monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

A natural experiment in stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus is playing out on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, where an early start to social distancing is pitted against a late one.

As of Tuesday, Kentucky is now reporting 1,008 cases and 59 deaths, while Tennessee is reporting 3,802 cases and 65 deaths. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency on March 6, while neighboring Tennessee’s Bill Lee waited until March 12, and then took until the end of the month to suggest people stay at home. The two approaches led to two drastically different outcomes playing out on the national stage...

How have you been spending your time in self-isolation?

It depends how much you count the time you spend sulking. Let me put it this way: when they compile a list of the heroes of this era, I will not be on it. Mostly I’ve been reading. Also, taking phone calls from people who for the last ten years have told me they hate to talk on the phone. And I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to think about this, because it is a very startling thing to be my age—I’m sixty-nine—and to have something happen that doesn’t remind you of anything else.

Has it forced you to think about growing older, being in a higher-risk category?

I smoke, so basically everyone I’ve known for the last forty years thinks I’m in a high-risk category. Look, the older you are, the less healthy you are. If you’re asking me if it has made me more pensive, it has not. I don’t know whether that’s a bad or a good thing.

One thing I’ve absolutely noticed about myself, and which should be true as you get older: it’s not that you want to die, but you are less attached to life. You’re less panicked. I’m not very panicked by this, and I have friends who are. They’re in a state of terror. But I hope I don’t get this. I hope I don’t get anything. I was a hypochondriac when I was young, and it’s one of the biggest wastes of time, to be a hypochondriac when you’re twenty-five. It’s just stupid.

Has this crisis shown us anything about Donald Trump that we didn’t know before?

No. Every single thing that could be wrong with a human being is wrong with him. But the single most dangerous thing about Donald Trump is how unbelievably stupid he is. It’s not the most dangerous thing in someone who has no responsibilities, but in a President it’s the most dangerous thing.

His absolute belief in himself, that is something that is not going to ever change. And he doesn’t care. When people say he’s not showing enough empathy—he doesn’t know what it means. Whenever he uses the word “love,” which he does occasionally, I think of the word “algebra,” because I don’t know what algebra is. I took Algebra 1 four times, because I failed it four times, and I still don’t know what algebra even means. I know the symbols. And that is what love means to Donald Trump.

Yesterday, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services published a study summarizing interviews with 323 hospitals. The study confirmed that hospitals are desperately short of personal protective equipment, and have been unable get coronavirus test results for patients. The details in the 40-page report are horrifying, though hardly unfamiliar to anybody who has followed news reports or the pleas of doctors and nurses on social media. Medical staff are unprotected and exposed to infected patients, shipments of gear from Washington have been haphazard, test results take seven days or more, and so on.

The purpose of such reports is to identify problems so that policy-makers can take corrective action. It is fair to say that President Trump did not take the report in the earnest problem-solving spirit in which it was intended. Several journalists asked Trump about the report at his briefing yesterday. His responses grew increasingly hostile and disconnected from reality.

After the first question, even before the reporter could finish summarizing the report, Trump interjected, “Did I hear the word inspector general? Really? It’s wrong.” When told the source came from his own government, Trump began fishing around for evidence the report’s author was biased: “Well, where did he come from, the inspector general. What’s his name?”

Fifteen minutes later, another reporter followed up with the answer. “Her name was Christi Grimm and it wasn’t so much her opinion, but they interviewed 323 different hospitals — ” began a second reporter. Trump interjected, “It still could be her opinion. When was she appointed? When was she appointed?” ABC’s Jon Karl replied, “She was appointed in January of this year to her current position as the principal deputy inspector.”

Another reporter followed up: “I know you don’t want to talk about the inspector general report, but testing is still a big issue in this country. When can hospitals expect to receive a quick turnaround of its test results?” Trump replied by asserting that hospitals and states, not the federal government, are responsible for testing — “Hospitals can do their own testing also. States can do their own testing.” — before complaining that the reporter was mean to ask the question:

We have a brand-new testing system that we developed very quickly and that’s your result. And you should say, congratulations. Great job. Instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question.

Generally speaking, in a democracy, reporters at a press briefing use their questions to ask actual questions, rather than to say, “Congratulations. Great job. Of course, Trump’s idea of how journalists should question leaders is more along the lines of Russia, the Gulf monarchies, or Fox News.

Yet the report continued to irk the president. Today he tweeted out the rebuke he wishes he had thought yesterday:

Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report. Another Fake Dossier!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020

Did the inspector general report on the 2009 swine flu under Obama? Well, yes. In September, 2009, it released a 57-page report assessing the distribution of vaccines and treatments. Three years later, it published a retrospective report. Trump has a large executive branch staff at his disposal, and he could have asked somebody to look up the answer to his question before tweeting it out, but even the act of asking somebody else to do some work was more work than Trump was willing to put into the issue.

Why did the office conduct the survey by asking hospitals, rather than putting the questions to members of Trump’s administration? Probably the reason is that the report was intended to find out how hospitals are doing, and what they believe they need to better serve patients during the pandemic. It was not intended to record the party-line views of Trump’s lackeys who know full well that they are not allowed to admit bad news.

The entire concept of having an inspector general is to provide a resource to the government. The president can’t correct problems without finding out what the problems are. Trump’s method is deny problems or, when they can no longer be denied, shirk all blame. The existence of independent sources of information is abhorrent to Trump. Dictators don’t have inspector generals in their government. Their response to problems is to overpower them with propaganda.

All things being equal I’d prefer Liz Warren as Veep, but I think the pressure he is going to doubtlessly get is going to push him to Kamala Harris (who would also be okay with me, as would Stacey Abrams and Amy Klobuchar).

“We’re seeing tremendous evidence that African Americans are affected at a far greater percentage number than other citizens of our country,” Trump said at his daily coronavirus press conference Tuesday. “But why is it that the African American community is so much, numerous times more than everybody else? We want to find the reason to it.”

Gee, I'd have thought this genius, in charge of the most technologically advanced country in the world, would charge his excellent staff with the task of finding a safe and secure way to vote without showing up at a polling station.

that's bullshit. You clearly have no idea how mail in voting works.

Trump also believes 2 million illegal aliens voted during the last election.

AG Bill Barr: Media On A "Jihad" To Discredit Trump And Hydroxychloroquine

Barr criticized the media for going on a "jihad" against President Trump to discredit the use of hydroxychloroquine.

"The politicization of decisions like hydroxychloroquine has been amazing to me," the attorney general said. "Before the president said anything about it, there was fair and balanced coverage of this very promising drug, and the fact that it had such a long track record, that the risks were pretty well known, and as soon as he said something positive about it, the media’s been on a jihad to discredit the drug, it’s quite strange."