This sums things up pretty nicely, I think.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...y-over/607969/

I am getting to the point I hate Pence more that Trump.

Trump is who he is. Pence is clearly selling his soul to be a lapdog.

Has a VP ever sucked off a President like this before? ROFL.

Pence, you should be talking to us not to Trump.

What would Mother think?!

I have to say I did like what he said about taking care of seniors. He is 100% right.

Suddenly the United States likes socialism.

Where are the libertarians and conservatives screaming about personal responsibility and yelling about getting the government out of their lives?

Yep soon we are going to need new CEO's. Bet they get testing done the second they can get away from him.

He is going off script now.

It will flow through?

It's going to be fun reading all the folks on my FB feed who were saying it was a nothing virus hyped up by the media completely changing their tune after this

"No, I don't take responsibility at all."

He just can't help bash the prior administration, even though he is lying.

Right. "Very big failure with swine flu". Really, did sports leagues suspend seasons for swine flu?

Finally, not a softball question. To Fauci

You really think Libertarians are big fans of Donald Trump?

And it's always dumb arguments like the roads or extreme cases like viruses. How about just thinking about national health care after this last month? And crow all you want about how Sanders/Biden wouldnt be anything like this which is all fine and dandy if you can guarantee Republicans will never win another national election and be in charge of the national health care. Why would you want the feds in charge of anything after this?

Joe Biden campaign commercial that makes itself.

I imagine his campaign manager has a big grin on his face right now.

Oh f**k, why go to politics and trade with China. Keep with Fauci and Burke.

"I didn't do it, we had a group of people"

OMG, just handing wins to the Democrats in this press conference.

I would love know what is going through the minds of all these brilliant people standing behind him listening to him speak.

He's mentioned a couple of times during this presser that there were old systems, old rules that impacted the ability to test quickly. I'm interested in understanding what those were.

Please don't shake my hand again Mr. President?

It's directed at the people who don't want to pay taxes for emergency services because they can handle it. It's the dumbest fucking argument there is. ANYTIME there's any sort of crisis the government has to step up and do something, but it's the whole "I don't need the government" mentality that is so much more bullshit than anything. The people who stand there and non-stop criticize literally everything are just miserable fucks who never tried to actually make life better for anyone else. They only look at things through their own impact and squawk about how their ideas are the only legitimate answers and how everyone else are just a bunch of fuckups. People like that are the problem. Not the people working to resolve difficult issues.

Says he "most likely" be tested for the virus soon.

Then dodged the follow up if he would share the results

Coronavirus is all over that podium! :D

"Keep distance from each other."

Says a guy packed shoulder to shoulder with everyone.

A "B" press conference, it is reassuring to know that Trump is acknowledging the seriousness of this and bringing in the businesses. Fauci and Burke did a great job (and saved it) in contrast to Pence's sycophant act and Trump's painful reading.

There were specifics but not really from the business folks. I hope we continue to hear progress reports from the businesses.

How many true conservatives argue against emergency management systems? If something is bigger than individuals can handle the government steps in. I am against the government being involved with health care on a day to day basis, but the CDC, I am perfectly fine with. What they cover should be beyond the scope of an everyday doctor. For the record, I am not thrilled with the response government has had with the crisis, but I am not going to argue that they should not be involved.

People were complaining about Trump getting rid of pandemic office is not a big deal (to me) because that is redundant to what he CDC should be doing. If you wanted to roll pandemic office under the CDC that would be fine too, part for standard diseases, another department for pandemics.

The problem is that the Director of the CDC has too much responsibility there to also oversee all the disparate arms of a pandemic response. That was the whole point of the pandemic office.

Everyone quickly becomes a Democratic-Socialist during a pandemic.

There's always a tweet.

Leadership: Whatever happens, you're responsible. If it doesn't happen, you're responsible.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2013

And so once again my question is you would rather have the Trump administration in charge of more of your life? Especially after this? Because again just like the war powers act, executive orders, and many other things it sounds great when "your guy" is in office or even a competent guy from the other side but you really want more stuff to be run by a Trump-like federal government? Hasn't this whole entire thread been about how inept the Trump administration is? Maybe some of us have the foresight to know that people are stupid and tend to elect people like Trump and George W. Bush every 8-10 years and don't want them to have almost unlimited power.

Who do you think should be in charge of containing a pandemic?

