Trump’s Council to Re-Open America is a Basket of Buffoonery

It would be difficult to assemble a more ridiculous team without purposely attempting to do so, but there it is.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner? Had I not seen the list of names, I might have guessed this was straight from The Onion.

Then again, it’s always important to keep in mind, we are discussing Donald Trump.

Not only did Trump hand pick a ridiculous team, he Tweeted that it was his right and his right alone to re-open the economy.

Ivanka Trump

WTF does Ivanka Trump know about re-opening economies?

Wilbur Ross

Not One Doctor

https://twitter.com/A4Ny14/status/1249789329469321216

Franz Kafka Territory

https://twitter.com/Gerald_Weaver_/status/1249804355760467970

Where’s Tiffany?

Trump’s Most Amazing Lie Yet

Trump is attempting a blatant hijacking of states’ rights.

Western States Make Their Own Pact

Washington Governor Jay Inslee made an announcement on the Washington, Oregon and California Western States Pact.

In the coming weeks, the West Coast will flip the script on COVID-19 – with our states acting in close coordination and collaboration to ensure the virus can never spread wildly in our communities.

We are announcing that California, Oregon and Washington have agreed to work together on a shared approach for reopening our economies – one that identifies clear indicators for communities to restart public life and business.

While each state is building a state-specific plan, our states have agreed to the following principles as we build out a West Coast framework.

Pennsylvania and Six Northeast States Chime In

Please consider Pennsylvania One Of Seven States To Work Together On COVID-19 Plans For Reopening

Pennsylvania is one seven states in the northeast that announced Monday they’ll be working together to come up with a plan to reopen their economies once the spread of COVID-19 is under control.

The announcement came during a joint telephone conference, led by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. President Trump tweeted earlier in the day that it is up to him, not the governors, when to reopen the states.

But, when asked about that, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf referred to how state closures have been happening.

“Seeing as how we had the responsibility for closing the state down, I think we probably have the primary responsibility for opening it back up,” Wolf said.

Trump’s Fake News

While there is room to disagree about what needs to be done, there is no doubt about Trump’s fake news proclamation.

He cannot and will not reopen states if governors refuse to go along.

Trump’s attempt to claim he and he alone has the right to make the decision to reopen states is not only fake news, it’s a dangerous attempt at usurping states’ Constitutional rights.

Addendum

“… I like to allow governors to make decisions without overruling them, because from a constitutional standpoint, that’s the way it should be done,” the president said during his Friday Coronavirus Task Force briefing. “If I disagreed, I would overrule a governor, and I have that right to do it. But I’d rather have them — you can call it ‘federalist,’ you can call it ‘the Constitution,’ but I call it ‘the Constitution.’ I would rather have them make their decisions.

“I’m going to have to make a decision, and I hope to God it’s the right decision,” the president said Friday. “But I would say without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

The above snips from No, Trump doesn’t call the shots on reopening states, constitutional scholars say

Steve Vladeck is a law professor at the University of Texas School of law.

Addendum 2

No Doubt Due to Backlash

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner not on task force focused on reopening country, president says

President Donald Trump on Monday said his daughter and adviser Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner will not be members of a new task force focused on reopening the country. Fox News reported earlier that Ivanka Trump and Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the president, were expected to be on the task force.

Addendum 3

Trump Claims Total Authority Over States

“I haven’t asked anybody because I don’t have to”

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

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Jdog1
Jdog1
4 years ago

Mish, you are pretty smart when it comes to money matters, but you should really stay out of politics. Your visceral hatred for Trump comes off a petty and hateful, as liberals most often do.
We are getting ready to go through a great change in our country. One caused by decades of liberal policies both economically and politically.
As history has taught us, times of prosperity tend to make people foolish and reckless and cause economic and political turmoil. Depressions however , tend to make people smarter, more conservative, both economically and politically.
So far as States rights go, the States have whatever rights the Federal Government says they do, that fact was established by Lincoln. The Constitution has been null and void for over 100 yrs.

jfpersona1
jfpersona1
4 years ago
Reply to  Jdog1

“Mish, you are pretty smart when it comes to money matters, but you should really stay out of politics. Your visceral hatred for Trump … Blah-dee-dee-Blah-Blah”

Since you obviously haven’t followed what Mish has posted over time and then upchucked something that is easily refuted just by looking back a few short years, why do you think people should listen to what you have to say?

