USA Politics

[SimonNZ]

and David Frum in The Atlantic:

[...]"You cannot expect Trump to gain any wisdom, empathy, or compassion for others. Throughout the pandemic, Trump has disdained the hardships suffered by sick and dying Americans, by their families and neighbors, by those who have lost jobs and homes. When NBC's Peter Alexander asked Trump on March 20 what the president would say to Americans feeling fear because of the disease, he upbraided Alexander: "I'd say you are a terrible reporter." When Republican Senator Mitt Romney self-isolated because he had been exposed to COVID-19 by the negligent selfishness of Senator Rand Paul, Trump sarcastically said to reporters, "Oh, that's too bad." It's a consistent pattern for Trump; on October 2, 2016, four years ago to the day of Trump's COVID-positive acknowledgment, Trump cruelly pantomimed onstage Hillary Clinton's campaign-season bout of pneumonia.

What you can expect is a lot of victimhood and self-pity. Trump and those around him have always demanded for themselves the decencies that they refuse others. They will get them, too. Trump's opponents will express concern and good wishes—and if they do not, Trump's allies will complain that those opponents are allowing politics to overwhelm human feeling.  It was only three days ago that Trump on a debate stage dismissed Biden's dead son, Beau, and falsely claimed that Biden's surviving son, Hunter, had been dishonorably discharged from the military.* The next day, Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., appeared on Glenn Beck's show to describe Hunter as a "crackhead." Now, though, we will hear a lot about how people are not being respectful enough to a president in his time of illness.

Trump has all his life posed a moral puzzle: What is due in the way of kindness and sympathy to people who have no kindness and sympathy for anyone else? Should we repay horrifying cruelty in equal measure? Then we reduce ourselves to their level. But if we return indecency with the decency due any other person in need, don't we encourage appalling behavior? Don't we prove to them that they belong to some unique bracket of humanity, entitled to kick others when they are writhing on the floor, and then to claim mercy when their own crimes and cruelties cast them upon the floor themselves?"[...]

What Did You Expect?

[arpeggio]

No matter how badly they behave there is one line I will not cross.  I will not pray for the death of Trump or any of his minions.

[BasilValentine]

No matter how badly they behave there is one line I will not cross.  I will not pray for the death of Trump or any of his minions.

Being a nonbeliever, and so without an object of divine supplication, my thoughts on the life and fate of Donald Trump express themselves in more worldly terms. I made a ten dollar bet with a friend that Trump wouldn't finish a term in office. If Trump dying of Covid-19 were the only way I could collect, would I still covet and relish those ten bucks? You betcha'. Absofickenlutely. Would I feel badly about it? Not a bit. A world without Trump sounds delightful. And when you think about it, any sense of cosmic order, karmic justice, or, at the least, comic plot logic more or less requires his demise by virus.

[arpeggio]

Being a nonbeliever, and so without an object of divine supplication, my thoughts on the life and fate of Donald Trump express themselves in more worldly terms. I made a ten dollar bet with a friend that Trump wouldn't finish a term in office. If Trump dying of Covid-19 were the only way I could collect, would I still covet and relish those ten bucks? You betcha'. Absofickenlutely. Would I feel badly about it? Not a bit. A world without Trump sounds delightful. And when you think about it, any sense of cosmic order, karmic justice, or, at the least, comic plot logic more or less requires his demise by virus.

I am an agnostic and I will still do not wish his demise.

[krummholz]

No matter how badly they behave there is one line I will not cross.  I will not pray for the death of Trump or any of his minions.

Nor will I.

Besides, I want him to live so that he can experience crushing defeat in November, and then (hopefully) face charges for obstruction of justice, falsifying business records, tax fraud, and who knows what else.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-criminal-case.html

[MusicTurner]

Obviously the photos of him working at the hospital are staged for PR.

There are quite a lot of strange circumstances, discussed for example here
https://twitter.com/jonostrower/status/1312616578773446656

[geralmar]

White House staff await Trump's departure to Walter Reed Medical Center.

No editorializing; I just find the photo arresting.

[Herman]

Yeah, it's like they can wear facemasks at last now.

Due to Trump's "people like us don't need no masks" craziness there's a pretty solid chance the entire WH will be depopulated soon.

Trump, Hicks and other infected people have been meeting people like nothing happened in the first half of the week. There was no communication and apparently there still isn't any.

[milk]

Yeah, it's like they can wear facemasks at last now.

Due to Trump's "people like us don't need no masks" craziness there's a pretty solid chance the entire WH will be depopulated soon.

Trump, Hicks and other infected people have been meeting people like nothing happened in the first half of the week. There was no communication and apparently there still isn't any.

I wonder what it is in these republicans that led so many to disregard precautions? Maybe they really felt the disease is beneath them? I don't wish death on anyone but I think the illness is deserved because this group spent so much time promoting bullshit and gaslighting the public. The "post-modern" part of tump I meant to say some months ago is the idea that there is no truth, no facts, etc. They also argued that it didn't matter if a conman "ran" things. One couldn't have written a better end to this presidency if one tried.
In a darkly ironic and even comic way, during these end times, it's the candidate who doesn't get the plague who wins. How many weeks do we have left? I hope we're in the clear and can say good riddance and "you're fired" to the great pussy-grabber, the American hero of studio 54, the man with the tallest building after 911, etc.

[71 dB]

A world without Trump sounds delightful.

I'd like even more a World were people are knowledgeable and wise enough to never elect people like Trump as their leader.

Trump is just a greedy and vapid narcissist perfect to exploit the fears, ignorance and need for a cult leader among voters.

[Todd]

Is Trump still going to steal the election and then serve a third term?

[T. D.]

Superspreader:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-04/trump-tempted-fate-long-before-rose-garden-coronavirus-cluster

[Herman]

I wonder what it is in these republicans that led so many to disregard precautions?

It's a cult.

They're scared of him, and they want to get his approval, even though by now it's pretty clear that this doesn't mean anything.

[Todd]

Biden's national lead over Trump jumps to 14 points after debate in NBC News/WSJ poll

That Trump third term is looking certain now.

[Karl Henning]

It's a cult.

They're scared of him, and they want to get his approval, even though by now it's pretty clear that this doesn't mean anything.

And they share Leader's disregard for anyone else's wellbeing.

Little evidence that White House has offered contact tracing, guidance to hundreds potentially exposed

[Karl Henning]

"White House incompetence on full display for the world to see! On Monday, the entire city of DC had only 14 new cases of COVID. Trump White House alone is now responsible for 23 new cases & rising. They had every privilege available to them to limit the spread of the virus & they blew it."

[Todd]

Column: Biden, like Trump, wants to turn back the political clock

Elderly folks often times can't let go of the past.  Sometimes, it's all they have.  I'll guess Super-Creepy 46's advisors will be less prone to nostalgia than their decrepit boss.

[Mandryka]

Proud boys! Stand back and stand by!

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ProudBoys&src=trend_click&vertical=trends

[Florestan]

Is Trump still going to steal the election and then serve a third term?

I don't even know what's going to drive leftists mad more: Trump winning or Trump losing? 

[BasilValentine]

I am an agnostic and I will still do not wish his demise.

I didn't wish Trump's demise. I just observed that if I had to spend $10 to save his life, I wouldn't.

I too would like to see justice served and see Trump in jail where he belongs, I'm just in doubt that it would happen even if he loses.

That guy is a moral authority? LMFAO

There are over a million dead Iraqis because of that turd and others like him who supported regime change.

So you choose to blame journalists rather than the people who falsified CIA intelligence and actually engineered and ordered the war?