Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[PhaelixWW]

For anyone who wants a visual as to the Florida Fuckery...

[Benggaul]

There absolutely is. Florida's intentional mishandling of the problem and outright lies needs to be called out at every opportunity. Just because the first six jurors say "guilty" doesn't mean the seventh should stay silent.

You misunderstand me. I'm not staying silent. I'm just not going to re-link what was already linked. I pick out links throughout the day to put in my reports and pretty much all of them had already been discussed so it would have been rather redundant for me to do so again.

[Edge-]

For anyone who wants a visual as to the Florida Fuckery...

Down UP down UP down UP down UP down UP.

Man, it's almost like they're like...intentionally ratfucking the numbers as much as they can.

[PhaelixWW]

Down UP down UP down UP down UP down UP.

Man, it's almost like they're like...intentionally ratfucking the numbers as much as they can.

Yeah, since they made the switch, they're doing massive backlog fills on Mondays and Thursdays each week. That has the effect of keeping the "new" daily deaths and the "current" 7-day average low, but it's easily visible as long as you check the total number of deaths and/or the graph of the 7-day averages.

[Breccia]

For anyone who wants a visual as to the Florida Fuckery

That sure looks right to me.

Florida's choice of intentional deceit seems intended to make sure they're always on a downwards path, when that's never true. Fortunately honest sources continue to simply list how many deaths were announced.

There's an ex-guildie who lives in Florida and is, like, 65% a lost cause. I know she'd come around if her kids or parents took ill, but I'm not sure what else would do it. Anyhow I'm waiting for the discussion where she says "but Florida is doing well" and I have to say "Okay, write down the number of deaths that happened today and don't lose it. We'll pick this up again in 7 days, then 14." While I think that would work, 7 to 14 days in COVID Central is kind of a risky time frame. For all I know, the conversation would continue with me asking where I should send the flowers.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not just the south. California is also running out of ICU beds, over 90% capacity.

[Benggaul]

It's not just the south. California is also running out of ICU beds, over 90% capacity.

The difference being that there are still many other hospitals in California that can accept the overflow from those counties that might (but have not yet) exceed capacity. A lot of the southern states don't have that luxury anymore.

[Kaleredar]

It's not just the south. California is also running out of ICU beds, over 90% capacity.

Those areas it listed... the regions around Fresno county... are pretty much the "flyover state" portion of California. The people there tend to be... you guessed it, conservative.

Hell this really just continues to highlight how much of a political issue vaccinations and masks have become. Even in a state that is overall liberal and overall has a high vaccination rate, pockets of conservative stupidity are still able to be critically dangerous to their residents.

[PhaelixWW]

It's not just the south. California is also running out of ICU beds, over 90% capacity.

Keep in mind that 90% isn't as bad as it sounds. Prior to COVID, ICU occupancy averaged around 70% in hospitals in the US. I mean, those beds are there for a reason. Some trauma centers routinely ran 80-90% occupancy. It's actually incredibly wasteful to run with too low an occupancy.

That being said, I'm sure a lot of hospitals have increased their ICU capacity in the last year, so 90% isn't great, either. But that's just one area of California. As a whole, California hospitalizations seem to be starting to level off, and they're still only at about half of the high mark back in January.

Also, what makes an ICU bed an ICU bed and not a regular hospital bed is largely staffing. As long as hospitals can increase staffing to cover surges, they can often quickly increase the ICU bed count on short notice. That's what happened back in the winter.

For perspective, the state dashboard is reporting 2092 ICU patients and 1533 available ICU beds right now. Even during the winter surge when there were nearly 5000 occupied ICU beds, there was still over 1000 available beds, due to the hospitals' short-term increase in ICU bed capacity.

[Rasulis]

Keep in mind that 90% isn't as bad as it sounds. Prior to COVID, ICU occupancy averaged around 70% in hospitals in the US. I mean, those beds are there for a reason. Some trauma centers routinely ran 80-90% occupancy. It's actually incredibly wasteful to run with too low an occupancy.

That being said, I'm sure a lot of hospitals have increased their ICU capacity in the last year, so 90% isn't great, either. But that's just one area of California. As a whole, California hospitalizations seem to be starting to level off, and they're still only at about half of the high mark back in January.

Also, what makes an ICU bed an ICU bed and not a regular hospital bed is largely staffing. As long as hospitals can increase staffing to cover surges, they can often quickly increase the ICU bed count on short notice. That's what happened back in the winter.

For perspective, the state dashboard is reporting 2092 ICU patients and 1533 available ICU beds right now. Even during the winter surge when there were nearly 5000 occupied ICU beds, there was still over 1000 available beds, due to the hospitals' short-term increase in ICU bed capacity.

If you click on the field at the top left of the dashboard you can look at the availability of ICU beds for each county. Also, nine CA counties do not have ICU facilities, and low population counties (Siskiyou and Mono) have minimal ICU bed capacity to begin with. Even under normal circumstances, around 30 to 40% of patients in San Francisco hospitals are from other counties.

