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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums*****Must read**** The Worst Outcome
If somebody other than Donald Trump were in the White House, the coronavirus crisis would not be unfolding this way.Presidents are not all-powerful, especially not in the case of pandemic disease. There are limits to what they can do, for good or ill. But within those limits, at every juncture, Trumps actions have ensured the worst possible outcomes. The worst outcome for public health. The worst outcome for the American economy. The worst outcome for American global leadership.
Trumps Oval Office speech of March 11 was the worst action yet in a string of bad actions.
Here are the things the president did not do in that speech.
He offered no guidance or policy on how to prevent the spread of the disease inside the United States. Should your town cancel its St. Patricks Day parade? What about theaters and sporting events? Schools and colleges? Nothing.
He offered no explanation of what went wrong with the U.S. testing system, nor any assurance of when testing would become more widely available. His own previous promises of testing for anyone who needs it have been exploded as false. So what is true? Nothing.
...
And even now that he has acknowledged, he still cannot act, because he does not know what to do. His only goal now is to shove blame onto others. Americans have to face that in the grip of this epidemic, the Oval Office is for all practical purposes as empty as the glazed eyes of the man who spoke from that office tonight.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trump-ensuring-worst-possible-outcome-coronavirus-crisis/607867/
I wish i could write like that. And to think he wrote that in a half hour or so.
Hassler
(3,326 posts)DanieRains
(4,619 posts)While he tried to deflect how badly he has done on every level?
DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)But he went straight to his bedroom and broke out his Aderall...
Have you seen the tweets he is sending tonight, basically changing several things he said....??????
And announcing that he is putting Jared in charge of the pandemic..........
I feel so much better.......................
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,788 posts)Galbraith was a Canadian who helped a couple of Democratic Presidents about economics.
jaysunb
(11,856 posts)FarPoint
(12,209 posts)This sums up today's dysfunctional leadership...
Jarqui
(10,110 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,705 posts)Jarqui
(10,110 posts)Problem is he was Republican
Came by it honestly. Hard work, uses his good brain plus notably, his mother, Barbara Frum.
Caliman73
(11,694 posts)He is guided by a couple of thought patterns.
1. How can I appear not weak?
2. How can I profit?
3. How can I profit by enriching others?
3. How can I shift the blame for failure to others and the appearance of success to myself?
This guarantees that Trump makes the most anti-social decisions in every case.
Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)That's the summary. Not exactly complicated.
There is no chance he's going to recommend cancellations or avoidance. Conservatives have been ridiculing that practice on one site and social media outlet after another. You should see the mockery toward the NBA tonight on all the sports sites. Right wingers are having a field day calling it a wimp league run by liberals. Falling in line at this stage would indeed make Trump look weak to his base.
The OP may have written it well but there's no grasp toward Trumpeteer mentality. That's all he cares about, keeping his base mesmerized and marching in line. I was outside today working on my yard when a neighbor couple was walking their dog. Just to make conversation I mentioned the stock market dropping another 5 percent. The lady immediately said, "Don't worry about that. It's going up." I was briefly flabbergasted. I said it's not going up, it's going to continue to plunge, mixed with the occasional meaningless positive day. She acted as if I were a nutcase. "Trump said it's going up. I heard on Fox it's going up. This is all ridiculous...so overblown."
I wish I could report she's an old timer, thinking typically for her generation. Hardly. Maybe mid 30s. I see that couple walking the block in late afternoon all the time. I had no idea about their ideology until today.
leftieNanner
(14,998 posts)How can I stay in office so the Feds don't come after me and put me in jail?
djacq
(1,633 posts)He didn't write the speech.
He sounded drugged.
He didn't believe in it, so it sounded unbelievable.
He was told not to move his hands.
His thumbs was twitching.
He is faking his mismanagement and he knows it.
We are on to him and he has got to go.
SunSeeker
(51,372 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)I don't think he can read properly, period
calimary
(80,699 posts)Voice was flat, not animated. He had to read something out loud that he doesnt really understand and couldnt care less about.
Ive seen this in classroom after classroom with the cocky, unruly, lazy bullshitter who doesnt give a crap, would rather be anywhere but there, doing anything but that, and probably threatened with having his favorite toys or car keys taken away if he doesnt sit up straight, stop fidgeting, stop fucking around and disrupting class, and forced to read the book report he turned in late and incomplete and had made somebody else write for him about a book he never bothered to read in the first place.
Celerity
(42,666 posts)Trump is a glazed MAGAt-cream-filled donut.
LudwigPastorius
(8,944 posts)we've got to keep mentioning Trump's actions before the outbreak.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/
Lock him up.
(6,874 posts)So the Russian ASSet had to destroy it
Response to LudwigPastorius (Reply #13)
Rainbow Droid This message was self-deleted by its author.
DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)The Republican Senators and entire administration are sure to be shitting bricks by tomorrow as more and more states are taking it on themselves and asking in the press, where are the million tests you said we have?????
Professional sports teams ending their seasons, colleges and universities closing down, etc etc etc
It is finally coming to a head, and there is no way they can dodge this one.
However, I have to tell you, as a harbinger of things to come, I see them beginning to rally to a postponement of the election.
Their adage will be: "No Sense In Changing Horses In The Middle Of An Epidemic........."
I also see a massive "incidental" genocide of the Seniors in America......Dr's all over the U.S. sitting there with one ventilator available and having to decide does the patient that is 40-50 get it or the one that is 60-70.....
WASF
LudwigPastorius
(8,944 posts)Instead of 'triage', I'll call them 'Trump Death Panels'.
DENVERPOPS
(8,679 posts)Decisions I am sure it crushes them to have to make.........
Of course, I have to tell you, most of the Dr.'s I know were for Trump all the way.......
Bet you none of them are on the front lines volunteering their services in the near future.......
Cha
(295,921 posts)monster in the WH.
Thank you, DSB
Danascot
(4,664 posts)Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)You must rehearse a lot. Having some innate talent helps. Expect to be paid almost nothing for all your work.