Don’t Let A Crisis Go To Waste…A Grifter’s Perspective…

Usually, when a politician says “don’t let a crisis go to waste,” the meaning is: “let’s take advantage of this crisis to move policy in the direction we think it should go.” It implies recognition that crises are often opportunities for positive change.

A report from NBC News is a reminder that not letting a crisis go to waste means something rather different to folks whose only goal is to make a profit–and that we have a federal administration just chock-full of grifters who think that way

It seems that, as the country hunkered down, DuPont convened a crisis team, charged with  figuring out how to increase production of personal protective equipment (PPE). DuPont has a patented material called Tyvek, which its distributors sell between $5 to $15 apiece to hospitals, and according to NBC, by early March, DuPont’s factory in Richmond, Virginia, was cranking out Tyvek.

In non-crisis times, it can take up to three months to turn Tyvek into body suits, because DuPont usually ships the fabric to Vietnam, where the body suits are sewn. So when the federal government offered to pay for chartered flights to reduce the round trip for 750,000 items to 10 days, DuPont agreed.

Then DuPont sold the suits to a third-party distributor for approximately $4 each, according to company documents it provided to NBC News, and that distributor sold them to the government. The company initially declined to say how much the Department of Health and Human Services paid for 750,000 suits, and it refused to identify the third-party distributor or say how much that firm charged the federal government.

“We actually helped get raw materials supplied from Richmond, Virginia, and we flew that s— to Vietnam, all so that DuPont could sell us” their products, said a senior federal official involved in the coronavirus effort.

Trump, of course, bragged that the deal was evidence of his administration’s excellent efforts to provide PPE.

NBC–and a number of government insiders–have a different view.

[F]or some government officials familiar with the supply-chain end of the coronavirus fight, it was yet another example of Trump’s task force serving industry as the White House tried to corner the market on medical supplies.

For weeks, Trump has resisted pressure to use the full power of his office to temporarily turn the private sector into an arm of the federal government in a national emergency. He and his lieutenants instead have used the crisis to make federal assets and personnel a support group for industry, rather than the other way around, according to NBC News’ interviews with dozens of public- and private-sector sources involved in various aspects of the coronavirus response.

In doing so, the vice president’s coronavirus task force — mostly through a supply-chain unit led by Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, vice director of logistics for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and heavily influenced by White House adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law — has favored some of the nation’s largest corporations and ignored smaller producers of goods and services with long track records of meeting emergency needs, according to officials at multiple federal agencies and people familiar with contracting.

They have operated almost entirely in the dark, releasing few details of their arrangements with the big companies; created a new and convoluted emergency response system; and sown confusion and distrust in the states and among the people who need medical supplies.

The supply-chain group is just one part of the task force run by Vice President Mike Pence. That task force is routinely described by insiders as chaotic, secretive and inept. According to the NBC report (and numerous others, including Governors, local officials and veterans of federal emergency response), it has deeply complicated the national fight against the pandemic.

We don’t know much, because transparency is clearly not a priority of this administration; however, there are two priorities that–according to off-the-record officials–definitely remain:  private profit and the ability of the White House to choose where supplies go.

A friend of mine used to say that the whole point of holding political office was to help your friends and screw your enemies. Whatever the truth of that cynical maxim, it may be the only political principle guiding the know-nothing grifters in this administration…

25 Comments

  1. I have sent a couple of letters to our silent Republican Senators whenever news stories like this NBC Report come up expressing the need for EVERY Congressional Republican to form a solid block to force Trump’s resignation.
    I keep pointing out all the ways he is a danger to the health and wellbeing of the nation and world in this National Emergency and how guilty he is of Dereliction of Duty.
    I also remind them that every day he remains in Office is costing more American LIVES.
    I also remind them that what The Donald has done, or not done is more dangerous than what forced Richard Nixon’s resignation.
    I know they do not want to listen but, feel they need to know what us regular folks are thinking, saying and writing.
    I’M READY TO VOTE THIS VERY MINUTE.

