George Packer writes in The Atlantic about Trump’s success in destroying the institutions and norms of the federal government and bending them to his will. It is a brilliant and disturbing article. Trump calls the apolitical civil service “the deep state.” He is determined to destroy it and replace it with loyalists and lackies. This article echoes the themes of Michael Lewis’s The Fifth Risk, about Trump’s deliberate dismantling of three federal departments—energy, agriculture, and commerce, by leaving hundreds of positions unfilled and/or staffing them with people determined to destroy the organization and its mission (think Betsy DeVos).
Packer writes:
When Donald Trump came into office, there was a sense that he would be outmatched by the vast government he had just inherited.
The new president was impetuous, bottomlessly ignorant, almost chemically inattentive, while the bureaucrats were seasoned, shrewd, protective of themselves and their institutions. They knew where the levers of power lay and how to use them or prevent the president from doing so. Trump’s White House was chaotic and vicious, unlike anything in American history, but it didn’t really matter as long as “the adults” were there to wait out the president’s impulses and deflect his worst ideas and discreetly pocket destructive orders lying around on his desk.
After three years, the adults have all left the room—saying just about nothing on their way out to alert the country to the peril—while Trump is still there.
James Baker, the former general counsel of the FBI, and a target of Trump’s rage against the state, acknowledges that many government officials, not excluding himself, went into the administration convinced “that they are either smarter than the president, or that they can hold their own against the president, or that they can protect the institution against the president because they understand the rules and regulations and how it’s supposed to work, and that they will be able to defend the institution that they love or served in previously against what they perceive to be, I will say neutrally, the inappropriate actions of the president. And I think they are fooling themselves. They’re fooling themselves. He’s light-years ahead of them.”
The adults were too sophisticated to see Trump’s special political talents—his instinct for every adversary’s weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power. They also failed to appreciate the advanced decay of the Republican Party, which by 2016 was far gone in a nihilistic pursuit of power at all costs. They didn’t grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump’s contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency. Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman’s agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts. None of this was clear to the political class until Trump became president.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
. Tump is UNFIT in all ways. He’s evil and nuts.
There is a famous story once told by Bob Dole about his observing Carter, Ford, and Nixon at an event. He thought of them as See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Pure Evil. The Orange Catastrophe is the Purest Evil.
YUP
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2020/01/11/how-do-i-loathe-thee/
The goal of totalitarian societies is to create atomized individuals who are only capable of understanding simple narratives so that they may be manipulated further. Corporations and corporate politics nourish it immensely, whether they want to admit it or not. The irony is that the current crisis will expose this for some and accelerate socialism and its ideas for others. If the urge of the powers-that-be is to suppress this latter trend, how will we respond?
How will we respond?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-donald-trump-coronavirus-bill_n_5e7b77a6c5b62a1870d62d83
A bulls-eye narrative: “Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman’s agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts. None of this was clear to the political class until Trump became president.”
(my emphasis)
Whodathunkit. CBK
Instead of appointing those that will defend the Constitution, Trump has weeded out all of those that disagree with him. Like a mob boss, he has appointed those that are loyalists to him, not our country.
retired teacher The article says as much–I’m reading it as we speak–an eye-opener for those of us who watched closely as Trump ascended, but who were not in-the-soup of events as they were occurring.
I didn’t think Trump could be even SLIMIER than I already thought–oh well. CBK
Exactly right. In Trump’s worldview, loyalty to him matters more than loyalty to the Constitution or competence. He loves lackeys.
Wow.
The Koch “contempt for democratic norms and basic decency” found allies in the churches whose leaders steer their followers to vote for Republicans and libertarian policy. Bellwether wrote in a 2019 report that ed reformers should reach out to churches to achieve their goals. Charter schools have been “brutal to black families in Michigan.”
