Foreign Correspondent: Rightwing Populism Will Make You Sick-- Really... The World’s Worst Outbreaks Are Occurring In Nations With Authoritarian Leaders, Like Trump.

 

-by Reese Erlich
 @ReeseErlich

The four countries with the most confirmed COVID-19 infections in the world are all led by rightwing populists: the US, India, Brazil, and Russia. Throw in the United Kingdom, which has the largest infection rate in Europe, and you have a common pattern.

Leaders of these countries pose as men of the people battling the elites. In reality, they channel people’s darkest fears and prejudices into policies that benefit the ultra wealthy.

Rightwing populists initially downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, adopting dangerous public health policies that ultimately infected themselves, close supporters, and aides. These were not mistakes or bad luck, but rather the inevitable outcome of putting Dr. Frankenstein in charge of health policy and making Igor chief of implementation.

A virus has no politics

When the virus began to spread globally in March, it had no inherent politics. Public health officials worldwide agreed to use traditional anti-epidemic protocols: widespread testing, contact tracing, and quarantine. There were no leftwing masks or rightwing ventilators.

But as many countries failed to contain the pandemic, a battle broke out between medical officials who want to minimize public interaction and the big business class, which wants to keep companies open.

In general, union workers sided with medical experts in seeking to make workplaces safe. Corporate executives sought to open factories regardless of health costs, or at least receive massive government subsidies during the shutdown.

The administration of Donald Trump, wary of openly siding with its corporate bosses, instead played the populist card. Last May, in Michigan and some other states, a few hundred small business people and workers held demonstrations demanding that the government allow the economy to reopen.

Trump promoted the small protests as proof of a grassroots rebellion. A barbershop owner became the symbol of Americans demanding an end to pandemic shutdowns. Armed militia members stood guard as the barbershop’s owner, Karl Manke, reopened in defiance of a public health order. As one article reported, they were “wearing Trump sweatshirts and Trump cowboy hats and waving Trump flags.”

Mask: symbol of tyranny

In short order, the Trump Administration made refusal to wear a mask a symbol of American independence. The President’s followers eschewed wearing masks or keeping six feet apart at public events, or even while grocery shopping.

Few Americans have qualms about businesses protecting their operations by posting signs reading “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.” But when the same businesses require customers to wear masks, it’s totalitarianism.

Trump became trapped by his own rhetoric and egotism. He rarely wears a mask at the White House and many of his staffers follow suit. The administration has held super spreader events, such as a September 26 Rose Garden celebration of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

This week, Trump advisor Stephen Miller became the thirty-fourth White House denizen to test positive for COVID-19. Nearly all members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are quarantined after one high ranking officer tested positive.

But Trump was not alone in endangering his staff and the public.

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson, who comes from an upper-middle-class family and studied at Oxford, portrays himself as a quirky man of the people. He and the Conservative Party won Britain’s last parliamentary election by calling for a quick withdrawal from the European Union, a long-time demand of the British left and popular with many workers.

During the pandemic, Johnson played the populist card by claiming to represent ordinary people who just wanted to return to work. Johnson claimed the United Kingdom could quickly develop herd immunity, which would immunize a majority of its residents, save lives, and produce a prosperous economy.

It didn’t work. The United Kingdom has faced several waves of contagion, and today it has one of the worst records in Europe: 544,000 confirmed cases and 42,500 deaths.

Johnson also made the mistake of believing his own propaganda by not taking precautions at 10 Downing Street. Starting in March, top U.K. leaders became infected, including Johnson, the health secretary, chief advisor to the prime minister, and the country’s chief medical officer.

While spouting platitudes about how well he was recovering at the time, Johnson later admitted he came close to death.

As with Trump, who celebrated his return from the hospital by ripping off his mask before walking into the White House, the experience has not made Johnson noticeably wiser. His pandemic policies still flounder and popularity plummets.

Disasters in common

The world’s major rightwing populist leaders share some disastrous policies in common. They downplay the significance of the pandemic, fail to follow the advice of medical experts, and fire advisors who insist on fact-based policies.

In August, Trump appointed Scott Atlas as a special advisor on the pandemic. He is not an epidemiologist or a public health expert. But he is a doctor who frequently appeared on Fox News and works at Stanford University’s rightwing Hoover Institution. One hundred-some of his Stanford colleagues wrote an open letter sharply criticizing Atlas’s pro-Trump views on the pandemic.

“Many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities,” they wrote.

Making Atlas a coronavirus advisor is like appointing Dr. Frankenstein to head the city morgue. He helped create a monster who stalks the streets of the US all the way to the White House.

Trump is now betting on the quick development of a vaccine, claiming it will be publically available later this year. Once again “America First” ignores developments elsewhere. Both China and Russia are already distributing vaccines. But it will take many more months to prove their efficacy and begin widespread inoculations.

