White House downplays COVID-19 messaging to open business faster

Administration's efforts to minimize talk of COVID-19 don't minimize its effects.

Read the whole story

 

[Mrweidler]

Along these lines, there is a report that the Office of Special Counsel has recommended that Dr. Rick Bright - who was demoted from his post at BARDA following complaining about a lack of preparedness for COVID - be reinstated.

That said, the board that is supposed to act on these recommendations has no current seated Senate-confirmed members.

So I'm betting that the Administration will try to bury Dr. Bright even further to pursue these same aims of "burying COVID news".

There is no Senate confirmed board.

 

[traumadog]

Along these lines, there is a report that the Office of Special Counsel has recommended that Dr. Rick Bright - who was demoted from his post at BARDA following complaining about a lack of preparedness for COVID - be reinstated.

That said, the board that is supposed to act on these recommendations has no current seated Senate-confirmed members.

So I'm betting that the Administration will try to bury Dr. Bright even further to pursue these same aims of "burying COVID news".

There is no Senate confirmed board.

There is supposed to be... The Merit Systems Protection Board.

Right on the front page:

President Trump's Nominees for Chairman, Vice Chairman and
Member of MSPB are Pending Before the U.S. Senate

And from their "about us" page:

The mission of the MSPB is to "Protect the Merit System Principles and promote an effective Federal workforce free of Prohibited Personnel Practices."

Heck they even have a FAQ about their lack of board members.

 

[Mrweidler]

I'm 61 and have been somewhat politically aware for a bit more than three decades.

Can someone older than me speak to how our current White House leadership compares to others in years past. Has it EVER been this feckless?

No snark intended.

Here's a list of the US Presidents. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... ted_States
Every Republican President from Grant to Coolidge was damn close to useless. Hoover was a good guy and a hell of an engineer, but way out of his depth as President. More recently of course, we have W. It's saying a lot when someone can make W look smart.

Edit: oops, forgot Teddy was Republican.

 

[Mrweidler]

The thing that scares me the most is the apparent lack of knowledge by the administration and the CDC. I feel I am left to my own devices in dealing with this situation.

Glad ARS has Beth to keep us straight! Still, more specific guidelines would be helpful. Let's defeat this thing.

Postscript; It is extremely difficult to hold an exponential process stable. I am at a loss to explain how the number of reported cases in the U.S. doesn't decay or explode (unless it is being actively managed). It' also interesting how the number of cases seems to be periodic (about 7 days), unless that's an artifact of detection and reporting.

No need to be scared. Here are the rules per the CDC (AP article w/CDC guidelines). Help enforce them.

 

[Mrweidler]

This is brash but politically clever. Trump's approach has been to dodge negative press by assigning responsibility of fault to others, like governors. At the same time he wants to be in a position to take credit for any progress made.

Being the face of re-opening, which will happen sooner or later anyways, but offloading the management of that re-opening to the governors puts him in a perfect position to deflect blame to others if reopening is mismanaged, and accept credit as the economy improves.

The management of the re- opening does need to be with the governors. They are the people on the scene. The feds need to get the governors more masks, more tests, more everything, and keep working on a vaccine and treatments.

 

[Mrweidler]

If Trump gets infected, is he likely to die because of his age and obesity?

Not really. He has the best medical care in the world.

 

[Mrweidler]

I literally cannot smash my head into my desk any harder without causing damage to both head and desk.

I understand the economy is hurting but is it really that bad for the Pres to put aside innocent lives in his quest to save it?

The numbers are scary, but the solution is pretty straight forward - just expensive.

 

[Mrweidler]

These people must be awful at Chess, they can't see more than a move ahead. I mean they can re-open businesses, but will anyone show up? Probably some, but can most restaurants operate at 25% or 50% or capacity? Not for long.

And then there is the whole purpose of this which is really to throw people off of unemployment. I agree it is important that the economy restart and people work, but that's not what this is about. It's about letting people die when we could help them, just like we help the corporations.

Who is going to vote for a party that basically wants you to either work or die, and to not complain about it, while bailing out the big companies? Oh I know, millions and millions of stupid, stupid people.

I'm trying to be hopeful that that this pandemic is the one thing that will pierce the fog of stupidity, but I just don't know.

