Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

I can't tell if its desperation=

It's mostly desperation. Yes, it makes sense to try things that might actually work. Technically, chemotheraphy is really bad for the human body, for example. The problem is when you start jumping steps, and touting something that's not only untested but actually harmful.

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Sigh...

So how's it going at school?

The University of Notre Dame suspended in-person classes on Tuesday, eight days after the school’s fall semester began and after 146 students and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said.

The two-week suspension, which is effective Wednesday for the school’s 12,000 students, came one day after the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill made a similar announcement and as Michigan State University on Tuesday ordered undergrads to stay home for the rest of the fall "effective immediately."

What else do Indiana, Michigan and North Carolina have in common?

"They don't have mask mandates?"

Actually it looks like they do.

But Indiana had in-person classes.

Near as I can tell, Michigan did too.

And so did the majority of NC colleges.

All three of these colleges seem to have abruptly changed their mind in the last 24 hours or so.

Now, the danger is not just to the health of students, teachers and staff, although yes that's a pretty big deal. There is also the "well, your classes got suddenly dumped back online by teachers who didn't want to, now what?" factor. I, and hundreds of thousands of my colleagues, remember that from last academic year when the Trump Outbreak began. It's pretty ugly to switch gears without pumping the clutch.

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So some insight into what Oleander can do to you if you injest it:

So it pretty much can do everything COVID already does to the human body, minus destroy blood vessels.

Oh, we have an update. The My Pillow Guy is now saying Trump asked him to go looking for a cure.

"Well surely he called upon The My Pillow Guy in his role as a board memeber of a biotech firm."

Well, there are two choices.

1) Trump asked The My Pillow Guy to find a cure, and The My Pillow Guy happened to look only at drugs his company was working on and therefore that he'd profit from, and he happened to find it after the CEO told him about it Easter, and also, The My Pillow Guy then sat on the information for months.

Or!

2) The My Pillow Guy, a devout Trump supporter, is lying.

At time of writing, Trump has not commented on whether he asked The My Pillow Guy to go find a cure for him. Based on his only comments on the subject, it sounds like he did not, but then, Trump lies all the time about everything.

[Dontrike]

Oh no, conservatives and women talking about sex... That's not a viable combo, I'm afraid, back to the kitchen with ya!

Woman talking about sex? SOMEONE CALL THE CHURCH ELDERS!

[Breccia]

So how did the second night of the Democrats' convention go?

This well:



Big name after big name lined up to call out Trump on his failings, praise Biden for his success and/or agenda, or both. Once again, FOX News has nothing to run against it except that one thing about Clinton on CNN, and Clinton was a speaker so that kind of counts.

In fact, let's hear from him:

At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center. There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes — his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.

Denying, distracting and demeaning works great if you‘re trying to entertain or inflame, but in a real crisis, it collapses just like a house of cards.

Did it have to be this way? No!

FOX News even posted htis article with the headline John Kerry calls Trump’s foreign policy a ‘blooper reel’ of breakups with allies, ‘love letters to dictators’. It contains a video of the full speech, and this quote:

When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission it’s a blooper real. He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who looked up to, not laughed at.

"Okay, but only one ex-President sp--"

Also Carter spoke.

Joe has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America’s greatness. We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people. Joe is that kind of leader, and he is the right person for this moment in our nation’s history.

Jimmy and I are voting for Joe because he recognizes the challenges facing our families and has the heart and the talent to make life better for all Americans

-- the Carter family

"Okay two, but wh--"

Also Obama tweeted.

"Tweeting doesn't count!"

(points at Trump) You were saying?

"Bu--"



"...can I--"



"Would you st--"



"...the fuck is that?"

That's Trump submitting his ballot by mail. I thought it fit the theme.

"But--"



"The fuck is that?"

Oh, remember that DHS employee that said Trump was uniquely unqualified and Trump said they never met? Whoopsies!

There's some other stuff we didn't get to today, Trump's attempted deflections of allowing hunting on protected federal land and stuff. But once again, it's another brutal day for the man who can't run on his record, but has no choice.

