Tag: Corona virus
Stevenson’s army, March 19
-Senators are working to craft a huge $1-2 Trillion package of individual and company relief. Republicans are willing to give cash to people; Democrats are willing to give companies money, though with strings. An unnamed GOP Senator suggested calling the money “freedom payments” rather than “bailouts.” The administration’s $1 trillion plan is only the starting point.
– There is infighting, however, including trade hawk Peter Navarro’s ideas for using the crisis to reduce reliance on foreign medical suppliers.
– There’s also confusion in the coronavirus fight because Jared Kushner is running a “shadow task force” on the problem.
–Mitre Corp. has a good paper listing how to respond to the pandemic.
– 3 doctors forecast a roller coaster of peaks and troughs of extreme social distancing for another 18 months or more.
– Should the US military do more? SAIS prof Mark Cancian suggests ways. Charlie Dunlap [MGEN, USAF , retired] says no.
-Kurt Campbell says China is moving into global leadership as a result of the pandemic. [NYT has a similar article.]
– Former GOP official Bob Zoellick blames Trump tariffs for some medical shortages. And USTR made some limited cutbacks there.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, March 18
NYT has details of HHS’s plan for the pandemic. It envisions 18 months and multiple waves of infections and urges invocation of the Defense Production Act to obtain needed medical supplies. Here’s the link to the 100+ page plan.
OMB wants $48 billion more than the $8 billion emergency supplemental approved last week. Here are the details.
The bidding war is on, both for a stimulus package and especially direct payments to Americans. Schumer started at $750 Billion, McConnell urged $850 Billion. Trump yesterday, because he sad he likes round numbers, called for $1 trillion — and this morning’s reports say the administration wants $1.2 trillion. Various Senators have proposed $1000 checks to people, $2000, or regular $1000 for several months. It appears that McConnell wants to take the lead in developing a Senate package this week.
In other news, David Ignatius warns of acting DNI’s effort to cut NCTC.
A pilot in the Bin Laden raid tells his story.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, March 17
– A Trump NSC staffer on global health defends the way it was handled on the NSC
– An Obama official .rebuts Bolton on that matter.
– Politico says senior incoming officials had a pandemic wargame just before Trump’s inauguration. [They should have known, is the lesson.]
– The House finally sent its first coronavirus recovery bill to the Senate — by approving by unanimous consent [voice vote] a resolution telling the Clerk to make “technical corrections” in the text. Rep. Gohmert [R-Tex.], who had threatened to object, withdrew his objection.
– Politico notes limits to possible use of troops for domestic help against the pandemic.
– How to allow vote by mail by November elections.
– US forces in Iraq are being relocated to larger bases.
There was a late addition:
– The administration wants to send checks directly
to Americans to help offset the economic effects of the coronavirus. I
support that, but not that the Obama administration did the same in 2009 with virtually no GOP support.
– The National Intelligence Council in 2008 warned that America and the world would face pandemic threats in the 2020s.
– And the ever-valuable D Brief shows
the Chinese response to Sen. Cotton’s fabricated claim that the Chinese
developed the coronavirus as a weapon against the US.
Here’s a brief list of Chinese diplomats who are sharing a conspiracy theory on Twitter in what appears to be a coordinated campaign of disinformation — spreading a lie that the U.S. created the coronavirus in a military laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md.:
- Zhao Lijian, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who seems to have initially tweeted this conspiracy last Thursday; his tweet was then shared by multiple diplomats and embassies, including—
- Lin Songtian, Chinese ambassador to South Africa;
- Lijian Zhao, Ambassador to the Maldives;
- Zhao Yanbo, Ambassador to Botswana;
- Quan Liu, Ambassador to Suriname;
- Chang Hua, Ambassador to Iran;
- Wang Xianfeng, press officer to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan;
- the Twitter account for China’s Embassy to France;
- China’s Embassy in Manila;
- Embassy in Jordan;
- Embassy in Chad;
- Embassy in Uganda;
- and the Twitter account for China’s Embassy in Cameroon.
One takeaway from all the conspiracy sharing: It would sure seem that “more people inside the MFA [China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs] are seeing this kind of stuff as a good career move,” tweeted Matt Schrader, China analyst at the U.S.-based think tank, Alliance for Securing Democracy.
Another POV: “Chinese party-state [is] taking a page out of Russia’s info ops playbook, using their Ambassadors’ @Twitter accounts for a coordinated disinfo operation,” tweeted Laura Rosenberger, who directs the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “The party-state is waging an info war using COVID-19, and using this moment to try new methods.”
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, March 16
- The most important news is about the coronavirus: how to stay safe; what authorities are doing [and not just what they are saying], and what works. [BTW, since monetary policy and zero interest rates can’t open public paces or restore lost income, I agree with the need for fiscal measures, the easiest of which is direct cash.]
- Look what Israel is doing: using secret cellphone data to track contacts with the infected.
- A professor notes there are 52 remaining emergency authorities that might be used.
- And look at the US military buildup in the Middle East.
- If and when the Senate takes up crisis measures, you can follow it on this regular site.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, March 15
- The woman who headed the NSC office for Global Health Security disbanded in 2018 explains what it did and could do.
- The Post has a further report on disarray and infighting in the WH: The administration’s struggle to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak has been marked by infighting and blame-shifting, misinformation and missteps, and a slow recognition of the danger. Warring factions have wrestled for control internally and for approval from a president who has been preoccupied with the beating his image is taking.The scramble for solutions is occurring in an overriding atmosphere of trepidation of saying something that Trump might perceive as disloyal and of fear that their fumbles could cost the president his reelection in November. The task force meetings often last about 2 ½ hours. At best, they have been forums to suggest and debate a broad range of ideas, from disease mitigation to public communications. At worst, they have been dens of discord, with officials with varying portfolios feuding over policy or even simply power and position. The mood has turned especially tense over frustrations with testing delays.“People just show up in the Oval and spout off ideas,” said a former senior administration official briefed on the coronavirus discussions. “He’ll either shoot down ideas or embrace ideas quickly. It’s an ad hoc free-for-all with different advisers just spitballing.”
- History lesson: the New Yorker has posted a 1997 article by Malcolm Gladwell telling the story of the 1918 Spanish flu.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, March 13
– US air strikes have been launched against Iran-linked forces in Iraq. WSJ has a good story,as does NYT.
– On the health front, WSJ reports that the president’s speech was done mainly by Kushner and Miller, and the coronavirus task force was not included.
WaPo also reports disarray in WH over the speech.
Politico has more on Kushner.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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