Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/3...ited-states-public-health-emergency-response/

...
In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency. The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team. Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10. Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And though Congress has so far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by 40 percent, the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as retiring officers go unreplaced.
Public health advocates have been ringing alarm bells to no avail.

Public health advocates have been ringing alarm bells to no avail.
​

Klain has been warning for two years that the United States was in grave danger should a pandemic emerge. In 2017 and 2018, the philanthropist billionaire Bill Gates met repeatedly with Bolton and his predecessor, H.R. McMaster, warning that ongoing cuts to the global health disease infrastructure would render the United States vulnerable to, as he put it, the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pandemic occurring in our lifetimes.”

....


Sp, up to this date, the Trump mis-adminstration has been raping America's scientific community's ability to respond to a serious pandemic. And now we have one on our doorstep The sheer incompetence of Trump and the GOP here is startling. But not surprising. It is going to be interesting to see if this turns out to be a disaster. If so, Trump owns it.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[Elixir]

View attachment 26322

The DOW is up >300 points today so far. If the truth were told, it'd be down another thousand. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, COMMIE?

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Sp, up to this date, the Trump mis-adminstration has been raping America's scientific community's ability to respond to a serious pandemic. And now we have one on our doorstep The sheer incompetence of Trump and the GOP here is startling. But not surprising. It is going to be interesting to see if this turns out to be a disaster. If so, Trump owns it.

What's going to be most interesting is how he'll spin it to try to blame the Democrats. There's even money that the name "Soros" will be used in that attempt.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

The DOW is up >300 points today so far. If the truth were told, it'd be down another thousand. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, COMMIE?

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

 

[ZiprHead]

View attachment 26322

The DOW is up >300 points today so far. If the truth were told, it'd be down another thousand. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, COMMIE?

Derail: If I had some money, I'd be buying Disney stock. Both the virus and the resignation of the CEO have dropped the stock quite a lot. I have every confidence it will bounce back.

 

[Gun Nut]

The DOW is up >300 points today so far. If the truth were told, it'd be down another thousand. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, COMMIE?

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

I just refinanced my house to save $33,000 over the next 15 years, thanks to overreacting idiots.

 

[Elixir]

The DOW is up >300 points today so far. If the truth were told, it'd be down another thousand. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT, COMMIE?

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

I just refinanced my house to save $33,000 over the next 15 years, thanks to overreacting idiots.

I've been in tax free bonds for the last year and a half, so I couldn't care less about the stock market - except that I seem to gain faster after these little blips. Remains to be seen if BIG blips will have the same effect though. If this turns into a 25-40% slide/crash, I won't be hurt too badly and THAT might encourage me to buy equities.
Disney is a fair bet in the shorter term... UNLESS other (than corvid-19) factors compound the situation into a confidence crisis, in which case low-end luxury items like Disney trips tend to suffer pretty badly.

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

Yeah, Trump has created a day-trader's paradise. In fact parasites in general seem to be thriving under his regime.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

If COVID-19 hits hard, Jimmy Bakker will make a killing peddling his emergency food buckets. And we will all be guzzling those wonderful Clorox cocktails.

 

[J842P]

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

Yeah, Trump has created a day-trader's paradise. In fact parasites in general seem to be thriving under his regime.

Um, not just day trading. I bought in half of my IRA contribution for this year yesterday.

It can go a lot lower very easily, I think, but I think it's a good place be at for my first contribution to 2020.

 

[Jayjay]

Anyone else get the feeling that Trump's pushing Pence under the bus by appointing him to be responsible for the coronavirus counter-measures? It's going to be a clusterfuck no matter what Pence does. Then Trump can put all blame on him, "I hardly knew the guy" etc. ... and appoint Ivanka as his running mate in the fall.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Anyone else get the feeling that Trump's pushing Pence under the bus by appointing him to be responsible for the coronavirus counter-measures?

Meh.
In Trump's calculus, he had to think of someone to put there who will not admit that it's a clusterfuck on national TV. Or if he does, won't blame TRUMP for the cluster. The Damned Dems Didit, Duh!
And when he said, "I need someone to..." Pence was the last person to shout 'Not it!'

