Trump's response to the coronavirus

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:27am

Half of Americans believe Trump has done a “good job” dealing with the outbreak, while 45 percent say he has done a “bad job.”
How is that even possible?

#1 Unforeseen

The crisis is "an unforeseen problem" that "came out of nowhere," Trump said on March 6. "We're having to fix a problem that, four weeks ago, nobody ever thought would be a problem," he said on March 11. "It's something that nobody expected," he said again on March 14.
..."Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat," Lipsitch said in an email. "One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House's response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US's lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection."

But it's worse than that.
The Trump administration’s decided in 2018 to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when a pandemic would hit the nation.
Then a year later Trump doubled-down.

Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.

If Sanders had been president, and had done all this, he'd have been impeached and convicted and removed.

#2 Cruelty

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that "despite mounting pleas from California and other states, the Trump administration isn't allowing states to use Medicaid more freely to respond to the coronavirus crisis by expanding medical services."
"In previous emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and the H1N1 flu outbreak, both Republican and Democratic administrations loosened Medicaid rules to empower states to meet surging needs," the Times noted. "But months into the current global disease outbreak, the White House and senior federal health officials haven't taken the necessary steps to give states simple pathways to fully leverage the mammoth safety net program to prevent a wider epidemic."

The Trump administration finally approved its first state Medicaid waiver to combat the coronavirus in Florida, but it didn't include expanding Medicaid to cover all low-income beneficiaries' coronavirus testing and treatment. So basically it deregulated providers, without helping patients.
Finally, a lot of people noted how a judge stopped Trump from cutting 700,000 people from food stamps in middle of a depression.
Not so fast.

The Associated Press reports that on Wednesday, the Agriculture Department said it would appeal a judge’s ruling to stop a set of changes slated to go into effect on April 1 that could kick hundreds of thousands of people off of food stamps.

Tags:

pandemic

Trump

Vote

Comments

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:54am

When Trump Says

"nobody ever thought would be a problem" he means "Trump never thought it would be a problem". Trump is the best at everything, if he doesn't know something, that means nobody does. The first time he uses an expression is the first time anyone has used it.
We don't need a pandemic office, because pandemics are solved.
We don't need the Voting Rights Act, because racism is solved.
We don't need the Clean Water Act, because pollution is solved.
We don't need to test vaccines, because the first thing we try is going to work.

—

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:58am

how?

Half of Americans believe Trump has done a “good job” dealing with the outbreak, while 45 percent say he has done a “bad job.”
How is that even possible?

Because we Amerikkkans have been governed by incompetent, selfish jerks for so long that most of us wouldn't recognize a competent leader if (s)he bit our genitals clean off!

(Apologies for the cruel style, but this outbreak has really fucked my life up, and I'm frustrated!)

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Bisbonian on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 6:04pm

How is that even possible?

@thanatokephaloides Because half of Amerikans have a TeeVee where their brain should be.

—

"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 1:46am

Utah voted to expand Medicaid

We voted to do it, but the bill was rewritten so that it'd be more expensive and cover less people. But last week the governor expanded it for anyone who has lost their jobs and won't have insurance or can't afford cobra. Yay! And they have done away with work requirements.

the Trump administration isn't allowing states to use Medicaid more freely to respond to the coronavirus crisis by expanding medical services."

And here's the flaw in ByeDone saying that if you like your insurance ...blah blah blah!

Hey Joe

I updated the Trump administration suing to cut people off food stamps in my last 'democrats are horrible' essay. It's just unbelievable that they would even attempt to appeal that decision when so many people are losing their jobs. Another judge put the kabosh on work requirements for Medicaid too. Thank Dawg for compassionate judges.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by FuturePassed on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 7:36pm

You also don't get to keep . . .

@snoopydawg
your employer sponsored health care insurance if your employer decides to change insurers.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 7:58pm

I did not know that

@FuturePassed

Nor do people get to keep their doctor if they change insurances. Biden knows damn well that people in unions have to give up higher wages if they want keep insurance costs down. One thing this epidemic is showing is how bad neoliberalism has screwed us over. And that the people who are bitching the most about socialism are the ones who have their hands out for bailouts. Socialism is only bad when it helps us.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by dervish on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 3:23am

It was none other than John Bolton

who recommended that the NSC Pandemic unit be disbanded.

