Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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

Nothing worth doing is easy.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Everybody saw this coming.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

After roe, women are no longer free.

This really is a full service blog.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

No Justins, No Peace

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / It’s Not His Decision to Make

It’s Not His Decision to Make

by | 132 Comments

This post is in: ,

On top of what Betty said below, the other thing to keep in mind is that not only is it not his fucking decision to make, but it also doesn’t matter what he says because people are not going to “re-open” the country until they feel safe.

All this premature “re-opening” the country bullshit is about is blame shifting to the governors and telling his buddies in big business it’s ok to start firing people for not showing up, and signalling to everyone that there ain’t no more money coming. That is it.

Universities and colleges and public schools are still going to listen to actual medical experts and scientists, and the majority of people will continue to act like this thing can kill them, BECAUSE IT CAN AND WILL despite whatever Trump’s panel of dipshits decree.

Trump simply is not in control of the situation in any way, shape, or form, and that is both good and bad. It sucks that the power of the federal government can’t be harnessed and used to fight this. On the other hand, it is good that the public isn’t going to pay attention to this doofus because we’re not just talking about shitting on immigrants and making hand-signs anymore. This is life or death, and most people get that.

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  3. 3.

    Urza

    An odd thought I’ve been having.  What happens if Red states open back up, and Blue states tend to stay closed awhile longer?  Is it a significant hit to the economies?  What happens when new infection waves start?  And barring anything miraculous, does anything change after state level elections later in the year because the people agree or disagree with how things were handled.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Trump’s lying.  All lies, and I just tuned in to see what BobS was seeing.

    It’s so transparent.  You would not buy a car, carpet, toupee or ginsu knife from this fool.

    Making it entirely clear he has no idea of the science of viruses, pandemics, or federal responsibilities.

    Cannot remind people he banned travel from China enough — maybe 3 mentions in five minutes.

  7. 7.

    evinfuilt

    @Urza: We’ll find out. I’m 99% sure all those Red States will open, and have tons of tragic deaths. Our Federal laws will prevent states from stopping interstate travel, so that will effect all of us.

    Then there’s the unfortunate souls in Georgia, who elected a bright official, who would have helped them all, but some demon took her job. They won’t deserve what he does to that state.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    “If you call CNN a network.  I don’t, personally.”

    He is such a whingeing lizard.  Now he’s whingeing about Joe Biden — who was “going crazy.”

    Called me a xenophobe, a racist.

    I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives …

    Woman is getting after him.  He shames her for rudeness.

    He is getting pushback.  Lots of pushback.

    Q:  What did your administration do in February ….

    You know you’re a fake.  The way you cover it.  The people are wise to you. Speaks of their ratings.

    Says Biden wrote a letter of apology and Democrats thought Trump acted too quickly.

    Reporter is right back at him:  Biden did not write a letter.

  11. 11.

    khead

    I am loving this press conference.

    Democrats, Pelosi, Biden, oh my!  Curious to know who gave him the Civil War talking point.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    Trump’s taking credit for closing.

    [Which the governors and mayors did.]

    He has saved us from a Civil War level catastrophe.

    Speaking of a surge.  “We’re ready to rock.”

  13. 13.

    Sloane Ranger

    This “briefing” is a train wreck and car crash combined. Anyone not totally brain dead can see this is a deeply insecure man.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom
    “You know you’re a fake, you know that.” Spoiler: He’s talking to a young female reporter

    “you’re so disgraceful” “nobody thought we should do it” He’s getting even more wound up.

    “Joe Biden went crazy. No wait, he didn’t go crazy, he didn’t even know what it was. He has since apologized.”

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   I’m just listening, because I cannot look at his orange lizard face.

    Whingeing again that the states did not have their own stockpiles.  Which is fucking ridiculous.

    Everyone who needs a ventilator has gotten one.

  18. 18.

    Lapassionara

    Thank you all for watching so I don’t have to.

    I heard he ran a campaign commercial put together by WH employees. Does any law matter anymore?

  20. 20.

    Kent

    @Urza:An odd thought I’ve been having.  What happens if Red states open back up, and Blue states tend to stay closed awhile longer?  Is it a significant hit to the economies?  What happens when new infection waves start?  And barring anything miraculous, does anything change after state level elections later in the year because the people agree or disagree with how things were handled.

