CFI.co Blog

Listening to Dr Rick Bright testify before US Congress and reveal the inner workings of the Trump Administration almost undermines one’s trust in politicians and their carefully selected appointees. In 2016, the good doctor was asked to lead the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a federal agency charged with the production and procurement of vaccines. On 21 April he suddenly resigned his post.

It now appears that Dr Bright was ousted for opposing the promotion of two potentially lethal drugs used to fight malaria as treatments for covid-19. But that was just the final straw that pushed him out. Dr Bright had also filed a whistle-blower complaint over large contracts awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services on the basis of political connections rather than scientific considerations.

Dr Bright displayed a sense of urgency and said that the US now faces its ‘darkest winter in modern history’. He also warned that time is running out for the country to come up with a coordinated response to the pandemic.

In a tweet both related and unrelated, President Trump demanded that Congress subpoena his predecessor Barack Obama for committing the ‘biggest political crime in US history’. The president failed to provide any specifics on Mr Obama’s alleged crime other than stating that ‘he knew everything’.

Whilst it was revealed that another three million American workers filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total job losses for the past seven weeks to a staggering 36 million, President Trump admitted on the Fox Business Network that the economy is unlikely to show signs of growth before the fourth quarter. However, he did promise to Make America Great Again next year.

As the president was chatting away on television, party politics were back on the hill without ever having really left. Republicans called the Congressional hearing all sorts of names whilst Democrats sought to showcase the administration’s incompetence in handling the pandemic. The latter had a field day with veteran California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo stating that Americans are ‘afraid, sick, hungry, and jobless’: “The government that was supposed to protect them has failed.” Texas Republican Michael Burgess shot back – from the hip of course – and called the hearing a ‘political sport’.

Whatever US politics has become, it is highly dysfunctional and unworthy of a great nation – something it never ceased to be notwithstanding Mr Trump’s constant belittling of the country. However, seldom before have the countries of northern Europe looked more civilised, orderly, and well-governed than they do now when compared to the allegedly Greatest Nation on Earth. That, by the way, says more about the United States than it does about Europe. Sad, very sad.

Preppers, survivalists, libertarians, and assorted make-believe soldiers of private militias will gather tomorrow around the Michigan state capitol building in Lansing to express their anger over Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, now extended to 31 May. Mrs Whitmer has become the focal point of right-wing protest against measures that seek to limit the pandemic’s impact on society. They argue that the restrictions infringe on civil liberties guaranteed by the US constitution.

Last month, a mob of gun-toting militia members staged displays of civic power and managed to enter the state house in a scene both intimidating to the representatives who work there and reminiscent of apocalyptic disaster movies depicting a world gone mad.

At the time, President Donald Trump suggested the governor strike a deal with the protesters: “Give a little and put out the fire.” In one of his many disjointed tweets, the president had called for the ‘liberation’ of Virginia, also ruled by Democrats, saying that the state was ‘under siege’ and peppering his rallying cry with the obligatory exclamation marks. The implicit approval of the president emboldened the protesters in Michigan.

On Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel revealed that her office had detected a number of ‘credible threats’ against elected officials. In a Facebook group set up by militia members, commenters wondered openly how long it would take for the governor to meet with the business end of a shotgun.

Even Republicans are now scrambling to diffuse tensions and create a socially acceptable distance between their party and the mob. During Tuesday’s lockdown debate, Republican state senate majority leader Mike Shirkey called the protesters ‘thugs’ and their actions ‘despicable’: “It is never OK to threaten the safety or life of another person, elected or otherwise, period.” However, Republicans stopped short of banning the brandishing of weapons inside the state capitol as proposed by the Democrats. The sanctity of the second amendment is, after all, not to be violated.

However, ‘that woman from Michigan’, as President Trump insists on calling Governor Whitmer, may yet become a foe to be reckoned with. She stands a good chance of becoming Joe Biden’s running mate on the Democratic ticket. Notwithstanding the antics of local right-wingers, Governor Whitmer enjoys a 72 percent approval rating amongst residents of her state. According to a recent poll commissioned by The Washington Post, President Trump’s handling of the pandemic inspires trust in just 42 percent of Americans – a shockingly high number considering his erratic performance as commander in chief. Only in America.

Displaying an unsurprising anarchic streak, Elon Musk today defied a county lockdown order to reopen his flagship car assembly plant in Fremont, California. The enfant terrible of the US manufacturing industry dared the local sheriff to arrest him and said that he would be onsite orchestrating the start-up of production lines idle since mid-March.

Mr Musk, infamous for lacing his tweets and comments with four-letter expletives, has leveraged his fearsome reputation to drive up the share price of the company in which he retains a 51 percent stake. Since he first vented his anger at the stay-at-home order issued by Alameda County on 29 April and set to expire on 31 May, Tesla shares have gained 35 percent in value, recovering most of the terrain lost when the market pulled back in March. Interestingly, Tesla shares were already on a downward slope when the pandemic reached US shores, retreating from their February peak of almost $970 to settle around $860.

Today, in early morning trading, Tesla shares advanced steadily and tacked another 3.6 percent to their winning streak. Bucking the overall trend of the market, investors in Tesla have seen their holdings double in value so far this year. Over the past 12 months, Tesla stock gained a staggering 262 percent.

Mr Musk is a hook-or-crook kind of guy used to getting his way. He has friends in high places too. Over the weekend, he lambasted county authorities in a series of tweets, threatening to up sticks and move to a more welcoming and pliant jurisdiction. He is on the same page as President Donald Trump and considers the lockdown a ‘power grab by fascists’. Tesla’s battery plant in New York has also been shuttered by these unspecified forces of evil.

