Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[Karl Henning]

and 1B) Open the economy and let the public take the consequences

It's just the little people: no one who matters.

[geralmar]

No, just us old folk:

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/03/24/texas-lieutenant-governor-suggests-grandparents-are-willing-to-risk-dying-so-people-can-keep-working-amid-pandemic

[SimonNZ]

I hope every elderly person he passes spits right in his face.

[71 dB]

No, just us old folk:

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2020/03/24/texas-lieutenant-governor-suggests-grandparents-are-willing-to-risk-dying-so-people-can-keep-working-amid-pandemic

Decades of oligarchy has morally bankrupted the US. Sure, a lot of Americans have good morals, but they don't have much power in oligarchy. Those in power with almost all the money are the ones who are morally challenged...

[Karl Henning]

I've read comic strips with a deeper grasp of politics.

[Karl Henning]

To those who are concerned about coronavirus, Trump doesn't care

[SimonNZ]

A 46-page (!!) study of Fox coverage of the coronavirus:

Fox News' coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic: medically inaccurate, malevolently racist, motivated by politics

[Karl Henning]

A 46-page (!!) study of Fox coverage of the coronavirus:

Fox News' coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic: medically inaccurate, malevolently racist, motivated by politics

Yep, and with no adults in the room, it's these bobble-heads Trump gets his "information" from.

[Karl Henning]

I forced myself today to listen to Trump's entire daily coronavirus update to verify what I suspected from news excerpts from previous daily briefings.  He talked the threat to the economy, job loss and the need to get back to work, logistics of supplying medical equipment to the states, the superiority of the U.S. response to the pandemic, how it's the European Union's fault, ad nauseum.  Not a word of concern about the exploding human carnage.  Not a word of commiseration to the sick and dying.  Not one.  It's all about the economy and the necessity of reopening the country by Easter.  He doesn't give a shit about human life or suffering.

No, he does not.

[geralmar]

Trump now claims that media coverage of the pandemic is intended to cost him the election.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/489534-trump-charges-media-wants-businesses-closed-to-defeat-him

The depth of his depravity has no bottom.

Where are Trump's defenders on this thread?  I yearn to be mocked.

[SimonNZ]

Is it that no one around him dares tell him that he's in the highest risk age group, or is it that he refuses to see himself as part of that group?

(correct answer: both)

[JBS]

I forced myself today to listen to Trump's entire daily coronavirus update to verify what I suspected from news excerpts from previous daily briefings.  He talked the threat to the economy, job loss and the need to get back to work, logistics of supplying medical equipment to the states, the superiority of the U.S. response to the pandemic, how it's the European Union's fault, ad nauseum.  Not a word of concern about the exploding human carnage.  Not a word of commiseration to the sick and dying.  Not one.  It's all about the economy and the necessity of reopening the country by Easter.  He doesn't give a shit about human life or suffering.

Thank you for taking one for the team. I automatically shut the TV off the moment he appears.

I did see the clip in which he blamed the press.  I suppose that's slightly better than Tucker's Yellow Peril rant of last night.

[JBS]

Is it that no one around him dares tell him that he's in the highest risk age group, or is it that he refuses to see himself as part of that group?

(correct answer: both)

He is a germaphobe, supposedly compulsive about washing his hands and hand sanitizers.  He may think that gives him enough protection.

[SimonNZ]

He is a germaphobe, supposedly compulsive about washing his hands and hand sanitizers.  He may think that gives him enough protection.

I know its said that he's a germophobe, but a genuine germophobe wouldn't get pleasure from all the power handshakes...or have unprotected sex with porn stars.

[SimonNZ]

Trump to New York: You've Been Mean to Me, Drop Dead

"As the coronavirus pandemic has deepened, Democratic governors bearing the heaviest burdens are increasingly wary that if they complain too loudly about the federal response they will anger Donald Trump and risk losing critical support during a life-or-death crisis.

The latest evidence of the delicate, sometimes impossible line that these governors have been forced to walk came Tuesday, when the president took swipes at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a televised town-hall-style program on Fox News.

"I watched Gov. Cuomo [today] and he was very nice," the president said of the man steering the state hardest hit by the virus. Cuomo had, moments earlier, conducted a press conference in which he scoffed at how insufficient the administration's help in procuring ventilators had been.

