This story 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.
Welcome to Trump Regime’s BLAT…Corrupt Barter System…Profiteering and Black Market due to shortages of goods and services ie medical supplies!
Another QPQ Covornavirus & Russian Blat Edition…“Be Nice” in exchange for ventilators is an example!
What’s next? Deliver the November election for Trump and Trump will send more ventilators/PPE?
It is very likely that the Trump administration is making deals without oversight, based on buddy-buddy relationships with the Trump family and other Republicans, and, very possibly, in ways that will profit them. It may be direct, and it may be in the future (by way of donations or jobs), and it’s all the wrong way for our government to work.
The media has about six months to dig out all of these deals, present them to the nation, and show how the Trumps and the Republicans have abused the system for their own ends. It’s absolutely critical that this happens…otherwise it will be a growing problem in the second Trump term, and leave us with a dysfunctional government whenever we finally win it back from these cretins.
Moscow Mitch and his 51 friends must be involved or too afraid to stand up to Trump’s Tweets.
They won’t.
Hopefully, ProPublica is archiving all of these Trump-busting reports so Attorney General Harris can use them in the upcoming Trump Pandemic Tribunals?
The March 31 FEMA contract called for the company to produce 100,000 powered respirators and filters for medical workers treating patients in New York
Interesting - most recent investor presentation - good luck finding “Respirator” manufacturing capability
additional info on this defense focused division of AirBoss - and the $$$ behind it
If anyone is curious, a Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) is equipment used to filter an air supply through a hose into an enclosed helmet – it’s what healthcare workers would ideally be wearing when intubating an infected/contagious patient. These should not be confused with ventilators, which are completely different (and much more expensive) devices used for patient life support. The company in question has no role in making the latter
PAPRs are helpful (can always use more), but their use is episodic during aerosol generating medical procedures – it’s not something a clinician would wear all the time, which is why you won’t have heard of a big shortage. They’re also not hugely expensive. Even if this contract was for 100,000 of them, the price tag should not be more than about 250 million (in fact it should be less, since they’re buying in bulk). Something does not add up. Either they have purchased far more than just PAPRs, or they have purchased them at rip-off pricing, or both
Edited to add: oops I misread the story. The no-bid contract for 100,000 PAPRs was for 96 million. That’s $960 per PAPR. I hate to say it, but that’s not bad. Doesn’t mean there was any need at all for a no-bid contract, because many companies make these things. But that is a good price. The ProPublica story should have included that context
Pretty clear They Went to Jared, isn’t it?
SO, have they figured out the connection to tRump yet? We know it’s there.
So March 31st the contract was signed(?), and somehow someone in FEMA, CDC, and especially the WH missed the Dec 31st announcement that a novel coronavirus has emerged. So 3 fucking months of pissing away readiness. OH well that just par for the course in Trumplandia.
Grift, grift, grift. It just never stops with these a-holes.
How many IGs will need to be fired so that Trump can hide his profits?
The White House Pushed FEMA To Give its Biggest Coronavirus Contract to a Company That Never Had to Bid
Was the company a newly formed LLC named Essential Jareds, Inc.?
The only time this’ll stop is in January if the GOP is crushed. And there’ll be a mad dash until then.
I really like what TPM is doing with ProPublica. I wonder what the “arrangement” is? No snark.
Rubber washers??
BTW, those “bunny” boots have always been referred to as “Mickey Mouse Boots.” By anyone in the service who has worn them. They are embarrassing, and imagine what they look like in a size 15!
Contra Richard Nixon, this president is a crook.
