Jonathan Swan shows how to interview a lying idiot:
Challenge Donald Trump directly, and he proves he’s got nothing but his cruel, pigheaded ignorance:
Trump says the US is “lower in numerous categories, lower than the world”, as interviewer Swan looks puzzled. “What does that mean?” he queries. “Lower than Europe,” Trump continues. “In what? In what?” comes the reply.
Being handed the graph Trump had been looking at Swan realises what the President is attempting to argue: “Oh you’re doing death as a proportion of cases, I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the US is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”
Trump replies: “You can’t do that,” leaving Swan completely bemused: “Why can’t I do that?”
The President then attempts to explain why Swan should be going by the the cases, but his argument is mostly incoherent, repeating that it is necessary to “go by the cases”, rather than explaining why that is important.
Later in the interview, Trump said he though the situation was “under control”, leading Swan to ask: “How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.” Trump replied: “They are dying, that’s true. It is what it is” [“Trump Argues in Interview with Swan over US Covid-19 Cases and Deaths,” AS English, 2020.08.04].
Regular Americans who sound like Trump in interviews don’t get job offers. Most workers who sound like Trump when quizzed by the boss about their actions on the job don’t keep their jobs.
Five and a half months until America is led by an intelligent public servant again….
Not only does trump need to explain “it is what it is”, but also EB5 Rounds who landed this pile of crap right back onto our laps by denying due process of the Impeachment. I blame them both and all the republicans in the senate including our other boy wonders, Thune and Dirty. Here it is again “Later in the interview, Trump said he though the situation was “under control”, leading Swan to ask: “How? A thousand Americans are dying a day.” Trump replied: “They are dying, that’s true. It is what it is”
What the hell does that mean?
Trump/GOP have intentionally, maliciously DOUBLED this virus with its acknowledged transmissibility factor of “only” R1, as Cory points out in this a.m.’s post:
“…without these levels of testing and contact tracing, reopening of schools together with gradual relaxing of the lockdown measures are likely to induce a SECOND WAVE that would peak in December, 2020, if schools open full-time in September, and in February, 2021, if a part-time rota system were adopted. In either case, the second wave would result in R rising above 1 and a resulting second wave of infections 2·0–2·3 times the size of the original COVID-19 wave.” (capitalized emphasis added)
A Trump/GOP voter on a related thread shares with us her thinking on Dr Jenny Olson’s outspoken resistance to mask wearing connected to Brookings opening schools this month. (75% of those surveyed nationally disagree with this voter and Trump/GOP on the value of masks.) NPR, today. Common sense dictates masks cut transmissibility.
In her comment Gracie Lue says the doctor’s resistance will:
“help this blinded community wake up [‘woke’ is a term that is Donald Jr.’s often used meme] and realized its not THAT bad out there. [The often asymptomatic virus likely will be spread by/among children sent to school this month]. I guess I know who is going to be voting for the puppet [the debate descriptor famously raised by HRC acknowledging Trump’s fawning over Putin] Biden come fall. [Biden is obviously not Putin’s puppet.] I am surprised how many people are buying into this ridiculous narrative of 155,000 people have died from covid. Prove it. Oh But you can’t because all the numbers are false. [the numbers are likely HIGHER with uncounted positives and deaths.] They are counting deaths that were not covid related deaths as covid to get more numbers to scare the public into believing this is a horrible scary place. So you will go running to uncle government to save you and give you money. [Although I haven’t listened to Rush Limbaugh lately, this sounds like an unproven conspiracy he so infamously spreads.] You are vampires on the vein of this country, not babies on the tit. I hope you move out of this country when Trump gets reelected.” [The common recurring angry tired ‘solution’ aimed at immigrants in a nation of immigrants! Love it or leave it. Vampires, oh my!]
She continues: “The fact that this is political at all is disgusting. [Blaming Democrats for something Republicans have clearly politicized and weaponized by turning it upside down intentionally, maliciously creating incoherence and public confusion.] It’s like saying a cancer patient is a casualty of war. Walk [wake] up. All the numbers are fixed. There are so many lies on top of lies to cover lies. [Trump/GOP have popularized ‘fixed numbers’, ‘rigged elections’, and infamously: “YOU LIE!” and the 20,000 documented public lies from Trump’s mouth alone this term, so far.]
New Republic, previously linked in another thread, explains this and argues:
“…a wide variety of structural factors—including polarization, gerrymandering and partisan geography, low turnout, the design of the Senate, and so on—on balance, advantage Republican politicians today. They’ve tried to augment that advantage with voter suppression, but that’s just the icing on an already good cake. Even without those efforts, Republican politicians are answerable primarily to conservative voters in the least populous portions of the country and the conservative outlets and institutions that shape their thinking. This has allowed most to stand proudly opposite public opinion on everything from health care to climate change without fear of electoral consequence.