A state Catholic Conference posts the propaganda from the American Federation of Children, showing us, like Trump does, a “devotion to itself”. In another state, a Catholic Conference tells us it speaks “as one” for its congregants. A director of a Catholic Conference in another state uses the same bogus defense, dressed in the same PR words that a commenter here uses, there are many “factions” in the church. The reality is there is a well-funded, power structure in the American Catholic Church, an unpleasant truth that Pope Francis was forced to realize and admit because the people backing that power base loathe him.
Jefferson understood even if current D.C. doesn’t. “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always with the despot abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own.”
Without the pulpits of religious whites and without the campaign contributions of the wealthy who politically use the votes of the religious, Republicans wouldn’t be elected in the numbers that they are.
“law enforcement’s independence from the White House was optional”
This part is particularly scary, of course, because that’s almost a definition of fascism. The law becomes whatever the executive decides it’s going to be. Centralization of power. Expansion of command, coercion, control.
That’s why, when Trump gives one of his Coronavirus Press Briefings/Trump Rallies and Bill Barr is standing next to him, I get very, very worried.
Trump has not only manipulated the DOJ, the State Dept. and the Dept. of Commerce, we can add the DOE to the list. He has not replaced Cruella Devos because she is doing exactly what he wants. DeVos is doing everything she can to undermine and destroy public education.
Trump’s goal is to destroy every department and agency by placing loyalists or incompetents in charge.
Bob I watch Barr standing off-to-the-side of Trump and wonder about the look on his sad-anyway face; but this for sure: He will never be able to get the smell off. CBK
Barr doesn’t want the “smell off”. Trump delivers on the stated goal of the U.S. Attorney General- introduction of religion at every opportunity.
Linda I wasn’t talking about Barr’s self-analysis. I was talking about his place in history. CBK
Barr looks like an obese beagle.
Never saw a beagle I didn’t think was cute. Have seen photos of Barr- ugly, and watched Barr undermine democracy- grotesque.
Basset Hound although the comparison is an insult to the dogs.
The TRAGIC thing is that Trump is not only destroying our country and everthing that has truly made us great as a nation but is destroying the planet which sustains us all. Concerning the comiid virus, go on line and watch the March 24 edition of Democracy Now and get an earful of how one doctor views this personage who resides in the White House.
Integrity has been lost. The Fox propaganda machine and similar “news” radio etc has made the word “news” meaningless but they, like Trump, know well how to sway the unsuspecting masses AND make piles of money, their bottom line. Reminds me so very much of Germany and Italy pre WWII.. Mussolini “got the trains running on time” ad nauseum.
The Chinese curse: may you live in interesting times,.
Many people believe everything that Trump says. I’m waiting to find out what happens a few weeks after people come back to church on Easter AND return to work the day after.
“President Trump can’t do right by some critics no matter what he does.” No, it isn’t a case of ‘no matter what he does’. It is a case of EVERYTHING he does destroys or hurts people. He epitomizes ‘advanced decay.’
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This comes from the WH propaganda machine:
“The United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS)—an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak,” Gregg Re reports for Fox News.
“On day nine of a 15 day social distancing period, President Trump is getting a positive report card from Americans,” with a majority approving his handling of the crisis, Katie Pavlich writes in Townhall.
“President Trump can’t do right by some critics no matter what he does. For three years he’s been denounced as a reckless authoritarian, and now he’s attacked for not being authoritarian enough by refusing to commandeer American industry. The truth is that private industry is responding to the coronavirus” with support from the government rather than “command and control,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes.
” Mussolini “got the trains running on time” ad nauseum.”
That is the perfect line! How many times have you heard a Trump supporter say something akin to this remark as if it excuses all the ugliness.
speduktr: Trump’s poll numbers are actually going up and a majority of people now believe that Trump is doing the right thing on coronavirus. Guess his daily doses of garbage disguised as press conferences are working.
One trump supporter sent me a copy of the ‘news’ from the WH. [I already get it.] She told me she doesn’t listen to fake news. She has also sent me ‘news’ from a Christian site where they are to continue praying that the devil doesn’t take over the world.