Carl_R
Carl_R
4 years ago

Coronavirus blasted by deaths from the flu today. In only 2 months, the Coronavirus has already racked up over 25,000 deaths in the US, compared to the 24,000 that the regular flu has killed in an entire year. So far the coronavirus has infected 600,000 Americans, or perhaps 2.4 million if 3/4 of cases go undetected, as some believe. In the end there won’t be “herd immunity” until there is a vaccine, or until 60% of the US has had the infection.

That leaves only 3 options that I can see:

  1. Reopen the US completely, and let Covid19 grow again. It will slow and stop after 200m have been infected. That would mean about 80 times as many reported cases, and 80x more deaths (actually more, because hospitals would be overcrowded). Sweden was planning on taking this route, but they have started to see that it is going to be a disaster.
  2. Reopen partially, and alternate between lockdowns and partially open until there is a vaccine. Try to keep the numbers of cases to a manageable level, but also try to keep the economy functioning. That would mean trying to get deaths back down to, say, 500 a day, and anytime is starts going over that, increase the levels of lockdown in areas that are seeing higher case growth rates. While doing this, try to shelter the elderly and infirm, to protect them as much as possible, though it will be futile.
  3. Try to crush it completely, and then restrict foreign travel so that no one can bring it here. That would mean keeping things locked down for at least a couple more months. This is the approach being taken in New Zealand, for example. China did (supposedly) crush it, but now is facing new cases imported from Russia.

I don’t see Americans tolerating either 1 or 3, so I am guessing we will follow path 2 until there is a vaccine.

I do know that I definitely don’t want it. I’m in perfect health, so I should survive it, but I read troubling reports of lingering damage to lungs, heart, and liver that last long after the covid is over, and which could perhaps be permanent.

DaKine509
DaKine509
4 years ago

This is great. Trump continues to improve our politics. Three left wing west coast states standing up to the Feds? Awesome. Obviously they have no principles and don’t mean it (like Trump). But it’s great to see.

What a bunch of knuckleheads on that committee… as always to be expected of our Federal govt.

johnmiller2577
johnmiller2577
4 years ago

Mish wants the economy closed for a year so he can scream how he has been right all along about the U.S. going into a depression. Fear-mongers like Mish and CNN have caused our country great harm. Don’t listen to them!

aqualech
aqualech
4 years ago

Goddamit already! Some are assuming that going back to work too soon means huge threat of going on the $100k ventilator and dying, ignoring that most don’t even get sick and at the same time we actually have a raging debate in the absence of any real statistics. I see no effort to screen people to see who are unknowingly recovered (testing). It could change everything!

Anda
Anda
4 years ago
Reply to  aqualech

There is a vast amount of data available now, a lot of it partly incompatible but with enough information to draw up a clear picture of the nature of the virus. We have clear data on background infection from some countries, we have clear data on outcomes from others, and so on, it only needs someone intelligent to aggregate those properly to reach a fair conclusion with little margin of error. I have not seen this done, just minor comparisons with assumptions that jump to conclusions. The data sets themselves are shouting out for this to be done and understood, to explain why fatality ratios are so high in some countries but much lower in others for example. None of the information about the virus is positive to my view, but certainly it might not be as extreme as portrayed sometimes.

Then there is the whole field of research about its persistence, reinfection and immunity, sequelae, possible increase or decrease in severity. There should be a clear presentation of known info, and possibilities for that which is unknown, on that.

It would take away a lot of the argument and focus it where needed, and allow people to build an informed view.

As there are unknowns it would still all be argued though. Reality is that people do not want to catch the virus, I think there is enough evidence to justify that fear, but adding a clearer perspective would only help them manage their reaction to it.

