Trump steals Loudon County Va. PPE shipment:

[Kingofalldems]

Link to tweet

https://loudounnow.com/2020/05/06/feds-intercept-loudoun-bound-ppe-shipment/

[Lucinda]

1. ...

[happybird]

2. Bastards

That’s my county and cases here have started to ramp up over the past few days.

[countingbluecars]

10. My county also.

This is infuriating.

[lagomorph777]

13. Mine too. Fuck Trump. He needs to go to jail.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. It was the county of my Methodist/Quaker ancestors...

... from long ago.

"Loudoun" got my attention right away for that reason.

[Neurotica]

42. Yes - caseload has been increasing - our frontline workers need that PPE

I've been anxiously waiting for the numbers out of VDH - but they had some sort of technical error compiling the data last night. No update yet today for VA.

So maddening to have our resources taken away -- especially when it's been so incredibly difficult to get them in the first place.

[Botany]

3. They went to Jared's

<County Administrator Tim Hemstreet said Loudoun has been bundling its orders with other localities to buy directly from manufacturers. But, he said, that can also attract attention, and he confirmed at a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday that an order headed for Loudoun had been intercepted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Upon arrival, the federal agency outbid the localities for the personal protective equipment and took it, he said.


“FEMA took those supplies and then distributed them into their regular pipeline, and then we were told to go and meet our PPE needs through our state process,” Hemstreet said.

But Hemstreet said the county is not out any money—as a general rule, for those orders, Loudoun County government pays on delivery.>

*****

Why is Trump still in power? This is a nightmare.

[brewens]

12. They will be "out money" if they have to pay more or are short and that causes problems. n/t

[Botany]

14. Remember when Hurricane Sandy hit and President Obama had FEMA steal supplies so he could then ...

... sell 'em to a higher bidder? Neither do I. Why is that mother fucker still in power.

Remember when Trump, Kushner, and Pompeo sent 18 tons of P.P.E. to China in Feb. 0f 2019
because Trump owes China $220,000,000? Oh that one is true.

[brewens]

20. We also bumped up meat exports to China. Signed Jan 15, effective Feb 14. Wait until

that gets around. I ducked into a small mom and pop grocery store today for some milk on my morning walk. I would have grabbed some sausage but there was none to be had. That's just a big enough store to have a meat and produce dept. The selection was pretty sparse.

Can we cut exports to China off when they supply so much medical equipment? Those guys eat Trumps lunch daily! We'll come out on the short end of the stick on that one for sure.

[AtheistCrusader]

38. No. What we should be doing is nationalizing the meat pack/prep abattoirs.

This is now a national security issue. Training the national guard to take over might be a solution too.

China by itself isn't the issue on this one.

[brewens]

39. I know cutting off China wouldn't be the answer. That's probably still a fairly small percentage,

even if they did increase what we sell them. I just think our sending anything at all over there might cause a big stink. I meant to post the link in the first place but forgot.

https://www.usmef.org/international-markets/china/?fbclid=IwAR1lJkP03mkCerJYaDyVnZRuWBgbiE77REUy0c5PFU1f9w_WZlxLwRKkljY

[AtheistCrusader]

40. Yeah, it probably would.

There's some that's being sent there to be processed and sent back as well, which cuts Americans out of the labor loop.

[Blue_true]

44. I bet that career Attornies in the Justice Department are going to

relish investigating the criminal actions of this misadministration once Barr is no longer around to muzzle them.

[Hav]

4. There are reports about this happening in many states and even from other countries

Some states already use the national guard to protect their supplies or try to hide what's getting delivered.
I don't want to be too cynical but there has to be a demand so high that federal agencies just follow the purchases of other parties, including state governments and first responders, and confiscate whatever they find. That's third world level.

[Roland99]

5. #TraitorTrump. Imbleach him

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. Yeah, but drip-feed the bleach. I want the motherfucker to suffer for all the deaths.

[Blue_true]

45. He needs something stronger than a bleach drip. Maybe a good dose of Lysol

added in would do the trick.

[roamer65]

6. They need to take it back.

Use the means necessary.

[stopdiggin]

7. And of course, this plays about as well in red states

as it does in blue ones.
(at least that would be my guess).
Winning hearts and minds at an astonishing pace ...

[erronis]

24. Loudon county is in northern Virginia. Used to be red (soil and politics) but has turned blue

because of the smart people working around the DC metro area. (Reds aren't smart...)

FEMA/trump will target selected areas for "punishment" based on his tarot cards read during "executive time".

Just to muddy the waters, the Dump National Golf Course is in Loudon County. But it really is a dump - I've been there several times (not a golfer.)