[Breccia]

Something I missed earlier: apparently, DeSantis filed that stupid mask thing as an "emergency rule". Which sounds a lot like National Security Lol.

Yes, the mask ban and the blocking of funds to schools is, apparently, done to stop some kind of emergency. As stated in the emergency rule, the emergency is COVID, and there wasn't enough time to make a non-emergency rule. Of course, there was time to change how COVID deaths were reported. So, yes, because DeSantis dragged his feet, it's now an emergency that children might be forced to take common sense precautions.

Several school districts are taking the same dim view I am, and are dragging this emergency rule before a judge. Considering recent court findings, this could be yet another blow to DeSantis' attempts to murder his own voters.

[Gorsameth]

Something I missed earlier: apparently, DeSantis filed that stupid mask thing as an "emergency rule". Which sounds a lot like National Security Lol.

Yes, the mask ban and the blocking of funds to schools is, apparently, done to stop some kind of emergency. As stated in the emergency rule, the emergency is COVID, and there wasn't enough time to make a non-emergency rule. Of course, there was time to change how COVID deaths were reported. So, yes, because DeSantis dragged his feet, it's now an emergency that children might be forced to take common sense precautions.

Several school districts are taking the same dim view I am, and are dragging this emergency rule before a judge. Considering recent court findings, this could be yet another blow to DeSantis' attempts to murder his own voters.

I don't see how an emergency law could survive a judge when its a law to actively NOT address the emergency and actively avoid expert advise but this is America so 'who the fuck knows how this will go'.

[Poopymonster]

I don't see how an emergency law could survive a judge when its a law to actively NOT address the emergency and actively avoid expert advise but this is America so 'who the fuck knows how this will go'.

Luckily, Wikipedia has a handy list of how that can be done.

[Breccia]

its a law to actively NOT address the emergency

I believe the case will go "school was starting soon and the real emergency was people's rights to inflict harm on others was being threatened".

[Biglog]

Since FOX has been fired up this week pushing "Trump 2024" already, just a reminder that Trump as of today is 75 years old. Congress may (and in a normally functioning government absolutely would) still end up blocking his ability to rerun due to his support for the failed 1/6 insurrection attempt. But even if that does not happen, he'll be a 78 year-old by 2024, who also has had an issue with obesity for years. Age and obesity might beat him before he gets a chance to lose again.

There was a recent quote that helps explain Trumpism. Throughout the life of the US, there has always been 1/3 of the population that has been on the wrong side of history. Before the revolution from England, 1/3 of colonials in the US did not want to revolt. 1/3 of Americans (the South) started the Civil war in the 1860's to try to maintain the ability to own other humans. 1/3 of Americans did NOT want the US to enter WW1 OR WW2 in both cases saying it wasn't our problem (this is why the US didn't enter until Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941, the war had started over 2 years earlier). Now 1/3 of Americans use horse dewormer over FDA approved and tested vaccines and don't understand that masks that doctors have used for over 100 years are proven and work to prevent the spread of disease. For better or worse this isn't a new phenomenon, we've had this issue with 1/3 of the population adamantly being on the wrong side of history for quite a long time.

[Benggaul]

Friday's report:

182,593 new cases; around 14k fewer than last Friday. Even with corrections it should come in under last week's total, so things are looking up.

Top 10:

Fuck Florida.
Texas: 22,265 new cases; 301 deaths
California: 13,778 new cases; 155 deaths
Georgia: 12,018 new cases; 114 deaths
North Carolina: 8,590 new cases; 83 deaths
Tennessee: 6,698 new cases; 76 deaths
New York: 6,530 new cases; 25 deaths
South Carolina: 6,221 new cases; 38 deaths
Ohio: 6,179 new cases; 27 deaths
Illinois: 5,980 new cases; 42 deaths

While the national number might be going down, we can see several states that are still experiencing a rapid increase. This was Georgia's second-worst total ever. South Carolina's also on a steep climb. South Dakota still has the worst positivity and infection rate in the country and the only reason they'll likely never pop up on my list is because there's less than a million people in that state so they probably won't hit the 5k+ that's been typical of the states listed here. Of course, Kristi Noem wants to use Texas' abortion bill as a model for their own legislation so they're still finding other ways to be the absolute worst. Positivity in California has dropped below 5%, so there's a good chance California can avoid the 20k+ numbers of Texas and Florida. Mask mandates work.

1,512 deaths is nearly exactly the same as last Friday and brings the total to 664,935. The caveat here is that worldometers has no deaths reported from Florida for Friday because of Florida's new reporting system. The New York Times, however, says that Florida had 335 deaths on Friday, so that's about how many more over last week there was, bringing us much closer to 2k than I would like. This also puts Florida at the top of the list, as per usual, with Texas in second with another 300+ day and California in third. DeathSantis defends the reporting change by saying other states do the same, and while it's true that Florida's new reporting system is one used by other states, those states have been using that method for pretty much the entire pandemic whereas Florida chose a very convenient time to make it appear as though their death numbers weren't so terrible. Fuck Florida.

