The Trump Presidency: Part 20

[Stacyhs]

Absentee Ballots are a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military, and others who can’t get to the polls on Election Day. These ballots are very different from 100% Mail-In Voting, which is “RIPE for FRAUD,” and shouldn’t be allowed!

This morning, 450,000 protective suits landed in Dallas, Texas. This was made possible because of the partnership of two great American companies—DuPont and FedEx—and our friends in Vietnam. Thank you! @DuPont_News @FedEx

I assume this was a Trump Tweet.

That mail in voting is 'ripe for fraud' is a lie. He doesn't want it because it favors Democrats. He said he would be a transparent president and he wasn't lying in this one instance: his motive for not wanting mail in voting is quite transparent.

 

[Aridas]

Trump Tweets

Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner!
Quote Tweet

Cory Gardner
@SenCoryGardner
.@RealDonaldTrump has approved National Guard assistance in Colorado in response to #COVID19, following the request of members of the Colorado congressional delegation. The @CONG1860 will now able to be used by the @GovofCO for state COVID-19 response efforts.

Colorado had requested 10,000. Instead, the Trump Administration swooped in and basically stole 500 ventilators that they were about to close a deal for from them.

Trump, blatantly engaging in partisan politics with American lives on the line. Sadly, that's the norm, not the exception. It may as well be time to say it. Republicans are officially treating Democrats as illegitimate. Systemically.

He is correct on on thing. When most people are allowed to vote, it doesn't work out well for Republicans.

Hence why so many Strong in the Dark Triad Republicans commit so much evil related to voting.

Well, like they would really devote much time to that - there will always be a justification. God maybe has especially blessed Florida postal votes or whatever. It will not matter. The best we can hope is that the remaining empirically based Republicans will jump the ship. The deplorable (a total understament) majority simply will not: facts don't register with them.

Mmm. I wouldn't go that far. Facts not registering is frequently unreasonably charitable to say for those that actually count as deplorable.

Again, he said, "I think mail-in voting is horrible, it's corrupt."

And he did it.

What's your point? He's long since established that he's extremely horrible and extremely corrupt to anyone who objectively looks at the facts, after all.

Trump Tweets

Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister
@NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!

The decision to feed Trump's probably wrong drug pronouncements?

Wow.

Evil, in very blatant form.

To those "Bernie people"-

If you ever want to see (for example) universal health care coverage (or at least within your lifetimes)- no, you really shouldn't. Will you get it under Biden? No, most likely not; but you might at least get a reasonable approach to it. With the Republicans, especially under Trump, what you will get is at least two (possibly more) Supreme Court justices who will, when you do finally get someone like Bernie down the road who tries to implement some sort of UHC, join the Kavanaugh-led majority to throw it out; those guys are there for life, and Trump will certainly pick judges who will be young enough that that will mean your lives as well.

So, there you go, it's your choice. You can throw a tantrum and piss away your own ideals, or you can grow up a little and realize that you can't always get what you want right when you want it. I mean, surely you're not under any illusion that Trump will deliver on Bernie's promises, are you? The man won't even deliver on his own.

I'm... not quite going to hop on the bandwagon here. Instead, I think that this is somewhat annoying preaching to the choir. While Bernie supporters are less likely to vote blue no matter who than Warren and Biden supporters, the overwhelming majority have made it pretty clear that they'll be voting blue no matter who, even if Biden is an unpleasant choice (an opinion that I share, for the record). It's also worth noting that some of those Bernie people are officially Republicans anyways. So, with that in mind, I think that it's worth pointing out that, unqualified as this is, it's more likely to do more to drive a wedge than it does to help unite.

Only a true conservatroll would ever use the term Trump Derangement Syndrome unironically.

Hatred of a treasonous, bigoted, bullying criminal is an entirely RATIONAL response.

Mmm. It sounds like you and a few others weren't quite reading for comprehension, in my opinion. To me, that read as a bit snarky, though. To sum it up, "Only people with TDS can offer reasonable disagreement to things that Trump does" or, to put it in different words, "TDS is used inanely all the time as Republicans try to dismiss reasonable criticism."

