The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making

[Ann_Hedonia]

@Rick_Kitchen

A woman with lupus, who has been taking hydroxychloroquine for 19 years, comes down with coronavirus.
'How Can I Be Sick?' Woman Who Took Hydroxychloroquine For 19 Years To Treat Lupus Still Got COVID-19 - CBS Detroit

Her and at least 79 others.

A whole bunch of people taking Hydroxychloroquine for rheumatic disorders developed COVID. A study of these patients showed that Hydroxychloroquine did not affect the rate at which this group of people contracted COVID, nor the severity of the illness.

Plaquenil Does Not Protect Lupus Patients from COVID-19 | RheumNow

[Monty]

So, basically the damn dirty lying sack of dung is coopting a drug from people that actually need it. Yeah, good choice. Scum.

[slumtrimpet]

The depths of the hole of this administration is apparently bottomless.
‘All the psychoses of US history’: how America is victim-blaming the coronavirus dead

The United States’ organized response to the pandemic had been “historic”, Trump’s health secretary, Alex Azar, told CNN on 17 May, but America “unfortunately” has a “very diverse” population, and black Americans and minorities “in particular” have “significant underlying disease”.

Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor interviewing Azar, paused and squinted. Surely, he asked, Azar was not arguing that “the reason that there were so many dead Americans is because we’re unhealthier than the rest of the world?”

Azar doubled down: “These are demonstrated facts.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s the fault of the American people that the government failed to take adequate steps in February …” Tapper said.

“This is not about fault. It’s about simple epidemiology,” Azar said, adding in a pious tone: “One doesn’t blame an individual for their health condition. That would be absurd.”

Blaming black Americans for dying from a novel virus because they had diabetes or high blood pressure was precisely what Azar was doing. Someone had to be held responsible for an American death toll approaching 100,000 people, worse than any other country’s reported deaths. In order for the Trump administration to remain blameless, someone else had to be blamed, and the administration was now blaming the dead.

[DesertDog]

Trump: I prefer voters who don’t die.

[Folacin]

Well, it is certainly true that if fewer people had died, the total number of dead people would be smaller.

[Euphonious_Polemic]

This kind of “blame the dead” argument has been around for a while.

Here on these boards, a poster (now banned) used to do this all the time with the health care debate, explaining why the US spent more money on healthcare, with poorer outcomes.

You see, he explained that it had nothing to do with those other countries having better access to healthcare through UHC. No no. It was due to the US being “exceptional” in that there were problems with “diversity”. You see, the “diverse people” (cough cough minorities) were inherently more obese and less healthy than “us” (cough cough white people"). These unhealthy “diverse people” were responsible for the overall poor health of the US population.

That’s what we’re dealing with here. Azar’s dog whistle is pretty loud.

[The_Stainless_Steel_Rat]

Heading back to politics, it looks like Trump is going to withdraw the US from the Open Skies Treaty.

Trump administration prepares to leave Open Skies Treaty

The administration has begun informing the other 34 members in the agreement, which allows mutual reconnaissance flights over the member nations, including Russia.

Does anybody…ANYBODY…liberal or conservative…think of this as a good idea? It was signed by a Republican president (G.W. Bush), has 35 countries (including Russia) signed on, and has not, as far as I can tell, had anything but bi-partisan support.

I look forward to the Trumpists at Fox News spinning this one…

[Slash1972]

We don’t want to let Russia fly over America, and we don’t need to use reconnaissance planes anymore since we have satellites?

[solost]

Michigan AG to Trump:“Wear a mask or don’t come back”.

‘Citing Michigan law, AG Nessel said, “honestly, if he fails to wear a mask, he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facility inside our state.”’

[Steve_MB]

@solost

‘Citing Michigan law, AG Nessel said, “honestly, if he fails to wear a mask, he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facility inside our state.”’

“If I get all the states to say I can’t go to any enclosed facility, they can’t lock me up! One down… forty… something… to go…”

[slumtrimpet]

@Euphonious_Polemic

This kind of “blame the dead” argument has been around for a while.

