Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[blastula]

Heel lifts do help treat bone spurs.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Heel lists do help treat bone spurs.

Listing? Port, starboard?
Or lifts?

 

[lpetrich]

Trump’s mockery of wearing masks divides Republicans - The Washington Post

A growing chorus of Republicans are pushing back against President Trump’s suggestion that wearing cloth masks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is a sign of personal weakness or political correctness.

They include governors seeking to prevent a rebound in coronavirus cases and federal lawmakers who face tough reelection fights this fall, as national polling shows lopsided support for wearing masks in public.

OH Gov. Mike DeWine (R), ND Gov. Doug Burgum (R), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), ...

he comments come as Trump continues to treat face masks as something to mock, refusing to wear one in public and joining his staff and family in ridiculing his Democratic rival Joe Biden for doing otherwise. White House staff members are required to wear masks in the building, though Trump is exempted from that rule.

Such jabs have sharpened a divide that recent polls show largely exists within the Republican Party, as clear majorities of Democrats and independents have embraced the need for mask wearing, in line with the scientific consensus that it is an effective method to slow the spread of the virus, potentially speeding a recovery of the economy.

...
When asked Tuesday by CNN if wearing a mask projected strength or weakness, Biden offered a third option, saying it projected leadership. He called Trump “an absolute fool” for his mockery of protective measures.

“Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine,” Biden said. “It reminds me of the guys I grew up with playing ball. They would walk around with a ball, but they didn’t like to hit very much.”

...
But some Republican strategists said there was a clear logic to Trump’s tactics, assuming voters see them positioning Trump as a champion for the return to normal life. Male Republicans, a key part of Trump’s base, were more skeptical of mask wearing than other groups in the recent Kaiser poll.

 

[lpetrich]

All the Republican Senators wear masks, except for Rand Paul, who considers himself immune.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: only remove a mask to speak formally.

In the House, a minority of conservative lawmakers, most visibly Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have embraced the symbolism of refusing to wear a mask. Some House Democrats, by contrast, have taken to prominently wearing masks. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.) wore a mask in the pattern of the Maryland state flag while overseeing a recent pro forma session. Others have delighted in seeing Trump using a mask at the Ford plant last week in images that were captured during a backstage moment before he stepped in front of the cameras.

“OMG! He actually wore one,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) celebrated when she shared the image online. “See, it didn’t hurt that much.”

AOC has gotten some response.

Shom Mazumder on Twitter: "So I see a certain stream of #econtwitter has lots its mind over @AOC's calling out of an important etymological dimension of human capital. And you wonder why people perceive econ to be hostile to critical thinking on race." / Twitter

Shom Mazumder on Twitter: "Also nobody owns the meaning behind human capital thank you for coming to my ted talk." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "What’s also wild is the arrogance of some of these folks saying it’s “wrong” or “ignorant” for me to question the term ‘Human Stock’ bc it’s used in academia.
Plenty of awful terms have widely used without reflection. Over time language evolves to reflect evolved understanding." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Gotta wonder how many of these US economic “experts” have been able to go their whole careers without ever having to take a course or study the history US racial wealth inequality. It’s no wonder so many act as though poverty is either deserved or a policy accident. It’s neither." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "History of**" / Twitter

 

[bilby]

Those Democrats are so fiendish that they even got the Brazilian, Chinese, UK, Italian and Spanish governments and news media to collude.

Indeed, the entire world seems to have been persuaded to involve themselves in US domestic politics, to the extent of pretending that tens of thousands of their people had died.

Yea, but it's still all Trumps fault!

The avoidable but not avoided problems of the USA, including (but certainly not limited to) the massive death toll due to the dismantling of the systems intended to reduce the impact of future pandemics on the US, is the fault of the President.

That's the President's job - to make the hard decisions, and be held accountable for their results.

With great power comes great responsibility. Trump wants the former without the latter, but it doesn't work that way.

To whine about people holding the President accountable for his nation's problems is to miss the entire point - it's his fucking job to be accountable. If he doesn't like it, he shouldn't have taken the job in the first place.

 

[Harry Bosch]

All the Republican Senators wear masks, except for Rand Paul, who considers himself immune.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: only remove a mask to speak formally.

In the House, a minority of conservative lawmakers, most visibly Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have embraced the symbolism of refusing to wear a mask. Some House Democrats, by contrast, have taken to prominently wearing masks. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.) wore a mask in the pattern of the Maryland state flag while overseeing a recent pro forma session. Others have delighted in seeing Trump using a mask at the Ford plant last week in images that were captured during a backstage moment before he stepped in front of the cameras.