Yet Trump says a US vaccine will be ready soon. Why shouldn’t we believe him? He’s done such a great job so far.

Just As The Clash Warned, The U.K. Is Headed Straight To Hell

 

Trump is still telling his simpleminded supporters that-- even as the U.S. hurtles towards a quarter million COVID-deaths-- there's really no problem at all. "It affects elderly people, elderly people with heart problems and other problems. That’s what it really affects," he said yesterday. And on Fox a day before, he said "We’ve done a phenomenal job, not just a good job, a phenomenal job" and said he deserves an A+ for his efforts. No doubt the New Axis is delighted-- plus Duterte and Bolsinaro-- but most of the world is astounded, if not horrified. Yesterday, Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser said that the U.S. is increasingly seen as "an object of pity including by our allies, because they are so shocked by what's happening internally, how we're eating ourselves alive with our divisions." Putin sure made a wise investment when he spent a few million dollars to elect Trump in 2016.

Europe is starting the second wave now and number are spiking everywhere. None of the countries are doing badly compared to Trumpland but... no one compares themselves to the hellhole Trump has turned the U.S. into. There are now 21,446 cases per million Americans. The worst-hit European countries-- Spain (14,591 per million residents), Sweden (8,875 per million residents) and Belgium (8,912 per million residents)-- don't come anywhere close. But Europeans aren't thinking about how badly Trump is doing as a national leader; they're thinking about their own neighbors getting sick and dying. Reports from Europe so far this week have been terrible.

The U.K. has the 4th most cases after Russia, Spain and France-- 403,551, after 13,193 new cases were reported this week (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday). That's 5,937 cases per million Brits, not as bad Spain, Belgium, Sweden France, Russia or France, but worse than Holland, Italy, Denmark or Germany. The real problem for the U.K. though is that they have the most COVID deaths in Europe-- 41,825 as of yesterday. Only Belgium and Spain have more deaths per million residents.





Yesterday Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka reporting from London for the Associated Press, wrote that British prime minister Boris Johnson seems to have woken up to the catastrophic road his country has been headed down. He warned Brits that they shouldn't expect to return to a normal social or work life for at least six months and ordered new (half-asses and woefully ineffective) restrictions, likely to prove deadly in their cravenness. Example: he announced he will require pubs, restaurants and other entertainment venues in England to close down between 10 pm and 5 am and urging people to work from home where possible. Is that because you can't catch the virus before 10 pm or after 5 am? Johnson is another sickening, cowardly politician, petrified to anger voters.

Johnson had encouraged workers just weeks ago to go back into offices to keep city centers from becoming ghost towns, and he expressed hope that society could return to normal by Christmas. In a stark change of tone, he said Tuesday that “for the time being, this virus is a fact of our lives.”

“We will spare no effort in developing vaccines, treatments and new forms of mass testing, but unless we palpably make progress, we should assume that the restrictions I have announced will remain in place for perhaps six months,” Johnson told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

The announcement came a day after the government’s top scientific and medical advisers said new coronavirus infections were doubling every seven days and could rise to 49,000 a day by mid-October if nothing was done to stem the tide.

On Monday, the government reported 4,300 new confirmed cases, the highest number since May and four times the number seen a month ago. Chief medical officers have raised the U.K.’s virus alert level from three to four, the second-highest rung, saying cases of COVID-19 were rising “rapidly and probably exponentially.”

The new restrictions require face masks to be worn in taxis as well as on public transport. The size of some gatherings is being curtailed, with weddings limited to 15 people instead of 30, and a plan to bring spectators back into sports stadiums starting in October is being put on hold.

Johnson did not reduce the number of people who can gather indoors or out, which remains at six.

The British government is also increasing the penalties for breaking the rules. People who breach orders to quarantine face fines of up to 10,000 pounds ($12,800) and businesses that breach “COVID-secure” rules can be shut down.

The measures apply only to England. Other parts of the U.K. introduced similar curbs, but some went further in limiting social interactions.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who has often struck a more cautious note than Johnson during the pandemic, said that with a few exceptions, people would be barred from visiting others’ homes, and car-sharing would be discouraged.

Sturgeon said the measure would be reviewed every three weeks but “may be needed for longer than that.” She said she hoped it would be less than six months.

The new restrictions outlined by Johnson are less stringent than the nationwide lockdown imposed in March, which confined most of the population and closed most businesses. Britain eased its lockdown starting in June as cases began to fall, but that trend has now been reversed.

The prime minister said if the new curbs did not slow the outbreak, “we reserve the right to deploy greater firepower, with significantly greater restrictions.”

Still, some lawmakers from Johnson’s governing Conservative Party are uneasy about tightening restrictions on business and daily life, citing the impact on Britain’s already-reeling economy.

To persuade people to stay home if they test positive for the virus, the government announced it would pay low-income workers 500 pounds ($639) if they are told to self-isolate for 14 days.

