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

slow news day!

omg shame

Asking for the tax returns was his art, and this thread is his masterpiece.

Good afternoon!

lmao @ thread title

:-0

I didn't watch yesterday's Trump conference but CNN seemed to be painting it last night as some kind of pivotal moment where he was forced to face reality and lay out some serious shit for the US people (and he did a bad job, well duh). Anyone else get that sense?

Trump is going to wake up tomorrow and have forgotten everything that happened today beyond a vague sense that he did a great job. He'll turn on the TV and just start fresh from there, like he does every single day. Apparently he's not alone in this! https://t.co/ZR2muz8i1F

— David Roth (@david_j_roth) March 31, 2020

combo of thread title and poster is A+ :D

🧡 qualmsley

Forgot what month it was.

repost: I didn't watch yesterday's Trump conference but CNN seemed to be painting it last night as some kind of pivotal moment where he was forced to face reality and lay out some serious shit for the US people (and he did a bad job, well duh). Was that the sense anyone got who did watch it? Was this really some 'levelling with the american people" moment? doesn't everyone already know those numbers and probable stats?

Political thread title hall of fame.

DeSantis finally issues the stay-at-home Florida needed.

From Trump tweet yesterday: now is the time to push forward with a “VERY BIG & BOLD” infrastructure package

Translation: I have no idea what infrastructure is, but I like how leaderish I sound when I say that.

Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq. If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2020

umm did he get out of his intelligence briefing and just.....tweet it out

information and belief

can i get a ratio of information to belief there, just for the record

looks like the likely death toll and economic fallout from this is likely to place Trump on track for Worst President Ever (finally surpassing Dubya)

Didn't even need the full 8 years

a huge crisis of some kind involving the massive loss of life and $$$ seemed inevitable from day 1, just took awhile

From: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/inside-trumps-decision-to-back-off-of-his-easter-coronavirus-miracle

Trump’s latest tonal and tactical shift (and almost certainly not the last) was driven by several factors, both personal and political. Trump learned that his close friend, 78-year-old New York real estate mogul Stan Chera, had contracted COVID-19 and fallen into a coma at NewYork-Presbyterian. “Boy, did that hit home. Stan is like one of his best friends,” said prominent New York Trump donor Bill White. Trump also grew concerned as the virus spread to Trump country.

I fully assumed the bolded part, that he thought this was going to be an urban (hence blue state) problem and thus gaming his reelection odds in his favor but once the virus started to affect red states like Louisiana and now Texas, he would change his tune.

how has he not gotten it himself

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FneTLFfzRo2I%2Fhqdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

oh man I just realized in 2 weeks there's gonna be stories about how the entire national stockpile of medical supplies is going to Alabama & Kentucky while 2000 New Yorkers die every day due to a lack of equipment

That’s why we all have to show appreciation for what a good job he is going! It is very normal and good for him to require appreciation from him!!

a huge crisis of some kind involving the massive loss of life and $$$

FDR had a bunch of these and yet kept getting reelected.

Current Trumper line is "a. Not his fault and b. Now that more is known, he is doing all the things. Hero!"

I mean if the US death toll really goes far beyond any other country and 95% of the country knows at least one person who died I feel like that might shatter the illusion somewhat

Not if a large chunk of Americans believe Russia and China are hiding their true numbers and/or American media and the deep state are overreporting American deaths.

(Yes, yes, people actually knowing people who have died would be a stopgap.)

At this point it's hard to imagine any possible scenario in which his cult drops their unwavering support if mass deaths and a crashed economy don't move the needle.

Not gonna happen. They'll vote for him while wheezing their last breaths from their ravaged lungs.

Concentrate on the defections from suburban men and women.

and of course OUR turnout.

FDR had a bunch of these and yet kept getting reelected.

I didn't say anything about reelection. I said this crisis put him on track to be the worst president ever, a title previously held by Dubya.

anyway, in other news

"Number one, I'm not interested in any more of Speaker Pelosi's spending porn — or any other member of Congress, for that matter," Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Wednesday on an interview with Fox News.

SPENDING PORN

ted cruz, otoh, is now interested

No, iirc he is more into soup porn

"Ooooh! Saving people's lives! Feeding hungry people! Keeping money flowing instead of frozen and inert! Oooooh! Do it to me, Nancy! Do it cuz it feels sooooo good!"

someone tell John Kennedy (R-La.) about findom

this is gonna get spun into NYC being the problem, not trump.

trump is from nyc, check and mate

Trump learned that his close friend

huh. hoax. i don’t believe trump has any close friends and i also believe his own belief system is that he has no real friends, only useful inferiors, useful contacts, and family.

