Pandemic: The US yesterday suffered its single worst day of deaths so far in the coronavirus pandemic. As many as 1,918 people died in what officials have warned could be the worst week of the crisis.

  The death toll in the US has risen to 12,911 with 399,929 people infected.

  New York City and the state are still the epicenter in the US with 140,386 infections. The state has had 5,489 deaths with the majority — 4,009 — In New York City. The coronavirus has killed more people in the city than the 9/11 attacks.

  Statisticians have noted that the virus in some cities is hitting black Americans particularly hard. In Louisiana, 70 percent of the deaths are among black citizens although they are only 30 percent of the population. In Milwaukee, 73 percent of the deaths are black residents and in Chicago, 67 percent.

Communications Breakdown: Two firings and a Resignation. Yesterday was a brutal day in the Trump Administration where employment is seasonal.

  Trump yesterday replaced a horrible person who was his press secretary with a slightly more friendly but equally horrible person.

  Stephanie Grisham, who ended daily press briefings, is being replaced after nine months on the job by Kayleigh McEnany, a Trump true believer who has been his 2020 campaign spokeswoman and was an uncritical Trump booster on CNN panels in 2016. She’ll be his fourth press secretary in just over three years.

  Grisham brought to the job a certain bitterness against the press. McEnany, at the least, can be expected to bring a cheery denial of anything wrong and give faithful support to the President.

  The 31-year-old McEnany, a graduate of Harvard Law School, is, like Donald Trump, a creation of CNN, which gave her hours of undeserved airtime.

  In the resignation department is Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who embarrassed himself giving a savage speech to the crew of the USS Roosevelt about their departed captain, who was dismissed over a leaked memo. Modly called the beloved Capt. Brett Crozier “too naive or too stupid” to be in command of the aircraft carrier.

  Trump said yesterday about Crozier, “The captain should not have written a letter. He didn’t need to be Ernest Hemingway.”

  And last, Trump effectively fired the inspector general who was to have kept an eye on the spending of $2 trillion in coronavirus relief disbursements. Trump doesn’t like inspector generals and might be expected to fire more.

Thanks for the Memo-ries: President Trump has faced plenty of questions about his slow reaction to the coronavirus threat. Early on, he dismissed it and said it would disappear.

  The NY Times reports that as early as January 29^th Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro circulated a warning memo saying, “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil.” He said, “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”

  Asked about the memo at yesterday’s daily coronavirus briefing, Trump said, “I heard he wrote some memos talking about a pandemic. I didn’t see them, I didn’t look for it, either.”

  Trump said he didn’t sound an alarm because he needs to be the country’s “cheerleader.” He said, “I don’t want to create havoc and shock and everything else,” he said. “I’m not going to go out and start screaming, ‘This could happen! This could happen!’ ”

The Bulletin Board:  China has ended its lockdown in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus originated. — The odious Martin Shkreli, the investor who became known as “pharma bro” for buying the rights to critical drug and charging thousands of dollars per dose, has asked to be released from prison so he can help find a cure for the coronavirus. — Despite having  a “stay at home” order and a primary election the same day, Wisconsin voters stood in line six feet apart to cast ballots. The results are not expected to be released until Monday.

The Obit Page: John Prine, the raspy-voiced singer/songwriter with a wry and often doleful view of the world, has died  at age 73 of the effects of the coronavirus. He had already lost part of a lung to cancer.

  Prine was discovered in 1970 by the already successful Kris Kristofferson, who introduced Prine on stage one night saying, “No way somebody this young can be writing so heavy. John Prine is so good, we may have to break his thumbs.”

  Among Prine’s hits were “Sam Stone,” about a drug-addicted war veteran with the refrain, “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes.” He also wrote  “Angel From Montgomery,” later covered by Bonnie Raitt:

      Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
      Make me a poster of an old rodeo
     Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
     To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

#trumplightbulb: George Conway, husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, posted a Twitter contest to answer the following question: How many people does it take to screw in a lightbulb for Donald Trump?

  Here are our answers:

-None. He’s fired everyone competent to do it and the rest tell him the light is on.

-None. The report that the light is out is fake news.

-None. We have incredible lightbulbs like nobody’s ever seen.

-None. Hydroxychloroquine can replace the bulb. What have you got to lose?

-Two. He’s not an electrician but his gut tells him two and both of them think he did a perfect job replacing the bulb.

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