Businesses, especially in the areas of hospitality, sports and the arts, said they urgently needed support, too.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UKHospitality, said before the announcement that the restrictions would be “another crushing blow” for many businesses.

But most epidemiologists believe more restrictions are again necessary and even worry that the government’s plans may not go far enough.

Polls suggest a majority of people in Britain support lockdown measures to contain the virus. But they also show that trust in the Conservative government’s handling of the pandemic has declined after troubles with testing, mixed messages on reopening and the U.K.’s high death toll.

Meanwhile anti-mask right-wingers have been rioting in London this week. Like so many Trump fans, they claim COVID is a hoax and that the vaccine (which doesn't exist yet) will be more harmful than the coronavirus itself and that fighting the pandemic is tyranny and an affront to their liberty. See? And you thought people like that only lived in Wyoming, the Dakotas and on Fox News? YouTube is filled with videos being disseminated by Russian propaganda outlets seeking to cause disruption and to shatter social cohesion.

Branded by Nancy Ohanian

Some Political Leaders Are Taking The Pandemic Seriously And Some Are Definitely NOT

Albania was one of the most overtly corrupt cesspools of a country I have ever visited. And I've been to every corrupt cesspool on earth. There is no reason, or almost no reason, to believe their pandemic numbers. They report 868 confirmed cases and 31 COVID-19 deaths. They report that there are just 302 cases per million people. That's one of the mildest pandemics in Europe. Albania has about 2.9 million people, similar to Lithuania and Armenia. Lithuania is reporting 1,479 confirmed cases and 50 deaths (543 cases per million) and Armenia is reporting 3,313 confirmed cases, 45 deaths (1,118 cases per million).

Albanians seemed to me like unruly people with minimal respect for social mores and laws. So maybe the numbers are bullshit. Or... maybe the strong punishment for violating social distancing is working. Reuters reported that Albania amended its penal code... to punish anyone breaking coronavirus quarantine and self-isolation rules and infecting others with up to eight years in jail as it slowly prepares to restart sections of its economy. Critics of the tougher measure said fines were proving effective but Prime Minister Edi Rama defended the new penalty as necessary for successfully relaxing the lockdown. Rama said the government believed about 2,800 people would have died if lockdown rules had not been imposed... Police have fined more than 7,000 people and suspended 1,800 driving licenses. According to the new law, anyone infected with the coronavirus who broke self-isolation or quarantine rules and infected others, wilfully or not, would face from two to eight years in jail if his or her action caused grave harm, including death.

“These measures are being taken because we are going to relax (lockdown rules). We are winning the battle on the health front. And we shall win it on the economy front,” Rama said.

In asking parliamentarians to vote for the tougher law, Rama described quarantine rule-breakers as similar to carrying a bomb, in this case the new coronavirus.

“A bomb does nothing else but kill people,” Rama said.

Poorer than most in Europe, Albania enforced a tough isolation soon after its first case was detected on March 9 in a man coming from Italy, one of the worst-hit countries, because it feared its spread might overwhelm its weak health system.

Since Monday, Albania has enforced a weekday lockdown from 5:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next day and allows one person per family to shop for 90 minutes. Some industries keep working.

Until recently, Singapore had kept its rates of infection very low and looked like it had vanquished the pandemic. People in Singapore who do not observe physical distancing rules can be fined up to $6,985 or jailed up to six months, or face both penalties.

For the most part, California had also been having a relatively easy pandemic-- 67,986 confirmed cases, 2,719 deaths and 1,721 cases per million, number that have been steadily creeping up as more and more people have started ignoring the social distancing rules. Yolo County in northern California has only 173 confirmed cases and 20 deaths. Although endorsement has been very lax, on paper "egregious violators face arrest or citation, which carries a punishment of up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine between $50 and $1,000. No one has gone to jail and how many people care about a $50 fine?

“We’re receiving more complaints about people using playground equipment, tennis courts, basketball courts, and not adequately spacing when riding or walking on greenbelts,” creating potential coronavirus breeding grounds, Police Chief Darren Pytel said.

In some cases, people have ripped down yellow caution tape in order to use the blocked-off facilities, while more middle- and high-school aged kids are grouping up in parks.

Between emails and calls to dispatchers, the complaints have numbered a dozen or more per day, with some demanding stronger enforcement action for the rule breakers, Pytel said.

This week’s springlike weather was the likely culprit, and “we know that it will be much more difficult to stay inside,” Pytel said. But with COVID-19 still causing deaths in Yolo County and beyond, “we are asking people to dig deep now, and hopefully we can turn this around much sooner.”

...“Although we have seen substantial compliance with the orders, law enforcement has seen an increase in the number of complaints regarding large gatherings and businesses failing to follow the rules established by the Public Health Officer,” said the Davis police message, blasted out on social media late Friday afternoon.

