The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making

[Sicks_Ate]

@Ukulele_Ike

Palindrome? The palindrome of Hydroxychloroquine is Eniuqorolchyxodyh!!!. It don’t work!

(My god, that was oddly satisfying.)

Brilliant!

[Little_Nemo]

You have to wonder if there are plans forming for a legal coup within the administration.

Pence, McConnell, and a few other other party leaders get together and decide to invoke the 25th Amendment. They announce that Donald Trump, a man who was a great President a year ago, has now tragically had a breakdown due to the awesome burdens of the job he has done. There’s ample evidence they can point to to back up the idea that Trump is mentally incapacitated. Trump gets sent off to some confined hospital to recover (and to be somewhere where people can control his tweeting and other contact with the public).

Pence is now acting President. Most Americans are relieved that a nominally competent person is now in charge. Republicans are happy because they no longer have Trump dragging down the party with him. Pence, as an incumbent, has a much better shot at getting elected in November than Trump has. Pence will reassure evangelicals and business types in a way that Trump can’t. And Pence won’t personally offend people that way Trump does. He’s a much stronger candidate than Trump will be.

Most of the people in the administration will see which way the wind is blowing and will quickly transfer whatever loyalty they had for Trump over to Pence. If they had any principles they wouldn’t be part of this administration. And anyone who balks, like Trump’s family members, will be reminded that with Trump out of power, Pence now controls who gets pardoned before January.

Trump’s voter base might be pissed off but the Republicans can afford to dismiss them. They’re not going to turn around and vote for Joe Biden so they don’t matter in the election. Trump supporters are only needed to get somebody like Trump elected; Pence can get re-elected with the regular Republican base. A large part of the Democratic platform in this election has been “Anybody but Trump” and Pence can say “I’m not Trump.”

[CalMeacham]

@Great_Antibob

And in this case, in a bizarre, mind-boggling clarification, he subsequently admits he meant precisely what everybody is implying, despite your rather lengthy (and yes, pedantic) response. He claims to have meant to suggest people should inject themselves with disinfectants.

Sure, he admitted it in the context of walking it back and claiming he wasn’t serious, but he actually admits that’s what he was trying to say.

I appreciate the need for accuracy and fairness in general, but in this case, you way overshot the mark.

Not pedantic, merely precise.

It’s not my fault he’s so stupid and/or disdainful of the truth that he subsequently admitted what he hadn’t actually said.

My heart goes out to those poor underlings whose actual job it is to clean up after his verbal messes. Just when they think they’ve got a consistent and defensible interpretation of his words he goes and stomps in the message mud puddle, completely obliterating their efforts. “It was a joke” is the first refuge of the obnoxious and the oblivious. Thank Of it’s not my job.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Then for fuck’s sake stop trying to do it.

[zoid]

@CalMeacham

It’s not my fault he’s so stupid and/or disdainful of the truth that he subsequently admitted what he hadn’t actually said.

A simple “I was wrong” would have sufficed

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Veterans Affairs chief plugs unproven drug

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is taking advocacy of an unproven drug for the coronavirus even farther than President Donald Trump, claiming without evidence that it’s safe and that it has been effective for young and middle-aged veterans in particular.

On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert warning doctors against prescribing the drug for COVID-19 outside of hospitals and research settings because of the risks of serious side effects and death.

WILKIE, on a nationwide study finding that a malaria drug had no benefit for treating COVID-19 among veterans: “That’s an observational study. It’s not a clinical study. It was done on a small number of veterans. Sadly, those of whom were in the last stages of life. And the drug was given to them. And I have to also say that the drug — we know the drug has been working on middle-age and younger veterans … working in stopping the progression of the disease.” — interview Wednesday on MSNBC.

THE FACTS: He mischaracterized the study’s findings as he delved into an area of speculation by amateurs that his own agency has called “inaccurate and irresponsible.”

Wilkie rejected a study that relies on his department’s own hospital data and finds no benefit from hydroxychloroquine. His claim that it helps younger or middle-aged veterans with COVID-19 is also unsubstantiated.

WILKIE, asked whether it’s safe to encourage people to take hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment: “Oh, I think so.” — interview Wednesday on MSNBC.

THE FACTS: That’s not what the government’s top health experts have said for weeks, nor what his own agency has suggested. The new FDA alert further underscores why the drug cannot be considered generally safe in this pandemic and why it has not been approved by the FDA for treatment of COVID-19.

The “why” is answered in the article, if anyone cares to read the details.

[kaylasdad99]

@Mr.Miskatonic

He wants this whole thing to end like a movie. He suggested the oddball cure that solves everything with a neat bow and it all goes back to normal. Then he’s the hero for tweeting about the miracle and he gets his economy back and people shower him with praise. Roll credits.

Great. Now I’m waiting for him to suggest reversing the polarity of the warp nacelles and routing the output to the deflector dish.

[kaylasdad99]

@CalMeacham

My heart goes out to those poor underlings whose actual job it is to clean up after his verbal messes. Just when they think they’ve got a consistent and defensible interpretation of his words he goes and stomps in the message mud puddle, completely obliterating their efforts. “It was a joke” is the first refuge of the obnoxious and the oblivious. Thank Of it’s not my job.

o_o

>_<

o_0

Did you – did you just make a typo of Og, the OG* of SDMB typo-based inside jokes? Are we in for a rash of Of SMASH riffs?

*You should pardon the expression.

