https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/politics/fema-flights-distribution/index.html
The rest will resupply the private market, where competition between states and the federal government has been a source of frustration for governors trying to shore up equipment to treat patients with coronavirus, according to multiple officials.
Y’all may have missed a few details. Baker had a couple companies of Guardsmen on the tarmac at Logan airport. If the Customs officers at Logan had decided to try taking the consignment, there might well have been gunfire.
Thom, as annoyed as you might be with colorless technocrats like Baker (personally, I love them and I have a shrine to Angela Merkel, Our Lady of Beige in my den), watch this 48 minutes in. Baker talking about scoring that load of masks. You might change your mind about him.
It seems to be happening. IIRC Boing Boing covered the bidding wars sometime in the past few days.
The National Guard are all state troops, but in fact all weapons in the hands of NG units are Federal property. If there had been a real confrontation, firing or no, the next thing that would happen is that the active Army would have descended on Massachusetts and carried off every weapon they have.
That’s exactly the problem with the guy. He doesn’t stand for … anything. He’s like 2 inches to the right of every neoliberal centrist shill on a good day, which means he doesn’t pander to progressive causes before making the exact same sell-out decisions that reinforce the status quo.
I may not have made this clear, but I was genuinely impressed with this. So far, Baker has done the bare minimum of lip service to acknowledging Trump’s absurdity — more than any other Republican lawmaker, sure, but he’s pretty much stopped there.
This is a good, very human speech, and I do sincerely applaud him for that. I think it demonstrates why he’s such a shitty Republican — he definitely has more empathy and compassion for humanity than the rest of the Establishment GOP. But while he doesn’t commit to their atrocities, neither does he (typically) go very far in improving things like poverty, education, wealth inequality, healthcare access, police power, et cetera.
But at the end of the day, you’re right — at least he’s a human with a conscience. Which is more than I can say for some other lawmakers out there.
It’s a bit of a bad way to phrase it. There’s no literal auction going on, and the feds aren’t the ones “auctioning” shit.
But what’s happening is states are lining up purchases directly from suppliers. And because there’s such demand wholesalers and producers are basically holding out on commitments to find the highest offer/sale price they can. Cuomo has likened this to an auction, and complained about how he’s basically been forced to outbid other states. Basically a state contacts the supplier and agrees to $3 a mask, another state contacts that supplier and offers $4, then Norway calls in and offers $5. And so forth. Cause there’s only 100k masks and all parties want those 100k masks.
No one is formally forcing states to bid against each other. It’s just companies gouging and playing them off each other in the absence of federal oversight or any kind of central planning or consistent response. And since the federal government is run by straight up goons they’re effectively bidding against states to get this shit to purportedly send it to states. But then not sending them.
Raw idiocy basically. Or the free market at work depending on your party registration.
id love to know what this word means. is fema giving the masks bought with public money to be sold by private companies to again be paid for with public money?
this is just lousy, criminal to say the least
Let me see if I’ve got this right. The Federal government essentially forces states to bid against one another, because that’s how capitalism is supposed to work (?) and then, the winning state has what it has won in the bid confiscated by the Federal government so that the supplies can be distributed by private entities because that’s how capitalism is supposed to work (?). This would seem to make the communism of the USSR look like a model of efficiency.
States told to source their own materials. Mass buys 3 million masks. Feds confiscate them. Mass asks for PPE and other equipment, Feds sent them 1/6 of what they ask for. Michigan has contracted orders with suppliers cancelled or delayed because the Feds flex their muscle and cut the line. Colorado ask for material and receives enough for one day. New York, the hardest hit state in the country is also sent a fraction of what they asked for. California receives broken ventilators. Florida receives everything they requested and more. It seems like reliably blue states are getting the equipment they ordered confiscated or snatched away and are receiving the broken equipment and the rotted masks while the reddest of red states like Florida get what they need. In true Trumpian fashion the administration is using the levers of power to reward friends and punish enemies.
A summary thread of how Trump is ratfucking America’s for fun (and probably profit):
And now ratfucking other countries.
Ok, does somebody have a reliable citation for this behavior? This would be beyond criminal!
Lower down the thread:
And more links in the following tweets.
My voting for a Republican finally paid off.
Way to go Charlie!
I’m in love with Massachusetts. I bet we could manufacturer ventilators somehow. The infrastructure is there but it’s never been used that way. Hmm…
Workers in a GE plant in Lynn walked out to demand the plant be converted to making ventilators.
Lynn, that city that the Commonwealth has shat on in every conceivable way, and that’s what they do.
That’s why I picked that one. Love a thread that cites its sources.