Businesses getting customers isn't the point (although a few "protest" openings here in Orange County had the restaurant packed so I'm not so sure on the idea that many of them will be at limited capacity). It is throwing the people off unemployment. If person's company is open, but they're not going back to work because it's not safe, they're no longer "unemployed" because they're not looking for work, and thus, not counted on the rolls. Trump gets to run ads how he brought the unemployment rate down from 14% to whatever in such a short time, even though he did nothing to actually help the economy.

And sadly, yes, there are enough evil, evil, evil people in this country that would see everything Trump has done as a positive.

And this ^^^ is what will cause the next Great Depression.

 

[Baymax]

My guess is that we are about to undo anything that was accomplished by social distancing. Hundreds of thousands will die. Hospitals will be overwhelmed. States will be forced in many cases to close back down. And the economy will still be in shambles and tens of millions of people will still be unemployed. Trump and his cult of personality will deflect blame to the governors and continue on with their reality distortion tactics. And there's a good chance Trump will get reelected. We have some very stupid and evil people in our country, and others who enable that stupidity and evil by not voting when it really matters.

 

[Cherlindrea]

Steven Miller's wife has tested positive?

My evil side sends hopes and prayers...

She's already married to Steven Miller, really nothing a virus can throw at her that's going to be any worse than what she's endured at this point.

I find it interesting how people automatically show sympathy to the spouses (commonly wives) of notorious douchebags. While there may be an issue of it being an abusive relationship that the spouse can't or won't flee, there may also be an issue that the spouse is every bit a vile and irredeemable person (see: Melania Trump the instant she wore that jacket). I figure it's even odds as to which way it may be, so don't even comment on the spouse. I read that Miller is also positive now (maybe caught it from his wife, maybe he actually gave it to her). It doesn't matter. Miller is the proven evil one, so there's the cosmic justice. My feelings toward his wife are no different than any other random stranger that has it.

 

[dogwitch]

I kinda understand (but don't agree with) wanting to open up the economy despite the dangers. What I don't understand all the people who claim its a hoax and or that people shouldn't (or shouldn't be forced to) wear masks and practice social distancing.

Not to mention the people who are somehow so incensed by being "forced" to wear a mask as a loss of their freedom, that they respond by forcing others to not wear their own.


What it shows it that it has nothing to do with principles. It's just unwillingness to accept the world as it is, and a incoherent belief that if they can only force people to act normally and stop participating in the narrative, the disease will just go away.

i know and when you question the info to back up their narrative... they tend to say instead fk you and you must be a libtard

 

[Hezio]

These people must be awful at Chess, they can't see more than a move ahead. I mean they can re-open businesses, but will anyone show up? Probably some, but can most restaurants operate at 25% or 50% or capacity? Not for long.

And then there is the whole purpose of this which is really to throw people off of unemployment. I agree it is important that the economy restart and people work, but that's not what this is about. It's about letting people die when we could help them, just like we help the corporations.

Who is going to vote for a party that basically wants you to either work or die, and to not complain about it, while bailing out the big companies? Oh I know, millions and millions of stupid, stupid people.

I'm trying to be hopeful that that this pandemic is the one thing that will pierce the fog of stupidity, but I just don't know.

This might seem unrelated, but do you think all the lead pipes in the USA that people drink tap water from might have something to do with the amount of dumb as well?

 

[NickHos]

If Trump gets infected, is he likely to die because of his age and obesity?

Not really. He has the best medical care in the world.

As a Brit, I wouldn't claim our healthcare was the best in the world, but it's certainly reasonably top-tier and it was 50/50 whether our Prime Minister survived.

Once things start to go bad for you with Covid-19 there's not a lot to be done. No matter how good the healthcare you're given

 

[SixDegrees]

I truly hope Trump and company get this virus. I really do. And I won't be hoping for any type of recovery. Useless lump of orange flesh.

The Salmon of the Potomac.

 

[SixDegrees]

If Trump gets infected, is he likely to die because of his age and obesity?

Not really. He has the best medical care in the world.

As a Brit, I wouldn't claim our healthcare was the best in the world, but it's certainly reasonably top-tier and it was 50/50 whether our Prime Minister survived.

