For proof that Donald Trump is making stuff up and talking off the top of his head during his attention-grabbing covid-19 press conferences, read this one sentence:
I have directed the FDA to eliminate rules and bureaucracy so work can proceed rapidly, quickly and fast [Donald Trump, White House press conference, quoted in Adam Shaw, “Trump Announces FDA Making Anti-Malaria Drug Available to Test Coronavirus Treatment,” Fox News, 2020.03.19].
Saying three synonyms in a row doesn’t make your plan more effective or your speech better. It just shows you didn’t plan and are not thinking about the words coming out of your mouth and you’re just trying to fill the air.
Trump’s deregulatory synonym ramble was just part of a lot of bad advice:
“Wow, that is bad advice from President Trump,” said Diana Zuckerman, a drug safety expert at the National Center for Health Research. “Lives can be saved if red tape is cut in terms of making tests, respirators, and hospital beds more available. Making untested antivirals available is not a good strategy.”
The Right to Try program allows patients to appeal directly to drugmakers to use medicines that are still being developed and tested. Bioethicists and drug policy experts argue there are other ways to help people access experimental medicine — like the FDA’s compassionate use route, also name checked by the president — and that Right to Try fuels false hope, while making it difficult to collect data on how well the drugs work [Sarah Owermohle, “‘Bad Advice from the President’: Trump Touts Unproven Coronavirus Drugs,” Politico, 2020.03.19].
Leadership involves giving people confidence and correct information. Usually we would expect the White House to provide exactly that. But “reality”-TV star Donald Trump is failing so spectacularly at this real job that we would be better off if Trump socially distanced himself from any microphones for a month and let the doctors and scientists handle the press briefings.
Honey in WalMart sells from 5-7 bucks for 32 oz.
Not only the crook trump, but also crooked senators Burr and this new one that has come to light. Selling their stocks on insider trading. Hey man, isn’t that illegal? Bet your arse it’s illegal…for you and me, but not the princes. Wonder how EB5 Rounds and Thune made out.
“Early Friday morning, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) denied any wrongdoing when she sold millions of dollars worth of stocks soon after a closed-door briefing with the entire Senate on the COVID-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the stock market.
“This is a ridiculous and baseless attack,” the senator said in a statement after the Daily Beast reported on the sales. “I do not make investment decisions for my portfolio. Investment decisions are made by multiple third-party advisors without my or my husband’s knowledge or involvement.”
Loeffler sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which held a private briefing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the coronavirus for all senators on January 24.”
Crooks and liars is what they are.
In the interest of fair disclosure, Jerry, Feinstein dumped stocks, Jack Himoff of Chokelahoma dumped stocks and Ron Johnson from Wisconsin dumped stocks, although Johnson’s dump might have been legal.
People miss the fact that Loeffler’s hubs is chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, and if so, you can’t get much more insider than that.
Duly noted mfi, so there all in this for themselves and should be made accountable for that. Burr was the leader of the pack and so was Loeffler, so they clearly had insider information. BTW, I saw what you did there and it was a good one, comedic genius sir.
I wonder if he has removed the regulatory restrictions on using fetal material in research?
More crooked failed leadership to juice the markets as well. This will make you feel all cuddly knowing how the stock market is just more gaming the system and South Dakota is a big part of it as well with our false reports of jobs.
The Trump administration asked states to hold off on releasing grim data on unemployment claims, and Italy’s death toll surpassed China’s.
Published March 19, 2020
Updated March 20, 2020, 12:11 a.m. ET
Trump administration’s plea to states: Keep mum about unemployment stats.
The Trump administration is asking state labor officials to delay releasing the precise number of unemployment claims they are fielding, an indication of how uneasy policymakers are about further roiling a stock market already plunging in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
In an email sent Wednesday, the Labor Department instructed state officials to only “provide information using generalities to describe claims levels (very high, large increase)” until the department releases the total number of national claims next Thursday.
The email, which was shared with The New York Times, noted that the reports were monitored closely by financial markets and should therefore remain embargoed. “States should not provide numeric values to the public,” wrote Gay Gilbert, the administrator of the department’s Office of Employment Insurance.”
VOTE BLUE, THAT’S WHO. Put an end to these crooked republican shenanigans to bring Hope and Change to this country. Make America Great by abolishing crooks and liars from the republican mafia.
