Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Skulltaker]

But when they are being told it's not real, that it's "overblown", and an assault on the Resident, and an attempt by the Deep State to undermine Cheeto's authority, then it becomes unreal - until it's brought home in a very visceral way.

Trump and the GOP were pushing this bullshit conspiracy narrative for a few weeks, at least ("it's their new hoax"), and the far right nut job media sites are still pushing those narratives.

I don't believe in Karma, but I'd love to see some serious repercussions for these people once Trump's gone, be it in 6 months or a 4.5 years from now.

I understand your point of view but some people are just that Dense! for a lack of a better word.

I can only guess their thought process and I’m sure there are studies to help explain it. I can come up a few idea right now but that would be to much to type.

Yeah, there is a German saying, 'Schließe nicht von dir auf andere!', 'don't make assumptions based on your reasoning concerning others'. Yeah, you're probably right.

His sailors send him off after telling Trump that he is fucking retarded. I would rather have an entire FLEET of these guys at the helm of ships, than any Trump bootlickers that are doing anything and everything to appease the Orange Shitstain in the White House.

I'm not a US citizen, but I've seen the name Captain Crozier float around, is there a TL,DR as to what happened here?

[beanman12345]

Trump lays the groundwork for voter suppression.



So we're back to voter fraud. Oh, goodie.

Trump's comments are unsubstantiated. If he has evidence, his election fraud commission would have OH WAIT.

November is a long time away, but, as we keep seeing, Republicans know they're outnumbered and voter suppression is kind of their thing. However, two things:

1) Old people are more likely to stay at home in general, far more so if they think they might die if they leave the house, and

2) Trump can't do anything about it, the states do. Trump can't block states from encouraging mailed votes, and

3) The fraud we know about with absentee ballots was caused by Republicans, so Trump can fuck right off.

Thank god Trump has no say in how individual states run their elections. Yes some red states will fuck it up with suppression, but they were gonna do so regardless anyways.

[Machismo]

His sailors send him off after telling Trump that he is fucking retarded. I would rather have an entire FLEET of these guys at the helm of ships, than any Trump bootlickers that are doing anything and everything to appease the Orange Shitstain in the White House.

His sailors did him right.

[DarkTZeratul]

I'm not a US citizen, but I've seen the name Captain Crozier float around, is there a TL,DR as to what happened here?

Sailors on his ship were showing symptoms. He went up the chain to get help getting the sick crewmen off the ship so that they wouldn't spread the virus, but none was forthcoming so he distributed a letter about the problem that leaked (possibly intentionally) to the press. His ship got the resources he asked for, and then he got fired.

[Edge-]

I'm not a US citizen, but I've seen the name Captain Crozier float around, is there a TL,DR as to what happened here?

TLDR: There was a crisis on board and he was seeking assistance handling the outbreak. Something happened, and he felt the need to include a ton of people not normally in the chain of command on his letter, which was fine in its content, explaining the situation and providing proposed responses. The letter leaked, and there are questions on if the captain himself leaked it or not. But either way, by going outside the chain of command his removal was apparently warranted. He may have known this and felt this was the best way to get a quick response for his crew, sacrificing his career, but we have no way of knowing.

But he seems pretty popular amongst his crew.

[Breccia]

But he seems pretty popular amongst his crew.

I think we're in the "stole a loaf of bread to feed his family" alignment territory. Nobody is denying he was a good man. Apparently, he just wasn't considered a good commander.

[Shadowferal]

I'm not a US citizen, but I've seen the name Captain Crozier float around, is there a TL,DR as to what happened here?

Captain was fired after writing a plea for help to his superiors about the virus being prevalent and growing, on his ship.

“We are not at war,” the captain of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt wrote. “Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”

Unfortunately..the term "clusterfuck" is accurate as the command structure had problems...and the captain's letter/plea was gotten ahold of by the media...and it snowballed.

Essentially, the Cap was more concerned about his crew than his career.

[Edge-]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...onal-stockpile

The Trump administration isn't checking anything.

Shipped Alabama 5K moldy face-masks. Thankfully, Alabama got a replacement shipment pretty quick.

California got 170 ventilators which are desperately needed. And unfortunately, they were all broken. The state sent them to a company for repairs that should be finished by Monday.

[Breccia]

Shipped Alabama 5K moldy face-masks.

When I get to compare the Trump administration with no irony to Bethesda and Fallout 76, you know you done fuERRROR: CE-34878-0

[Skulltaker]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...onal-stockpile

The Trump administration isn't checking anything.

Shipped Alabama 5K moldy face-masks. Thankfully, Alabama got a replacement shipment pretty quick.

California got 170 ventilators which are desperately needed. And unfortunately, they were all broken. The state sent them to a company for repairs that should be finished by Monday.