Carl_R
Carl_R
4 years ago
Reply to  aqualech

I believe the FDA approved the first antibody test today, so expect to seen screening of the general population happening soon. Everyone wants to know how many people have had it, but never had any symptoms. We all hope that that number is high, but most probably it is not nearly high enough to lead to herd immunity any time soon.

shred1
shred1
4 years ago

Poor Mish, he still thinks he knows more about economics than Ivanka. Hillary didn’t know squat about finance/economics but Mish voted for her for Prez.

SleemoG
SleemoG
4 years ago
Reply to  shred1

Hope you enjoyed your brief time here you fucking moron.

Bcalderone
Bcalderone
4 years ago
Reply to  shred1

No, Mish voted for Trump in 2016.

Dubronik
Dubronik
4 years ago

Dump the Trump

Six000mileyear
Six000mileyear
4 years ago

The pacts among neighboring states is a great sign of cooperation and leadership. Since some one state may be a hot zone, and its neighbor a late bloomer, reopening business does need to be done in a thoughtful manner to avoid an exponential resurgence.

SleemoG
SleemoG
4 years ago

So when is the military coup?

Casual_Observer
Casual_Observer
4 years ago

Trump is a buffoon.

bradw2k
bradw2k
4 years ago

So are the state pacts legit and a good idea? If I wasn’t such a positive person I might guess that they’re all about CYA and governor cowardice. No liability: “We followed the framework…” California, Washington, and Oregon can each point the finger at the other two. … I guess we shall find out tomorrow what California’s big plan is, and then we’ll inherit it as a framework in Oregon.

IHME is projecting about 260 COVID deaths (or as few as 102) for the entire state of Oregon by August 1st. It is a well known fact that most COVID deaths around here have been in nursing homes.

Of the 53 deaths in Oregon:

  • 0 under age 40
  • 2 between 40 and 59
  • 25 between 60 and 79
  • 26 at least 80 years old

96 patients are in ICU beds right now and are suspected of having COVID. There are still 350 ICU beds unused in the state.

So: Oregon hospitals have plenty of capacity, and elderly/high risk individuals have already been effectively quarantined. So what is the point of keeping younger healthy people home now? Surely most professions can be performed with reasonable safeguards (maintain some distance, wear a mask, wash your hands, don’t go out clubbing). Small businesses are being crushed here … my wife’s boss asked her to do some online work for a couple of weeks, but he’s not sure when he’ll be able to pay her (zero income right now), he’s going to look into that PPP thing, lol.

3 people under the age of 20 have been hospitalized for COVID in Oregon … but Governor Kate Brown has closed all schools for the rest of the year. My kids are now going on week 4 of spring break, learning jack (which granted is the norm in gov schools). They do have to show up for a couple of Google meetings and do a few things in Google Classroom or whatever, but it is mostly a joke. Meanwhile Portland Public Schools is still trying to get Chromebooks out to all the students who don’t have computers. They were up to 6,000 last week.

DaKine509
DaKine509
4 years ago
Reply to  bradw2k

All the people who say I am heartless for not supporting endless welfare my whole life… just shut me down if I bring up the need and desire for many to go to work. They don’t care for people, they care for them being dependent. Bunch of old retired people sitting comfortable at home making noise. They can stay there…

rsweedy50
rsweedy50
4 years ago

Let’s see what he does when a bunch of governors tell him to F. O.

Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  rsweedy50

Trumple Tantrums will ensue, but nothing much else will come of it.

xilduq
xilduq
4 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz

trump’s shown himself to be vindictive to those who do not revere him. i expect he would cut state funding and exact other punitive penalties (think of christi’s office closing lanes to the gw bridge)

MATHGAME
MATHGAME
4 years ago
Reply to  xilduq

That would certainly appeal to the voters in those states …

lol
lol
4 years ago

You’re misunderstanding El Presidente Che Guevara Trump, about reopening the economy,he’s talking bout reopening the Taj Mahal and the Plaza,hell lets reopen Trump Castle,how much of the $6 tril bailout cash is left?

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago

“Not only did Trump hand pick a ridiculous team, he Tweeted that it was his right and his right alone to re-open the economy.”

