Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Fight them, without becoming them!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Come on, man.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

This blog will pay for itself.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Repub Pathology Open Thread: The Attention-Junkie-in-Chief

Repub Pathology Open Thread: The Attention-Junkie-in-Chief

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I turned on the evening news (yes, I’m an old) and was inadvertently exposed to the Oval Office Occupant doing a live prime-time broadcast. Man actually looks like an addict in need of a fix — sweating, snuffling, shifting from foot to foot. Hastily pulling away from the podium when ‘challenged’ by some halfway serious question from the attending reporters, then barging back to take the mic away from his minions as if seeing someone else draw the cameras caused him actual physical pain. Networks should really stop broadcasting these sh*tshowers, if only because they’re not good for innocent viewers’ morale…

… Now, as the coronavirus crisis threatens his presidency, and upends his campaign for reelection, Trump is rapidly losing patience with the medical professionals who have made the case day after day that the only way to prevent a catastrophic loss of life is to essentially shut down the country — to minimize transmission and “flatten the curve” so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed with critical patients.

The president also has been furious that his efforts to halt the harrowing drop in the stock market have so far proven ineffective. He has been calling friends and economists at all hours and berated aides and reporters who try to persuade him to recognize the severity of the outbreak.

Beyond the crisis, he has been agitated that he can’t run the campaign he wants against Democrat Joe Biden, and he has used daily, hour-long briefings as near proxies for his campaign rallies, guaranteed to attract attention and to maintain the backing of his fervent political case…

For Trump, that feeling is magnified by walling himself off during the crisis. Unable to travel and unsure of what to do, he’s been crashing West Wing meetings, often forcing staffers to hurriedly adjust agendas as the president frequently gets in the way of health professionals trying to chart a course of action.

While some around him have suggested that he should only appear when there is big news to announce, Trump has been missing the spotlight and has told people that he knows the nation is watching the briefings and doesn’t want to give up the stage.

On Sunday, he asked the briefing, originally slated for 4:30 p.m. to be pushed back later into the evening, when more people would be watching — including those tuning in for “60 Minutes,” the president’s favorite broadcast news magazine.

Trump has rebuked reporters whose questions he does not like, and behind closed doors, it has been much the same. The president has snapped at aides delivering news that contradicts his relentless belief the crisis will be resolved soon…

…[I]nstead of facing a wounded Democrat at the end of a drawn-out nomination fight, an emboldened Biden has emerged as his party’s clear front-runner, having coalesced much of the party around him while addressing his cash shortage. And now Trump is staring at a recession, a potentially lethal political blow for any incumbent, but particularly one who has so tethered his fortunes to the stock market and a once buoyant economy.

Unable to hold his rallies, Trump has lost his favorite outlet and deprived his campaign of compiling valuable voter data. And while his campaign’s war chest remains robust, any sort of TV ad campaign has been sidelined, though anti-Biden digital spots are still being produced and aides have expressed surprise and relief that the former vice president has largely ceded Trump the spotlight the last two weeks.

With no chance of any trips anytime soon aboard Air Force One, where Trump often spends his time talking out campaign strategy and socializing with old friends and allies, he’s unleashed his anger on Twitter — including at Democratic governors who dare criticize him — and has been on the phone constantly, peppering people with calls…

Just a taste, c’mon! I’m suffering here!

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    cmorenc

    Trump wants restrictions lifted so he can resume his MAGA campaign rallies.  He’s been trying to get by feeding his enormous need for attention with daily press briefings, but the small groups of reporters and health-care pros like Faucci, and even the accompaniment of fawning worshipers in his administration (e.g. Pence) are an inadequate substitute for the potent fix of rallies before thousands of MAGA-heads. cheering his grievance-fest on.

  3. 3.

    bemused

    I didn’t realize 6 news channels cut away from trump’s press rant yesterday. That’s a good start. I read he wants to go primetime with his pressers. Oh hell no.

  4. 4.

    FlyingToaster

    What will convince the network execs who insist on coverage is when we all change channels.  If nobody watches, they can’t sell advertising.

  5. 5.

    Duane

    Relegate his useless gibberish to Faux News and leave him there. He’s nuts. If he was some guy on the street people would walk the other way.

  6. 6.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m not bringing my NYT into the house any more, but I noticed this morning that they’re already going to work on Biden. “Biden fades as Trump holds daily briefings.”
    They will stick to Trump as the bodies pile up, won’t they?