  2. The grift will not end until Trump is dead or out of OUR office. It’s who he is. It’s how his family made billions of dollars. It’s who he will be until he is no longer of this Earth. His two maggot-like sons will continue the grift as long as they are allowed to do so.

  3. Marine Corp General Smedley Butler said about War and profiteering:

    “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”

    So it makes perfect sense for the profiteers to take advantage of every opportunity to make a profit.

    What I find interesting is:

    > >In non-crisis times, it can take up to three months to turn Tyvek into body suits, because DuPont usually ships the fabric to Vietnam, where the body suits are sewn. So when the federal government offered to pay for chartered flights to reduce the round trip for 750,000 items to 10 days, DuPont agreed.<<

    This is a result of Neo-Liberal Economic policies and so called globalism. I am certain we have sewing machines here in the USA that could sew the Tyvek body suits. The labor in Vietnam would be far cheaper and there would be no worries about unions, safety or environmental regulations. Add in a selected third party distributor that adds in it's own costs and commissions, jacking up the price.

    This would seem to me a superb issue in the forth coming election, the twisted attempts by the corrupt Trump Regime and their fellow travelers in corporate America to profit off of misery.

    I have heard nothing from the Democratic high command, or Democratic candidates on this profiteering . Why are they silent??????

  4. Sheila, your friend’s maxim might not be too far from the truth.

    Pay to play politics can be found from the very bottom to the very top of government. The politicos all campaign on “open government” and “transparency” until they get into their positions; then, the grifting begins. Their dishonesty is covered behind closed doors and second email accounts—one face for the public, and one for those who pay to play.

    By the way, this is the source of conspiracies. The only way to prevent conspiracies is to create an open-source platform without politicians — just managers of the people’s wishes.

    Ah, well, a person can dream…

    Anyway, Trump is still trying to cover his ass for his lacking response to Covid. The New York Times blasted Trump, so he hosted a propaganda show prepared by one of his former chauffeur drivers turned propaganda artists. It backfired:

    https://theintercept.com/2020/04/14/trump-pr-stunt-falls-flat-white-house-video-exposes-failure-prepare-pandemic/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

  5. Of course they want to control who has access to supplies, that’s why they are intercepting, they being the feds, are intercepting shipments initiated by the states. The federal government claims to want the states acquiring their own supplies, all the while the federal government is confiscating shipments bought and paid for by the states.

    So why the subterfuge? Well, if you control as Jared Kushner eluded to, the federal stockpile, everyone has to crawl on their knees and beg in front of the Emperor for life-saving accoutrements. So, out of one side of their mouth they claim the states control their own destinies, then out of the other side of their mouth, they are beholding to the federal government for anything that they acquire.

    You can see some of this starting by the POTUS tweets about liberty Michigan and a liberty Virginia, and such! So the federal government initiates the lockdown, then stirs up the Right wing nationalists and militia groups in those states that might be battleground, saying that he stands behind their resistance on social distancing or any type of cooperation, thereby subverting the states and disowning the federal government’s own edicts on the matter! And don’t believe that he actually knows what he is doing concerning this!

    There needs to be a constant din of video put out on a daily basis, where POTUS is contradicting himself or putting out edicts that his own followers despise! And that drumbeat needs to be on a continuous 24 hour a day 7 day a week cycle! He can deny it, but if it’s out there constantly, he can’t hide from it by some other crisis that he has manufactured. Until the opposition gets their mind right, and quits letting POTUS set the agenda with his shenanigans, they are going to be on the losing side! They need to quit being reactive and start being proactive!

    Grifters are good at misdirection, conmen are good at manipulation and deception, mobsters are good at enforcement of their agenda, our POTUS, Sybil, has a multitude of personalities all rolled into one, I’m sure one day there will be a case study on it if there is any society left by then!

    What’s happening now is so implausible, like I said before, if it’s time, it’s time!

