Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[kaelleria]

Trump is going off the rails in this press conference...

[Mayhem]

Many people, on this forum even, strongly believe travel bans can't stop the spread of the disease even as we have seen in real time how travel bans have worked to significantly slow it down.

Out of curiosity, since when is stop the same as slow down? You might want to work on your arguments a bit better if your first sentence already is a disservice to them.

[Acidbaron]

Shitshow is the appropriate term for this, does not handle criticism well about his "chinese virus"

This is going from bad to worse, he really is unhinged.

[PhaelixWW]

Trump is going off the rails in this press conference...

This is going from bad to worse, he really is unhinged.

The soundbites in an election year are pure gold.

[Kiri]

Many people, on this forum even, strongly believe travel bans can't stop the spread of the disease even as we have seen in real time how travel bans have worked to significantly slow it down. Many people believe the Chinese propaganda story how the US created the virus.

What "many people believe in" means zilch. Facts matter and the facts are the Chinese government is directly responsible for the spread of the virus because they wasted half of december, and the first week in January, silencing doctors and downplaying the issue. They don't get a damned pass on this and calling it the "Chinese virus" or the "Wuhan Virus" is a perfectly good way of reminding the general population who is directly responsible for this.

Because the worst thing that could happen if we ignore the responsibility the Chinese Government have for this pandemic, beyond letting them get away with the deaths of hundreds of thousands if not millions world wide, is we will get another case like this in the future. They bungled it with SARS and they've unleashed hell on the world with COVID-19.

Compared to that? Yeah screw people's feelings.

EDIT: None of this means Trump or any other leader ( especially those of Europe ) get a pass for how badly they bungled this. When China finally did act and shut down Hubei Province by instituting a complete lockdown every single political leader should have acted with extreme urgency.

They didn't. They wasted the entirety of February because they didn't want to deal with the very costly problem that's going to require trillions to solve. Trump should count himself exceptionally lucky his administration imposed a travel ban and quarantine on travelers from China, because if they had not taken those measures at the end of January America would look worse then Europe is right now.

The issue is, as others have lined out, that it isn't just "people's feelings" that get hurt. Actual people might or already do get hurt over this, who have no responsibility whatsoever for the virus outbreak. Calling it the "Chinese Virus" is the perfect way for people to shift the blame towards Chinese or even just Asian looking people in general.
Sure, stupid, bigoted people will find reasons to hate anyway, but you don't need to offer them an excuse for it. Because that is what the name does. It's not the "Xi Jinping Virus" or the "Chinese Government of 2020 Virus" you use - which would be an adequate way of reminding people who is actually responsible. No, you call it the "Chinese virus" and you say that it is meant to remind people of who is responsible. I.e. "the Chinese", not a small subsection of people in the Chinese government who actually had the power to make the choices that upset you, but just the Chinese in general, or rather all of them. One doesn't get to say that you are just reminding people of who is responsible without being precise about it. Either you are concrete or you are not.

Besides, if you wanted to truly hit home with the moniker, you should call it the "Winnie the Poo Virus" to begin with.

[Acidbaron]

The issue is, as others have lined out, that it isn't just "people's feelings" that get hurt. Actual people might or already do get hurt over this, who have no responsibility whatsoever for the virus outbreak. Calling it the "Chinese Virus" is the perfect way for people to shift the blame towards Chinese or even just Asian looking people in general.
Sure, stupid, bigoted people will find reasons to hate anyway, but you don't need to offer them an excuse for it. Because that is what the name does. It's not the "Xi Jinping Virus" or the "Chinese Government of 2020 Virus" you use - which would be an adequate way of reminding people who is actually responsible. No, you call it the "Chinese virus" and you say that it is meant to remind people of who is responsible. I.e. "the Chinese", not a small subsection of people in the Chinese government who actually had the power to make the choices that upset you, but just the Chinese in general, or rather all of them. One doesn't get to say that you are just reminding people of who is responsible without being precise about it. Either you are concrete or you are not.

Besides, if you wanted to truly hit home with the moniker, you should call it the "Winnie the Poo Virus" to begin with.

Pretty much the same as what happened with the arab community after 9/11.. but hey who cares right they are not white so.

[kaelleria]

"I inherited a broken old, frankly terrible system!"

No you didn't you jackass, you dismantled the working system and fucked us over.

[Paranoid Android]

Trump just stated "He inherited a broken, obsolete system", now we have a "tremendous" system to fix this.


WTF! He killed the pandemic group and he never gave a shit about what our "system" was before this attack. Plus for the millionth time he was slow to react to coronovirus. This constant lying MFer.

This is surreal, Dr. Fauci is literally laying out why hydroxychloroquine is not the coronavirus wonder drug or “game changer” as the President is calling it, with the President disagreeing with him.. in real time. One is a scientist and renowned doctor. The other isn’t.

Just a moron.

[Thekri]

Besides, if you wanted to truly hit home with the moniker, you should call it the "Winnie the Poo Virus" to begin with.

I am fine with this solution. It isn't exactly fair to Xi, but I don't really care. It also isn't racist, it is aimed at the singular person that controls the system that screwed it up and allowed it to happen. It should probably be "Winnie the Pooh" though, we should save the name Winnie the Poo for a gastrointestinal pandemic.

Also, I would generally prefer we hold the finger pointing for the after-action review. The Chinese government certainly screwed it up, but the rest of the world is still currently screwing it up right now, so lets figure out exactly how much glass our house is made of before we start throwing rocks.