Why is that guy still alive?

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Marie on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 10:11am

Consider that it might have been worse

@dervish
to have this NSC WH office (non-medical, non-public health staff) when COVID-19 hit. Could have led to Trump bombing Covid-19 clusters in Iran.

btw that office was redundant. Bolton is evil but he's also not very competent. More likely it was just an odd desk at NSC that was irrelevant to the NSC mission. It may also have been a convenient way to get Tim Ziemer over to USAID where he could be more useful to the war making machine.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 8:02pm

Why is Kissinger?

@dervish

Weinstein is infected and he has been moved to hospital. How many of the people in Rikers are even getting treated? The grayzone talked about how prisoners are being moved into solitary confinement if they are sick. People are calling for people to be released from prisons. One guy was moved out of it in Utah to a halfway house. He broke into a woman's home and tried to rob her.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by ggersh on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 7:56am

So while tRumpolini campaigns every night during his

daily BS fest, ameriKans and ameriKa burns

tptb definitely approve of his message

This timeline appears to be fairly accurate, I'm still looking for his "it's a hoax" quote

And all of his concern is on the stock markit/re-election, nothing else matters

https://forums.somd.com/threads/timeline-of-trump%E2%80%99s-response-to-...

Here are Trumps public statements :

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 7: “We’ll hold tremendous rallies...I’m not concerned at all.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on coronavirus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”

March 10: "Our CoronaVirus Team has been doing a great job. Even Democrat governors have been VERY complimentary!"
March 11: "I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!"
March 12: "108 countries are dealing with the CoronaVirus problem, some of which we are helping!"
March 13: "To this point, and because we have had a very strong border policy, we have had 40 deaths related to CoronaVirus. If we had weak or open borders, that number would be many times higher!"
March 13: "Today I am declaring a national emergency. Two very big words."

And the grand finale for today's quotes.

March 13. "No, I don't take responsibility at all. Because we were given a set of circumstances, given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn't meant for this kind of an event, with the kind of numbers that we are talking about."

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 9:30am

Thanks for the list

@ggersh

I intend to pass it on. The Buffoon in his own words.

daily BS fest, ameriKans and ameriKa burns

tptb definitely approve of his message

This timeline appears to be fairly accurate, I'm still looking for his "it's a hoax" quote

And all of his concern is on the stock markit/re-election, nothing else matters

https://forums.somd.com/threads/timeline-of-trump%E2%80%99s-response-to-...

Here are Trumps public statements :

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 7: “We’ll hold tremendous rallies...I’m not concerned at all.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on coronavirus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”

March 10: "Our CoronaVirus Team has been doing a great job. Even Democrat governors have been VERY complimentary!"
March 11: "I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!"
March 12: "108 countries are dealing with the CoronaVirus problem, some of which we are helping!"
March 13: "To this point, and because we have had a very strong border policy, we have had 40 deaths related to CoronaVirus. If we had weak or open borders, that number would be many times higher!"
March 13: "Today I am declaring a national emergency. Two very big words."

And the grand finale for today's quotes.

March 13. "No, I don't take responsibility at all. Because we were given a set of circumstances, given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn't meant for this kind of an event, with the kind of numbers that we are talking about."

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by Marie on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 9:59am

This is gold --

@ggersh
have bookmarked and will try to remember to update it every day if the original author doesn't.

daily BS fest, ameriKans and ameriKa burns

tptb definitely approve of his message

This timeline appears to be fairly accurate, I'm still looking for his "it's a hoax" quote

And all of his concern is on the stock markit/re-election, nothing else matters

https://forums.somd.com/threads/timeline-of-trump%E2%80%99s-response-to-...

Here are Trumps public statements :

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 7: “We’ll hold tremendous rallies...I’m not concerned at all.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on coronavirus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”

March 10: "Our CoronaVirus Team has been doing a great job. Even Democrat governors have been VERY complimentary!"
March 11: "I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!"
March 12: "108 countries are dealing with the CoronaVirus problem, some of which we are helping!"
March 13: "To this point, and because we have had a very strong border policy, we have had 40 deaths related to CoronaVirus. If we had weak or open borders, that number would be many times higher!"
March 13: "Today I am declaring a national emergency. Two very big words."