  7. 7.

    germy

    If Trump reopens economy and Cuomo announces continued lockdown, which ruling takes precedent, state or federal? And will NY (and other hotspots) have to institute blockades to keep coronavirus carriers from “open” states from bringing virus in?

    — Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) March 24, 2020

  9. 9.

    Emerald

    All of his properties are closed except the DC hotel, and that isn’t doing much business. Major incentive right there to open up the country again. Plus the stock market.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    @JPL: You know, we should let him play golf. Open up one Trump(tm) course somewhere, let him fly in, and then wall the place up.

  11. 11.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    The AP piece has a huge falsehood in it.

    The useless asshole has no friends. He doesn’t know what friendship is about, and mistakes common civility among passing acquaintances as “friendship”.

    There’s a special place in hell for Tom Barrack, who used his “kindly uncle” expressions and voice to pretend that Trump was his personal friend with warmth and empathy at the GOP nom convention in 2016. The man gaslit an entire tranche of conservative, yet skeptical voters.

  12. 12.

    L85NJGT

    How many lives did he just blithely hand wave away?

    The way to counter mush mouthed percentage talk is in absolute numbers

    Not Stalin or Hitler yet, but I’m pretty sure we are into Paul Pot territory.

  13. 13.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @FlyingToaster:

    We looked at each other in silent agreement before flipping the channel away from him to “Below Deck: Sailing Yacht” reruns last night. There was no info of worth or use, and I was ready to shoot the TV.

  14. 14.

    Ramiah Ariya

    One thing I wonder about is how much Trump’s tweets are covered in Fox News. My guess is that they do not cover his tweets at all. So, the Fox News audience is completely blank about how he appears to the rest of the world who actually see his tweets. This is why you consistently find Fox News viewers calling him “gracious”, “compassionate” and so on – qualities no sane person would ever attribute to Trump.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Emerald:The stock market isn’t going to go up just because trump opens up the country while thousands more die every day. He might think it will, but it ain’t happening.

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    BTW – Any fund manager that is doing buy orders into the market today is so in breach of fiduciary duties that it should be criminal.

  19. 19.

    L85NJGT

    Why are they holding meetings in the West Wing? Give boo-boo a toy truck and head over to the executive office building, or anywhere else.

  20. 20.

    germy

    Suspect this sudden pressure to reopen the economy before we control the virus is a reaction to the realization that the economy as structured cannot survive a month and the necessary restructuring will be in the direction of everything the GOP has fought against for decades.
    — Tim Duy (@TimDuy) March 23, 2020

  21. 21.

    pajaro

    God, the media are so awful.  Every single outlet reports that “trump considers reopening economy,” as if this reality show barker had any role in closing the economy to begin with.  We will go back to work when our respective schools or other places of business tell us to, or our governors allow our businesses to reopen.  We will go shopping when stores are open and, even if open, we feel safe to do so.

  22. 22.

    WhatsMyNym

    I didn’t even know he was giving briefings. Only saw Gov. Inslee and later they had Pence, but that was the local news.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    Maine’s Governor Mills is holding a press conference today.  Lots of speculation that she will announce a shelter in place order. I hope so because a lot of businesses are not taking this seriously enough.

  27. 27.

    germy

    For the average American the best way to tell if you have covid-19 is to cough in a rich person’s face and wait for their test results

    — Harry Moroz (@hrmoroz) March 20, 2020

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    From Bill Penzey this morning:

    With the nature of the coronavirus the death toll of the next 12-14 days is already virtually carved in stone. For the next 14 days we will pay the price for not taking this seriously and that price will be heartbreaking. But what happens on that 15th day is very much in our hands today. Today is our chance to make a difference. Please do what is right.

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    I feel like someone should tell Republicans that a bunch of seniors dying would also be really bad for the economy.— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 24, 2020

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    Except that we’re all passengers on the train.

    Lissen up, libtard — are you also going to complain when Dear Leader gets that train to “run on time”? I mean, he’ll run it off the tracks passing over Worldwide Depression Gorge, but it’ll be on time.

    [OK, so the metaphor ain’t that great. Sue me.]

    ETA: Also, I think we’re all bozos on this bus?

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I feel like someone should tell Republicans that a bunch of seniors dying would also be really bad for the economy.

    I guess that depends. If the victims are limited to Traitor Turtle, Barr, Cornyn, Graham, Shitgibbon, Dense, and so forth, the economy might breathe a sigh of relief.