Election fraud in the US is nearly all done on the counting side, not the voter side.

Fair enough, much as that is generally known as electoral fraud, not voter fraud. People frequently mix up the two and I was directly addressing the voter side of things (which is the side that is actually relevant when doing comparisons of in-person vs mail-in), as I recall.

What I find amazing is that, even when doing something "right", he manages to find a way to screw it up.

Commandeering every ventilator in storage, and all new production that is in the pipeline, is something that the Federal government should be doing. They should have done it months ago, in fact. Then they could be distributed to the various states or cities according to need, based on some kind of objective criteria.

But that's not what Trump did, of course. He went out and encouraged the states to bid against each other, scrambling to each find their own source of supplies, and then went and starting confiscating **** anyways.
So now the states have no idea where anything is, when anything might arrive where it's needed, and how much of it to expect. Not only can't they rely on the Federal plans, they can't even rely on their own plans anymore, because you never know when Trump will waltz in and take everything.

It's the perfect storm of stupid, even though it has a thin veneer of reasonableness smeared on it.

Shades of how Hitler ran Germany. Chaos that favored the worst people doing the worst things. With that said, I think that you are messing up just a little with regards to the highlighted. While Trump did encourage the states to bid against each other, the federal government had already been swiping contracts away at least from blue states. What was it... at least 3 from Massachusetts, for example? Can't really tell for red states because they'd fairly certainly cover up for Trump and be less likely to have been taking things seriously in the first place. Outright confiscating already paid for supplies heading for blue states came later. There's important differences between swiping contracts and outright confiscation, either way. The Colorado ventilators was swiped contract, rather than confiscation.

Trump tweeted “Will be immediately sending 100 Ventilators to Colorado at the request of Senator Gardner!”

The only reason he tweets about this is to make himself look magnanimous as if it's some kind of charity he's doling out to a lowly underling. There really is no reason to be bragging about doing his job. That's what the stockpile is for.

Only? There's the whole trying to prop up the increasingly likely to lose Cory Gardner's bid for re-election.

 

[TrumanHW]

Is this the "Hate Trump" department or both haters and Trumpianites..?

Is there a thread which focuses on objective analysis..? Where people's personal sentiments for him are at minimum suppressed..?


I've never particularly liked DJT. Always found him annoying & RIDICULOUS for someone who's not great at business to act like the benchmark.


But I WANT him to do well, and I'd like to see criticism of him that is equivalent to that of the previous presidents, irrespective their party.


I've grown to find him funnier than I expected...
I LOVE how he trolls certain certain people / groups.

His opponents are SO irrational that it's been easy for him to do things that're 'common sense' ...


Yet, no matter what he does, the media first operates off the premise that Trump's omniscient ... and even though they also presume him to be perfectly incompetent and malevolent.

For all the reasonable things there have been to criticize him over, they've made so many things up, and then assumed the most absurd claims that...before I can criticize him, I first have to argue the absurdity of the aforementioned allegations.


And basically, whoever Trump would've nominated as a SCOTUS pick, would be presumed to have raped & gang banged women he drugged.


Through all of this, the media has exposed a level of bias that is SO severe as to cause me to rethink every time they were accused of bias before.

For example, TEEEEENS did it... If there's black-on-white violence, first, don't cover it. If you cover it, don't acknowledge the race of the perps. If you do acknowledge it, it wasn't their fault; the other person was racist, so they deserved to be murdered. And even still, omit any pronouns or other indices that would expose the disgusting statistics:

Of 593,000 interracial violent felonies between blacks & whites
535,000 of them were blacks attacking whites ...

and that's doesn't factor the relative population sizes: That blacks account for only 13% of the US population vs. 65% which are whites. A ratio of exactly 500%.

So not only do they commit 91% of the interracial violence ...


1 in 80 blacks will commit a violent interracial felony against whites.

1 in 3600 whites will commit a violent interracial felony against blacks.


This is all part of the same political and ideological agenda and viewpoint from which they seek to indoctrinate the population of the US.