    It is actually likely to be the opposite.  Blue States like WA, OR, and CA are actually ahead of the curve because they implemented measures first while red states like TX, FL, and GA are accelerating into the abyss because they took too long.   Here in WA we may be ready to go back to work while places like TX and FL are still at peak crisis.  WA which started out leading the nation in both cases and deaths is now down to a 1.8% daily increase in cases.  The curve has nearly flattened and WA has dropped from 1st down to #13 among the states for numbers of infections.

    Some blue states may be ready to go back to work but will have to wait until the red states catch up.

  22. 22.

    joel hanes

    @Urza:

    Iowa is still half-open:  the schools are closed, but most businesses have been allowed to continue.   Reynolds is walking a tightrope, and I can’t predict how it will turn out.

    I’ve been watching the curves, but testing data is inadequate, and so far the data from Iowa COVID-19 deaths is not good enough to see what’s happening.

    I expect that Florida is still headed for a high peak that DeSantis will continue to do everything in his power to obscure, but deaths are a matter of public record, and eventually, the truth will out.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    Why can’t we sterilize or sanitize these masks?  He kept asking.

    Not something that ever occurred to medical professionals.  But Trump knew.  And there’s a company in Ohio that can do just that.

    Per Trump, we are about drowning in supplies.  Blaming Obama for a depleted stockpile.

    Pro Publica looked into that.  Blamed it squarely on the Tea Party.

  25. 25.

    rk

    We got our first case of COVID in the lab. A phlebotomist. He’s home and hopefully recovers without any complications. I was in direct contact with him, but that was over 3 weeks ago. But he was training with others in the lab. We’re together with the phlebotomists who go to draw blood from COVID patients all the time. So even though we don’t have direct patient contact, we’re not entirely unexposed. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed.

    Hospitals in hard hit areas are barely managing. Open up everything and they will collapse. I don’t know how people are even talking about opening things up.

  26. 26.

    Evil_Paul

    Interesting how just a week ago he was saying the pandemic is the States’ problem and the Federal government is only there as a backup. But now, after openly abdicating his leadership role, he thinks he can step back in and order the States to re-open?

    Even if he had that authority, he publicly gave it up.

  27. 27.

    Sab

    @Urza: In Ohio, the Governor said today that liquor stores in five counties on the PA border have to check ids. If you can’t prove you live in Ohio then you can’t buy booze here. Youngstown on the border is getting hit hard by the virus.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    I am catching this shitshow via C-Span online.

    Where are you guys watching?  Who is airing this ridiculous performance.

    He cannot blame the governors enough.  And we are testing more than anyone in the rest of the world.

    Lies, lies, lies.

  31. 31.

    PenAndKey

    @evinfuilt: Our Federal laws will prevent states from stopping interstate travel, so that will effect all of us.

    The states can’t stop interstate commerce, but travel within the state by anyone else, and mandatory quarantines as decided by the state, are explicitly a state power.

  33. 33.

    BobS

    @MisterForkbeard: Fair point, but he seems pretty agitated, and more defensive than usual.

    I’d love for a reporter to ask Fauci if the timeline in the campaign commercial was an accurate depiction.

  34. 34.

    sixthdoctor

    @Elizabelle:  It’s amazing that despite his criminal incompetence, his virulent racism, his cartoonish levels of corruption, and his constant criminal activity, what I really find unbelievable about him day to day is that he is such a damn crybaby…

  35. 35.

    Lapassionara

    @Kent: I don’t see how any state opens back up until there is a robust testing system with contact tracing in place.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    At this point, the car he is trying to sell you — the tires are deflating before your eyes, and there  goes the radiator.

    Wait?  Is that a fender falling off?

  42. 42.

    khead

    IamnowjustmakingsuretoreadwhatevertheygavemetoreadheretodayafterIwentbonkersonreport
    ersduringthefirstpartofthepressconference.

  44. 44.

    BobS

    More reporters seem to have realized that they receive accolades for calling out his bullshit in real time.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    @Lapassionara:@Kent: I don’t see how any state opens back up until there is a robust testing system with contact tracing in place.

    I agree.  I’m just pointing out that blue states are further ahead on the curve then red states right now.

    Look at the NYT map of where the outbreak is still accelerating the fastest:  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html   scroll down to the second map and compare the south to the west coast.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused:   I might start watching.  Maybe he will self-immolate.

    And now, another committee.  With the most successful people in the country.  Announcing it tomorrow.

    2/5s of whom will be Ivanka and Jared.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    Trump is putting the lie to the statement that he cannot read.

    He is reading.  Bigly.  Fastly.  Out loud even.

    Understanding, umm…..

