TOMORROW: I’m hosting a telephone town hall with special guest Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic advisor, to provide an update on the economic resources available to Arizonans during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Call 855-962-1520 to join us and ask us a question! pic.twitter.com/Lap3A4VZkV

— Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) April 8, 2020

Appointed Sen. Martha McSally has settled comfortably into the pocket of President Donald Trump over the last three years. For example, despite the obvious and growing evident that Trump ignored multiple warnings about the danger that COVID-19 presented to the United States, McSally has just blamed China for everything. (While it's true that China could have been more forthright about its own battle with the virus, it's also true that Trump had plenty of warning about it and chose to pretend it wouldn't be a problem.)

Given McSally relentless support of the Gaslighter-in-Chief, it's no surprise that she's delighted to have Larry Kudlow as her guest at a town hall later today. Kudlow has been remarkable wrong about the COVID-19 outbreak from the jump. He told CNBC back on Feb. 25, when the stock market was starting to crash, that COVID-19 was going to be no big deal in the United States, despite warnings from the CDC that it was going to be a major outbreak. As Politico reported:

White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Tuesday that the U.S. has “contained” the threat of a domestic coronavirus outbreak, breaking with the warnings of officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight,” Kudlow told CNBC’s Kelly Evans on Tuesday afternoon.Kudlow’s confidence was set against U.S. stocks, which suffered their worst day in two years on Monday and were down again Tuesday amid fears that the coronavirus could mushroom into a pandemic. But the White House economic adviser suggested that the virus’ impact is “not going to last forever.”

“This is a human tragedy,” particularly in China, Kudlow emphasized multiple times. But warning against overreaction, he added, “The business and the economic side, I don’t think it’s going to be an economic tragedy at all. There’ll be some stumbles.”

Yeah, you might call record unemployment numbers and the current economic calamity a "stumble."

Kudlow has made a career of calling for tax cuts as the solution to every economic problem. He's been wrong over and over again, but his willingness to stick with the party line has, of course, made him a perfect economic advisor in the Trump White House.

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine has done a marvelous job of tracking Kudlow's consistently wrong predictions about the economy. As Chait writes in his roundup of Kudlow's many wrong predictions:

The purest supply-siders, like Kudlow, go further and deeper in their commitment. Kudlow attributes every positive economic indicator to lower taxes, and every piece of negative news to higher taxes. While that sounds absurd, it is the consistent theme he has maintained throughout his career as a prognosticator. It’s not even a complex form of kookery, if you recognize the pattern. It’s a very simple and blunt kind of kookery.

Given McSally's record on budget balancing—she, like most Republicans, complains mightily about deficit spending while voting for budgets that drive it higher and higher—and her consistent lying about her record on health care (yes, Martha, you have repeatedly voted to strip away regulations to a prevent insurance company from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions), it's hardly a surprise that she considers Kudlow a reliable source. She may not like liberal hacks, but she has no problem with conservative ones.

In a move that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, some companies are trying to profit off of fraudulent "cures" for coronavirus, and the FDA has put out a warning to the public.

Not only has nobody actually come up with a bonafide cure at this point, but this one touts itself as a miracle cure.  “Miracle Mineral Solution” is made from chlorine dioxide, and has not been proven as a cure or prevention for COVID-19, despite its claims that it does so. This is on top of its supposed other uses: a cure for cancer, hepatitis, autism, and more.

You should be wary of any product at this point that has such lofty advertisements. "Too good to be true" is a saying for a reason, and snake oil salesmen have been around to take advantage of people for ages.

The rest of the FDA's warning is below:

As the COVID-19 outbreak forces the economy to a grinding halt, more and more people across the country are losing their jobs.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting record-highs in new unemployment insurance claims, with 6.6 million claims filed in the week ending March 28. This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in history.

The Arizona Department of Economic Security reported 88,592 initial claims from Arizona residents in the same week—a staggering jump of nearly 60,000 claims avove the previous week.

Both state and federal governments have put measures in place to increase access to unemployment benefits and other financial assistance programs that can keep people afloat during this uncertain time. Here are the main resources to pursue if you’ve lost income as a result of COVID-19.

Expanded Unemployment Benefits

The federal government passed the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act on Friday, March 27. The new legislation will expand eligibility for unemployment benefits to those who have historically been denied, such contract workers, gig workers and people who are self-employed.

It will also provide beneficiaries with an additional $600 per week in Pandemic Unemployment Compensation on top of the unemployment money already offered by the state of Arizona, which varies between $187 and $240 per week. This money will not be considered “income” for those who use Medicaid or CHIP.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona had reached 3,018 as of Thursday, April 9,  according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 512 of the state’s confirmed cases.

The coronavirus had killed 89 people statewide, including 16 in Pima County, according to the state and county health department.

In Maricopa County, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen to 1,689.

