Trump VS COVID-19 Threat

[crazyfingers]

I think we can conclude that Trump has no redeeming qualities.

 

[Elixir]

I think we can conclude that Trump has no redeeming qualities.

It might be unethical to take that position. After all, none of us has total knowledge of every one of Trump's qualities.
For that reason I'm withholding judgment until some actual cannibals weigh in.

 

[Treedbear]

Rachel Maddow obtains original April 21 CDC report on Smithfield meet packing plant

Rachel Maddow obtains original April 21 CDC report on Smithfield meet packing plant showing how CDC Director Redfield ordered the investigating team to water it down in the version re-issued on April 22, by having "where possible" inserted everywhere they told Smithfield how to mediate against the pandemic.

 

[lpetrich]

Despair at CDC after Trump influence: 'I have never seen morale this low' | TheHill

The Trump administration’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent efforts to meddle with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are taking a substantial toll on the nation’s foremost public health institution.

In interviews with half a dozen current and former CDC officials, they described a workforce that has seen its expertise questioned, its findings overturned for political purposes and its effectiveness in combating the pandemic undermined by partisan actors in Washington.

“I have never seen morale this low. It’s just, people are beaten down. People are beaten down partially by a public who not only distrusts us but who actually think we want to infringe on their civil liberties,” said one current CDC employee. “The other factor is the active undermining by senior members of our own administration.”

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[Elixir]

View attachment 29462

And that ^
is why we now have this - sorted by the right hand column (total cases per million people). 13 out of the top 13 are red states. I found that surprising, then realized that I found it surprising because even I have been influenced by Trumpian propaganda to some extent, subconsciously accepting his rants about how terrible NY's management was. (They're #14) :

 

[lpetrich]

Trump's big lies reveal a truth: Right-wing science denial was never about ignorance, just cruelty | Salon.com

When I first started writing about politics, way back in the George W. Bush era, this was a legitimate question when it came to trying to understand the mindset of Republicans, especially when it came to their stubborn refusal to accept scientific truths. Republicans have denied or cast doubt on science in so many ways — denying that condoms are effective, that evolution is real, that climate change is actually happening and largely caused by human activity — and many liberals and progressives have felt legitimately confused about exactly why.

Was it that right-wingers were too ignorant or benighted to accede to scientific realities? Or was it more sinister than that: They knew full well what the science said, but were too selfish and cruel to care, and also selfish and cruel enough to lie about it to our faces?

Well, with the West Coast on fire, a pandemic spreading across the land, and a pathological liar in the White House as the Republican standard-bearer, I think we can consider that debate settled: It's not ignorance. It's malice.

The cruelty, as Adam Serwer of The Atlantic famously wrote, is the point.

Trump seems to have known all along how contagious and deadly the COVID-19 virus is.

New tapes released on Monday indicate that, even as Trump was publicly claiming that the virus "would soon be in full retreat" and encouraging protests against lockdown measures, he was privately admitting that "this thing is a killer" and that the virus "rips you apart" if "you're the wrong person."

In other words, Trump gets it but simply doesn't care. That was confirmed again on Monday by a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who confronted Trump about his decision to hold a packed (and largely mask-free) indoor rally in Henderson, Nevada, despite warnings from public health officials that such events easily spread the coronavirus.

"I'm on a stage and it's very far away," Trump told the reporter. "And so I'm not at all concerned."

So the safety of the thousands of people who showed up to show fealty to Trump is clearly of no importance. He was far away from them! So he's "not at all concerned."

Trump's odious attitudes towards the people who are being harmed by his failure to take science seriously were on display later in his trip, when he visited McClellan Park in Sacramento, California, where the skies are clogged from smoke from wildfires tearing up the West Coast.

When a California official asked him about the climate-change issue, he responded "It will start getting cooler. You just watch."

 

[lpetrich]

Dr. Bleach-Injector and his death cult want <i>you</i> to get "herd developed" | Salon.com

Don't expect Trump's latest idiocy to lose him followers — they'd rather get COVID-19 than admit they were wrong

Donald Trump was doing spectacularly bad science again, this time during a town hall in Philadelphia hosted by ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday night. The event went about as well for the president as anyone who has been awake during the past four years could have predicted, which raises the important question: Wasn't his new campaign manager supposed to be competent?

When asked about an audio clip captured by journalist Bob Woodward in which Trump talks about the coronavirus pandemic and how much he "wanted to always play it down," Trump slid right into his don't-believe-your-lying-ears mode, claiming that he, in fact, "up-played it." Whatever that means. Then the "very stable genius" currently squatting in the Oval Office rolled out his brilliant plan to lick the coronavirus problem (as transcribed by the invaluable Aaron Rupar of Vox):

TRUMP: It is going away.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Without a vaccine?
TRUMP: Sure. Over a period of time.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And many deaths.
TRUMP: It's gonna be herd developed.

He also used the phrase "herd mentality."

Trump's English comprehension is garbled by decades of being unable to listen to anyone speaking about any topic that doesn't directly concern his greatness or his personal finances.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump treated the pandemic as "The Apprentice: COVID Edition": It's blowing up in his face | Salon.com

Trump distorts CDC info and spreads vaccine lies because he thinks faking it is always better than doing any work

It's hardly new or revelatory to say this, but it's critical to remember the role that "The Apprentice" played in turning Donald Trump, a notoriously bad businessman with a string of bankruptcies, into an American icon of capitalist success. Everything from careful editing to set designers giving the dreary Trump Organization offices a glow-up came together to create the illusion of success where only failure and mediocrity had been before.

It was an experience so profound for Trump that he did something highly unusual: He learned something. He absorbed the idea that a well-constructed illusion of competence gets you all the benefits of being accomplished, without having to do the hard work of actually achieving anything.

