This post first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
I donât know why Democrats arenât screaming for the heads of the people who are profiteering on PPE and medical supplies. Why arenât they mad as hell about stuff like this? Because I am, and they should be too.
People who are profiteering off this stuff should have to spend the rest of their lives in Gitmo. End of story.
And make no mistake, trump is profiteering behind d the scenes and letting this all occur because it raises the prices.
I canât find the original article, but several weeks ago reporters were writing about the same photograph of boxes of masks essentially âgoing viralâ. Multiple would-be middlemen and scammers were all doing deals based on one photo.
And now the CDC has a web page explaining how to identify counterfeit masks. 
This is great journalism and a horrible story - thinking of the people working at the VA facilities who are dead (20 and counting) it makes me nauseous. As the Republicans seek to privatize the post office (having so expertly fucked up schools and prisons), we are here at the logical endpoint of crony capitalism where people die for want of a 95 cent mask. The greed and stupidity of half of our politicians is enough to completely strip us of any pride or honor regarding our place in the world, and the federal judiciary has now been stacked to permit every aspect of these horrible plots to screw people in the name of profit, even if they have to overturn precedent and common sense to do it.
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âWhen youâre a poor kid from Alabama,â Stewart said, âyou
âŚuse it as an excuse the rest of your natural life when someone catches you cheating.
This will not be the last of these storiesâŚitâs obvious that a lot of profiteering is going on, and it is costing lives as PPE cannot get where it needs to be. This will require a full Congressional investigationâŚthe House has started some of this, but of course the Republicans are refusing to go along with any oversight. They likely know that there is funny business happening, and if that comes out before the election it is going to hurt their chances even worse. Itâs still going to come out though, reporters will dig things like this up, and all this shows is the complete chaos of the federal response.
After the election, hopefully the Republicans are out of power, and then we can get a real investigation, with the DoJ able to prosecute those who took advantage. Iâm not sure that includes Stewart, he seems more like a buffoon who overpromised, but King looks guilty as hell here. Letâs hope that all of the grifters meet justice next year.
There is time for that. Late January, 2021.
Vote like your life depends on it. It does.
P.S. Edited. Fat fingers in anger.
2 most popular ingredients behind the closed doors of our White House
This is all downhill from Trumplethinskin (saw that great name in another thread).
His insistence that all the governmental entities compete against each other guarantees this kind of buffoonery and incompetence, not to mention the price-gouging, which I agree he has to be getting a taste of.
If anyone had written a novel five years ago that hewed closely to the facts today, literally no one would have believed it.
These are incredible times that the Republicans have foisted upon us. It would be bad enough if they were competent, but to be incompetent thieves and blackguards is just too much.
Or maybe it would be worse if they were competent at achieving their goals in secret.
Good story but I gotta take issue with the subhead. âOne contractor called them âbuccaneers and pirates.ââ Which contractor? The one who seems to be acting a lot like a buccaneer and a pirate, and who is looking to blame those other buccaneers and pirates.
President Donald Trump has handed out at least $5.1 billion in no-bid contracts to address the pandemic,
Ask Jared how billions of taxpayer money are awarded to no-bid contracts. This sound like waste, fraud, and phenomenal abuse.
Why? Henry Ford and Prescott Bush did it and got away with it back in the day.
This is so sickening.
F-N Vultures- while the likes of Lin-zee Graham and UncleTom Scott bitch about how some unemployed people may get more than they would from their minimum-wage jobs: How dare those lazy SOBâs get $600 per week!
The time to get these masks was in december or january.
Sounds like a high school weed deal.
I was in my local Ace hardware store today and they had packet of 3 n-95 masks for sale for $11.95. Now when I was still working (Iâm retired now) I could get this very same mask for $0.75 each. Somebody be makinâ way too much methinks ⌠and it is not my hardware store thatâs gouging.
Check your date. That one is well and truly done and dusted.