Nebraska/Russia-- Ricketts/Putin

Different politicians are handling the pandemic in different ways. Denialism has been pretty rampant though. And it doesn't work. Nebraska's crackpot governor, Pete Ricketts, is unquestionably one of the worst governors confronting the coronavirus-- and his state is starting to suffer in a really major way now. Because Ricketts, always the sociopathic ideologue, refused to issue a stay-at-home order or take the pandemic seriously, Nebraska is on the top of every list of the states heading into a horrific Wave II. Monday, the Omaha World-Herald reported that Ricketts "rejected a call from AARP Nebraska Director Todd Stubbendieck to name long-term care facilities that have had coronavirus cases. Stubbendieck said the disclosures are needed to protect public health and to protect people who live and work at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. As of Wednesday, 455 residents or staff of long-term care facilities had tested positive for the potentially deadly virus, while long-term care residents accounted for two of every three deaths from the virus. Nebraska is one of 13 states in which half of or more deaths are nursing home residents, Stubbendieck said." Instead, Ricketts announced that he would allow dine-in restaurants, hair salons, massage therapy and other close-contact services to reopen Monday. Next Tuesday is primary day in Nebraska-- with in person voting, of course.

Of all the Wave II disaster-zones, Nebraska is looking the worst-- with 4,431 cases per million, far more than other phase-two hot spots like South Dakota (3,976), Iowa (3,922), Indiana (3,658), Colorado (3,452), Mississippi (3,251), Georgia (3,202), Tennessee (2,276), North Dakota (1,992), Utah (1,984), Florida (1,908) and Texas (1,409). These are states that can look forward to unnecessary suffering because they elected bad leaders.

Another right wing authoritarian with zero empathy for his people, Vladimir Putin, has also denied, denied, denied until it was too late. Actually he's still in denial mode and on Monday announced that Russia was ending whatever little there was of an economic shutdown across the country. Russia now has the third most total confirmed cases in the world-- following the U.S. and Spain. Russia, which has been reporting about 11,000 new cases per day for the past week, spent the first half of the pandemic gloating and sneering at the U.S. and western Europe. Yesterday, anti-empathy heads of states had catastrophic increases in cases in their countries. These were the contemptible national leaders who brought on the most new cases yesterday:

• Señor Trumpanzee- 18,196
• Vladimir Putin- 11,656
• Jair Bolsonaro- 6,444
• Boris Johnson- 3,877
• Narendra Modi- 3,607

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has been hospitalized with COVID-19. He's a key Putin crony who's been working for him for two decades. Another close Putin crony, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, is also in hospital being treated for COVID.

Reporters from the Kremlin pool said on Twitter that Peskov was last seen in public on April 30 “at a meeting with Vladimir Putin.” It was not clear whether it means the two were in the same room, as Putin has been conducting all his meetings via teleconference in recent weeks.

Since early in the outbreak, the Russian president minimized meetings and switched to holding daily video calls with Cabinet members and aides.

Peskov’s announcement comes just a day after Putin said Russia was successful in slowing down infections and announced easing some of the nationwide lockdown restrictions.

Russia has reported more than 232,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,100 virus-related deaths, as of Tuesday. Hours before Putin made televised remarks Monday about ending the country’s partial economic lockdown, health officials reported a daily record of over 11,600 new cases.

Russia's statistics are not considered to be accurate and it is widely assumed that Russia's deaths are being drastically under-reported.

Foreign Policy reported Tuesday morning that "Like many of his counterparts at the outset of the pandemic, Russian President Vladimir Putin may have underestimated how bad his country’s outbreak could get. 'The situation is on the whole under control,” Putin said on March 18. “Russia looks much better compared with other countries.' Since then, coronavirus cases have steadily increased. Russia now has approximately 220,000 cases. Only the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom have more. If trends continue, Russia will have overtaken the United Kingdom by the end of today.

Russia’s handling of the coronavirus has not helped Putin, who was planning for his next few terms in power just before the pandemic struck. While still high by Western standards, his support has declined to its lowest levels since he was first elected president. A recent poll by the Levada Center showed a 59 percent approval rating among the Russian public. The Kremlin said it was “not inclined to fully trust” the poll results.

It’s perhaps with these ratings in mind that Putin has ordered an easing of the country’s lockdown restrictions, starting today.

On May 7, Foreign Policy asked 11 Russia experts for an assessment of Putin’s 20 years in charge and what the future holds. Susan Glasser sums up how quickly things have changed for the Russian leader. “May 2020 was meant to be a 20th anniversary party for Putinism, but the party has been canceled,” she writes.