The state remains under Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order that has closed a wide number of “non-essential” businesses, including many retail stores, barbershops, salons, and swap meets. Public parks remain open but amenities such as playgrounds and restrooms are closed.

Under the stay-at-home order, Arizonans are still able to shop for groceries, medical and household needs, and pet supplies. They can also go work, pick up a take-out meal from a restaurant, travel to take care of a family member, friend or pet, and can still go walking, hiking, biking and golfing, provided that they adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Ducey announced four new executive orders this week:

• Visitors from areas with major community spread of COVID-19 must enter quarantine for two weeks if they come to Arizona.

WASHINGTON – Migrant farmworkers are in “serious danger” of contracting coronavirus because of ongoing poor conditions like overcrowded housing, buses and lack of access to healthcare, according to a new report.

The report by the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante group surveyed 100 migrant workers from Mexico with temporary H-2A visas from September 2019 to January 2020, before the spike on coronavirus cases across the U.S.

“The findings of this report would be deeply troubling in more ordinary times and these are not ordinary times,” said Mary Bauer, lead counsel for the center in a conference call Wednesday.

The report – “Ripe for Reform: Abuses of Agricultural Workers in the H-2A Visa Program – said those workers routinely face discrimination and harassment while working for up to a dozen hours a day without breaks. The report details legal violations alleged by all 100 migrant workers that were questioned.

A roundup of the stories The Range has been following today:

• Pima County has had 464 of the state's 2,726 confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona as of Wednesday, April 8, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services. The coronavirus had killed 80 people statewide, including 15 in Pima County, according to the state and county health departments.

• Tucson Mayor Regina Romero relaxed city regulations to allow restaurants to become pop-up grocery stores.

• The Arizona Department of Corrections has announced two cases of COVID-19 among prisoners.

• Here's a rundown of the 2020 candidates for Pima County Board of Supervisors.

• From ProPublica: Cancer surgeries and organ transplants are being put off thanks to COVID-19. Can they want? Meanwhile, Democratic senators are demanding answers about the Trump administration's push to deport thousands of migrants seeking asylum.

• A new logo for eegee's!

• The Arts Foundation for Southern Arizona is offering $50,000 in emergency arts grants while Tucson Federal Credit Union donated $65,000 in grants to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Old Pueblo Community Services, Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse and the Children's Clinics' Comprehensive Services for Children and Teens. 

[image-1] ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

San Francisco Bay Area surgeon Mary Cardoza is juggling multiple breast cancer patients. But she can’t operate on any of them. Breast cancer surgery, it turns out, is considered an elective procedure — now put on hold as hospitals focus on COVID-19 cases.

On March 13, the American College of Surgeons called on physicians to halt nonessential procedures.

But what, exactly, is an elective procedure? Like many people, I assumed it meant facelifts or perhaps knee replacements that could be delayed without damage. And like many people, I was wrong.

Elective surgery is, by definition, any surgery that is scheduled. That means cancer surgery, organ transplants and other lifesaving procedures, all of which are now put on hold — in some cases indefinitely.

[image-1] ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding information about what they call an “unprecedented expansion of executive power” by the Trump administration at the the U.S.-Mexico border, after a ProPublica story revealed how the administration has used emergency powers to bypass asylum law and summarily expel thousands of migrants.

In a letter written by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., he and nine colleagues give the Department of Homeland Security until April 15 to explain why it believes it can use one section of U.S. law — which gives emergency powers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prohibit the entry of people or things that might “introduce” infectious disease — to preempt the government’s obligation under another section of federal law protecting migrants fearing persecution in their home countries.

“We are deeply concerned that DHS is blatantly misinterpreting its limited authorities under the CDC’s Title 42 order to override existing federal statutes — a move with no known precedent or clear legal rationale,” the letter states. “Making matters worse, this unprecedented expansion of executive power appears to be entirely hidden from public and Congressional oversight.”

The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona recently unveiled two grants totaling $50,000 to support Pima County artists affected by COVID-19 closures. 

The Pivot Grant will fund “alternative methods” of sharing art in compliance with pandemic guidelines set up by the CDC. The grants will range from $500 to $1,000 to individual artists and $1,000 to $2,000 for nonprofit arts organizations creating and sharing art in a virtual, digital or socially distant manner.

“In crafting this call, I especially didn’t want to point to specific examples of messages or art, because I didn’t want it to seem exclusive to one type of method. I wanted this call to be open to the type of innovation we’re seeing across the field right now,” said AFTSA grants manager Natalia Gabrielsen. “We’re open to whatever kind of method folks are using right now to get their artwork out.”

The Emergency Relief Fund will provide emergency support for working artists, teaching artists or other arts contract-workers who have experienced canceled events, residencies or contracts. The fund was initially seeded with $130,000 from the Arizona Community Foundation, and $25,000 from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, with the submission process managed by the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Other fund partners include Artlink Inc., and the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture.