1. Trump's My Pillow buddy gets 75K to make masks he can't produce
Remember how on March 30 Donald Trump held his daily coronavirus
press conference in the White House Rose Garden and MyPillow founder
Michael Lindell spoke? It was strange and disturbing and unhelpful. Three days later, the number of Americans dying every day from the novel coronavirus went from around 500 per day to over 1,000 per day.
About two weeks later, well over 2,000 Americans are dying every day
from COVID-19. Why the hell was the MyPillow guy praying on television
during a goddamn coronavirus press conference?
The day after the press conference/infomercial for MyPillow, Lindell announced that his company would begin making medical masks. Unfortunately, Mr. Pillow could only produce cloth masks, and so he needed to contract out, and his promises of 50,000 masks by the end of the week came to a halt. But never you fear, Politico is reporting that the Department of Veterans Affairs is ponying up $75,000 to help Lindell along. And the delay? Well, “the order has not been filled yet because the company has yet to find a subcontractor to actually make the masks, since the VA wants KN95 and disposable masks and MyPillow only makes cloth masks.”
So, let’s be clear: instead of the government paying a company that can and does produce the required masks, they are going to pay a guy who cannot produce the masks and will now act as a go-between to contract a company that will produce the masks. No matter how you cut that, this is inefficient, wasteful, and so silly it’s hard to not shake with anger while typing.
Lindell says that he won’t make “a dime” on this coronavirus mask deal. However, considering that it was less than five years ago that Lindell and his company was settling with ten California district attorneys for being fraudulent in his advertising, I find it hard to believe much of anything Lindell asserts.
Lindell has paid to play with Trump, and one thing we know about Trump is that he is transparently corrupt. According to 1100 Pennsylvania, Lindell has contributed around $628,000 since 2015 to various Republicans. Politico reports that the Republican Party plans to use the freshly negotiated coronavirus relief bill as a political attack on the Democratic Party—saying that Democratic officials delayed the process and it’s somehow their fault that unemployment is skyrocketing.
The day after the press conference/infomercial for MyPillow, Lindell announced that his company would begin making medical masks. Unfortunately, Mr. Pillow could only produce cloth masks, and so he needed to contract out, and his promises of 50,000 masks by the end of the week came to a halt. But never you fear, Politico is reporting that the Department of Veterans Affairs is ponying up $75,000 to help Lindell along. And the delay? Well, “the order has not been filled yet because the company has yet to find a subcontractor to actually make the masks, since the VA wants KN95 and disposable masks and MyPillow only makes cloth masks.”
So, let’s be clear: instead of the government paying a company that can and does produce the required masks, they are going to pay a guy who cannot produce the masks and will now act as a go-between to contract a company that will produce the masks. No matter how you cut that, this is inefficient, wasteful, and so silly it’s hard to not shake with anger while typing.
Lindell says that he won’t make “a dime” on this coronavirus mask deal. However, considering that it was less than five years ago that Lindell and his company was settling with ten California district attorneys for being fraudulent in his advertising, I find it hard to believe much of anything Lindell asserts.
Lindell has paid to play with Trump, and one thing we know about Trump is that he is transparently corrupt. According to 1100 Pennsylvania, Lindell has contributed around $628,000 since 2015 to various Republicans. Politico reports that the Republican Party plans to use the freshly negotiated coronavirus relief bill as a political attack on the Democratic Party—saying that Democratic officials delayed the process and it’s somehow their fault that unemployment is skyrocketing.
PUBLISHED TO
- weinenkel
- Daily Kos Social
- DK Immigration
- DK Health
- Rim Country Gazette Blog
On April 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) published
the contracts and modified contracts they have with third party
companies. At the very bottom of the long list was a modification to a
contract the DoD had with Fisher Sand & Gravel Company,
Dickinson, North Dakota. The contract was for border wall work in Yuma,
Arizona, “for approximately 800 linear feet of 30-foot bollard barrier,
roads, drainage improvements, lighting, closed-circuit TV, Type A fiber
optic cable and Type B fiber optic cable.” The work is scheduled to be
done by the end of 2020. That 800 feet of border wall fence will only
cost $7,633,085.
If the name Fisher Sand & Gravel Company of North Dakota rings a bell, that’s because this is the same company that Trump reportedly kept pushing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in 2019.
This is the same company with bids, officials wrote the president, that “did not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its prototype project came in late and over budget.”
This is the same company that ended up miraculously getting awarded a $400 million contract to build some of the border wall across an Arizona Wildlife Refuge.
This is the same company with the $400 million contract that prompted an investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general—which is still ongoing.
Democratic Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi told reporters that "last time I checked, the inspector general has not yet determined if the December 2019 Fisher contract was properly awarded and the country is still facing a pandemic and largely under lockdown. The Army Corps should pause construction and contracting decisions until the investigation is complete and it is safe to resume non-essential construction projects. Army Corps resources should be put to better use responding to the coronavirus pandemic we are still facing."
To add to this stew, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a big buddy of Fisher, whose campaign received a reported $10,000 dollars from Fisher, reportedly held up confirmation of a White House budget official last summer. This was a protest against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers perceived snubbing of Fisher Industries.
The Daily Beast reports that since Feb. 25, when the CDC warned that the coronavirus was already here and we needed to begin figuring out ways to mitigate the virus and the death toll, the “Army’s engineering arm has awarded at least $1.3 billion in wall contracts.”
So while governors and hospitals across the country beg for more medical equipment and testing that continues to lag far behind, the U.S. government under Trump continues draining the coffers and dumping all of that cash into the corruption swamp they’ve created.
Now he's making money off the resulting pandemic - and making sure his accomplices get a piece of the action.
If the name Fisher Sand & Gravel Company of North Dakota rings a bell, that’s because this is the same company that Trump reportedly kept pushing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back in 2019.
This is the same company with bids, officials wrote the president, that “did not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its prototype project came in late and over budget.”
This is the same company that ended up miraculously getting awarded a $400 million contract to build some of the border wall across an Arizona Wildlife Refuge.
This is the same company with the $400 million contract that prompted an investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general—which is still ongoing.
Democratic Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi told reporters that "last time I checked, the inspector general has not yet determined if the December 2019 Fisher contract was properly awarded and the country is still facing a pandemic and largely under lockdown. The Army Corps should pause construction and contracting decisions until the investigation is complete and it is safe to resume non-essential construction projects. Army Corps resources should be put to better use responding to the coronavirus pandemic we are still facing."
To add to this stew, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a big buddy of Fisher, whose campaign received a reported $10,000 dollars from Fisher, reportedly held up confirmation of a White House budget official last summer. This was a protest against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers perceived snubbing of Fisher Industries.
The Daily Beast reports that since Feb. 25, when the CDC warned that the coronavirus was already here and we needed to begin figuring out ways to mitigate the virus and the death toll, the “Army’s engineering arm has awarded at least $1.3 billion in wall contracts.”
So while governors and hospitals across the country beg for more medical equipment and testing that continues to lag far behind, the U.S. government under Trump continues draining the coffers and dumping all of that cash into the corruption swamp they’ve created.
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