The Trump Virus

Just for fun -- and because I haven't in a while -- I popped over to FoxNews.com to see what the comments are.  Surprisingly, they're about 70% anti-Trump.  In the past they've always been 90% batshit-crazy pro-Trump.

Do you suppose "The Greatest President In History" could actually be losing the PR war in this?

I think this thing may upend the status quo. Even the rednecks are getting pissy.

I think they need to throw about 2k per person to people every month until this thing ends and let people decide what industries will make it and which won't.
We already see how much we've been lied to for profit. People don't need offices, we do need universal healthcare, prepping for this shit is in the national security- all the shit is being revealed and they are frightened- as they should be. But if they don't just toss money at everyone, I can see things getting violent fast. There are plenty of us who still know where the pitch forks are and are willing to done our masks and gloves and go out and do something about it. If they have any sense of self preservation, politicians will nod and "yes, dear" Trump and then do what has to be done.

I’m sorry Jenni this one-time payment of $1200 per person is nothing but a naked attempt to buy votes in November.

It won’t do ANYTHING for the 3.28 million people who lost their jobs last week.

It won’t do ANYTHING to keep the economy from cratering as bad as 1929.

And it won’t do ANYTHING to prevent the virus from ravaging the country for the next three months.

And yet somehow 60% of Americans approve of the job Trump has done in regards the coronavirus. People, in short, are incredibly stupid, and probably deserve everything they get.

Today the United States surpassed China for total number of coronavirus cases.  We now have more cases, over 82,000 of them, than any other nation on Earth.

I guess Trump should stop calling it "The China virus."

I propose we start calling it "the Trump virus."

NoCoPilot wrote:

Just for fun -- and because I haven't in a while -- I popped over to FoxNews.com to see what the comments are.  Surprisingly, they're about 70% anti-Trump.  In the past they've always been 90% batshit-crazy pro-Trump.

Do you suppose "The Greatest President In History" could actually be losing the PR war in this?

Here's a shocker -- Fox News.com no longer hosts reader comments. Can't risk upsetting the president!

Quote :

When will things return to normal?

The answer is simple, if not exactly satisfying: when enough of the population—possibly 60 or 80 percent of people—is resistant to COVID-19 to stifle the disease’s spread from person to person. That is the end goal, although no one knows exactly how long it will take to get there.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-social-distancing-over-back-to-normal/608752/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Trump is perhaps uniquely unsuited to be president during a global pandemic

Quote :

The qualities we most need in a president during this crisis are calmness, wisdom, and reassurance; a command of the facts and the ability to communicate them well; and the capacity to think about the medium and long term while carefully weighing competing options and conflicting needs. We need a leader who can persuade the public to act in ways that are difficult but necessary, who can focus like a laser beam on a problem for a sustained period of time, and who will listen to—and, when necessary, defer to—experts who know far more than he does. We need a president who can draw the nation together rather than drive it apart, who excels at the intricate work of governing, and who works well with elected officials at every level. We need a chief executive whose judgment is not just sound, but exceptional.

For his entire adult life, and for his entire presidency, Donald Trump has created his own alternate reality, complete with his own alternate set of facts. He has shown himself to be erratic, impulsive, narcissistic, vindictive, cruel, mendacious, and devoid of empathy. None of that is new.

But we’re now entering the most dangerous phase of the Trump presidency. The pain and hardship that the United States is only beginning to experience stem from a crisis that the president is utterly unsuited to deal with, either intellectually or temperamentally. When things were going relatively well, the nation could more easily absorb the costs of Trump’s psychological and moral distortions and disfigurements. But those days are behind us. The coronavirus pandemic has created the conditions that can catalyze a destructive set of responses from an individual with Trump’s characterological defects and disordered personality.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/presidents-character-unequal-task/608743/

I have subscribed to The Atlantic. It seems to be well above average when it comes to publishing common sense.

Time for my weekly (daily?) prediction of doom:

• The coronavirus crisis stretches on through summer into fall, with no signs of letting up
  
  
• Trump imposes a quarantine on New York, New Jersey and Connecticut
  
  
• This quarantine is expanded to Florida and Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia in late April as these states become epicenters of the disease
  
  
• Social unrest among the quarantined -- many of whom are gun owners -- leads to a general declaration of martial law, first locally then nationally
  
  
• With the country under martial law, and movements and gatherings still restricted, the Trump Administration moves to postpone the November election
  
  
• Congress is powerless to fight the postponement, because they are restricted from meeting
  
  
• After nearly a year under martial law, and no election, Trump allows Vladimir Putin to step in and "administer" his version of social order, including draconian crackdowns
  
  
• Before 2022 the United States of America becomes a Russian protectorate
  

NoCoPilot wrote:

leads to a general declaration of martial law, first locally then nationally

We literally don't have the manpower for national martial law. We could call up every soldier we have and it still wouldn't be enough. I'm way more concerned about law enforcement going "oh fuck it" and not being on the scene at all.