Last week, during an earnings call with fund managers and major investors, Mr Musk questioned the constitutional legality of the stay-in-place order decreed by the six counties of San Francisco’s Bay Area as it imprisons people and deprives them of their basic rights. He also feels that his personal freedom to make money has been curtailed.

Tesla manufactures flashy, fast, and often faulty vehicles. The company was not amused when Netflix posted a new batch of episodes of its Fastest Car series. In one memorable episode, a Tesla Model S was pitted against a 1990 Nissan 300SX and a 1989 Ford Mustang souped up by bearded amateur grease monkeys. The car was soundly beaten on the quarter mile by both wheeled rust buckets. Though undeniably fast, the Tesla barely managed to outpace a heavily modified Toyota pickup truck, also partaking in the challenge.

Cabbies in Europe and North America also have a thing or two to report on the build quality and maintenance requirements of their Tesla cars.

All this is not to say that Mr Musk is pursuing his glory without guts, vision, or perseverance. He is in many ways a genius which almost inevitably results in a social deficit. However, as long as he sticks to the rules, all may be forgiven. The trouble is, Mr Musk doesn’t particularly care for rules.

Just about the last thing Europe needs is for Berlin and Brussels to clash. The EU is, to say the least, not amused by a ruling of the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe that could force the Deutsche Bundesbank to drop out of any future support initiatives by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The German judges seem to have overruled the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which in 2018 okayed the various ECB bond-buying programmes that sustain the continent’s sagging economy. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, incidentally a former German defence minister, immediately threatened the country with sanctions and penalties should it allow national courts to forget their legal standing.

It is a well-established and perfectly logic legal principle – one against which in the UK Brexiters rebelled – that supranational courts such as the ECJ trump domestic ones. Should judges in all of the 27 EU member states be able to question EU law, the union would instantly cease to function. Anyone with a beef against the union may, however, approach the ECJ in Luxembourg for a ruling.

Earlier today, Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped in to re-establish order. She did so by stating that surely a compromise solution can be found and that she sees no need for heated argument or, indeed, threats.

The surprise ruling of the German court was promptly welcomed by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki who dislikes all things European and makes a habit out of ignoring his own country’s recent and more distant past.

With his usual holier-than-thou attitude that bespeaks of an innocence personified, Mr Morawieski appeared elated by the news from Karlsruhe and called it ‘one of the most important rulings in the history of the European Union’. He should know for Poland was one of the last countries to join the EU (in 2004).

The country has benefitted massively from Brussels’ generosity, receiving in excess of €17 billion annually for its €3.5 billion membership fee. Poland also profited from hundreds of billions in private investment that helped transform the country into one of the EU’s success stories.

Then again, Mr Morawieski doesn’t quite like the terms of EU membership and strongly objects to its insistence on judicial independence and the rule of law. Without enjoying the UK’s undeniable heft – and little good did that do – Poland, or at least its government, would like nothing better than to reduce the common market to a dumping ground for its unemployed and a source of cheap credit and juicy grants.

Mr Morawieski, isolated in Europe for his recalcitrance, has now found some allies in Karlsruhe. However, he is in for a surprise. The ruling of the constitutional court is by no means the last word on the matter. Chancellor Merkel knows that Mrs Von der Leyen is right when she upholds the supremacy of the ECJ. A face-saving solution is already now in the works, one that upholds the established order of legal things whilst preserving the dignity of the German Constitutional Court. However, the Polish prime minister may not be so lucky. His brother in arms over in Hungary, Viktor Orbán, proved much smarter and wisely refrained from commenting or grandstanding.

It is not just the Chinese government that mistrusts its people and thinks they cannot handle the truth. Today, it transpired that even the UK government fears public scrutiny and prefers to cloak its knowledge and actions with a shroud of mystery – or, somewhat less poetically, employ a black marker pen to blot out key parts of documents drawn up by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage).

Interestingly, the behavioural scientists of the Sage subcommittee that in early April advised the cabinet on the likely public response to the lockdown measures under consideration noted that only the critical parts of their report had been heavily redacted. At least one of the advisers considers stepping down in protest against the government’s secretive approach that, he fears, may undermine public trust.

The collective of psychologists, epidemiologists, and anthropologists had warned the cabinet that the proposed lockdown measures, including stiff penalties for those failing to abide by them, could cause a public backlash. A suggestion to use smartphones to track people’s movements was also rejected by the subcommittee.

Though the government did listen to the scientists and toned down most of the draconian proposals submitted to the subcommittee, the cabinet apparently does not want the public to know how far it was prepared to go in restricting movement.

The scientists deplore the UK government’s unwillingness to accept criticism. This bespeaks of a misplaced lack in self-confidence. Most people would readily agree that the scope of the pandemic justifies some early mistakes. Going into the crisis, few within government had any experience in handling a pandemic. There was no tried and tested protocol to fall back on and a response had to be found quickly as the outbreak unfolded.

That the government of China does not believe in transparency is a given, considering its now resurfaced communist nature. Elsewhere, and particularly in Europe, one would hope that those elected to rule over us know plenty better. In the UK, now the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, that seems not the case.

When asking a great sacrifice in the name of a common good, most will immediately respond positively. Asking is always better than demanding. Now more than ever before in living memory, people need to be able to trust their government and believe it is honest and forthright in all dealings. Transparency is without doubt the greatest weapon in the fight against the novel virus. Without it, the battle is lost. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a victim of covid-19, should know this better than most.