  34. 34.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    the necessary restructuring will be in the direction of everything the GOP has fought against for decades.

    Trump doesn’t give a shit about the GOP’s ideology.  However, congress does, and McConnell does.  The need to help the common man to stop an economic and medical disaster from destroying the GOP’s already bad prospects in November is obviously torturing the man-turtle hybrid.  He is flailing about going “Can we delay it and at least let a lot of vermin suffer and die first?  What if we half-ass it with dumping money on rich people?  Will that keep things just barely good enough I can stay Senate Majority Leader? This isn’t the specific way I wanted to destroy America!”  Trump is too ignorant a mean shit for that kind of thinking.  Helping anyone who can’t directly and immediately help him back makes no sense to him, he’s so lazy he won’t do the things he can do and says he’s doing in press briefings, and nothing is fixing the problem right now and making him look like a god-hero.

  35. 35.

    pajaro

    @germy:

    There was never an order “closing” the economy.  I know the guy is stupid, but I don’t think that even he would try to issue a directive cancelling all city, county, board of education, and state directives on this subject and ordering us to work.    If he does, I assume we would do something between ignoring him and going directly to a general strike.

  37. 37.

    hueyplong

    Under even the rosiest scenarios, things are going to be increasingly bad over the next few weeks.  For a TV star, Trump doesn’t seem to be on top of the likely narrative arc for his “it’s all about me” daily programming.

    We might rationally predict a daily briefing in which some poor flunky has to give the death total and then Trump on cue talks about how it’s someone else’s fault or how the number would be much higher if he weren’t the Leader.  Early 1945 Josef Goebbels is shaking his head in hell right now as he anticipates Trump’s declaration of Fortress Orlando or some other crazy Nazi propaganda crap.

    So I don’t think it matters if Trump is allowed to continue his campaign show.  It’s about to get unpopular.  The first network to stay away only to show 60 seconds of highlights could well be Fox.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @L85NJGT:

    Two million (for arguments sake) less consumers will have a significant downward impact..

    I would bet a six-pack of good beer that some Rethug — Moscow Mitch or one of his “brain” trust, let’s say — has discussed the idea that it’ll be mostly poors/browns who die, because the rich can afford to buy adequate health care, and since they don’t buy that much “stuff” in the first place, what’s the big deal?

    I wish I were kidding.

  39. 39.

    germy

    I’m going to go ahead and warn you about something I’ve only said privately until now: Watch out for a smear campaign targeting Dr. Fauci. Look to WH insiders (and some known right-wing figures) if you want to know where it’s coming from.

    Push back on it. Hard. You, too, media. https://t.co/ANS7ukEyh9

    — Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) March 24, 2020

  41. 41.

    Anya

    I can’t believe our lunatic in chief’s job approval has increased. The irony of all of this is the media he’s attacking is his best ally. They make his lunatic ravings sound like he is saying something coherent and they report as though he is actually responding to the crisis instead of spreading misinformation and racism, and outright hindering the work that needs to be done.

  42. 42.

    hueyplong

    @SFAW: As far as I’m concerned, right wing rationalization of a herd-thinning is already semi-official policy.

    They started with children in cages.  Is this such a big step, when their own perceived financial well-being is suddenly in the mix?

  44. 44.

    AnonPhenom

    If anyone was wondering how long it would take all the Wall Street Piggies to start squealing if, for whatever reason, this country was capable of pulling off a General Strike…now we know.

  45. 45.

    Racer X

    “…aides have expressed surprise and relief that the former vice president has largely ceded Trump the spotlight the last two weeks.”   Really?  Sounds smart to me.  If these 2 weeks haven’t convinced everyone of what an incompetent moron Trump is then there truly is no cure for the GOP stupidity that has infected this country for the last 40 years.

  47. 47.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Anya:

    Jeremiah Wright was absolutely correct when he questioned the white bleating of “God Bless America”, and threw in “God Damn America”.

    I have no remaining loyalty to this government, and consider my prior oaths (military and as a lawyer) voided due to malfeasance.

  50. 50.

    Sebastian

    The junkie reference is so spot on, Anne.

    Did you see the pathetic question to Birx where he asks her when the seats will be filled again? He sounded so fucking desperate

  51. 51.

    middlelee

    One begins to understand the fury of the French people toward the aristocracy during the time leading up to the revolution.