  6. Corruption…Trump vs Grant:

    History considers Ulysses Grant to have been a corrupt American President. But in 1862, when General Grant’s father Jesse engaged in black market purchasing of southern cotton in his son’s Army Theater of responsibility, General Grant was furious and ordered his father’s arrest and removal from the area. Grant dispatched soldiers to escort his father back to Kentucky. But Jesse Grant stole back to General Grant’s battlefront and the black market in cotton. Once more, the General had Jesse expelled. When Jesse died, during his son’s second term as President, Ulysses refused to accept his considerable inheritance, presumably because he considered it ill gotten.

    Grant, as Army General, also insisted on generous payments to southern citizens from whom his army took land and mules and meat.

    Does anyone think Trump comes anywhere near the ethical standards set by the “corrupt” Grant. Would any of Trump’s children refuse their father’s estate on the grounds that it was “ill gotten”? If Trump were as decently “corrupt” as Grant, he would have refused the millions he inherited from his father Fred.

    If history considers President Grant to have been corrupt, what will it think of Trump? Historians will have to invent a term that carries considerably more condemnation than “corrupt” to describe Trump’s term in office. “Traitor” and “Criminal” come to mind.

  7. War profiteering affords another opportunity for profiteers, but perversely, is the reason why Harry Truman became president. FDR appointed him to keeps a lid on WW II profiteering, and he did. Thus in 1944, when it was clear that FDR was failing and the choice of a VP was important, Democratic bigwigs chose Truman over other better known candidates for the job, and we all know the rest of that story. Would that we had a Truman in the Oval Office today!

    But we don’t; we have instead a thief for whom the presidency is a sideline and useful only for stealing and sating his narcissistic appetite for power, marked by bluster, threat and tactics of daily headline grabbing for purposes of distraction. The adjective nefarious comes to mind, as does the name Benedict Arnold. He has nothing going for him. Nothing.

  8. A friend of mine is 95 and a naval veteran of WWII. He swears that all his fellow sailors put their life in the control of the motto: “If it’s time, it’s time”–as if strategy and tactics and skill and supply and will and toughness and improvisation and leadership and invention and individual responsibility has nothing to do with survival. Then, he shrugs his shoulders. The shrug of his shoulders is the second tell that informs on his useless, thoughtless Fatalism. The first tell is his confessing, “If it’s time, it’s time.”

    Fatalism is another myth. Give me skepticism every time, and even better, let me be skeptical even of skepticism.

    #*$%@&*%@#$%*+#$@%!!!!!! I hate these quoted aphorisms, as if they are unbreakable laws written on some secret Constitution and as true and binding as myths. How is supporting one’s arguments with aphorisms and myths any different than a deplorable “supporting” his contentions with conspiracy theories?

    Myth in the cockpit. I had a friend who was fearful of flying. Another friend owned an airplane and often begged the fearful one to fly with him. He said, “Look at it this way: if God decides He wants to take you, it will make no difference if you’re in a plane or in your own bed.” The fearful one replied, “Yeah? That’s why I don’t want to be riding with you when God decides He wants you.”

  9. Why are we continually surprised by the behavior of corporations? It’s all absolutely to be expected from institutions run by one rule: make more money now regardless of the impact on any others ever.

    That is exactly why the only way capitalism contributes is through regulation to insure that all stake holders (workers, customers, investors, supply chain partners, future humans, communities, governments) are represented and protected and respected. That means regulations are enforced, kept up to date technologically, culturally, effectively, professionally and based on demonstrated unsatisfactory performance by those regulated and enforces consistantly and effectively.

    The current times are experiments in doing less of all of that and if we don’t turn that around capitalism will greed itself into obsolescence which will be a loss for all of us.

  10. Jan and all. Here is the potential power of “If you see something say something.” We are tracking what incumbent GOPers say/do when outrageous things like this happen. The results will be used powerfully in their DEM opponents messaging this fall.

    Such was VERY SUCCESSFUL with our candidates in 2018, especially over the issue of separation of children and parents at the border. We believe it even move some GOP women…

  11. FRESH ON THE MIND
    In my current novel, I have an organized crime antagonist, Don Villamisi, ranting over an occasional rebel among the general population over which he has been the Don for fourteen years.