In FACT, I'd say the manner in which the MSM suggests whites are victimizing blacks and downplaying the facts that blacks are attacking whites... may even contribute to some feeling animus and justified in their victimization.

Although, if you asked blacks ... hey man, do you think a white guy would rob you or mess with you..? They'd reliably dismiss that as RIDICULOUS, IMPOSSIBLE, and contrary to reality.

These are all part of the same subject. The agenda and politics of the extreme left ... who controls 9/10ths of news, media, the universities, and now technology.

YET, the overt efforts has red-pilled many people ... myself included.

 

[Delphic Oracle]

Is there a thread which focuses on objective analysis..? Where people's personal sentiments for him are at minimum suppressed..?


I've never particularly liked DJT. Always found him annoying & RIDICULOUS for someone who's not great at business to act like the benchmark.


But I WANT him to do well, and I'd like to see criticism of him that is equivalent to that of the previous presidents, irrespective their party.


I've grown to find him funnier than I expected...
I LOVE how he trolls certain certain people / groups.

His opponents are SO irrational that it's been easy for him to do things that're 'common sense' ...


Yet, no matter what he does, the media first operates off the premise that Trump's omniscient ... and even though they also presume him to be perfectly incompetent and malevolent.

For all the reasonable things there have been to criticize him over, they've made so many things up, and then assumed the most absurd claims that...before I can criticize him, I first have to argue the absurdity of the aforementioned allegations.


And basically, whoever Trump would've nominated as a SCOTUS pick, would be presumed to have raped & gang banged women he drugged.


Through all of this, the media has exposed a level of bias that is SO severe as to cause me to rethink every time they were accused of bias before.

For example, TEEEEENS did it... If there's black-on-white violence, first, don't cover it. If you cover it, don't acknowledge the race of the perps. If you do acknowledge it, it wasn't their fault; the other person was racist, so they deserved to be murdered. And even still, omit any pronouns or other indices that would expose the disgusting statistics:

Of 593,000 interracial violent felonies between blacks & whites
535,000 of them were blacks attacking whites ...

and that's doesn't factor the relative population sizes: That blacks account for only 13% of the US population vs. 65% which are whites. A ratio of exactly 500%.

So not only do they commit 91% of the interracial violence ...


1 in 80 blacks will commit a violent interracial felony against whites.

1 in 3600 whites will commit a violent interracial felony against blacks.


This is all part of the same political and ideological agenda and viewpoint from which they seek to indoctrinate the population of the US.

In FACT, I'd say the manner in which the MSM suggests whites are victimizing blacks and downplaying the facts that blacks are attacking whites... may even contribute to some feeling animus and justified in their victimization.

Although, if you asked blacks ... hey man, do you think a white guy would rob you or mess with you..? They'd reliably dismiss that as RIDICULOUS, IMPOSSIBLE, and contrary to reality.

These are all part of the same subject. The agenda and politics of the extreme left ... who controls 9/10ths of news, media, the universities, and now technology.

YET, the overt efforts has red-pilled many people ... myself included.

Go back to Stormfront or whatever cesspit you crawled out of.

 

[Aridas]

YET, the overt efforts has red-pilled many people ... myself included.

Too bad it's actually a blue pill that you had, then, as you indulge in fantasy. I'm sure it makes you proud to believe that it was actually a red pill that you had, though.

Alright, alright. I'll poke at some of the things that make me think that more directly.

But I WANT him to do well,

Honestly? Just about all of the people here wish he actually was a good President, too, and was doing an objectively good job. I certainly do. It's BECAUSE he's not that he's continued getting new criticism after new criticism. Personally, I'm happy to offer him praise, too, when he actually objectively deserves it. I find it very unpleasant how rare that is.

and I'd like to see criticism of him that is equivalent to that of the previous presidents, irrespective their party.

Here's where your opinion really seems start to fall apart, though. "Equivalent." I'm firmly in favor of applying reasonably objective standards to evaluate actions, regardless of the doer. That will pretty much mean that no President will have "equivalent" levels of criticism, though. Especially when it comes to a guy like Trump, who was selected in fair part because of a wave of "Burn the system/party down" sentiments in the Republican Party.

