Crooked Media - What A Day: Kemporary insanity

Multiple states are poised to run out of hospital beds and supplies, the White House has seized control of new hospitalization data, and some Republican leaders are still actively thwarting measures that keep people out of the hospital. What could go wrong?
 

• A day after the Trump administration rerouted coronavirus-data collection from the CDC to the Department of Health and Human Services, data that was previously public temporarily disappeared. The CDC’s hospital-capacity dashboard was taken down entirely, then restored with the note, “This file will not be updated after July 14, 2020 and includes data from April 1 to July 14.” The data that the CDC can no longer update includes current inpatient and ICU-bed capacity, health-care worker staffing, and PPE-supply status. 
   
• That change comes as hospitalizations in the U.S. approach a record high. In Arizona, where 90 percent of hospital beds were occupied as of Tuesday, doctors say that scarce resources will soon require them to ration medical care. Health experts in Texas and California also say ICU capacity is a top concern, and hospitals in Texas and Florida are running out of staff. Because the country hasn’t returned to full lockdown, medical workers have no clear idea of when (or if) the current outbreaks will peak and decline.
   
• While doctors nervously wonder if they have enough remdesivir, the White House is focused on the question that truly matters: Who doesn’t love the boss enough? The presidential-personnel office has been conducting one-on-one interviews with health officials and hundreds of other political appointees, asking for their thoughts on administration policies in an effort to ferret out anyone who isn’t sufficiently loyal to President Trump. (Better than the other way, which is when Stephen Miller eats a slip of paper with your name on it and if his eyes glow red, you’re fired.)

Outside the White House, some Republicans have read the polls and opted to rescind whatever loyalty they had left.
 

• Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) published a scathing Washington Post op-ed on Trump’s early coronavirus failures, criticizing him for downplaying the virus and leaving states to solve testing challenges on their own. (And giving himself a hearty pat on the back for a test-kit shipment that ran into its own problems.) Hogan has been publicly critical of Trump’s coronavirus response before, but never quite so forcefully.
   
• Other Republicans have gone...a different direction. As a growing number of GOP governors implement statewide mask orders to bring outbreaks under control, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) not only didn’t do that, but in fact signed an executive order explicitly banning cities from enacting their own mask mandates, then sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over Atlanta's. The order voids existing mask mandates in more than a dozen cities or counties, and came the same day Georgia reported its second-highest number of cases since the coronavirus arrived. 

This week marks a disturbing new chapter in the pandemic, with the Trump administration further compromising the transparency of public-health data and ramping up its purge of officials seen as potential leakers. If ever there was ever a moment for congressional Democrats to loudly demand answers, this would be it. 

Last week the Supreme Court dropped a historic ruling on a case determining the reservation status of Eastern Oklahoma—the very case that the Crooked podcast This Land explored last year. 

Today, Cherokee journalist and This Land host Rebecca Nagle released a bonus episode breaking down what this Supreme Court decision means, and what’s next. You can listen to season one of This Land on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts—plus the just-dropped bonus explainer episode—out now →

The Supreme Court just dealt a major setback to restoring the voting rights of people with felony convictions in Florida. The Court’s conservative majority left in place a temporary federal appeals court order staying a lower-court ruling that should have cleared the way for hundreds of thousands of Floridians to vote. As a result, people in the state who have completed felony sentences but still have outstanding court fines or fees remain barred from voting. For those keeping score: The Roberts Five will intervene to block orders that make it easier to vote (see: Wisconsin, etc.) but will not intervene to block orders that make it harder to vote.

There are a few levels of cruelty here. First off, this is an unconstitutional poll tax, plain and simple. Second, Florida frequently has no idea how much these voters owe: even when they can afford to pay, it’s often impossible for them to do so. And most insanely, as Justice Sonya Sotomayor noted in her dissent, voters who registered before this ruling was stayed will remain on the rolls, but won’t be notified that they’re once again ineligible, and thus could be prosecuted for trying to vote. The fight isn’t over, but it’s unclear if it will be resolved before November. If you’re in a position to give, you can help with a contribution to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Also, adopt Florida.

• Russian hackers have tried to steal coronavirus vaccine information, according to the U.S., U.K., and Canada. The hackers have targeted organizations researching vaccines with spear-phishing and malware. The U.K. has also accused Russia of trying to meddle in its 2019 election by leaking sensitive U.S. trade documents.
   
• Anywho, good thing President Trump ordered U.S. intelligence to share more information with the Kremlin, which Russia has been using to (checks notes) try to assassinate Chechen dissidents in Europe.
   
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Seema Verma violated federal rules when she steered millions of dollars in contracts to GOP allies, according to the HHS inspector general.
   
• The Justice Department carried out a second federal execution following a late-night, divided Supreme Court ruling. Wesley Purkey was killed by lethal injection in spite of pending litigation about his competency to be executed. Quite a 24 hours for the Roberts Five.
   
• Trump demoted Brad Parscale from his role as campaign manager, replacing him with Bill Stepien. Parscale won’t be going far—he built the campaign’s digital operation, and his private company provides a handy means of funneling money to Eric Trump’s wife and Don Jr.’s girlfriend. 
   
• In other corrupt mishandling of campaign funds, the Trump Victory PAC paid about $400,000 to the Trump International Hotel between April and June, and Trump’s for profit businesses have pocketed at least $970,000 in federal funds, and probably much, much more than that.
   
• George Floyd’s family has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Minneapolis and the police officers involved in his death. Newly available police camera footage showed Floyd pleading for his life during his fatal arrest.
   
• More than 80 people were arrested outside the home of Kentucky’s attorney general, where they were demanding justice for the police killing of Breonna Taylor.
   
• Bestselling author Mary Trump said she witnessed “knee-jerk antisemitism, a knee-jerk racism” among her family: “Growing up, it was sort of normal to hear them use the n-word or use antisemitic expressions.”
   
• Just making sure everyone knows about Ziwe Fumudoh?

The Trump administration may impose a travel ban on members of China’s Communist Party and their families. It’s a little easier said than done: The Chinese Communist Party has 92 million members, and the U.S. has no easy way of identifying them. The draft of the plan would also authorize the government to revoke the visas of CCP members who are already in the country. The ban would be the Trump administration’s most aggressive move against China since Trump initiated the trade war in 2018, and would almost certainly provoke retaliation against Americans looking to visit or stay in China.

When 3 o’clock rolls around and you’re not feeling so perky, remember: it’s not laziness, it’s biology. Our energy levels naturally dip in mid afternoon, and it’s totally normal to feel like your mind has switched to low power mode.

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Oxford scientists found early evidence that their potential coronavirus vaccine provides “double protection”: volunteers who received the vaccine showed both antibody and T-cell responses. If all goes well in future trials, that vaccine could be available as soon as September.

New polling research found that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of bold government action on climate change, and skeptical of Republican attacks on climate action. 

Target and CVS are the latest major retailers to require customers to wear masks.