“OMG! He actually wore one,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) celebrated when she shared the image online. “See, it didn’t hurt that much.”

AOC has gotten some response.

Shom Mazumder on Twitter: "So I see a certain stream of #econtwitter has lots its mind over @AOC's calling out of an important etymological dimension of human capital. And you wonder why people perceive econ to be hostile to critical thinking on race." / Twitter

Shom Mazumder on Twitter: "Also nobody owns the meaning behind human capital thank you for coming to my ted talk." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "What’s also wild is the arrogance of some of these folks saying it’s “wrong” or “ignorant” for me to question the term ‘Human Stock’ bc it’s used in academia.
Plenty of awful terms have widely used without reflection. Over time language evolves to reflect evolved understanding." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Gotta wonder how many of these US economic “experts” have been able to go their whole careers without ever having to take a course or study the history US racial wealth inequality. It’s no wonder so many act as though poverty is either deserved or a policy accident. It’s neither." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "History of**" / Twitter

Hey Rand Paul, you're an asshole! Wear a mask to protect others. You may be immune, but you can infect others.

 

[Deepak]

Hey Rand Paul, you're an asshole! Wear a mask to protect others. You may be immune, but you can infect others.

He's Libertarian - everybody else can die for all he cares, the only responsibility he has is to himself.

 

[angelo]

Hey look. The USA is #1. Good Job Trump!

https://bangordailynews.com/covid-19-maine/

View attachment 27868

The buck stops at Trump's desk. Xi and CCP have absolutely nothing to do with it! Got Ya!

 

[Patooka]

The buck stops at Trump's desk. Xi and CCP have absolutely nothing to do with it! Got Ya!

There used to be a sign on Trump's desk that said exactly that. You don't know much about US politics, do you?

 

[angelo]

Care to name one, just one nation that has a perfect history? But none of the leaders of any go globetrotting around the world apologising for perceived wrongdoing.

Angelo, refusing to apologize when you are wrong doesn't make you strong, it makes you an asshole who can't be trusted.

In fact the contrary is the truth. Only someone who is strong and secure in their place of leadership can admit to errors. It's insecure cowards (Trump being a quintessential example) who can't admit to fault lest their fragile egos shatter.

There is no leadership without respect. There is no respect without trust. You can't trust a "Leader" who calls his obvious mistakes something other than mistakes. A basic refusal to acknowledge reality is an indication of insanity whether it is derived from egomania or delusion.

I never understood this "Obama apology tour" bullshit. Especially now that you've had three years to compare the difference in leadership strategies. Between Obama and Trump which one was more respected by international governments and free people? Which one gets ridiculed by the audience of foreign government representatives in the middle of a speech at the UN? Being a dick and burning bridges doesn't make you stronger, it makes you weaker. These things are obvious. The expression is "United we stand, divided we fall."


Edit:

And finally, have you actually read those Obama quotes? They aren't submissive or humiliating. In fact, I don't think any of them actually qualify as "apologies". They are mostly just acknowledging reality.

The fact that America has nothing to aopologise for doesn't even enter the subject does it? Is that Because Obongo did the apologising? Why not admit that Obongo was a weak leader who was willing to push the US and Israel over the cliff in order to appease the Iranian mullahs in order to get his " Iranian nuclear deal " a done deal. A deal that a strong leader like the Trump would never accede to!

 

[angelo]

Obongo was under 50% approval rating in 2012.

Historical comparison
Order President Approval average
44 Obama 47.9
43 G. W. Bush 49.4
42 Clinton 55.1
41 G. H. W. Bush 60.9

 

[Patooka]

Doubling down on the non sequiturs are we?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Those Democrats are so fiendish that they even got the Brazilian, Chinese, UK, Italian and Spanish governments and news media to collude.

Indeed, the entire world seems to have been persuaded to involve themselves in US domestic politics, to the extent of pretending that tens of thousands of their people had died.

Yea, but it's still all Trumps fault!

The avoidable but not avoided problems of the USA, including (but certainly not limited to) the massive death toll due to the dismantling of the systems intended to reduce the impact of future pandemics on the US, is the fault of the President.

That's the President's job - to make the hard decisions, and be held accountable for their results.

With great power comes great responsibility. Trump wants the former without the latter, but it doesn't work that way.

To whine about people holding the President accountable for his nation's problems is to miss the entire point - it's his fucking job to be accountable. If he doesn't like it, he shouldn't have taken the job in the first place.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/an...mp-failed-to-protect-us-from-the-coronavirus/

Anatomy of a man-made disaster: 320 ways Donald Trump failed to protect us from the coronavirus

...
This indifference manifested with Trump’s first budget to Congress. Though the administration found money for big increases in the already-bloated defense budget and passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut overwhelmingly tilted to the 1% later that year, Trump’s minions cut funding (2) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency tasked with protecting public health in the face of the opiate epidemic, AIDS, flu, and infectious outbreaks.
...

