Trump

[morepork]

Fuck me. Hard to believe so many Noble winning scientists came out of this shit storm of a bad sitcom.

[paddy no 11]

You know last week when you think he can't possibly sink any lower down.....

The briefings which weren't worth it are back on, tonight should be trainwreck

[Digby]

Smart, hard-working, intelligent, principled... she probably doesn't want the life, and she's some way short of having a service record and a comprehensive set of policies, but she's hardly a bad starting point, and having someone that popular wouldn't hurt

It speaks volumes for the situation there that someone primarily known for being a wife looks better than most of the actual runners.

There are only two runners, which of the most does she not look better than?

[Donny osmond]

Sorry, I try not to post stories about individuals but this is one of those that just stops you in your tracks and breaks your heart, leaves you gazing at a blank wall for 5 minutes...

Coronavirus: Top NYC doctor takes her own life

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-can ... ink1_.auin

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[Son of Mathonwy]

Smart, hard-working, intelligent, principled... she probably doesn't want the life, and she's some way short of having a service record and a comprehensive set of policies, but she's hardly a bad starting point, and having someone that popular wouldn't hurt

It speaks volumes for the situation there that someone primarily known for being a wife looks better than most of the actual runners.

There are only two runners, which of the most does she not look better than?

I'm including those who've dropped out.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Sorry, I try not to post stories about individuals but this is one of those that just stops you in your tracks and breaks your heart, leaves you gazing at a blank wall for 5 minutes...

Coronavirus: Top NYC doctor takes her own life

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-can ... ink1_.auin

Truly grim.

[Digby]

It speaks volumes for the situation there that someone primarily known for being a wife looks better than most of the actual runners.

There are only two runners, which of the most does she not look better than?

I'm including those who've dropped out.

Ah, Warren, fair enough

[Eugene Wrayburn]

Smart, hard-working, intelligent, principled... she probably doesn't want the life, and she's some way short of having a service record and a comprehensive set of policies, but she's hardly a bad starting point, and having someone that popular wouldn't hurt

It speaks volumes for the situation there that someone primarily known for being a wife looks better than most of the actual runners.

Just because someone is known for being a wife doesn't mean that's all they are. And not having much of a hinterland makes it easier to look good.

[Stom]

Smart, hard-working, intelligent, principled... she probably doesn't want the life, and she's some way short of having a service record and a comprehensive set of policies, but she's hardly a bad starting point, and having someone that popular wouldn't hurt

It speaks volumes for the situation there that someone primarily known for being a wife looks better than most of the actual runners.

Just because someone is known for being a wife doesn't mean that's all they are. And not having much of a hinterland makes it easier to look good.

I like to think that if you elevate someone onto a platform, their actions once there speak volumes. Michelle Obama has used the platform she was given very well, I believe.

[Donny osmond]

This was tweeted into my timeline by someone else, I've no idea who Gerry Perlman is... but is this actually true?

Gerry Perlman

@PerlmanGerry

CNN, NBC, CBS, & ABC are set to announce that they will no longer televise Trumps announcements from the White House, saying that they are not in the public interest. They are standing firm, claiming that they are actually protecting the American public.



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[Digby]

It's a hell of a precedent, and he was elected, and whilst the system of election is nuts nobody who was sane ever changed it

Edit - Which also to say I have my doubts they wouldn't carry his conferences, but maybe they don't show them in full or have a delay so they can head away if he starts... something, you can't just say if he starts rambling, lying or saying dangerous stuff 'cause that's almost all he does

[Son of Mathonwy]

It's a hell of a precedent, and he was elected, and whilst the system of election is nuts nobody who was sane ever changed it

Edit - Which also to say I have my doubts they wouldn't carry his conferences, but maybe they don't show them in full or have a delay so they can head away if he starts... something, you can't just say if he starts rambling, lying or saying dangerous stuff 'cause that's almost all he does

They can edit them down to the bits where Trump isn't lying, playing campaign videos, encouraging dangerous misuse of chemicals, and rambling.

I guess that just leaves the bragging. The bragging that isn't lying or rambing. So not very much, really.

[Mikey Brown]

“Achieved all the milestones that were needed.”

What?

How could you possibly be that bad at phrasing anything? Isn’t this guy a lawyer? This reads like the most insane rhetoric about the GOP being soulless monsters who view people and their problems as a mere statistic.

[morepork]

MBA. His authority extends no further than inherited wealth. A more inappropriate nor punchable face of the response I could not imagine. Fuck him .

[J Dory]

I know i mentioned this before, but Netflix's series dirty money, episode "Slumlord Millionaire" which delves into his business practices is worth watching. His company buys up low income housing, then puts into place a series of fines for late payments that mean many tenants end up paying more than their rent each month, never catching up. They are not looking to evict, rather they want to keep people there and maximize what they extract from them as the slums they run are not exactly in high demand. They ignore building fire code and safety requirements knowing that enforcement is lax, they maker generous contributions to local politicians.They also actively pursue tenants with outstanding rent from before they took ownership with an agressive debt collection policy. Rich man making money by using the law to prey on poor people, making them poorer and himself richer. He also just borrowed 100s of millions at low interest from the US government to buy yet more low income housing.

I don't have the words to describe just how awful of an excuse for a human being he is.

[morepork]

I am so fucking sick of these clowns.

