Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[draynay]

If most schools opened back up the daily death toll by the end of the year would be quite ridiculous. Kids are dirty grimy goblins spreading anything and everything wherever they go.

There's a reason they closed so early on.

[Omega10]

Six months ago, no one thought Covid-19 existed in the US.

[1 million infected within the first 99 days] The first reported case came on January 21. Within 99 days, 1 million Americans became infected.
[2 million 43 days later] It took just 43 days after that to reach 2 million cases.
[3 million 28 days later] And 28 days later, the US reached 3 million cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday.

These numbers seem bad. VERY bad. Catastrophically bad. I know it's not exponentially (yet), but holy fuck.

I'm going to give this post a second reply. This was motivated by the following article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/as...BwH?li=BBnb7Kz

Title: As coronavirus surges, Houston confronts its hidden toll: People dying at home

Excerpt:

As coronavirus cases surge, inundating hospitals and leading to testing shortages, a rapidly growing number of Houston area residents are dying at home, according to an NBC News and ProPublica review of Houston Fire Department data. An increasing number of these at-home deaths have been confirmed to be the result of COVID-19, Harris County medical examiner data shows.

The previously unreported jump in people dying at home is the latest indicator of a mounting crisis in a region beset by one of the nation’s worst and fastest-growing coronavirus outbreaks. On Tuesday, a record 3,851 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus in the Houston region, exceeding normal intensive care capacity and sending some hospitals scrambling to find additional staff and space.

The uptick in the number of people dying before they can even reach a hospital in Houston draws parallels to what happened in New York City in March and April, when there was a spike in the number of times firefighters responded to medical calls, only to discover that the person in need of help had already died. These increases also echo those reported during outbreaks in Detroit and Boston, when the number of people dying at home jumped as coronavirus cases surged.

While far more people died of COVID-19 in those cities than have died so far in Houston, researchers and paramedics say that the trend of sudden at-home deaths in Texas’ largest city is concerning because it shows that the virus's toll may be deeper than what appears in official death tallies and daily hospitalization reports.

So as bad as our number are, the number of cases is more than what is being reported, partially due to flat out lying (intentionally calling virus cases the flu or something), and sometimes due to people never being tested in the first place. These numbers might be fairly high.

And the death rate may very well NOT be decreasing, depending on how many people that die of the virus are designated as dying in some other way.

So as bad as these numbers are, it is likely to really be quite a bit worse, especially in Florida and Texas which have full hospitals and political operatives working hard to make the numbers seem not so bad.

[pathora44]

So yesterday a Ohio state representative goes to Facebook to plead to Ohians to stop getting tested. In true Trumpian fashion plugging your ears and screaming "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" means the disease can't hurt you and the disease will magically go away. Jesus Christ is this country fucked two ways to Sunday with idiots like this guy and Trump telling us not to get tested and everything is all fine while Trump country is exploding in Covid cases. The vast majority of the world is on the road to recovery all the while the U.S. is like a conjoined twin where one half is trying to follow suit with the rest of the world and recover and the other half is kicking and screaming that it wants to play in the literal shit pile.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ohio-lawm...161646490.html

P.S. the comment section of the Facebook post is festering with Trumpkins smugly saying how smart they are because they refuse to wear a mask and other insane ideas.

[cubby]

If most schools opened back up the daily death toll by the end of the year would be quite ridiculous. Kids are dirty grimy goblins spreading anything and everything wherever they go.

That's the big concern. Adults could open up schools and work it out. But second graders? No fucking way. They start biting each other by third period. My wife and I are actively trying to figure out how to home school our second grader and we have no idea what to do with our incoming freshman.

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So yesterday a Ohio state representative goes to Facebook to plead to Ohians to stop getting tested. In true Trumpian fashion plugging your ears and screaming "LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" means the disease can't hurt you and the disease will magically go away. Jesus Christ is this country fucked two ways to Sunday with idiots like this guy and Trump telling us not to get tested and everything is all fine while Trump country is exploding in Covid cases. The vast majority of the world is on the road to recovery all the while the U.S. is like a conjoined twin where one half is trying to follow suit with the rest of the world and recover and the other half is kicking and screaming that it wants to play in the literal shit pile.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ohio-lawm...161646490.html

P.S. the comment section of the Facebook post is festering with Trumpkins smugly saying how smart they are because they refuse to wear a mask and other insane ideas.