Unfortunately, it was a lesson we are all paying the price for now.

Then about the Trump Admin forcing the Center for Disease Control to publish dangerously misleading coronavirus testing recommendations on its website.

CDC scandal gets worse: This is why Trump can't be trusted with a coronavirus vaccine | Salon.com

Even if there's a safe vaccine someday soon, Trump will definitely find a way to screw it up completely

September has featured one scandal after another stemming from Donald Trump's belief that the best way to handle the coronavirus pandemic is to let a bunch of people get sick and die, and then deny that it's happening. First, journalist Bob Woodward started to releasing recordings in which Trump said he "wanted to always play it down" and admitted he had deliberately lied to the public about how serious this virus really is. Then, in a town hall for ABC News, Trump confessed that his real strategy was to let the virus run loose to create herd immunity — or rather "herd mentality" which would be "herd developed," to quote the president accurately — even though that would literally kill millions of Americans. Then the New York Times published a new exposé revealing that Trump officials had overruled medical researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, forcing the agency to publish misleading and dangerous information designed to discourage people who have been exposed to the virus from being tested.

Author Amanda Marcotte suspects that Trump's record of lying will extend to a COVID-19 vaccine.

 

[lpetrich]

Stimulus Update: House Dems Delay Vote On New $2.2 Trillion Stimulus Bill; Common Ground On Stimulus Checks, But Chasm On State Aid

Pelosi had walked Mnuchin through a scaled-back $2.2 trillion Heroes Act proposal on Tuesday. The updated Heroes Act proposal cut $1.2 trillion from the original Heroes Act passed in May. To reduce the overall cost of the bill, Democrats had cut certain provisions, like hazard pay, and also changed the timing of certain benefit areas, like temporarily lifting the cap on state and local tax deductions for only one year instead of two.

Going into Wednesday’s session, Mnuchin said that there was common ground ground between the White House and House Democrats on many areas such as a second stimulus check, aid to airlines and their employees, and small business loans; however, there was still a lack of agreement about additional aid to states and cities as well as liability protections for businesses. After huddling with President Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Mnuchin said that "the president instructed us to come up significantly, so we have come up from the trillion dollar deal."

Good grief. Still squabbling.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump signs bill to prevent government shutdown after funding briefly lapses

The president did not approve the bill before a midnight Thursday deadline to fund the government, and U.S. spending authority temporarily lapsed. But the Office of Management and Budget never ordered agencies to cease operations.

Trump signed the measure into law early Thursday after returning from a campaign event in Minnesota.

The law will ensure the government does not go through a crippling shutdown during a pandemic and about a month before the 2020 election.

It keeps federal agencies running until Dec. 11. Before then, lawmakers aim to hash out spending legislation to keep the government running through Sept. 2021.

Judd Deere on Twitter: "President @realDonaldTrump has signed the Continuing Resolution, funding the government through December 11, 2020." / Twitter
9:49 PM · Sep 30, 2020 -- That's PDT. In EDT, that would be 1:49 AM - Oct 1, 2020

So there was a gap of an hour of lack of funding.

 

[Shadowy Man]

When a California official asked him about the climate-change issue, he responded "It will start getting cooler. You just watch."

And the rest of that exchange was:

Scientist: “I wish the science agrees with you.”

Trump: “I think the science got it wrong.”

Note: these may not be *exact* words — working from memory.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Kick the can! Kick the can! Kick the can!

Good grief. Still squabbling.

Dems pass a bill, what 5 or 6 months ago now for the second relief package. Republicans want it lower. Dems agree to significant cut. Republicans want it lower.

Negotiating with the GOP is pretty much requiring going all in on the GOP plan. Yet, the GOP will say the Dems are playing politics.

 

[ZiprHead]

Hope Hicks has the corona. She's been in close contact with Trump and lots of staff the last two days.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Just imagine the historians of the future describing these pandemic deniers on the right. I mean, they watched Herman Cain die a month after he sat at one of Trumpo's rallies -- and they still attend these events (watching a ranting, grimacing figure who is well-distanced from the screaming rabble.) An unbelievable spectacle. Out of their fucking minds. No dialogue is possible with these folks. My country is at least 35% insane.

 

[crazyfingers]

Just imagine the historians of the future describing these pandemic deniers on the right. I mean, they watched Herman Cain die a month after he sat at one of Trumpo's rallies -- and they still attend these events (watching a ranting, grimacing figure who is well-distanced from the screaming rabble.) An unbelievable spectacle. Out of their fucking minds. No dialogue is possible with these folks. My country is at least 35% insane.

Just as bad, afterwards Trump says he was safe because he was so far from the crowd but clearly doesn't give a shit if any of his followers get sick. Do his followers even notice that Trump could give two shits if any of them die? No they are too crazed. A cult for sure.

 

[crazyfingers]

Hope Hicks has the corona. She's been in close contact with Trump and lots of staff the last two days.

cross your fingers

 

[blastula]

Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump - The New York Times

I could have told them that.

 

[Elixir]

Hope Hicks has the corona. She's been in close contact with Trump and lots of staff the last two days.

cross your fingers

...that didn't take long.
Of course I doubt the story. It looks like Donald will probably have to self quarantine instead of showing up for the next debate.
Especially if there are like, rules.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It seems official that Hope Hicks has it. According to Trump:

She's fantastic and she's done a great job. But it's very, very hard when you're with people from the military and law enforcement and they want to hug you and kiss you.

Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump - The New York Times

I could have told them that.

I mean no offense, but I'm thinking that wouldn't source out as well in the report.

According to a web board poster blastula, the single largest driver of Coronavirus Misinformation is President Trump. He made the observation during an unsolicited phone call to one of our reporters.