The Trump Presidency: Part 20

[Silly Green Monkey]

Wish the press would just boycott these briefings.

I think that would be a mistake. Those of us who know the breadth of our president's knowledge may not enjoy hearing further examples, but there are some who still need to be convinced. The more idiotic statements the better, and in everybody's ears so no one can ignore him.

 

[Aridas]

We need to keep reminding people that voting is like doing a group project in school: You know half h your team are lazy ***** who won't do the work, so if you don't do it, it doesn't get done.





Oh, god, please tell me this is part of your shtick.


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/wa...nemy-during-long-winded-coronavirus-briefing/


Well, ****.

Mmm. For bonus points...

"Staying at home leads to death also. And it's very traumatic for this country. Staying at home, if you look at numbers, that leads to a different kind of death, perhaps, but it leads to death also."

Err... yes? There's fairly certain to be death related to the economic losses of the country. Economic damage that is already many times worse than it would have been had there actually been even a mildly competent response from the start, instead of the overt and broad sabotaging of the US' ability to respond. Economic damage that's going to be exacerbated even more in the long-run if Trump tries to do his usual short-term gratification at cost to the long-term.

There are times when I read one of these "Trump said this today...." quotes, and for a while I would go look it up because my first thought was, "That's too stupid. It had to be taken out of context."

I've learned. I won't bother verifying that it happened just like you described it.

I've been at that point for a while... and it's very lamentable, honestly.

I'm not sure why a reporter would even bother asking what metrics he would use to open up the country.

If I understand the situation correctly... this would have been right after Trump declared that he had "absolute authority" to open up the country. Related to that... CNN reports that Trump is "preparing to announce" a second coronavirus task force, this one devoted to "reopening the nation's economy." Who's in it? A bunch of sycophants and no medical personnel.

Incidentally, to poke at the death counts...

More than 2,200 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, but federal government isn't tracking them
The numbers are likely a significant undercount, given the limited access to testing and other constraints, state officials and public health experts say.

Trump likes the numbers low, eh?

And... New FDNY records indicate New York City is vastly undercounting its COVID-19 deaths

The data show that starting on March 16, the fire department began to experience a huge surge in so-called “cardiac calls,” which fire officials see as a sign of the “stark” change due to the pandemic.

“A year ago – same time frame – we were seeing an average of 54-74 cardiac arrest calls per day, with 22-32 deaths,” the Fire Department said in a statement. “Now, in this pandemic, we are seeing more than 300 cardiac arrest calls each day, with well over 200 people dying each day.

These are regarded as “excess” deaths because COVID-19 infection is not officially recorded as the cause of death, since there was never a diagnosis. The exact number of such deaths is therefore unknown.

The available tests, of course, are correctly being used on the living, but ugh. Hopefully, the numbers won't be like the official Puerto Rico numbers that were farcically wrong.


To take a poke back at the usual Trump Administration BS, though...

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Trump administration wasted nearly $70 million over a period of five months to jail fewer than 70 people at a tent city in Tornillo, Texas last year, including shelling out over $5 million for hundreds of thousands of meals that were never actually ordered because there were no detainees. We know mass detention has always been cruel and unnecessary—and as the report also shows, a complete waste of your money and mine.

Absurdly massive government waste, as usual.

 

[Bob001]

I'm not sure why a reporter would even bother asking what metrics he would use to open up the country. As far as I can tell, the country is not Trump's to open up. The NCAA and pro sports leagues probably did more to affect the course of events than Trump ever could have.
.....

What's significant is not the question, but the answer: In this case, Trump claims/fantasizes he has the power to overrule state governors and local officials about shutdowns. Trump's rants reveal himself even more clearly to people who maybe have not watched one of his lengthy rallies, and he is providing buckets of fodder for campaign commercials in the fall. Imagine how the voters of Michigan will respond when they're reminded that he wouldn't call the governor of Michigan to offer emergency assistance because she wasn't nice enough to him, or that he only shipped 100 ventilators to Colorado --- and only then as a favor to the Repub senator -- instead of the 10,000 the Democratic governor requested. Repub leaders are begging him to shut the eff up, but he loves his ratings. I say keep talking.

 

[Norman Alexander]

REPORTER: What metrics will you use to decide when to reopen [the country]?

TRUMP: "The metrics right here." [Trump points to his head]

“That’s my metrics…I didn’t think of it until yesterday I said ‘You know this is a big decision'…Without question it’s the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make."​

We are so ******.
He didn’t think of it until yesterday?!

....
ETA
If he were culturally literate and if he were a quick thinker, he could have said, “What are my metrics, **** you, that’s my metrics.”

Maybe Trump was thinking that the USA is not a metric country. None of that kilograms per hour or cubic milligrams for him. No, that crap is only for leftist Europeans!

 

[Cain]

I dunno why everyone's freakin' out. We're in safe hands. BIG, safe hands. The best hands.

 

[Darat]

I dunno why everyone's freakin' out. We're in safe hands. BIG, safe hands. The best hands.

The biggest hands ever, and I’ll send you photos of my hands until the day I die.

 

[shemp]

Trump Overturns Presidential Limo While Touting Effectiveness Of PCP To Treat Coronavirus

 

[newyorkguy]

Trump Overturns Presidential Limo While Touting Effectiveness Of PCP To Treat Coronavirus

Hilarious. Witnesses say the president seemed to have the strength of ten men!

News anchor: "The president is reported to be resting comfortably at the Walter Reed Medical Center." [Turns page] "In other news..."

 

[Horatius]

Expanding on the "metrics" issue, I know I, for one, have been hoping to hear just that. I've expressed it differently, but I've been hoping to hear what his plan really is. Ease restrictions when the number of new cases is down to X per day, and our testing capability is up to Y, either as an absolute number or per day. That's what I think he ought to be saying.