Complaints also have come in regarding nonessential businesses still trying to operate, with a local massage parlor and a private school that attempted to work with students on campus among the most recent examples, Pytel said.

Pytel said his agency also is seeing an increase in house-party reports, some gatherings having as many as 40 people in relatively close quarters. Even if the festivities are outside, “people are too close, and that’s how this spreads.”

So far, Davis police haven’t had to arrest or cite anyone for flouting the county order, though “we’ve come close a couple of times” at party scenes, Pytel said. Instead, officers issued noise-violation tickets, which carry a $280 fine.

A local paper in Upstate New York reported that Steuben County officials announced enhanced enforcement of social distancing practices prescribed by New York State on PAUSE, under the authority of Public Health Law Section 12-B. First violations will receive a warning, but any further willful violations are an unclassified misdemeanor. Penalties include up to 1 year in jail, a $2,000 fine, or both. There is no exemption in the law for religious gatherings. Most people obey the rules and some flout them. District Attorney Baker: "Our goals here are simple-- to enforce the law and most importantly to keep people safe. My hope is that through written warnings we can educate, eliminate ignorance, and help people keep themselves safe-- and should they refuse, with this law, we have the tools to deal with those who have the arrogance to willfully put others at risk."

Last month Business Insider reported that "Canada has so far avoided the United States' coronavirus fate, and is taking drastic measures to ensure it stays that way. The country... announced that all travelers entering the country would be required to quarantine themselves for 14 days, even if they aren't showing symptoms of COVID-19... The rules are punishable by a fine of up to $750,000 or a month in jail, and the government will be conducting spot checks to ensure compliance."

Yesterday Boris Johnson announced an increase in fines to £3,200 (almost $4,000) for "lockdown flouters. Fines would gradually increase each time someone was caught. Police would issue penalties of £100, £200, £400, £800, £1600 and then finally £3,200 for the sixth offence... People could also be sent to jail if they did not pay."

This isn't the direction much of the U.S. is taking. Osceola County in central Florida has ended the whole idea of serious enforcement. No more fines for people refusing to wear masks, even though masks are still mandatory. Texas politicians, of course, persist in making everything worse-- which helps explain why the caseload has been rising.

Several prominent Texas conservatives on Wednesday rallied to the defense of Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was fined and sentenced to seven days in jail for intentionally violating an order to shutter her business during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s reopening hair salons on Friday after deeming them nonessential for weeks, said Shelley’s sentence was “excessive,” adding that “jailing Texans for non-compliance with executive orders should always be the last available option.”

“Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety,” said Abbott, a Republican who issued one of the orders defied by Luther. "However, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also a Republican, called Luther’s sentence “outrageous” and demanded that she be released from jail, while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, another Republican, offered to pay Luther’s $7,000 fine or even serve out Luther’s sentence under house arrest.

Those views were echoed by the likes of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, along with a group of conservative activists who on Wednesday gathered in Dallas to protest Luther’s punishment.

That feedback appeared to do little to deter state District Judge Eric Moyé, the Democrat who sentenced Luther.

He released a letter late Wednesday to Paxton from him and 11 other state district judges serving in Dallas County, accusing the attorney general of “most inappropriate and equally unwelcome” conduct for urging Luther’s release.

“It is contrary to the concept of an independent Judiciary and offends the tradition of separation of powers for any member of the Executive Branch of Texas government to interject itself into the proceedings of the judicial branch,” the judges wrote.

They continued: “For the sake of ALL of the citizens of Texas, please let the Judicial process play out without any further interference."

...Moyé said he would consider levying only a fine if Luther apologized and promised to not reopen her salon until she was permitted to do so. But she declined that offer, explaining that it was a matter of survival to keep open the business.

“Feeding my kids is not selfish,” she said at her hearing, which was broadcast on YouTube. “If you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision, but I am not going to shut the salon.”

Moyé told Luther he didn’t doubt her sincerity but said the “rule of law cannot and does not operate when individuals take it upon themselves to decide” what they can and cannot do.

Her case had already prompted outrage in some conservative quarters, particularly those pushing for Texas to reopen more quickly. That criticism intensified after she was taken into custody.

“We shouldn’t be coming down with a seven-day jail, no bail sentence for her wanting to keep her hair salon open because she’s wanting to take care of her family,” Roy said Wednesday in a live-streamed interview with the Texas Tribune.

He has been among the most vocal critics, calling Luther’s punishment “terrible” and “straight up wrong."

“This is so insane," Roy wrote on Twitter, encouraging Luther to tell Moyé to “pound sand” and sharing a link to a GoFundMe account that has already raised more than $325,000 by Wednesday afternoon for the salon owner. “I have no words for what is happening to my state and nation.”