[Edge-]

Wait...is he having another press conference? Haven't they learned every time he gets in front of the camera things go horribly, horribly wrong?

[Acidbaron]

Trump just stated "He inherited a broken, obsolete system", now we have a "tremendous" system to fix this.


WTF! He killed the pandemic group and he never gave a shit about what our "system" was before this attack. Plus for the millionth time he was slow to react to coronovirus. This constant lying MFer.

You are a terrible person making such statements that question the actions of the president in this time of a crisis! /s

[cubby]

In the ongoing theme of "even a trillion isn't enough" people are now asking Congress for housing help.

Specifically, mortgage/rent reduction and a halt on evictions.

The reasoning is "homeless people will spread the disease". And I'll even go so far as to say "people who just got fired can't pay rent". The rest...not sure. Yes, I'd love to skip a mortgage payment, but I'm not sick and I haven't been fired. I don't deserve it.

What do you guys think? Is this an appropriate way to get money to those affected, or is the idea flawed?

Other countries are rolling out mortgage and auto payment deferments. Canada just did a 3- or 6-month one. I think the policy will help a LOT of people - both with money management and the stress that comes from all things related. Knowing your house won't be foreclosed upon is a nice stress reliever.

Deserve - that's another interesting topic. My wife and I are lucky enough to be able to work from home, and both of our jobs are so far still ok (/knockwood). So any deferment or cancellation of bills or checks from Govt is more of a windfall than anything us. We *should* be fine, regardless.

But setting national policy usually captures people who may not need it and misses people who do. So I think we'll see a lot of things coming down the pipeline that will benefit peeps who don't need it - but it's all for the greater good.

The mortgage thing would be huge.

[Acidbaron]

Wait...is he having another press conference? Haven't they learned every time he gets in front of the camera things go horribly, horribly wrong?

You missed it and quite a lot of quotes.

"The chinese president loves china"
"The economy is going to rise up like a rocketship"
"I don't know if it works (the medicine that might have an impact on it) but i have a good feeling about it, and i have been right often"
"All those people (those caught trading) are honourable people"

And on and on

[Kiri]

I am fine with this solution. It isn't exactly fair to Xi, but I don't really care. It also isn't racist, it is aimed at the singular person that controls the system that screwed it up and allowed it to happen. It should probably be "Winnie the Pooh" though, we should save the name Winnie the Poo for a gastrointestinal pandemic.

Also, I would generally prefer we hold the finger pointing for the after-action review. The Chinese government certainly screwed it up, but the rest of the world is still currently screwing it up right now, so lets figure out exactly how much glass our house is made of before we start throwing rocks.

Oh, that was actually a typo.
But yeah, preferably we could just postpone that. And in a perfect world, the resulting actions would actually be aimed at those truly responsible and proportional to their actual negligence.

But we don't live in such a world, especially if Trump is re-elected. What we'll probably get is every government distracting from their own sub-optimal decision making by blaming China and putting on sanctions that don't really bother those in power all that much, but hurt the Chinese population even more. Because that's how the world works these days, sadly.

[Belize]

So, I'm catching up on the, uh... "Press conference"... and I have to ask, does Covid-19 rot away the brain?

Because Trump's tiny peanut is probably full of maggots right now.

[Casterbridge]

So, I'm catching up on the, uh... "Press conference"... and I have to ask, does Covid-19 rot away the brain?

Because Trump's tiny peanut is probably full of maggots right now.

I mean it starves the body and brain of oxygen so....possible, but of course Trump has been acting like well before the virus started spreading, so probably best not to blame Covid-19 for this.

[Thepersona]

Trump just stated "He inherited a broken, obsolete system", now we have a "tremendous" system to fix this.


WTF! He killed the pandemic group and he never gave a shit about what our "system" was before this attack. Plus for the millionth time he was slow to react to coronovirus. This constant lying MFer.

This is surreal, Dr. Fauci is literally laying out why hydroxychloroquine is not the coronavirus wonder drug or “game changer” as the President is calling it, with the President disagreeing with him.. in real time. One is a scientist and renowned doctor. The other isn’t.

Just a moron.

Is it a gamechanger or not? Because i'm thinking about getting some

On a related note, this imbecile (Trump ) is going to get us killed. If not by the disease, it will be by the economic depression that will ensue.

[Edge-]

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/nb...m_npd_ms_tw_ma

Finally watched the actual clip. Holy fucking shit.

Trump supporters: This is all you. This is your guy. This is how he responds to critical questions, not by answering them but by attacking and blaming those that ask them. He takes responsibility for nothing.

I'm still surprised that I can find new and different ways to be disgusted and repulsed by this man. He's truly scum, and based on their behavior lately there couldn't be a better leader for the Republican party.

[Thekri]

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/nb...m_npd_ms_tw_ma

Finally watched the actual clip. Holy fucking shit.

Trump supporters: This is all you. This is your guy. This is how he responds to critical questions, not by answering them but by attacking and blaming those that ask them. He takes responsibility for nothing.

I'm still surprised that I can find new and different ways to be disgusted and repulsed by this man. He's truly scum, and based on their behavior lately there couldn't be a better leader for the Republican party.

That was basically a softball question too, what was even nasty about it? He asked what message the President had for Americans who were scared. That isn't a softball, that is setting it on a stand for any leader to tee off on. That is a perfect time to deliver a scripted message to calm the public. Instead he decided to start insulting people for no reason at all.

[TigTone]

I don’t think there is currently a more appropriate time for the saying “Ignorance is bliss, until it not”.