[74westy]

I see you’re not aware of the power of Of’s love. I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about it…

[SuntanLotion]

@orcenio

There was a time where spelling potato as potatoe was intellectual grounds for making a republican unelectable; now they fall, lockstep, with a murderous buffoon who advocated mainlining disinfectant.

Good times…

[Chefguy]

Meanwhile, while we were all watching the monkey perform, Congress has slipped billions of dollars of tax breaks into the new relief package which will benefit large corporations and households making more than $500K. So fuck all y’all, each and every one.

[asahi]

@Chefguy

Meanwhile, while we were all watching the monkey perform, Congress has slipped billions of dollars of tax breaks into the new relief package which will benefit large corporations and households making more than $500K. So fuck all y’all, each and every one.

Got a linky link?

[asahi]

@CalMeacham

I’m not lowering the bar. I explicitly said at the beginning that he continued to say stupid things. I’m just clarifying that he didn’t say the particular stupid thing that everyone is saying that he did. Explicitly denied that, in fact.

I’m just making it clear what he did and did not say. That doesn’t imply that I’m excusing him or setting a lower standard of acceptability.

Sorry, I didn’t mean the post as an attack or to single you out. I guess it was just an observation that there’s no point in trying to be precise with someone who engages in perpetual hyperbole and outright lying.

He’s lost the right to be taken seriously anymore. He lost it on day one really.

[TonySinclair]

@kaylasdad99

Great. Now I’m waiting for him to suggest reversing the polarity of the warp nacelles and routing the output to the deflector dish.

GUI interface using visual basic to track the killers IP address CSI

[Siam_Sam]

I missed today’s briefing but heard it was the shortest one so far, 22 minutes. And the Clown-in-Chief refused to take any questions afterward. Ha! CNN is flat-out saying Trump was scared to take questions and calling him chicken. In those words. Chump’s head must be exploding right about now. The whole reason for these briefings was because Chump found out it was a way he could bully reporters mercilessly. It’s all backfired now.

I notice the cretinous Republikans on this Board are largely silent now.

[Jophiel]

I guess a bajillion stories and memes about drinking bleach was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back: Trump plans to cut back on (or cancel) daily press briefings.

[Jophiel]

@Siam_Sam

Chump’s head must be exploding right about now. The whole reason for these briefings was because Chump found out it was a way he could bully reporters mercilessly. It’s all backfired now.

“Hahaha! Look at all this rope I bullied the press into giving me! And what are THEY gonna do about it? Nothing!”

[Siam_Sam]

@Jophiel

I guess a bajillion stories and memes about drinking bleach was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back: Trump plans to cut back on (or cancel) daily press briefings.

I personally don’t know anyone who would be stupid enough to consume disinfectants internally. But for any Bozos who do try it at Chump’s prompting, their demise would at least raise the average intelligence of the human race.

[ThelmaLou]

@Chefguy

Meanwhile, while we were all watching the monkey perform, Congress has slipped billions of dollars of tax breaks into the new relief package which will benefit large corporations and households making more than $500K. So fuck all y’all, each and every one.

@asahi

Got a linky link?

The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package

As the federal government dispenses trillions of dollars to save the economy, small businesses and out-of-work individuals are jostling to grab small slices of aid before the funds run out.

But another group is in no danger of missing out: wealthy individuals and big companies that are poised for tax windfalls.

As part of the economic rescue package that became law last month, the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies, according to interviews and government estimates.

Some of the breaks apply to taxes have long been in the cross hairs of corporate lobbyists. They undo limitations that were imposed to rein in the giveaways embedded in a $1.5 trillion tax-cut package enacted in 2017. None specifically target businesses or individuals harmed by the coronavirus.

One provision tucked into the federal economic-rescue law increases the amount of deductions companies are permitted to take on the interest they pay on large quantities of debt. Only companies with at least $25 million in annual receipts can qualify for that break.

Another change lets people deduct even more of their businesses’ losses from any winnings they reaped in the stock market, sharply reducing what they owe in capital gains taxes. Only households earning at least $500,000 a year — the top 1 percent of American taxpayers — are eligible.

And yet another provision in last month’s rescue package allows companies to deduct losses in one year against profits that they earned years earlier. The tax break most likely won’t put any extra cash directly into the hands of companies hit by the current crisis for at least a year.

The bottom line is that, barely two years after congressional Republicans and President Trump lavished America’s wealthiest families and companies with a series of lucrative tax cuts, those same beneficiaries are now receiving a second helping.

Many of the tax benefits in the stimulus are “just shoveling money to rich people,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of California, Irvine. While the 2017 tax-cut package was a bonanza for big companies and wealthy individuals, in order to keep the law’s overall costs down it imposed a number of restrictions on who could take advantage of certain tax breaks and how much those taxpayers could reap.

Now, with the 2020 stimulus package, Congress has temporarily repealed a number of those limitations.
…

There’s more at the link.

[Sherrerd]

@Broomstick

How about the inability to put sufficient links in a chain of reasoning to understand that what he is suggesting is likely to harm or even kill his most ardent supporters?

I would never suggest that the Toddler-in-Chief has an IQ above 80. Plainly, he does not.

But when he advocates an action (e.g. taking some quack remedy) but declines to publicly take it himself, we can reasonably infer that he knows it’s something that could cause harm. If he genuinely believed it to be beneficial, he’d be doing it—so we know he realizes it’s not beneficial.