For some reason, the gubmint is sitting on funds for Native American tribes for Covid 19 testing.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/20/coronavirus-american-indian-health-138724
Mr Barth, as of a couple days ago, there was no release of restrictions on using fetal material research.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-ban-on-fetal-tissue-research-blocks-coronavirus-treatment-effort/2020/03/18/ddd9f754-685c-11ea-abef-020f086a3fab_story.html
Although many are upset that Trump called it the “China Virus” the truth is that China is eating our lunch right now. CHINA is featured in Italian TV spots about solidarity during this time of crisis. USA is completely absent – why? Because it is absent.
Buttttt. trump will give us a trillion or two for his re-election in more BRIBES. Nothing for masks and protective gear, only Bailouts for the privileged and a grand for the peasants. Should be enough to put us even further behind China. The American Empire is falling and if trump and these crooked republicans get back in, we won’t be able to get back up. My suggestion, is to start learning Mandarin, with a vigor.
mfi, here is a report from The Hill on these 4 senators. It does not look so good for any of them but Burr and Loeffler, sure had the inside track and we have Burr on tape basically telling supporters to be clear on what was coming while he was telling the rest of us to go to the mall.https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/488593-four-senators-sold-stocks-before-coronavirus-threat-crashed-market
Correction, now 5 senators two from Georgia now. Senator Purdue
Great link, Jerry. These people may not have control over their finances, which I highly doubt, but they do have access to info the rest of isn’t privy to, and that gives them an unfair advantage and I am sure, despite denials, they use that info to their advantage.
Today Trump announced we’re suspending student loan payments and interest accrual for two months. Sounds like Democratic policy to me….
US debt is 23.5 trillion. And wingnuts aren’t batting an eye at another trillion or two to protect drumpf’s flank come election time.
If Biden wins, I am sure wingnuts will miraculously become fiscal conservatives overnight, again.
drumpf was touting this drug recently, even though China warned US about it.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/20/virus-drug-touted-by-president-trump-elon-musk-can-kill-with-just-two-gram-dose/
Even if the drug killed the virus along with the patient, that is not acceptable to most humans. We are not living in normal times.
trump is on Adderall so everything makes sense to a physcotic. This chloroquine is a very dangerous drug. To add more to what the Chinese said
“Psychiatric side effects of chloroquine seem to be rare, but may manifest in a wide range of symptoms, such as confusion, disorientation, ideas of persecution, agitation, outbursts of violence, loss of interest, feeling sad, suicidal ideas and impaired insight.”
Suicidal ideas and actions, would certainly bring the virus death numbers down for trump to brag about. Death by numbers, what a life we live here.
A TED talk from the guy who saw the end of smallpox and polio and how to prevent virus outbreaks. Worth the watch https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_my_wish_help_me_stop_pandemics?language=en
drumpf body count now at 210 with over 14000 confirmed cases of Covid 19 in America.
My apologies to anyone upset with my using drumpf body count.
No apologies needed, Mike. Somebody has to tell the truth.
Trump should get out of the picture, off the screen, he’s just using the pandemic report as a substitute for his rallies he can’t do. After the Peter Alexander thing, I’ve not said this before, because I am a realist in my head, if not my heart, but Trump should now apologize to the press, and then resign–not for attacking journalists, but for failing to lead us capably through a life and death crisis.
Sheila Kennedy lists 3 critical lessons for us in this circumstance.
is.gd/xPaxE2
The Roger Cornelius Memorial Cartoon by Marty Two Bulls.
is.gd/QYdTOG
If you know how to sew or know someone who can, your’s or their services are needed to make masks for hospitals. trump has caused this country to be a failed state so we all need to help out https://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2020/03/hospital-begging-volunteers-make
Ask EB5 Rounds and the wooden dummy Thune to chip in with their vast wealth from campaign war chests, and maybe hire out of work South Dakotan’s to make these masks for citizens. These two fakey senators are the cause of our death sentence.
From the NYT:
“Feinstein has said that she did not attend the Jan. 24 briefing; her stock was in a blind trust, which means she didn’t make the decision to sell; and the transaction lost her money, because the trust was selling shares of a biotechnology stock, the value of which has since risen.”
I’m not surprised Liar-in-Chief is doing the “daily bullsh*ttings.” Prissy Pussy Pency was doing an almost decent job of it and getting positive attention and reviews. Tempestuous Toddler couldn’t stand that, so had to put himself front and center. He’s displaying his increased craziness every time he steps up.
Some random thoughts.
I will give Trump ONE MAJOR CREDIT in that he closed down the doors to China. He probably done that sooner than anyone else in office would have done.
