Maybe The Whole World Feels Like It's Falling Apart Because It Is-- And Maybe We Need Better Leadership... MUCH Better Leadership

Never Waste A Serious Crisis by Nancy Ohanian

The pandemic hit South Korea early through crowded churches. The entire society mobilized and beat the crap out of the coronavirus. Korea has been a model of how to handle this-- a model followed by some countries but not others. Korea has only had 10,874 cases (same number as Minnesota-- and South Korea has 10 times more people) and 256 deaths. More importantly the country has had just 212 cases per million in their population. That's tiny. The U.S. has had over 4,100 cases per million! The American states with the fewest cases are doing worse than South Korea:

• Oregon- 765 cases per million
• West Virginia- 760 cases per million
• Alaska- 518 cases per million
• Hawaii- 446 cases per million
• Montana- 429 cases per million

And then something horrible happened. They controlled the outbreak in churches and stopped the spread-- until now. It's back. Caseloads are inching up. Bloomberg reported that on Korea's second wave tied to nightclubs in Seoul and Itaewon visited by just one patient. He exposed between 6 and 7 thousand people. Closing the barn door late, "Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Saturday ordered the closing of all nightclubs, discos, hostess bars and other similar nightlife establishments in the capital."

The pandemic didn't hit Britain as quickly or with as much force as it did other European countries. Britain got off easy-- at first. Same with Russia. Phase One passed them both by. Now both countries (plus Brazil) are paying. The countries reporting the largest number of new cases over the weekend other than the U.S. were Russia, Brazil and the U.K. Let's leave Brazil and Russia out of this for the moment and look at the cases per million in the western European countries:

• Spain- 5,661 cases per million
• Ireland- 4,657 cases per million
• Belgium- 4,580 cases per million
• Italy- 3,623 cases per million
• Switzerland- 3,502 cases per million
• U.K.- 3,229 cases per million
• France- 2,710 cases per million
• Portugal- 2,705 cases per million
• Sweden- 2,606 cases per million
• Netherlands- 2,488 cases per million
• Germany- 2,050  cases per million

Other than Britain, most of those countries are seeing the curve flatten. Britain-- which has had the same individualistic, selfish outlook as the U.S.-- is watching the curve steepen. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that "After a week of mixed messages that started with Johnson indicating there will be changes to the lockdown beginning Monday, the government has sought to douse speculation that they will amount to much. That’s because the U.K., which has recorded the most coronavirus-related deaths in Europe at 31,662, is still seeing a relatively high number of infections. Johnson is expected to announce modest changes in his pre-recorded televised address, including quarantining anyone flying into the country for 14 days except those from Ireland, amid rising evidence that Britons are increasingly flouting the 'stay at home' message. British police warned Saturday that they are 'fighting a losing battle' on this front... Professor Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London said people need 'clear, concise and accurate' messages on what to do during the pandemic. 'This one is concise only,' she said. 'It will just be confusing, be open to misinterpretation and likely to increase risky behaviour.'"

Speaking of which... on a conference call with former members of his administration, Obama tore into Trump's catastrophic response to the pandemic. "This election that’s coming up on every level is so important because what we’re going to be battling is not just a particular individual or a political party. What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy-- that has become a stronger impulse in American life. And by the way, we’re seeing that internationally as well. It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty. It would have been bad even with the best of governments. It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset-- of 'what’s in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else'-- when that mindset is operationalized in our government."

And who can't see that every damn day? Yesterday a top Washington Post team of reporters-- Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Phil Rucker and Yaseen Abutaleb-- wrote about Trump's obsession for reopening the economy while it still is far from safe and how he just does not give a damn about the workers. "In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country," they wrote, "and the number of dead soared past 78,000 80,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall. But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to-- and asking Americans to accept-- a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation."

[H]ealth officials warn the number of coronavirus cases could increase considerably in May and June as more states and localities loosen restrictions, and some mitigation efforts are still recommended as states begin to reopen.

The administration is struggling to expand the scale of testing to what experts say is necessary to reopen businesses safely, and officials have not announced any national plan for contact tracing. Trump and some of his advisers are prioritizing the psychology of the pandemic as much as, if not more than, plans to combat the virus, some aides and outside advisers said-- striving to instill confidence that people can comfortably return to daily life despite the rising death toll.

On Friday, as the unemployment rate reached a historically high 14.7 percent, Trump urged Americans to think of this period as a “transition to greatness,” adding during a meeting with Republican members of Congress: “We’re going to do something very fast, and we’re going to have a phenomenal year next year.” The president predicted the virus eventually would disappear even without a vaccine-- a prediction at odds with his own science officials.