One of my best friends almost stopped talking to me because she doesn’t want to hear anything negative about our president. We have agreed, once again, to never discuss politics.
My brother, who knows that Rush L and Hannity speak the truth, contacts me on rare occasions. I still haven’t learned anything.
This country has the worst possible ‘leader’ in this time of crisis. I suppose that if Trump ‘opens up the country’ on Easter and the economy ‘takes off like a rocket’, many people will get sick and older people will die. Will this affect how the country reacts?
We must continue to know that Trump knows much more than medical experts. Fox and Stephen Miller have been telling Trump what he needs to do.
I saw a photo of Trump yesterday at a ‘press conference’ in which Pence was speaking. Trump was actually pouting like a child. He looked sick.
carolmalaysia . . . I’m remembering the squawking from the right about Obama’s death panels. . . . CBK
while Trump and Pence can argue till the cows come home that there is no virus worry, and that everyone can go back to work soon so that the poll numbers go up, we will more likely face depressing months of real illness and fear, just like other countries, and those poll numbers will one day turn into a negative
“In a Week We Will Be Italy”: NYC ER Doctor Says the U.S. Pandemic Will Only Get Worse
…NERMEEN SHAIKH: I’d like to ask you, Dr. Spencer — I mean, one of the things, as Amy mentioned, that’s very striking is that the U.S. is, of course, extremely wealthy, the wealthiest country in the world, but it also has — according to the Global Health Security Index, in 2019, the U.S. was the highest-ranked country in terms of pandemic preparedness. The U.S. was the best prepared. So, if American hospitals are being overwhelmed in this way, what about all of the other countries that don’t have the resources that the U.S. does?
DR. CRAIG SPENCER: Yeah. I think if you asked anyone over the past couple years whether — anyone that does this for a living, whether or not the U.S. was prepared for a pandemic, we all would have said no. I think all of us have written articles in the past couple years lamenting the fact that the U.S. has torn apart the preparedness architecture here in the U.S. by underfunding the CDC, by underfunding state and local departments of health. It’s not surprising to anyone that’s been looking at this or been worrying about this over the past couple years that this pandemic is wreaking such havoc here in the U.S.
We’ve also drastically underfunded the World Health Organization, despite the lessons we learned in West Africa in 2014 to 2016 with the Ebola crisis there. We learned that having preparedness was much more important than a reactive response. We learned that putting the right amount of funding into the organizations who are capable of picking up these disease threats and responding to them all over the world is the only way to protect people everywhere. It is so much cheaper. It is so much cheaper to invest in preparedness than it is to scramble for response. We’re putting together trillions of dollars to try and respond to this just here in the United States. And that amount of money would have provided for global preparedness for over a decade…
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/26/nyc_hospitals_coronavirus
ciedie All of those people who die from the virus (or related) would have voted for Trump anyway; and so, under his way of doing things, he can figure out how to add those votes to his totals, especially if Russia propaganda doesn’t pan out. CBK
I saw the same thing on Wednesday, March 25, when I checked the poll averages at ThreeFiftyEight and Real Clear Politics, that Trump’s popularity had leaped.
But, this morning on March 26, I saw the opposite happen, Trump’s poll average reversed dramatically and almost tripled against him on Real Clear Politics while there wasn’t much of a change from the day before at ThreeFiftyEight.
Huh? What’s going on?
Just remember the words attributed to Thomas Moore in the film, A Man for All Seasons: “Silence before the Law is acquiescence.” Those who leave and are silent are complicit in the destruction of our democracy.
When I was a young teacher in my 20s, I used to believe this tripe. I didn’t quite understand the gap that existed between lofty ideals and reality. Here’s our reality: despite the protestations of people like us that this administration and Senate do not represent “We, the People,” you can’t argue they don’t have the power and set the rules and tone of the political game. While many people here think the tide is turning and this will be a one term presidency, what are they going to do if power doesn’t change hands, either by a vote of the electoral college or a disputed election in which police and military side with the administration in power, not the one elected? And are people who are overwhelmed by the times and the powers that be complicit if they’ve never been broadly educated, have an understanding of democracy and self-rule, or choose inner exile in an authoritarian system?