"He had a choice... He refused to order 15,000 ventilators," Trump said, referencing a recent column by Betsy McCaughey, a hardened Trump supporter and longtime health-care policy crusader on the right. "It says that he didn't buy the ventilators in 2015 for a pandemic, established death panels and lotteries instead."

Trump would go on to insist he was not blaming Cuomo. But the magnanimity was short-lived. "It's a two-way street," Trump said of having the feds help states with a coronavirus response policy. "They have to treat us well, too."

Under normal circumstances, such a screed would be cast aside as a classic bit of Trumpian shit-talking and thin-skinness. But these aren't normal times. And Trump's comment resonated not only for how callous it seemed but also for how manufactured the evidence was that he was citing. "[...]

[SimonNZ]

EPA suspends enforcement of environmental laws amid coronavirus

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak. 

The temporary policy, for which EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of industries to skirt environmental laws, with the agency saying it will not "seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations."

Cynthia Giles, who headed EPA's Office of Enforcement during the Obama administration, called it a moratorium on enforcing the nation's environmental laws and an abdication of EPA's duty.

"This EPA statement is essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future. It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way 'caused' by the virus pandemic. And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was," she wrote in a statement to The Hill.

The EPA has been under pressure from a number of industries, including the oil industry, to suspend enforcement of a number of environmental regulations due to the pandemic.

"EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements," EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement.

In a 10-page letter to EPA earlier this week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) asked for a suspension of rules that require repairing leaky equipment as well as monitoring to make sure pollution doesn't seep into nearby water.

Other industries had also asked to ignite the "force majeure" clauses of any legal settlements they had signed with EPA, allowing for an extension on deadlines to meet various environmental goals in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

But Giles and others say the memo signed Thursday goes beyond that request, giving industries board authority to pollute with little overnight from the agency.

"Incredibly, the EPA statement does not even reserve EPA's right to act in the event of an imminent threat to public health," Giles said.

"Instead, EPA says it will defer to states, and 'work with the facility' to minimize or prevent the threat. EPA should never relinquish its right and its obligation to act immediately and decisively when there is threat to public health, no matter what the reason is. I am not aware of any instance when EPA ever relinquished this fundamental authority as it does in this memo."

The memo says companies should try to minimize "the effects and duration of any noncompliance" with environmental laws, and should also keep records of their own noncompliance, along with identifying how the coronavirus was a factor.

Critics say it's not unreasonable to refrain from environmental enforcement on a case-by-case basis when companies are unable to comply with the letter of the law, but many were alarmed by the breadth of Thursdays memo.

"It is not clear why refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities that continue to operate and keep their employees on the production line will no longer have the staff or time they need to comply with environmental laws," Eric Schaeffer, a former director of civil enforcement at EPA who is now with the Environmental Integrity Project, wrote in a letter signed by a number of environmental groups in anticipation of the memo.

The letter writers also criticized the requests from API, arguing nearby communities would face prolonged exposure to a number of air and water pollutants that might be expelled through oil production – something they say would have "a very specific impact on public health and safety."

The diminished compliance requirements for industry comes as EPA has refused to budge on deadlines for comments as they proceed with a number of deregulatory actions."[...]

[SimonNZ]

Rightwing thinktanks use fear of Covid-19 to fight bans on plastic bags

"The fight to ban plastic bags, many of which end up polluting oceans and rivers, has taken a step backward as conservative US think-tanks exploit the fear of Covid-19, campaigners have said.

Articles warning that reusable cloth bags are worse than plastic ones for spreading coronavirus have been linked to major rightwing nonprofits such as the Manhattan Institute, and contain misinformation aimed at defeating or repealing plastic bag bans, said Greenpeace USA.

The effort "risks further confusion" amid a global public health crisis, it said.

Recent studies have found that Covid-19 could be stable on plastic and steel for up to three days, compared with 24 hours for cardboard and four hours for copper. The studies have not examined how long the virus remained on cloth and there is little scientific evidence comparing reusable bags with plastic.