    Thanks Putin.  Thanks leader of Saudi Arabia.  Thanks President Lopez Obrador of Mexico.  Pronounced the name correctly.  Points for that.

  52. 52.

    Frances Perkins

    Speaking of Trump’s corruption, there is a superb, carefully detailed account of the widespread corruption of the Trump Administration which everyone should read.  see current edition of The American Prospect.

  54. 54.

    debbie

    @Lapassionara:

    DeWine was warning businesses today to be careful about the tests they were ordering to use on their employees. Apparently, a lot of them are fake.

  56. 56.

    Lapassionara

    @Kent: I saw where some states are getting together to move forward toward a more normal way of living, but I have not heard where they are going to get sufficient tests, etc. too bad we don’t have a federal government to handle these kinds of issues.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kent:

    Our three governors announced today that CA, OR, and WA are forming a consortium to coordinate Covid-19 responses. United States of Cascadia, here we come! There’d better be a bear on the new flag, is all I’m sayin’. ?

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused:   Truly.  This is what we see in public.  Recorded for posterity.

    His mediocre staff deserves whatever they had to put up with.  Fauci, not.

  61. 61.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Praise Jeebus, I’m retired and the house is paid for. There is an upside to being old.

  62. 62.

    Aleta

    He’s playing the press, and they can’t help jumping for the bait, to stop them from doing so many stories on the timeline of his mistakes and the stress and infection of essential workers. To force a switch to reality-show anticipation:   Torn Over Reopening Economy, Trump Says He Faces ‘Biggest Decision I’ve Ever Had to Make’  The president suggested he wanted to move soon (NYT).    Trump spends Easter weekend pondering the ‘biggest … (CNN).   White House denies Trump is considering firing Fauci (Post).
    After the first thousand times he’s done this— “Trump says he will soon announce his decision on xyz.”  “Is Trump about to fire Bcd?” — one can only scream.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    Gee, if only there was some kind of federal agency that could monitor stuff like that. We could call it the Food and Drug … something.
    /s

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    Q:  What provision in the Constitution gives the president the power to open up?

    Trump is taking credit for the state lockdowns.  “I let that happen.”  He could have stopped it.  But he let it happen.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @sixthdoctor:

    I keep harping on the fact that his current development leaves him at about that of a 4 yr old brat. And between his personality defects, his base intelligence and his dementia, I’d say giving him 4 yrs old is being pretty damn generous.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    “The POTUS has the authority to do what the POTUS has the authority to do.”

    He’s backing the states up.  Doing a job no one has ever done before.

    If local government was not doing a good job “I would step in so fast.”

    It’s all Trump.

  71. 71.

    Ramalama

    Meanwhile, my Brother-in-law, Chicago Police, working at the jail dere, says 300 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. 1/3 of the police have it as well. I’m bloody nervous.

    Friend of mine in Chicagoland who voted for Trump has a parent in long-care facility where… you can guess the Animal Farm types of things going on. Really and truly terrible treatment of the elderly and infirm. Friend blames the Democrats because governor.

    Ugh on all sides.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    Trump’s vocabulary has been more expansive than I usually see.  (Probably cuz I avoid him as much as possible.)

    Anyway, he has been briefed and prepared for this one.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie:   My sister and I were saying last night we think it best not to open our Merrill Lynch statements.  We would just  … rather not know.  At this time.

  78. 78.

    waspuppet

    All this premature “re-opening” the country bullshit is about is blame shifting to the governors and telling his buddies in big business it’s ok to start firing people for not showing up, and signalling to everyone that there ain’t no more money coming. That is it.

    Yeah but that’s a lot, isn’t it? I think he’s setting up to tell the governors “Well, I can’t stop you from keeping your orders in place, but I’m not signing another relief bill.” Then what?

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    Trump:  “Steve:  do you want to talk about Phase Four?”

    There’s a Phase One?  Or Two, even?

  80. 80.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    I took a look at twitter saw a lot of things like this:

    “Trump kicked their asses! Best. Briefing. Ever.”

    “Omg Trump just owned that podium today. Owned #CNN and other fake news.”

    This country is filled to the brim with crazy people.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    The reporters will not let it go — Trump’s authority vs. the governors’.

    Trump says his “authority is total.  It’s total.”

    Speaks of “Democrat governors.”  They’ll get on the page.  (My paraphrase.)

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @James E Powell:   Which is why you could not pay me to follow Twitter.

    Filled with twits.  My friends’ Facebook friends are as much as I can put up with.

    Why should we amplify the words of the usual morons?

    We are sticking to amplifying our moron in chief at the moment.