Jesus, California has half the pop of Germany...

Just for a little perspective, on the 2nd of April the president of the German association of hospitals said to the 'Rheinische Post', a Newspaper, that currently, Germany had bumped the number of ICU beds from 28.000 to 40.000, with approximately 2000 of them occupied by Covid-19 patients. We started with 20.000 ventilators, and now have 30.000.

[Breccia]

The cracks are growing. Mitt Romney sent a letter to Trump, gently suggesting he not fight the oversight in the bill he personally signed into law.

With trillions of taxpayer dollars being spent, it is critically important for the Administration to ensure full transparency and willingness for independent oversight.

As you work to implement COVID-19 legislation, we ask that you provide Congress a detailed plan on how the government plans to execute these funds and what accountability measures are being put in place to ensure our taxpayer dollars are being spent efficiently and effectively

Bla bla bla most transparent bla bla bla anyone who takes the Fifth bla bla bla only I can fix it.

[Poopymonster]

When I get to compare the Trump administration with no irony to Bethesda and Fallout 76, you know you done fuERRROR: CE-34878-0

On one hand, he seems to have favored Alabama (Red) over other states. On the other hand, 5K masks won't last a weekend in a major hospital. On the gripping hand, really, moldy masks? This administration could fuck up a wet dream.

[Rasulis]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...onal-stockpile

The Trump administration isn't checking anything.

Shipped Alabama 5K moldy face-masks. Thankfully, Alabama got a replacement shipment pretty quick.

California got 170 ventilators which are desperately needed. And unfortunately, they were all broken. The state sent them to a company for repairs that should be finished by Monday.

Bloom Energy fixed the 170 ventilators two weeks ago. Took them the entire weekend to fix those. They also fixed over 500 ventilators from California H1N1 stock pile.

Several states, such as Delaware, are now sending their old ventilators to California to be refurbished also.

[cubby]

HHS website changed to echo [inaccurate] comments by Kushner.

Wow. Just..fucking..wow.

- - - Updated - - -

Trump lays the groundwork for voter suppression.



So we're back to voter fraud. Oh, goodie.

Trump's comments are unsubstantiated. If he has evidence, his election fraud commission would have OH WAIT.

November is a long time away, but, as we keep seeing, Republicans know they're outnumbered and voter suppression is kind of their thing. However, two things:

1) Old people are more likely to stay at home in general, far more so if they think they might die if they leave the house, and

2) Trump can't do anything about it, the states do. Trump can't block states from encouraging mailed votes, and

3) The fraud we know about with absentee ballots was caused by Republicans, so Trump can fuck right off.

And this will be the crux of his failure in this endeavor. Trump can't interfere in state's actions to govern their own elections. Period. So as long as the election isn't canceled, we should be ok.

If there is a worry here, it will be with state Governors and SecStates who are GOP - those are the two officials that states rely on for election guidance (and it's usually the SecState - who sometimes isn't the same party as the Governor - see Kentucky).

[alexw]

I don't need anyone around me to die from a car crash to know they are real. I don't need to watch some child in Africa starve to death to know it happens. I don't have to witness rape to know it's a horrible thing. I have a hard time believing properly developed humans need to be demonstrated to know it's real.

Ahh but if you don't see it with your own eyes how do you know its not fake news perpetrated by the deep state liberal media?

The car crashes I mean.

/s

[Breccia]

A couple things.

1) Trump seized 3 million masks Massachusetts bought and paid for and kept them. Now the state is looking for any possible replacement even (I am not making this up) lying about the next order so they can sneak it into the country without Trump seizing it.

The state's HHS is furious. Why wouldn't they be?

2) I've said, multiple times, that China has every excuse they could possibly want to walk away from Phase One with a clean conscience. I stand behind that.

But there's more. China has actually been struggling with a case of Democracy for a while now, as they did not use social distancing from the US starting around Nixon. Oddly enough, the coronavirus has made them immune, and Trump handed them the vaccine.

ForeignPolicy explains:

Despite Chinese efforts to reclaim the crisis as a global propaganda victory—aided by the botched handling of the outbreak in the United States—the domestic blow dealt may be a mortal one, not to the party-state regime but to Xi himself, who has staked his credibility on the handling of the crisis. Unfortunately, the pandemic may also end up being the final coup de grâce of the relatively stable relationship China once enjoyed with the United States.

The Obama administration had already started reappraising the wisdom of trying to unilaterally keep engagement functional when along came Trump and his posse of China hawks (such as Peter Navarro, Steve Bannon, and Michael Pillsbury) who had long warned that an increasingly aggressive, autocratic, and well-armed China was both inevitable and a threat to U.S. national interests.

