Pence task force freezes coronavirus aid amid backlash
Source: Politico
Last week, a Trump administration official working to secure much-needed protective gear for doctors and nurses in the United States had a startling encounter with counterparts in Thailand.
The official asked the Thais for helponly to be informed by the puzzled voices on the other side of the line that a U.S. shipment of the same supplies, the second of two so far, was already on its way to Bangkok.
Trump aides were alarmed when they learned of the exchange, and immediately put the shipment on hold while they ordered a review of U.S. aid procedures. Crossed wires would only confuse our allies, they worried, or worseoffend them. And Americans confronting a surging death toll and shortages of medical equipment back home would likely be outraged.
Vice President Mike Pence soon realized another step was needed: After a phone call asking a foreign leaders help with key supplies, he ordered his staff to make sure the review process wasnt holding up coronavirus-related aid to countries that were assisting the United States.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/pence-task-force-coronavirus-aid-157806
Link to tweet
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Leghorn21
(13,526 posts)Just. fkn. PERFECT.
Baitball Blogger
(46,757 posts)Bwhahahahahaha. Someone was shipping supplies abroad.
Zoonart
(11,878 posts)Wasn't Jared supposed to be involved? What if we have been shipping supplies from our pandemic readiness stockpile to China and now to Bangkok, so that it can then be sold back to the USA and the Trumps have some kind of grift going on here and the money from the resale goes into their pockets?
Just tin foil mind you....
BTW... full disclosure... I write horror fiction so my mind naturally goes there... still.
Baitball Blogger
(46,757 posts)Zoonart
(11,878 posts)that makes me smile. Is that wrong?
Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)iluvtennis
(19,871 posts)NBachers
(17,136 posts)someone's pocketing money when our taxes are spent bringing it back in from Thailand at a higher price.
wnylib
(21,606 posts)floats the conspiracy theory at a presser that "someone' in NY is filching supplies. He also questions on Hannity whether the states really need the amount of supplies that they are requesting.
It's a given that if there is a crooked way to make money out of a crisis, the Trump crime family will be involved.
That makes perfect sense to me!!! You are brilliant!!!
Warpy
(111,339 posts)because that's exactly the sort of bullshit Republicans have done forever to launder aid into kickbacks and other sources of hard cash.
We also shipped to China, which made NO sense as that is where much PPE is being manufactured these days.
These bastards would kill us all for a quarter.
or whorer?
DENVERPOPS
(8,844 posts)That write "horror reality" and do it.......Their minds don't "go" there, they live there......
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)street crew of wiseguys operating on a Worldwide level.
They've stumbled into the biggest scores of their lives,
and they'll screw it up. More people will die, eventually.
All of the blood will be on the Trump crew's hands.
Zoonart
(11,878 posts)BTW are you perhaps from New Jersey? I think Jamokes is a her
Jersyism, my dad used to use that term all the time.
Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)the language here. I don't know where it came from.
I grew up in a predominantly Italian neighborhood,
and life was very much like the vibe you might get from a film like "Goodfellas", or "Casino".
As a matter of fact, the character played by Joe Pesci in "Casino" was based on a real life gangster from my neighborhood.
I guess I always assumed "jamoke" was an "Italian" thing. ( LOL. I don't even know if that's how you spell it! )
Stay Healthy! Stay Alive!
Zoonart
(11,878 posts)that is interesting to know. Born and bred in North Jersey as was Dad.... though Dutch/Irish, I'm guessing Dad worked with plenty of Italians and we were one town over from another town (which I will not name), that was a know bedroom community for the NY mob.
Thanks for checking in Jones.
Be safe out there.
Igel
(35,356 posts)USAID was sending aid, but apparently not from US territory. I suspect that the USAID top folk aren't long for this administration. It'll come across as valuing the lives of people outside the US over those inside.
That would be Ms. Calvaresi Barr. https://oig.usaid.gov/node/167
I'm going to say she's toast. Moreover, "deep state" will be something muttered more than once.
The other shipment, so decried as US federal aid by Waters, was private. She objected to private citizens helping others. Presumably that means the stuff should have been confiscated? Personally I think she didn't know the origin of the stuff and assumed the worst and opted to say, "Look how bad Trump is." Otherwise it might look like we value the lives of people outside the US over those inside.
Yeah, if I were Barr I think I'd be packing up some of the more fragile things in my office.
Baitball Blogger
(46,757 posts)If for no other reason to show exactly what the federal government was doing at the same time that it was turning its back on the needs of the 50 states.
hkp11
(275 posts)State dept helped with shipping 17.4 tons of medical equipment:
https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-announces-assistance-to-combat-the-novel-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR1ChU6SO5otXavlXjpqZopXbf_DWseOt3tXakhcd9ugOzIsYKNQUingC-k
"This week the State Department has facilitated the transportation of nearly 17.8 tons of donated medical supplies to the Chinese people, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. These donations are a testament to the generosity of the American people."
so how much medical equipment will be available here in the US??? if they send to China, Thailand, etc, how much will we keep here for us???
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,757 posts)erronis
(15,328 posts)Too many metaphors to post here.
Still remember eating haggis for breakfast with some clotted cream and eggs and jam and biscuits.... Years and llves ago.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)But the clotted cream, jam and scones (similar to the Southern US "biscuits" but sweet and often with fruit like raisins baked in) - that to me is definitely delish. With a cup or many of tea.
erronis
(15,328 posts)And I think the butter we ate was not as tasteless as US butter - it was bordering on rancid - like a good cheese.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,020 posts)(But I might have been starving, and still hungover from pints of Kent hard cider at the time.)