Trump can sure dish out criticism. He was even willing to criticize Senator McCain after his death. But this man can not take ANY criticism in ANY way.
Trump keeps saying he inherited an old antiquated system or plan. Well if he just took office, I would accept that, but he has been President for over 3 years. He has had time to update that old plan. Stop tweeting and going to Florida and you would have had time to fix the outdated system.
I’m not sure Trump has ever gotten his cabinet and top staff positions ever filled. If Trump would not publicly criticize anybody and everybody that is not totally loyal to him, maybe he would have people on board. When you publicly ridicule people, no one is going to want to go to work for trump. Because of how Trumps treats people I’m sure is a significant reason this crises has gotten so bad.
Trump should have been working to stockpile materials that would be needed for this crisis. He should have been working with business and industry to get production going on PPE equipment and other supplies needed for a health care crisis. That is what a leader of the US does.
Trump just can not be honest. The country has no confidence in our President. His news conferences the last few days just make be laugh.
I can not wait to read the books after Trump is out of office. I’m guessing there will be many books coming out about what was going on in the White House during 2020. Lets hope we all live through this to read those books.
I don’t know why they are covering those daily sh*t shows live. It is a freaking circus. Assuming the intent is to provide accurate information to the public, they are completely failing. Trump is incapable of keeping his delusions to himself. In trying to cover up all the horrible statistics about the progress of this pandemic, he rambles on and on, giving his “opinion” about all sorts of things he has no expertise in. Most of the promises he’s made (eg., Googles website, masks) are b.s. He and his administration is largely incapable. Then someone has to try, politely, to correct the lies and misinformation, while he glowers in the background. No one apparently has the guts to say, “Don’t listen to the fool with the funny hair.” I love Pence, who has figure out how to kind of say the truth, couched in praise for Dear Leader. It goes something this, “Thanks to President Trump’s bold direction, we now have double the number of COVID-19 cases today as we had yesterday.” Then Trump nods. Trump only cares about the first phrase.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m yelling at the goddam TV, and I only do that when the Packers are losing. Drs. Birx and Fauchi should be put in charge of these things before I do some permanent damage to my TV.
republicans have proven that capitalism is not equipped to handle crisis. Simple as that.
“Certain Americans may have to pay hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars out-of-pocket for testing related to COVID-19, even if their symptoms are mild to moderate, a new study finds.
The study, done by health care software company Castlight Health, looked at medical claims filings from across the county to compare the out-of-pocket costs for certain services across metropolitan areas. The study also compared how costs varied depending on what kind of facility a patient visited to seek treatment.”
So there ya go, you think you’re protected but it is just like a bad dream in a capitalistic healthcare society for profit. It’s impossible because in capitalism, there has to be a loser in order for a profit. That loser is the American citizen who pays so there is a profit for the CEO and for vampire investors.
It is so sad, that it took a pandemic before Republicans would begin to embrace elements of universal health care and Keynesian economics, too, but the good Lord does often work in mysterious ways, does he not?
And Trump’s “rapidly, quickly, and fast” comment reminds me of this old FedEx commercial, and we all could use a good laugh right now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeK5ZjtpO-M
“Pathetic” is the word I find most fitting for Medical Moron’s feckless flailings before the cameras.
“Piteous and wretched” are good too.
In the back of my mind there is a word that fits him and this entire situation: unbelievable.
Even after 3 years I still find it unbelievable that the USA has such a completely incompetent, traitorous, criminal and cruel president.
This past week with the entire trump virus unfolding is similarly unbelievable.
Two nightmares, the first exacerbating the second. When will I wake up? Will I wake up?
So far, every morning I put one foot in front of the other and try to meet my day as it unfolds. As of March 20, 2020, I’m still here.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/03/20/in-a-national-emergency-presidential-competence-is-crucial/?utm_campaign=Brookings%20Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=85055072
Very good link McCloud, yes trump and the republican senate are clearly incompetent, all of them.
They clearly knew from early January that this was a pandemic and yet they did nothing, other than to fill their own pockets with insider trading.
“U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting” Washington Post 3.21.20
Payments and rumors of payments abound. Yahoo News, Finance Division has this summary .
Moscow Mitch- $1200 per person, $500 per child. “The payments would gradually decline for individuals making between $75,000 and $99,000. Anyone making over $99,000 (or a family making over $198,000) would not get a check.”
Mnuchin- $1000 per person, $500 per child. Payments twice about 3 weeks apart. Vague on any limits.