Once things start to go bad for you with Covid-19 there's not a lot to be done. No matter how good the healthcare you're given

Yeah. There's really no treatment for not having lungs.

Also, look at all the high-profile celebrities who've been killed by this disease. These haven't been people hurting for money - or medical care. They've been in positions to afford the best of the best in that regard. The virus didn't care.

I believe this was one of the major points of Poe's "Mask of the Red Death," which may start reading more and more like a documentary shortly.

 

[andygates]

Crowded malls will oorah the virus away with sheer eagle-powered chest hair.

I was going to ramble about Lysenkoism and Trumpism, but the difference is actually significant: Lysenko was a crank with the ear of the leader. The US has plenty of good advisors but donny don't listen.

 

[graylshaped]

Along these lines, there is a report that the Office of Special Counsel has recommended that Dr. Rick Bright - who was demoted from his post at BARDA following complaining about a lack of preparedness for COVID - be reinstated.

That said, the board that is supposed to act on these recommendations has no current seated Senate-confirmed members.

So I'm betting that the Administration will try to bury Dr. Bright even further to pursue these same aims of "burying COVID news".

There is no Senate confirmed board.

Do you get paid based on the number of falsities you post?

 

[ARSBodger]

Hey, who're you going to trust? A bunch of so-called experts or the stable orange genius? It isn't as if he has ever been wrong about anything.

 

[Dicere1]

I think American democracy died when Al Gore didn’t become President. I think relying on elections that are already openly gerrymandered with exquisite precision is a poor hope. I think arguing with Trump supporters simply validates them, making the comfort of the MAGA signal that much stronger. I think to get rid of Trump you need to undercut his financial base; which means refusing to buy from Trump supporters large or tiny.

 

[ColdWetDog]

These people must be awful at Chess, they can't see more than a move ahead. I mean they can re-open businesses, but will anyone show up? Probably some, but can most restaurants operate at 25% or 50% or capacity? Not for long.

And then there is the whole purpose of this which is really to throw people off of unemployment. I agree it is important that the economy restart and people work, but that's not what this is about. It's about letting people die when we could help them, just like we help the corporations.

Who is going to vote for a party that basically wants you to either work or die, and to not complain about it, while bailing out the big companies? Oh I know, millions and millions of stupid, stupid people.

I'm trying to be hopeful that that this pandemic is the one thing that will pierce the fog of stupidity, but I just don't know.

This might seem unrelated, but do you think all the lead pipes in the USA that people drink tap water from might have something to do with the amount of dumb as well?

Stupid, unfortunately, doesn't need any help. Comes with the territory.

(Lead levels in the population as a whole are down from historical levels.)

 

[ColdWetDog]

I think American democracy died when Al Gore didn’t become President. I think relying on elections that are already openly gerrymandered with exquisite precision is a poor hope. I think arguing with Trump supporters simply validates them, making the comfort of the MAGA signal that much stronger. I think to get rid of Trump you need to undercut his financial base; which means refusing to buy from Trump supporters large or tiny.

You planning on not eating for a while? Or importing all of your foodstuffs?

Out here in the Great Red Hinterlands (those hinterlands with all of the farms), Trump is pretty fucking popular.

And this is Colorado. Which at least is sort of purpleish.

Now, what just might upset this particular applecart is the pandemic messing badly with the food distribution network. Hard to make money on something that is rotting in the fields. But do expect (another) pretty generous ag sector bailout. Once the remaining small farm holders are driven into bankruptcy.

 

[ColdWetDog]

I truly hope Trump and company get this virus. I really do. And I won't be hoping for any type of recovery. Useless lump of orange flesh.

The Salmon of the Potomac.

Hey, salmon are reasonably intelligent. For a fish. You can even detect brain activity when they're dead.

On second thought, maybe you're on to something.

 

[crazedgironemo]

Because in 4 years Trump and Moscow Mitch will have so packed the courts with brain-dead toadies that any law benefiting someone not a Trump donor will be declared unconstitutional.

You know, in all this, I haven't seen anybody point this out: Aren't most of the Supreme Court Judges kinda old too? If Trump insists that the Supreme Court re-opens without any social distancing measure, he may end up killing all the work put into electing conservative judges, quite literally...

