I picked up the Times from my front door and saw this, “How Kushner’s Volunteer Force Led A Fumbling Hunt for Medical Supplies.”
I didn’t scream then. I did when I read the first paragraphs and my eyes automatically bolded a couple of…well here it is:
This spring, as the United States faced a critical shortage of masks, gloves and other protective equipment to battle the coronavirus pandemic, a South Carolina physician reached out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency with an offer of help.
Dr. Jeffrey Hendricks had longtime manufacturing contacts in China and a line on millions of masks from established suppliers. Instead of encountering seasoned FEMA procurement officials, his information was diverted to a team of roughly a dozen young volunteers, recruited by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and overseen by a former assistant to Mr. Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump.
The volunteers, foot soldiers in the Trump administration’s new supply-chain task force, had little to no experience with government procurement procedures or medical equipment. But as part of Mr. Kushner’s governmentwide push to secure protective gear for the nation’s doctors and nurses, the volunteers were put in charge of sifting through more than a thousand incoming leads, and told to pass only the best ones on for further review by FEMA officials.
That was the first time I screamed, in helpless rage.
As the federal government’s warehouses were running bare and medical workers improvised their own safety gear, Dr. Hendricks found his offer stalled. Many of the volunteers were told to prioritize tips from political allies and associates of President Trump, tracked on a spreadsheet called “V.I.P. Update,” according to documents and emails obtained by The New York Times. Among them were leads from Republican members of Congress, the Trump youth activist Charlie Kirk and a former “Apprentice” contestant who serves as the campaign chair of Women for Trump.
Trump allies also pressed FEMA officials directly: A Pennsylvania dentist, once featured at a Trump rally, dropped the president’s name as he pushed the agency to procure test kits from his associates.
Oh fuck it. Read the whole thing and scream and scream and scream.
There is nothing in it describing anything that resembles a federal government.
There is nothing in it describing anything that resembles any part of any government.
The only thing this amateur hour resembles is a very, very, very bad “reality” TV show in which everybody who isn’t the Star dies.
P.S. Re the screaming, I wrote this before I read the sickening news about Bill Barr and Michael Flynn. We do not currently have a government. I’m pretty sure I said that previously.