Manic of a panic is geopolitical

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

But one may ask, whose portrait adorned the wall of Adolph Hitler's office?

I have been trying hard to keep my proo-freading [sic] instincts in check but this is not the first time I've seen der Führer's name spelled incorrectly here in recent days.

It is Adolf Hitler.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by xilman

I have been trying hard to keep my proo-freading [sic] instincts in check but this is not the first time I've seen der Führer's name spelled incorrectly here in recent days.

It is Adolf Hitler.

Jawohl.

My text editor's stupid spell checker kept flagging "adolf." Being tired, I mindlessly appeased it.

I leave the spell checker on because I make so many typos, it is actually quite useful to me.

This particular problem is fixed. I have ordered it to accept the spelling "adolf." It has complied.

[ewmayer]

Re. whose-portrait-is-on-Adolf's-office-wall, my gues would've been a signed one of his good friend and colleague, Ron Vibbentrop. Or perhaps one of Bimmler.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Re. whose-portrait-is-on-Adolf's-office-wall, my gues would've been a signed one of his good friend and colleague, Ron Vibbentrop. Or perhaps one of Bimmler.

You are confusing him with a certain Mr Hilter, the notorious baby biter.

[kladner]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...upply-seizures
This has Kushner's bloody hand prints all over it.

Here are a couple more details on shipment seizures and inter-state bidding we’ve been discussing here in recent days. Both are interviews on this evening’s Newshour, flagged to me by TPM Reader KM.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) appeared to confirm one point that remained ambiguous from the press conference last week in which Rear Admiral Polowczyk explained the ‘Airbridge’ flights from China. According to Pritzker, the US military planes airlift the PPE and other medical supplies to the US and then hand them over to the major medical supply distributors the White House taskforce is working with. That part was clear from the discussion April 2nd. What Pritzker confirmed is that the states then have to bid against each other to purchase the supplies from those distributors.

Gov @GovPritzker confirms that the federal ‘Air Bridge’ flights from China, organized by the White House taskforce, are bringing PPE back from China which are then turned over to private companies. The states then have to bid against each other to purchase from those companies. pic.twitter.com/QG62dWtQuc
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 7, 2020

The distributors are McKesson Corp., Owens & Minor, Cardinal Health, Medline Industries and Henry Schein.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by kladner

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog...upply-seizures

It's not clear to me which part you object to and on what basis. Government intrusion into a free market? Use of government owned planes instead of or in addition to the fleets of Fedex, DHL, UPS, et al? People paying for what they receive?
Do you prefer more than just pilots go to China, to seize the PPE without the prospect of anyone paying, fly it to the US, and give it away? Now that could be very bloody.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by kriesel

It's not clear to me which part you object to and on what basis. Government intrusion into a free market? Use of government owned planes instead of or in addition to the fleets of Fedex, DHL, UPS, et al? People paying for what they receive?
Do you prefer more than just pilots go to China, to seize the PPE without the prospect of anyone paying, fly it to the US, and give it away? Now that could be very bloody.

I prefer not to answer your specious questions. If you can't see the problems, I can't cure your blindness.

[VBCurtis]

Originally Posted by kriesel

It's not clear to me which part you object to and on what basis. Government intrusion into a free market? Use of government owned planes instead of or in addition to the fleets of Fedex, DHL, UPS, et al? People paying for what they receive?
Do you prefer more than just pilots go to China, to seize the PPE without the prospect of anyone paying, fly it to the US, and give it away? Now that could be very bloody.

If the federal gvmt has arranged to acquire the goods, why are they being turned over to private distributors? And why are states bidding at all, let alone against each other? Why isn't FEMA or similar simply distributing directly to hospitals as needed, cutting out the other steps?

Acquire -> hand off to private companies -> sell to states -> distribute from states to hospitals / locations in need. You don't see a problem here?

How about Acquire -> distribute to locations in need?

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by VBCurtis

How about Acquire -> distribute to locations in need?

That would be "Big Government". Can't have that -- where's the profit?

[retina]

Originally Posted by VBCurtis

How about Acquire -> distribute to locations in need?

No. Then none of the politician's cronies can make money in order to give kickbacks to said politician. We can't have that.

[kladner]

Thanks, VBCurtis. You lay things out very directly. I didn't have it in me.

chalsall and retina: I share your gallows humor. It seems that there is nothing to stop the pillage. The corporatist powers see the real crash coming and are stripping the treasury down to a mountain of debt while people go without treatment, and caregivers go without protection.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/12/1936741/-FEMA-Was-Planning-to-Seize-Masks-Destined-for-States-Until-the-FBI-Found-Out-They-Were-Fake?

FEMA Was Planning to Seize Masks Destined for States --

Until the FBI Found Out They Were Fake

A major California labor union that claimed to have discovered a stockpile of 39 million masks for health care workers fighting the coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, according to a newspaper report Sunday. …
...................................

Investigators stumbled onto the scheme while looking into whether they could intercept the masks for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act, the U.S. attorney’s office said Friday.
The federal government has been quietly seizing supplies across the country as the outbreak spreads. But in this case, there was no warehouse, and there were no masks to seize, the Los Angeles Times reported. [emphasis added]