Trump states that he wants the shelter-in-place edicts lifted April 6 so that the “churches will be filled on Easter”. It’s an example of his “special political talents”. Christ’s followers, by all that’s holy, would be Trump’s enemies but, The Don had the knack for recognizing weaknesses- waning power of the clergy.
Linda,
I kind of like Trump’s idea of having the churches filled up on Easter Sunday. Those who understand the advice of medical professionals will stay home. Those who don’t will sit bin crowded pews and take their chances.
Social distancing only works if everyone does it.
Vruses are nonpartisan.
Agree with both Diane and Poet.
The creature Trump is completing what previous Administrations from both major parties began. Dem Pres. Carter oversaw the abandonment of solar power when the Dems held a massive majority in Congress in the 70s post-Watergate. The failure of the Clinton-Gore Admin in 90s to move on the environment was one of the frustrations that drove Ralph Nader to run for Pres. in 2000. Obama-Biden continued the testing and privatization trend which disemboweled public schools. The question for all progressives who know what has been lost and demolished in the past 45 years, is how to change the political narrative both parties have laid on the nation. A return to the same old will not do it.
There is only one rational person running for President, one who is giving people the whole truth and nothing but.
And though he is running as a Democrat for practical reasons he does not belong to either major party.
That’s not an accident.
I may not live long enough to see the revolution but, I know with certainty that I will not live long enough to see the Democratic Party run anyone but a candidate who serves the rich and corporations.
That said, the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican.
The “Deep State” has never been the Federal Government that managed the country through the law as defined by the U.S. Constitution.
The real Deep State, funded Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. and are still backing him.
Members of the real deep state, after Trump fired or drove out all the people that could not be controlled by that deep state, now fill all his cabinet posts and many positions that the Senate has approved of not approved, yet.
When Trump accuses something or someone of corruption, he is really talking about himself and those that support him. Trump is a master at manipulating and misleading most of the traditional media and the voters that support him. He understands that to land on the front page of the news cycle he has to keep shocking everyone with his next chaotic move.
The real Deep State is funded by dark money from billionaire autocrats like Alice Walton, Betsy DeVos, Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s Media Corp, Charles Koch (we can no longer call them the Koch brothers because David is dead), ALEC, Bill Gates, and too many others to list here.
Read Diane’s “Slaying Goliath” and you will discover most of the other shadows that manage that Deep State. The same autocrats, also known as deformers, are the movers and shakers out to privatize and control education in the U.S. They want to cut off children from their parents and dedicated, professional public school teachers. That way they think they will be able to program the children to fit into the dystopian world they have been deliberately building since the late 1960s.
Trump did not learn this corrupt, chaotic method of leadership on his own. He was taught by a master, Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor.
Roy Cohn was the man who taught Trump how to exploit power and instill fear. Anyone in Trump’s administration that did not fear him, he fired or made life so miserable they quit.
There are only two ways we are going to get rid of Trump: vote him out in 2020 and then wait until he dies of old age and stops tweeting and holding his hate rallies. Anyone want to bet that if Trump loses the election in November, he will quietly go into solitude like G, W. Bush did?
It’s no surprise that the current humanitarian crisis brought out the basest, exploitive instincts in evangelical groups (Family Research Council) and the US Council of Catholic Bishops. At CBS’ site, you can read the 3-24-2020 letter they sent to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The letter’s second paragraph, unrelated to COVID 19, attacks women’s rights and Planned Parenthood. Knowing no shame, they charge Planned Parenthood with engaging in, “manifest fear mongering and self-interest”, further claiming that Planned Parenthood, “exploits the anxiety of women by promoting abortion”.
The tactic reflects the playbook credited to Russia- criticism volleyed back without even minor change. The letter borrows from the disaster capitalism strategy- never let a crisis go to waste.
