Crooked Media - What A Day: Commander in beef

With over one million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, President Trump reportedly plans to use the Defense Production Act to force meat processing plants, which have incubated deadly outbreaks, to remain open. Trump said he will also sign an executive order to protect meatpacking plants from legal liabilities, should their workers get sick, which ought to put everyone’s biggest concerns to rest.
 

• Guess what Trump still won’t use the DPA to address? After weeks of insisting that the country’s coronavirus-testing capacity was totally sufficient to start relaxing public-health guidelines, Trump announced a vague plan to ramp testing up inadequately (if at all), with most of the responsibility falling to the states. As Lao Tzu once said, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a begrudging step directly into quicksand.” The plan aims, in no specific terms, to help states expand capacity enough to test at least two percent of their populations each month. Some health experts have said we need the capacity to test every person in the country, every two weeks.
   
• The pile of known coronavirus warnings that Trump ignored to get us to this point is already towering, and somehow we’re still stacking on new ones, like a deeply cursed game of Jenga. The President’s Daily Brief (PDB), a book of classified intelligence about threats to the United States that Trump has been known to ignore, delved into the threat of coronavirus on at least a dozen occasions in January and February. Officials say the frequency of warnings reflected the fact that analysts were tracking the coronavirus with the same intensity that they would an active terrorist threat, and that the updates were almost certainly called to Trump’s attention in oral summaries of the briefings he won’t/can’t read.
   
• In the absence of a substantive testing plan, Trump is still pushing states to reopen quickly. On Monday he urged governors to “seriously consider and maybe get going” on opening schools, which 43 states and Washington, DC, have either recommended against or prohibited for the remainder of this school year. Trump also asked the governor of Nevada if he’s made a decision about reopening his state, "and the Strip, etc., etc., with all your hotels.” One of those hotels has the word TRUMP on it, but he’s probably working so hard he doesn’t even remember that. Attorney General Bill Barr issued a memo telling federal prosecutors to “be on the lookout” for COVID-19 restrictions that “overreach,” as the CDC released seven coronavirus models projecting that the number of U.S. deaths will continue to rise sharply if states rush to reopen. Great to see everybody’s on the same page!

At least some wealthy CEOs, the real victims in all this, are finally catching a break.
 

• It turns out that a $500 billion Federal Reserve program will provide aid to large corporations without requiring them to preserve jobs or limit executive compensation. The Fed will buy up companies’ bonds to be paid back with interest, but unlike the other business relief programs approved by Congress, there are no strings attached: Big companies can take the money, fire their workers, and shower their executives and shareholders with new hot tubs and top hats, as they see fit.
   
• The House of Representatives has changed its mind about coming back to Washington, DC, next week, on the recommendation of the Capitol physician, while the Senate is still expected to return on Monday. Democratic leaders have issued a “thbbbt” in response to Mitch McConnell’s demand that funding for states and cities in the next coronavirus package be conditioned on the inclusion of liability protections, which employers could use to put their workers in unsafe conditions with impunity.
   

Asked today why he thinks states should be reopening before we have a vaccine or even effective therapies, Trump replied, “I think what happens is it's going to go away.” Trump’s early refusal to acknowledge a problem has cost tens of thousands of Americans their lives, millions their jobs, and left most of us stuck in lockdown. His continued refusal to focus on the solution is what’s preventing us from getting out. While you’re inside, if you’re able, chip in to help to those who need it most →

As part of our push to call Congress about election safety, last week we asked you to send us videos telling us why you need safer voting options. A bunch of you have already sent videos in, but keep ‘em coming! We want to share your stories, and show everyone why this is so important. Text them over to your pals at Pod Save America at 323-405-994  →

The Trump administration’s rollout of retail-based testing has left black communities behind. Back on March 13, the administration announced a partnership with Walgreens, Walmart, Target, and CVS to repurpose some of their parking lots as free drive-through test centers. The partner stores pledged to focus on “our most vulnerable citizens.” Not only has the rollout of the program been painfully slow, but it hasn’t lived up to that simple promise. Of the 63 sites in operation, only eight are in predominantly black neighborhoods. In Illinois, where black residents make up 37 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths, they received only 13 percent of the state’s tests, as of April 23. Trump has tried to distance himself from the program, saying that governors and companies are responsible for making retail testing more available, but the fact is that the administration’s partnership with private retail sites put minority communities at a huge disadvantage from the get-go.