    “Why dese f**king idiots keep forgettin’ who runs things here? Why, the f**k I have to remind them? Every day, I gotta hurt somebody so the stupid f**ks remember. They making me into some kind of no good asshole.”

    “You asking me, boss?”

    “Shut up. You need reminding, too? F**k it; I do what I have to do. Now, I got dis whore here keeps forgettin’.”

    “I got it covered, boss.”

    “Least, somebody remembers.” Leaving the warehouse, Villamisi pats Lucy on the cheek, the one opposite the bruise and whispers, “Think a yourself like one of dem pony express cowboys, sweetheart, deliverin’ da mail rain or shine. Some loser write a poem, make you a big hero some day; think of it like that.” At the door, Villamisi stops, turns, and asks Lucy, “Feels good to be useful, don’t it?”

    This is why Trump feels he has to hurt someone every day; it keeps his message fresh on the mind.

  12. What is going to be left after the MONSTER is gone? I’m reminded of the cult movie: “The Killer Shrews” which was filmed on an island in the middle of Lake Dallas during the ’50s. The island was owned by the McLendon Corporation. Nothing was left.

    The mad scientist in the movie is played by the same person that is primarily responsible for this mess: Gordon McLendon. I should know, as I had been the first General Counsel of the McLendon Corporation.

    McLendon went from being the “Ole Scotsman,” RE-CREATING major league baseball games by having the play by play wired to him in a room located in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. His Liberty Broadcasting System had over 350 outlets and was a major threat to CBS.

    From that auspicious beginning in the ’50s, which eventually failed, he moved into RE-CREATING the DEEP anti-Semitic hatred of Nazi Germany with his buddy, Bunker Hunt, in the ’70s. We’ve now had 50 years of it, non-stop.

    The Germans only had it for about 25 years. Can you imagine the depth of it all? I don’t think so.

    As john has continued to warn, it ain’t going to be “pretty.”

  13. this sounds like the cult followers of Ayn Rand. They have the fanatic belief that selfishness is the highest virtue.

    This is the kind of capitalism that I abhor. Pence and Trump are running our government as if it is a business not a servant of the people!! We need collaboration, NOT DOG EAT DOG COMPETITION!

  14. That’s the same Bunker Hunt who cornered the Silver Market. After that failure, he decided to corner the Jews? However, that would be a lot easier and he was right, because there was not going to be any oversight, especially by the American Jewish leadership and their “suicidal” commitment to the State of Israel.

  15. Speaking of grifters:
    “Donald Trump goes on a visit to Israel, where he suffers a heart attack and dies.
    The undertaker tells the American diplomats accompanying him,
    ‘You can have him shipped home for $50,000, or you can bury him here in the Holy Land for just $100.’
    The American diplomats go into a corner to discuss for a few minutes.
    They return and tell him they want Donald Trump shipped home.
    The puzzled undertaker asks, ‘Why would you spend $50,000 to ship him home, when it would be wonderful to be buried here and you would spend only $100?’
    The American diplomat’s reply, ‘Long ago, a man died here, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. We just can’t take the risk.'”

  16. Betty,

    That was terrific. Covering the risk was very justified. However, to many of Trump’s followers, he has already made the transition.

  17. Hey Marv,

    I think you’re right! Thought you’d like that one! Did you see “The Iceberg” from a couple (or three) nights ago? I posted it late and most folks probably missed it. I think you would enjoy it.
    To his base and other followers, “His feces hath no odor.”
    He’s just the worst! If there are those who don’t see any reason to vote or to vote BLUE, they just have not been paying attention.
    Stay safe and well and keep practicing Social Distancing!

  18. We have been in “crisis” for almost four years now; we were already in a weakened condition nationally, emotionally and the stress has weakened our physical condition and lowered our stamina and immunity to further crises. Is the adoration of or subjugation to Trump a form of slavery or Stockholm Syndrome? Either way the mass hysteria of Trump supporters has made us victims of victims of his avarice and greed. Will we come out the other side of this Pandemic weaker, stronger or merely the same? We can use this time of “social distancing” for self reflection or waste it on anger and frustration. Will we be wiser from this current confinement or only older? At times I find myself wanting to scream but there is no one to hear. Just a lonely old lady’s perspective on my personal crisis.

