President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he knew from the start that thousands of Americans could die from the novel coronavirus but downplayed the threat because he wanted to stay positive and be a "cheerleader" for the country.When we needed this:
...
He continued: "This is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give people hope too. You know I'm a cheerleader for the country — we are going through the worst thing that the country has probably ever seen."
We got this:
No honesty. No straight talk. Just lies, bullshit and bluster.
And corruption:
Despite building a data-driven triage system in which FEMA allots supplies based on local needs, those who are politically connected and have the president’s ear have, at times, been able to bypass that process and move to the front of the line.Suck up to Trump, in some way, and you'll get your supplies.
To Trump, the pandemic is nothing but a reality show with great ratings:
8 comments:
Dear Leaders self-described 'optimism' might be a tad more believable, if he didn't turn official pandemic task force briefings into rambling and juvenile campaign events.
"we are going through the worst thing that the country has probably ever seen"
I guess that pesky Civil War was just #FAKE NEWS then.
Just to remind you, FDR was a cheerleader in college.
So was Bush. I guess the Democrats just have a better squad?
-Doug in Sugar Pine
FDR never let his ego interfere with his judgement.
It's history being rewritten right before our eyes. This president has single-handedly demonstrated the necessity of a free press. Although his flock would storm MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and all the others with pitch forks and torches. But not FOX.
Fair and balanced, my ass.
Dale
DTWND, we've blown so far past the need for a "free press" it's only a speck in our rearview mirror.
We need people to accept *objective reality*.
To quote the much-missed Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
There's so much Orwellian redefinition of "the past" and "the truth" these days that it's almost impossible for those of us in the "reality-based community" to combat it. My fear is that either we'll be forced to sink to their level to fight them and lose ourselves in the battle (“Don’t wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it” is the quote attributed to Mark Twain) or we'll maintain our standards and principles and Trump will be re-elected.
I don't know how to fight the upcoming battle cleanly, let alone how to win it. I commend to your attention Rick Wilson's April 10 column on The Daily Beast website:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/good-riddance-bernie-sanders-heres-what-joe-biden-does-to-beat-donald-trump?ref=author
Among other noteworthy tidbits is Wilson's advice: "Be Shameless. Trump Is."
I wish we could reassure ourselves that we can win the upcoming election without sinking to Trump's level, but we can't. I think we are in a no-holds-barred battle for the future of our nation, and we can't afford to be squeamish about how we win it.
The fact that I just wrote those words makes me very sad. But I still abide by them.
I at least agree that we shouldn't unilaterally disarm.
This pandemic is demonstrating the extent that for-profit news fails its constitutional mandate.
Even as millions of people desperate for reliable information about how to save their and their families' lives turn to all manner of news outlets, those same news outlets are laying off staff because advertising revenue has dried up.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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