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The official U.S. unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent in April, the worst level since the Great Depression, and is likely much higher than that. If the Trump campaign merch team is looking for a redesign, “Make America Great Depression Again” could look nice on a hat.
- A total of 20.5 million Americans (that we know of) lost their jobs last month, and analysts warned that it could take the country years to get back to the 3.5 percent unemployment rate we saw in February. Not all groups are suffering equally: Women and minorities have lost their jobs at higher rates than white men, and low-wage workers were far more likely to be affected than those in high-paying industries.
- President Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the White House won’t formally negotiate any further stimulus legislation this month, as Trump tries to pressure states to force their employees to work in unsafe conditions, goose the stock market, and assign blame to non-sociopathic governors, for the sake of his reelection.
- That’s been working out terrifically, by the way: In the earliest states to relax social-distancing restrictions, businesses have been wary of reopening and consumers have been reluctant to consume. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but if the water is still writhing with snakes, the horse will probably go home and crack open a La Croix. The coronavirus, however, remains undeterred: Case numbers at an Iowa meat plant doubled on the same day the facility reopened after a two-week closure.
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Meanwhile, through sheer incompetence, federal officials have packed up limited doses of a potentially life-saving drug and then sent them just kind of wherever.
- Committing wholeheartedly to its brand, the Trump administration has bungled the distribution of the drug remdesivir to the hospitals where it’s most needed. Gilead Sciences donated hundreds of thousands of doses to the federal government after the FDA approved it as an emergency treatment for coronavirus patients, and the federal government, devoid of any internal coordination, promptly shipped a bunch of them to the wrong counties.
- Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, has tested positive for coronavirus, marking the second confirmed case in the White House this week. You may also remember Katie Miller from having married Steven Miller back in February (just a rough year for Katie all around). Between her and her husband’s close work with Pence and Trump respectively, Miller’s positive diagnosis raises the possibility that much of the West Wing has been exposed. Unlike the rest of us, they’ll know fairly quickly since they all have access to ample, frequent testing.
With a decade of job gains wiped out in a single month, Trump vowed on Fox News today that “Those jobs will all be back, and they’ll be back very soon.” (Another gift to Democratic ad makers!) In the same appearance, Trump also casually revised the projected death toll upwards once again. Those two statements tell the whole story: Trump can’t bring 20 million jobs back, but he’s content to make a big show of pretending, and knowingly cause tens of thousands of deaths in the process.
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In the new original podcast series Wind of Change, journalist Patrick Radden Keefe investigates a rumor—that “Wind of Change” the power ballad by the Scorpions—was actually written by the CIA. The show is great, and it's kind of like "This is Spinal Tap meets All The President’s Men", and you won't wanna miss it. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts—new episodes will come out weekly on all platforms, but you can binge the whole series starting Monday May 11 on Spotify.
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The federal government still doesn’t know how many nursing homes have suffered coronavirus outbreaks, or how many residents have died. Back on April 19, Medicare administrator Seema Verma announced at the White House propaganda briefing that the Trump administration would start tracking outbreaks and deaths at nursing homes across the country, and make those numbers publicly available. Over two weeks later, and after at least 13,000 deaths at long-term care facilities, the government still hasn’t gathered that data, and according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, it will be weeks before it’s made public. The delay in data collection has slowed down the response, as health officials don’t know where additional resources are needed. The administration has also lagged in sending nursing homes PPE, and in implementing a requirement that the facilities report outbreaks to family members.
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- The two men who chased down and fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery have been arrested and charged with murder. Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested two days after a video of the killing prompted a public outcry, and more than two months after the crime itself.
- The Office of Special Counsel—an internal government watchdog—has found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Trump administration retaliated against Dr. Rick Bright for pushing back against corruption in the coronavirus response. Back in April, the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly ousted him as the director of BARDA, a federal research agency combating the coronavirus. OSC has issued a non-binding recommendation that Bright be reinstated for 45 days while it investigates.
- The Trump team wants to bring disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn back on board, possibly as an official Trump surrogate, now that the Justice Department has dropped the charges, to which Flynn pled guilty, for no reason. One of Trump’s chief pollsters compared Flynn to Nelson Mandela.
- In relatedly bonkers news, Trump said he discussed the Mueller probe with Vladimir Putin on the phone on Thursday, calling it a “hoax.”
- Out of 40 people arrested for social distancing violations in Brooklyn, 35 were black. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said of those numbers, “I found them to be an indicator that something's wrong and we need to fix it.” He’s got an eagle eye, that de Blasio.
- The RNC and Trump re-election campaign have doubled their budget to fight Democrats in court over voting laws. They’re now poised to spend $20 million on litigation against safe voting measures in battleground states.
- California began a cautious reopening today, with certain retailers permitted to reopen for curbside pickup and delivery.
- White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Trump’s comments “racist” and “hateful” back in 2015, and said "I don't want to claim this guy” as a Republican. McEnany explained today that it was all a mistake and that her brain had been poisoned by CNN.
- Clearview AI, the terrifying facial-recognition software company that haunts your dreams, said it will end all relationships with non-law enforcement entities and private companies, amid several potential class action lawsuits.
- The lead guitarist of Queen has been hospitalized after shredding his glutes by gardening too hard. (Deep inhale) I Want to Rake Free, and also he will, he will crop you, and also Butt-hemian Cramp-sody, and also Don’t Stop Me, Ow, and also weeds are the champions, my friends, and also Another One Butts the Dust, and also (dragged away by a giant cane)
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Facebook and Youtube have removed Plandemic, a coronavirus conspiracy theory video that went disturbingly viral. The video was made by Judy Mikovits, a discredited former medical researcher and anti-vaxxer, who has a history of accusing the scientific establishment of engaging in imaginary conspiracies. In Plandemic, she falsely claims that wealthy people intentionally spread the virus to increase vaccination rates, that wearing a mask is harmful, and that the doctors and experts shaping public policy have deliberately misled the public for sinister reasons. The video racked up 1.8 million views on Facebook before it was deleted, and also trended on Twitter. Mikovits’s claims fired up a wide array of online coronavirus skeptics, including far-right Trump supporters intent on discrediting Dr. Anthony Fauci.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has ordered California to mail every registered voter in the state a ballot for the November election.
Kaya Suner, a 19 year-old, started a program that collects used smartphones and tablets for COVID-19 patients, which has taken off and expanded.
Guy Fieri has raised $20 million for restaurant workers in under two months.
Three Democratic senators have proposed a bill to send most Americans direct monthly payments of $2,000 until the crisis subsides. (That won't exactly fly through Congress, but listen, hope is hope.)
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