I mean obviously it's Trump and his administration which is the exact non-selfish (IMO) reason why some of us oppose the expansion of the federal government. We don't want idiots like Trump killing somebody to distract from their impeachment or people like Sanders using executive orders to spend 30 trillion. It's not always fuck you, I want mine sometimes it to avoid an idiot in charge of way too much.

I mean if you get your wish of less federal government, who handles this stuff?

Yeah I mean I guess I am not a textbook Libertarian so I wouldn't have to immediately go jackhammer the roads and shut down the CDC. But yes I wouldn't mind the endless spending, the endless war in the Middle East, the endless war on drugs. This shit costs a lot of money and neither party wants to end any of it. Getting off topic a little I guess.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020...navirus-portal

Is there a time where this clown can go two sentences without lying?

He is the opposite of a leader. He only wants credit, and takes no blame. How people worship this pathetic, weak narcissist is beyond me.


They are imaginary.

When he was learning how to talk?

Trump in order to distract from his adminstration's efforts to deal with the Coronavirus, tweeted today that he is yet again considering a pardon for Michael Flynn.

Lol. The distract play is not going to work vs. a pandemic.

Dow futures down 1000. Well played orangutan

No, that has the distraction play in reverse. He's 100% going to let out his fucking criminal puppet while everyone is worried about dying.

I thought Trump said yesterday the feds lowering the interest rate was wonderful?

Next stop negative rates, bailouts for everyone but no socialism. We definitely, definitely can’t do that.

Working in the cyber security industry at the exec level this has been a fear of mine that a adversary would take advantage of the virus crisis to attack us. Likely Iran or N. Korea but Russia could also be involved.

Key U.S. Health Agency Suffers Cyberattack During Coronavirus Response

"Everyone"

SI

Exactly. Bail-outs for billionaires, the poor just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps (though their bootstraps have already been repossessed by the billionaires).

I didn't catch President Trump's latest press conference. My buddy said it actually looked subdued and Presidential.

Any confirmation on that?

His first scripted portion was "presidential". I had to leave when it reached Q&A and he was left to his own whims to answer off script.

I just posted in the other thread. By far the best he has done, even in the Q&A section. Of course, answers are still peppered with "everyone is doing a great job," but overall wayyyy better.

DJIA drops 3,000 points on the day, a 13% fall.

We'll have to see what the Twitter feed looks like later.

It was an improvement, but not worthy of high praise. Kind of like giving someone the “Employee of the Week” award for showing up to work on time.

Yeah, way better than the other day. Never understood the CEO parade. People want to hear from the experts and what's being done.

Looks like someone finally convinced him how serious this is.

My only gripe is we should have the Army Corps of Engineers building makeshift hospitals right now in areas like New York (and where other hotspots are popping up).

The War Powers Act would also let him force factories into building more ventilators and respirators which we are going to desperately need.

Pence can't go two sentences without praising King Trump.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that Trump has changed--just saying that this specific presser was better.

For one thing, Trump wasn't the biggest idiot in the room.
That journalist asking "will Millenials save the USA" though… :rolleyes:

I don't think he actually had the test done. It is a simple cheek swab.

Asked what it was like to take the test, Trump says, "Not, not uh - something I want to do everyday...you know, it's a little bit of a -- it's a little bit of -- good doctors in the White House, but it's a test. It's a test. It's a medical test. Nothing pleasant about it."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 16, 2020

Perhaps someone tricked him into an anal swab?

I thought it was a deep nasal swab?

Which, honestly, doesn't sound pleasant to me.

Donovan Mitchell said it was about a 15 second swab from deep down the throat and was not pleasant at all. (He said it made him tear up)

The Mayo Clinic says it is a cheek swab, and that's the pics I've seen. I know the flu is a nasal swab.

Coronavirus: What to expect when you get tested for COVID-19


Listed as a throat swab through the nose here.

I retract my statement then. If that's the one he got, that doesn't sound pleasant.

If it's the same as the flu nasal swab, it's pretty freaking terrible.

Our power kept going out today and this was my exact concern

Barr drops charges against Russian company indicted by Mueller.

I can't stop grinding my teeth at that. The level of corruption in the administration is so deep. They are just being blatant at this point. No one is ever going to hold them accountable in any way that matters.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

This is looking better and better as the economy crumbles: Jared Kushner sells stake in company that benefited from Trump administration tax breaks | Daily Mail Online

Almost like he had some access to some inside information and used it to benefit.