Oh, you'll note FOX News managed to get in that GOP jab about how the convention was boring. But that's all they have: boring. And they should be worried -- this is not a drill.

[swiftowner]

Sigh...

So how's it going at school?



What else do Indiana, Michigan and North Carolina have in common?

"They don't have mask mandates?"

Actually it looks like they do.

But Indiana had in-person classes.

Near as I can tell, Michigan did too.

And so did the majority of NC colleges.

All three of these colleges seem to have abruptly changed their mind in the last 24 hours or so.

Now, the danger is not just to the health of students, teachers and staff, although yes that's a pretty big deal. There is also the "well, your classes got suddenly dumped back online by teachers who didn't want to, now what?" factor. I, and hundreds of thousands of my colleagues, remember that from last academic year when the Trump Outbreak began. It's pretty ugly to switch gears without pumping the clutch.

A bit of insight about Indiana, yes there is a mask mandate, BUT it’s not enforced... as in it’s a misdemeanor BUT it was specifically stated that cops aren’t going to be going around making sure everyone is wearing a mask... and I’ve seen plenty of people not social distancing and not wearing masks, in places like parks, playgrounds, schools, etc. good thing is that at least most businesses I’ve seen require masks, but not all, and some of the workers at those businesses that don’t require masks, don’t wear them as well.

[Breccia]

They're lining up like shooting gallery ducks today.

Our Ruling

Donald Trump Jr. claimed that the 846 ballots that were rejected because the voter was dead accounted for "8% of the votes cast."

These 846 ballots were not fraudulently cast by someone assuming the identity of a dead person. They were cast by living voters who died before Election Day.

These ballots accounted for nearly 8% of the total number of rejected ballots in the state’s August primary. They accounted for about 0.03% of the total votes cast. None of the rejected ballots were counted toward the final results.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

Our Ruling

Trump said: "The problem is, big surge in New Zealand. It's terrible. We don't want that."

New Zealand reported nine new cases on Aug. 17, the day of Trump’s remark. The U.S., by contrast, has frequently reported more than 50,000 cases per day since July.

We rate this statement False.

Our Ruling

President Trump claimed "In California, Democrats have intentionally implemented rolling blackouts."

The state is in the middle of a prolonged and scorching heat wave. Its power grid operator, California Independent System Operator, called for private utilities to initiate temporary blackouts on Friday and Saturday when electricity demand outpaced supply.

Officials at CAISO said the motivation for the blackouts was to ensure California’s power grid didn’t collapse, and that politics was not a factor.

Officials said neither the CEO nor board members, who are appointed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, called for the blackouts. Instead, the decision was made by a power grid shift manager.

In the end, Trump offered no evidence to back up his provocative and questionable claim.

We rated it False.

And of course:

Our Ruling

Trump said that the United States’ COVID-19 "numbers are better than almost all countries." The White House pointed to one number to back that up — the number of deaths relative to the number of known cases. But the source it cited said that wasn’t a good measure of the threat of the disease.

By other yardsticks, the United States is doing worse than many countries, including many major developed economies.

It has a higher death rate in relation to its population, the virus is known to have reached a larger share of the population, and the percentage of tests that come back positive is higher than in many other nations.

We rate this claim False.

Yep, that's Trump using a stat that even the souce he got the stat from said was a bad choice. And he did so, because he had no honest data that made his actions look good. And, let's not forget, every time Trump tries to take credit for things going well (even fraudulently) he therefore accepts the blame when things are not going well. "Only" four hundred or so people died today. That's worse than all but two days in March, and March is when things started ballooning out of control.

[Nellise]

Illinois might be leveling off its second wave, which is a plus, though it comes just in time for the school year to start.

Unfortunately, no, this isn't happening. Tuesday is almost always Illinois' lowest reporting day every week as there are usually 10-15k fewer tests reported than most of the week. This is the highest number on a Tuesday since Illinois' peak day of May 12 that had over 4k cases (and that was a fluke that seems to have been from combined results from 2 days). If it follows the trend since the end of June, we'll be seeing 2500 by Friday.