  87. 87.

    dmsilev

    Trump: “The President of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the united States calls the shots.” pic.twitter.com/wia8r2Fd1g— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 13, 2020

    (open up the Tweet to see CNN’s chyron. It has to be seen to be believed)

    Edit: The chyron on this next clip is also good:

    I don't know this reporter's name. But man, she would not let up even in the face of President Trump's attacks. pic.twitter.com/fUGUwGbEI6— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 13, 2020

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @dmsilev:   CNN chyron:  “Trump melts down ….”

    Good to see some getting a clue.  But are they still running the presser??

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    Female reporter re Trump’s authority quote:  “That is not true.  Who told you that was true?”

  93. 93.

    dmsilev

    @Elizabelle: There’s actually a whole bunch, also including:

    • “Angry Trump turns briefing into propaganda session”
    • “Trump uses task force briefing to try to rewrite history on coronavirus response”
    • “Trump refuses to acknowledge any mistakes”

    The chyron writer clearly has reached his or her limit.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    Chanel Rion just asked a question from the back of the room, standing there.  She is with OAN.  They do not have a seat.  But she crashes the pressers anyway.

    Trump now talking about how we’re getting ripped off by the WHO and World Trade.  “I call them the Bobbsey Twins.”

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    Paula Reid of CBS is the brave blonde reporter in  the front row who does not let Trump lie to her face.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    Pence there, quietbragging that they are in charge at an unprecedented time. All 50 states have declared emergencies.

    Well.  Yeah.

  98. 98.

    joel hanes

    I really wish that the yellow-coated California sub-species of grizzly had not been driven extinct.   It’s weird having an extinct animal be a symbol of the state; like having the Great Auk be the state bird of Maine, or the Passenger Pigeon the state bird of Ohio.

    Am I correct that none of California, Oregon, Washington have any grizzlies at all ?  That’s the way I remember it.

    Grizzlies really are pretty close to incompatible with human settlement of any density.

    Here’s “Escudilla”, a chapter/essay from Aldo Leopold’s wonderful  A Sand County Almanac

    Life in Arizona was bounded under foot by grama grass, overhead by sky, and on the horizon by Escudilla.

    To the north of the mountain you rode on honey-colored plains. Look up anywhere, any time, and you saw Escudilla.

    To the east you rode over a confusion of wooded mesas. Each hollow seemed its own small world, soaked in sun, fragrant with juniper, and cozy with the chatter of pinon jays. But top out on a ridge and you at once became a speck in an immensity. On its edge hung Escudilla.

    To the south lay the tangled canyons of the Blue River, full of whitetails, wild turkeys, and wilder cattle. When you missed a saucy buck waving his goodbye over the skyline, and looked down you sights to wonder why, you looked at a far blue mountain: Escudilla.

    To the west billowed the outliers of the Apache National Forest. We cruised timber there, converting the tall pines, forty by forty, into notebook figures representing hypothetical lumber piles. Panting up a canyon, the cruiser felt a curious incongruity between the remoteness of his notebook symbols and the immediacy of sweaty fingers, locust thorns, deer-fly bites, and scolding squirrels. But on the next ridge a cold wind, roaring across a green sea of pines, blew his doubts away. On the far shore hung Escudilla.

    The mountain bounded not only our work and our play, but even our attempts to get a good dinner. On winter evenings we often tried to ambush a mallard on the river flats. The wary flocks circled the rosy west, the steel-blue north, and then disappeared into the inky black of Escudilla. If they reappeared on set wings, we had a fat drake for the Dutch oven. If they failed to reappear, it was bacon and beans again.

    There was, in fact, only one place from which you did not see Escudilla on the skyline: that was the top of Escudilla itself. Up there you could not see the mountain, but you could feel it. The reason was the big bear.

    Old Bigfoot was a robber-baron, and Escudilla was his castle. Each spring, when the warm winds had softened the shadows on the snow, the old grizzly crawled out of his hibernation den in the rock slides and, descending the mountain, bashed in the head of a cow. Eating his fill, he climbed back to his crags, and there summered peacably on marmots, conies, berries, and roots.

    I once saw one of his kills. The cow’s skull and neck were pulp, as if she had collided head-on with a fast freight.

    No one ever saw the old bear, but in the muddy springs about the base of the cliffs you saw his incredible tracks. Seeing them made the most hard-bitten cowboys aware of bear. Wherever they rode they saw the mountain, and when they saw the mountain they thought of bear. Campfire converstaion ran to beef, _bailes_, and bear. Bigfoot claimed for his own only a cow a year, and a few sqare miles of useless rocks, but his personality pervaded the county.