Honestly, Trump been getting off remarkably easy, objectively speaking, when it comes to coverage. Don't believe me? What other President has really obviously engaged in numerous acts of fraud, tax and otherwise? What other President has quite the history of being caught committing perjury in courtrooms?

Trump is not getting equivalent treatment, it's true. He's getting off easy, in fair part because there's just too much to really focus on.

For all the reasonable things there have been to criticize him over, they've made so many things up, and then assumed the most absurd claims that...before I can criticize him, I first have to argue the absurdity of the aforementioned allegations.

Name a few things that you think that they've made up?

And basically, whoever Trump would've nominated as a SCOTUS pick, would be presumed to have raped & gang banged women he drugged.

Lots of that with Gorsuch, eh?

Just as seriously, though... that claim is utter and complete BS, and not just because Gorsuch serves as an example to prove it to be totally wrong. There's a Kavanaugh thread, though, if you actually have any desire to delve further into that.

As for the race stuff? Try not to drink white supremacist propaganda too uncritically. They tend to be more than happy to just... ignore quite a lot of things that are very relevant and important to consider - including on the nature of much of the coverage.

There's a LOT more in that discussion, though, than can be reasonably gone over without being wildly OOC for this thread, but I can safely sum it up with the statement that you're pretty clearly off-track, to be kind.

Finally, though...

These are all part of the same subject. The agenda and politics of the extreme left ... who controls 9/10ths of news, media, the universities, and now technology.

Try not to drink too much deceitful far-right propaganda. The MSM, currently, is actually generally at least slight-right, objectively speaking. That should also be pretty obvious, though, given that too much of it is corporate-run and largely focused on profits, with the understanding that accuracy is nearly a requirement for continued ratings and profits (unlike right-wing media, where truth and accuracy are frequently superfluous and the actual draws tend to have much, much more to do with emotional satisfaction and bias-confirmation). It's also well worth pointing out that given the nature of their business model, they frequently give voice and at least tacit support to right-wing propagandists, while actual left-wing voices (especially ones that are fundamentally challenging profits for stockholders over all business models) tend to be ignored as much as possible.

Calling the media far-left has been a go to dismissal pretty much every time that a Republican politician is caught red-handed, either way. We could delve deeper into universities and technology, but that's enough for now.

 

[Pixel42]

Fox News and talk radio, which appear to be the main sources of information for a worryingly high percentage of US citizens, are certainly not controlled by the "extreme left".

More importantly, a news source which factually reports exactly what someone is doing is not biased. The only reason such sources tend to produce negative coverage of Trump is because what Trump is doing is so disgusting.

 

[Aridas]

Anyways, to poke at a few things for this round of poking...

CDC considering relaxing guidelines for those most likely to spread COVID-19

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now taken down language that pushed doctors to prescribe an unproven drug after a chorus of complaints from health professionals, and warnings that they were causing active harm. But that doesn’t seem to mean that the CDC under Trump worshiper Robert Redfield is ready to grow up and act like the CDC. Instead, it seems prepared to start spreading language much more harmful than just pushing a drug that makes money for Trump.

Multiple sources are reporting that the CDC is looking at language that will relax guidelines for those who know they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. The new proposal would encourage people to return to work so long as they are asymptomatic—which means that the CDC is directly encouraging the behavior responsible for 80% of all cases of COVID-19.

For those who want a better standard for where the benchmark for the COVID-19 Death count should be right now, rather than Trump's very belated and possibly intentionally inflated version, here's some calculations in relation to South Korea, given that South Korea is actually a great point of comparison, being a 1st world country that had their first confirmed case on the same day as the US. To skip to the end, though...

The Trump Coronavirus Death Count is the excess number of US #Covid19 deaths beyond what would be expected from a strong response like South Korea's. Since the US has suffered 14,736 deaths so far, the Trump Coronavirus Death Count for April 9 (UT) is: 13,462 unnecessary deaths.