We are indeed totally fucked. Because even if our better angels win out, and Biden takes the helm, and the Senate flips - we'll still have those same people calling out not to follow science, and go with feels instead - and as an added bonus, they can skip the mask wearing to own the libs.

I really don't know how we're going to get out of this alive.

And, just to add to the shits and giggles and literal horror, scientists are now saying it's airborne.

COVID-19 is, at heart, a respiratory disease. If we treat it, and don't clamp it down, and it continues to spread, we might actually be looking at a mutation that is airborne and highly lethal. Like 20%+ mortality.

[Breccia]

Fuck Florida.

Florida has emerged as a global epicenter of the latest coronavirus surge, raising questions about the safety of major events that relocated to the state.

As coronavirus cases surged throughout much of the Northeast in April and May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared victory.

Florida was one of the last states to impose a stay-at-home order, and one of the first to reopen. DeSantis earned praise from President Trump for his response to the pandemic and attacked the media for fearmongering after the state reopened its beaches.

“When you look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida in terms of our hospitalizations ... I mean, you go from D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois — you name it — Florida has done better,” DeSantis said from the Oval Office in late April.

Gosh. Kind of a lot's changed, hasn't it?

But weeks later, infections are skyrocketing. Some sports teams have already arrived in the state, and league leaders are facing questions about whether it’s safe to continue with their plans.

On Wednesday, Florida reported nearly 10,000 new cases. There are nearly 220,500 positive cases statewide, and the test positivity rate has been above 14 percent for more than a week.

Adding to the trouble, hospitals across the state are running out of beds in the intensive care units, although state officials say there is still plenty of capacity and hospitals have the ability to add surge beds.

According to a state dashboard from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), hospitals have less than 15 percent ICU capacity available. Statewide, 42 hospitals have no ICU beds available, though that number is down from the 56 hospitals reported on Tuesday.

DeSantis has refused to release data on daily hospitalizations, despite pledging to do so. Florida is one of the only states that doesn’t publicly release that information.

The virus is surging in more than half the states across the country, and there are now more than 3 million cases nationwide. According to a New York Times analysis, Florida has had the second worst outbreak in the world in the last seven days, trailing only Arizona.

DeSantis has encouraged mask use and physical distancing, but he has not issued a statewide mask mandate.

Most of Florida’s major cities, like Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg, require masks, as does Orange County, which includes Orlando.

@Edge- recently posted a per-capita situation, which I will now copy:



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*Cracks knuckles*

And now, the most Trump post that has ever been posted. It's bigly Trump. It's YUGE Trump.

A Florida family is facing federal charges after allegedly marketing a COVID-19 cure called “Miracle Mineral Solution,” which was actually bleach, which is life threatening if consumed.

There is no further posting required. I could stop there, and this post still wins. But just so we're all clear:

DOJ described “Miracle Mineral Solution" (MMS) as a "chemical solution containing sodium chlorite and water," adding that the Grenons "allegedly directed their customers to ingest MMS orally, which causes the solution to become chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach, typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp, and paper. "

The family claimed that the solution could cure, treat and prevent COVID-19, but the FDA hasn't approved it to treat COVID-19 or any other illness. In fact, the FDA has urged people not consume it, saying that "drinking MMS is the same as drinking bleach and can cause dangerous side effects, including severe vomiting, diarrhea, and life-threatening low blood pressure." According to court filings, before the pandemic, the Grenons marketed MMS as a cure for many other serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS.

“We continue to protect the public from criminal conduct that takes advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in the statement. “Not only is this MMS product toxic, but its distribution and use may prevent those who are sick from receiving the legitimate healthcare they need. ... Making claims that unproven drugs, especially potentially dangerous and unapproved chlorine dioxide products, can cure or prevent COVID-19 or any other disease is unacceptable. "

Congratulations, rabid fanbase. There are now people literally selling bleach, to drink, as a coronavirus cure. This was not a joke -- these people were arrested for doing it.

This is your fault. You elected him, you defended him, and now, you own this.

[Benggaul]

*takes a comedically long gulp of water*
*looks at the final figures for the day*
*lets it dribble uselessly out the bottom of his now open mouth*

61,848 new cases. That's fucking insane.

10k from Texas, 10k from Florida (and that's got to be low-balling as usual), 8.5k from California. Tennessee now appears to be surging with nearly 2.5k--their highest to date. Arizona has been consistently averaging around 3.5k for over a week now. Georgia came close to their highest with 3.4k. Louisiana, the Carolinas, Ohio and Alabama are also all still above a thousand and among their highest daily totals.

