“A country that turned out eight combat aircraft every hour at the peak of World War II could not even produce enough 75-cent masks or simple cotton nasal swabs for testing in this pandemic. A country that showed the world how to defeat polio now promotes quack remedies involving household disinfectants from the presidential podium. A country that rescued postwar Europe with the Marshall Plan didn’t even bother to show up this week at the teleconference of global leaders pledging contributions for a coronavirus vaccine A country that sent George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower to crush the Nazis now fights a war against a viral killer with Jared Kushner, a feckless failed real estate speculator who holds power by virtue of his marriage to the president’s daughter.” Timothy Egan in the NYT: The World Is Taking Pity on Us.

+ WaPo: “Around the world, countries are winning the battle against the coronavirus and beginning a responsible return to work, school and leisure, confident that their governments have the deadly virus in check. But the United States plays the loser. Unwilling to do the hard work needed to beat the pandemic, we are quitting: forcing people back to work without protections people in other countries enjoy.” The most powerful country in the world is failing.”

+ Yet another inexplicable decision in a sea of chaos from WaPo: In the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government turned down an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America. “We are the last major domestic mask company. My phones are ringing now, so I don’t ‘need government business. I’m just letting you know that I can help you preserve our infrastructure if things ever get really bad. I’m a patriot first, businessman second.” (The bad decisions and management failures are adding up almost as fast as the lies.)