Asshole turned the daily coronavirus briefing into some jabbering nonsense about drug cartels.

Hey guys, what better time than mid-pandemic to launch a war against the drug cartels? No better time, that's when.

infrastructure week vs. drug warz FITE!

trump: why not both etc

War on drugs and threat from the Middle East. Someone's feeling the pressure in an election year.

That drug cartel stuff was bizarre. Even if you are doing that right now, maybe just do it and not talk about it. Consulting the ghost of Nancy Reagan's astronomer or something.

Jesus just slap JUST SAY NO on the intro screen to arcade games

who was that woman that just asked a question? the one that editorializes during them? she asked a question about killing children (abortions :)) during the pandemic the other day.

nevermind, she works for One America News Network. (???????????)

the new fox news!

the self-oann i presume

her question was crazier than you can even imagine the other day. i don't want to quote it here but you can find it online because anti choice groups loved it.

Amash could do well enough out west to make an impact of some kind, but don’t ask me what impact

Like if they launch him across the Grand Canyon?

I’m looking at my QWERTY keyboard here and AMASH is only one letter away from

Amash get smashed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRCZLzn5pM

He did the monst amash

Questioned about the Post story, Pelosi acknowledged the exasperation within her caucus. She said she backs remote voting but bipartisan support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was crucial before moving ahead with any changes.

At this point I am going to assume she brings up bipartisanship as an excuse because she actually agrees with the Republicans.

havent parsed it enuf but trump finally invoked dpa, not to promote provision of emergency equipment but to order meatpacking lineworkers back to work in the face of catastrophic safety conditions _for those workers_. i mean it’s not to bridge across economic supply chain barriers, it’s to bridge across pure physical safety constraints for both workers and the american ppl.

i cant think of a more gop + trump atrocity.

*“meat is murder” refrain*

Pelosi requiring bipartisanship does seem like her excuse for killing things progressive Dems advocate for.

God, this story:

Florida was a test case of his magical thinking about the novel coronavirus: That it was temporary, that warm weather would make it disappear. But eight Florida residents had already died from COVID-19 and more than 400 had been diagnosed. “Given the elderly population, if that took off, it would be a nightmare,” a person close to Trump told me. At an adviser’s urging, Trump called DeSantis to tell him to shut down the beaches.

“Ron, what are you doing down there?” Trump said, according to a person briefed on the call.

“I can’t ban people from going on the beach,” DeSantis snapped, surprising Trump.

“These pictures look really bad to the rest of the country,” Trump said.

“Listen, we’re doing it the right way,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’s intransigence backed Trump into a corner. The 41-year-old governor was a Trump protégé and a crucial ally in a must-win state. “Trump is worried about Florida, electorally,” said a Republican who spoke with Trump around this time. Trump did something he rarely does: He caved. He told DeSantis the beaches could stay open.

“I understand what you’re saying,” Trump said, and hung up.

lol he caves all the time, nice try vanity fair

disenfranchising thousands of Floridians: easy peasy

banning people from going on the beach: woah, slow down there buddy, let's be realistic here.

There's a lot of wild White House insider stuff in that Vanity Fair article. Behind the scenes they are every bit as ghoulish and incompetent as you would imagine.

Another former West Wing official told me: “Trump is like an 11-year-old boy waiting for the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill.”

This characterizes what I see from abroad as the USA mindset in 2020.

(a person close to Kushner denies this)

(The White House and Treasury Department deny Mnuchin and Kudlow were against closing flights.)

("In no way shape or form did Jared provide a list to Johnny McEntee on people to be fired," a source familiar with the matter said).

(A source close to Kushner says he has no recollection of making the comment.)

(Bossert denies this.)

(Bossert denies this.)

(A person close to Kushner denies this version of events.)

(A White House official responded: “This is just another false story focused on rumors about palace intrigue instead of the actual aggressive measures President Trump has implemented to keep the American people safe and healthy.”)

So when pressed about not wearing his mask, Pence essentially revealed that he, Trump and the White House staff are effectively getting tested daily? Cool, cool, cool.

so the fuck what? wear a mask as an example to all the dipshits who aren't taking it seriously still.

Have to imagine this is happening a lot.

State officials have stopped releasing the list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida’s medical examiners, which has at times shown a higher death toll than the state’s published count.