[Breccia]

A bit of insight about Indiana, yes there is a mask mandate, BUT it’s not enforced

Doesn't really sound like a mandate then.

But, UNC students are outraged. The college newspaper literally called it a clusterfuck.

"There's no way--"

Wanna read the headline? In any event, apparently this was 100% on the administration. That same college newspaper had articles from faculty, staff, student leaders and also local health officials talked to NBC and they all said the same thing: this is a dumb idea.

And they are not alone. They have hundreds of fellow backtracking colleges and universities.

And all this, without even talking about K-12. Where at least the students can't be held at fault (they're not adults) but also have no say in the matter.

Congratulations. Y'all idiots.

[swiftowner]

Doesn't really sound like a mandate then.

It gets worse, apparently I wasn’t aware of it, but the criminal penalty was removed, so there is a non-enforced, no penalty, mask mandate for Indiana.

https://indianapublicradio.org/news/...-mask-mandate/

So no, there is no mask mandate for Indiana, it’s a lie.

[Breccia]

It gets worse, apparently I wasn’t aware of it, but the criminal penalty was removed, so there is a non-enforced, no penalty, mask mandate for Indiana.

...yeah that's not a mandate. That's barely a suggestion.

[Breccia]

So...Clinton is due to speak tonight in the ongoing Democratic convention.

"He already spoke."

Yes, but she didn't. This is going to be an "I Told You So" of damn near Biblical proportions. All hands, brace for Trumper Tantrum.

[Felya]

So...Clinton is due to speak tonight in the ongoing Democratic convention.

"He already spoke."

Yes, but she didn't. This is going to be an "I Told You So" of damn near Biblical proportions. All hands, brace for Trumper Tantrum.

Her “rent free” reply to Trump bitching about her a few months ago, is a bit of a preview.

[Benggaul]

Unfortunately, no, this isn't happening. Tuesday is almost always Illinois' lowest reporting day every week as there are usually 10-15k fewer tests reported than most of the week. This is the highest number on a Tuesday since Illinois' peak day of May 12 that had over 4k cases (and that was a fluke that seems to have been from combined results from 2 days). If it follows the trend since the end of June, we'll be seeing 2500 by Friday.

I always look at the 7-day average and not just the data from day to day and by that metric it's generally increasing more slowly than it was before. I wouldn't be surprised at all if you did see 2.5k by Friday considering there was 2.3k last Friday, but if the average trend from last week holds it will be less of an increase than the week before. Of course all of this is up in the air since anything can happen; I'm going to hope I'm right, but I wouldn't be surprised if you are.

[Thekri]

So Trump apparently hilariously scammed Israel in the recent "Peace Deal" and they are pissed.

In case you missed it, the UAE normalized relations with Israel last week, and the Trump administration is trying to spin it as some sort of giant foriegn policy victory. Which it isn't, because the wind has been blowing that way for a long time, and the US doesn't have much to do with it. Essentially, Israel and the UAE have the exact same list of enemies, rivals, and allies. They both fear/hate Iran, Hizbollah, ISIS, and Assad, they both are very uncomfortable with Saudi Arabia, and they are both strong allies of America. And they are distant enough they have no real beef with each other that isn't cultural.

It isn't like the UAE and Israel were at war or anything. Anyway, apparently the UAE decided to exploit Trump's desperate need for a "Win" by getting something out of him for a deal they wanted anyway. So apparently they got the US to agree to sell them F-35s for signing the deal. Which nobody ever mentioned to Israel was part of the deal, and Israel is NOT happy about it.

The US has a long standing policy of allowing Israel to have a "Qualitative advantage" for weaponry in the region. In other words, we sell Israel the good stuff, and we sell everyone else watered down export models or last gen tech. The UAE hates this policy of course, they love them some cool modern toys, so they got this out of Trump under the "We aren't Israel's enemies now, so we can totally have this". Israel feels like it got double crossed.