 

[numerobis]

You know, in all this, I haven't seen anybody point this out: Aren't most of the Supreme Court Judges kinda old too? If Trump insists that the Supreme Court re-opens without any social distancing measure, he may end up killing all the work put into electing conservative judges, quite literally...

This is backwards. I doubt it’s his priority exactly but if you’re going to preferentially kill old judges by opening up in a pandemic, naturally you’re going to be preferentially killing judges named by prior administrations, opening up a bunch of new slots.

 

[azazel1024]

Well, he has the stock market to worry about--gotta keep those investors... investing.

Unemployment at 14.7% and the stock market is up.

Remember the stock market is just a chart of rich people's feelings.

Actually, the market was expecting a report of 16% or higher. The report came in below expectations, so that gave stocks a boost; the anticipated bad news was already baked in.

So, this was actually a rational reaction to an irrational anticipation.

The height of the market with 16% unemployment makes me wonder about the rationality of the market.

Like I was suggesting, it's both rational and irrational. It has a strong, irrational tendency to overshoot its rational underpinnings.

Right now, there's been a slow rise off its low, but it's still somewhere around 15% below its peak. Some of that's due to it being oversold to begin with - lots of bargains to be had that were beat up without reason. I don't know how much more upside it has, though; there's another round of irrational exuberance winding itself up over pending reopenings, but news of whether this outbreak is left a long-lasting mark is still wanting.

As others have noted, part of this reopening frenzy is a desire to cut off unemployment benefits, which will wind up fucking over a lot of people. It'll probably also wind up depressing wages; if you HAVE to take your job back or lose your benefits, even if it means taking less than you made before, well, you're boned. So a possible outcome is a contraction of wages.

Or not. Maybe those folks are just off the rolls forever, leaving higher earners who can telework to flesh out the stats. But if the end result is a bunch of businesses going bankrupt because no one can buy their stuff, and a bunch of landlords going bankrupt because no one can pay rent and there's no one to sell to, then you've got a much more lasting wound to heal over.

I am the later. I’ve got a single property I rent. My first house I wasn’t able to sell for years because the market was terrible. Then realized I was making a small, but decent profit off it. So we kept it longer.

Tenant “mailed a rent check” that hasn’t shown up for May. Claims she did anyway. Also let us know a couple days ago she lost her job. Finally said “okay, well it’s more than a week late, can you cancel the check and pay electronically like you have, at least a partial payment. We don’t want to put you in a real hard place, but we have to pay the mortgage on the house”

Her response was she’ll call the bank, but I guess it’s for the best as she mailed the check and found out the next day she lost her job and if we’d cashed the rent check she would be hard up.

Yeah. Sure.

Radio silence on paying even partial rent. No recourse for us. Courts only have emergency civil hearings right now and the governor froze evictions for the duration. The reading of the order, even if it’s last the end of the lease and she refuses to leave we can’t evict her.

I’ve got no doubt she lost her job and paying rent would be hard. She says she hasn’t gotten unemployment yet, but does have a job lead. She’s been nice and previously pretty forthcoming. So she’ll likely make good. But I am also quite sure her paying rent will be her absolute last priority as there are no consequences to not doing it right now. I guess we can charge her a late fee that she might never pay either (and my state limits the late fee to 5% or rent. Not per day or per week. 5% period).

So we lost 20% of our income. Which could be a heck of a lot worse. But most of our profit on the rental was paying down the principal. The rent basically covered the entire mortgage payment and the taxes on the profit. Maybe an extra $100 a month on top of that. But it’s not like paying down the principal helps me right now.

And it’s not a federally backed mortgage. So I cannot get forbearance without costing many hundreds if not thousands of dollars in extra interest.

We can scrape by with cutting our spending to the bone. Which helps with everything shut down and staying at home. We’ve got some savings too. But I fully expect in the end this will likely cost us thousands of dollars and she likely won’t ever be able to pay most of what she owes. And I am worried about the end of the lease. Which is 9 months off. But would YOU move out at the end of the lease if you didn’t have a job and could not be evicted?

So it could be tens of thousands of dollars this puts us in a hole depending on how long it lasts.