...Some of Trump’s advisers described the president as glum and shell-shocked by his declining popularity. In private conversations, he has struggled to process how his fortunes suddenly changed from believing he was on a glide path to reelection to realizing that he is losing to the likely Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, in virtually every poll, including his own campaign’s internal surveys, advisers said. He also has been fretting about the possibility that a bad outbreak of the virus this fall could damage his standing in the November election, said the advisers, who along with other aides and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The president is also eager to resume political travel in June, including holding his signature rallies by the end of the summer in areas where there are few cases, advisers said. Trump’s political team has begun discussions about organizing a high-dollar, in-person fundraiser next month, as well as preliminary planning about staging rallies and what sort of screenings might be necessary, according to Republican National Committee officials and outsider advisers. One option being considered is holding rallies outdoors, rather than in enclosed arenas, a senior administration official said.

Officials also are forging ahead with the Republican National Convention planned for late August in Charlotte, albeit a potentially scaled-back version.

But Trump’s outward projections of assurance and hope masked the more sober acknowledgments of some outside advisers and experts who worry the number of deaths will either stabilize around 2,000 per day or continue to climb over the next month.

“The question is, will people become anesthetized to it? Are they willing to accept that?” said one adviser to the White House coronavirus task force who, like many others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters or offer candid assessments.

Stephen Moore, a conservative economist who has been informally advising Trump and his team, said making people comfortable returning to work and resuming normal activities will take a long time.

“I’m the biggest advocate for getting the economy up and running there is, but I have two relatives who think I’m crazy, and they’re not going out of their house no matter what,” Moore said. “Just because the president and governors open up a state doesn’t mean that commerce is going to instantly resume. It’s not.”

...The task force’s new strategy came amid broader internal debate about the future of the Pence-led group. On Tuesday, the New York Times first reported that the administration was talking about dismantling the task force, which Pence confirmed to reporters shortly thereafter. The next morning, however, Trump announced on Twitter that the group would “continue on indefinitely with its focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN.”

Administration officials stressed that the public may have an outsized impression of the task force. Its purpose was largely to provide a centralized forum for analyzing virus data and crafting response plans, through daily Situation Room meetings, as well as to share information with the public through daily White House press briefings, while much of the government’s substantive work took place at various agencies. The goal behind disbanding the task force, officials argued, was simply to center all coronavirus efforts in the agencies where they could be handled more efficiently.

Whereas initially the task force found itself scrambling to deploy a whack-a-mole management effort, dealing with regular crises as they emerged — from coronavirus-infected cruise ships to the urgent need for ventilators — the administration now intends to shift its focus to what is says is more strategic longer-term planning.

“I think we’re in a really good position now to be able to look around the corner and set ourselves up for the fall,” said Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary.

However, White House officials declined to provide any specifics as to what the long-term strategy is, what the different plans will look like, and who is leading the various efforts.

The task force had already begun to curtail briefings, following a disastrous performance last month when Trump suggested the idea of injecting disinfectants, such as bleach, to treat the virus.

Although Trump and his aides have boasted that the number of Americans tested continues to rise — the total was 8.4 million as of Saturday — allies and other public health experts bemoan the slow pace. They argue that the country could have tested far more people and initiated a contact tracing plan had the president and his team focused more strategically on that in recent weeks.

“It’s incredibly sad and it shouldn’t be the case,” a former senior administration official said. “We should have testing and contact tracing and we don’t. That’s a concern.” The official added, “You can’t have just whatever the shiny ball is today. You have to be able to do more than one thing at a time and deal with more than one crisis point at a time.”

More than anything, three advisers said, Trump is focused on how to turn the economy around and reopen the country, seeing a nascent recovery as key to getting reelected and his handling of the economy as one of his only strengths in the polls over Joe Biden.

“Given that we’re going to be at 15 or 20 percent unemployment, it is the direction of the economy, rather than the raw numbers of the economy, that I think voters will judge him on,” said Neil Newhouse, a prominent GOP pollster.

The president and senior White House advisers have begun holding meetings on a range of topics other than the coronavirus, such as a session Friday on the thrift savings plan in the Oval Office and a Monday session on health care.

Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has been running his own coronavirus effort, has begun interviewing candidates for a new position focused on finding vaccines and therapeutics, but some administration officials say it is another instance of Kushner stepping into territory he knows little about.

On Thursday afternoon, Trump huddled in the Oval Office with a mix of campaign aides and White House officials. No one wore masks, though campaign manager Brad Parscale did tweet a photo of himself in the West Wing sporting sunglasses and a white mask with red “Trump Pence 2020” lettering. Parscale brought five prototype campaign masks to show the president and is planning to send out 50,000 to supporters across the country.

