Kushner Airlift Moves Millions of Masks, But Details Are Secret

[left-of-center2012]

Source: Bloomberg

A program created by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has airlifted millions of gloves, masks and other coveted coronavirus supplies into the U.S. from overseas -- but it isn’t clear who’s getting them and at what price, or how much private-sector partners are earning through the arrangement.

Kushner’s “Project Airbridge” provides transportation via FedEx Corp. and others for supplies that medical distributors, including McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., buy from overseas manufacturers, mainly in China. Once a supplier’s goods arrive in the U.S., the companies must sell half the order in government-designated hotspots. They sell the rest as they see fit.

The U.S. government provides the air transportation for free, to speed the arrival of the products. The six distributors keep the profits, if any.

The House Oversight Committee is seeking answers, and Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal wrote to the medical supply companies this week requesting details about their participation in Kushner’s program. “The American people need an explanation for how these supplies are obtained, priced, and distributed,” they said.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-01/trump-hails-kushner-s-airlift-but-details-of-sales-are-secret?srnd=politics-vp

---

In Trump’s telling, the nation is fortunate Kushner stepped in, because the program relieved a bottleneck causing shortages of protective gear at the front lines of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, the largest in the world.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. A black market operating in plain sight is still a black market /nt

[lostnfound]

9. +100 nt

[MontanaMama]

2. The ultimate game sow for these assholes.

A life and death game show.

[Bayard]

3. So, blue states will be gouged,

And they sell the rest as they see fit.

No one should be paying for these emergency supplies.

[C Moon]

4. The Trump mafia doing business.

[Merlot]

5. "The U.S. government provides the air transportation for free,"

"The six distributors keep the profits, if any. "


"If any" oh, yes, doubtful there are any profits on highly-sought out products that they didn't pay shipping on.

[kysrsoze]

6. To Russia and the super-wealthy. Fucking asshole.

[Marthe48]

7. After hospitals and states started hiding their shipments of ppe

the crooks had to go to plan b.
kushner, traitor and their criminal buddies will see more profit from stealing and reselling ppe than running slums and running fake universities.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. They seized them from the states so they could look like heroes giving them back.

[barbtries]

10. the corruption.

i have to stop looking or explode. it pisses me off that much. they are killing people.

[Lars39]

11. Fuckin' mobsters

[brewens]

12. Bringing in masks from"Communist China"? They may be trying to sap and contaminate our precious

bodily fluids!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Dr.+Strangelove+essence&docid=608042556993636401&mid=089CAE403431B82AAB54089CAE403431B82AAB54&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

[forgotmylogin]

13. I just saw a commercial last night for masks "available to home consumers"

Bet that's it. It's a Trump shell company or one of his buddies.

[pandr32]

14. Isn't transparency great?

[bubbazero]

18. Most Transparent Administration in History

CLEARLY, NO CONCERN FOR HUMAN LIFE; NONE, ZIP, ZERO,ZILCH

[Vinca]

15. Most likely purchased by taxpayers, shipped in to Trump warehouses and resold at a profit.

[riversedge]

16. Hoping the House gets information. This is so wrong!

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. "an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is"

300 years ago, the "South Sea Bubble" was the first major stock bubble - driven by both fraud and mania - in Britain (France had a similar crash around the Mississippi Company at the same time: the Dutch had their tulip mania about a century before).

At the height of the South Sea mania, people were inventing all kinds of companies for investment, many with obviously ridiculous aims, like perpetual motion. But the best of all was only described as "for carrying-on an undertaking of great advantage but no-one to know what it is". And the grifter took in £2,000 (about $500,000 in today's prices) in one morning, and then fled the country in the afternoon.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZLHTBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73

The best grifts are timeless.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. Milo Minderbinder Airlift Moves Much Merchandise, But Details Are Secret

A program created by the mess officer has airlifted millions of eggs, cotton, prostitutes and other coveted wartime supplies into the theater of operations from overseas -- but it isn’t clear who’s getting them and at what price, or how much private-sector partners are earning through the arrangement.