Roy, a former federal prosecutor, acknowledged in his interview with The Tribune that Luther has been violating orders issued by Abbott and Jenkins. He added that he has a “strong concern about the rule of law.”

But the first-term congressman defended the owner of Salon à la Mode by saying “she is acting civilly disobedient in the face of the something she thinks is wrong.”

Asked later on Wednesday by the Dallas Morning News what kind of punishment should be issued to those who violate such an edict in order to deter others from also ignoring them, Roy asked, “What’s the appropriate punishment for speeding 68 in a 65 in the middle of nowhere?”

“Good judges and local leaders find ways to not escalate situations when common sense should prevail,” he said in an emailed statement. “7 days in jail with no bail is clearly out of line. She should be allowed to work.”

Cruz offered a similar sentiment.

“7 days in jail for cutting hair??” he wrote on Twitter. “This is NUTS. And government officials don’t get to order citizens to apologize to them for daring to earn a living.”

So did Crenshaw, a freshman Republican in Congress.

“These punishments are NOT just,” he wrote on Twitter. “They are not reasonable. Small-minded “leaders” across the country have become drunk with power. This must end.”

Paxton on Wednesday wrote to Moyé to urge him to reconsider the sentence and to release Luther. He called the decision " outrageous," “out of touch,” a “shameful abuse of judicial discretion” and a “political stunt.”

Patrick, meanwhile, said Moyé “overreached."

“We want people to follow executive orders, but she said, ‘hey, I am going to feed my kids’ and we understand that,” he said, adding that if Moyé “wants to substitute me for her, and sentence me to 7 days of house arrest, so she can go back to work, that’s fine.”

Conservative activists rallied on Wednesday in downtown Dallas in Luther’s defense. Among them was Michael Quinn Sullivan, the CEO of Empower Texans, a group that’s criticized Abbott and others for restrictions they’ve put into place.

Even Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, on Wednesday visited Salon à la Mode to offer support for Luther.

Even! 

Mike Siegel, the progressive taking on Trump ass-kisser Michael McCaul in the gerrymandered congressional district that snakes from north Austin into the suburbs west of Houston, told me this morning that "This is how Jim Crow works in modern-day Texas. These folks can’t be bothered to get an innocent Black man like Rodney Reed off Death Row, but they will make a big show about how their people can operate with impunity." Julie Oliver, like Mike, is a progressive Democrat running in a gerrymandered district that starts in Austin and wiggles through red counties, but up towards Ft. Worth. This morning she noted that "Texas put a Black woman in prison for 5 years when she accidentally voted while on parole, so I don't think these guys are upset about 'prosecutorial discretion.' We should recognize this for what it is-- a political opportunity for career politicians to distract from their failure to adequately prepare for and respond to a pandemic that has killed 80,000 of our fellow Americans and that has crippled our economy." Time to get serious about driving these Republican crackpots out of office? That's what the thermometer on the right is all about. Please click on it and contribute to Mike and Julie what you can.

Cases in Texas are steadily climbing-- 1,248 more conformed cases on Sunday and 1,376 cases per million. My guess is that that will double before the election.

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.

Sir Keir Starmer Replaces Jeremy Corbyn As Leader Of Labour

This is how Bloomberg News summed up the story for American readers:

After a decade in the political wasteland, members of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party have chosen a moderate, un-flashy lawyer as their new leader. Their hope is that turning the page on the socialist radical Jeremy Corbyn, who was resoundingly rejected by voters last year, will see them re-take power.

Keir Starmer, 57, offers dry competence and seriousness after a turbulent five years under the firebrand Corbyn. At a time when the U.K. is grappling with the global coronavirus crisis and its own exit from the European Union, a steady hand could prove popular.

“Maybe being boringly competent is a magical thing-- because we haven’t got many boringly competent politicians at the moment, particularly in government,” said Steven Fielding, a professor at Nottingham University and historian of the Labour party. “People just flock to him like a safety raft from a sinking ship.”

On Saturday he won 275,780 votes (56.2%) in a three-way race and was elected party leader (over 2 women candidates). He represents a London district (Holborn and St Pancras), served in the shadow cabinet as the Brexit spokesman and was caught on tape opposing Corbyn as party leader. He's anti-Brexit and although widely known as a moderate, claims to be a socialist. He isn't an inspiration leader.

And if Boris Johnson passes away from his COVID-19 infection, the U.K. will need an inspirational leader. Johnson, who tested positive and has been getting worse in home quarantine, was admitted to the hospital today. In a extremely rare TV address, not necessarily in regard to Johnson's condition, Queen Elizabeth urged Brits to stay strong, united and resolute: "While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal."

Ian Welsh Muses On "The Terrible Impulse To Rally Around Bad Leaders In A Crisis"

"When do we get back to normal? I don't think we get back to normal," said my governor earlier this week. (After a long "standby" period, the action starts at 36:13 of the clip.) "I think," he went on to say, "we get to a new normal," adding later, "Let's make sure we're getting the positive lesson, not the negative one." What he had to say, I thought, was pretty darned smart. Even Ian, as we'll see, allows, "He sounds good on TV." There's more to think about, though.