Trump has from the start been destroying the US system and programs for dealing with possible pandemics. Again and again. With help from the GOP members of Congress. Our lack of preparedness is not "just one of the things that happen" with no blame to be assigned for our lack of preparedness. Trump gets full credit for all of his failures. Trump was the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong things for wrong reasons.

Hopefully, after Trump is flushed out of office in November, Biden can lead us it a decade long program to undo the damage Trump and the GOP have done to out ability to deal with pandemics. And US voters will have learned a sobering lessons about voting for know-nothing Republican presidents.

 

[KeepTalking]

Obongo was under 50% approval rating in 2012.

Historical comparison
Order President Approval average
44 Obama 47.9
43 G. W. Bush 49.4
42 Clinton 55.1
41 G. H. W. Bush 60.9

Trump was a worthless clown in 2012. Oh wait, he still is.

Look, I know this is going to be difficult for you to answer, so please concentrate and give it your best shot: what's your point, and how does it relate to Trump's handling of COVID-19?

 

[lpetrich]

‘There’s no stigma attached to wearing a mask’: McConnell makes plea in favor of face masks - POLITICO - he shows some decency here.

McConnell strangles the states: So much for a quick recovery and Trump’s reelection - The Washington Post

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) initially flatly rejected the House’s Heroes Act for more than a trillion dollars in state and local aid to mitigate the impact of the pandemic — despite a 14.7 percent unemployment rate as well as bipartisan support for more spending from governors, the Federal Reserve chair and the treasury secretary. Now, he says he will have a response in weeks — but don’t count on anything approaching the size of the House bill.

Understand that for Kentucky, the Heroes Act means “direct aid to Kentucky’s budget of $3.3 billion in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020 and an additional $4.1 billion in FFY 2021 for a total of $7.4 billion,” according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The state would also benefit from the reduction in the state’s share of Medicaid spending, saving $1.7 billion over 18 months. Finally, “In Kentucky, all 120 counties would receive a total of $2.5 billion, and 429 cities and other local government entities would receive $1.9 billion over two years.” Without federal aid, the governor and legislature are contemplating more than $450 million in cuts in “state services, including education, health care and public safety.” That means more cuts and more layoffs.

New Stimulus Could Come in 'Next Month or So,' McConnell Says As Pressure Mounts to Restart Economy

However, the Kentucky Republican, who has previously refrained from offering a specific timetable, reiterated the next stimulus will not resemble the "$3 trillion, left-wing wish-list" that the Democratic-led House passed earlier this month. "That ain't gonna happen," McConnell said.

Although the Senate leader was sparse with the details when speaking to reporters at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, his public openness to more federal aid comes amid pressure from both sides of the aisle to further alleviate the stress on states' economies.

Rep AOC outlines congressional battle on HEROES Act - YouTube - from a recent virtual town hall with NYC officials. She calls it "a starting offer to Mitch McConnell."

It includes $175 billion in rent and housing assistance. Also includes stimulus checks for immigrants on ITN and their families. Has lots of state and local assistance. Good data reporting.

She's trying to get funeral expenses into the bill. She doesn't like how this bill has COBRA subsidies - she considers them a giveaway to the medical-insurance lobby. She prefers expanding Medicare and allowing unemployed people to enroll in it. Wants wage subsidies, something done by other countries.

She concludes by urging people to go online and fill out their census forms, so they can be counted.

 

[blastula]

The fact that America has nothing to aopologise for doesn't even enter the subject does it? Is that Because Obongo did the apologising?

If America has nothing to apologize for, why has Trump been apologising for America, especially when it comes to Russia, since before he got elected?

[YOUTUBE]G8-VB-XkjKQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[lpetrich]

Jamil Smith on Twitter: "I wrote about why Puerto Rico’s hurricane catastrophe was a precursor for the coronavirus pandemic, particularly with regards to Trump’s willful negligence. I interviewed San Juan mayor @CarmenYulinCruz to get her perspective. My latest for @RollingStone. https://t.co/gUlLUZzWql" / Twitter
San Juan is the capital and most populous city of PR, and Carmen Yulín Cruz is the city's mayor.