  54. 54.

    kindness

    The MSM isn’t going to stop showing Trump’s daily press rally.  It generates enough eyeballs to allow them to ignore how they are hurting America.  Because the bottom line is more important than Grandma or Grandpa dying.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    Is even Piers Fucking Morgan on the right side of this? Is that a pig I see in the sky?

    *NEW COLUMN*
    Coronavirus doesn’t give a damn about the economy, President Trump – if you recklessly reopen America anytime soon, you’ll expose millions of people to extreme danger & prove you care more about money than lives.https://t.co/WlrPRDleX0 pic.twitter.com/Dg0DI72EAk
    — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 24, 2020

  56. 56.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @p.a.:

    “Steiner…Steiner fell to the Chinese virus three days ago, sir.  He had tears in his eyes because he knew he had failed your greatness and told me so…”

  58. 58.

    waspuppet

    @L85NJGT: And the Dow is skyrocketing, because they’re going to get a “reopened” economy AND a $500 billion, no-strings-attached bailout.

  60. 60.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @waspuppet:

    Those would be the “professional” fund managers marching like hogs to the stun line, thinking it is a feed trough….

  61. 61.

    Fair Economist

    The way the trolls have hopped on the “let’s kill grandma!” bandwagon makes me suspect this whole thing has been orchestrated by Putin, hoping to kill a few million Americans.

  65. 65.

    germy

    Negotiations have resulted in:

    Unemployment insurance benefits that'd give recipients 100% of their salary

    At least $100 billion in assistance for hospitals

    Removal of the phase-in of direct payments, which means lower income people would receive $1200 https://t.co/gZ8Ajfc04s

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 24, 2020

  67. 67.

    The Moar You Know

    I have said from the start, before this asshole put his hand on a Bible (and that the Bible didn’t explode into a ball of fire is all the proof you need that it ain’t God’s book) that if you cut off his coverage, you cut off his oxygen.  End of presidency.

    The media needs to step up, and by step up I mean stay the fuck away.  Let Brietbart, Fox and OANN have the seats.

  69. 69.

    germy

    Two Italian engineers have made copies of ventilator parts to help hospitals fight the coronavirus."As the pandemic continues to worsen in other countries, we would like everyone to know that we are willing to share our 3-D model."https://t.co/vfIblYGEDD
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 23, 2020

  70. 70.

    MattF

    @Gin & Tonic: Morgan’s not entirely wrong. But money is only a marker for Trump— his only sincere response to any situation is ‘But what about ME?’

  71. 71.

    WhatsMyNym

    @waspuppet:

    And the Dow is skyrocketing, because they’re going to get a “reopened” economy AND a $500 billion, no-strings-attached bailout.

    You really have to look at the index components, not the indexes. Stocks that are being bought are ones that will do well during a stay-at-home order, and ones that were so badly beaten down they are now a long term good bet. Everything else is basically being ignored today.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    My sister is very even tempered. But even she got exasperated with Trump’s ramblings, and sent me an email noting how she called it stupid and had to turn away.

    She watched hoping to get some useful information. Wasn’t any. Unfortunately, some local information, which is important, is sometimes released after the presidential freak out.

  75. 75.

    Hummus Where The Heart Is

    @JPL:

    He also wants to play golf.

    Let him. Get his fat ass out of the WH.

    Maybe he can hire Stormy and a plethora phalanx of playmates to be his caddies. Man needs a distraction.

  76. 76.

    JPL

    He’s gonna open it up

    Our people want to return to work. They will practice Social Distancing and all else, and Seniors will be watched over protectively & lovingly. We can do two things together. THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM! Congress MUST ACT NOW. We will come back strong!

  80. 80.

    germy

    Cuomo is broadcasting right now from the Jacob Javits Center, which is being turned into a hospital

    He says cases are accelerating.  “It’s gone from a freight train to a bullet train.”

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @zhena gogolia:

    They will stick to trump right up to the moment he loses. Because he makes them money. And he wants them to be able to keep all the money they make. They like him because he’s good for them. Or at least they think he is. The majority of their readers? Not so much. But the owners of the FTFNYT are exactly what/who you think they are.

  82. 82.

    WhatsMyNym

     

    Ford and GE Healthcare will expand the production of GE’s ventilator design to support patients with respiratory failure or difficulty breathing caused by the pathogen, Ford said.