The list had previously been released in real time by the state Medical Examiners Commission. But earlier this month, after the Tampa Bay Times reported that the medical examiners’ death count was 10 percent higher than the figure released by the Florida Department of Health, state officials said the list needed to be reviewed and possibly redacted.

Dr. Stephen Nelson, the chairman of the state Medical Examiners Commission, said the change in policy came after the state health department intervened.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/29/florida-medical-examiners-were-releasing-coronavirus-death-data-the-state-made-them-stop/

the COVID coins are here

There's a lot of wild White House insider stuff in that Vanity Fair article

There always is and it never really adds up to anything. I wouldn’t particularly trust anything Sherman writes.

he looks like Joey McIntyre.

I’m hearing the administration is in chaos and Trump is increasingly isolated

dang, gotta be tough for him

goddamn Pelosi is terrible

"small business... broadband... heroes!" just rambling, incoherent, utterly useless.

Watch as Nancy Pelosi struggles to answer a question from CNBC host Jim Cramer about what he described as “two societies” developing; one society that has to be out there risking themselves -- and another, safe at home, very rich. pic.twitter.com/sqUj7qSA5X

— Majority Report (@majorityfm) April 29, 2020

That's quite a thumbnail. She looks like she just had a stroke, and he looks like he's in the middle of one.

incredible tidbit from the replies - Jim Cramer claims he was a member of the Spartacist League in college

please, you have to understand, when I overleveraged myself to create a now-flailing airnbnb empire, I was only trying to get rich quick at the expense of everyone around me

— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) April 29, 2020

She looks like she just had a stroke, and he looks like he's in the middle of one.

We've all been there I'm sure. First, one of those sleepless nights, then a hard day at work, and then on top of everything you get interviewed on a major cable network. Comes a point in the day that coffee doesn't cut it any more.

I propose we line up all the women accusing Joe on one side of theLaker’s court at StaplesCenter, & line up all thewomen accusing the FAKEPRESIDENT, the infamous PUSSYGRABBER, on the other side.Let ‘em stare each other down with Joe and the FIRST LIAR in the center #mamievandoren

— Mamie Van Doren (@Mamievandoren) April 30, 2020

Mamie Van Doren might just get me through all this.

So, uh, why are you allowed to bring guns into the Michigan state capitol?

What’s wrong with that? Seems allwhite to me.

if you're dressed as military, even if you obviously never served, you're allowed to bring a gun anywhere. NRA Semper Fi do or die hut hut

the real question is why *can't* you bring guns into the us capitol

a fun tidbit about that Michigan thing is that protest signs are NOT allowed in the capital

capitol.

Because they might be used as weapons.

Happy May Day! Burn the motherfucker down.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/rent-is-due-today-but-millions-of-americans-wont-be-paying

The White House is preventing Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying before the House next week, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee said on Friday.

Top Democrats on the panel had wanted Dr. Fauci to testify as part of an in-person hearing led by Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, who oversees the subcommittee responsible for funding health, labor and education agencies and programs. But when the committee asked for Dr. Fauci to appear, the Trump administration denied the request and the committee was told by an administration official that it was because of the White House, according to Evan Hollander, a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee.

At the first official briefing by a White House press secretary in 417 days, Kayleigh McEnany promised journalists, "I will never lie to you."

McEnany proceeded to say a bunch of things that weren't true.

Beginning with "I will never lie to you." I'm not even sure why she'd feel it was worth saying that--who is she speaking to? Not anyone in the room, and not to herself.

http://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics/mcenany-first-briefing-fact-check-may-1/index.html

Good morning!

I will never lie to you, as a new feature of this Presidency.

she proceeded to do it afterwards anyway though.

"I will never lie to you," she lied.

i think she was quoting Amos from The Expanse.

maybe take the halo off this hack-in-the-making

In this essay on "American leadership," Stacey Abrams manages to squeeze in anti-communism and anti-China nationalism & whitewash pretty much the entirety of US empire. And she doesn't once mention the US sanctions and wars making this pandemic far worse. https://t.co/vlW30wHHiD

— Sarah Lazare (@sarahlazare) May 1, 2020

She doesn't think America is the worst country in the world? Clearly, she is unfit to lead America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhpu2N4rQZM

Have the new monthly threads been furloughed?

She doesn't think America is the worst country in the world? Clearly, she is unfit to lead America.

Correct.

US Politics, May 2020 — I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.