[Mikey Brown]

I know i mentioned this before, but Netflix's series dirty money, episode "Slumlord Millionaire" which delves into his business practices is worth watching. His company buys up low income housing, then puts into place a series of fines for late payments that mean many tenants end up paying more than their rent each month, never catching up. They are not looking to evict, rather they want to keep people there and maximize what they extract from them as the slums they run are not exactly in high demand. They ignore building fire code and safety requirements knowing that enforcement is lax, they maker generous contributions to local politicians.They also actively pursue tenants with outstanding rent from before they took ownership with an agressive debt collection policy. Rich man making money by using the law to prey on poor people, making them poorer and himself richer. He also just borrowed 100s of millions at low interest from the US government to buy yet more low income housing.

I don't have the words to describe just how awful of an excuse for a human being he is.

I definitely couldn’t handle watching that. I’d just end up smashing my tv.

[Digby]

National Guard being used to defend the states from the federal government, outstanding stuff. Jared in fairness was clear the PPE wasn't the States property, it's the Federal Government's

[Digby]

When Trump recently veered from being under the impression many major hospitals had only 2 ventilators to suddenly thinking actually we might need more of these his Whitehouse Coronavirus Taskforce contacted a man who'd tweeted the President saying something along the lines of URGENT, I can supply ventilators contact me asap. The man involved, Yaron Oren-Pines, with no background in the medical supply chains was involved in (I think) the manufacture of mobile phones, and simply by tweeting at the President he got a contracted to supply almost 1,500 ventilators at almost $70 million, which is being reported at around 3x the price you'd have been paying for a top-end ventilator prior to the pandemic, and it's not noted if the ventilators that were ordered from Oren-Pines (also the company name) would have been top-end.

No ventilators were ever delivered, and the contract was cancelled with what's been reported as the bulk of the money as being returned.

So several questions, how was the President ever under the impression that major hospitals had 2 ventilators each, why does tweeting in CAPS get his attention, why is the WH handing out contracts on the back of a tweet to an individual with no medical supply chain history, and what does getting the bulk of the money back actually mean, 'cause surely if Mr Oren-Pines gets to keep $2 million after supplying nowt that's not a bad return on tweeting Trump and then kicking back with a cold one?

[morepork]

Please, for the love of god and jebus, get this fool out of the way. I mean, FFS.

[gransoporro]

When Trump recently veered from being under the impression many major hospitals had only 2 ventilators to suddenly thinking actually we might need more of these his Whitehouse Coronavirus Taskforce contacted a man who'd tweeted the President saying something along the lines of URGENT, I can supply ventilators contact me asap. The man involved, Yaron Oren-Pines, with no background in the medical supply chains was involved in (I think) the manufacture of mobile phones, and simply by tweeting at the President he got a contracted to supply almost 1,500 ventilators at almost $70 million, which is being reported at around 3x the price you'd have been paying for a top-end ventilator prior to the pandemic, and it's not noted if the ventilators that were ordered from Oren-Pines (also the company name) would have been top-end.

No ventilators were ever delivered, and the contract was cancelled with what's been reported as the bulk of the money as being returned.

So several questions, how was the President ever under the impression that major hospitals had 2 ventilators each, why does tweeting in CAPS get his attention, why is the WH handing out contracts on the back of a tweet to an individual with no medical supply chain history, and what does getting the bulk of the money back actually mean, 'cause surely if Mr Oren-Pines gets to keep $2 million after supplying nowt that's not a bad return on tweeting Trump and then kicking back with a cold one?

The story of the hydrocloroquine: grass root investors tooted it on Twitter and got to talk about it on Fox (I believe Fox & friends). That is how Trump saw it and jumped, like Fox, on the miracle medicine wagon.

Same above, if you offer a miracle, the government will believe you because they want to believe. And the MAGA crowd likes only stuff that goes through the path above described (twitter-> Fox -> Trump/government/congressman). If you tell them about science or other sensible stuff, they won’t believe it: that is some conspiracy theory fertile ground. And they are pleased with government “thinking outside the box” because thinking inside the box is for liberals or at least political enemies.

[morepork]

The private sector is just fleecing the government at will. The refusal to centralise a response and distribute bulk supplies based on need in a coordinated fashion is such easy pickings for predators. All decisions are made in a small, closely guarded circle of not very bright people. Jared Kushner seems to be calling most of the shots and by thundering fuck, he is not very good at it. The result is some spectacular price gouging, or even outright fraud, a rapid draining of finances, and no net gain for public health. It's hard to imagine a worse response. This country will remain one large leper colony for years to come as this thing waxes and wanes with monotonous predictability on the strength of the idiotic bumblings of people in charge. For every competent governor there is a spastic science-denying fuckwit who will promote the re-seeding of the pathogen at intervals, undoing months of hard graft by people in competent areas. All the while, the federal government, totally neutered, sits back and lets it play out. I just can't believe how laughingly profound this masterclass in incompetence has been. There may even be a Noble Prize for excellence in fuckwittery on the cards.

[Mikey Brown]

What a picture.

[Digby]

Is that the plant in Arizona? If so kudos to the factory floor staff who took the moment to blast Live & Let Die over the speakers.

I'm also of course deeply impressed Fat Don has decided to reverse his decision to scrap the pandemic task force because he didn't realise it was so popular, as opposed to it should never have been scrapped in the first place, and popularity has nothing to do with the world of overcoming the situation

[morepork]

Drink it in

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

A little more on the "modelling" employed to justify reopening.

https://slate.com/business/2020/05/trum ... -dumb.html


You an see the seeds of the outright bullshit amplified by propaganda via a calculating media apparatus. The death of the 4th estate is one of the key elements in not just the broadcasting of willfully incorrect, outright dangerous information, but the incomprehensible possibility of this shower of bastards being in with a shot at re-election. Nearly half the population have been programmed by a virtual room 101. I can't see any sort of quick recovery from this, even when (if?) the public health crisis is dealt with. I'm not sure what my role here is in the long term, but I'm not liking what I see.