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3M Co. MMM and a half dozen smaller competitors are making about 50 million of N95 masks—which block 95% of very small particles—in the U.S. each month. That is far short of the 300 million N95 masks the Department of Health and Human Services estimated in March that U.S. health-care workers would need monthly to fight a pandemic. U.S. hospitals that previously purchased masks from abroad have turned to overburdened domestic suppliers after many countries blocked exports to fight the virus within their own borders.

“The demand we have exceeds our production capacity,” 3M Chief Executive Mike Roman said in an interview.

3M has doubled mask production since January.

You remember January, which was even before we were “airtight”, and Covid was the new Democratic hoax and nothing to worry about?

Now Trump says “3M will have a big price to pay over face masks”.



Does anyone know what this idiot is going on about? Which Faux News blathering has he picked up on now?

He's just lining up future targets, anything that will keep attention off his own inaction's and lies will do.

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RgrF
He's just lining up future targets, anything that will keep attention off his own inaction's and lies will do.

Jared's role in the coronavirus task force.

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e pluribus unum

I have a number of Republican friends who worked for 3M (and depend on the stock price of 3M in retirment). I’m certain they didn’t vote for Clinton last time around - they either voted for Trump (probably) or didn’t vote/voted libertarian (I doubt it).

If anything might get them to change their minds, it would be Trump attacking 3M despite the latter going balls-to-the-wall to make as many masks as possible.

What a jerk.

Remember when he invoked the Defense Production Act to make GM make ventilators after GM had already retooled a plant to make ventilators?

Same thing here. 3M is doing the right thing, but Drumpf wants credit for it, so he's pushing them to do what they already did so that he can take credit for it later.

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Sarcany
3M is doing the right thing, but Drumpf wants credit for it, so he's pushing them to do what they already did so that he can take credit for it later.

...and insulting them to boot.

What a jerk!

Knocked more than $3 bucks off of their stock price today. I wouldn't be surprised if he had people shorting it, too.

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.....the blame game......he shifts blame on others and never takes responsibility himself......part of his narcissist disorder......

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

He's probably upset about this:
3M warns Trump: Halting exports under Defense Production Act would reduce number of masks available to US

Anyone found a running list of "others" he has blamed? Would make a good website. Better get a plan with plenty of storage.

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hal
He's probably upset about this:
3M warns Trump: Halting exports under Defense Production Act would reduce number of masks available to US

From that:

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“...ceasing all export of respirators [ie masks] produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done,” 3M added. “If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease.”

Which is to say, don’t be an ass. I would guess that 3M probably has plants around the world. Trump wants it all to himself. He previously tried to get a German company developing a vaccine to agree to only supply the US, the NE Patriots plane appears to have grabbed supplies from China that France was expecting, and guess what? Besides the obvious injury to international relations, many of those parts for ventilators being made are sourced from other countries like China.

What we need is a steady hand at the top; what we have is a loose cannon, firing randomly and (often self-) destructively.

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pdq
Which is to say, don’t be an ass.

IT's what he does best, though.

I can’t find it online now, but saw on TV that the CEO of 3M has come out and specifically denied any allegations of price gouging, saying (paraphrased from memory) that they “have not and would never increase prices” for these things.

No doubt there are plenty of ethics-challenged folks on eBay and larger situations that are trying to resell anything they have for a quick profit, but I very much doubt 3M has anything to do with this, and probably are working to shut it down. To do otherwise invites disaster.

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pdq
I can’t find it online now, but saw on TV that the CEO of 3M has come out and specifically denied any allegations of price gouging, saying (paraphrased from memory) that they “have not and would never increase prices” for these things.

What he's not saying: 3M is considered over-leveraged, and it's brought greater scrutiny to many of their transactions. The last thing they need is allegations of price gouging because they have to deal with that debt and if even an unsubstantiated rumor gained traction implying that they were doing so by raising prices during a pandemic, that would be a big blow and could affect their ability to secure capital in the future.

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WaPo:

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A delivery of 200,000 face masks ordered and paid for by the Berlin police was “confiscated” en route, a city official said Friday, citing U.S. legislation as the likely reason for the diversion by an American company.

The consignment of FFP-2 masks from China made it only as far as Bangkok, Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s senator for the interior, said in a statement.

“We consider this an act of modern piracy,” he said. “This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners....”
Geisel called on the German government “to urge the United States to comply with international rules.”

...The statement did not name the company involved, saying only that it was a U.S. firm, but German press reports said the consignment was ordered from 3M.

This kind of stuff is going to absolutely devastate the international view of the US (even more than before). These things have consequences that can last for a long, long time.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said blocking 3M Co’s export of respirators to Canada and Latin America could backfire, a day after President Donald Trump invoked a law to keep the essential supplies in the United States.

In his daily news conference in front of his home in Ottawa, Trudeau pointed out that thousands of nurses cross the border to work in Detroit every day.

Canada's Ontario projects 80,000 coronavirus cases by April 30 under current measures

“These are things that Americans rely on and it would be a mistake to create blockages or reduce the amount of back and forth trade of essential goods and services, including medical goods, across our border,” Trudeau said.

“That is the point we are making very clearly to the American administration right now,” he added.

3M said on Friday it would increase production of respirators and import more masks into the United States, while it warned that blocking exports could result in retaliation by other countries that could ultimately reduce the amount of equipment available.

Canada has recorded almost 12,000 cases of the illness caused by the new coronavirus and the death toll jumped by almost 20% from Thursday, according to data posted by the country’s public health agency on Friday.

The agency said cases rose by about 16% to 11,747 from 10,132 a day earlier, and deaths climbed to 152 from 127 on Thursday.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario - Canada’s most-populous province - said on Friday he had spoken to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about the Trump administration move to block 3M exports of masks.

“The health and well-being of our frontline workers depend on these essential medical items and now more than ever our countries need to work together to combat COVID-19,” Ford said on Twitter.

This isn’t going to piss off just 3M executives. Any industry exec is going to think about the ways Trump could screw them, too.

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Ammo
This isn’t going to piss off just 3M executives. Any industry exec is going to think about the ways Trump could screw them, too.

BUT... major corporations, much like major politicians, think they are smart. They want to get close to Trump for the benefits and when he benefits ease - throw him under the bus, but it never quite works that way. THEY ALL think that they are smarter than trump and can get what they want, then bolt. They usually get their asses handed to them when they try that, but they keep on coming.

Orange Idiot really doesn't understand how a world market works, does he…

40% of the American public are going to thank this conman for killing a family member- yes we are that stupid.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

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bfd
Orange Idiot really doesn't understand how a world market works, does he…

Don’t forget he knows more about everything than anybody. Keep repeating over and over. I’m sure he knows all about world markets.