All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Joker]

Rest in Peace, John Lewis.

[DrNewGod]

To paraphrase Scotty from Star Trek IV, hold on tight, it gets bumpy from here. With his back against the wall, Trump, desperate to be re-elected in order to avoid prison after he leaves office will do ANYTHING to stay in office. The problem, of course, is the cowardly compliant Republican Party who’ll continue looking the other way while Trump continues shitting on the Constitution while dragging the country down into full blown fascism. Worrisome? You bet, but, at least you know what’s coming down the road, still, don’t let it plague your mind, I feel the end of this nightmare is right around the corner.

I hope you're right. I get really nervous when I think back on what a complete @$$whup Hillary was predicted to lay on Trump three Novembers back. As a relative of mine likes to say, "Bubba don't poll." The only hope is to get as many rational people as possible mobilized.

[Malvolio]

Trump actually doesn't drink. His perhaps only non vice.

He doesn't drink intentionally. But I think sometimes, someone in the White House gives him a "shot of courage." That's how we get some of his more incoherent speeches.

[The Cool Thatguy]

He doesn't drink intentionally. But I think sometimes, someone in the White House gives him a "shot of courage." That's how we get some of his more incoherent speeches.

What, his train of thought speeches? Nah, old people do that all the damn time.

[Malvolio]

What, his train of thought speeches? Nah, old people do that all the damn time.

"We tied onions to our belts, which was the style at the time."

[Farealmer]

You are exaggerating. It will take more than Donald Trump to destroy this country and the ideals it represents, let alone this planet.

No, he is not the one who will destroy the United States of America, but the American people can, since they forgot the teachings of the founding fathers and do not respect each other's political views. Instead they are shoving their beliefs down each other's throats, thinking that their beliefs are better than the others. That is why we have the Divided States of America. Trump may not have started the Great Divide but he has encouraged the division among the American people.

So Donny can't destroy the country only the division of the people can? The division Donny has spent 4 years worsening and would spend 4 more years worsening if he won again?

I'll leave aside respecting the founding fathers because technically considering blacks part of a person is doing that too. So those teachings lose a bit of credit with me.

[Jack Dracula]

He doesn't drink intentionally. But I think sometimes, someone in the White House gives him a "shot of courage." That's how we get some of his more incoherent speeches.

He snorts crushed adderall. The racists and conservative morons have handed the wheel over to a mentally unstable drug addict and the opportunists in the GOP won't stop him because he's on board with selling our country to their corporate overlords.

[Iron Maiden]

Rest in Peace, John Lewis.

RIP to a warrior of the people and praying for Justice Ginsberg.

It's a sad day when a man of his caliber passes away and Trump still breathes.

[PaulBullion]

Senator Marco Rubio mourns the passing of John Lewis by ... checks note ... confusing him with the late Elijah Cummings.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

RIP to a warrior of the people and praying for Justice Ginsberg.

It's a sad day when a man of his caliber passes away and Trump still breathes.

Speaking of which, has Caramel Caligula tweeted anything about Rep. Lewis’ passing, or is he too busy playing golf to care about such trivial matters?

[Tami]

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

WASHINGTON — Each morning at 8 as the coronavirus crisis was raging in April, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, convened a small group of aides to steer the administration through what had become a public health, economic and political disaster.

Seated around Mr. Meadows’s conference table and on a couch in his office down the hall from the Oval Office, they saw their immediate role as practical problem solvers. Produce more ventilators. Find more personal protective equipment. Provide more testing.

But their ultimate goal was to shift responsibility for leading the fight against the pandemic from the White House to the states. They referred to this as “state authority handoff,” and it was at the heart of what would become at once a catastrophic policy blunder and an attempt to escape blame for a crisis that had engulfed the country — perhaps one of the greatest failures of presidential leadership in generations.

Over a critical period beginning in mid-April, President Trump and his team convinced themselves that the outbreak was fading, that they had given state governments all the resources they needed to contain its remaining “embers” and that it was time to ease up on the lockdown.

For scientific affirmation, they turned to Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the sole public health professional in the Meadows group. A highly regarded infectious diseases expert, she was a constant source of upbeat news for the president and his aides, walking the halls with charts emphasizing that outbreaks were gradually easing. The country, she insisted, was likely to resemble Italy, where virus cases declined steadily from frightening heights.

On April 11, she told the coronavirus task force in the Situation Room that the nation was in good shape. Boston and Chicago are two weeks away from the peak, she cautioned, but the numbers in Detroit and other hard-hit cities are heading down.

A sharp pivot soon followed, with consequences that continue to plague the country today as the virus surges anew.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

God, we're in this mess because Trump thought he could ignore it like a toddler, and his people enabled him. Still infuriating

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Inside Trump’s Failure: The Rush to Abandon Leadership Role on the Virus

Having failed to bribe, bully, insult or intimidate the virus like he has everyone else who crossed his path, Trump’s now making like Pontius Pilate and washing his hands of the whole business. Who cares if nearly 140,000 Americans have died due to his glaring incompetence, he’s already on record saying he accepts no responsibility, but hey, let’s give that bastard the opportunity to win another four years.

[Tami]

Having failed to bribe, bully, insult or intimidate the virus like he has everyone else who crossed his path, Trump’s now making like Pontius Pilate and washing his hands of the whole business. Who cares if nearly 140,000 Americans have died due to his glaring incompetence, he’s already on record saying he accepts no responsibility, but hey, let’s give that bastard the opportunity to win another four years.

No, let's find a way to force him to accept respondibility. I'd love to see people file court cases, lawsuits, or whatever works against Trump and his adminstration in relation to eh COVID crisis.

[zinderel]

*came back from some time away to discuss the Trump admin kidnapping protestors off the street in unmarked vans in my hometown. Saw people saying Trump isn’t that big a problem and pretending that bothsidesism is still a valid argument in defense of supporting the New American Fascist Movement (sorry, the GOP...). Walks on out again.*

Well, at least people aren’t relitigating the 2016 election still...