[Lonestarblue]

28. I think red states are benefitting.

I’ve seen some interviews and articles (Mike DeWine, DeSantis, five Republican governors in WaPo), and none of them mentioned shortages of medical equipment. All mentioned ramped-up testing that indicated they had testing supplies for everyone. I believe Trump is seizing shipments intended for Democratic states and sending them to red states. I also believe he has told manufacturers to fill orders from Republican governors at 100%, even when that means orders from Democratic governors can only be filled at 10-12%.

The question no one seems to ask or get answered is why FEMA is even buying medical supplies when every state has been told to secure its own supplies. What is FEMA doing with all these confiscated supplies? N the Virginia case, they seem to have outbid the county, but in other cases they have just stolen the shipments. Why?

[LiberalArkie]

34. Arkansas bootlegged some in and is guarded at a Little Rock Hospital.

[Girard442]

8. I think it's time someone offered their services to do secure transport of PPE.

Unmarked trucks. Random routes. Secure encrypted communications. Sealed containers that destroy their contents if forced open. Armed guards. Whatever it takes.

On edit: Imagine a shipping container full of PPE with a digital lock. Inside is a capsule of butyl mercaptan that is released if the container is forced open. The driver (and escorts) don't have the combination.

[lagomorph777]

15. Bitcoin

[tinrobot]

32. Maybe the UN needs to step in and do the transport.

[crickets]

48. +1

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Trump is going to pay for that - at the polls.

It's just like that game played out at the Chamber of Commerce. Leadership hampers the medical community from protecting the public. That's how they get control of the entire board.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. Mobsters in the White House now.

Actual mobsters.

[Wellstone ruled]

16. Loudon County is one of the

wealthiest Counties in the Nation,this will come back to haunt the GOP from this day forward.

[Grins]

35. ...only if they are constantly reminded of this. NM

[Wellstone ruled]

43. The day is coming.

[3catwoman3]

19. How the hell are they getting away with this?

[Celerity]

26. Because they have the will, the weapons, and the law (obviously broken)

on their side and healthcare workers and logistical supply chains in the United States are not armed battalions with the ability to resist via kinetic force.

[BadgerMom]

30. God knows we don't have a functioning DOJ, but

could state attorneys general act here? This can’t be legal.

[SunSeeker]

21. K & R & Retweeted!

[bonniebgood]

22. Is this even legal?

[SoonerPride]

25. Since when has that mattered? We are long past "what is legal." The trumps do whatever they want.

I mean, really.

[TheFourthMind]

23. Imagine four more years of headlines like this. n/t

[Blue_true]

46. The headlines will be worse. They are seeing what they can get away with now.

The future will be far more aggressive.

[TheFourthMind]

47. Agreed. n/t

[appalachiablue]

27. If OK, I'll cross-post this article to the *VA GROUP. Thanks.

It's outrageous.

[gademocrat7]

29. Corruption that is killing people.

[IronLionZion]

31. At what point do the states rights and small gov people turn against him?

especially in a swing area of a big swing state that has been getting bluer in recent elections.

[renate]

33. How will this not backfire TERRIBLY in even red states? Not enough to change color, but still

I know everything's fine and dandy when Trump does it, but surely there must be some Mah Guns people who will at least feel a twinge of the kind of fury they'd feel if Obama STOLE LIFESAVING EQUIPMENT after failing to order it himself.

[JudyM]

49. Loudon county is transitional, only just recently turning purple.

It’s the outer commuting suburbs of DC in northern VA. If folks get pissed this will spread and help ensure VA migrates farther into the Blue.

[JHB]

36. "How about they get a daggone federal response that actually works"?

County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) was among the supervisors who expressed frustration.

“The federal government and President Trump continues to tell states and localities they are responsible for getting their own PPE, and they undermine that by outbidding and taking PPE,” Randall said. “… How about they get a daggone federal response that actually works instead of this piecemeal approach that they have that actually is not helping anyone, and outbidding localities? That is infuriating.”

Three Cheers for County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall:

[c-rational]

37. WTF is going on with these hijacked shipments of PPE and why is it not on the front pages.

Under whose authority is this being done, and why don't they have to explain themselves. Am I asking too much. (Apparently yes).

[ecstatic]

41. +1000. nt

[elias7]

52. !!!!!!

[sakabatou]

50. Where the hell are they taking the supplies to?!

[EndlessWire]

51. We have people

who could be asking the question of where are they taking the PPEs and who is benefiting from them.

Congress people, reporters...make him answer, and not just say, "I don't know."

To me this is criminal behavior. It is not acceptable, and I don't care what "EO" Trump signed.

This is like being at war. Who wouldn't be tempted to have a PPE underground railroad. How dare they!

And is galling that the Orange Turd told the states to get their own. Fuck FEMA, fuck Trump.

Where is your pride, FEMA?!