Trump wants us to know how stupid we are:

Just a remarkably dumb human being. Will be impossible to describe this to future generations.

It's like watching an Office episode where Michael learns what sarcasm is and starts using it as an excuse for everything he does.

It's certainly going to be hard to talk to future generations about the esteem that comes with 'winning' the presidency and the type of leadership required to win that sort of election. The pinnacle of characteristics found consistently in them...

and then there's this one outlier.

Washington Post did an analysis of Trump's speaking during his briefings. Apparently, out of 13 hours of talking, he spent 4.5 minutes expressing condolences for the victims.

I mean, that is just such an own goal. Getting up there and talking about how sorry you are for the losses of so many brave Americans is politics 101. I'm not saying you have to believe it. I imagine most politicians don't believe stuff like that. But you still say it. It makes you look human. It makes you look like you care. It dispels the idea that you are a narcissist.

It is kind of amazing (in a morbid way) that Trump has such little empathy that he can't even understand why faking empathy is important.

He's a narcissist. I've been saying that since the election. Part of narcissism is the inability to have empathy and the other is genuinely believing that everything is indeed, about you. The inability of others to put a cover on him, has just further exaggerated this point. He's a textbook case.

TIL the Lakers are a small business.

If only there was a Congressionally approved Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery to oversee such a program.

You'd probably want to put one of those in any "bailout" bill. And only an imbecile or crook would get rid of such a thing.

SI

It seems like the small business loans were intended to go to large corporations as well. There were so many ready to jump in. It's just a question of whether the Democrats didn't notice, were out-maneuvered, to accepted it as a concession.

I've been waiting weeks for my small business loan, and we're talking about peanuts. If it runs out of money again before they get around to me, I'm going to be pissed.

It's ALL a con.

The IRS sending out letters from, "The White House" so that Trump can send his signature to every American is rather horse shitty.

Which one did you file? I did an EIDL but it looks like several hundred thousand applications need to be processed before mine.

#ProblemSolved #WeAreAllHeroic #1A #JustWearScrubs �� pic.twitter.com/fqFDvqs3nT

— Dr. Kelli Ward ���� (@kelliwardaz) April 25, 2020

Good luck. One business I have got the grant but hasn't heard a word since. PPP is mostly just going to big companies and those with connections to the banks. Something we don't have so I'm not even bothering anymore.

I applied for a PPP loan during the first round but it ran out before they processed mine. I'm in queue now for the second round. I know they put a clause in this time to put more money towards small banks, which mine is, so I'm hoping that gives me a shot but I can't get any sense from my bank how far in the queue I am. I wish I just knew because I have to decide between that, and EIDL loan and unemployment.

You'll never get that EIDL loan. I'd aim for PPP. Have you tried Paypal? Heard people having success there.

What the hell

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Lakers have returned approximately $4.6 million that they received from a federal government program intended to help small businesses .. the team said in a statement to @ESPN #ppp https://t.co/tDrMOl3nVc

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) April 27, 2020

I filed for the pandemic unemployment a week ago. We’ll see how long that takes to even get a determination. My tax refund for this year has been held up for 60+ days now because of a reporting glitch by one of my wife’s W2 forms. It’s all an annoying shit show. I was doing a lot of food delivery for awhile but that shit makes you want to strangle people.

Fed bailed out Carnival Cruise. A company incorporated in Panama that flies foreign flags.

The previously unreported tale of Carnival’s rescue shows how effective the Fed has been in turning the debt spigot back on for large corporations https://t.co/BLZVVUIrIs

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 27, 2020

Well I hope the debt we've incurred was worth it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/smal...chin-says.html

It’s almost as if there should have been an IG overseeing this from the get-go.

God, those fucking bastards. Incorporate outside the U.S. to not pay taxes, but then put your hands out for a bailout. :banghead:

Hoyer says the House is going to take at least one more week off before returning to Washington. It's a good thing nothing needs to be done right now.

dola

Trump DoJ argued today that a President could pay for everyone's health insurance without Congressional approval and Congress would have no standing to sue.

That certainly would make Medicare for All easier.

triple dola

Damn, Weaver and Wilson sure do know how to make advertisements.

�� NEW VIDEO

Americans need a president upon whom they can rely for factual information regarding the state of the nation.

