The governor of Maryland, Republican Larry Hogan, obtained 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea. Nothing surprising about that in this era of Trump. Trump has told the states that they are responsible for getting their own coronavirus stuff - tests (even though Trump lied when he said that anyone who wanted a test could get one), ventilators, personal protective equipment, and one imagines even toilet paper. Because, as the unelected Jared Kushner explained earlier in the thousand day month of April, the Federal Stockpile is not for the states but for “us.” The “us” being the feds? Which is all of us, right? Or did he mean “us” as in just true believers of Trump?
Well, in light of that comment, states started ignoring the Federal government and just went out and ordered their own stuff. Except, that wasn’t cool. The Feds didn’t like that so they started confiscating the stuff ordered by the states. Wonderful. That’s why Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, my home state, had to get Robert Kraft to fly his own plane to China to get masks. Earlier, Baker had ordered a shit ton of masks but instead of getting those for his citizens, the masks were seized by the Feds. Noone really knows who, but many are guessing FEMA. Like the many people Trump is always referring to in support of one lie or another. Nobody really knows where those masks are now because there is no transparency with this administration despite the constant comments from Trump that his administration is the most transparent ever. I think he doesn’t know what transparent means. My guess is that FEMA took all the stuff and sent it to some red state instead of to Massachusetts, a blue state.
Massachusetts and other blue states are kinda like Ukraine after all. If you want stuff from the Feds you gotta play nice with Trumpelstilzchen, who made this perfectly clear in a news conference yesterday. He told reporters that he would consider funding “Democrat states,” “if we do that we’re going to have to get something for it.” Now we know what President Zelensky had to deal with and Trump just reinforced the deep down truth that the Republicans refused to acknowledge in the impeachment hearings. Thanks Susan Collins.
Heck, we can’t say anyone didn’t warn us, can we Susan? Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan did.
“To see why, imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding,” Karlan said. “What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the President responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor. I’ll meet with you and send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal?’”
So, with this in mind, back to Governor Hogan. At his press conference, he said it had taken about three weeks to get all his ducks in a row to get these masks, including having is wife, a Korean immigrant, play a key role in getting the tests. Tellingly, he said that instead of flying the first 5,000 of those test kits into Dulles International Airport, he had them flown into BWI Airport. Never before had a South Korean passenger airliner landed at BWI. Why? Because he didn’t want the Feds to confiscate the kits. When the passenger plane arrived at BWI, the Maryland National Guard and Maryland State Troopers were there to greet it and protect those test kits from Federal seizure. Later, Trump called Hogan stupid for spending 9 million dollars to get test kits when all he had to do was call Mike Pence.
Ha, that’s funny. Call Mike Pence? Nah, I think I’ll pass.