-by Ken

Quick show of hands:

Raise yours if you have not been depressed to see SwampThing's approval ratings soar -- all the way to the majestic 50-percent mark, and maybe (shudder) beyond! --- even as he's been bungling, or maybe cunningly exploiting?, every aspect of the pandemic crisis. And I mean bungling, or exploiting?, not just as badly as the mind could imagine, but maybe worse than at least this mind could have imagined. And here I was thinking that one of my mind's chiefest capabilities is imagining down to the deepest depths of the abyss. Live and learn, I guess.

HI, EVERYONE! I HOPE YOU'RE OK!

And you're all coping, as best any of us can, with the stuff that's going on around us. All we can do is, you know, the best we can do -- about the things in our lives we can each do something about -- that and, I guess, keep trying to expand the catalog of things we can do something about. And I guess that's going to have to be good enough. Isn't it at least better than letting ourselves be paralyzed by hopelessness? Maybe sometime I'll try to write a little more about how I'm coping, but for now I'm mindful that one thing that keeps me going is the kind of human contact we're still permitted -- most abundantly, contact of the online kind.

One thing such contact can do is help me feel that I haven't lost all my marbles. For me, then, it qualified as providential that Ian Welsh on Tuesday delivered a spectacular blogpost called "The Terrible Impulse To Rally Around Bad Leaders In A Crisis." So it's not just me thinking vaguely that this sort of thing does seem to happen a lot, especially in times of, you know, crisis.

I have to confess that in this crisis I've slowly come to accept, kind of respect, perhaps even admire -- what the heck, let me say it, feel almost grateful for Governor Cuomo's now-perpetual televisual presence. Indeed, rewatching some of the appearance preserved in the YouTube clip above, which I'd happened to watch live, I thought again that it sounded darned smart, much of it extraordinary.

My goodness, could what Governor Cuomo had to say be more different in its informed contact with reality from what we hear regularly from other gov't sources, not least the, er, highest-up gov't source? Again, even Ian W credits that "he sounds good on TV." But this isn't enough for Ian to cut him any slack. Of course slack-cutting isn't what we look to Ian for, and the rest of what he has to say about the governor is utterly legit, and way too important to be forgotten.

At least, if we look at the governor's rising approval ratings, it's possible to respond with something other than utter despair. There's no imaginable mitigation for the two "sad clown"s Ian goes on to write about -- aka the second most important leader in the Western world and the most powerful life form in the known world.

So, Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, had his approval ratings soar 30% during the Covid-19 pandemic. There is talk of him becoming US President (presumably this means making him Biden’s VP candidate, then having Biden step aside.)

He sounds good on TV.

Cuomo is attempting to cut funding for Medicaid because he refused to tax the rich, as the crisis continues. A panel Cuomo appointed has recommended 400 billion in cuts to hospitals. He repeatedly said New York City has too many hospital beds. He has let prisoners in New York jails stay in them even as he was warned they would be breeding grounds for the disease. He left going to isolation at least 2 weeks too long.

In other words he’s a neoliberal who wants to cut key resources even during a crisis, and incompetent to boot. Back after 9/11 we saw the same thing happen with Bush Jr. Bush not only ignored warnings about Al-Qaeda’s intention to strike in the US, the actual government response on 9/11 was terrible—the US could not get armed jets into the air, only unarmed ones. It would have been a hilarious display of incompetence if it weren’t for the consequences. Canada had armedjets up before the US: I joked that if we invaded the US we could have destroyed the entire US air force on the ground. (Then given you universal health care.)

Bush was an incompetent, stupid, and mentally challenged (listen to his speeches. He was impaired.) He used the blank check given to him by the rally-round effect to take the country to war with Iraq, a disaster which has spawned disaster after disaster. The money and resources used in Iraq should have been spent on other things: almost on anything else: and the deaths and maiming and rape and torture are his legacy, and the legacy of Americans who ran to an incompetent leader.

Something similar is happening in Britain. Boris Johnson, the PM, has had ratings of his party soar. Boris is the fellow who originally wanted to not do any social distancing at all, based on a herd immunity theory which amounted to “let the maximum number of people die and the hospital capacity be overwhelmed.” Personally Boris bragged about shaking hands with infected Covid-19 patients, then going on and shaking hands with everybody else he met. Personally a typhoid Mary. The Conservative party has spent 10 years defunding the NHS, to the point where it has one of the lowest numbers of hospital beds per capita in the developed world.

Yet Johnson and the Conservative party’s ratings have gone up.

Trump’s ratings, while they have not soared, have gone up, and Trump’s Covid reponse has been beyond incompetent, into delusional Emperor has no clothes territory.