Related news:

Florida COVID Cases Drop Significantly for the First Time Since Delta Surge Began--This is good news, but school is still ramping up and DeathSantis is still determined to kill as many of his constituents as possible, so we'll see if it's a sustained drop of if it starts shooting back up into the stratosphere in a few weeks.

De La Hoya hospitalized with COVID-19, withdraws from upcoming fight--This really should kick the "if you're healthy you have no reason to be worried" argument in the ass. Not only is De La Hoya in great shape as he was training for a fight, he was also fully vaccinated and this breakthrough infection still knocked him on his ass. He'll likely be fine ultimately because he was vaccinated, but if someone in such good shape with protection can be laid low, then Joe Shmoe sneaking in a Burger King meal every week should wake the fuck up, get the vaccine and wear a fucking mask.

Stay safe, folks.

[Breccia]

Age and obesity might beat him before he gets a chance to lose again.

I've seen a lot of opinions around "will Trump run again?" Trump lies all the time about everything and even he won't say.

I think...the Big Log is right. Trump now knows how much work it is, and we know how much Trump hates work. For decades his work ethic was "yell at people to do his job, and then refuse to pay them". He knows from his single term he can't do that.

But arguably, the thing he hates the most is being shown to be a loser. Team Trump has got to know his brand is damaged, and that anything from "being arrested in NYState" to "Russian money launderer calls in their overdue loans" to "divorce" could happen any second. He can't even run as an outisder anymore, and when he makes the same long list of impossible promises, Biden can just say "well you said that last time and then just didn't do it". Followed by a video of his Wall being torn down by rain and/or wind, with Arms of the Angels playing.

Trump has to know he has a real risk of losing, and not just being shamed worldwide by losing to someone he claimed is senile and incompetent (Biden is neither) but also damaging the GOP for another four years. If Trump tries to run, nobody will dare primary him because, well, his rabid fanbase might literally kill them. Plus that whole 2020 GOP abandoning their platform and just handing in a napkin that says "whatever Trump says". But when the choice comes down to the side-by-side with hurricanes, Afghanistan (yes, in 2024 leaving Afghanistan will be hailed as a win by the Democrats), COVID and the economy, Biden's got every advantage.

Also, Trump still can't tweet.

Trump has to know that he'll have more power and influence and fun by holding rallies and saying things he doesn't need to back up with facts or action. He'll let other people running for office pay him to show up, like Giuliani's Cameos. What he really wants is a crowd of people to cheer for him, to temporarily mute the pain caused by the lack of a father's love.

Also it's a lot easier to pay whores when your finances aren't being scrutinized by, say, the FEC or Melania's divorce lawyer.

[solinari6]

Also it's a lot easier to pay whores when your finances aren't being scrutinized by, say, the FEC or Melania's divorce lawyer.

On the other hand, it's also a lot easier to stay out of jail when you are the president, so he does have that motivation!

[Benggaul]

The mother of a college student who died 'screaming through the mask' wished she had made her get the COVID-19 vaccine

19-year old, no underlying health conditions, unvaccinated. Texas.

When Trump and the GOP started politicizing the pandemic in 2020 they became responsible for every avoidable death from there forward and they remain responsible now.

Gray's entire household was unvaccinated, which led to all of them contracting the virus at around the same time. However, only the teen ended up in the hospital.

The teen had sent pictures of herself in the hospital bed, hoping she would survive. She died on August 19.

Gray's mother said that societal pressure from nearby friends and family influenced their decision to remain unvaccinated.

"I feel like it's my fault," Tabitha said, according to FOX 4. "I should've forced it."

"I shouldn't have let other people in my head or life get to me," Tabitha said. "I should've done what I needed to do to protect my family."

Gray was described as "the light in the room everywhere she went on a memorial website." Her dream was to own a beauty salon after college.

Since Breanna's death, Gray's family have received their first COVID-19 vaccine and are booked in for their second appointment later this month.

It should not fucking take the death of a close family member for people to do what they should have done months ago. Fuck Texas.

[Lenonis]

It should not fucking take the death of a close family member for people to do what they should have done months ago. Fuck Texas.

This is what happens when you build an ideology that is entirely devoid of empathy. The ONLY time right wingers show compassion is when something happens directly to them or someone they care about. Otherwise they are incapable of caring.

[Poopymonster]

The mother of a college student who died 'screaming through the mask' wished she had made her get the COVID-19 vaccine

19-year old, no underlying health conditions, unvaccinated. Texas.

When Trump and the GOP started politicizing the pandemic in 2020 they became responsible for every avoidable death from there forward and they remain responsible now.



It should not fucking take the death of a close family member for people to do what they should have done months ago. Fuck Texas.

Yes Tabitha, you should have protected your fucking family. I sincerely hope this haunts her. For the rest of her fucking life.