[Paranoid Android]

Trump: "We moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That's for the evangelicals" https://t.co/SdCFdUzLmS https://t.co/RaiCId6cL7

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1...900139010?s=19

Well, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Yet, the telling part is he is doing policy based on religion. Now we can't discuss religion persay, but this
I all based on somebody coming back for the end of the world. Not a solid policy.

[Breccia]

the UAE normalized relations with Israel last week, and the Trump administration is trying to spin it as some sort of giant foriegn policy victory. Which it isn't

Indeed, Trump's peace plan for the Middle East, with its specific set of rules and rewards, has objectively failed. If Trump wanted to sell "the UAE and Israel are friends and I did that and it was good" it would have helped dramatically if he'd said literally anything like this before today.

[Thekri]

Indeed, Trump's peace plan for the Middle East, with its specific set of rules and rewards, has objectively failed. If Trump wanted to sell "the UAE and Israel are friends and I did that and it was good" it would have helped dramatically if he'd said literally anything like this before today.

Well the nexus of conflict in the Middle East is very definitely not Israel vs UAE. That is like Negotiating peace between the Japan and Bangladesh and claiming you solved all of Asia's problems. They weren't fighting in the first place.

Side Note: Although I find his double-crossing of Israel hilarious, Trump's arms sale policies are extremely disturbing. He has been far more aggressive at selling the latest US military tech then his predecessors, largely because there really isn't a policy wing reigning in the lobbyists. Of course the companies making it want to sell the stuff, and we don't have the career public servants there to point out that is an extremely bad idea, and block the deals.

There are two main problems with selling this stuff. 1) It is inevitably going to be used for some really atrocious shit. It is arguable if it actually makes the underlying crisis worse (An F-35 isn't really more effective at bombing Yemeni villagers then a Mig-29 is), but it is certainly pretty horrific optics. 2) It causes America to lose decades of technological advantage. A large part of the reason that China can rapidly close the technological gap is that the US has been sharing its tech widely with countries that have no vested interest in protecting it. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have no problem letting China take a good close look at their Patriot Missiles, F-35s, and M1A2 Abrams.

[Felya]

Well, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Yet, the telling part is he is doing policy based on religion. Now we can't discuss religion persay, but this
I all based on somebody coming back for the end of the world. Not a solid policy.

Literally revelations doomsday prophecy...

[Breccia]

Well the nexus of conflict in the Middle East is very definitely not Israel vs UAE. That is like Negotiating peace between the Japan and Bangladesh and claiming you solved all of Asia's problems.

Exactly. Meanwhile Trump basically green-lit annexation of the West Bank. To follow your analogy, that sounds like taking all the US troops, land mines and artillery from South Korea.

[Deja Thoris]

So...Clinton is due to speak tonight in the ongoing Democratic convention.

"He already spoke."

Yes, but she didn't. This is going to be an "I Told You So" of damn near Biblical proportions. All hands, brace for Trumper Tantrum.

Honestly, shes unlikeable and a toxic brand in my eyes.

I know there needs to be a bit of "told you so" in her speech but she shouldn't taint the Biden campaign with her stench. I'm scared she'll do more harm than good.

[cubby]

So...Clinton is due to speak tonight in the ongoing Democratic convention.

"He already spoke."

Yes, but she didn't. This is going to be an "I Told You So" of damn near Biblical proportions. All hands, brace for Trumper Tantrum.

He's going to go nuts. Tweet-rage-storm drinking game:

1. Mentions election numbers (double drink if "landslide" is mentioned).
2. Jobs
3. COVID-19 success
4. "Hoax" (sip only, we don't need all of us dying of alcohol poisoning within the first 5 minutes - let's be safe kids!)
5. Roger Stone.
6. Russia.
7. Her emails.

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Honestly, shes unlikeable and a toxic brand in my eyes.

I know there needs to be a bit of "told you so" in her speech but she shouldn't taint the Biden campaign with her stench. I'm scared she'll do more harm than good.

All joking aside, I tend to agree with you. When I saw her in the lineup, I was a little surprised, for the reasons you mention above. Hopefully she'll keep it short and simple.