Now that South Korea has effectively contained the epidemic, those who wish to adopt a simpler calculation can simply subtract 1274 (or 1300) from the total US #Covid19 deaths to get their updated Trump Coronavirus Death Count over the days and weeks to come.

To poke elsewhere...

Republican congressional candidate releases ad saying you need AR-15 to cope with COVID-19

Why? Well... to protect yourself from looting hordes from Atlanta, obviously. *facepalm*

Kansas Republicans, on the other hand, fought back against Democrats limiting church gatherings - limits that were put forth in response to several church meetings causing COVID-19 hotspots.

Also, if you're interested...

America last: Rep. Porter has receipts showing Trump chose a quick buck over American lives

Rep. Katie Porter has been all business since being elected to office. Today, Rep. Porter released a report showing that in spite of growing concerns and warnings about the potential oncoming pandemic threat of the COVID-19 virus from top officials and experts, Donald Trump not only did nothing about it, he allowed ramped up exportation of much-needed medical supplies. The report, titled “EVERYONE BUT US,” charges Donald Trump with misapplying and mismanaging our nation’s medical supplies in the months leading up to our current crisis.

<snip>

But while Trump’s incompetence and criminal negligence has been well covered, Porter’s team has analyzed “previously unreported government trade data” that paints an even darker picture of how complicit in our country’s misery Donald Trump is. According to the report, the United States was not simply ill-prepared for the coming pandemic—they were actively making big money depleting our medical resources, making us even less prepared: “The value of U.S. ventilator exports jumped 22.7% percent from January to February.”

And it wasn’t only ventilators. Porter says her team “found that in February 2020, the value of U.S. mask exports to China was 1,094% higher than the 2019 monthly average.” Think about that every time you read a pick-me-up story of some designer creating PPE masks for ER staff, or some grade-school kid donating their mask. And to be clear, during this same time the U.S. imported fewer PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as fewer ventilators.

And... Trump and too much of the current Republican leadership in a nutshell there. Short term profits are valued above long-term planning and management.

 

[Ladewig]

These are all part of the same subject. The agenda and politics of the extreme left ... who controls 9/10ths of news, media, the universities, and now technology.

YET, the overt efforts has red-pilled many people ... myself included.

So the extreme left controls 9/10 of the media.
I’ll seriously consider that assertion the day I read a newspaper article about contract negotiations that describes management demands and union concessions.

Extreme left? Would you give some examples of politicians or news outlets that are moderate left? Or even just left-leaning?

Lastly, the guy drew a line on a weather map rather than admit he made a tiny mistake by reading an outdated weather warning. How bat-**** crazy is that?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

For all the reasonable things there have been to criticize him over, they've made so many things up...

Please, give us a list.

 

[timhau]

Is there a thread which focuses on objective analysis..? Where people's personal sentiments for him are at minimum suppressed..?

This is the 2020 version of "I'm not a truther, but can't we discuss the 9-11 Official Story objectively here?"

 

[SezMe]

Can I please make a general request that people fill in the location in their profile with at least the name of their country? It's always been useful information, if only to tell you what time zone they're in so you know you might have to wait for the answer to a question you just asked them, but at the moment it's absence is actually very annoying. A poster says what's happening "here", you look across to see where they are, and they haven't bothered to tell you! I know there are fewer posters than there used to be, but there are still enough to make it impossible to keep track of where everyone lives from memory alone.

Pretty please?

Hear! Hear!

I share the same frustration. I hope everyone gives at least some indication of where they live. It doesn't have to be GPS coordinates.

 

[SezMe]

<snip>
Virologist #1: Forget masks, his fly was undone.

Lab Manager: Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

This is the 2020 version of "I'm not a truther, but can't we discuss the 9-11 Official Story objectively here?"

"I was a skeptic just like you, but..."

 

[Planigale]

To poke elsewhere...

Republican congressional candidate releases ad saying you need AR-15 to cope with COVID-19

Why? Well... to protect yourself from looting hordes from Atlanta, obviously. *facepalm*

I find it hard as a non-USian to believe this is not a spoof. Given the major issues facing the US for the rest of the world the continued obsession with gun violence is amazing.