This tendency to rally around even incompetent leaders makes one despair for humanity. The correct response in all cases is contempt and an attempt, if possible, at removal of the corrupt and venal people in charge. Certainly no one should be approving of the terrible jobs they have done.

All three have or will use their increased power to do horrible things. The Coronavirus bailout bill passed by Congress and approved by Trump is a huge bailout of the rich, with crumbs for the poor and middle class. So little, in fact, that there may be widespread hunger soon. Cuomo is pushing forward with his cuts, and I’m sure Johnson will live down to expectations.

Incompetence and ideological blindness to the good of the people are, then, encouraged by the behaviour of the masses. This, it seems, is what they want.

We break that, or over the crises and catastrophes to come (and the 21st century will be a century of tragedy) we will lose billions we needn’t have.

DWT UPDATE: Don't Worry, The Polls On Trump Are Back To Normal

Change Research just came out with new polling showing Trump's job approval ratings sinking back down to where they were before the pandemic.

We're All In This Together, Right? Surviving This Crisis With Dignity

According to the latest YouGov poll for The Economist, just 20% of Americans think the pandemic is not a national emergency and 15% are unsure. And 22% say they are either not very concerned or not concerned at all about the pandemic. Forget those people they're probably going to die anyway--or vote for conservatives.

One question in the poll was "Do you approve or disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak?"

• Strongly approve- 25%
• Somewhat approve- 20%
• Somewhat disapprove- 15%
• Strongly disapprove- 31%
• Not sure- 8%

The poll also asked some questions about the election to, like the one above, to all registered voters regardless of party. Pay attention:

If the election for president were held today with Donald Trump as the Republican running against a Demo- cratic Party candidate, who would you vote for?

• The Democratic Party candidate- 48%
• Trump- 40%
• It depends- 11%
• I would not vote- 1%

If an election for president were going to be held now and the Democratic nominee was Joe Biden and the Republican nominee was Donald Trump, would you vote for?

• Biden-48%
• Trump- 41%
• other- 4%
• not sure- 5%
• I would not vote- 2%

If an election for president were going to be held now and the Democratic nominee was Bernie Sanders and the Republican nominee was Donald Trump, would you vote for?

• Bernie-48%
• Trump- 41%
• other- 3%
• not sure- 6%
• I would not vote- 2%

Another thing-- voters were asked which issues were important to them. Here are the 5 issues for which respondents over half answered "Very Important" as opposed to "somewhat important" or "unimportant" in one version or another:

• Healthcare- 72%
• Jobs and economy- 66%
• Taxes and government spending- 57%
• Terrorism- 54%
• Education- 53%

Asked which issue is flat-out the most important, numero uno is health care (29%), followed by job and the economy (18%) and climate change and the environment (13%), No other missed were rated #1 by 10%. or more.

This is an important question asking if each of these candidates is honest and trustworthy:

Trump

• yes- 32%
• no- 55%
• not sure- 13%

Biden

• yes- 35%
• no- 41%
• not sure- 24%

Bernie

• yes- 43%
• no- 33%
• not sure- 25%

Yeah, Bernie is seen as the most trustworthy and honest. And he's also as likely to beat Trump as Biden is. Democrats who don't vote for him in the next batch of primaries are out of their minds. And about that honest and trustworthy thing, Frank Rich highlighted why we need a unifying and trustworthy person at the helm for... well, catastrophes like the one we're going through now: Trump Lies His Way Through a Pandemic. "The president who is leading this country into battle cares about no one but himself, continues to lie to Americans daily about the most basic imperatives of a public-health catastrophe, and presides over an administration staffed with incompetent, third-tier bootlickers and grifters. And I am not just talking about Mike Pence, Jared Kushner, and Wilbur Ross. There are now three college seniors serving in White House positions, thanks to a new purge of ostensibly disloyal staffers being conducted by Trump’s former body man, the 29-year-old John McEntee, recently installed as director of the Presidential Personnel Office. Trump calls himself a “wartime president,” but his only previous wartime experience was partying during Vietnam, when he was spared military service because of “bone spurs.” Those bone spurs long ago migrated to his brain. If America rises to the occasion, it will be despite him, not because of him. We’re at the point where even if Trump were to start telling the truth, no one except the most mad-dog MAGA-ites would believe him."