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)I'd do them for breakfast and lunch.
Scones are sweet and can be had after the pasties. They typically call tea, scones and clotted cream a "cream tea".
Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Both are brands, both are blended black tea, somewhat similar to Twining's English Breakfast. Usually served with milk and often some sweetener (usually sugar).
Ps like your name Haggis, but can't stand the food substance any day of the week. But a good donner kebab. Or as mentioned further up a Cornish Pasty...
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)My tea of choice is Prince of Wales, dark and robust.
paleotn
(17,959 posts)Every single hit was the Donnie administration. Seems they've cornered the market on fubar.
PatSeg
(47,586 posts)I have to borrow that!
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)tblue37
(65,487 posts)NoRoadUntravelled
(2,626 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,757 posts)So this is where Auntie Maxine pulled the 18 tons of medical supplies number.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,020 posts)dear, did you say something"?
Dan
(3,579 posts)Of the Trump administration is going to kill us.
So sad, the hollowing out of the deep state, leaving only the incompetents in charge, combined with corporate greed - should we laugh or cry?
erronis
(15,328 posts)This is according to somebody's playbook.
We need to find out whose.
SunSeeker
(51,698 posts)Lonestarblue
(10,066 posts)The Forbes reporter spent a day with a broker selling masks and potential buyers. Heres the mind-blowing part.
The buyersfrom state government purchasing departments and hospital systems representing facilities throughout the Northeast, Midwest and Californiaexpressed desperation for masks to protect their healthcare workers, but in the end not a single deal was completed with any of these groups, and millions of masks were earmarked to leave the country, purchased by foreign buyers.
And this next paragraph is infuriating.
By the end of the day, roughly 280 million masks from warehouses around the U.S. had been purchased by foreign buyers and were earmarked to leave the country, according to the broker and that was in one day.
To his knowledge none of the masks had been purchased by buyers in the U.S.
No US states got masks made here in the US, even at the inflated prices the market is now charging. Other countries have put blocks on exports of medical supplies. Trump has not. Trump has talked about the free market doing the job of addressing shortages. I think this is deliberate. Wealthy stockholders get more money when states are not only bidding against one another but also the rest of the world. This is why Trump ordered states to buy their own suppliesto drive up prices and make more money for manufacturers. The whole article is worth reading.
paleotn
(17,959 posts)this is what you get. Fucked up beyond all recognition.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)Companies gotta make profits, and if it's at the expense of US citizens, well so be it.
RobinA
(9,894 posts)that you can't beat stupid. In order to believe that this was deliberate you'd have to believe that these morons even understand the mega convoluted federal system for doing these things. I'd rather put my money on the many unfilled government positions and the appointment of the totally inexperienced in many top positions as largely the cause of these Keystone Kop incidents. They have no idea what they are doing, so this is what you get. Can other countries, countries that understand their own systems, benefit from our idiocy, take advantage? Sure. But believing that Trump & Co. can negotiate the back alleys and underground tunnels of doing business in a Fed environment? Doubtful.
NoRoadUntravelled
(2,626 posts)SunSeeker
(51,698 posts)Of those Russian supplies, 80 percent were completely useless or of little use to Italy. In other words, the delivery was more like a pretext, an Italian government official told the leading newspaper La Stampa. According to the official, the Russian delivery contained, for example, equipment for bacteriological disinfection and a field laboratory for chemical-biological sterilizationnot the ventilators and personal protective equipment so desperately needed by the Italians.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/30/russia-china-coronavirus-geopolitics/
NoRoadUntravelled
(2,626 posts)I hadn't seen this one.
TryLogic
(1,723 posts)In the mean time, a daily briefing for an extended period of time would be useful for him.
He will do anything to get reelected.
niyad
(113,552 posts)marble falls
(57,204 posts)underpants
(182,879 posts)marble falls
(57,204 posts)like good music.
niyad
(113,552 posts)Grifter in chief whines about medical staff "hoarding or worse". We KNOW that liar in chief projects onto others that which he does. I wonder how. Much he was going to make on that deal???
ancianita
(36,133 posts)2naSalit
(86,775 posts)pay cash, you know, like the saudis do.
progree
(10,918 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2020, 09:10 AM - Edit history (2)
trial.
Adding [sarcasm] after reply #60 posted.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142460490
Source: Houston Chronicle
WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the coronavirus as it reached the United States in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, despite warnings at the time from public health experts and members of Congress about the spread of the deadly virus.
The outbreak "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment,'' McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
.==============================================.
From the OP:
Really? Someone, anyone in the current administration worried about offending our friends and allies? Such a person/people are not a good fit for this administration at all.
Drumpf was busy doing rallies and golfing:
www.democraticunderground.com/
January 9th - rally
January 13th - test available. CDC should have been sourcing sampling supplies and distributing to states, CDC should have been working to source supplies and mass produce the test while developing distribution network, FDA should have used emergency use (EUA) authority to give labs across the country the go ahead to produce and distribute that test, or their own.
January 14th - rally
January 18th - golf
January 19th golf
January 28th - rally
January 30th -rally
-- February 1 - golf
19 of the most critical early days lost while he was MIA for 7 of them (and a lot more time than that planning his adulation fix dates)
_____________________
As virus silently circulates, with CDC's flawed (apparently distributed without quality control) is "fixed" followed by such limited distribution it was effectively useless.
February 10th - rally
February 15th - golf
February 19th - rally
February 20th - rally
February 21st - rally
February 28th - rally
March 7th - golf
March 8th - golf
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213199039
robbedvoter
(28,290 posts)I think NY doctors and nurses had something to do with it