Hey, I just want you all to know:


President Trump is taking unprecedented action to protect Americans



{from the WH email blast of the day; yet another all about trump and nothing else headline}

When things get tough. blame Obama!

.... Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2020

:banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

I'm still shaking my head at some of my FB friends who honestly believe that this is a Democratic media conspiracy to make trump look bad so they can win in November. Again, how is the media in charge of the steps that the rest of the world take? Let alone here in the US.

I've gotten to the point where I don't even talk about this stuff with certain people any more. I am afraid if I really look at them based on what they are saying about this shit, I can't continue my relationship with them and vice versa.

Somewhat related.

When I drove my daughter & friend to early voting yesterday, she actually said we can't talk politics during the trip. They were going to vote for Sanders and me for Biden.

I just block those idiots now

Unfortunately I guess in the age of social media the two had to collide. I'm in the non-partisan opinion (certainly not a Trump supporter here) that the media has jacked this up 1000% and loves themselves a mass hysteria story where they can then later back away and wonder where the mass hysteria comes from. (See terror attacks, disease outbreaks, mass shootings...) However much like the tea party movement the GOP has seemed to take this one over and make it about Trump.

IMO this won't have a good end. Because either...
1) A lot of people will end up dying.
2) Relatively few people will die

Clearly 1 is awful so why is 2 so bad? Almost certainly guarantees a Trump reelection and ramps up the us vs the media rhetoric.

I quit Facebook back before Christmas. It was a good decision.

I am close to doing the same thing with Twitter, but I use it for news concerning sports, college and local softball news. So, I'm not sure I can go without it.

He tried shouting FAKE NEWS at the virus, but that didn't help.
He tried travel banning the virus, but that didn't help.
Now he's blaming Obama for the virus, and that won't help.

Those are the only three moves he's ever needed.

I'm honestly scared over what his as-yet-unseen fourth move will be.

Twitter allows you to mute tweets that contain certain words. That should let you curate your list to more sports focused news. You will miss the occasional softball tweet that also happens to mention Trump or Biden, but that seems like a small price to pay.

I'm guessing he'll do nothing and wait until the pandemic is over and then take credit for eliminating the virus.

Of course, there aren't many sports to talk about at this point.

Sell all your stocks before 3 pm. Trump just announced another news conference.

I have done this and it does seem to work. I have stopped seeing tweets where Trump is mentioned.

A friend of mine (not a Trump guy, just someone who thinks people get overwrought by everything) just sent me an article by an orthopedist (but he's a doctors!!1!) saying people are over panicking because the actual mortality rate is probably going to be 1% which is the same as the mortality rate of people who are over 75 who get the flu... So it's the same. I about bit my friend's head off for that one.

:lol:

The market had a pronounced drop immediately after this was announced.

Jesus, can he shut up for 10 seconds?

Good leadership would have been nice. But we don't have that. Bad leadership is so much worse than just nothing.

Just shut up and let us try to protect ourselves.

I have been fighting the temptation to wish the virus upon the handful of idiotic old people on my feed who--even as their Dear Leader is declaring a national emergency--continue to post about Obama, the media, hoax, etc. etc. etc.

I'm hopeful that he will say the right things, in the right tone, and without BS blaming others. He can still save the situation if he changes.

If I was him, I would say "I am accountable and will take charge of the response now".

Here's are the things that we are working on and by when.

1) Met with 3M etc. and they are ramping up n95 production. We will have X by Y date
2) Met with P&G etc. and they are ramping up sanitizer, bleach, toilet paper, whatever production. We will have X by Y date
3) Met with Food companies etc. and they are ramping up food production, bottled water
4) Met with Fed, SBA, Banks etc. and they are ready to do X, Y, Z
5) Met with Democrats and will have a plan for sick leave, tax deadline etc.
6) Met with our European & Asian colleagues and we have setup a task force to coordinate globally
7) Met with small-med-big business representatives, I heard what they need etc.
8) Met with Governors, I heard what they need and we agreed to do X, Y, Z
9) Met with Pharma's and here is their progress on vaccines
10) I have formed a focused task force with Fauci etc. They will report directly to me and I will listen to their recommendations
11) I have setup a Reddit AMA (or like) and we'll have a FAQ created for all your Q&A
12) I have met with all news networks, we have agreed to do X, Y, Z
13) I have met with hospitals, nursing homes etc. and we will ramp up and do X, Y, Z
14) etc.

There is just so many things he can do to help calm down the situation. He may have done some of it already but all people are seeing right now is lack of coordination and seemingly oblivious half-truths.

Well, word is leaking rapidly that he'll invoke the Stafford Act to release emergency funds to state and local governments who might be able to do something with it. That could end the day on an up note.

I'm all but sold already.

The man is 73 years old and has never muttered this phrase in his entire life. You'd do better investing your 401 K in lottery tickets than expecting him to take any personal accountability.

Edward, sometimes you forgot who you're talking about, man. :D

Yeah, I know.

Maybe I should run against Tarcone for President. Cabinet positions available, let me know which ones you want.

EDIT: You can pick DHS but I'm reserving the INS sub-cabinet (?) post for myself.

Sports Minister please :)

#NeverEdward64 :p

Just kidding, but I'll take an ambassadorship to some vacation country please.

Depends on the contribution to my PAC. $1M get you to most of SEA, $2M gets you Caribbean, $10M gets you UK, Japan, China & UN.

Good to know he's memorized it, and there are things in it people don't even know about. JFC

Now that's settled, we can get rid of those pesky elections and he can move forward with his perfect plan to fix everything.

I wonder if someone was smart enough to delay this until four.

Uh oh....

No teleprompter in the Rose Garden for Trump at this Coronavirus news conference. Doctor Anthony Fauci was alerted to make his way down to WH for the event, I’m told.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 13, 2020

That was my thought. I'm actually planning on taking a picture of the dow when he starts to speak and follow along as it drops. Sadly this delay may squash that as I have to go to the bus stop.

Right off the bat he says we closed the European border a "while ago." It is still technically open until midnight tonight

Reading from paper, but talking on his own, too. "I'm declaring a National Emergency....two very big words"

960 down to 604.

Needs a teleprompter.

Giving us a lecture on tele-health now?

A child could read this better.

He's got more details which is great. Unfortunately, not sure I believe him.

Unlike websites of the past.

Thank God the President, last week, solved the testing problems.

Still shocks me to see good, accomplished people spend so much time licking Trump's arse.

Now that Dr. Burkes know how to give a speech.

Market is back up to mid-800's

Backpedaling on the whole "anyone can get a test" pretty quick.

Did he really invite Walmart and Target CEOs to an address on Coronavirus?!

Nice touch bringing up Walmart, CVS, Target, Google etc. Not sure we needed to have each one talk but better than hearing Trump's painful reading.

STOP SHAKING HANDS!!!

Now he's got more scapegoats.

Dow was down 300 while Trump was talking. As soon as the good doctor took over it went through the roof.

Nah, he has the CVS guy there. I'm sure he brought some hand sanitizers