I'm glad we are spending time investigating things in places like Ukraine and Benghazi and letting stuff like this fly by.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/17/trum...-about-it.html

FFS

This should destroy the GOP.

It won't, but in a world where truth mattered, it would.

Dude, we've always been at war with Eastasia.

Watch Trump pass some UBI during this pandemic and maneuver to the left of the Dems in that area and win the election.

Schumer is talking up shitty SBA loans while Trump is going to give out cash. Wonder which plan wins over panicked people.

I see Trump is back to normal self-congratulations today, but did anyone else think he sounded... like he had a flu-like illness? Sounded more husky voiced and nasal than usual to me...

Probably should keep him off TV during trading hours.

Fixed

Ladies and Gentleman.....


Lindsey Graham.


"I'm not looking to send people a government check. I'm looking to keep their paychecks coming. And if we don't do that, we're making a huge mistake," Graham told reporters Wednesday, adding that $1,000 checks wouldn't really get "you anywhere, because there's no place to spend a thousand dollars."

This is the guy in charge getting asked a total softball question. I really wish I hadn't promised my wife I wouldn't get political on facebook.

NBC's @PeterAlexander asks Trump what he'd say to Americans who are frightened.

Trump goes on rant against Alexander, says he asked a "nasty question," calls him a "terrible reporter" and attacks NBC and Comcast. pic.twitter.com/vZAk3M4mqR

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 20, 2020

That was utterly ridiculous. I saw that live and was like WTF... people ARE frightened!

Trump really is brilliant though, just in a maniacal way. The way he turned it on him so the reporter came across as the one fear mongering and asking stupid questions was amazing. His base will completely eat that up and completely miss the fact that our leader was given a chance to say something reassuring to the people.

There are already folks on Twitter bragging about how Trump put Alexander in his place, basically epeen flexing for Trump.

I thought Trump had been doing a decent job these last few days. Then today happened.

I think those of who were afraid of what would happen in a crisis with this clown in charge were right to feel that way.

I was in the same boat, but as usual he can't suppress the true dickhead he is for more than a couple of days at a time. I would love to see a reporter just lose it with him once and shred him for being such a narcissistic prick.

Pete Alexander should have fired back "And you're a terrible President."

It's being reported that Dems don't want to come back to Washington, so it's likely that the GOP bill passes with maybe some minor changes and then in Trump we trust.

There's nobody in D.C. big enough for this moment in history.

This morning the market futures were up almost 500 before open and they were saying we we're going to go back to back up for the first time in six weeks. But......down 900 today. This clearly can't have helped.

So how long before Trump issues an executive order cancelling the presidential election to protect public health?

Trump hurts himself whenever he gets behind that podium.

So why do they keep putting him there? Why not have Pence and the medical professionals give the briefing?

My New Conspiracy Theory:

The GOP establishment (McConnell, etc.) have decided that 2020 is a lost cause. So they want Trump to become the focus for all of the negative feelings. They want him out there being more and more of a fool. They are not going to protect him from himself.

And they will lose in 2020--possibly the Senate as well as the House and White House. But then the Dems are going to take over a country in a deep recession at best and possibly in a depression and ongoing pandemic at worst.

And, in 2022, the GOP will be rebranded as Trump-less and the solution to all of your problems.

Is that true? I have no idea. But it might be the best play for a bad hand. And McConnell is nothing if not a ruthless and shrewd politician.

Too bad the voters are all in for Trump. The GOP can't just turn that off at this point.

dola

We need to be thinking like the UK. Even our most generous ideas aren't as big as this.

He’s optimistic to think of 2022. He’s like a zillion years old already.

I'd like to think that Biden will see trump's reaction to that question yesterday and just keep poking that bear until he flips then say,



"I know, I know, you take no responsibility."


Oranges really do turn red I guess.

That would be great. Biden's debate strategist need to find a way to set it up and for him to say it at the right time.

That's cute that you think there will be a debate


SI

Hopefully something that lives on in the history books

He did the same later when they brought up the stock sale. Trump specifically only mentioned Feinstein. When a reporter mentioned several republicans, he snapped back why she didn't mention Feinstein. She should have said because you only mentioned her, but she didn't respond. His base will eat that up as well.
Sociologists are going to have a field day studying the mob mentality of this part of history.