Biden Admin Uses Wartime Powers To Boost Fed Role In Vaccine Distribution | Talking Points Memo

[chelsea530]

15 states and DC so far. Not sure I’ll see it in my lifetime.

[euglena4056]

@brian512

I want to pull out a bit that Josh M said in his current EdBlog.

Here’s the bit:

If you’ve worked in business a certain kind of salesman is like this. You size up the customer, find out what they want, what they feel they need and then tell them a story to make the sale. Is it lying? Well, not to them. Not exactly. It’s selling. Again, you don’t ask a playwright why he writes stories that aren’t true. Needless to say Donald Trump is that kind of salesman .

I’ve certainly encountered a bellyful of examples. They make life absolute Hell for their colleagues – the engineers who get told “I made this big sale by promising BigCustomer that we could do X. Can we do X? No? Well, can you get it for me by Tuesday? 'Cause that’s when we go live…” And then there are meetings and there’s screaming and there are P1 tech support escalations when the thing the customer paid for ain’t what the customer got, and so on.

An alternate way that the story plays out is that the salesTrump decamps, commission and sales bonus in pocket, to some other employer before the customer actually discovered that they’ve been diddled. Then the poor unsuspecting sod who takes over the account walks into a buzz saw at their first customer meeting. And then there is screaming, and P1 tech support escalations, and…

What’s my point? The Biden administration is the equivalent of the rest of the company that has to catch the mess that the salesTrump has caused, and try to figure out how to un-fuck the situation, and maybe even keep the customer in the end.

Reminds me of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. No skills in the area, but she sold her story to a lot of heavy hitters. (My skepticism went up when she was on the cover of Wired Magazine. Not that it’s a bad magazine, but they sometimes fall for the high-tech glitz.)

[ozziecat]

@occamscoin

I am still puzzled why the prior admin did not do this.

“The Trump administration policy of eschewing the tool in favor of letting states battle over limited supplies of PPE and vaccine…”

“After a week on the job, Biden’s team is still trying to locate upwards of 20 million vaccine doses that have been sent to states — a mystery that has hampered plans to speed up the national vaccination effort.” (Political Wire)

Have there been private sales going on? Well, of course. Jared has his own ideas about proper distribution priorities.

[ClutchCargo]

While developing a vaccine in such a short time is even better than rocket science, using the tools of the federal government to grease the skids in the supply chain is not. This could and should have been done a year ago for PPE, syringes, etc in anticipation of vaccine rollout, and for whatever could be done to expedite vaccine production once the $B’s had been promised to pharma.

The trump administration was not populated only by morons. Evil was involved in these non-decisions.

[brian512]

@euglena4056

(My skepticism went up when she was on the cover of Wired Magazine. Not that it’s a bad magazine, but they sometimes fall for the high-tech glitz.)

Sometimes??!?

That’s their business model.

[lizzymom]

@steviedee111

The Office of the Former President thinks this is totally unnecessary.

Well, I happen to think the Former President and his “Office” are totally unnecessary, so I guess we’re even.

[radicalcentrist]

@thebigragu

. But he had to obsess on the Stock market numbers because in his simple mind that was his only plus with voters.
Act like nothings wrong, the stocks will get better!!!

Though it’s hard to see how the stock market would have taken a more efficient vaccination roll-out as a bad thing…

[brian512]

@steviedee111

The Office Orfice of the Former President thinks this is totally unnecessary.

Works better this way.

[occamscoin]

@chelsea530

15 states and DC so far. Not sure I’ll see it in my lifetime.

It needs only 270 EVs worth of states, not a 2/3s count of states like a constitutional amendment.

[ameliababy]

@thebigragu

Act like nothings wrong, the stocks will get better!!!

Think Jared must have determined there was no profit in using these powers for Donnie Inc. so why take chance of upsetting one of his donors…

[cervantes]

@radicalcentrist

Plus, if they had, they might have legitimately won the election and that would have denied them the opportunity to pretend to be victims, which may be Trump’s second favorite sport after golf. Maybe even ahead of golf…

Too funny. Why am I crying?

[radicalcentrist]

@euglena4056

Reminds me of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes.

Holmes also doesn’t pay her lawyers. I’m surprised Trump didn’t pardon her.

[castor_troy]

From the reaction, seems like everyone has a touch of PTSD.

Almost like we forgot what basic functioning government looks like.

[brian512]

@thebigragu

Isn’t it UFO Week on Carlsons show?

Unmoored Fatuous Oaf? That’s every week.

[cervantes]

@ClutchCargo

The trump administration was not populated only by morons. Evil was involved in these non-decisions.

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge.

Maybe take another ten seconds – and then judge!

[castor_troy]

@radicalcentrist

it’s hard to see how the stock market would have taken a more efficient vaccination roll-out as a bad thing

Not so hard. Most of the DOW components were either relatively impervious to a pandemic or actually well-placed to take advantage of one.

[brian512]

@thebigragu

All Trump had to do was act like a sane and concerned President.

He’s not that good an actor.

[ClutchCargo]

Done!

[chelsea530]

wiki:

As of February 2021, it has been adopted by fifteen states and the District of Columbia. These states have 196 electoral votes, which is 36% of the Electoral College and 73% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force. Certain legal questions may affect implementation of the compact.

That last sentence dampens the spirit.

[cervantes]

It’s a marked departure from Trump administration policy of eschewing the tool in favor of letting states battle over limited supplies of PPE and vaccine

Lord of the Flies.