US Politics, April 2020 -- Where's the Vax Returns?

If there's one thing both parties can agree on it's that our votes and our lives aren't really that important.

I'm never gonna get to release my double rap album

Treating the events as breaking news updates, the briefings, where Trump lies and chats casually about a national health crisis, represent a Beltway news culture gripped by paralysis, unable to make the correct decision to unplug the misinformation happenings.

These are same TV networks that made a very different decision in 2014 when President Barack Obama wanted to address to nation for 10-15 minutes about immigration reform, and ABC, CBS, and NBC all told him they would not air his Oval Office speech because it wasn't worth covering. That followed up the networks' decision a year earlier to deny the Obama request to carry a primetime address regarding the seven million people who had signed up for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.

The endless Trump coverage today, often featuring two-hour briefings each day, is all being done voluntarily. TV networks in the United States are under no obligation to carry the president live when he makes appearances or addresses the press.

There was never any reason given for why, after 20 years of not airing daily press briefings, the cable news channels all decided simultaneously to essentially air every Trump White House briefing live, and usually in its entirety. Early on, the cable news channels aired 93 percent of the Trump White House press briefings live, after having aired just three percent of Obama press briefings live, according to Media Matters.

https://pressrun.media/p/networks-will-air-trump-10-hours

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTkxNjYwMjA0NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjgwODI0NDE@._V1_UY1200_CR85,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

Ah, the days of grunge typography

what a shame we don't have a transcript of the Biden-Trump phone call, eh

it was "cordial" ie Beckettian facepalms galore

the beard the flames the tears the stones so blue so calm alas alas on on the skull the skull the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the labors abandoned left unfinished graver still abode of stones in a word I resume alas alas abandoned unfinished the skull the skull in Connemara in spite of the tennis the skull alas the stones Cunard (mêlée, final vociferations) tennis . . . the stones . . . so calm . . . Cunard . . . unfinished. . . .

Stephanie Grisham out as PressSec, going back to being Melania's chief of staff. Never had a press briefing.

the perfect tenure

Makes sense. In these difficult times, we need our nation's best minds to be focused on the operations of Melania's staff.

Stephanie Grisham out as PressSec, going back to being Melania's chief of staff. Never had a press briefing.

Clearing a path for Chanel Rion from OAN.

Good morning!

stephanie grisham, what a joke. imagine that feeling of imposter syndrome, like you totally don't know what you're doing and think everyone expects you to know how to do it. but then it's real, and you just decide to never do it. and your boss likes it

on her way back to melania's chambers they'll probably drop by the Imbosster's Club, where Stephanie's fob has now been modified to let her gain entry. there's a strong whiff of cigar smoke escaping from the keyhole, before she even enters

ah, hello there Stephanie! you've done a fine job! aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha

dunno if this is being discussed in the primary thread but what just happened in Wisconsin (the conservative majority state supreme court overturned the governor's order to postpone the election) is a fucking travesty and is going to get people killed

― frogbs, Monday, April 6, 2020 9:34 PM (yesterday)

U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Nino Edition

some discussion ^here^. are you going to try to vote? what a bunch of bullshit.

what a shame we don't have a transcript of the Biden-Trump phone call, eh

I was hoping Karl Malone would script this for us.

Look folks
People are saying
tremendous
gonna beat you like a drum

here's the deal
I make the best deals
here's what you do, number one, that's number one
number one is the best number

dr casino does one of the best trumps, i think. i'm not sure who our best biden is, but it's not me! when i do my impersonation, he says "LOOKIT" a lot, and he also says "that's number. Number two is.."

xp shakey nailed it! haha

some discussion ^here^. are you going to try to vote? what a bunch of bullshit.

I voted absentee already

I know you're not supposed to talk about it publicly, but I voted for Bernie Sanders

"In late January, President Trump's economic adviser Peter Navarro warned his White House colleagues the novel coronavirus could take more than half a million American lives and cost close to $6 trillion, according to memos obtained by Axios." https://t.co/0Q0W88iZBV

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) April 7, 2020

well i mean, he IS a social scientist

heh, this detail is not surprising:

One senior administration official who received Navarro's memos said at the time they were skeptical of his motives and thus his warnings: “The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options."

"The supplemental memo lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed."

one consequence of installing buffoons in every possible position is that it's tough for the buffoons to take each other seriously

"I see the red and the green/I see the yellow and the blue/I see one look like me/I see one look like you. Buffoon, buffoon, buffoon, buffoon, buffoon (buffoon)."

I read that memo as saying one to two million souls, not half a million as professional reader and writer of words Jonathan Swan says.

two memos

one in late january saying half a million, another in late february saying 1-2 million

ah, ok

there is just no way the Trumps are not invested in this drug

― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Monday, April 6, 2020 5:00 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

As of last year, Mr. Trump reported that his three family trusts each had investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, whose largest holding was in Sanofi.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-malaria-drug.html

why would he need more money

money is a disease

his mind is diseased

because he's a winner and you're a loser

when I was in Delhi once a cabbie told me that we were on "sideview mirror road," at one end of which there were kids stealing sideview mirrors, and on the other a little sideview-mirror shop

that's p much our whole system

side view mirrors are useful though

oh I'm sure they'll have the inside lane on an actual vaccine too

oversight not lookin so good

Trump has removed independent coronavirus watchdog Glenn Fine, upending the oversight panel just days in https://t.co/FkjIV3eWrS by @kyledcheney @connorobrienNH

— Maggie Severns (@MaggieSeverns) April 7, 2020

jeeeeeeeeeeeezus fucking christ

everybody's fired.

why would he need more money

"The future, Mr Gittes!"

The scum also rises. They are going to need a new wing in hell for all these creeps.

"The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options."

Which is pretty much how I interpret Trump's relatively early suspension of air travel from China, which he mentions eight times during every daily briefing: that it had less to do with coronavirus than simply being an anti-Chinese/beautiful-wall measure.

It's been parroted as such by the chuds: "It shows travel bans and closed borders work! Also: Bill Gates & 5G did Corona!"

A lot of these same people are eating up this recent stuff about going after the cartels...they need their scary foreigners fix.

If you lived through Kayleigh McEnany on CNN every day during the 2016 election, this is some kind of bad flashback.

http://wwl.radio.com/articles/radiocom/kayleigh-mcenany-named-new-white-house-press-secretary

"I see the red and the green/I see the yellow and the blue/I see one look like me/I see one look like you. Buffoon, buffoon, buffoon, buffoon, buffoon (buffoon)."

Acting secretary of the Navy has submitted his resignation after calling ousted aircraft carrier captain 'stupid'

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/04/07/politics/modly-resign-crozier-esper-trump/index.html

Wasn't sure whether to put this here or the outbreak thread.

http://media.newyorker.com/cartoons/5e8c8ed95749570008a1b2a6/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/A24118-dailycartoon.jpeg

Also, he requisitioned that hose with federal dollars and gave it to one of his big donors' companies, which sold it to that firefighter for $7000