*****Must read**** The Worst Outcome

[DemocratSinceBirth]

If somebody other than Donald Trump were in the White House, the coronavirus crisis would not be unfolding this way.

At every turn, President Trump’s policy to coronavirus has unfolded as if guided by one rule: How can I make this crisis worse?

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, Trump’s 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.

Trump’s 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. Patrick’s 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]

1. Chump is the IncomPOTUS.

[C Moon]

8. Well done!

[DanieRains]

15. Was Trump's Pupils The Size Of Nickels Tonight During His Speech?

While he tried to deflect how badly he has done on every level?

[DENVERPOPS]

17. Nope

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]

2. If all else fails ...

Galbraith was a Canadian who helped a couple of Democratic Presidents about economics.

[jaysunb]

4. Wow ! Nt

[FarPoint]

3. Excellent....

This sums up today's dysfunctional leadership...

[Jarqui]

5. Excellent article written in minutes nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. What a gift.

[Jarqui]

10. He's been good for years

Problem is he was Republican

Came by it honestly. Hard work, uses his good brain plus notably, his mother, Barbara Frum.

[Caliman73]

6. Was there any other path this could take under Trump?

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]

16. He's hoping March is early enough for this to go away

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]

26. And you forgot...

How can I stay in office so the Feds don't come after me and put me in jail?

[djacq]

7. Body Language and Voice Characteristics do not lie;

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]

12. Republicans foisted this disaster on us by not removing a clearly unqualified & guilty Trump.

[Historic NY]

20. He almost got his acordian going there at the end...

I don't think he can read properly, period

[calimary]

25. He did sound drugged. His behavior was listless, flat, suppressed.

Voice was flat, not animated. He had to read something out loud that he doesn’t really understand and couldn’t care less about.

I’ve seen this in classroom after classroom with the cocky, unruly, lazy bullshitter who doesn’t 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 doesn’t 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]

11. 'glazed eyes of the man who spoke from that office tonight'

Trump is a glazed MAGAt-cream-filled donut.

[LudwigPastorius]

13. If we want to bury that fucker in November, (and our very survival may depend on that)...

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.]

14. Of course PRESIDENTIAL Obama/Biden created it...

So the Russian ASSet had to destroy it

[DENVERPOPS]

19. I can hardly wait for tomorrow morning

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]

21. "I also see a massive "incidental" genocide of the Seniors in America"

Instead of 'triage', I'll call them 'Trump Death Panels'.

[DENVERPOPS]

23. I feel so sorry for those Dr.'s LP

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]

22. Wow.. Epic description of the

monster in the WH.

Thank you, DSB

[Danascot]

24. This sums it up perfectly

More people will get sick because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. More people will suffer the financial hardship of sickness because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. The medical crisis will arrive faster and last longer than if somebody else were in charge. So, too, the economic crisis. More people will lose their jobs than if somebody else were in charge. More businesses will be pushed into bankruptcy than if somebody else were in charge. More savers will lose more savings than if somebody else were in charge. The damage to America’s global leadership will be greater than if somebody else were in charge.

[Ghost Dog]

27. Being a writer is like being a musician:

You must rehearse a lot. Having some innate talent helps. Expect to be paid almost nothing for all your work.