Right now the country is waiting for a bomb to drop: that much-predicted turning point when the metastasis of illness and mass death in the U.S. could match the curve we’ve seen in Italy. Trump’s nonstop lies-- and those of toadies like Pence-- are not just intended to cover up the many failures to prepare for the looming apocalypse (“I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”), or to blame those failures on China and Obama, or to luxuriate in unearned self-congratulation (“I’d rate it a 10”). What the lies are doing now is throwing gasoline on the gathering fire. Why in heaven’s name would Trump, having previously lied about the fast arrival of a vaccine, now tell anxious and desperate Americans two days in a row that unproven and unapproved drugs for malaria and arthritis might rapidly be a “game changer” for treating the coronavirus? Why would Pence, having previously made up fictitious numbers for the amount of tests available, now promise millions of hospital masks even as hospitals from Washington to Washington, D.C., say they will have to reuse masks because of the shortage and the government’s own Centers for Disease Control is suggesting that under-equipped hospitals use bandanas instead? Why does a president cite the Defense Protection Act, which allows him to commandeer industry to produce emergency supplies, while simultaneously telling the states to find much-needed ventilators on their own?

Trump’s answer to that last question was that the federal government is “not a shipping clerk.” He seemed not to understand that it’s ventilators that the nation’s hospitals urgently need, not the postal service. Such is his minimal comprehension of the urgent tasks at hand that Trump’s level of competence doesn’t rise to that of the skipper of the Titanic. The Titanic’s captain may have hit an iceberg, but at least he recognized the scientific reality that icebergs exist.

Up until now Trump’s motives for lying have been to (1) cover up what may prove the most catastrophic failure in the history of the American presidency; (2) to distract the country from the continuing failure in the effort to keep his reelection campaign afloat; (3) to boost the stock market. But another motive is emerging that’s entirely in keeping with the history to date of Trump’s kleptocratic White House: rewarding his family and cronies financially.

A couple of days ago NY Times writers Mark Lander and Stephen Castle, reporting from London looked at what jarred Boris Johnson and Señor Trumpanzee out of their lethargy and indifference about the pandemic and spurred them both-- too late-- into action. They point to "a startling new report on the virus from a team at Imperial College in London. The report, which warned that an uncontrolled spread of the disease could cause as many as 510,000 deaths in Britain, triggered a sudden shift in the government’s comparatively relaxed response to the virus. American officials said the report, which projected up to 2.2 million deaths in the United States from such a spread, also influenced the White House to strengthen its measures to isolate members of the public."'

The project at Imperial College is led by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who said that his country "has struggled in the past few weeks in thinking about how to handle this outbreak long term. Based on our estimates and other teams’, there’s really no option but follow in China’s footsteps and suppress." That means shut down everything which no one has done in the U.S. yet-- not even the governors of California, Illinois and New York, who are pretending to do that, while there are so many exemptions that it's just a joke.

[O]ther experts said the burden on hospitals was clear as far back as the original outbreak in Wuhan, China. Lancet, the British medical journal, published an article in January, based on studying a small group of patients, which found that a third of people had to be admitted to intensive care units.

“I can’t help but feel angry that it has taken almost two months for politicians and even ‘experts’ to understand the scale of the danger from SARS-CoV-2,” said Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of Lancet, on Twitter. “Those dangers were clear from the very beginning.”

Some said governments should treat the report’s projections about suppression policies with the same caution. It says social distancing measures might have to be imposed for 18 months or more, at least intermittently, until a vaccine is developed and tested. But the report acknowledges this is uncertain, given the possibility of drug treatments and the mystery of how the virus is transmitted.

“We’re all using the 1918 pandemic flu handbook,” Dr. Sridhar said. “But we’re in a different position than in 1918. We’re in 2020.”

After days of confusion about the wisdom of encouraging “herd immunity,” the government sought to play down the dispute, arguing that this was not a deliberate part of its strategy but a byproduct of it. But it shifted to a policy of urging people not to go to pubs, restaurants, theaters or museums.

On Tuesday, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said he expected these new, more stringent restrictions to last for months-- and that the authorities would have to monitor very carefully what would happen when they are eventually lifted.

British officials recognize that their health service faces a moment of truth. All non-urgent operations in England will be postponed for at least three months, starting April 15, to free up 30,000 beds to help tackle the coronavirus.

Britain lags behind other European nations in its supply of ventilators. Plans are underway to ramp up their numbers from over 8,000 to 12,000, though officials are reluctant to promise that even this is sufficient.

Underscoring the change in tone, Britain’s finance chief, Rishi Sunak, announced a gargantuan fiscal stimulus to salvage reeling British businesses and to try to stem job losses. The package, worth £330 billion, or $422 billion, will include government-backed loans and tax breaks for companies and a three-month break in mortgage repayments for strapped homeowners.

“We have never in peacetime faced an economic fight like this,” said Mr. Sunak, who also promised support for airports and airlines in the coming days, after Britons were advised against all non-essential travel.

Mr. Johnson hinted on Tuesday that schools could be closed soon. But he still faces criticism for a lack of clarity, including his decision to urge people to avoid pubs and restaurants but not to order their closing. In fact, the government now intends to relax laws to allow pubs to stay open and produce takeout food.

To Mr. Johnson’s embarrassment, one of those promising to visit his local pub was his own father, Stanley Johnson.