All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (6 Viewers)

[Maxp]

I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?

 

[N.O.Bronco]

This shirt, shouldn’t be happening:

 

[Optimus Prime]

President Trump began the seven-day stretch threatening — and then reneging on — a quarantine of the New York region. He ended it by announcing recommendations for everyone to wear face masks but stressed he would opt against sporting one himself.

In the days in between, Trump announced a 30-day extension of stringent social distancing guidelines (Sunday), called into a freewheeling “Fox & Friends” gripe-a-thon (Monday), presented a dire assessment of how many Americans are expected to die of the coronavirus (Tuesday), launched a military operation against drug cartels (Wednesday) and stoked a feud with a senior senator from hard-hit New York (Thursday).

The novel coronavirus has decimated the economy, turned hospitals into battlefields and upended the daily lives of every American. But in Trump’s White House, certain symptoms remain: a president who governs as if producing and starring in a reality television show, with each day a new episode and each news cycle his own creation, a successive installment to be conquered.

Facing a global pandemic, Trump still seems to lurch from moment to moment, with his methods and messages each day disconnected from — and in some cases contradictory to — the ones just prior. The pattern reveals a commander in chief unsure of how to defeat the “silent enemy,” as he has labeled it.

Instead, Trump has focused on his self-image — claiming credit wherever he believes it is owed, attempting to project strength and decisiveness, settling scores with critics, boasting about the ratings of his televised news conferences and striving to win the cable news and social media wars.

“You have the president of the United States emceeing these reality TV shows,” said David Lapan, a former Trump administration official now working at the Bipartisan Policy Center..........................

How Trump’s attempts to win the daily news cycle feed a chaotic coronavirus response

 

[The moose]

This shirt, shouldn’t be happening:

I knew something was up with that Robert Craft shipment when I read about it.

This is just so sad to see just how far they have to go to do the right thing

 

[Saintamaniac]

I sincerely hope that the people in red states who lose loved ones to this virus remember how trump treated them and absolutely shirt the bed during this pandemic. There needs to be a wholesale cleansing of republicans who continue to support trump.

 

[Dadsdream]

Who are all these Twitter people and why should anybody believe what they're saying?

Mark Landler - the London bureau chief of The New York Times.
Adam Gaffin - Universal Hub, started in 2005, a community news and information site for the Boston area.
Matthew Zeitlin - freelance business reporter previously worked at BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast.

 

[Beach Friends]

Moose, that doesn't seem to be the case here.






And Remington has the labor.



Now I am sure that Remington can defy Cuomo's order and begin to start making Medical supplies... And I hope that they do.

But Cuomo is known anti gun... that's why he shut down gun manufacturing and ammo manufacturing as Non-essential.

And for all the people who ever said.. "What do you need 1,000 rounds of ammo for?" This is why right here. Cause your government could come in and tell them to just stop and you would be without.


BTW- This was two days ago...



Lets see what they do when they go back to work.

I live half a mile from the Pensacola Naval Air station and I've grown up in the shadow of the Navy.

I watched the Blue Angels practice every day this week from my dock.

Not even the most hardened Trump fans I know agree with the removal of the Captain.

None. Zero.

It was what I would call a Petty move.

The Navy is not a petty organization. The disgraceful acts we are seeing from this administration make us all less than we were.

You're lucky to have the opportunity to watch the Blue Angels like that. The last time I saw the Thunderbirds was on the beach and it was incredible. They were so close they were blowing beach umbrellas everywhere. What was really interesting is how if you got lost in conversation with someone they would be right on you before you knew it.

I am not unsympathetic toward this man. As a company commander, I made some decisions that probably put my career at risk but that I thought was in the best interest of my soldiers. When the air strikes started during the first Gulf war we received an order to go to MOPP 1 and start taking our PB pills. That might have been the right thing overall, but it made no sense as we were one unit in the middle of the desert and a SCUD strike on our location would have been a complete accident. Ignoring that order wasn't being hard headed, MOPP gear deteriorates when it is taken out of its package and I really did not want anyone taking those damn pills for no reason.

I don't care whose administration this occurred under, based on the facts as I know them it looks like it was appropriate and necessary to relieve this guy. In what turned out to be in a very public way, he broke the chain of command and he failed to follow proper security procedures. He transmitted information about the readiness of an aircraft carrier over unsecure channels.

