It’s total
He is saying, over and over and over again, that he has absolute and total power. In those words. In the face of journalists saying no actually he doesn’t. He just keeps shouting them down and saying yes he does. It’s scary.
Tip Jar
He is saying, over and over and over again, that he has absolute and total power. In those words. In the face of journalists saying no actually he doesn’t. He just keeps shouting them down and saying yes he does. It’s scary.
That’s Trump saying the quiet part out loud again. Do what I say or else.
Where are all those freedom loving militias so worked up about federal overreach.
Oh, yeah, right. This is a white president.
So the Republicans in Congress are going to sit back and let Trump rewrite the constitution live on national television? Are any of them regretting their acquittal of this lunatic? He gets scarier every day.
It’s like watching a train wreck.
I am glad I am old. And have no grandchildren.
How do they need him? They’ve not been given hardly anything to begin with and California had already basically declared independence in a soft sort of way.
I weep for you, America. And for the rest of the world. I don’t know how long we can hold on with authoritarian regimes in China, Russia, India, and the United States. That’s a pretty large chunk of the world. And there are disturbing signs of the rot in Europe, too. Like Sastra, I am glad I have no grandchildren. No children, either, for my part. But I do have nieces and nephews, some of which have children themselves. It’s heartbreaking.
Oh, well. I hope you can pull out of this nosedive into fascism.
I can’t post this without trying to be at least a little bit optimistic: Have some Austin Lounge Lizards:
We’ve been through some crappy times before.
Sorry for being so downcast and morose in my previous comment. We need something even more uplifting! But still keeping to the same theme:
Anat Cohen: And the world weeps.
Hang in there, and for all our sakes kick the bastard out of the White House.
Not just a white president, but a president *for* white people. Keep in mind that the Clintons are white, as is Biden, as is Sanders (though his being a Jewish atheist is a bit of a spanner for the militia folk too). But they’re not (or would not have been) presidents *for* white people in the same way the militia folk expect from Trump. As TNC said, he’s the first White president.
Brinksmanship only works if the else part isn’t emptied out already. Trumpski has been stealing PPE from the states, he’s refused the states federal help, he’s already been foul-mouthing the governors themselves. The early spread states have been going through this without much in the way of federal help so far, and our first peaks are passing, thanks to measures adopted on a state-by-state basis. What is he going to do next? What’s left in else? Withholding road funding?
Let him go and declare “America is Open for Business” on May 1st. He’ll fall flat on his face. Might as well get a sandwich board and walk up and down the road screaming in the wind. He has no leverage and no credibility. The governors of blue states will keep things locked down if they think it’s necessary. California is half the economy and has made it clear il Douche has no authority there. The entire Northeast has joined a compact to coordinate relaxing lockdowns. What’s he think he’s going to take from us?
Papito, the only problem with that is the 26 Republican governors…including Texas and Florida, two very populous states. And for some of us, our governor hasn’t even shut down. Oh, our governor is advising social distancing, and has shut down a handfull of counties, but not really. Things are still going on in those counties, i.e., my school, while now having the doors locked to most of the buildings, is not shut down. There are people required to come to work every day. There are large swaths of our population who believe whatever DJT says, and will get out and do the stupid once Trump says to. I honestly think some of these people would cut off their dominant arm with a handsaw if Trump said it was good for them (or even that he wanted them to, regardless of being good for them). Meanwhile, our number of cases continue to rise, and the people who have been in contact with them are not likely to remain at home.
There will be a lopsided economic re-opening, and the disease will continue to spread.
What iknklast said.
Add to that the now clear suppression of testing results in Florida nursing homes and no doubt lots of other places too and low testing rates even in blue states. The virus respects no borders.
I’m lucky to live somewhere where getting a test isn’t too difficult. But with outside of the metro area not following suit, I don’t know how useful it can be. We can’t close the state borders let alone county ones.
Whether we like it or not, the fate of the country rests in the most rabid of Republican governors’ hands.
I wonder what happens then, iknklast. I know that visitors to Massachusetts from out of state are already recommend to quarantine themselves.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/03/27/baker-out-of-state-quarantine
Yeah, that’s our Republican governor, Charlie Baker. I know, not quite the same as Republican governors not from Massachusetts. But he’s not going to jump to Trumpski’s tune. And if our regional compact stays shut down and manages to get Covid under control while the flyover states go full-on zombie apocalypse per the Orange Shitgibbon’s orders, what then?
You can fly in here from Texas, but it’s neither going to get you far nor let you spark an outbreak if the whole region is still shut down. If things get really divided, the region might add enforcement to the quarantine request.
The Tangerine Windbag seems determined to kill off his own supporters. I’m sorry for those who have to share a region with them. But maybe it’ll drive the rent down.
No need to apologize for being morose, Harald. This shit is BAD. Morose and its cousins are the only reasonable way to be when talking about it (and we have to talk about it because we can’t resist it if we don’t talk about it first).
“Add to that the now clear suppression of testing results in Florida nursing homes” – wo. I hadn’t heard (seen) about that.
It is the first time in the history of my teaching that I have had my students using a current example in their tests. I am on the verge of telling them “DO NOT MENTION CORONAVIRUS AGAIN! I NEED ONE PLACE TO BE FREE OF THE DAMN THING!”. Usually they don’t know what’s going around; when Ebola was on the rise, they didn’t know, because it never reached a status where it interfered with their lives. This has, and they can’t resist hurling it as an example into every question (even in places where it doesn’t apply, in which case I feel justified in taking off points). Enough, already, I want to say to them. I spend too much time on coronavirus; let your tests be an oasis of non-coronavirus for all of us…
Morose. I wish I could get to morose. I’m so much lower than that already, I’ve got a long way to climb.
Ah well, if you didn’t already, go listen to the Anat Cohen recording I linked to above. It will lift your spirit, if only for a few minutes. Heck, I must be getting sentimental with age: My eyes are tearing up when I listen to that music now. I keep going back to it.
On getting personal: I just learned that a professor I knew since my student days succumbed to the corona virus yesterday. He would have turned 85 tomorrow. But I saw him just a couple months ago, and he was fit as a fiddle then.
Oh, damn, Harald. Damn it all.
@Ophelia I’m reading between the lines a little.
FL did not respond to a request by USA Today for numbers on coronavirus cases in nursing homes. FL is one of the most popular states for retirement.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/04/13/coronavirus-nursing-homes-2-300-facilities-report-positive-cases/2978662001/
Family members are being brushed off by nursing homes as to the number of other cases in the home:
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2020/04/13/we-are-not-getting-the-full-picture-questions-surround-clay-county-assisted-living-facility-with-covid-19-case/
Governor refuses to identify infected facilities:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-holland-knight-desantis-20200414-kg6t2b7lqre4lb2vidfo7e4f44-story.html
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article241982526.html
The advocacy group for long term care facilities wants immunity from liability in COVID-related cases:
https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/health/2020/04/11/coronavirus-florida-nursing-homes-covid-lawsuits-ron-desantis/2977441001/
Seems a very fair inference.
Claire @17, I understand that the Governor’s office also reached out to the law firm acting for the Miami Herald (who were about to file a public records lawsuit) and persuaded them to withdraw from acting for the Herald. Apparently the partner they approached was, coincidentally, one who did lots and lots of State Government work, not the partner who was acting for the Herald.
Corruption.