Shut the Doors: President Trump, who has made it a cause to keep Muslims, asylum seekers, and illegal immigrants out of the country, tweeted last night that he’s shutting down legal immigration during the pandemic.

  Fomenting fear of the outsider is one of the first tools of a leader desperate to stay in power. Trump tweeted, “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!”

  Twenty-two million Americans lost their jobs within the last month not because they were bumped by immigrants, but because Trump dismissed the threat of the coronavirus and acted too late to contain it.

High Risk Category: In the absence of enough testing materials for the coronavirus, President Trump’s latest strategy is to claim “record” numbers of tests completed while putting the burden on the states to get them done.

  Governors and healthcare workers say they still don’t have enough tests or, by the way, enough protective gear to deal with sick patients.

  Trump yesterday delivered a long self-congratulation on the country’s “testing capacity,” while holding a thick binder said to have listed 5,000 testing facilities. But tests, which appear to be in short supply, and laboratories to obtain the results, are two different things.

  Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan snark-tweeted, “Accessing these federal labs will be critical for utilizing the 500,000 tests we have acquired from South Korea.”

The Numbers: Another 1,681 Americans died of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. Deaths in New York City were down dramatically; 153 in the same 24-hour period.

Supply Without Demand: With airlines barely flying and major highways near empty, the price of oil is plummeting to next to zero and by next month producers may have to pay to get people to take it off their hands. It’s called “negative pricing.”

  Oil is not just in the pipeline, it’s on ships and will be delivered. With demand so low, companies are running out of places to store the oil they aren’t using. President Trump made a deal with Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries to cut 9.7 million barrels a day beginning in May, but analysts say oil consumption in April will fall about three times the cutback.

  Of course, this is great news for people who have somewhere to go in their car, but the collapse of any economic system is never good.

  Part of America’s food production is headed for trouble as well.

  After one of the largest pork-production plants in the US closed because its workers were hit hard by the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence assured the public that the food supply is safe. 

  But, we were forwarded a letter from a South Dakota pig rancher who says the country may be only weeks away from meat shortages and financial disaster for the ranchers. He says, “What has now happened which is NOT being reported on is that many or most of the rest of the packing plants are only running at 50-75% capacity due to many workers refusing to work due to being scared of contracting covid-19.”

  He explains that livestock is born every day and animals are prepared for slaughter on a steady schedule. If the packing plants don’t accept the animals, the shortage and financial disaster for ranchers will follow.

  Our rancher says, “Farmers are already losing money at an alarming rate. Then being forced to keep market ready hogs that have cost $130 a piece to raise with nowhere to take them so farmers are going to be looking at killing these pigs and having no way to regain the loss. In a nutshell farmers will be losing so much money so fast there is no way the government will be able to step in before the banks foreclose on them.”

To Air or Not to Air: While President Trump’s daily briefings are informative in a perverse way that tells more about his state of mind than the crisis, the television networks internally agonize about how much of the briefings to show, whether to fact check them in real time, or just not show them and report later.

  Former Nightline anchor Ted Koppel wrote in The NY Times last month that, “Training a camera on a live event, and just letting it play out, is technology, not journalism; journalism requires editing and context.”

  This has been going at least since the first Gulf War in 1990 and ’91 when CNN broadcast the military briefings live. CNN gave what is estimated to be billions of dollars-worth of free air time to Trump during the 2016 campaign for the pure entertainment value of his rallies.

  Now, CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter says Trump’s coronavirus briefings “continue to be founts of nonsensical claims, full of media bashing and blame-shifting, in between legitimately important and newsworthy bits of info.”

  NY Times columnist Charles Blow says, just stop airing the briefings. “Under no circumstance should these briefings be carried live. Doing so is a mistake bordering on journalistic malpractice. Everything a president does or says should be documented but airing all of it, unfiltered, is lazy and irresponsible.”

The Bulletin Board: Sketchy reports say that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who was absent from celebrations of his grandfather’s birthday, underwent cardiovascular surgery and is in serious condition. His regime is denying it.  — Seventy-three percent of the inmates — more than 1,800 of them — at the Marion state prison in Ohio have tested positive for the coronavirus. — After three indecisive elections, Israeli Prime Minister has reached an agreement with opponent Benny Gantz to stay in power until October 2021, before handing the office over to Gantz.

Out of the Basement: CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has emerged from his basement after recovering from the coronavirus. He said the illness really shook him. “I know people are dealing with so much worse, but for me, personally, I’m not that strong,” Cuomo said, “and it really tore me up inside and out in terms of making me reassess things about myself and my life.”

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