Hell, one could even argue that his actions were heroic and they nonetheless had to relieve him.

It kind of reminds of the scene in Band of Brothers when they were ordered, for a second night in a row, to cross a river and capture German prisoners. The hero of the series, Dick Winters, saw that it was a foolish order that would result in casualties with no benefit. He told his men to get a good night's sleep and to submit a false report in the morning.

He did the right thing by his men, but if he had been caught he would have been rightfully court martialed.

 

[V Chip]

My experience is all federal government, 40 years.

I find it difficult to.believe that the president can sign trillion dollar stimulus but can't sign a $1200 check.

He signed a bill. That’s a normal process.

The President doesn’t on any normal day sign federal checks to citizens.

And how long of a process was it to get the Stimulus bill to his desk to sign from start to finish? And that’s again the normal process for getting a bill passed. Changing the process for vanity’s sake would take much longer than 10 minutes as you suggested.

Seriously, every once it a blue moon it is ok to say you were being flippant and were flat out wrong.

 

[V Chip]

All of this handwringing about how the leader of the free world could possibly have his signature printed on checks in a timely fashion is just a distraction. Again, if one watches Biden's statement he clearly implies that the checks will be delayed because the POTUS is going to be hand signing them.

Meanwhile, disbursements are hitting accounts electronically which was always the plan for everyone they have banking info on.

If Biden said or implied the President will hand-sign checks then that’s stupid and he should know better.

And again, Trump saying that was just his narcissism talking and we all know they’re not going to change the process just to have his electronic signature on the checks.

But if that were to happen, it would be a ridiculous waste of time and resources just for a vanity move. Everyone should be able agree to that.

 

[Dadsdream]

He signed a bill. That’s a normal process.

The President doesn’t on any normal day sign federal checks to citizens.

And how long of a process was it to get the Stimulus bill to his desk to sign from start to finish? And that’s again the normal process for getting a bill passed. Changing the process for vanity’s sake would take much longer than 10 minutes as you suggested.

Seriously, every once it a blue moon it is ok to say you were being flippant and were flat out wrong.

C'mon V-Chip, we know each other pretty well enough for me to accept that your actual objection is the vanity.
The technical aspects of this change would be trivial, and would have no impact on the direct deposits anyway.
As Beach Friends noted, Biden's comments are the disturbing thing.

 

[Beach Friends]

If Biden said or implied the President will hand-sign checks then that’s stupid and he should know better.

And again, Trump saying that was just his narcissism talking and we all know they’re not going to change the process just to have his electronic signature on the checks.

But if that were to happen, it would be a ridiculous waste of time and resources just for a vanity move. Everyone should be able agree to that.

We can agree on all of that. I don't know for sure that Trump actually said it, but it would not surprise me.

 

[Nebaghead]

If Biden said or implied the President will hand-sign checks then that’s stupid and he should know better.

And again, Trump saying that was just his narcissism talking and we all know they’re not going to change the process just to have his electronic signature on the checks.

But if that were to happen, it would be a ridiculous waste of time and resources just for a vanity move. Everyone should be able agree to that.

“No American should have to wait a single minute so Donald Trump can put his signature on a physical check,”
Here is Biden's quote. Nothing about signing checks physically. Just the process of having his signature on a physical check.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...onavirus-news-n1174651/ncrd1175456#blogHeader

 

[V Chip]

“No American should have to wait a single minute so Donald Trump can put his signature on a physical check,”
Here is Biden's quote. Nothing about signing checks physically. Just the process of having his signature on a physical check.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...onavirus-news-n1174651/ncrd1175456#blogHeader

Doesn’t surprise me that what he said has been misrepresented.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

Who are all these Twitter people and why should anybody believe what they're saying?

Mark Landler - the London bureau chief of The New York Times.
Adam Gaffin - Universal Hub, started in 2005, a community news and information site for the Boston area.
Matthew Zeitlin - freelance business reporter previously worked at BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast.

Sorry I didn’t just provide unverifiable anecdotes...

One has an article you can click on and the other is even quoting the governors own forking words. Just takes effort DD, something i shouldnt expect at this point but somehow still hope to one day see.