Deaths, unfortunately, have also gone up from the previous Wednesday. By more than 200. It's still too early to tell, but given the sheer volume of new cases it seems inevitable--the daily death tolls seem to be increasing. Texas and California both hit new highs over 100. Florida continues living in denial, posting once again in the 40's despite the fact they've had higher totals than either California or Texas for longer. Fuck Florida. We'll never know just how badly it's hit down there.

If you had told me a month ago that we'd be hitting 60k new cases I would have been extremely skeptical given the trajectory the US was on for an extended period. Now all I can do is hope that my friends and family in the States are as smart and careful as I believe them to be and have more luck than I ever had.

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

Back to defacing monuments:

There's a statue of Melania Trump near her birthtown of Sevnica -- remember, Trump imports his wives -- and someone set the damn thing on fire.



"Wow, that's a lot of fire damage!"

Um...that's actually an older shot. The statue was taken down, it's still alive, but it's very badly burned.

The artist is on record as saying “I want to know why they did it". Um...I can think of 45 reasons.

[s_bushido]

Congratulations, rabid fanbase. There are now people literally selling bleach, to drink, as a coronavirus cure. This was not a joke -- these people were arrested for doing it.

Unfortunately MMS is nothing new. Charlatans have been pushing that as a miracle cure long before Trump came along. His horseshit might have seemed like a validation for them, but he certainly wasn't the cause.

[Breccia]

61,848 new cases. That's fucking insane.

What's insane is, I don't even know if that's the record.

[Benggaul]

What's insane is, I don't even know if that's the record.

It's the highest on record according to worldometers. I read elsewhere that we hit 60k yesterday but that's not reflected in their data.

[Breccia]

@Benggaul there were more cases in Texas today than Australia has ever had.

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Unfortunately MMS is nothing new.

I believe that.

Drinking bleach as a coronavirus cure is still pretty damn specific.

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Wait, I just remembered!

U.S. Marshals Service spending millions on DeVos security in unusual arrangement

Yes, the same DeVos who said teachers had to assume some level of risk during a lethal virus outbreak.

I tell you what: if DeVos announces she's forgoing US Marshall and SS protection by Aug 30, I'll volunteer to teach an in-person class starting Aug 31. I'll bet you $7.7 million that it won't happen.

EDIT: Just so we're clear, that article from 2018 is not the only one. DeVos has had extra protection for some time.

[Benggaul]

@Benggaul there were more cases in Texas today than Australia has ever had.

Very true...but they weren't alone. Florida also got higher today--and has several times (that they admit)--and California has also been higher on one or two occasions. New York, of course, still has the highest single-day totals, but both Florida and Texas are creeping close.

[Edge-]

I believe that.

Drinking bleach as a coronavirus cure is still pretty damn specific.

(Mildly NSFW, especially if you have teeth phobia's)



The fucking world we live in where a comedy cartoon about a group of comedically idiotic metalheads drinking bleach to fool doctors into thinking they're healthy ISN'T ACTUALLY THAT MUCH OF A FUCKING EXAGGERATION.

[Nellise]

@Benggaul there were more cases in Texas today than Australia has ever had.

Australia actually wants to reopen properly. They locked down the state of Victoria again because of several days of 150 cases. Most US states would be celebrating if they got that low.

[s_bushido]

Drinking bleach as a coronavirus cure is still pretty damn specific.

It's not, though. These are the types of assholes who will sell it as a cure for literally anything. If it wasn't this, it would have just been something else.

[Nellise]

It's not, though. These are the types of assholes who will sell it as a cure for literally anything. If it wasn't this, it would have just been something else.

It even says in the article Breccia quoted: "According to court filings, before the pandemic, the Grenons marketed MMS as a cure for many other serious diseases, including Alzheimer’s, autism, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS."

[PhaelixWW]

And now, the most Trump post that has ever been posted. It's bigly Trump. It's YUGE Trump.

A Florida family is facing federal charges after allegedly marketing a COVID-19 cure called “Miracle Mineral Solution,” which was actually bleach, which is life threatening if consumed.

Congratulations, rabid fanbase. There are now people literally selling bleach, to drink, as a coronavirus cure. This was not a joke -- these people were arrested for doing it.

This is your fault. You elected him, you defended him, and now, you own this.

This one isn't new, either; we've talked about this one before.

