Today's News (2020/5/6): Minimise and Hide Edition

It's a big list today, yep. While it's not ordered very well, a lot of it deals with Republican efforts to hide COVID-19 deaths, downplay the epidemic, and generally push "reopening the economy" while letting larger and larger numbers of people die.

1. Texas Gov. Admits Dangers of Reopening State on Private Call With Lawmakers
2. Wait, we had an even worse epidemic 100 years ago. Why didn't it wreck the economy?
3. Ohio House Republicans move to limit Health Director Amy Acton’s authority [EDITOR: The governor there is one of the few Republicans not on the 'herd immunity' plan at this point, so the Republicans in the state legislature are moving against him.]
4. Trump will urge Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare
5. Trump touted reopening. Privately, his team sounded alarms.
6. This might be the lowest point in the 74 year history of the Council of Economic Advisers.
7. ‘We were at a COVID party’: People hold coronavirus gatherings in Walla Walla area
8. DeVos issues rules for sexual misconduct investigations in schools, bolstering protections for the accused [EDITOR: Also shielding schools.]
9. Trump: You have to be warriors; some may die; get over it.
10. The VA signed a $34.5 million deal for N95 masks with a company that advertised “block chain” solutions and had only existed for 2 years. I ended up on a private jet, following one of the most bizarre stories of my career.
11. Yeah, the "cubic model" was just Excel.
12. On the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Modern Day Lynching
13. Uncontrolled infection seems to be the preferred approach of the right
14. [Arizona] State health department tells university COVID-19 modelling team to stop work, limits data access [EDITOR: The university's group was saying that extending lockdown to end of May was the only way _not_ to go straight back to exponential. The GOP governor is ignoring that, and shutting them down so they can't generate more forecasts.]
15. Top Republican fundraiser and Trump ally named postmaster general, giving president new influence over Postal Service
16. Trump order to paint border wall black could drive up cost $500 million or more
17. Trump and some top aides question accuracy of virus death toll

( The articles )