The Slim Reaper
Wanted: Someone to run the most critical, complicated, and potentially deadly health crisis in more than a century … No experience necessary. That appears to be the Craiglist’s ad Jared Kushner answered this month, because by all appearances, he’s now the Bug Czar. Kushner made an appearance at the administration’s daily press conference slash campaign rally and started dropping knowledge. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states stockpiles that they then use.” In political theory circles, that statement is what’s known as a “stockpile of shit.” Why do I sound angry? Because we have willing, experienced, talented experts who could come in and take over the utterly broken federal process, and instead, we’re providing on the job training to a guy who didn’t succeed at his private sector jobs on the way to becoming the most important player in global health. Michelle Goldberg in the NYT: “People who’d dealt with Kushner told her that whatever he did, he ‘believed he could do it better than anybody else, and he had supreme confidence in his own abilities and his own judgment even when he didn’t know what he was talking about.’ It’s hard to overstate the extent to which this confidence is unearned.” Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness. (The worst part of sheltering at home is that I left my Jared voodoo doll at the office.)
+ Actually, the worst part is the lying, and the rewarding of that lying. Jared on medical supplies: “We’ve done things that the government has never done before, quicker than they’ve ever done it before, and what we’re seeing now is we found a lot of supplies in the country.” Jared Kushner’s coronavirus briefing debut sparks outcry, confusion.
+ How deep is the rot? Jared Kushner said the national stockpile wasn’t for the states, contradicting the stockpile’s website. So the government changed the website.
+ “When you are done being angry about all the crazy, nasty, inconsistent, and untrue things that Donald Trump says each day about the coronavirus and other matters, remember that the flood of words is cover for an Administration that in some ways barely exists relative to its predecessors, especially when it comes to crucial areas of domestic, economic, and international security—or even straightforward crisis management.” The New Yorker: The Coronavirus Is the World’s Only Superpower.
+ Why focus on the lies and ineptitude again as we face this epic challenge? Because the lies continue to be rewarded and the truth tellers (like the USS Roosevelt Commander) continue to be punished, and now it’s a matter of life and death. The virus didn’t break America. The virus arrived at our shores to find an America already broken. My latest: America is Sick.