As the president was updated on the Republican convention, various lawsuits the Republican Party and Trump campaign have launched against states over voting rules, and political ads attacking Biden over China, he appeared to be in a good mood, said three people familiar with the meeting.

But reality kept intruding. The same day, news broke that one of Trump’s personal valets, a Navy chief petty officer, had tested positive for coronavirus. And on Friday, Trump himself revealed the name of another White House staffer who had just tested positive for the virus: Miller, the vice president’s press secretary.

At the same time, another Washington Post reporting team-- Karen DeYoung, Katie Mettler and Meryl Kornfield-- were noting how caseloads are increasing in the states opening up too early. They wrote that "Easing of social distancing guidelines-- whether by government edict or individual decision-- has led to new coronavirus flare-ups in the United States and abroad, even as pressure builds to loosen restrictions that have kept millions isolated and decimated economies."

Officials in Pasadena, California, warned Saturday against Mother’s Day gatherings after a cluster of new covid-19 cases was identified there among a large group of extended family and friends attending a recent birthday party, despite a stay-at-home order in effect.

Through contact tracing, investigators discovered more than five confirmed cases and “many more ill individuals” linked to the party, the local public health department said.

The controversy over when, and how much, to open up has taken on sharp political overtones, with protests and occasional violence against those trying to keep the rules in place.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement that a report by the Associated Press alleging the White House had held back restrictive recommendations from experts on how to safely reopen hinged on a premature “draft” that “had not been vetted through the interagency process.”

Trump administration officials previously said that the recommendations were overly specific and did not take into account regional differences in the threat level.

In a series of Saturday tweets, President Trump accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of opening a public polling place to favor Democrats in a special congressional election to be conducted largely by mail-in ballots next week, while Newsom has refused to open “restaurants, beaches and stores.”

Voters were encouraged to vote by mail because of the novel coronavirus, with a few in-person polling places. Democrats in the district had raised concerns that a city with a large African American population didn’t have an in-person voting place, leading the new voting center to be added... Because of the coronavirus, voters were encouraged to mail-in ballots, with every voter receiving a pre-stamped ballot to fill out and return. But a limited number of in-person polling places were long planned to be open, and one was added recently in Lancaster.

Tesla on Saturday filed a lawsuit against the California county that has prohibited the electric car company from producing vehicles during the outbreak.

The company alleged in its suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, that Alameda County had violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and sought an injunction that would allow the company to operate. Its Fremont manufacturing plant is located in that county.

The suit followed chief executive Elon Musk threatening in a series of tweets earlier Saturday that the company would sue and move Tesla’s headquarters and future programs to Texas and Nevada. He appeared to leave open the possibility of maintaining some operations in Fremont depending “on how Tesla is treated in the future.”

South Korean officials, who recently began to loosen social distancing requirements, ordered more than 2,100 nightclubs, discos and bars in Seoul to close Saturday after the country recorded dozens of new cases linked to partygoers in the city last weekend.

In Germany, where the government has outlined a cautious but steady opening, hundreds of workers in at least three meat-processing plants have tested positive for the coronavirus, medical and local officials said. Word of the new infections came as Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in her weekly video message to the nation, said that “we are excited to take the first steps towards normal, everyday life.”

As governments try to balance health and economic priorities, medical experts have said that new flare-ups are inevitable, but that widespread testing and contact tracing are key to preventing breakouts. Both South Korea and Germany have been among the countries adopting the strictest shutdown measures and providing the most testing and contact tracing.

Trump, who has pressed to reopen schools and businesses sooner rather than later, said Friday that “testing isn’t necessary.”

On Saturday, two senior members of the administration’s coronavirus task force said they would self-quarantine after being exposed at the White House.

Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn will isolate for two weeks, the CDC and FDA said, after coming into contact with White House staffers who have tested positive for the virus.

Vice President Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, and one of President Trump’s personal valets tested positive last week, although neither they, nor Redfield or Hahn, have been reported ill.

France and Spain, among the hardest-hit countries, but with declining death rates, have scheduled partial reopenings this week. Italy recorded a decline in new infections, but remains the country with the third-highest confirmed death toll, at more than 30,000, behind Britain, with nearly 32,000, and the United States, the highest at more than 78,000 80,697.

Maybe Elon Musk, a South African asshole, thinks he can sell his Teslas in Mississippi and West Virginia. Good luck with that, prick. If Californians stop buying his defective cars-- as they should-- he's out of business in less than a year-- and is exactly what he deserves. Let him go try to peddle his products in Texas and the Dakotas.