Instead, @realDonaldTrump delivers a daily dose of dangerous and ill-informed nonsense. #CountryOverParty pic.twitter.com/QE9u2T7jiG

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 28, 2020

Yet, I haven't heard a peep out of our "protectionist" president

SI

I'm against bailing out the cruise lines in general, but I don't get why it matters that they incorporated outside the US. Either it's important to bail them out for the good of the greater economy or it isn't, and where they incorporate isn't relevant to that decision.

Wow, you bypassed the double dola and then went straight to the triple dola!

That's a serious breach in protocol :p

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/polit...sts/index.html

What is truth? said jesting Pilate

Because they don't pay US taxes and hardly employee US citizens? How is it any different than bailing out some resort in the Dominican Republic?

It's not any different. When it comes to the economy, we're at least 20 years past the point where it makes sense to think nationally. The economy and larger corporations themselves are global. Our money should go where it's best to minimize damage to the overall economy, because there's no such thing as our economy doing well if the global economy isn't.

Florida a swing state tho, and undecided voters love them some 7NC

My biggest issue it is that the money is much better spent on small businesses here, many of which are getting shafted on this stimulus bailout. At the end of the day, not being able to take a cruise on a foreign owned entity is not going to devastate the global economy like thousands of small businesses going under will harm ours.

It just increases the disparity between big and small business sector. Local family owned businesses are such a value to community and it kills me to see so many of them fall by the wayside while the CEO's of big corporations profit from this.

We give a 100 a week to a local family business, whether it be leaving 100 tip on a takeout to split between employees, or sending through paypal to others (The Jiu Jitsu academy I train at as an example) I know that is an almost insignificant drop in the bucket, but we do it because we value them. I wish our Government felt the same way.

But who gives a rip of carnival goes out of business? If there is the demand someone else will fill it and maybe they will fly under a US flag, pay taxes, etc...

These cruise lines for years have skirted the system to their benefit and now they want a bail out, screw that.

but 'nationalism' is a core tenant of any of the admin's decisions. So they can't have it both ways...or shouldn't anyways

You can't make this shit up...

Vice President Pence tours Mayo Clinic without coronavirus mask even though he was told to wear one https://t.co/kg9aryBpWo

— CNBC (@CNBC) April 28, 2020

The Mayo Clinic has now deleted this tweet. Hmm. pic.twitter.com/M3Z9dTu8Bk

— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) April 28, 2020

I mean... I'm sure this has been vetted through focus groups of fuckwits self-identifying as open to voting for Trump... so the "look masculine and authoritative, not sissified and weak" is very much a mood. Oh, and fuck the sick people, who gives a fuck about them. Just jam eleventy people in the tiny room for the photo op, and let the boss be a boss without a mask because reasons.

I bet Trump has either ordered senior people to go without masks, or he's talked about them so much that they know not to wear them.

The sad part is that when I saw "Mayo Clinic" trending on twitter, I thought it was going to be announcing some amazing antiviral or vaccine breakthrough.

Sucker. Everything is a con.

Thanks for pointing this out. Figured this was obvious to all...

It's hard to see the truth for people when the gaslight is literally on the end of your F'n nose.

I agree with this. If carnival goes out of business, someone will pick up the pieces and there will still be US staff.

I can see where we make exceptions for national security (e.g. maybe a pharma company that have viable vaccine/therapy candidates) but not for a cruise line.

Mmmmm, mayo clinic.... drool....

Carnival wouldn't even go out of business. They would just file bankruptcy and emerge from that. That is how this should work.

I've been very impressed with the NC Governor through all this.

He's a Democrat running a slightly red-leaning state, but he's managing to keep things pretty balanced and people pretty happy from what I can tell.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said in her state, it will be considered a “voluntary quit” if an employee refuses to return to work once businesses reopen, thereby losing access to unemployment benefits.

A similar situation will soon play out in Texas. https://t.co/qGmapbLBzi

— scott immordino (@ScottImmordino) April 28, 2020

The Bernie/AOC crowd thinks that this country is ready for socialism.

This country just tried liberalism for about two weeks and freaked the fuck out and cried uncle.

I don't know how I've managed to not be clear on this - I think my previous posts are explicit - but I agree that the money is better spent elsewhere. I'm just saying that should be the argument, not the irrelevant part about it being a foreign-owned entity.

Did the people freak out, or did those pulling the levers of power freak out and determine that they needed to reinforce the old way before anyone gets any radical ideas? This is essentially a "dissidents will be shot [well, fired]" edict.

(I mean, there IS freaking the fuck out, but more because people have the attention spans of gnats and can't just chill.)