• Hillary Clinton endorsed Joe Biden for president during a virtual “Women’s Town Hall.” (Biden did not address Tara Reade’s allegation during the event, so we will just recommend this very thoughtful Rebecca Traister piece in the meantime.)
   
• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot distribute relief funds allocated for Native American tribes to Alaska Native Corporations. Tribal governments had sued to prevent the Treasury Department from making ANCs eligible for $8 billion in aid, which it did partially at the urging of an Interior Department official who used to work for one of those companies.
   
• Vice President Mike Pence refused to wear a mask on his tour of a Mayo Clinic coronavirus testing facility, in violation of its policies. In Pence’s defense, you never know when the Lord will compel you to drink a glass of whole milk, and you gotta be ready.
   
• The Justice Department argued in court that Congress has no check on the executive branch’s spending power (which, funny enough, the Constitution actually grants to Congress). During arguments pertaining to two major disputes between Trump and the House, U.S. appellate judge Merrick Garland cornered a DOJ lawyer into making the awkward claim that Congress couldn’t sue if, say, an administration decided to pay for uninsured people’s health care of its own accord.
   
• Dr. Lorna Breen, a top emergency room doctor at New York City hospital that was hit hard by the coronavirus, died by suicide on Sunday. Breen’s father told the New York Times: “Make sure she’s praised as a hero, because she was. She’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died.”
   
• A poll found that nearly half of New York City voters know someone who died of COVID-19, heavily skewed by race: Nearly 75 percent of white respondents said they didn’t know someone who had died, while 48 percent of black voters and 52 percent of Latino voters said they did. 
   
• Fox News cut ties with Diamond & Silk after they promoted bonkers conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus, which seems like a slippery slope for Fox News. (Trump leapt to the sisters’ defense, naturally.)
   
• The Pentagon formally released three videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena.”  You may have seen them when they leaked a few years ago, back when we all had the time and energy to be scared of aliens. 
   
• Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) has apologized to a man named Tupac Shakur for citing his unemployment claim as a prank by a “bad apple.” Tupac Shakur is in fact a Kentuckian who is waiting for his unemployment benefits, and Andy Beshear is very sorry.
   
• A Vallejo, CA, city official has resigned after throwing his cat during a Zoom meeting. So first it was “you have to wear a shirt” and then it was “you can’t be in a hot tub” and now drinking alcohol, tossing cats, and using the word “bitch” are off the table? PC Zoom Culture is destroying America.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent campaigns a memo advising GOP candidates to address the coronavirus crisis by slamming China and putting as much distance between themselves and President Trump as possible. The 57-page memo includes advice on tying Democratic candidates to China and repelling accusations of racism, and highlights three core talking points:

• China caused the pandemic by concealing the virus.
• Democrats are “soft on China.” 
• Republicans will punish China with sanctions (just like they’re doing now, when Trump is already president, and has the power to do that). 

Oxford University scientists have scheduled tests of their new coronavirus vaccine involving over 6,000 people by the end of next month. If it proves to be effective (as it has in monkeys), the first few million doses could be available by September.

Italy will begin lifting some social distancing restrictions next week, after nearly two months of lockdown.

Germany has seen an uptick in cases after loosening some social-distancing restrictions, but the number of new infections has stayed at a manageable level. People are going outside, and it’s not an unmitigated catastrophe! This could be us but you playing, etc.

Belgium, which is set to lift its lockdown as early as Saturday, has called on its citizens to eat french fries twice a week to address a potato surplus. Ask not what your country can do for you, etc.