Then, just as a debate over decoupling from China’s supply chains got rolling, the coronavirus reared its head. As airlines canceled flights, trade shows were postponed, tourism screeched to a halt, investment flows dried up, exports and imports plummeted, and high-tech exchanges were truncated, the debate was ripped out of the hands of policy wonks and thrust into the hands of the gods. By decoupling the United States and China almost overnight, the pandemic has mooted the debate and provided Trump and his hawks with exactly the kind of cosmic sanction they needed to put a final stake through the heart of engagement—and perhaps even the whole notion of globalization as a positive force.

Yet most Americans continue to want globalization of some form—but perhaps with China playing far less of a dominant role. Now that U.S. businesses have turned skeptical of the old style of engagement, that policy has lost its last boosters. Even before the coronavirus crisis, companies made more aware of the risk of having all their eggs in one basket by the trade war were diversifying manufacturing away from China and toward other developing economies like Vietnam. The pandemic may only accelerate that process.

The U.S. military, churches, media, think tanks, civil society, and even academia have since seen a sudden dearth of engagement advocates as old contacts and possibilities have been cut off. The U.S.-China relationship has found itself left floating in a gravity-free environment in which both Xi and Trump, because of their mishandling of the viral challenge, are struggling to find their feet.

To be sure, if the virus is temporarily contained in China, as recent statistics on new cases seem to suggest, Xi may claim victory at home. And if U.S. efforts to control the outbreak under Trump’s leadership continue to flounder, it will only add to Xi’s luster. But Xi has still suffered major reputational damage, especially facing criticism for suppressing the alarms raised by medical professionals in China that could have prevented the virus from spreading. Nor does it help him that U.S. leaders from Trump to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are determined to name it the “Chinese virus” to put responsibility where they say it belongs—and to distract from their own failures.

Win or lose, however, the pandemic has given Xi an excuse to both road-test and extend myriad new mechanisms of party and state control. New color-coded apps that designate who can move where, temperature-checking police scanners, new kinds of mass mobilization tactics, and digital censorship tools will allow the state to intrude even further into Chinese life in the future.

If the battle against the virus spins out of control again as he rushes workers back to assembly lines to rescue China’s economy, Xi will most certainly claim that the threats to the country’s survival and nationhood have now escalated to such a high threat level that an even more centralized, powerful, intolerant, and controlling government is the only way forward. Whatever happens to China’s epidemic, Beijing is likely to emerge from its viral trauma more autocratic, more pugnacious, and more inclined toward conflict with the liberal democratic rules-based order that many Americans still wistfully imagine their country commands.

I'm not sure I 100% agree with the article's view on Trump. I don't think he wanted to cut off trade with Jyna. I think he wanted to make a bigly deal with Jyna, to prove how bigly and yuge he is. The fact that the US is begging China for masks kind of helps that point. However, the party about Xi clamping down with an iron fist?

Basically, I suggested earlier that, if the US govt could pay for all coronavirus treatment, it kind of put a dent in the "we can't afford Medicare for all" argument, because we'd have proof that yes we could if we wanted to. Well, Xi is proving that being an irrefutable dictator is working. And that only works if there's less contact with countries that don't have dictators, and also, if he refuses to show weakness, such as letting Trump push him around.

[Thekri]

Man is a damn hero, and whenever we get this Orange Shitstain out of office, bet your ass this guy's getting all sorts of medals and commendations.

No, he won't. Because he still broke military rules, and these sort of actions have permanent consequences.

But he may of saved the lives of some of his sailors by doing this, and that is going to be worth a lot more then medals to him. This is a case of a leader doing right by his men, regardless of the personal cost. You don't see it much, so it is tempting to think there is some sort of hidden reward for it. But there isn't. He gets to go into retirement knowing he did the right thing, and that is all the reward he will get, and all the reward he will need.

[beanman12345]

No, he won't. Because he still broke military rules, and these sort of actions have permanent consequences.

But he may of saved the lives of some of his sailors by doing this, and that is going to be worth a lot more then medals to him. This is a case of a leader doing right by his men, regardless of the personal cost. You don't see it much, so it is tempting to think there is some sort of hidden reward for it. But there isn't. He gets to go into retirement knowing he did the right thing, and that is all the reward he will get, and all the reward he will need.

Pretty meaningless when Rush got a medal. Does he need one? No, but he'll probably get one all the same, but not under this administration.

[Resurgo]

I might have missed this earlier, but did we notice trump’s used all these distractions to fire the Intelligence IG?
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...general-164287

[arandomuser]

Trump has killed americans super power status of global influence, he literally did the OPPOSITE of making america great, he made us weak, he dosent understand strength dosent come from the most bloated military budget but also your leadership and global influence which he ceded to putin, but then again hillary talked about those things and people said she was "too politically correct" for not calling for nuking iran and carpet bombing civilians in syria