Well, today, he confirmed that we will never hear that, because he just makes it up as he goes along. He goes with his feels.

That's really bad.

And the really sad part is, it's not even that hard to come up with a plan. Some people have already done that, see this article from a couple of weeks ago:

https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/what-does-the-covid-19-endgame-look-like-five-simple-steps/

They provide a 5-step plan for re-opening society in the absence of a working vaccine, and any government could just copy that if they wanted to.


The real problem isn't coming up with the plan, it's implementing the plan, because that would require actual work on the part of the government, and we all know that to Trump, work is something he leaves to other people.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump: "People can't even believe the job we've done."

first true thing he's said in weeks.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Retweeted

The White House
@WhiteHouse
This Sunday, millions of Christians will celebrate Easter.
"At this holy time, we pray that God will heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken and bless our heroes."

 

[Garrison]

Trump Retweeted

The White House
@WhiteHouse
This Sunday, millions of Christians will celebrate Easter.
"At this holy time, we pray that God will heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken and bless our heroes."

God better, because its painfully obvious the Trump White House will do bugger all to help.

 

[Ladewig]

He covering in her roof the briefing, which is now up, but here is the meat of it.

Q What authority do you have to reopen right now? The same way that it’s up to the states to shut it down, it’s up to them to reopen. What authority do you have?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I have — I have great authority if I want to use it. I would rather have the states use it. I would rather —

Q What does that look like?

THE PRESIDENT: And this is so shocking for me. A lot of people are saying, “Wow, he’s really very reasoned, isn’t he?” A lot of people are shocked. They think I do a — I have absolute authority to use it. But, so far, our relationship with governors and the job they’re doing, I haven’t had to do it. Would I do it if I saw a state that was out of control and they didn’t have the stay-at-home policy? I would do it in a heartbeat.

I couldn’t be in that room. I’d go nut. Start screaming “Stop it. Stop making stuff. You don’t have that power. The Constitution does not grant you that power. You have no idea what the duties and the limits of the presidency are.”

 

[Darat]

Trump Retweeted

The White House
@WhiteHouse
This Sunday, millions of Christians will celebrate Easter.
"At this holy time, we pray that God will heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken and bless our heroes."

Phew, glad that’s all sorted then.

 

[Babbylonian]

I couldn’t be in that room. I’d go nut. Start screaming “Stop it. Stop making stuff. You don’t have that power. The Constitution does not grant you that power. You have no idea what the duties and the limits of the presidency are.”

Even worse, he can't even keep his own ******* nonsense straight. It's clear that the main reason he lashes out at reporters is that, since he's too lazy to actually learn the facts and have media/PR professionals prep him for press conferences, he is incapable of answering even simple questions.

For example: "While it's true that I don't have the direct power to order the reopening of businesses, I have the most experienced, best qualified experts advising me and I can in turn advise the governors of what the experts suggest and make recommendations based on the available information."

It's so ******* easy.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump tweets

“I think the situation is unprecedented, and there is no question about that. It’s whiplash! The economy was moving forward at a rapid pace in terms of growth, jobs and even wage increases, and all of a sudden the pandemic hit and the....

....economy was shuttered. This is unprecedented, it is unsettling and challenging but, we will rise to meet the occasion.” MACK MCLARTY, Clinton White House Chief of Staff. @LelandVittert @FoxNews Thank you Mack. We will be bigger, better and stronger than ever before!

 

[Andy_Ross]

Trump Tweets

When the Failing @nytimes or Amazon @washingtonpost writes a story saying “unnamed sources said”, or any such phrase where a person’s name is not used, don’t believe them. Most of these unnamed sources don’t exist. They are made up to defame & disparage. They have no “source”...

....Does anyone ever notice how few quotes from an actual person are given nowadays by the Lamestream Media. Very seldom. The unnamed or anonymous sources are almost always FAKE NEWS.

WE WILL BUILD IT AGAIN!

 

[Stacyhs]

He covering in her roof the briefing, which is now up, but here is the meat of it.



I couldn’t be in that room. I’d go nut. Start screaming “Stop it. Stop making stuff. You don’t have that power. The Constitution does not grant you that power. You have no idea what the duties and the limits of the presidency are.”

I've fantasized about a reporter, after one of Trump's obvious full of crap statements, jumping up and screaming at him "Stop lying! Stop giving us this Bull **** and just tell the truth for once, you narcissistic, steaming pile of hot turds!"

Ain't gonna happen, but a girl can have her dreams, can't she?

 

[Stacyhs]

Even worse, he can't even keep his own ******* nonsense straight. It's clear that the main reason he lashes out at reporters is that, since he's too lazy to actually learn the facts and have media/PR professionals prep him for press conferences, he is incapable of answering even simple questions.

For example: "While it's true that I don't have the direct power to order the reopening of businesses, I have the most experienced, best qualified experts advising me and I can in turn advise the governors of what the experts suggest and make recommendations based on the available information."

It's so ******* easy.

What? You expect Trump to answer the way Obama would have? Dreamer.

 

[Babbylonian]

What? You expect Trump to answer the way Obama would have? Dreamer.

Obviously, I expect nothing (and worse than nothing) from him.

What I might dare to dream is that morons who support Trump (redundant) might, just might figure out that Trump isn't even minimally competent.

All three former presidents still dealing with their oxygen addiction must look at these press "briefings" and shake their heads at the straight-up softballs being lobbed by the reporters (that Trump can never answer in a coherent fashion), wishing that they had it so easy while they were in charge.