Trump may even think he's doing Pence a favor. "Leap on out in front of this Carona-thing, save everyone, and that'll be your base when you run for President, eh? Eh?"

 

[Elixir]

Overreactions are excellent buying opportunities.

Yeah, Trump has created a day-trader's paradise. In fact parasites in general seem to be thriving under his regime.

Um, not just day trading. I bought in half of my IRA contribution for this year yesterday.

If you can buy and hold, there is no bad time to get in. Even if you bought right on the cusp of the 2008-2009 mini-crash, you'd be looking good a year or two later.

 

[funinspace]

Derail: If I had some money, I'd be buying Disney stock. Both the virus and the resignation of the CEO have dropped the stock quite a lot. I have every confidence it will bounce back.

I unloaded DIS a week ago as I decided this virus wasn't stopping. I'd wait to buy it until right before Disney has to close 1 or 2 more theme parks <sarcasm>... It may become a buy at some point in a few months. And no, I didn't run for the bunkers, I just trimmed a few more exposed things like Disney.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[fromderinside]

Our problem is we see Trump with his face painted orange and we complete the picture by putting a bulbous red nose on the teetotaler. Makes us feel good, but weakens us when we gauge his capabilities to do things. The f-ing idot is a genius at being clown directer with us playing the part of his clowns.

Suggestion. Quit mocking him. Go after him as if he's the extiestial threat he is. He wears that long tie so we can comment on his silly long tie. We react improperly.

So rather than giving something he can rif make him show us he can do what needs to be done. He can't. Build a factual case against him. We need to attack the threat not to react to the image he presents to us. Show us the coronavirus dead count at his feet with the dismissed CDC experts scattered about. Make him look scary like he is.

 

[Elixir]

Our problem is we see Trump with his face painted orange and we complete the picture by putting a bulbous red nose on the teetotaler. Makes us feel good, but weakens us when we gauge his capabilities to do things. The f-ing idot is a genius at being clown directer with us playing the part of his clowns.

Suggestion. Quit mocking him. Go after him as if he's the extiestial threat he is. He wears that long tie so we can comment on his silly long tie. We react improperly.

So rather than giving something he can rif make him show us he can do what needs to be done. He can't. Build a factual case against him. We need to attack the threat not to react to the image he presents to us. Show us the coronavirus dead count at his feet with the dismissed CDC experts scattered about. Make him look scary like he is.

I agree. Although he was elected by people voting for the image of Donald the very stable business genius rather than the fact of a semi-literate, ignorant, incompetent narcissist, there is little reason to hope that any of those who voted for him will be turned around by the now even-more-obvious reality of who he is. Rather, the best hope is to drive turnout among those who recognize that reality. The threat is real, and driving turnout by continually pointing to it should not be rocket surgery.

 

[PyramidHead]

I predict that the Coronavirus outbreak in the USA will be 10x-100x worse than it was elsewhere, not because of Trump and his stupid evangelical VP, but because (a) most people who get a fever would rather pay rent than pay thousands of dollars to get diagnosed and treated, and (b) people in America tend not to stay home when they get sick. Under any administration, this is a recipe for an epidemic.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Suggestion. Quit mocking him. Go after him as if he's the extiestial threat he is.

But humor IS the human defense against the existential threat.
We can do both.
We can recognize his incompetence in leading against a pandemic, or appointing people to lead against the pandemic AND treat him as a laughingstock.
No late-night TV host's monologue was used as justification for impeaching The Shitgibbon, nor did they contribute to his acquittal. If they'd played it entirely solemn through the accusations, the investigation, and the (for lack of a better word) 'trial,' nothing would have changed.

 

[PyramidHead]

Suggestion. Quit mocking him. Go after him as if he's the extiestial threat he is.

But humor IS the human defense against the existential threat.
We can do both.
We can recognize his incompetence in leading against a pandemic, or appointing people to lead against the pandemic AND treat him as a laughingstock.
No late-night TV host's monologue was used as justification for impeaching The Shitgibbon, nor did they contribute to his acquittal. If they'd played it entirely solemn through the accusations, the investigation, and the (for lack of a better word) 'trial,' nothing would have changed.

Pssst

Nothing changed