Minderbinder's “M&M Enterprises” provides transportation via the US Army Air Forces and others for supplies that the US military, and occupied civilian authorities, buy from overseas suppliers, mainly in Europe. Once a supplier’s goods arrive on the base, the companies must sell half the order in M&M-designated hotspots. They sell the rest as they see fit.

The U.S. government provides the air transportation for free, to speed the arrival of the products. The syndicate keep the profits, however large.

The Commanding Officer is seeking answers, and Captain Yossarian said "you're gonna come out rich. We're gonna come out dead" . “The American people need an explanation for how these supplies are obtained, priced, and distributed,” he said.

Milo could see more things than most people, but he could see none of them too distinctly.
...
Milo took a firm moral stand and absolutely refused to participate in the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade until Captain Black called upon him with his delegation and requested him to.
...
Yossarian also thought Milo was a jerk; but he also know that Milo was a genius.
...
‘Give it a chance, will you?’ Milo begged. ‘It can’t be that bad. Is it really that bad?’
‘It’s even worse.'
...
Yossarian answered him slowly in a level voice. ‘They’re burying that kid who got killed in my plane over Avignon the other day. Snowden.’
‘What happened to him?’ Milo asked in a voice deadened with awe.
‘He got killed.’
‘That’s terrible,’ Milo grieved…
...
Now, let’s see—you now have a grand total of six missions, which is damned good, Milo, damned good, really. Six missions is an increase of twenty per cent in just a couple of minutes, which is not bad at all, Milo, not back at all.”
**Context: Milo has only flown 5 missions while the other men in the squadron have flown 70. Sentences ago, Milo admitted he’s only flown 5 missions, but Colonel Cathcart insists on counting a sixth mission Milo was assigned to but didn’t fly because he was in Orvieto at the time scouting materials for his next business venture.

https://ebarrosse9291.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/my-22-favorite-quotes-from-catch-22-and-then-some/

[Kid Berwyn]

21. Eggs available in Malta for 7 cents...

...and everyone (alive) had a share. Even the Germans were members in good standing of the M&M Syndicate.

"But Yossarian still didn't understand either how Milo could buy eggs in Malta for seven cents apiece and sell them at a profit in Pianosa for five cents."

... later ...

"Milo chortled proudly. "I don't buy eggs from Malta," he confessed... "I buy them in Sicily at one cent apiece and transfer them to Malta secretly at four and a half cents apiece in order to get the price of eggs up to seven cents when people come to Malta looking for them."

"Then you do make a profit for yourself," Yossarian declared.

"Of course I do. But it all goes to the syndicate. And everybody has a share. Don't you understand? It's exactly what happens with those plum tomatoes I sell to Colonel Cathcart."
"Buy," Yossarian corrected him. "You don't sell plum tomatoes to Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn. You buy plum tomatoes from them."

"No, sell," Milo corrected Yossarian. "I distribute my plum tomatoes in markets all over Pianosa under an assumed name so that Colonel Cathcart and Colonel Korn can buy them up from me under their assumed names at four cents apiece and sell them back to me the next day at five cents apiece. They make a profit of one cent apiece, I make a profit of three and a half cents apiece, and everybody comes out ahead."

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9314005

Thank you for reminding us, Muriel_Volestrangler! Heller’s is as profound a book as ever written.

[Yavin4]

26. If I was in the Air Force, I'd check that I still had my parachute

&feature=emb_logo

[Kid Berwyn]

20. Marked up personally by Jared.

Who knew a national emergency without end means profits in perpetuity?

[Ford_Prefect]

22. Secret Kushner Airlift Masks Millions Moved! "Project Airbrushed" Provides Corporate Fig Leaf.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. K&R

[Hotler]

24. Where is the outcry from Nancy and Chuck and the others Democrats?

I 'm tired of playing nice with repugs.

[Yavin4]

25. All 4 branches of our military have planes and ships. Throw in the coast guard and the DOJ as well.

Why does our govt have to contract with FedEx for the flights?