Millions of masks ordered by Mass. were confiscated, leading to creative alternative

The experience led to a complicated international plan to purchase over 1 million N95 masks in China and fly them home on a New England Patriots jet.

www.wcvb.com

In Desperation, New York State Pays Up to 15 Times the Normal Prices for Medical Equipment

State data shows that New York is paying enormous markups for vital supplies, including almost $250,000 for an X-ray machine. Laws against price gouging usually don’t apply.

www.propublica.org

Analysis: Trump's war between the states creates eBay-like fight for aid

Analysis: The president's "Hunger Games" approach to scarce resources has pitted states against one another and the federal government, as more Americans die.

www.nbcnews.com

But I guess next we will move past that reflexive moment where your response indicates you know this to be wrong but don’t want to think you could support it, so you latch onto calling it fake news to defend dear leader. Next up I’m gonna guess we are going to move onto phase two, rationalize, equivocate, and deflect. That point where you know it is wrong but just want to act like others do it even though that’s bullshirt. Probably blend with phase three, attack more messengers. Maybe pepper with an anecdote so you can try and avoid accountability or criticizing the team.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

See, here is the thing with this crisis that is different than the nonsense the right has perpetuated for the last 20 years.

The game-plan no longer works.

The buck stops at your guy. The usual deflections and rationalizations now break down And are increasingly next to useless.

There is no scary Muslims or fake WMD’s to blame for why we got Americans killed in an unnecessary war.

There are no liberals running the federal government to point at to claim it was them that ignored the rising tides of the pandemic. Just your guy, your party. For four years.

You can’t blame borders when you failed to control them. Then when you did, it wasn’t the magical panacea claimed.

You can’t gaslight when the freezers rotating the bodies show up outside your hospital, when the body counts rise by the thousands a day. And everyone’s normal life is disrupted, not just faceless victims.

You can’t point to a illusory economy that’s basic counting stats look good.

You can no longer blame the normal cultural boogie men: the gays, blacks, trans, Mexicans, or in this case, the Chinese, breaks down when your guy/party failed to take the threat seriously and when you had total control, failed every additional test.

The only saving grace that exists is that people are so scared, and so in desperation of leadership that even when they get utter shirt that is literally killing them, they want to believe...But even that breaks down once things get too bad. As history has shown time and again.

 

[Beach Friends]

So, while we are talking about politicians lying, here is the latest from Biden. What is worse, Biden lying to people by suggesting that their stimulus checks are sitting on Trump's desk waiting for his signature? Or, Biden really believing that is true?

This is what I said.

I thought anyone arguing about this would at least have watched the video that I attached. Notice how he acts out the process of signing when he talks about Trump's signature on a physical check? I think it's pretty clear what Biden is suggesting. Now, the smartest guy in the room may know better, but Biden is speaking to his base.

 

[Eeyore]

Quite the article. Mostly, while it's odd, it actually is showing a lot of positive things being done by Kushner leading this team of "non-governmental actors" to get the big dogs in industry moving in the right areas. He's essentially coordinating part of the Private sector.

It's actually smart.

It's also very dangerous and he's likely profiting off of it. He's essentially acting like a deal broker.

Kushner Squeezes Tenants While Lining Up for Bailout Money

Despite eviction bans in New York, the real-estate firm owned by the president’s son-in-law is telling tenants to pay up.

prospect.org

 

[V Chip]

Doesn’t surprise me that what he said has been misrepresented.

I mean, watching the video he's just using his hands to illustrate and make points as many speakers do. It's obvious he isn't talking about Trump physically having to sign every check, just as in later in the video he uses his hands to point while talking about holding the President accountable -- I mean anyone should know he doesn't mean that the process of holding the President accountable would have to include Congresspersons pointing or pushing buttons in the action he is miming with his hands, but when you can't address the actual issues I guess you make up things to deflect and obfuscate.

 

[The moose]

Kushner Squeezes Tenants While Lining Up for Bailout Money

Despite eviction bans in New York, the real-estate firm owned by the president’s son-in-law is telling tenants to pay up.

prospect.org

That is just beautiful.

He is even charging them for paying with plastic.

Putting the transaction fee on top of the rent.

New level of douchebag there guys.