    Those were the days when progress first came to the cow country. Progress had various emissaries.

    One was the first transcontinental automobilist. The cowboys understood this breaker of roads; he talked the same breezy bravado as any breaker of bronchos.

    They did not understand, but they listened to and looked at, the pretty lady in black velvet who came to enlighten them, in a Boston accent, about woman suffrage.

    They marveled, too, at the telephone engineer who strung wires on the junipers and brought instantaneous messages from town. An old man asked whether the wire could bring him a side of bacon.

    One spring, progress sent still andother emissary, a government trapper, a sort of St. George in overalls, seeking dragons to slay at government expense. Were there, he asked, any destructive animals in need of slaying? Yes, there was the big bear.

    The trapper packed his mule and headed for Escudilla.

    In a month he was back, his mule staggering under a heavy hide. There was only one barn in town big enough to dry it on. He had tried traps, poison, and all his usual wiles to no avail. Then he had erected a set-gun in a defile through which only the bear could pass, and waited. The last grizzly walked into the string and shot himself.

    It was June. The pelt was foul, patchy, and worthless. It seemed to us rather an insult to deny the last grizzly the chance to leave a good pelt as a memorial to his race. All he left was a skull in the National Museum, and a quarrel among scientists over the Latin name of the skull.

    It was only after we pondered on these things that we began to wonder who wrote the rules for progress.

    * * *

    Since the beginning, time had gnawed at the basaltic hulk of Escudilla, wasting, waiting, and building. Time built three things on the old mountain, a venerable aspect, a community of minor animals and plants, and a grizzly.

    The government trapper who took the grizzly knew he had made Escudilla safe for cows. He did not know he had toppled the spire off an edifice a-building since the morning stars sang together.

    The bureau chief who sent the trapper was a biologist versed in the architecture of evolution, but he did not know that spires might be as important as cows. He did not foresee that within two decades the cow country would become tourist country, and as such have a greater need of bears than of beefsteak.

    The Congressmen who voted money to clear the ranges of bears were the sons of pioneers. They acclaimed the superior virtures of the frontiersman, but they strove with might and main to make and end of the frontier.

    We forest officers, who acquiesced inthe extinguishment of the bear, knew a local rancher who had plowed up a dagger engraved with the name of one of Coronado’s captains. We spoke harshly of the Spaniards who, in their zeal for gold and converts, had needlessly extinguished the native Indians. It did not occur to us that we, too, were the captains of an invasion too sure of its own righteousness.

    Escudilla still hangs on the horizon, but when you see it you no longer think of bear. It’s only a mountain now.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    Pence is wearing a tie striped with red and blue, with a little white.  That’s diplomatic.

    Trump in the usual red.

  100. 100.

    khead

    I encourage folks out there to tell your friends to watch every coronavirus press conference each day during this crisis.  Your friends are at home and have nothing better to do than watch and learn how our government works.

  101. 101.

    hueyplong

    I don’t know how you all can watch these things in real time.  I can’t go 10 seconds.

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    Pence feels gratitude to the American people, the White House’s experts, the governors.

    It’s gracious.  Wholly beyond Trump.  Kudos to Pence.  He’s crediting Trump with the mitigation measures, but Pence has got to Pence.

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    Q re whether the regional governors told Pence before their press conference  what they would be announcing.

  104. 104.

    BobS

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t know whether it’s legal or not, but it’s my impression that per capita usage in Oregon is as high as or higher than Washington or California.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @khead: A word that goes beyond the boundaries of the site often causes issues on mobile devices.  Since your edit window is over, I am going to make an edit.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    Pence word saladed the question, so the reporter repeated her question again.  “Did they tell you?”

  107. 107.

    The Dangerman

    @Elizabelle:

    If local government was not doing a good job “I would step in so fast.”

    I think you meant “step in it so fast”.

    This is kind of like that scene in “The Jerk”:

    Son, this here is shit and that’s shinola (I wonder how close I have come; youtube, here I come).

    As opposed to Trump, the Jerk-Off.

    ETA: I wasn’t THAT close:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDXN7T3-Jrg

  108. 108.

    jl

    Newsom said CA would start publicly discussing reopening plans in next few days. CA public health showed the real time CA epidemic models forecasts and historical tracking a few days ago,  seem to be right on track for opening up around bogus Trump time table. Which is pure coincidence.

