They knew

Congress just passed a coronavirus relief bill. It contains a half trillion for businesses. The law contains rules for oversight of how the money is spent, with regular reports to Congress. The nasty guy signed the bill, adding a signing statement – all those oversight rules will be ignored and any requests by Congress for information will be refused.

That prompted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to tweet:

And just like that, the Congressional oversight provisions for the 1/2 TRILLION dollar Wall St slush fund (which were *already* too weak) are tossed away the day the bill is signed. This is a frightening amount of public money to have given a corrupt admin w/ 0 accountability.

Deeply disappointing, but not at all surprising.



Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been agitating for more medical supplies for Detroit, hard hit by the coronavirus, and has been critical of the nasty guy. When the nasty guy said governors were on their own Whitmer talked to suppliers directly. But she heard from vendors that federal officials told them not to sell to Michigan.

That prompted Leah McElrath to tweet:

Trump is letting the people of Michigan die because he doesn’t like their governor.

I heard on the evening news on Michigan Radio that Michigan received a large shipment of masks. So perhaps the female governor got the nasty guy to back down (though that story isn’t on their website).



This evening’s opera is Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner. It’s an opera about a singing contest. Walther comes to town and falls in love at first sight with Eva. She’s the daughter of the head of the town music guild. He proposed that Eva select the winner, whom she could marry. She does have the right of refusal, so it’s not quite as sexist as it might be.

The singing guild has a lot of rules about what qualifies as an acceptable song. Of course, Walther doesn’t know any of them. So we have Beckmesser, who also wants to marry Eva, grades Walther’s introductory song (the day before the contest) and fills his grading board with errors. We also have Hans Sachs, who says the rules shouldn’t apply when the artist clearly works in a wonderful new direction.

When Die Meistersinger premiered several people noticed that the subject was about his own music. Wagner didn’t follow the rules. Many critics were scathing because of that. But others understood that Wagner was staking out a new direction. The character of Beckmesser is supposedly modeled on Wagner’s most vocal critic.
A fun scene happens in the second act. Beckmesser comes to serenade Eva. Sachs, watching over the neighborhood, has set up his shoemaker bench in front of his house and is making the shoes Beckmesser ordered. Sachs volunteers, and insists, to grade Beckmesser on his song, similar to how Beckmesser had graded Walther. Except instead of putting marks on a board with chalk, Sachs will strike the shoe with his hammer. Beckmesser gets so flustered that Sachs is able to finish the shoes before the end of the song.

It is rather nice to have a city in which the working men value song and poetry.

The opera has its comic moments (see above), but a bit too serious for an outright comedy. Though Walther has the role of hero in the contest, most of the story is about Sachs, a very kind and understanding man. A good thing about this opera is that nobody dies. And was there any doubt who got the girl? The downside – it’s Wagner’s longest opera. The third act alone is about two hours.



Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos says we should pay attention to this timeline:

Jan. 16 – The nasty guy’s impeachment trial began.

Jan. 20 – The CDC confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the US.

Jan. 24 – The Senate Health and Foreign Relations Committee held a private, all-senator briefing on the virus. The hearing included CDC and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Senator Loeffler began dumping stocks that day.

Jan. 27 – Senator Inhofe sold stock. Two others would also over the next couple weeks. This turned into a scandal because the senators were at the time telling the public everything was fine.

Feb. 4 – The Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the Department of Health and Human services was briefed by the National Security Office of HHS. GOP Senator Grassley put out a statement that the coronavirus doesn’t pose any imminent threat.

Feb. 5 – The Senate GOP voted for acquittal.

Their stock selling showed the GOP senators knew the seriousness of the problem, even if Grassley put out a “don’t worry” statement. They knew how well the nasty guy would handle the crisis. They voted to keep the nasty guy in charge anyway. They also want the death and destruction the nasty is unleashing. They are also responsible for this disaster.



I had written about chef José Andrés of World Central Kitchen. He had turned his shuttered DC restaurants into places to feed those who lost their jobs. He also set up a kitchen when a cruise ship, with sick travelers, docked in Oakland, CA. Gabe Ortiz of Kos says because of those and other wonderful works Andrés is on the cover of the latest issue of *Time* magazine. He, of course, said he shares the honor with all the millions around the world who feed humanity. Ortiz was able to volunteer for a while with the WCK organization.