One hundred thousand people are dead. There is no effective federal plan to control a pandemic for which there remains no cure, nor help the nation recover from it. President Trump is engaged in a daily exercise in willful failure, ridding his government of inspectors general and obfuscating his own negligence. In a job that typically helps lead the nation in moments of grief, this president opts to tweet and golf, needing to be pressured to finally lower the flag to half-staff last week. It is no surprise that so many Americans followed the lead of Trump and fellow Republicans who rushed to reopen their state economies, going in droves to shores and pools and shops like spring breakers, many without masks, as if vaccinated by their frustration and impatience.

CYC had direct experience of something similar, though on a smaller scale.

Yulín is the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, same as in 2017, when Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the island. Instead of getting the help they needed from Trump, Puerto Ricans got paper towel jump shots and petty tweets. Later, the president pushed forward with a deliberate, mean-spirited effort to steal aid from the very folks who still need it today.

...
Yulín is the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, same as in 2017, when Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the island. Instead of getting the help they needed from Trump, Puerto Ricans got paper towel jump shots and petty tweets. Later, the president pushed forward with a deliberate, mean-spirited effort to steal aid from the very folks who still need it today.

Trump’s blithe, patronizing visit to Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, punctuated by the paper towel jump shots, was indicative of how quickly he would deliberately try to blame Puerto Rico for its own problems. ... Trump chose to treat Puerto Rico like a tenant he wished to evict.

... As Adam Serwer noted, the president only was too happy to reject stay-at-home measures after it became clear that the coronavirus was killing black, Latino, and indigenous people at higher percentages relative to their populations. Even as the death toll rises and this pestilence sweeps throughout rural, whiter communities with lethal force, Trump may very well try deflecting the blame onto black comorbidities and such.

It will be interesting to see how right-wingers react as they watch honkies and "Real Americans" suffer from the disease.

... Yulín doesn’t think mainland Americans, by and large, failed to grasp the lessons from the Puerto Rico tragedy. But what about Trump? “I think as humans we always want to think that people learn from their mistakes,” Yulín said. “The problem here is that we’re not dealing with a normal human being.

That may be Anthony Scaramucci's problem in assessing Trump. AS seems to expect Trump to be at least approximately "normal", like feeling humiliated by failure and being at least a tiny bit empathetic. But Trump seems thoroughly sociopathic, and he doesn't feel the least bit humiliated by his failures.

 

[lpetrich]

U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 100,000 as Trump pushes to reopen - POLITICO

A day before the U.S. reached the 100,000-death mark, Trump once again blamed China for not stopping the virus before it spread across the globe, and touted his decision in January to restrict travel from China to the U.S.

“For all of the political hacks out there, if I hadn’t done my job well, & early, we would have lost 1 1/2 to 2 Million People, as opposed to the 100,000 plus that looks like will be the number,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

McConnell admits he was wrong to say Obama administration failed to leave a pandemic playbook - CNNPolitics - from a week ago

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell conceded Thursday night that he was wrong to claim that the Obama administration had not left behind a plan to deal with a pandemic in the US.

"I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan, so I clearly made a mistake in that regard," McConnell said during an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier.

I've never seen Trump ever say anything like that.

Trump dismisses his own government’s mask guidance at news conference - Vox - another news story about him dismissing masks as political correctness.

AOC, however, sometimes wears a mask that states "Medicare for All".

 

[zorq]

And finally, have you actually read those Obama quotes? They aren't submissive or humiliating. In fact, I don't think any of them actually qualify as "apologies". They are mostly just acknowledging reality.

The fact that America has nothing to aopologise for doesn't even enter the subject does it?

Well, considering you haven't actually provided an example of Obama apologising, I guess you're right. This entire subject is ridiculous. What did you think it proves again?

Is that Because Obongo did the apologising? Why not admit that Obongo was a weak leader who was willing to push the US and Israel over the cliff in order to appease the Iranian mullahs in order to get his " Iranian nuclear deal " a done deal. A deal that a strong leader like the Trump would never accede to!

Okay, so the Iran nuclear deal was a bad idea because... Why? You think Iran SHOULD have nuclear weapons? You know there was broad consensus that Iran was fulfilling it's obligations under that agreement until Trump Threw it in the trash right? Iran has NO good reason not to pursue nuclear tech now. N. Korea style deterrence is their only option now. Thanks to Trump.

Trump is a fool. Obama was a leader who could actually close a deal that benefited Israel's security needs.

 

[angelo]

Yea, but it's still all Trumps fault!

I'm gonna let you in on a dirty little secret that you aren't aware of.






Are you ready?







Are you sitting down?





You sure you're ready?






Ok.






In 3...






...2






....1






Holding Trump accountable for the decisions he alone has actioned and the choices that he alone has made is not the same as blaming him for everything.


I just blew your mind, didn't I? You're welcome.

You're a legend in your own mind!