  19. Betty,

    I think you’re right! Thought you’d like that one! Did you see “The Iceberg” from a couple (or three) nights ago? I posted it late and most folks probably missed it. I think you would enjoy it.

    I did see the post and responded with my own post about the “iceberg” that Obama would soon engage if elected President.

    Take good care.

  20. Marv,
    I dropped back to 4/15 to see your reply. Thanks! I would’ve missed it. Keep on keepin’ on! We so need your wise, yet brief and grammatically correct, counsel! Be safe when others aren’t! They’re flocking to your beaches down there: “We don’t need no social distancing!” Oh! Puh-leez! Who are all these tacky people?

  21. Trump was once asked by a reporter how he wanted to be thought of. Trump responded that he wanted to be feared. Not loved or respected or admired or even approved, but feared. Unfortunately for him and the rest of us, that’s not cutting it in a pandemic. We prefer testing, treatment, vaccines and results to disease and death.

  22. Larry, oh Larry!

    Ecclesiastes 3
    There is an appointed time for everything,
    A time for every activity under the heavens:
    2 A time for birth and a time to die;
    A time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted;
    3 A time to kill and a time to heal;
    A time to tear down and a time to build up;
    4 A time to weep and a time to laugh;
    A time to wail and a time to dance;
    5 A time to throw stones away and a time to gather stones together;
    A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
    6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
    A time to keep and a time to throw away;
    7 A time to rip apart+ and a time to sew together;
    A time to be silent+ and a time to speak;
    8 A time to love and a time to hate;
    A time for war and a time for peace.

    So, if it’s time, it’s time! Doesn’t matter what it’s time for, just that it’s the appropriate time for it!

    King David recognized that there is futility in certain aspects of trying to control the uncontrollable!

    King David definitely made his bones In prophecy as progenitor of the coming Messiah!
    He definitely was an imperfect individual, but his heart, although flawed, was attached to God. And because of that, he was allowed to finish his course as progenitor, and every day King David supplicated his God for forgiveness of his errors, as many and severe as they were! And because of that supplication and honest hearted beseeching, his love for his God, he was forgiven.

    The apostle Paul in 2nd Timothy the 4th chapter stated this, “6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my releasing is imminent. 7 I have fought the fine fight, I have run the race to the finish, I have observed the faith. 8 From this time on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me as a reward in that day, yet not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his manifestation.

    This faith that the apostle Paul talked about, on his deathbed, showed a very brave and powerful man with a tremendous hope that was given to him! Now, all of the days that he was one of Christ’s apostles, he endured many assassination attempts, prison, abuse and torture, Starvation, all the while carrying some sort of physical malady with him all away until the day of his death. But his faith kept him strong, he didn’t shirk his responsibility, he knew that there would be a reward for him.

    He was not skeptical, as a matter of fact, he constantly debated the philosophical skeptics, and he more than held his own!

    In Hebrews the 11th chapter, that’s a good verse to read, it discusses faith at length, what true faith is!

    Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen. 2 For by means of it, the men of ancient times had witness borne to them. By faith we perceive that the systems of things were put in order by God’s word, so that what is seen has come into existence from things that are not visible. (And these are just the 1st 3 verses)

    If one has to physically bear witness witness something to have a belief, then that person besides being a skeptic, is foolish! Because mankind is mortal, and if he has a special mightiness, 95 years of age is a good life! But in that 95 years, he could not have witnessed all the things in history that he believes, so, that person has to be faithful, he has to have quite a modicum of faith! There is no possible way belief, belief by mortal man, is related to observable verification, personal observable verification! Anyone that says otherwise is a hypocrite! I myself, choose not to be hypocritical, even though there are times when my conduct might not be as appropriate as it should be! During those times, as King David did, and like every person of faith needs to do, beseech your God and ask for forgiveness! You sanctify your God by your actions, by your conduct, AND, you can reproach your God in the same way! I choose not to reproach, SOME choose not to sanctify, and that is a pity!

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