The notion that working Americans should grit their teeth and stride serenely toward death to save the economy is just another unpopular position our electoral systems grant most Republicans the freedom to hold.” https://newrepublic.com/article/158675/2020-election-republican-party
If Trump/GOP/Noem can not coordinate their ‘leadership’ with experts in their field, this gross negligence must be “rewarded” by eliminating their political malfeasance. The constitution has proven to be an ineffective remedy. 155,000 USA residents are dead.
ELIMINATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY! That is were the buck stops. This is the bold action necessary to save our democracy.
“[U]nless Democrats get serious about disempowering it for good, the Republican Party can’t really lose.”
The 2020 Election Doesn’t Really Matter to Republicans
newrepublic.com
(Capitalization emphasis added)
Jared Kushner! This is what is being uncovered. Without investigative journalism, this nation is helpless from billionaires.
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
· Jul 31
A public health expert in contact with Trump’s COVID task force said that, early on, a member of Jared Kushner’s team felt that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national testing plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. https://vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air
Steve Vladeck
@steve_vladeck
Aug 1
We all have scandal fatigue.
But the mounting evidence that the Trump administration slow-walked its response to #COVID because it had hit *blue states* hardest ought to be dominating the news cycle.
I am not so sure Trump is only incoherent. This is a rolling clusterf*ck of little criminals Trump assembles to enable his ongoing criminal enterprise. It has been said that we deserve who we elect! (Will Rogers). Meanwhile the GOP continues to benefit from its incest with the Trump Organization. Billionaires are making bank! And we are going to allow this pathological president PARDON power!?
We will be lucky if he doesn’t start a nuclear conflagration these next five and a half months. Am I sounding like Gracie Lue? :)
drumpf incoherent under the best and all circumstances.
Trump could drool, have a thorizen shuffle and play with his member while sounding incoherent and it won’t make any difference to the deplorable 33 percent of Americans who are his cult following. Unfortunately, in some states that 33 percent expands to a bit over 50 percent, and that’s what’s tragic. Those are failed states, and after we get rid of Trump, let’s find a way to cleanse the country of Trumpism, in the way that Germany de-Nazified after WWII.
Strange how he cannot let the interviewer ever finish a question (or answer one).
Don Pay, I want to hunt them down with chupacabras.
Bob, you know my fondness for my chupacabras, and despite you bringing them back all muddy and flea infested the last time your borrowed them, Ernest, Gracie and Joy would certainly join you for another outing.
SMD grudzfeke
“let’s find a way to cleanse the country of Trumpism, in the way that Germany de-Nazified after WWII.” D Pay
That will be an important part of rebuilding the USA in Biden’s administration.
I was curious about the papers Babbling Bozo was waving around. I wondered if they were just blank sheets he was lying about as he’s often done before. Or could it be he had actually read something?!
Nope, they were a couple of third grade level charts, especially that bar graph. That’s the way his staff has to create them for him. They must be brightly colored, extremely simple and transmit information that is flattering to him.
He is our president. 😲 [forehead slap]
The trouble is, the GOP and their pundit minions (Hannity, Limbaugh, Fox & Friends, etc.) poisoned the well too thoroughly. Too many people right here in South Dakota (look at Huset’s Speedway) don’t believe there’s any problem, that masks will poison you with CO2, and that hydroxychloroquine will prevent it (I actually had someone tell me that they wished the media would let the real doctors speak instead of listening to Fauci). I don’t know how anyone is going to corral that herd of lemmings. And while they’re running loose and mask-free… well, the rest of us are going to have to double up on protective measures.
Here’s what Incoherent Idiot can do:
“The bottom line is that any successful economy must be a mixture of appropriately-regulated capitalism and judiciously socialized public goods.”
Sheila Kennedy
is.gd/tg0DNO
Implement that!
GREAT article, Debbo.
Meanwhile, with a Democratic Governor, Virginia moves forward brilliantly.
“Virginia has launched the first contact tracing app for the coronavirus in the US that uses new technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
The state is betting that the app, COVIDWISE, can help it catch new cases faster, though long delays in getting test results must be overcome in order for it to be effective.
Phones with the app exchange Bluetooth signals to keep an anonymous list of close encounters. The app then allows people who catch the virus to notify those contacts without anyone revealing their identity.”
This is very similar to what is being used in China, Taiwan and South Korea. See, you have to admit there is a problem before you can fix it.
Thanks Eve.
This is what happens kids when you drink Clorox. Just say no to ” Clorox ” .
Forgive me.
Trump interviews Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7rJp2Tx7vc&feature=youtu.be
Trump’s interview vs the Monty Python parrot sketch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYafgN9edy4