I might be overly worrying about it and she’ll get back to us (usually she responds in less than a day to texts. But it’s been 36hrs and nada) and can pay a half months rent. And will get unemployment or will get that job (she works in accounting) and can continue paying partial rent or even full rent again.

But I am not the most hopeful on the subject.

PS to be clear I want to work with her and I don’t and wouldn’t want to evict her even if we had the ability to. But we have absolutely zero leverage to get her to pay even a little rent. Which makes it more likely she won’t. Now eventually we might be able to take her to court in months to years if/when things improve. But she can also pretty easily discharge the debt in bankruptcy court. Which hurts her. But if I had $15-20k in back rent (or way more if she stays past the end of the lease) and it would take years to repay while trying to get back on my feet, I’d probably take the credit hit. So getting even 1/4 or 1/2 rent moving forward means we probably makes it a little more likely she might pay the balance eventually (because it isn’t such a huge amount later) and if she doesn’t, at least we got a bit of the rent due.

 

[numerobis]

Steven Miller's wife has tested positive?

My evil side sends hopes and prayers...

She's already married to Steven Miller, really nothing a virus can throw at her that's going to be any worse than what she's endured at this point.

I find it interesting how people automatically show sympathy to the spouses (commonly wives) of notorious douchebags. While there may be an issue of it being an abusive relationship that the spouse can't or won't flee, there may also be an issue that the spouse is every bit a vile and irredeemable person (see: Melania Trump the instant she wore that jacket). I figure it's even odds as to which way it may be, so don't even comment on the spouse. I read that Miller is also positive now (maybe caught it from his wife, maybe he actually gave it to her). It doesn't matter. Miller is the proven evil one, so there's the cosmic justice. My feelings toward his wife are no different than any other random stranger that has it.

She’s pretty young but has already been choosing to work for Republicans, which proves she’s an evil fuckwad. And she fell in love with Miller, of all people (they met at the White House).

 

[VelvetGlove]

“I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: This is going to go away without a vaccine,” Trump said. “It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.”

 

[numerobis]

Well, he has the stock market to worry about--gotta keep those investors... investing.

Unemployment at 14.7% and the stock market is up.

Remember the stock market is just a chart of rich people's feelings.

Actually, the market was expecting a report of 16% or higher. The report came in below expectations, so that gave stocks a boost; the anticipated bad news was already baked in.

So, this was actually a rational reaction to an irrational anticipation.

The height of the market with 16% unemployment makes me wonder about the rationality of the market.

Like I was suggesting, it's both rational and irrational. It has a strong, irrational tendency to overshoot its rational underpinnings.

Right now, there's been a slow rise off its low, but it's still somewhere around 15% below its peak. Some of that's due to it being oversold to begin with - lots of bargains to be had that were beat up without reason. I don't know how much more upside it has, though; there's another round of irrational exuberance winding itself up over pending reopenings, but news of whether this outbreak is left a long-lasting mark is still wanting.

As others have noted, part of this reopening frenzy is a desire to cut off unemployment benefits, which will wind up fucking over a lot of people. It'll probably also wind up depressing wages; if you HAVE to take your job back or lose your benefits, even if it means taking less than you made before, well, you're boned. So a possible outcome is a contraction of wages.

Or not. Maybe those folks are just off the rolls forever, leaving higher earners who can telework to flesh out the stats. But if the end result is a bunch of businesses going bankrupt because no one can buy their stuff, and a bunch of landlords going bankrupt because no one can pay rent and there's no one to sell to, then you've got a much more lasting wound to heal over.

I am the later. I’ve got a single property I rent. My first house I wasn’t able to sell for years because the market was terrible. Then realized I was making a small, but decent profit off it. So we kept it longer.

Tenant “mailed a rent check” that hasn’t shown up for May. Claims she did anyway. Also let us know a couple days ago she lost her job. Finally said “okay, well it’s more than a week late, can you cancel the check and pay electronically like you have, at least a partial payment. We don’t want to put you in a real hard place, but we have to pay the mortgage on the house”

Her response was she’ll call the bank, but I guess it’s for the best as she mailed the check and found out the next day she lost her job and if we’d cashed the rent check she would be hard up.

Yeah. Sure.