    Separately, Ford will work with 3M to increase manufacturing capacity of its air-purifying respirators to meet a surge in demand for first responders and healthcare workers.

    The company said it was exploring how it could produce these new respirators in one of its Michigan manufacturing plants and help 3M boost production ten-fold. It would use fans from its Ford F-150 cooled seats to make parts of the respirators, the company said.

    Additionally, Ford said its U.S. design team was starting to test transparent full-face shields for first responders, which when paired with N95 respirator masks, could be an effective way of limiting exposure to the coronavirus.

    General Motors Co (GM.N) has also partnered with medical equipment maker Ventec and is building ventilators at its plant in Indiana.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    NPR top of the hour newscast:  FEMA:  they are FINALLY using the Defense Production Act for the first time today.

    It’s almost the end of March.  This virus was apparent in November.

    Still, I will take it.

  84. 84.

    JPL

    The president needs to shelter in place because he’s old but no way am I gonna treat him lovingly.   f..kem

  86. 86.

    Calouste

    @L85NJGT: Idi Amin is estimated to have killed between 100,000 and 500,000 people during his 8 years rule. Needy Amin is going to get there in 4 years.

  87. 87.

    bemused

    @JPL:

    Oh the irony of people who aren’t that far from being senior citizens blithely saying the olds are dispensable. They don’t realize how fast that age comes nor that the virus doesn’t care how old a person is.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused:   Or that obesity is a risk factor, and they might have some underlying health conditions they are not even aware of.

    Psychopaths.

  92. 92.

    Bobby Thomson

    He can’t open it up legally.  The most crucial economic centers are in states with Democratic governors.  Cuomo ain’t about to let him open up Wall Street.

    But he can pressure his toadies into opening it up in the usual backwaters, which will delay further how long those of us with Democratic governors have to shelter in place.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    Also too, where is Young Jared?

    Didn’t Trump task him to do something that was supposed to do something that would help lead us to some magical solution? Or something.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic:

    prove you care more about money than lives

    Pretty sure that proof has been front and center a good while (seventy some years) but agree with the sentiment.

  100. 100.

    trollhattan

    @Sebastian:

    See if you can parse this statement for Falwell’s main concern.

    Said Falwell: “I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they’ve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life.”

    It’s not out of the question that the current Falwell poolboy is a student and absence does make the heart grow fonder.

  101. 101.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Gin & Tonic: Is even Piers Fucking Morgan on the right side of this? Is that a pig I see in the sky?

    And here we see the difference with British conservatives. The news I see from the other side of the pond suggests that the BoJo government is taking the virus seriously.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    Liz Cheney..    wow    I never thought that I would agree with Liz Cheney

    There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @WhatsMyNym:

    Ford and GE Healthcare will expand the production of GE’s ventilator design to support patients with respiratory failure or difficulty breathing caused by the pathogen, Ford said.

    Separately, Ford will work with 3M to increase manufacturing capacity of its air-purifying respirators to meet a surge in demand for first responders and healthcare workers

    It’s bleakly funny. We desperately need someone with industrial and business expertise to help coordinate the efforts of Ford and other companies, and to work with the states. Tim Cook of Apple, maybe.

    Instead we get Trump and Pence play acting. And Trump is coming closer to that peak moment where he becomes a modern Nero, golfing while the CoronaVirus burns through the country.

  108. 108.

    Patricia Kayden

    It's incredible that this has to be said: Letting thousands of people needlessly suffer and die is wrong. It's also not a recipe for rescuing the economy.— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 24, 2020

  109. 109.

    hueyplong

    @trollhattan: Fallwell U is probably operated like a pyramid scheme and he’d go under if he had to refund a semester’s tuition to every student.

    Presumably that’s what you meant.

    Can they reopen Regent U as well?

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    Cuomo is suggesting that one ventilator could be shared between two patients.  It’s experimental.  Have two sets of tubing, and beds next to each other.

    Also calls for Azar to send out the ventilators in stockpile.  Also that they can be deployed to states that are experiencing COVID apexes, and then sent along to the next infection center.  He says he’d be happy to send the ventilators along to their next destination at his own expense.  He just needs those ventilators NOW.  NY is the canary in the coalmine.

    Also that, once we have the reliable test — test for those who were infected and now have immunity, for whatever length that lasts.  Then THEY can be released to go back to work and start the economy.

    But don’t send EVERYONE back — protect those who are vulnerable, and just use those who have the immunity.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    Cuomo also pled again for using the Defense Production Act to ramp up ventilating equipment, etc.