A reminder from back in April:

Some of y'all are fucking idiots. Don't drink bleach. Even though, yes, this was before Trump said anything, some of y'all were still doing it. What the hell?

It all comes back to anti-vaxxers.

April 17th: Judge Issues Restraining Order To ‘Church’ Selling Bleach As COVID-19 Cure

A federal judge in Florida ordered a “church” hawking bleach as a holy sacrament to stop selling it as a COVID-19 cure.

“Genesis II Church of Health and Healing” has in recent weeks marketed an industrial bleach concoction long a mainstay in anti-vaccine circles — “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or MMS — as a coronavirus prevention and treatment elixir, prosecutors alleged in a complaint Thursday.

On Friday, Judge Kathleen Williams approved a temporary restraining order to prevent the four men behind the church from hawking the elixir.

In reality, most MMS is just chlorine dioxide — “a powerful bleaching agent,” as the FDA warned last year.

Nonetheless, the church’s websites advertise “sacramental Dosing for Coronavirus” and feature a full page of testimonials about the bleach mixture’s effectiveness against the virus.

“I was really skeptical of MMS but my little autistic brother has been taking it since he was like 3 and he’s 11 now and every time he got sick he’d get over it within like a day no matter the severity,” read one unsigned testimonial on a church website. “He never got sick from it or anything so I decided to give it a try and boy oh boy I was surprised it really does work.”

“It was a terrible time but it worked no matter what anyone says it really works,” the purportedly happy customer added.

The Florida men — Mark, Joseph, Jordan and Jonathan Grenon — are part of a larger group that was one of the early popularizers of bleach as a “cure” for dozens of conditions. One of the church’s founders, Jim Humble, was described by Newsweek in 2018 as a former Scientologist. He’s also a former gold prospector, ABC News reported in 2016, in a story that called Genesis II Church officials “the high priests of snake oil.”

The oddly structured organization — “a free church under common law” that is “not under commercial law,” its website proclaims — is devoted to the bleach concoction, which has dangerously grown in popularity in recent years as a home remedy for autism.

A reggae jingle at the top of a recent online broadcast from the church sang the praises of the bleach mixture.

“It’s a thorn in the side of corrupt institutions,” the song goes. “A drop of chlorine dioxide starts a health revolution.”

Underneath the ensuing 150-minute conversation, text on the church’s website blares: “G2Voice Broadcast #182: The Coronavirus is curable! Do you believe it? You better!”

According to the complaint against church’s “archbishop” and “bishops” — Mark, Joseph, Jordan and Jonathan Grenon — the religious leaders really just label and distribute MMS.

Despite a letter from the FDA and FTC last week ordering them to stop advertising the bleach as a COVID-19 cure, Genesis II Church kept going.

“We take donations, we don’t sell anything,” Mark Grenon said of the FDA letter on a recent “G2Voice” broadcast. “How dare you call our sacraments fraudulent!” he added.

In a letter back to the FDA and FTC, Grenon essentially claimed his organization was exempt from laws regulating medical claims, arguing its distribution of “sacraments” was a matter of religious freedom.

“‘Branding?’ We are NOT commercial code!” he wrote. “NOTE: You are trying to put us in your box and try and get us under your authority.”

Prosecutors didn’t appreciate that response.

“When warned by authorities that their conduct was unlawful, Defendants responded with open defiance, explicitly avowing that they need not — and will ‘never’ — obey the law,” they wrote.

As of Friday, the advertisements for MMS as a COVID-19 treatment were still live on Genesis II Church’s websites.

You can't make this stuff up.

And followed by:

Aren't those the chucklefucks that sent Trump the letter and put that nonsense "inject your body with cleanser" notion into his head? Because that seems like the same folks.

[arandomuser]

lol bolsonaro took hyroxichloriquine on video
bolsonaro is 65
would be a shame if its not the miracle drug he and trump advertised
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statu...50056926003200

i hate posting GG greenwald content since he himself is a populism stooge but w/e for context i have to

[Felya]

Drinking bleach as a coronavirus cure is still pretty damn specific.

It’s not... it’s been a problem for years. People have been selling MMS as a cure all for years and it’s not unique to the arrested. The interesting part is that it took Covid for feds to crack down.

[Breccia]

It's an OP ED, but the title Do Americans Understand How Badly They’re Doing? gives a quick idea of what's in there. It's a week old...things are actually now worse than the article says.

The perspective is an American who moved to France, who keeps up to date on US news but also knows what France did/is doing. The comparison is direct and somber.