But what is meant by,
"You see, Marxists know that Americans will never submit to socialism and place government on the throne of our hearts without a big fight."
Do people in America still believe in 'Reds under the Bed'? What is 'the throne of our hearts'?

Finally what is he shooting at?

 

[Garrison]

Hear! Hear!

I share the same frustration. I hope everyone gives at least some indication of where they live. It doesn't have to be GPS coordinates.

Just realized I hadn't done that, so I updated my profile.

As to criticism of Trump, what I find so incredibly frustrating is that so much of the news media does not hold him to account. As an example over the last few days he has been endlessly retconning his original response to Covid-19 and yet the media have been all but useless in pinning him down on his lies. I really wish he was being held to same exacting standards as his predecessor, when wearing a tan suit, putting French mustard on a burger, or failing to wear a flag pin were national scandals according to certain outlets.

 

[Mumbles]

Go back to Stormfront or whatever cesspit you crawled out of.

The whole "blck on white crime is never reported!" thing is a hell of a tell - studies show that black criminals are shown more, and described in far more menacing terms - and many of us noted that this also applies often enough to black *victims* of crime - than white perpetrators (He was quiet and loved his dog Fluffy), but stating the opposite outright...well, combine it with poorly-applied Matrix references and the like, and yep.

 

[Aridas]

I find it hard as a non-USian to believe this is not a spoof.

I wish I could share that sentiment.

Given the major issues facing the US for the rest of the world the continued obsession with gun violence is amazing.

There's... lots of story that can be told about how we got to where we are, little of it that actually signals a bright future. As long as the right-wing and anti-government people find it useful to fearmonger like crazy, though, a lot of people will keep buying guns for "protection" and just in case the anti-government folk do get their wish.

But what is meant by,
"You see, Marxists know that Americans will never submit to socialism and place government on the throne of our hearts without a big fight."
Do people in America still believe in 'Reds under the Bed'? What is 'the throne of our hearts'?

Given that Republicans have made it one of their overarching political strategies to intentionally conflate Democratic Socialism (see Denmark) with, for example, Cambodian genocide, what do you think?

As for throne of our hearts, I can't say with absolute certainty, given that I don't know the guy, but it sounds like a play on a Christian theme. ""God" is the one who should be sitting on the throne of our heart, not socialism!" That's how it comes across to me.

Finally what is he shooting at?

By the look of it, trees and grass. Because he clearly wants to show how tough he is as he shoots that gun.

To poke at something else, though...

Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears

Some will close Friday, then, while others will transition to state control.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Trump says he can’t wait for “gorgeous, beautiful Easter” and suggests we spend our coronavirus downtime getting right with God.

You first, ********.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Donald Trump paused his efforts around the growing coronavirus crisis to sign an executive order clearing the path for US to mine the moon for resources.

According to documents released by the White House, the order rejects the 1979 global agreement known as the Moon Treaty which says any activity in space should conform with international law.

"Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space," the order states.

https://news.sky.com/story/trump-ta...o-sign-order-for-us-to-mine-the-moon-11970665

 

[Horatius]

Donald Trump paused his efforts around the growing coronavirus crisis to sign an executive order clearing the path for US to mine the moon for resources.



https://news.sky.com/story/trump-ta...o-sign-order-for-us-to-mine-the-moon-11970665

Another good example of him screwing up the "right" thing to do. There's been a lot of arguments over the last few decades about how to exploit resources in space, and who would own them. There are legitimate reasons to oppose some parts of the various treaties that were signed decades ago.

But then they go and say this:

"Outer space is a legally and physically unique domain of human activity, and the United States does not view it as a global commons."

Does this mean that the US can arbitrarily decide who gets to use space, any part of space? If they want, say, a particular orbital slot for a satellite, are they allowed to just shoot down any other satellites using that spot?

While there are problems with the existing treaties, unilaterally rejecting all of the treaties is just as stupid. Will he reject the Law of the Sea next?