Radio silence on paying even partial rent. No recourse for us. Courts only have emergency civil hearings right now and the governor froze evictions for the duration. The reading of the order, even if it’s last the end of the lease and she refuses to leave we can’t evict her.

I’ve got no doubt she lost her job and paying rent would be hard. She says she hasn’t gotten unemployment yet, but does have a job lead. She’s been nice and previously pretty forthcoming. So she’ll likely make good. But I am also quite sure her paying rent will be her absolute last priority as there are no consequences to not doing it right now. I guess we can charge her a late fee that she might never pay either (and my state limits the late fee to 5% or rent. Not per day or per week. 5% period).

So we lost 20% of our income. Which could be a heck of a lot worse. But most of our profit on the rental was paying down the principal. The rent basically covered the entire mortgage payment and the taxes on the profit. Maybe an extra $100 a month on top of that. But it’s not like paying down the principal helps me right now.

And it’s not a federally backed mortgage. So I cannot get forbearance without costing many hundreds if not thousands of dollars in extra interest.

We can scrape by with cutting our spending to the bone. Which helps with everything shut down and staying at home. We’ve got some savings too. But I fully expect in the end this will likely cost us thousands of dollars and she likely won’t ever be able to pay most of what she owes. And I am worried about the end of the lease. Which is 9 months off. But would YOU move out at the end of the lease if you didn’t have a job and could not be evicted?

So it could be tens of thousands of dollars this puts us in a hole depending on how long it lasts.

I might be overly worrying about it and she’ll get back to us (usually she responds in less than a day to texts. But it’s been 36hrs and nada) and can pay a half months rent. And will get unemployment or will get that job (she works in accounting) and can continue paying partial rent or even full rent again.

But I am not the most hopeful on the subject.

PS to be clear I want to work with her and I don’t and wouldn’t want to evict her even if we had the ability to. But we have absolutely zero leverage to get her to pay even a little rent. Which makes it more likely she won’t. Now eventually we might be able to take her to court in months to years if/when things improve. But she can also pretty easily discharge the debt in bankruptcy court. Which hurts her. But if I had $15-20k in back rent (or way more if she stays past the end of the lease) and it would take years to repay while trying to get back on my feet, I’d probably take the credit hit. So getting even 1/4 or 1/2 rent moving forward means we probably makes it a little more likely she might pay the balance eventually (because it isn’t such a huge amount later) and if she doesn’t, at least we got a bit of the rent due.

Are the banks likely to be any help? If you can pay interest only for a few months, that would help with your loss of revenue.

This being the US they might not be able to having securitized the fuck out of the loan so any modification requires convincing an unknown number of creditors. But you might be able to ask.

 

[DarthSlack]

Because in 4 years Trump and Moscow Mitch will have so packed the courts with brain-dead toadies that any law benefiting someone not a Trump donor will be declared unconstitutional.

You know, in all this, I haven't seen anybody point this out: Aren't most of the Supreme Court Judges kinda old too? If Trump insists that the Supreme Court re-opens without any social distancing measure, he may end up killing all the work put into electing conservative judges, quite literally...

The Supreme Court never really closed and they're now doing hearing via teleconference. And, apparently, with at least one participant joining the proceedings from the comfort of The Porcelain Throne.

And I'll just do a quick aside to point out that those jokes just write themselves.

And from Trumpolini's perspective, he doesn't care if he kills off the Supremes. There's a long line of even worse justices who would quite gladly replace any casualties.

 

[SixDegrees]

Because in 4 years Trump and Moscow Mitch will have so packed the courts with brain-dead toadies that any law benefiting someone not a Trump donor will be declared unconstitutional.

You know, in all this, I haven't seen anybody point this out: Aren't most of the Supreme Court Judges kinda old too? If Trump insists that the Supreme Court re-opens without any social distancing measure, he may end up killing all the work put into electing conservative judges, quite literally...

The Supreme Court never really closed and they're now doing hearing via teleconference. And, apparently, with at least one participant joining the proceedings from the comfort of The Porcelain Throne.

And I'll just do a quick aside to point out that those jokes just write themselves.

And from Trumpolini's perspective, he doesn't care if he kills off the Supremes. There's a long line of even worse justices who would quite gladly replace any casualties.