Fauci and others believe Trump can legally shut down the entire country and wanted him to do it. Trump must have believed them, but didn’t want to shut it down so he let the governors decide. They’re all wrong on shutting it down, and more wrong than Trump saying he can open it up.

Some local officials, such as Greenville, MS Mayor Errick Simmons, and Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer attempted to ban drive-in church services on Easter. Fischer declared that drive-in Easter services would be illegal and threatened to arrest them and invited snitches to help identify them.

Trump’s team is ridiculous because few people in government favor freedom in markets or anywhere else. The smartest people are not in government, but they are not the ones surrounding Trump.

bradw2k
bradw2k
4 years ago
Reply to  wootendw

I kind of think what we see is what we get with Trump … meaning, he genuinely does not think things through, with logic and reasons, like an intelligent responsible adult would. Words have no meaning for him, they don’t connect to facts, they are just tools to achieve ratings.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  bradw2k

“…he genuinely does not think things through…”

Whatever his intelligence level, Trump is not a deep thinker. Unfortunately, few people in government are either.

DBG8489
DBG8489
4 years ago
Reply to  wootendw

Government rewards neither deep thought nor innovation.

And it does not – under any circumstances – tolerate individuals taking initiative.

This is the nature of blunt force.

SmokeyIX
SmokeyIX
4 years ago

What a pathetic group. I’m especially tired of seeing Kushner put in so many different positions of importance when he has no qualifications whatsoever.

Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  SmokeyIX

All Jared wants is to be a Real Live Boy.

Greggg
Greggg
4 years ago
Reply to  SmokeyIX

Like expanding West bank and Gaza settlement claims into the US real estate market. Oye Vey, it’s getting cheap (rubbing hands together).

njbr
njbr
4 years ago

It’s a sad commentary on how limited a group of people Trump relies on in his brave new world.

All I see is the same old group of people who would sell you out in an instant for a sip from a thimble of Trump’s warm spit.

njbr
njbr
4 years ago

Nothing but the best schemers and scammers in that group.

Of course they hold everyone’s health and well-being paramount.

Isn’t that what they have demonstrated always in their collective golden lives…

pvguy
pvguy
4 years ago

Honestly, there is no point to asking the doctors what they think, they want every locked inside until there is a vaccine. Is you die of starvation or suicide it doesn’t matter as long as they can say it was not the virus.

That said, it is up to the states when to open up. And not all parts of a state have to open at once. Eastern WA should be open now. This county of 90,000 is getting 5 new cases a day. If you need 2/3 recovered to get herd immunity, that is 60,000/5 or 12,000 days before they can let us reopen. Clearly nonsensical.

Greggg
Greggg
4 years ago
Reply to  pvguy

The narrative is getting clobbered. Over 99.5% of the US population never got the virus. I have been looking for info on the homeless and covid 19…. crickets.

Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  Greggg

You ain’t been lookin’ very hard: link to missionlocal.org

Phantastic
Phantastic
4 years ago
Reply to  pvguy

link to nytimes.com

‘It’s a Time Bomb’: 23 Die as Virus Hits Packed Homeless Shelters

CautiousObserver
CautiousObserver
4 years ago

It was troubling President Trump insisted the Federal Government has absolute authority over quarantine policy within the US. As far as I know, the Federal Government has absolute quarantine authority at the national boarder, but very limited authority within the US; the internal portion of the US being under the jurisdiction of state and local governments. I was stunned he made such a big deal about that.

The Council to Re-Open America is also troubling. Presumably, that council should consist of state governors or else their agreed upon representatives in DC. If half the states ask to speak with Ivanka Trump or Jared Kushner every time they call DC to coordinate something then I suppose that would explain those choices, but I doubt that has been happening.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago

“He cannot and will not reopen states if governors refuse to go along.”

I don’t recognize the authority of any government official – national, state or local – to confine me to my house.

All I see are thugs with guns.

Zardoz
Zardoz
4 years ago
Reply to  wootendw

All I see are morons spreading Covid.