A N.J. nursing home was left with 3 nuns to handle nearly 100 seniors presumed to have corona virus. The Bishops could have shown interest in that situation but, they chose instead to use political clout to deny women the rights that democracy conferred on them.
Thank God for Mass., N.J. and the state of Washington for expressly noting that “non-essential” does not include abortion. Damn Dewine in Ohio and other Republicans in Texas and Mississippi for targeting an opportunity to wield a weapon against women.
And, as we’ve all come to expect, Catholic women will remain silent.
The CDC is sending out to Americans a document called
President Trump’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America
I’m serious. Even these have to be Trump-branded! And “for America”? WTF? Did they think we would think they were for, I don’t know, Senegal?
I’m just surprised that they aren’t called “Dr. Trump’s Magic Coronavirus Guidelines.
Steve Miller is slipping.
A fellow named Mike McKellvin wrote about this, “Too bad they weren’t pritned on softer paper.”
The doc contains good advice, so it clearly didn’t come from Trump, despite the shameless self-promotion.
The $2 trillion stimulus with a check for everyone whose income is under $99,000 will be known as “Trumpbux.” That way he uses our money to bribe voters. And the big $500 billion corporate bailout will benefit Trump’s properties as part of saving the hotel and tourism industry.
This is related to the precedent of Obama embracing the term Obamacare, which I believed from day one to be a serious strategic mistake. We need to contact our senators and members of the House to reject this bill.
Here’s what I sent Sherrod Brown earlier this evening: Please stand up and publicly oppose the coronavirus stimulus bill as it is currently structured.
The idea that you would give $100 billion for hospitals and no-strings-attached $500 billion that can be leveraged into $4.5 trillion for big business is a disgrace. Throwing a pittance of one-time payments that are too low is not acceptable.
You know better. This legislation counters virtually every principle upon which you have built your reputation. Please make that unequivocally clear with public statements and advocacy.
Trump brands everything with his name if he thinks it will make him look good.
Soon after he was in the White House, he even changed the VA Hotline’s name that combat vets call when they are having an emergency of some kind. Trump claimed it was his idea, and that the service was run out of the White House.
I did some fact-checking on that one. It turned out that the only thing that changed was the name of the hotline, and it has never operated out of the White House, In fact, it’s not even in DC. It’s still in its original location, I think it’s in Virginia near DC.
That VA toll-free hotline and its staff has been around for years, long before Trump even ran for president.
“As health communicators, we can help by relaying reliable information accurately and in a timely manner to the public so that people can make decisions based on facts and not hearsay.”
NIH knows that Trump’s daily ‘ego rallies’ disguised as a press conference are not to be believed. Dr. Fauci has to be very careful in what he says so as not to disturb the Orange Menace.
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Communicating About COVID-19 from the National Institutes of Health…
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by the virus named SARS-CoV-2, is on all our minds lately. From its first detection in China, the virus has now been discovered in locations around the globe and across the United States. The situation is complicated, and the facts are evolving. What can health communicators do to help inform the public without inciting a panic?
As Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said in this site’s first guest post when Zika disease was in the headlines, “We in the public health sector must be crystal clear in articulating exactly what we know and what we still need to know about the threat, and in helping people understand how this new risk compares to risks they willingly assume every day. With that perspective, people will be better able to understand what rational steps they can take to protect themselves.”
As health communicators, we can help by relaying reliable information accurately and in a timely manner to the public so that people can make decisions based on facts and not hearsay. Part of this is to be aware of any inaccurate information that people might be sharing, on social media or elsewhere. We can also take care not to overhype the facts and instead focus on helping people understand their personal health risks and what they should do to help control the spread of disease. Who is at the greatest health risk? When would this information apply to them? What actions can they take?
Make sure to keep checking the NIH and CDC coronavirus disease sites for the latest official information. CDC also has a helpful guide specific to public health communicators. It’s intended for state and local public health information officers, health communication specialists, health educators, and other public health professionals responsible for planning communication strategies before, during, and after the outbreak of COVID-19.