Here on these boards, a poster (now banned) used to do this all the time with the health care debate, explaining why the US spent more money on healthcare, with poorer outcomes.

You see, he explained that it had nothing to do with those other countries having better access to healthcare through UHC. No no. It was due to the US being “exceptional” in that there were problems with “diversity”. You see, the “diverse people” (cough cough minorities) were inherently more obese and less healthy than “us” (cough cough white people"). These unhealthy “diverse people” were responsible for the overall poor health of the US population.

That’s what we’re dealing with here. Azar’s dog whistle is pretty loud.

Loud? It’s deafening.
I was going to share that article in the ‘Living while Black’ thread.
Probably should.

[Velocity]

Don’t know if this was posted yet, but New York Times has run an article on how maddeningly difficult it is for officials to give Trump his daily intelligence briefing.The guy is scatterbrained and does not care/does not listen.

[Toxgoddess]

@Velocity

Don’t know if this was posted yet, but New York Times has run an article on how maddeningly difficult it is for officials to give Trump his daily intelligence briefing.The guy is scatterbrained and does not care/does not listen.

It’s bad enough that our elected officials are so corrupt, but do they have to be so stupid? A Putin, a Xi, even a Kim Jong Un, can claim cunning along with the corruption - a certain focus, a willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve it. From a certain (skewed) viewpoint, they might even command some reluctant admiration. Ours are just idiots, coasting by on the ignorance of the American people and the collusion of the Senate. It’s embarrassing.

[solost]

So a little while ago Trump tweets:

“Many will disagree, but @FoxNews is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd…”

Really? Jesus. He’s complaining that a news network, which is supposed to be impartially reporting facts, is not doing enough to help him and his fellow Republicans get elected. I mean, he’s not even pretending not to be monstrously corrupt. Or maybe he’s just so stupid he thinks it’s normal to complain publicly that a news organization is not actively helping his campaign.

[Czarcasm]

Pres. Trump on his coronavirus test today:

@Trump

I tested very positively, in another sense, this morning. I tested positively toward negative, right? No, I tested perfectly this morning – meaning I tested negative. But that’s a way of saying it: positively toward the negative.

[jsc1953]

I don’t think he’s ever made a coherent statement involving testing. The concept of what a test does and what it tells us completely bamboozles him.

[bobot]

@solost

So a little while ago Trump tweets:

“Many will disagree, but @FoxNews is doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected on November 3rd…”

Really? Jesus. He’s complaining that a news network, which is supposed to be impartially reporting facts, is not doing enough to help him and his fellow Republicans get elected. I mean, he’s not even pretending not to be monstrously corrupt. Or maybe he’s just so stupid he thinks it’s normal to complain publicly that a news organization is not actively helping his campaign.

I’m guessing he saw another one of those Lincoln Project ads.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Czarcasm

Pres. Trump on his coronavirus test today:

That’s like Quagmire’s emergency DNA test, that specifies “POSITIVE (BAD)” and “NEGATIVE (GOOD)”.

[enipla]

@Bryan_Ekers

That’s like Quagmire’s emergency DNA test, that specifies “POSITIVE (BAD)” and “NEGATIVE (GOOD)”.

George Costanza : “Oh god, my lupus test was negative? I have lupus!”!

Except George is way, way smarter than Don. He and his friends are better con men too.

[solost]

@solost

Michigan AG to Trump:“Wear a mask or don’t come back”.

‘Citing Michigan law, AG Nessel said, “honestly, if he fails to wear a mask, he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facility inside our state.”’

So the local news showed Trump speaking at the Ford Rawsonville plant, and of course he wasn’t wearing a mask. Apparently a reporter asked him about it, and he pulled a mask out of his pocket and said he did wear it, just not on camera. He’s supposed to be an example to the nation- in front of the camera is where he should most be wearing it.Idiot.