    Maybe Newsom talking about plans several weeks before state knows whether that can be done on Trump’s schedule, and a full month before it most probably can start happening is not coincidence. Keep the toddler happy.

    A lot of Red states try to do Trump’s insane big beautiful bang reopening, everything all at once, they are going to get re-hammered by a full blown repeat epidemic wave.

    OTOH, will be plenty of people and organizations waiting at the courthouse door to file the cases the second Trump tries to exert his ‘total’ authority.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    A Brit asks about reopening and then a second wave.  Trump agrees,  that weighs on his mind.

    The young male reporter asking another question for a colleague who was not able to be here.  Second time I have heard that.

    Is our press corpse learning?

  111. 111.

    laura

    @Mnemosyne: if you watched his ramble rally campaign propaganda episode today, could I please request that you tell us what this is NPD-wise? Is he president cornered rat, or I dont pay no never mind to sassy lady questions, or is it just a need to have a spotlight and the reassuring sound of his voice? Because I feel like I lost an IQ point for having caught a snip it of the presser

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    Love it.  Q re Michelle Obama got behind mail in voting.  Today. In light of coronavirus.

    Trump dodges the question.  Asks it was absentee voting, and then dodged on hearing it was cuz of virus.

  114. 114.

    Elizabelle

    @Duane:   I know.  “We’re underwater.  All 50 states.  At least 20 feet.  No other administration has ever faced this.”

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    John has put up a new blogpost.

    On the same topic.  Trump and his press conference.  And he is not getting away with his bullshit.

  116. 116.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne: Can we add NV? They’ve done a good public health job too, has a Democratic governor.

    ID public health has been good too, but it is run by GOPers, so problems at the political level.

    We need more states in on the deal.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @hueyplong:

    I like my computer and TV. Smashing them with a hammer won’t solve anything so I don’t watch them at all. I don’t have the stomach, patience, desire, fortitude, enough BP medication…….

  118. 118.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Mnemosyne:

    Damned straight it is legal here! I just got back from my local place of purveyance with some THC loaded gummies, taffy and caramels. I’m already well stocked with distillates for my pen and bong.

    West coast is legal all the way!

  119. 119.

    jl

    @laura: A politician who has seriously messed up everything says whatever to get through to the next week, then day, then hour, then minute, then next ten seconds. Sooner or later that approach reaches certain limits.

    Trump is making so little sense he’s gone into the zone of saying self-contradictory whatever at the same time.

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    @rk: Hang in there.

    Talking about Planning is one thing.  Planning is a second thing.  Implementing a Plan is a third thing.  Adjusting a Plan based on changed circumstances if a fourth thing.

    The trouble with all of this reporting about “planning to open” again is that it’s mixing all of those things up together and making a mess of the information that people need to know.

    The press is complicit in this because they’ve trained themselves to have the attention span required to read a tweet and refuse to have the expertise needed to understand the real issues and to be able to sort mouth noises from information.

    Grrr…

    Our big boss said today that our return to the work site is going to be evidence-based and we’re going to be “fast followers” – we’re not going to be the pioneers with the arrows in their backs.  I suspect most of the country is going to have the same attitude.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  126. 126.

    rk

    @Another Scott:

    The CEO of my daughter’s company has tentatively set the first week of June as when they physically go back to work. That’s subject to change. He’s apparently taking advice from an epidemiologist. It helps that the company has a lot of PhDs working for them. My daughter’s friend’s boss however has somehow managed to get his company designated as essential (it’s a very small law firm). He insists that people come to work three times a week. She can’t quit of course. But it makes my blood boil to even hear this.

    This pandemic seems to be a battle between the morons vs the smart people.

  127. 127.

    catclub

    @khead: Your friends are at home and have nothing better to do than watch and learn how our government works.

     

    I think you only learn that Trump is highly off-kilter from those, but NOT how the government works. If you already knew that trump is off-kilter…

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne

    @laura:

    I never watch his pressers, because they would drive me to suicide, or at least self-harm. I don’t think that the Hoarse Whisperer is watching them, either, and he knows way more about NPD.

    I think Trump just really likes getting to be in front of the microphone and talk. It gives him all kinds of narcissistic supply, even if his lessers are talking back. 

  132. 132.

    Morzer

    What can one say? Chutzpah has committed suicide, because its existence no longer had any meaning:

    Briahna Joy Gray @briebrijoy
    Joe Biden should also consider reaching out to his supporters and the supporters of other candidates, who have been more toxic, racist, and misogynistic than anything I have ever seen from a person purporting to back Bernie. This is not how unity is forged.

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