Author Topic: The Trump Presidency  (Read 400453 times)

Offline grmcdorman

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1410 on: October 06, 2020, 09:09:23 AM »
He hasn't beat it yet, though. He's mostly posturing (and, as usual, lying). None the less, I agree with your comment; anything good that happens is his achievement alone, anything bad is someone else's fault.

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1411 on: October 06, 2020, 10:40:58 AM »
Her symptoms were very mild, over in a couple of days.

Most cases do not require hospitalization.  My two friends, both young professional ballet dancers, simply quarantined at home and had a "couple of rough days."

Yes to the comment about Johnson. The press was full of "he's doing fine" until he crashed and was placed into ICU.

The same was true of our own Herman Cain, one-time candidate for President.  If President Trump follows Cain's timeline, he'll be in the thick of it right around Election Day.

Well, this played out pretty much exactly as I expected it to. I hate being right sometimes.

Mr Trump being so monotonically predictable probably has a little bit to do with that.

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His whole attitude of how 'he' beat the disease is typical Trump, utterly unable to conceive of the fact that he beat it because he had help from medical experts and medication devised by scientists and doctors. Now he's advising people not to let it dominate them when over 200,000 Americans are dead because of COVID.

The President has a whole circle of functionaries willing to feed that ego trip.  Ivanka Trump is purportedly behind the photo ops showing the President allegedly working hard while being treated.  Others such as Kellyanne Conway have praised the President for his personal strength in overcoming COVID-19, ignoring the extraordinary medical care.  And in pure Trumpian form, he hasn't said a single word about the millions of other people who had to suffer through the disease aided only by America's failing healthcare system, and the hundreds of thousands who have died.  No thought for anyone but himself.

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I even saw someone tweeting how suspect it was that Trump and his team are getting it and Biden and his cronies are not, even though the reason for that difference is abundantly clear to anyone with half a functioning brain.

But conspiracy theories are much more fun to believe.

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I hope America recovers from COVID and Trump, I really do.

Some form of America will survive, just as some form of Russia has survived over the past 200 years.  We're a giant, strategically important, resource-rich land mass with hundreds of millions of reasonably intelligent, hard-working people.  That's a juggernaut.  What gets made of that is anyone's guess at this point.

...anything good that happens is his achievement alone, anything bad is someone else's fault.

There's no limit to what you can overcome if you have a taxpayer-funded private helicopter to airlift you from the hospital in your taxpayer-funded house to your other taxpayer-funded private hospital suite.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline LunarOrbit

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1412 on: October 06, 2020, 11:04:16 AM »
I hope Trump survives if only so there won't be thousands of conspiracy theories about how "the radical left killed Trump with a weaponized Chinese virus". I guess that's coming regardless of whether he survives or not, but it will be worse if he dies.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth.
I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.
I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
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Offline LunarOrbit

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1413 on: October 06, 2020, 11:06:46 AM »
There's no limit to what you can overcome if you have a taxpayer-funded private helicopter to airlift you from the hospital in your taxpayer-funded house to your other taxpayer-funded private hospital suite.

That $750 he paid in taxes sure went a long way.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth.
I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.
I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
- Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)

Offline gillianren

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1414 on: October 06, 2020, 12:04:10 PM »
I think it's certain that he has it, and I've followed the same logic to get to that point by which you can refute any other conspiracy theory.

1.  Lying that he has it is internally inconsistent with his known lies.  He never lies to put himself into a position of weakness, even if it's to boast that he then got out of it.  We know he believes weakness, including and perhaps especially sickness, is a moral failing.  About the only thing he considers such.  He would never claim to be sick when he wasn't, and no one would be able to persuade him to.

2.  He's been ignoring basic health precautions all along.  Frankly, it's a miracle he didn't get it long since, despite his germophobia.

3.  Those around him are causing the DC statistics--which were mostly getting under control--to spike.  It's not just his inner circle, either, though that list is long.  It's things like the White House housekeeping staff.  It should start appearing in Secret Service agents, too.

It's also worth noting that, when Herman Cain was at this stage, he was claiming to be fine.
"This sounds like a job for Bipolar Bear . . . but I just can't seem to get out of bed!"

"Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labour-saving device in the face of complexity."  --Henry Louis Gates

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1415 on: October 06, 2020, 12:31:15 PM »
I hope Trump survives if only so there won't be thousands of conspiracy theories about how "the radical left killed Trump with a weaponized Chinese virus". I guess that's coming regardless of whether he survives or not, but it will be worse if he dies.

As Jason points out, there are already conspiracy theories that that the President was intentionally infected by his political enemies, and that this is why the other party has fewer infections.  (My Congressman, whom I mentioned yesterday as a survivor, is a Democrat.)  Those will never go away, regardless of the medical outcome in the President's case.  There's also the conspiracy theory that his "miraculous" recovery was the result of his being given the secret serum that we've had all along, the conventional wisdom in American medicine being that it's more lucrative to treat diseases than to cure them.  Those conspiracy theories will never go away either.  And that's because there's profit in them.  Fox News is the biggest example of pushing conspiracies for profit.  But you also have talk radio, their kingpins being Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh.   These appear to be far more insidious mindworms than just the one television channel pretending to be news.  As long as these unchecked sociopaths control the minds of voters, politicians will have to bow to them.

