Pinocchio-lookalike Jared Kushner takes the stage at a pandemic press briefing to say: “The President wanted to make sure that we had the best people doing the best jobs and making sure we had the right people focused on all of the things that needed to happen to make sure that we can deliver” while Anthony Fauci has to have a security detail.

The government’s top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, is now receiving security protection after becoming the face of the nation’s coronavirus response — and a target of some supporters of President Donald Trump.

…

HHS Secretary Alex Azar had grown concerned about the growing online attacks against Fauci — whose profile has soared since he started

Reaction to Jared Kushner’s new role as replacement for Anthony Fauci is not universally ecstatic.

Jared Kushner is at the coronavirus press conference. Dr. Fauci is not. So there’s definitely no reason for anyone to air this garbage. #StopAiringTrump

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) April 2, 2020

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner at briefing, praises his father-in-law's response to the Coronavirus: "The president has been very hands-on…"

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 2, 2020

The president has been very hands on the microphone, the podium, other people, but he has not been busy responding to the pandemic.

One takeaway from Jared Kushner briefing: we did not start active response phase of dealing with this crisis until 13 days ago.

Oh wait, it turns out Kushner is totally qualified to save us from the pandemic.

Here's Jared Kushner going for the world record of most meaningless corporate buzzwords used in a single one-minute video clip pic.twitter.com/Vy1QJEhLQa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2020

Data, models, decisions, informed, people, focused, things, deliver, teams, barriers, lines of effort.

It’s a fucking pep talk. From Howdy Doody.… Read the rest

You’re fired.

The Navy announced it has relieved the captain who sounded the alarm about an outbreak of COVID-19 aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Capt. Brett Crozier, who commands the Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier with a crew of nearly 5,000, was relieved of his command on Thursday, but he will keep his rank and remain in the Navy.

Crozier raised the alarm earlier this week that sailors on the ship need to be quarantined to stop the spread of the virus. His plea for assistance quickly made headlines.

And we can’t have people stopping the spread of the virus, so get him out of that command.

The move was announced in a briefing by Acting Secretary of the Navy

Nancy LeTourneau explains why many journalists were suckered into thinking Trump had changed simply because he managed to pretend to be serious for a few minutes on Tuesday.

It is infuriating to watch political reporters get sucked into the nonsense delivered by this president over and over again. But David Roberts recently described why that happens.

Ask someone who’s been in an abusive relationship with a malignant narcissist. One reason they’re able to maintain appearances/jobs/etc. is that they are relatively rare & unusual & the normal people around them simply can’t absorb that they are what they are…They try again and again, thinking there must be normal human intentions & emotions in there somewhere. It’s just remarkable how far someone

Juxtaposition.

Six hours ago:

…It wouldn’t matter if you got ten times what was needed, it would never be good enough. Unlike other states, New York unfortunately got off to a late start. You should have pushed harder. Stop complaining & find out where all of these supplies are going. Cuomo working hard!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020

Soon after tweeting that, he retweeted this:

.@realDonaldTrump doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican.

He has shown he is willing to work with everyone, and that’s why you are seeing governors in both parties praise the administration’s efforts to beat this virus. pic.twitter.com/coc3cwVeyZ

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) April 2, 2020

On the one hand he … Read the rest

Well then we’re all doomed.

Dozens of Trump administration officials have trooped to the White House podium over the last two months to brief the public on their effort to combat coronavirus, but one person who hasn’t — Jared Kushner — has emerged as perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against the fast-growing pandemic.

Jared Kushner is not a person you want as the pivotal figure in a pandemic.

I put that with careful, jaw-clenching restraint.

What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who, alongside a kitchen cabinet of outside experts including his former roommate and a suite

About those naughty medical workers with their “insatiable appetites” for the tools to save our lives – Politico has a jolting story:

Last week, a Trump administration official working to secure much-needed protective gear for doctors and nurses in the United States had a startling encounter with counterparts in Thailand.

The official asked the Thais for help—only to be informed by the puzzled voices on the other side of the line that a U.S. shipment of the same supplies, the second of two so far, was already on its way to Bangkok.

Oops. The shipment was put on hold (which I guess means told to bob around in the ocean) while the geniuses in the Trump administration figured out … Read the rest

Jennifer Rubin at the Post compares Trump to governors like Newsome and Cuomo:

If you watch New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, or most every other governor (except the bumbling Ron DeSantis of Florida) at his or her daily news conference, you will see someone in command of the facts (e.g., number of infected patients, number of beds, number of ventilators, number of discharged patients) and with a clear sense of mission.

