Top Items:
Washington Post:
The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged — By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Blue Virginia and The Moderate Voice
RELATED:
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump considers billionaire ally Steve Feinberg for senior intel role — President Trump is seriously considering installing billionaire investor Steve Feinberg in a senior role at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, according to four sources familiar with the planning.
Discussion:
Raw Story and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:
New York Times:
Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint
Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Washington Post, Mediaite, HuffPost, The Guardian, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story
Tal Axelrod / The Hill:
Burr says intelligence watchdog should be ‘independent’ after inspector general firing
Burr says intelligence watchdog should be ‘independent’ after inspector general firing
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, One America News Network and Breitbart
Axios:
Trump's new purge — Sources close to President Trump expect …
Trump's new purge — Sources close to President Trump expect …
Discussion:
The White House and Mother Jones
Politico:
Trump fires intelligence community watchdog who defied him on whistleblower complaint
Trump fires intelligence community watchdog who defied him on whistleblower complaint
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, Bangor Daily News, Mediaite, One America News Network, Breitbart, VICE, The Daily Caller, Vox, IJR, The Daily Beast, Fox News, Slate, PJ Media Home, Bloomberg, Common Dreams, Associated Press, Raw Story, Letters from an American, The Hill and Patterico's Pontifications
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Inside the ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier — Civilian control of the military is part of the American bedrock. Acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly used that prerogative unwisely Thursday when he short-circuited a preliminary military investigation and fired an aircraft carrier captain …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, Breitbart and New York Times
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Claire Barrett / Navy Times:
keyboard_arrow_down — Navy officials are finding themselves …
keyboard_arrow_down — Navy officials are finding themselves …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Task & Purpose, CNN, Althouse and NPR
Katrin Bennhold / New York Times:
A German Exception? Why the Country's Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low — The pandemic has hit Germany hard, with more than 92,000 people infected. But the percentage of fatal cases has been remarkably low compared to those in many neighboring countries. — They call them corona taxis …
Discussion:
NB Blog, NPR, Bloomberg and National Review
The Boston Globe:
Dear Bernie Sanders: Enough already — I can't decide what makes me more sick and tired: Bernie Sanders or being sick and tired of Bernie Sanders.Four years ago, Sanders' refusal to accept the reality that he was not going to be the Democratic nominee for president dragged the 2016 primary race …
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Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Larry David, Master of His Quarantine — Who better than the father of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to guide us through the thicket of being together, alone? — Our lives now depend on staying home and doing nothing. — We are cooped up with no end in sight, getting increasingly irascible.
Discussion:
InsideHook
Lisa Boothe / The Hill:
How deadly is the coronavirus? — How deadly is the coronavirus? It is a simple but vital question that we don't know the answer to right now. With American lives and livelihoods on the line, we need a science-based baseline from which to make public policy decisions.
Joshua Zeitz / Politico:
Why the Trump Administration Won't Be Able to Make the Stimulus Work — When he signed the $2 trillion Covid-19 rescue package last week, President Donald Trump was visibly pleased. He touted it as the “single biggest economic relief package” in U.S. history, which will deliver “urgently needed relief” to Americans.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Tia Mitchell / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Questions remain about who is handling Kelly Loeffler's stock transactions — U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has provided no proof that financial advisers making stock transactions on her behalf have total control over decision-making. — The Georgia senator has been accused …
RELATED:
Matthew Rozsa / Salon:
Ethics group calls for GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler to be investigated after more stock sales revealed
Ethics group calls for GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler to be investigated after more stock sales revealed
Discussion:
Raw Story
New York Times:
430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced — There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump's travel restrictions. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Kaiser Health News and Washington Post
Ari Fleischer / USA Today:
As Trump reaches for hope and journalists shoot him down, reporters end up looking bad — Journalists have a vital role to play in keeping our country free, but if this becomes a fight with Trump, they can't win. — If President Trump is a wartime president, does that make Washington reporters wartime correspondents?