My cousin just told me she saw on CNN that Trump wants his signature, not the U.S. Treasurer's, on the stimulus checks that everyone will be getting.

Just so they know who's giving them the money, you know. 

Fuck Trump and his giant ego. We're not getting a check anyway, so I won't have to look at the idiot's scribbling.

This article from The Atlantic is horrifying.I had to take a break while reading it because of nausea.

How the Coronavirus Became an American Catastrophe

Jenni wrote:

We literally don't have the manpower for national martial law. We could call up every soldier we have and it still wouldn't be enough.  

Trump has that covered.

He’s going to deputize every Bubba with an AK-47 to “keep peace” in their neighborhoods, which means up to and including taking out “unruly” colored people and keeping the white women “in line.”

NoCoPilot wrote:

GOOD News About COVID-19:

This situation we're in has made science respectable again.  This pandemic has finally, hopefully, shut up the climate deniers and science deniers and overall sceptics about vaccines and such.

And sadly (I take no joy in this) science deniers and the god-addled may be self-winnowing themselves without even realizing it.


Is this Darwinism at work?

NoCoPilot wrote:

He’s going to deputize every Bubba with an AK-47 to “keep peace” in their neighborhoods, which means up to and including taking out “unruly” colored people and keeping the white women “in line.”

Told ya.

I really gotta stop reading the news when I wake up.  This is not helping my state of mind.

I think overall people are missing the important parts. One, most of us po folks don't have accounts that the IRS has on file. Which means that we won't receive paper checks for 4 months. People are gonna run out of food. Nothing is gonna get more dangerous than mass numbers of people desperate with no real help. Lots of people, teenagers home from college, people who pay child support, etc will get no help at all. People like my daughter who is over 18 but still lives at home- she will not see the 1200 because she just started working and I won't see the 600 for her because she's over 18. People on disability? I still haven't heard on that one.

The bubbas are already out doing what they can. Now is not the time to worry about them. They are people like me. They all have AKs because of continuity. If you are out of ammo, your buddy has some. We're the "stay at home" network. We're the preppers. We're not here to kill you we're here to keep people from killing you. We're here to defend out immediate neighbors from whatever is coming for them. We're the ones with n95s and p100s in mass that we've donated to hospitals. You really need to watch some Beau of the Fifth Column and find out about the people you are so worried about because we aren't the danger here. The real danger is in the cops themselves. The lack of training, the lack of respect for citizens, the fealty to corporations- that's what's gonna get the poor and colored folk killed. When the cops start gunning people down for breaking into the WalMart. You also need to worry about the contractors. They have military skills and weaponry but no reason not to use it to hijack shipments of everything from respirators to groceries. And the politicians. The politicians are gonna kill everyone with their bullshit sitting on their hands and bowing to Trump. You know, we gun owners didn't ship all our shit to China just before a pandemic.

The NG they are about to send out isn't martial law either. They are logistics and medical. Transport if we need it. They gonna look scary because they will be outfitted but that's cuz that's what they got because the n95s are needed at the hospitals. We got a lot of rules on the books about deploying the actual military on American soil and I don't believe professional military is gonna tolerate a bunch of "deputized bubbas" acting like they can do the martial law thing. They might co-ordinate with friendlies when they need to but civilians are not gonna be allowed to act for them.

I also wanna know what Trump got for sending China all that med equipment. I get why he did it. At the time, that was the front line- it should have bought us valuable time. But that man never does anything altruistically. And he didn't use the time wisely. So what did he get in return? Why haven't stockpiles been released? What's the real plan here? Because at some point I feel like the normal people's patriotism and self interest has to take precedence over whatever respect we think the office of the presidency deserves. I wanna know what the military is thinking more than I care about Trump and his boot lickers.

NoCoPilot wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

He’s going to deputize every Bubba with an AK-47 to “keep peace” in their neighborhoods, which means up to and including taking out “unruly” colored people and keeping the white women “in line.”

Told ya.

I really gotta stop reading the news when I wake up.  This is not helping my state of mind.

That's not martial law. And imo if you close things, like gun stores, like liquor stores, you will simply panic people more. There will be a rush, thefts, etc.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Is this Darwinism at work?

To quote my father-in-law (with affection, you have to imagine the Southern accent): HIT sure is!

I got to wondering what happened to the 145,000 trailers FEMA bought for hurricane Katrina victims under George W. Bush, at $65,000 per unit, most of which were never occupied. Turns out the Trump administration auctioned them off to the public in February 2019, with bidding starting at $100.