On Wednesday, Newsom rattled off lines like this: “Again, the prioritization of our day in date discussion interaction is the issue of hospitalizations and ICU beds. Roughly hospitalizations to ICUs are running about 41, almost 42%. You extrapolate that out based on the

They should have been prepared, says the evil maggot who was not prepared.

….have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit. Other states are thrilled with the job we have done. Sending many Ventilators today, with thousands being built. 51 large cargo planes coming in with medical supplies. Prefer sending directly to hospitals.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020

But isn’t he the guy who sent medical supplies to China without replacing them? Wasn’t he a tad unprepared?

Yes, he was.

Trump, you incompetent idiot! You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax. You've endangered doctors, nurses, aids, orderlies, & janitors – all risking their

Evil maggot outdoes himself.

Massive amounts of medical supplies, even hospitals and medical centers, are being delivered directly to states and hospitals by the Federal Government. Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020

I wish someone would douse him in gasoline and throw a match.… Read the rest

Ahh theodicy, just what we need to distract us from pandemics and Trump telling the world he’s Number Wun on Fasebook.

Most atheists presumably recognize how foolhardy it would be for an average person to question the methods by which the world's leading infectious disease specialists are battling the coronavirus.

And yet, many are comfortable telling God how to deal with evil.

— Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) April 1, 2020

Dude’s a theologian according to his profile. Ok so a theologian to theodicy is like infectious disease specialists to the coronavirus, yeah?

No, because there is no coronavirus equivalent in theodicy. There is no thing to know; there is no body of knowledge to master; there is no evidence to bring … Read the rest

Dear god.

Asked about why he's tweeting about sensitive national security matters, Trump talks about how popular he is on Facebook pic.twitter.com/ZVqSeOELOo

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 1, 2020

… Read the rest

NPR reports:

Malaysia has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia with more than 2,900 and counting.

Oh dear, what to do – I know, tell women to stop being such bitches.

Malaysia’s Ministry for Women, Family and Community Development issued a series of online posters on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #WomenPreventCOVID19. It advised the nation’s women to help with the country’s partial lockdown by not nagging their husbands.

That’s right. If he drops his clothes on the floor when he takes them off it’s her job to pick them up, not “nag” him to put them in the laundry bag or even – gasp – do the household laundry.

The ministry also advised women

The Grand Canyon remains open to visitors despite pleas to close it.

Calls mounted Tuesday for the federal government to close Grand Canyon National Park after the popular tourist destination saw its first case of the coronavirus in a hospitality worker.

…

Members of Congress and city, county and tribal officials have urged the federal government to approve a request from the park to close amid concerns that social distancing can’t be maintained.

“We understand that closing an iconic destination like the Grand Canyon is not an easy decision, but we implore you to do everything in your power to prioritize public health and not interfere with locally informed decisions to close parks where appropriate,” members of the U.S. House

As always, women take the hit.

The “stay home, stay safe” mantra against the coronavirus is having dreadful — and even deadly — consequences for women in Turkey, where, activists warn, measures to contain the outbreak are exacerbating the rampant problem of femicide and domestic violence in the country.

…

At least 18 women have been killed across Turkey, 12 of them at home, since March 11, when Ankara confirmed its first COVID-19 case, according to the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, a civic group dedicated to fighting violence against women. The killers included spouses, partners, ex-husbands and ex-partners as well as male relatives of the victims, the platform’s tally shows. 

…

About 470 women were killed in Turkey

People in charge during a crisis like the current one need resiliency; they need to be able to change course and adapt, to be willing to try new things, to get creative.

Trump does not need to reach back in history for an example of a leadership style that doesn’t require a dubious pose of perfection to convey strength. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, who regularly shares the podium with Trump at coronavirus briefings, has described often in interviews the vitriol targeted at him during the early days of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Protesters were storming the National Institutes of Health campus and burning Fauci in effigy, because of frustrations with the pace of

Tom Tomorrow is here to help.

day whatever it is. suddenly got curious what I would look like if I emulated our president's makeup regimen. pic.twitter.com/UhvasQXXkf

— Extremely Socially Distant Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow) April 1, 2020

… Read the rest