When everyone has the facts, we’re all better equipped to address serious problems like this with diligence and resolve, and without panic. So keep calm and keep your audiences informed.
https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/science-health-public-trust/perspectives/science-health-public-trustcommunicating-about-covid-19#.Xnt43TsWmEI.gmail
An amoral authoritarian. The definition fits like a glove.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-authoritarian-coronavirus-ruth-ben-ghiat_n_5e7bcc32c5b6cb9dc19995a4
After a surprisingly long & unusually civil (answered press ??–starting w/ABC News!–& took more ??? {& answered w/o mocking “fake news” or pointing/meanly answering}) than I’d ever seen before Sunday briefing, IQ45 today was back to his same-old-same-old–excoriating a journalist (because he didn’t like her ?–it was about statements he had, in fact, made, despite what medical experts have advised) “You are fake news, & you, too!” pointing to another journalist, making himself a victim, etc., ad nauseum.
In stark contrast, just stopped typing to pay full attention to Anderson Cooper interviewing Bernie Sanders. Again, am tearing up. Clearly the person who should be the next President of the United States…
Indiana is now on lockdown. Hotels are being asked to house sick coronavirus people. This doesn’t jive with Trump’s inaccurate belief that by Easter everything will be fine.
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Thursday, March 26, 2020 1:00 am
Local hotels could help in COVID-19 fight
Might be called on to house patients, essential workers
ROSA SALTER RODRIGUEZ | The Journal Gazette
Federal and state governments have put out calls to Indiana hotels for help in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and at least a half-dozen in the Fort Wayne area already have answered.
The Indiana Restaurant and Lodging Association is coordinating the responses on its website.
Among the lodging places listed as of Wednesday morning were Residence Inn, Comfort Inn & Suites South, Fairfield Inn & Suites, Wyndham Garden Inn, Springhill Suites and the Hampton Inn & Suites (southwest) in Fort Wayne and Wingate by Wyndham in Angola.
“It’s been quick, and our lists are growing every day,” said Patrick Tamm, association president and chief executive officer of the response.
The association was approached by federal and state entities and hotel supply chain businesses to develop lists of properties that could be leased for potential housing, he said. It has not been determined what role, if any, that local hotels would serve – but possibilities include quarantined patients, hospital overcrowding relief or housing for essential workers from outside the area.
Housing National Guard members if they were called to the area would be one example, said Linda Skaggs, manager with the Hampton Inn across Jefferson Boulevard from Lutheran Hospital.
Although the hotel often houses families of hospitalized patients and is convenient to Lutheran, she doesn’t expect the hotel to be pressed into service soon.
“We’re not seeing that they’re bursting at the seams,” Skaggs said.
What use, if any, a hotel might be would come from state or other authorities, she stressed. If the hotel would be used by the hospital, “that’s all we would do,” Skaggs said. The hotel wouldn’t mix patients and guests, even on different floors, she said.
The hotel association is not vetting hotels on the list, but they would be vetted by other agencies, which would also decide on which hotels would be used based on local circumstances, Tamm said.
The industry has capacity because traveling is reduced and some owners have rooms as they are consolidating properties, he said.
Chicago is among the cities to repurpose rooms at hotels. Five hotels have been tapped to ease the burden on hospitals. By the end of the week, city officials should be able to house about 2,000 people.
Hotel operators can choose to be on a state list for health care facility use or the federal list, which represents housing capacity that governors, mayors and public health officials can appoint for use. The lists are available at inrla.org.
“I think we just want to be a port in the storm and a light in the darkness,” Skaggs said. “We’re doing this as a service to the community.”
We are now waiting for Superman Trump to rescue Indiana.
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NW Times of Indiana:
Indiana had nearly 54,000 people file for unemployment benefits last week — a 23-fold increase from the week before — as factories, restaurants, hotels and other businesses began to close. Those now-unemployed people alone represent a 50% jump in the state’s jobless total in January.
Wonderful piece. Thanks for linking to it.