edit: And now I can see why Navarro lost his cool yesterday when pressed on how he was qualified to speak on the pandemic. Sounds like he was trying to sound the alarm behind the scenes but was silenced.
quote:
In late January, President Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues the novel coronavirus could take more than half a million American lives and cost close to $6 trillion, according to memos obtained by Axios.
The state of play: By late February, Navarro was even more alarmed, and he warned his colleagues, in another memo, that up to two million Americans could die of the virus.
Navarro's grim estimates are set out in two memos — one dated Jan. 29 and addressed to the National Security Council, the other dated Feb. 23 and addressed to the president. The NSC circulated both memos around the White House and multiple agencies. In the first memo, which the New York Times was first to report on, Navarro makes his case for "an immediate travel ban on China." The second lays the groundwork for supplemental requests from Congress, with the warning: "This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill." Why it matters: The president quickly restricted travel from China, moved to delay re-entry of American travelers who could be infected, and dispatched his team to work with Congress on stimulus funds.
But Trump was far slower to publicly acknowledge the sort of scenarios Navarro had put in writing. One senior administration official who received Navarro's memos said at the time they were skeptical of his motives and thus his warnings: “The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options."
"The supplemental memo lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed."
Major topic of discussion at yesterday's presser with Pritzker and Lightfoot was that 70 percent of deaths in IL from the virus are African Americans. I've heard similar, or even worse, numbers coming out of Louisiana.
Van Jones on what he believes are some of the factors at play.
President Donald Trump has upended the panel of federal watchdogs overseeing implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus law, tapping a replacement for the Pentagon official who was supposed to lead the effort.
A panel of inspectors general had named Glenn Fine — the acting Pentagon watchdog — to lead the group charged with monitoring the coronavirus relief effort. But Trump on Monday removed Fine from his post, instead naming the EPA inspector general to serve as the temporary Pentagon watchdog in addition to his other responsibilities.
quote:
Fine’s removal is Trump’s latest incursion into the community of independent federal watchdogs — punctuated most dramatically by his late Friday ouster of the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, whose handling of a whistleblower report ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment.
Trump has also begun sharply attacking Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, following a report from her office that described widespread testing delays and supply issues at the nation’s hospitals.
“Another Fake Dossier!” Trump tweeted, mentioning Grimm’s tenure as inspector general during the Obama administration. He didn’t mention, though, that Grimm has been serving as a federal watchdog since 1999, spanning administrations of both parties.
Trump’s targeting of Atkinson drew an unusual rebuke from Michael Horowitz, the inspector general of the Justice Department who also oversees a council of inspectors general. Horowitz said Atkinson handled the whistleblower matter appropriately and defended the broader IG community.
“The Inspector General Community will continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the agencies that we oversee,” he said in a statement after Atkinson’s ouster. Atkinson, too, issued a lengthy statement Saturday accusing Trump of removing him for following whistleblower laws.
Trump's allies in Congress have mostly ignored his recent moves against inspectors general, though Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) recently said they'd ask the administration for a fuller explanation about Atkinson's ouster. On Tuedsay, Grassley offered gentle advice to Trump, urging him to consider IG findings as "a TO DO list & not criticism."
"I encourage Pres Trump 2view IGs as helpers 2hold bureaucracy accountable+draining swamp," Grassley tweeted.
Andrea Bocelli is here to make your Easter Sunday more uplifting with “a message of love, healing and hope” as the world grapples with a global health crisis.
The Italian opera legend will give a concert Sunday in the historic Duomo cathedral in Milan, Italy, and it will be livestreamed on YouTube. The cathedral is closed to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic, so Bocelli will perform to an empty venue....
“Bocelli: Music for Hope” is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. in Italy, which is 10 a.m. Pacific. The live performance will be seen exclusively on Bocelli’s YouTube channel.
Lady Gaga has teamed up with the World Health Organization and Global Citizen for a "One World: Together At Home" special to raise money to battle the ongoing pandemic, and Apple is donating money to the cause.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the donation in a video shared on the YouTube channel for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Lady Gaga called Apple's $10 million donation "quite sizable."
In the video, Jimmy Fallon and Lady Gaga FaceTime Cook, who confirms Apple's plans to donate to the initiative. According to Gaga, more than $35 million has already been raised by tech companies ahead of the special.
"One World: Together at Home" is set to air on Saturday, April 18 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time/8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It will be available on major cable networks and it will be live streamed by Apple, Amazon, FaceBook, YouTube, and more. Funds raised both ahead of and during the event will support the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
The event will feature appearances and musical performances from Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, David Beckham, Eddie Vedder, Elton John, FINNEAS, Idris and Sabrina Elba, J Balvin, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kerry Washington, Lang Lang, Lizzo, Maluma, Paul McCartney, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan, and Stevie Wonder.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to slash federal funding for the World Health Organization, accusing the United Nations specialized agency of being “very China centric” and criticizing its early guidance aimed at countering the international spread of the coronavirus.
“The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“We‘re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we‘re going to see,“ Trump said at the outset of a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House.