Then there are those who hope the President survives to be defeated at the election and then prosecuted for his various crimes relating to his failed businesses.

That $750 he paid in taxes sure went a long way.

Exactly.  Which is -- from Donald Trump's point of view -- he got a great deal and that's literally all that matters.  Just like Trump got a whole bunch of real-estate work done for free by stiffing his contractors.  This is the great American plutocracy at work.  Trump literally does not care who pays for his world-class health care or his golf trips to Florida.  He's never been on the giving end of anything, or ever had to work his way up from nothing.  He's lived his whole life moving from one grift to another.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1416 on: October 06, 2020, 12:35:05 PM »
Lying that he has it is internally inconsistent with his known lies.  He never lies to put himself into a position of weakness, even if it's to boast that he then got out of it.

And more to the point, he would never stage something that he knew would cause the stock market to fall.

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He's been ignoring basic health precautions all along.  Frankly, it's a miracle he didn't get it long since, despite his germophobia.

It's a miracle aided, I would say, by those around him working out of his sight, behind the scenes, to maintain what semblance of sanitation they could get away with.

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Those around him are causing the DC statistics--which were mostly getting under control--to spike.  It's not just his inner circle, either, though that list is long.  It's things like the White House housekeeping staff.  It should start appearing in Secret Service agents, too.

That's what I meant by this being too big for the GOP to stage.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline Obviousman

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1417 on: October 06, 2020, 04:19:28 PM »
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Coast Guard aide Jayna McCarron, a member of the White House Military Office, and one of the President's valets also tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. McCarron is part of the crew that safeguards the nuclear "football" containing codes for the US nuclear arsenal. The office is a vital cog in operations that provides communications, food, transportation and valet services at the White House complex. The President's valet, who is also active-duty military, had travelled with the President last week, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-back-at-white-house-compares-covid-19-to-seasonal-flu-20201007-p562n7.html

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1418 on: October 06, 2020, 05:10:11 PM »
I think even Stephen King has given up.  Nobody would believe this year if it were pitched as a story.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline Bryanpoprobson

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1419 on: October 06, 2020, 05:18:19 PM »
Just reading some of his tweets, a question:- If Trump was declared insane (and I seriously think he is) what would happen?
"Wise men speak because they have something to say!" "Fools speak, because they have to say something!" (Plato)

Offline molesworth

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1420 on: October 06, 2020, 06:06:06 PM »
On the bright side - you can now purchase a unique commemorative coin so you'll always remember how Trump defeated Coronavirus, with only his bare hands...  ;D

https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/product-p/trump-defeats-covid.htm

The "note from the designer" is worthy of a Bulwer-Lytton prize!

[ Not being familiar with US Presidential affairs, I have to ask if this sort of blatant sales pitch is normal, or something uniquely Trumpian? ]
Days spent at sea are not deducted from one's allotted span - Phoenician proverb

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1421 on: October 06, 2020, 07:52:14 PM »
Just reading some of his tweets, a question:- If Trump was declared insane (and I seriously think he is) what would happen?

We navigate the political and jurisdictional nightmare of the 25th Amendment.  "Declaring" the President insane requires convincing a large number of his toadies to commit political suicide by doing so.  The President may declare himself unfit, even temporarily.  This has been done by other Presidents who underwent anesthesia or other such procedures.  By rights President Trump should have signed a 25th Amendment declaration before decamping to Walter Reed.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline JayUtah

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1422 on: October 06, 2020, 07:53:30 PM »
Not being familiar with US Presidential affairs, I have to ask if this sort of blatant sales pitch is normal, or something uniquely Trumpian?

Trumpian.  He doesn't know how to do anything except peddle his name as a brand.  However, Snopes confirms that this site has nothing officially to do with the White House or any other office in the U.S. government.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2020, 08:02:59 PM by JayUtah »
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams

Offline molesworth

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1423 on: October 07, 2020, 05:25:34 AM »
Not being familiar with US Presidential affairs, I have to ask if this sort of blatant sales pitch is normal, or something uniquely Trumpian?

Trumpian.  He doesn't know how to do anything except peddle his name as a brand.  However, Snopes confirms that this site has nothing officially to do with the White House or any other office in the U.S. government.
Ah, so just someone cashing in on the Trump frenzy  :D  Well, even though I think it's tacky and tasteless, I have to admire the clever marketing and ability to turn disaster into profit...  ;)
Days spent at sea are not deducted from one's allotted span - Phoenician proverb

Offline Bryanpoprobson

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Re: The Trump Presidency
« Reply #1424 on: October 07, 2020, 07:15:43 AM »
Shameless plagiarism but I have no idea who to credit.
Captain Trump of RMS Titanic.
  • There is no iceberg
  • I knew it was an iceberg before anyone else knew.
  • No one knows icebergs better than I do.
  • The Penguins brought the icebergs here.
  • No one could have predicted the icebergs
  • We cannot allow an iceberg to stop our ship.
  • The crew is sending out fake news about icebergs.
  • Some of you have to drown.
  • I am the best captain, ask anyone


Modified list and still got it wrong..  ::) Ah Third time lucky..
« Last Edit: October 07, 2020, 07:26:29 AM by Bryanpoprobson »
"Wise men speak because they have something to say!" "Fools speak, because they have to say something!" (Plato)