Donald Trump on Tuesday likened America’s governors to mutinous sailors, the latest sign that federal and state authorities are on a collision course as the country attempts to navigate a tenuous path on the road to reopening the world’s largest economy.
The president has feuded intermittently with state and local officials over the course of the coronavirus epidemic, occasionally resorting to name calling and petty derision in response to criticism of the administration’s handling of the crisis.
Late last month, for example, Trump famously branded Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer “Half-Whitmer” during an absurd Twitter exchange. Around the same time, the president stunned reporters by suggesting that he instructed Mike Pence not to call states that didn’t show the proper deference to the Oval Office. “You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call”, Trump declared, on March 31. “Mike is a different type of person, he’ll call quietly, anyway”, he added.
Fast forward two weeks and the country is edging closer to what will likely be a halting, partial reopening of select parts of the economy.
States are keen to assert their right to orchestrate any such economic restart on their own terms – that is, in a fashion consistent with what local officials’ believe to be in the best interests of their respective constituents.
Trump, on the other hand, claims dominion over the entire process.
“Some in the Fake News Media are saying it is the Governors [sic] decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States and the Federal Government”, Trump said Monday, in a series of tweets. “Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect. It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons”.
Trump has since claimed “total authority” over the reopening process, something Andrew Cuomo says is inaccurate.
“If he ordered me to reopen in a way that endangered the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn’t do it”, Cuomo told CNN. “We don’t have King Trump. We have President Trump”.
Trump was having none of it. “Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds [and] ventilators”, the president snapped, in an irritated Tuesday tweet. “I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!”, he went on to shriek.
This does not bode particularly well for a smooth, partial reopening of the economy, although it’s not clear if there actually are any real disagreements between the administration and states on the proper course of action. This could simply be another example of Trump chafing at perceived disobedience.
There are now two regional alliances on both coasts who together represent around a third of the US population. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island comprise the East Coast alliance, while officials from California, Washington state and Oregon are teaming up on the West Coast.
“The optimum is a geographically coordinated plan”, Cuomo remarked on Monday. “This virus doesn’t understand governmental boundaries”.
True to form, Trump is pitching this as some kind of must-see television event and, also true to form, he inadvertently opened himself up to all manner of sarcastic derision in the process.
“Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies”, the president said Tuesday.
Mutiny On The Bounty is something you might find on a middle school summer reading list – it’s a standard. Referring to the movie without citing the book pretty clearly means the president isn’t aware of the latter’s ubiquity.
But perhaps more amusing than that, the reference seemed to suggest that Trump doesn’t recall Captain Bligh’s unsavory reputation or how things turned out for him on that particular journey.
“A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain”, Trump continued. “Too easy!”
It wasn’t immediately clear what the president meant by “too easy”, but what’s crystal is this: Restarting the world’s largest economy without jeopardizing the health of millions of Americans is no small task, and won’t be possible if the federal government insists on characterizing local officials’ efforts to protect public safety as “mutiny”.
Cpt. Bligh was a brilliant navigator…. who was out of his league as a Commander.
Bligh also unnecessarily fired the first shot that got Capt Cook killed on that beach in Hawaii…
Perhaps The Caine Muntiny would be apropos
Luckybob, I was about to post the very same thing. Captain Queeg is who it reminded me of..
The Markos Kolanovic COVID-19 did not allow comments so I was going to post here.
It is a very good point that inadequate testing will lead to inflated statistics.
In New York ERs they are sometimes only testing the people that are admitted, which leads to a vast under reporting.
The case fatality ratio is going to depend on what population you are talking about.
The age and health (how much obesity, etc.) of the effected population will give you much different values….
So in the quoted effected sub population in Iceland/Germany the CFR is 0.37%.
If you look at the Diamond Princess (a closed system with 2666 median age 69 passengers & 1045 median age 36 crew) the CFR is 1.7%.
If you look at a nursing home outbreak in Kirkland WA the CFR is 34% (60% with heart disease & 60% with hypertension).
At the end of China’s original outbreak the case fatality trended to 0.7%.
So each country will have their own true case fatality ratio which will depend on how chronically sick their population is.
Depending on what CFR you use, New York state has probably affected between 8 & 15% of their population.
Herd immunity is the most beneficial when you get to 80-95% immunity.
The other complicating factor is the four regular coronaviruses that circulate as the common cold don’t give permanent immunity.
That is why you keep getting the common cold.
We also do not have a vacine for the common cold. South Korea is confirming repeat infections in individuals. They have been ahead of the pack with testing.
Sorry, he’ll forever be Colonel Bone Spurs to me. Hoping, in a not too distant future, he has a date with the Attorney General of the state of NY.
Despite him claiming it’s his favorite film, he’s obviously forgotten that it didn’t end up well for Captain Bligh.
If you read biographies of Blighs life you would come to find that his navigation in the lifeboats was simply amazing and he was lauded for it back in London. A hero. He was a fairly normal British Commander otherwise. Normal when mutiny was becoming widespread. British Navy was administer by whip and rum and dictatorial powers.
which was since proven unsustainable. His lauding proved short sighted.
Can we now put him on a boat along with his ardent supporters?
Thinking ahead it’s natural to wonder what mnemonic will eventually emerge to describe the present situation. Greater Recession (GRR), Greater Depression (GRD), and Modern Monetary Fiasco (MMF), all come to mind. But these all omit leadership quality and the pandemic as contributing factors. Putting it all together, GCF (Great Cluster-Fuck) seems right now to be the most likely choice.
How about the prophecy of the Anti-Christ along with the plagues and pandemics associated with it’s coming.
Those authors were far ahead of me in perceiving the inevitability of human induced calamities like plagues, pandemics, and climate change, but they were predicting a finality. I do not see the GCF as a finality, just a big step down the path to the great light at the end of the ultimate tunnel. I’ll just be a casualty along the way, but the fulfillment of that earlier prophecy refers to the only possible resolution of the general human condition.
@Anon I believe there are going to be pockets in the fly over slice of the country with small to medium populations where testing is and has been lacking they did not have very many to begin with. This lack of testing means lack of investigations. Just as the spread approached us from both directions the rebound will go back East and back West respectively. Mild back waves for sure but the economic conditions will lag from here and also spread. My primary care said the anti body testing for C19 is un-obtanium. We are obviously lagging in knowledge as well. Maybe we are a herd immunity experiment.
Maybe he missed the subtlety that Captain Bligh’s name has a place in literature on the same page as Mr. Scrooge. Beloved and admired by all.
Literature is not the strong suit of POTUS or his beer fart supporters.
The GCF that FTW I