    All the things the federal government COULD do but is not.

    Now talking about our healthcare and first responders, law enforcement, public works, those who have to work.  Grocery, etc.

    ‘They are doing that not for their family.  They’re doing it for YOUR family.”

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @Frankensteinbeck: However, congress does, and McConnell does. The need to help the common man to stop an economic and medical disaster from destroying the GOP’s already bad prospects in November is obviously torturing the man-turtle hybrid.

     

    Actually not much of a hybrid, yet.  Still bog standard GOP libertarian ideology. never help anyone except the very rich.

     

    LGM comparison of Boris Johnson’s Tory party prescription for saving economy with the GOP insane billionaires response, shows the US GOP as out of touch with non-US sane aristocrats parties.

  115. 115.

    JMG

    The Republican Party is able to get away with policies the Tory party can’t because the Republican Party has spent 40 years indoctrinating its voters in the idea their fellow Americans are the true enemy. An increase in public misery is therefore a good thing, even if they suffer themselves. The Republicans assure them their imaginary enemies are suffering far more.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    @catclub:

    LGM comparison of Boris Johnson’s Tory party prescription for saving economy with the GOP insane billionaires response, shows the US GOP as out of touch with non-US sane aristocrats parties.

    Boris Johnson was as slow to react as Trump and there is a growing scandal over Johnson letting his political advisor Cummings determine health policy. And Cummings is a science illiterate libertarian.

  121. 121.

    Chyron HR

    Tune in next week when the President of the United States of America stands on top of a pile of corpses and simpers that the nasty media isn’t thanking him for the “tippy top”.

  122. 122.

    sherparick

    @pajaro: Quite right.  There are places that are suppressing infection rates, for instance I suspect Florida & Texas are restricting testing to keep its numbers low.  We will see how this works out.

  124. 124.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Elizabelle:

    So here’s a difficulty of the Defense Production Act: you only have so much capacity in any given plant.  To ramp up production, you need the proper tool and die expertise to even create extra lines, not to mention floor space, appropriate utility service and trained employees to work the lines.

    It ain’t a simple task.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:   Yeah. That is all true.

    And we have lost months that could have been used in prep.  But, still no time like the present.

    Don’t you suspect this pandemic will not be a 100-year event?  That we will have another coming at us in the coming years?  Or even that we want to know how to gear up for fighting climate change, etc, if there is anything we can do there.

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @Ramiah Ariya:

    Do you really think seeing his tweets would change their minds? He’s a deranged, demented, disaster.

    Here’s the thing, they want what he’s selling. They don’t care that they don’t have millions or whatever, as long as you have less.

    A video this morning on twitter showed a couple in a market, pissed off that they couldn’t purchase 10 – 24 packs of Mountain Dew. Yelling in the supermarket, making a massive scene. It’s delightful…..

  127. 127.

    cain

    @gvg:

    No, what he doesn’t understand is that the entire world is going to put the U.S. on a travel ban. Nobody from here is going to be able to go anywhere and commerce will be dead. So on top of that all the supply chains that we’ve built will be gone too.

  129. 129.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: FTR “Moose” never got the Ferrovia dello Stato to run on time, he simply had the timetables revised to reflect reality rather than unwarranted optimism.

    What he did do that made a real difference in the lives of Italians was to aggressively drain swamplands, thereby doing a number on the winged disease vectors known as le zanzare (mosquitos). There is a reason that malaria has an Italian name (“bad air”) – it was endemic in il Mezzogiorno, but swamp drainage pretty much finished it off there.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @JMG:

    The Republican Party is able to get away with policies the Tory party can’t because the Republican Party has spent 40 years indoctrinating its voters in the idea their fellow Americans are the true enemy.

    Uh, BREXIT? And the idea that the EU and immigrants are the enemy. Very similar to the Republicans in the US.

    And for now, Boris Johnson has been able to sell the idea that Britain will soon become great again, even if people have to suck it up and suffer for a few years.

  131. 131.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope: You can argue that they didn’t act fast or ruthlessly enough. I saw a retired Public Health administrator say that they are too reliant on academics. But, at least they aren’t suggesting everyone goes back to work, quite the opposite. Restrictions are increasing. And Labour is broadly supportive of their actions.

