Categories: Daniel Serwer

Stevenson’s army, July 19

In a lengthy and curious article describing the changing administration response to the coronavirus, NYT point blame on two new figures, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Dr. Deborah Birx. On line, NYT has added a short summary article, 5 takeaways.  The reports blame Meadows for daily small group meetings to plot strategy to turn the pandemic problems over to the states and thus away from the WH.  Key date was April 10. The articles also depict Dr. Birx as the eternal optimist, repeatedly promising that the models forecast declining infections. She reportedly was given a West Wing office and was closer to the discussions and planning than any other medical person. The article has other nuggets, such as the claim that Jared Kushner told California Gov. Newsom he had to praise Trump if he wanted the medical equipment he was seeking.
– DHS was warned that agents sent to Portland lacked training in crowd control.

– WaPo says Russia is gaining in Syria.
– McClatchy says there is a serious whistleblower complaint against SecState Pompeo.
-WaPo has a review of the new book about Newt Gingrich.
– Two respected former members of Congress suggest ending gerrymandering by having the House reject credentials of members from gerrymandered states. Don’t go 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. 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).

Daniel Serwer

Share
Published by
Daniel Serwer

Recent Posts

Trump likes incompetence and chaos

Even without Trump's chaos, the expansion would be unlikely to last much longer. We are…

48 minutes ago

Trump’s first foreign policy failure

China will want to assert sovereignty over Taiwan. Israel will annex the West Bank and…

2 days ago

Group rights encourage tyranny

Power should flow from the choices of individuals, organized how they prefer. Forcing people into…

4 days ago

Trump’s cabinet of horrors

This is a cabinet of horrors. Its distinguishing characteristics are unquestioning loyalty to Donald Trump,…

1 week ago

Immigration is clear, national security not

Trump is getting through the process quickly and cleanly. There are lots of rumors, but…

1 week ago

Americans, welcome to the 4th Reich!

I, therefore conclude with a line from the Monk TV series. I may be wrong,…

1 week ago