Last week a number of US states and cities nevertheless took the decision to roll back plastic bag bans, citing the coronavirus. Maine repealed its ban. The governor of New Hampshire went further by issuing an order banning reusable bags, saying they risk spreading coronavirus. The governor of Massachusetts banned reusable bags and lifted plastic bag bans. And New York state, which implemented its plastic bag ban on 1 March, will delay enforcement until June.

The moves come after a lobbying effort by groups including the Manhattan Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian nonprofit instrumental in persuading the Trump administration to abandon the Paris climate agreement.

While nonprofits are not required to disclose their donors, both have reportedly received money from fossil fuel companies. Among the sponsors for a CEI gala last year were the Charles Koch Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association, the New York Times reported.

Greenpeace USA criticised the Manhattan Institute and the CEI for a series of articles suggesting that reusable bags are a higher risk for transmitting coronavirus than plastic bags, misrepresenting recent research that shows the virus survives at least as long on plastic.

Such misinformation is already being used to lobby state legislatures to defeat or repeal plastic bag ban legislation, it said.

John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA's oceans campaigner, condemned what he described as industry groups that have "seen the crisis as an opportunity to exploit people's fears around Covid-19 to push their pro-pollution agendas".

"Even in the short term, plastic does not inherently make something clean and safe, and we should not confuse corporate public relations with factual medical research," Hocevar said."[...]

[Herman]

The weird thing of this "old people have to go out and work to save the economy for the younger generation" isn't just that 70-year olds most likely have no clue how work gets done these days with all the new gizmos, but also, senior citizens are the GOPs core electorate, and they want to kill them?

Of course they don't, there's some weird demagogic shit going on here.

[SimonNZ]

I was just about to post a Politico article about that:

A far-right rallying cry: Older Americans should volunteer to work

"Forget "15 days to slow the spread." A growing chorus of conservatives have started arguing that older adults should voluntarily return to work to save the country from financial ruin.

Call it "economic patriotism."

The proposal has taken root in some conservative circles, filtering up from far-right websites to radio pundits to a few prominent politicians to, finally, Fox News. To its proponents, the approach is merely the cold reality that the country needs to avoid another Great Depression. To its detractors, it's like a battlefield cry to offer up your own life for the sake of the gross domestic product. To health professionals, it's a recipe for extending the coronavirus pandemic."[...]


also:

Rush Limbaugh: Health experts are part of the "Deep State" and shouldn't be trusted
After dismissing COVID-19 as "the common cold," Limbaugh says that, "We didn't elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don't know"

[...]"You know, we've talked about the "Deep State" all these years since Trump was elected — the Trump-Russia collusion, the FBI — well, the Deep State extends very deeply. And the American people did not elect a bunch of health experts that we don't know. We didn't elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don't know. And how do we know they're even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they've been in the job for a while, and they're at the CDC and they're at the NIH, and they're up, well — yeah, they've been there, and they are there. But has there been any job assessment for them? They're just assumed to be the best because they're in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I've been questioning."[...]

[Karl Henning]

I was just about to post a Politico article about that:

A far-right rallying cry: Older Americans should volunteer to work

"Forget "15 days to slow the spread." A growing chorus of conservatives have started arguing that older adults should voluntarily return to work to save the country from financial ruin.

Call it "economic patriotism."

The proposal has taken root in some conservative circles, filtering up from far-right websites to radio pundits to a few prominent politicians to, finally, Fox News. To its proponents, the approach is merely the cold reality that the country needs to avoid another Great Depression. To its detractors, it's like a battlefield cry to offer up your own life for the sake of the gross domestic product. To health professionals, it's a recipe for extending the coronavirus pandemic."[...]


also:

Rush Limbaugh: Health experts are part of the "Deep State" and shouldn't be trusted
After dismissing COVID-19 as "the common cold," Limbaugh says that, "We didn't elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don't know"

[...]"You know, we've talked about the "Deep State" all these years since Trump was elected — the Trump-Russia collusion, the FBI — well, the Deep State extends very deeply. And the American people did not elect a bunch of health experts that we don't know. We didn't elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don't know. And how do we know they're even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they've been in the job for a while, and they're at the CDC and they're at the NIH, and they're up, well — yeah, they've been there, and they are there. But has there been any job assessment for them? They're just assumed to be the best because they're in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I've been questioning."[...]

Almost anything from the whackadoodle Right filters up to Fox News in time.