And the grand finale for today's quotes.

March 13. "No, I don't take responsibility at all. Because we were given a set of circumstances, given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn't meant for this kind of an event, with the kind of numbers that we are talking about."

Submitted by CB on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 11:04am

In the Trumpeter's own words.

@ggersh
This man is a shameless bullshitter incapable of rational thought.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvE9hCZ-jaU]

"It’s the tragedy of our times that lunatics must lead the blind." - Shakespeare, King Lear

daily BS fest, ameriKans and ameriKa burns

tptb definitely approve of his message

This timeline appears to be fairly accurate, I'm still looking for his "it's a hoax" quote

And all of his concern is on the stock markit/re-election, nothing else matters

https://forums.somd.com/threads/timeline-of-trump%E2%80%99s-response-to-...

Here are Trumps public statements :

January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 7: “We’ll hold tremendous rallies...I’m not concerned at all.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on coronavirus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”

March 10: "Our CoronaVirus Team has been doing a great job. Even Democrat governors have been VERY complimentary!"
March 11: "I am fully prepared to use the full power of the Federal Government to deal with our current challenge of the CoronaVirus!"
March 12: "108 countries are dealing with the CoronaVirus problem, some of which we are helping!"
March 13: "To this point, and because we have had a very strong border policy, we have had 40 deaths related to CoronaVirus. If we had weak or open borders, that number would be many times higher!"
March 13: "Today I am declaring a national emergency. Two very big words."

And the grand finale for today's quotes.

March 13. "No, I don't take responsibility at all. Because we were given a set of circumstances, given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn't meant for this kind of an event, with the kind of numbers that we are talking about."

Submitted by Marie on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:21pm

So painful to watch and listen to

@CB
that I couldn't make it to the six minute mark. It's not even as if he's lying because he's too ignorant and unintelligent to have any awareness of facts that are inconvenient for him. The huckster-in-chief always selling his one product, himself. And it does sell well with a lot of people.

Submitted by ggersh on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 1:00pm

Can't he just change today to April 1st?

@CB @CB @CB Man we just gotta make it to April when it gets warmer

EDIT:spelling/emoji

—

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Wed, 03/25/2020 - 12:20am

your emoji codes

@ggersh

..... need to have at least one blank space between them or they won't interpret.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by ScienceTeacher on Wed, 03/25/2020 - 8:10pm

Maybe he can get the Easter bunny to save us

@ggersh or Maybe he could change the date to December 24 and have Santa Claus deliver enough vaccines for all his voters.

Submitted by Roy Blakeley on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 8:41am

Jeffrey Sachs interview

DemocracyNow had a great interview with Jeffrey Sachs this morning. They hadn't posted it when I last looked, but he pulls no punches.

https://www.democracynow.org/

Although the CDC and Congress have done a bad job as well, the response of the Trump amounts to negligent homicide.

Submitted by CB on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 11:13am

Part of transcript

@Roy Blakeley

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/24/jeffrey_sachs_congress_economic_r...

JEFFREY SACHS: Juan, absolutely right. Our health system is focused not even first and foremost on curing disease; it’s focused first and foremost on making money....
...
This is a corruption of the most basic human spirit. It’s a kind of sickness that has infiltrated our public life, of now literally money before lives, money before survival. And it leads to a kind of blindness, because it’s not only cruelty that we’re seeing. We’re seeing profound ignorance. Of course, the president is the ignoramus-in-chief. He knows nothing, understands nothing. He’s a vulgar narcissist. But we have so many people in this country that know something, but where are they when Congress is spending $2 trillion? Where are the experts being listen to? Our system is broken because the greed has supplanted the basic values, and the greed has supplanted people who know what to do.
...

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 11:06am

Following Chump's advice...

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Tue, 03/24/2020 - 12:32pm

Direct quote from an email from a friend who lives in

the distant northern suburbs of NYC:

It's getting bad. I don't think the news really gives the sense of urgency. Talking to a friend who works at local hospital half of the hospitalized are between 20-50. Staff are very worried about beds and supplies. Friends are spending their time sewing masks to put over the actual masks to help extend the usage. What a bad dystopian novel we are living in.

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by PriceRip on Wed, 03/25/2020 - 12:11am

What He Really Means