色戒在线看Yesterday I discussed how shifting age demographics could mean fewer deaths from the current COVID outbreaks than the ones mostly in the North in March and April. Here’s a much more granular discussion of this issue at the COVID Tracking website. Highly recommend if you’re interested in going deeper on this question.
Super proud of the TPM team for the original investigative reporting this week on the Trump administration preparing to bail on COVID testing sites, particularly in Texas, where the pandemic is surging.
After TPM’s reporting this week, the Trump administration has reversed course and will not bail on five COVID testing sites in Texas as the pandemic surges there.
In a letter obtained by TPM, Dallas’ mayor asked HHS Secretary Azar to continue federal support for two testing sites in his city. Sens. Cruz and Cornyn have made the same request for seven sites across the state. The incident commander of the Dallas sites is holding out hope that federal support might continue.
But as the COVID outbreak in the state intensifies, the sunset date for federal support — June 30 — is drawing near.
Matt Shuham reports on the situation in Texas as the day approaches.
We should remember that until quite recently — just about a year ago — Harriet Tubman was scheduled to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. It wasn’t just an idea. Much of the work and preparation had already been done. But the plan was canceled because it made President Trump mad.
Josh Marshall
One of the most persistent mysteries of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. is why cases have largely plateaued (until the last couple weeks) while mortality figures have fallen substantially. As we’ve discussed, there’s been an ongoing debate about disentangling the evolving case counts from the ongoing rise in the number of tests being conducted every day. But particularly as cases started to rise in June it is clear that cases are growing well in excess of what can be explained by more testing. So why have the daily mortality numbers dropped? Why the disjuncture between the two numbers, even taking into account a two- or three-week lag between spikes in new cases and people succumbing to the disease?
Five years ago, former cop Seth Stoughton wrote one of the best things we’ve ever published at TPM. It was on point, expert yet accessible, and very timely. Now he’s back, with co-author Karen Collins Rice, with a new piece on the need to dramatically change police culture to embrace the guardian ethos.
A former FEMA administrator tells us that the Trump administration’s approach on closing testing sites as hotspots flare is, to use the technical term, “dumb.”
President Donald Trump further dug into his claim late Sunday night that he had been unaware of the intelligence community’s reports that Russia paid Taliban forces to kill U.S. troops, asserting that intelligence officials had not found the reports to be credible and therefore did not inform him of them.
Former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff has reportedly pleaded guilty to criminal charges and is facing a separate SEC complaint for an allegedly fraudulent crypto-currency scheme.
Last week was an unpleasant one for the White House. Donald Trump and his team continued to watch the coronavirus crisis intensify; the administration suffered another round of legal defeats; the president’s re-election campaign faced pushback over a needlessly dangerous vanity exercise in Tulsa; and John Bolton exposed Trump as, among other things, a leader who always prioritizes politics over policy.
In isolation, each of these tragedies and setbacks represent fresh trouble for an inept White House, but there’s a common thread that helps tie these debacles together: Republican officials are failing to govern, unwilling and unable to use the levers of power responsibly.
We’re launching the TPM Journalism Fund as an additional way for readers and members to support TPM. Every dollar contributed goes toward expanding our editorial staff.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the outside is overrated. There, I said it. I know it’s June and I know summer is just getting started, but why spend your days sweating it out in the humid, hazy outdoors when you can be inside with the A/C pumping? I’m a homebody, so maybe that’s what’s underlying my opinion here.
Ep. 125: Testing, Who Needs It?