In fairness, that flush could have also come from one of the representing attorneys.

Or from some anonymous Zoom! participant.

 

[Seno]

“I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: This is going to go away without a vaccine,” Trump said. “It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.”

Well it worked with smallpox, rinderpest and mostly with polio, after all they all just went away with no medical intervention - hang on, I might be getting confused...

 

[VelvetGlove]

“I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: This is going to go away without a vaccine,” Trump said. “It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.”

Well it worked with smallpox, rinderpest and mostly with polio, after all they all just went away with no medical intervention - hang on, I might be getting confused...

Do you think he's an antivaxxer? The above quote is making me worry. Because I wasn't worried before.

 

[SixDegrees]

“I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests: This is going to go away without a vaccine,” Trump said. “It’s going to go away, and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time.”

Well it worked with smallpox, rinderpest and mostly with polio, after all they all just went away with no medical intervention - hang on, I might be getting confused...

Do you think he's an antivaxxer? The above quote is making me worry. Because I wasn't worried before.

Trump has never met a conspiracy theory he didn't latch onto like a fly on a turd. He gave tacit support to anti-vaxxers during the 2016 campaign, but seem to be leaning into more full-throated collusion these days.

Also, the anti-vax and gun-nutter movements are intertwining, as a recent Guardian article noted.

Trump is becoming the president of Crazytown.

 

[darwinosx]

This is like a poorly written science fiction movie. The fallout from the likely wave of infections to come from opening up prematurely (and from people not taking it seriously) is going to make what's happened already look tame.
The only positive I can think of is that the worse things go, the less likely Trump will get reelected.

Could not agree more. If someone had told me when Trump got elected that he would lead this country into financial ruin and thousands dead because of self interest and incompetence I would have totally believed them

 

[graylshaped]

You know, in all this, I haven't seen anybody point this out: Aren't most of the Supreme Court Judges kinda old too? If Trump insists that the Supreme Court re-opens without any social distancing measure, he may end up killing all the work put into electing conservative judges, quite literally...

In fairness, that flush could have also come from one of the representing attorneys.

Or from some anonymous Zoom! participant.

We all know it was Clarence Thomas. He really doesn't care about what people think of him. Which is a good thing for him, so he can sleep at night. Not so good for the rest of us.

 

[Ozy]

This is like a poorly written science fiction movie. The fallout from the likely wave of infections to come from opening up prematurely (and from people not taking it seriously) is going to make what's happened already look tame.
The only positive I can think of is that the worse things go, the less likely Trump will get reelected.

Could not agree more. If someone had told me when Trump got elected that he would lead this country into financial ruin and thousands dead because of self interest and incompetence I would have totally believed them

Yeah, occasionally I see posts like "Nobody could have predicted Trump would have been THIS bad." And I'm like, Dude, yeah, people were saying this for weeks and months leading up to the election. But for some people, that was a feature, not a flaw of electing him in the first place. Fucking 8chan 'burn it all down' nihilists.

The only hope for our country was 4 years of no off-normal events, because ANY 3 am call was going to turn into a shitshow of incompetence.

 

[alpha 60]

1. Trump has an idea - a stupid idea.
2. Trump & Co. packages idea with Freedom, States Rights, Guns, or just Making America Great!
3. 42% of Americans support wildly.

We have a problem!

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[Ozy]

I give even odds that Biden doesn’t make it to Election Day, either health, sex allegations, or a rising candidate. Maybe Cuomo or somebody else.

I'll take those odds. How do you suggest we set up the bet? What's your stake?

 

[jazzylarry]

I'm 61 and have been somewhat politically aware for a bit more than three decades.

Can someone older than me speak to how our current White House leadership compares to others in years past. Has it EVER been this feckless?

No snark intended.

Here's a list of the US Presidents. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... ted_States
Every Republican President from Grant to Coolidge was damn close to useless. Hoover was a good guy and a hell of an engineer, but way out of his depth as President. More recently of course, we have W. It's saying a lot when someone can make W look smart.

Edit: oops, forgot Teddy was Republican.

Teddy would be an exteme left wing Democratic today. National Parks? You're taking away "my" land!!!!