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Zoom admits user data ‘mistakenly’ routed through China — Videoconferencing app under pressure over security and privacy issues — Zoom, the videoconferencing app that has become wildly popular during the coronavirus crisis, admitted that it had “mistakenly” routed some user data through China …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, more at Techmeme »
Richard L. Hasen / Los Angeles Times:
Op-Ed: How Republicans are using the pandemic to suppress the vote — Even in a pandemic, some Republicans are looking to suppress the vote for partisan political advantage. But the biggest power plays may come in November, and they could threaten our democracy.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jacobin and Business Insider
RELATED:
Harmeet Kaur / CNN:
Married for 51 years, they died of Covid-19 six minutes apart — Adrian and Stuart Baker were married for more than 51 years, and their family called them inseparable. On March 29, they both died of complications due to Covid-19 — just six minutes apart.
Discussion:
New York Post and Florida Politics
CNN:
Why these 8 Republican governors are holding out on statewide stay-at-home orders — (CNN)Just eight US governors have decided against issuing statewide directives urging their residents to stay at home as the outbreak of the coronavirus escalates and spreads across the country, the last holdouts in the nation.
Discussion:
grandforksherald.com and Iowa Starting Line
Adam Schefter / ESPN:
Sources: President Donald Trump says NFL season should start on time — In a conference call with major league sports commissioners on Saturday, President Donald Trump said he believes the NFL season should start on time in September, sources familiar with the call told ESPN.
Discussion:
New York Post, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, ProFootballTalk, The Wrap and Fox News
Wall Street Journal:
New York City Sees More Burglaries of Businesses Under Coronavirus Emergency Measures — Some shops are opting to board up storefronts as a deterrent — Burglaries of businesses have risen in New York City under emergency measures to fight the new coronavirus, according …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Kaelan Deese / The Hill:
Georgia beaches reopen after governor's executive order — Some Georgia beaches will reopen this weekend following an executive order issued by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) that overrode local shelter-in-place mandates from a number of cities. — A spokesperson for Kemp told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution …
Discussion:
State Representative …, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Helen Branswell / STAT:
An interview with the CDC director on coronavirus, masks, and an agency gone quiet — Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes the coronavirus pandemic as the greatest public health crisis in a century. — And yet the storied agency that Redfield leads …
Discussion:
LiveScience, The Conversation, WCMH-TV and HuffPost
Neil Bedi / Tampa Bay Times:
Florida saw a pandemic coming and prepared. Then state leaders started to cut. — As health officials warned Floridians were at “grave risk,” the state dismantled the defenses it built against a coronavirus-like crisis. — Fifteen years ago, Florida braced for a pandemic.
Politico:
‘There will be death’: Trump warns of ‘toughest week’ ahead — The president told the country to brace for the coming apex of the coronavirus outbreak. — President Donald Trump speaks April 4 during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
Discussion:
Political Wire
Cathy Young / The Bulwark:
The Media Is Not the Problem with COVID-19 — Thousands of Americans are dying. And some conservatives are blaming a favorite scapegoat. — As America's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic skyrockets while Donald Trump continues his displays of aggrieved narcissism …
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon
Bloomberg:
Sweden Girds for Thousands of Deaths Amid Laxer Virus Response — There are signs that the death rate in Sweden is growing faster than elsewhere in Scandinavia, raising pressure on the government to abandon its controversial hands-off approach in tackling Covid-19.
Discussion:
Power Line
Lee Fang / The Intercept:
Coronavirus Hasn't Stopped Jared Kushner's Real Estate Empire from Hounding Tenants with Debt Collection, Eviction Lawsuits — Jared Kushner's family real estate company, which owns and manages thousands of apartment units, continued its aggressive eviction practices and debt collection lawsuits as Americans wait for government relief.
Discussion:
israpundit.org, The Atlantic and Politico
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
It's time for the networks to stop live broadcast of Trump's briefings — The president's daily Coronavirus Task Force presentations have morphed into a beast that bears no resemblance to the informative crisis briefings they were originally intended to be.
Joseph Nunn / The Hill:
Can the president declare martial law in response to coronavirus? — Recently, a rumor that President Trump would impose martial law in response to the COVID-19 pandemic went viral. The story gained enough traction that the National Security Council stepped in to reassure the public it was fake.