Greggg
Greggg
4 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz

99.73 % of Americans never had covid. 100% losing freedom. Sounds reasonable, eh?

Carl_R
Carl_R
4 years ago
Reply to  Greggg

Yep, 0.27% have had it so far, and already it’s has killed more people in 2 months than the flu kills in a year. Just think how many can die if we let it run free until we have herd immunity by infecting the necessary 60-70%.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  Zardoz

A lot of ‘morons’ don’t take vitamin D.
A lot of ‘morons’ don’t get food allergy tests and subject themselves to decades GI tract inflammation leading serious problems when they get old.
A lot of ‘morons’ don’t take Co-enzyme Q10….

I could go on and on.

Carl_R
Carl_R
4 years ago
Reply to  wootendw

Public health has always been a valid province of government. I suppose you think it’s unreasonable that the government requires you to connect to sewers, and have your garbage hauled away, or that they inspect restaurants for sanitation, or control your rights to deficate in the street, or dump waste in the river, or do public burning of waste?

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R

“Public health has always been a valid province of government.”

There is no such thing as ‘public’ health. My health is not the public’s and the public is not responsible for mine. Health is a matter for the individual.

Carl_R
Carl_R
4 years ago
Reply to  wootendw

You are certainly entitled to your own opinion. I’m just pointing out the fact that it’s inconsistent with the role governments have played for the last 4000 years.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R

“…inspect restaurants for sanitation…”

No, unless a restaurant makes people sick.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R

“I suppose you think it’s unreasonable that the government requires you to connect to sewers, and have your garbage hauled away”

It’s in the property developer’s interest to connect sewers. If one is too poor to own property or pay rent, there is always the tent option which does not require sewers but needn’t be allowed on public property such as the streets of San Francisco.

I once had a choice in garbage collection. I could pay BFI or take it to the dump myself which I did for a year or so.

wootendw
wootendw
4 years ago
Reply to  Carl_R

What on earth makes you think that the government is capable of making decisions about what people can do? I grew up in the DC area and I know that government workers are shit shit shit. And that’s because they have OPM available to them on demand.

Greggg
Greggg
4 years ago

All these people would have made the Adolf Hitler favorites list. But then there is the NWO Dynamic Duo stars behind the big plan: Fauci-Gates.

numike
numike
4 years ago

Someone please explain this to me: as of 4/16/20 US stock futures were up Monday in after-hours trading as investors pace ahead for a bleak earnings season upended by coronavirus. BLEAK EARNINGS… STOCK FUTURES WERE UP??

Felix_Mish
Felix_Mish
4 years ago
Reply to  numike

Maybe stocks are the new money.

Stocks are automatically inflation adjusted, after all. And lots of international corporations make for wider diversification than any particular nation-state based cash. And stocks aren’t so exposed to stealth wealth taxes, AKA “money printing”.

Greggg
Greggg
4 years ago
Reply to  numike

Flow of “money” (aka easy to make electronic digits) from the Fed to the tier one banks and into stocks?

SleemoG
SleemoG
4 years ago
Reply to  numike

The Powell Put

JonSellers
JonSellers
4 years ago
Reply to  numike

Stock prices have nothing to do with the economy.

NullusTutela
NullusTutela
4 years ago

@MishTalk thank you for proving how your hate has turned you into an idiot.

#1 specialty experts should NEVER be on a board; studies have proven experts are notoriously bad at predicting what will happen and at making policy decisions.

#2 it is because we followed the advice of experts on policy that we are in this economic shit-show

#3 just because there are no “expert scientists in epidemiology” on the team doesn’t mean they won’t be consulted.

#4 THIS IS AN ECONOMIC DECISION NOT AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ONE

Why don’t you read the below and learn something, because clearly right now you are no better than a panicked little girl.

link to outkickthecoverage.com

tokidoki
tokidoki
4 years ago

Summary of Mish’s new article: “America is done”

Time to learn Chinese, Korean, or some East Asian language, because they are the future.

tokidoki
tokidoki
4 years ago

As they say. With “friends” like these, who needs enemies?

The cast of Saturday Night Live might be better candidates than these.

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