    We are helped here by not having Fox news and a culture still trusting in science but, bare seconds after Boris Johnson’s announcement last night, people were taking to Twitter to whine about Magna Carta and the government taking away their freedom. Fortunately, a hell of a lot more people pushed back pointing out how selfish they were being.

  132. 132.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JPL: I would think there would be no reason he can’t play golf, out doors and all that.

    Something else the article isn’t noting is Trump isn’t isolating himself as someone his age should. All does it take is someone on the White House staff to have it in those meetings he keeps on crashing. As my 92 year old friend who survived he virus explained even if it doesn’t kill you it weeks of being laid up in bed.

    Trump really is bonkers though; as it’s been pointed out he is basically a salesman and he should know this is an idiot move to associate his “brand” so closely with bad news. Yet clearly his need to be the center of attention is overriding that.

  133. 133.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @hueyplong: Trump’s declaration of Fortress Orlando or some other crazy Nazi propaganda crap

    Mar-a-Hoggo, die Scheissgibbonfestung!

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL:

    Biden is on The View.   

    Baffles me that it’s so popular, but apparently it is. Then again, I remember when Kerry and Bush both went on Dr Phil.

    Sarah Mucha @sarahmucha 1h
    On @TheView, @JoeBiden says his biggest concern during the pandemic is misinformation. He says that Dr. Fauci should be on more than the president.

    Molly Nagle @MollyNagle3 1h
    On @TheView, @JoeBiden says that he starts his day with a hour and a half long briefing from his medical team, an hour and a half long briefing from an economic team and that he is talking with Congressional leaders, along with speaking to the media from his new in-home TV studio

    Meanwhile, the usual suspects are still playing the “Where’s Joe?” game with (and for) each other on twitter.

  136. 136.

    JaneE

    These daily briefings expose Trump’s ignorance.  If enough of the people who don’t bother to vote see how this man is endangering people, maybe they will turn out and vote for someone who doesn’t see human beings as kleenex.

  137. 137.

    Fair Economist

    @Elizabelle:

    Cuomo is suggesting that one ventilator could be shared between two patients. It’s experimental. Have two sets of tubing, and beds next to each other.

    Better than no ventilator, but ventilator settings have to be adjusted for each patient. Forced ventilation damages the lungs, and the more forcing the worse the damage. If people get ventilated in pairs, one has to be over-ventilated. Weaning in particular becomes very problematic.

  138. 138.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ruckus: Make him walk, without a hat, in direct sun. Three weeks & he’d be intimate with Melanoma for the first time in years…

  139. 139.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: They are saying “Were is Joe?” so they can blame Joe for this mess by accusing Biden of playing politics during a national crises.

    Biden, Obama, Pelosie and Hillary aren’t president, Trump is, no matter how much The Right wants to pretend otherwise.

  140. 140.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Fair Economist: I wonder if anyone has given any thought to using CPAPs with patients who could use some help in oxygenating but not full-on ventilation. There are a lot of those around & assembly lines should be ready to go & readily ramped up.

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    As a tool and die maker/business owner for a very long time I made that point on twitter and was yelled at for being realistic. Turns out that one of the ventilator mfgs is only at 20% capacity and can ramp up but no one is ordering. That may have changed in the last 2 or 3 days. People think 3D printing will make them faster. It would be better than nothing but making all the parts on 3D printers would be, how shall we say, ineffective. The printers are dramatically faster and better than when I worked with an early pioneer company in the early 90s. They are not the answer to this. They could assist. But there are electronics and parts that 3D printing won’t help.

  145. 145.

    Just Chuck

    @Ruckus: Add to that the fact that supply chains are much tighter and originate in countries that are themselves walloped by coronavirus … yeah, it’s a long process we should have started on yesterday.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    Sidelight from the past:

    History tells us Napoleon ranted that the yellow fever which raced through the troops he’d sent to Hispaniola like the proverbial substance through the proverbial waterfowl was (somehow) a direct insult to and attack on him personally.

  147. 147.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: Which IIRC effectively prevented him from putting down the slave rebellion led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. Which led to France being unable to defend the large chunk of the NA continent starting at New Orleans. Which led to ol’ Nap cutting his losses & offering that chunk to the USA, who bought it, et voila – Louisiana Purchase!

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @hueyplong:

    The first network to stay away only to show 60 seconds of highlights could well be Fox.

    Would Trump even live through an experience like that? I think not. He would finally fall to the Trump Plague from the sheer agony of being ignored by HIS FOX news…

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