—demanded—that GM get right on with making ventilators, apparently for free. Only Trump addressed that demand to a Twitter account that wasn’t GM. And he ordered them to use a factory that they sold months ago.
For days, General Motors and Ventec Life Systems had been working on a deal that would use GM’s manufacturing capability to accelerate production of Ventec’s ventilators. Together, the two companies projected they could make as many as 80,000 ventilators over the next two months. The federal government’s contribution to this deal was simple enough: they would agree to buy most of these ventilators, providing GM with an up-front payment to help cover the cost of converting an existing auto plant in Indiana for the task. GM assured officials there was no issue with retooling, and Ventec and GM were reportedly moving at “breakneck speed” to meet the critical medical need.
That was before Trump decided that giving people ventilators was too pricey. With an estimated price tag for the deal at around $1 billion, that would put the ventilators at roughly $13,000 each—which is actually on the low end of what ventilators usually cost.
Trump was prepared to announce the deal on Wednesday, and hinted that he had big news coming during that day’s coronavirus-themed praise session. Instead, the deal—which reportedly included some ace negotiation from Jared Kushner—collapsed. Instead of providing thousands of generators, Trump simply went on Hannity to explain that breathing is overrated. “You go to hospitals who have don’t even have one [ventilator] in a hospital,” said Trump, “and all of a sudden everybody is asking for vast numbers.” How dare they.
Keep reading this piece, it's well worth your time, I promise, as is another piece that Sumner wrote today: As Trump accuses governors of wanting too many ventilators, the real-life situation is terrifying. |
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| Red vs. Blue on Coronavirus Concern: The Gap Is Still Big but Closing |
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The NY Times took data from Civiqs—the data arm of Daily Kos—to analyze the difference in coronavirus attitudes between conservatives and liberals.
"In the months ahead, we may well see persistent partisan splits on whether Americans approve of how the president is handling the crisis. But on the more fundamental question of how they perceive the threat in their personal lives, Democrats and Republicans are now moving in the same direction.
"Both say they are growing more concerned about an outbreak in their local areas, according to a daily tracking poll by Civiqs. Since the stock market crash on March 9, the share of Americans of both parties who said they were “extremely concerned” about an outbreak has increased nearly every day.
"Partisan differences are eroding in part because the messages coming from President Trump, Fox News hosts and other Republican party leaders increasingly — if inconsistently — resemble the messages Democrats are hearing from their preferred news sources and leaders. Even some policy responses, like sending Americans money to weather the crisis, have received bipartisan support."
This was written right before Donald Trump started to complain about stay-in-place orders, so I suspect we'll see trends begin to diverge again. But even this idea that concern was converging was, in many ways, overselling those trends. Look at this chart:
NY Times/CiviqsWhile Republicans "extremely concerned" about COVID-19 has been rising, there is still a wide gap between them and Democrats, including in Washington State, which at the time was the national epicenter of the pandemic. Still, it's a fantastic, fascinating piece. Highly recommended. And if you want to track the trends yourself, remember that Civiqs has two daily 50-state tracking polls on the coronavirus:
How concerned are you about a coronavirus outbreak in your local area?
How satisfied are you with the U.S. government’s current response to the coronavirus outbreak? |
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| Congress' new stimulus bill doesn't do enough to protect voting in November. The next bill must |
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As Daily Kos voting-rights expert Stephen Wolf writes, the U.S. House followed the Senate on Friday and passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill, sending it to Donald Trump for his expected signature. However, the biggest fiscal stimulus package in post-WWII history failed to include provisions to ensure Americans can still safely vote in November. Consequently, it did little to ensure that our democracy doesn't collapse (and take down the economy along with it) in the likely event that millions of Americans won't be able to vote in person as the pandemic shows no signs of ending by November. Instead, Congress is indefensibly planning a month-long recess instead of taking more measures to combat the ongoing public health and economic crises.
The stimulus bill contains $400 million in funding for states to expand voting access, just one-tenth of the $4 billion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had included in the Democratic stimulus proposal on Monday. Voting rights advocates have blasted it as far from sufficient. Most importantly, the compromise legislation doesn't include any mandate that states expand voting access by offering 15 days of in-person early voting, removing any excuse requirement to vote absentee by mail, mailing every registered voter a ballot in case of an emergency like the current one, and allowing online and same-day voter registration. Without these policies, countless Americans may be unable to safely vote.
Continue reading to find out why this is so critically important, and why it must absolutely be part of the next coronavirus response bill. It really is shocking that Republicans aren't more eager to make this happen, because, as Wolf writes, "because Republican-leaning states are least likely to make it easy to vote by mail as shown on the map at the top of this post, and because the GOP's elderly voter base is most at risk of serious illness, it's in Republicans’ own interest to ensure that voters have alternatives to in-person voting this year.
Daily Kos Elections |
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| Other News |
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| Foolishness and Foolery’ Churches, Stores Reopen As Governor Overrides Mayors’ COVID-19 Orders |
by Ashton Pittman, Mississippi Free Press
"Roadside mannequins are inviting residents of Moss Point, Miss., to resume shopping at a local clothing store, restaurants are returning their dine-in services, and churches are re-opening their doors for services. Mayor Mario King described the burgeoning renewal in commerce and social life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic today as it swirled around him in his Gulf Coast town after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves issued an executive order Tuesday that overruled local measures meant to stop the virus’ spread." Oh no. |
| The pandemic is real, and so are the politics |
by Greg Dworkin, Daily Kos
The sobering data on NYC and the country is getting people’s attention. While Trump plays politics, Democrats really need to concentrate on actions that get us through the crisis. Don’t make the mistake of ceding the field to Trump. Put pressure on media not to cover these rallies live. (They’re not public health briefings.) But don’t waste time playing his game—play your game by getting the job done. That means supporting local governors, who are way more popular, respected, and trusted than Trump will ever be. |
| COVID-19 news: 3 million newly unemployed, lawsuits, and 'dire economic consequences' |
by Hunter, Daily Kos
The top story of the COVID-19 pandemic in America remains the federal government’s astonishingly bungled reaction in the critical first weeks of the crisis. The Trump White House ignored a National Security Council 'playbook'prepared specifically for a pandemic outbreak. Government workers are relying on Amazon in attempts to procure medical supplies as Trump continues to refuse to use emergency powers to force the manufacture of more. Mostly, however, it was the early failure to produce and distribute tests for the virus that led us to the unavoidable, but immensely costly, plan B: widespread shelter-in-place orders after the virus spread, unchecked and untested. The United States will need millions of COVID-19 tests, if not tens of millions—many times over what can currently be distributed and processed. |
| 'As an immigrant and a cook, I’m so humbled': chef makes TIME magazine cover during pandemic work |
by Gabe Ortiz, Daily Kos
Impeached president Donald Trump would have preferred to push the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship back out to sea to never be seen again rather than dock it in California and deal with it responsibly and humanely the way a competent leader would. Chef José Andrés, on the other hand, was catching a 6:30 AM flight from New Jersey to San Francisco straight to the ship, he revealed in a must-read TIME magazine profile, where he’s deservedly on the cover. |
| Farmworkers need to be protected, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak |
by Monica Ramirez, Prism
In a public health crisis like the one we are facing today with the global COVID-19 pandemic, farmworkers are among the most vulnerable groups in our society, placed at high risk of widespread illness and even death. Farmworkers’ current living and working conditions are deplorable at best, and now potentially deadly given the limited options for taking preventive measures against COVID-19. Many farmworkers in our country still do not have bathroom and hand-washing facilities in the fields despite the fact that federal law requires it. |
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Markos Moulitsas
Founder, Daily Kos
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