Group of Liberal Democratic senators-
“the first payment would be $2,000 per American,” followed by “subsequent payments stepping down over time.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer- direct payments plus “unemployment insurance on steroids”
is.gd/439IiL
How accurate is this? I don’t know. I doubt if the Senate knows either.
Axios Future by Brian Walsh has a piece about using surveillance to track outbreaks and stop them before they become epidemics. The question is, how much privacy are we willing to surrender?
is.gd/iRseWK
Wilbur Ross says we’re all gonna be rich from this Covid-19…Rich, I tell you So rich “I’m gonna take a victory lap”
“During a TV interview Mr Ross said: “I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America”.
The rapid spread of the disease has raised fears about its impact on the Chinese economy and global growth.
The comments have come under fire from critics of President Trump’s administration.
In response to a question on Fox Business News about whether the outbreak is a risk to the US economy Mr Ross said: “I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease.”
“The fact is, it does give business yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain… So I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America,” he went on to say.” https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51276323
Hey Wilbur, we can’t even make a face mask in production, how are we gonna make an IPad or even a hospital?
drumpf lamnting the fact China didn’t warn him of Covid 19 earlier. They told the world in late December and until a week ago, drumpf treated this as a hoax.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/politics/trump-china-told-us-coronavirus/index.html
20k confirmed cases and 300 deaths in the US.
US intelligence reported to trump in January and again in February about the possibility of a pandemic. trump did nothing, even after China had already informed the world, and up until a couple of weeks ago, still called it a hoax.
This is from US Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota:
“In the face of this unprecedented economic and health catastrophe, we need to get resources to Minnesota’s health care system, families and small businesses. Very disappointing that McConnell backtracked from bipartisan negotiations, and put out a bill that failed to meet the needs of working families. Plus it creates a giant, unaccountable slush fund for corporate bailouts. We need to act urgently, and we need to get it right for families, workers and small businesses devastated by this crisis.”
I’ve read about the corporate slush fund on other sources too. The GOP just cant stand to help average Americans.
trump and the republicans, fired the person in China who could’ve given first hand reports as the virus unfolded. Remember who took your job. Remember who took your retirement, remember to VOTE BLUE, THAT’S WHO!
Read this if you can stomach it.
“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China, Reuters has learned.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv/exclusive-u-s-axed-cdc-expert-job-in-china-months-before-virus-outbreak-idUSKBN21910S
Three Nigerians OD’ed on drug drumpf pushed for Covid-19 treatment.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/africa/chloroquine-trump-nigeria-intl/index.html
Speaker Pelosi lays the blame where it belongs, directly on trumps fat empty melon.
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sharpened her criticism of President Trump’s early dismissal of the coronavirus, saying the delay cost American lives.
“His denial at the beginning was deadly,” said Pelosi to open her interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“His delaying of getting equipment — it continues — his delaying of getting equipment to where it is needed is deadly, and now I think the best thing is to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up because we just don’t know. We have to have testing, testing, testing — that’s what we said from the start before we can evaluate the nature of it in some of these other regions as well.”
Later in the interview, Pelosi said: “As the president fiddles, people are dying.”
trump has blood on his hands and so do EB5 Rounds and Thune and the rest of the republican senate who voted against impeachment. Shame on them. Still no masks, gowns, ventilators… complete republican failure.
In 2018, trump/republicans knew of the dangers of a pandemic and yet he ignored the threat and dismantled the task force Obama had put in place to deal with exactly what we have today.
“WASHINGTON — Two years ago, some of the nation’s top public health officials gathered in an auditorium at Emory University in Atlanta to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic — also known as “the Spanish flu” — which had killed as many as 40 million people as it swept the globe.
Hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the daylong conference on May 7, 2018, was supposed to mine a calamity from the past for lessons on the present and warnings for the future. There were sessions titled “Nature Against Man” and “Innovations for Pandemic Countermeasures.” Implicit was the understanding that while the 1918 pandemic was a singular catastrophe, conditions in the 21st century were ideal for another outbreak.”https://news.yahoo.com/two-years-before-coronavirus-cdc-warned-of-a-coming-pandemic-090054010.html
Republican failures of governing just keep showing their disdain for government. That is, unless they, themselves can put money in their pockets.
Today Tantruming Toddler lashed out at a Faux Noize propagandist for simply mentioning their destroying that pandemic office. Even his simpering, slavering manner did not protect that “reporter” from receiving a childish outburst.