Trump

[Phoebe]

I find it weird that oil prices are plummeting and we're having an oil production war coincident with this pandemic virus, but it's not going to do me any good to think about it because I have no relevant information that would help, and I'm better off sleeping, literally and figuratively.

[Phoebe]

Watched today's press conference due to things kids had to do for school. Painful. You can almost create the fever-scene in the room with Miller or Ivanka or whoever actually advises him. "People love a wartime President! Make sure you talk about how we are at war and will win! If they ask why you changed your tune, ignore it! You were just trying to keep people calm. Panic is bad. You always knew we were at war with the c.. no! you can't keep calling it Kung Flu! That stopped being funny the tenth time! But if someone else mentions it in the press conference, make sure everyone hears so our people start calling it that. Remember, a common enemy unites people on your side! People want to lock down the border. Insist upon it! It's war and they love their President in wartime! Sleepy Joe has no stamina!"

[akiva]

Apparently, saying that Trump bears some responsibility for coronavirus deaths because of his lack of preparation is the .

Apparently Graham doesn't remember when Republicans accused the Clintons of having their close friend murdered. Or when they accused Clinton of killing an entire plane load of people to silence Ron Brown. Or when they accused Obama of covertly planning martial law in Texas. Or when they accused Obama of setting up panels that would vote on which old people to kill.

There was a time when Graham had a reputation for being principled (it wasn't warranted). But anyone who thinks that now is just ignoring reality.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

It's not like Lindsey Graham was ever good, but he wasn't batshit crazy like he is now. I know people like to speculate that he's being blackmailed etc, but I'm not even sure that explains it.

My husband and I have this disagreement over whether it's okay to put political yard signs out. I don't want them out right now because I don't want my neighbors thinking that that's what I want to communicate to them at the moment. Because the yard sign is really about communicating to my neighbors. But when it comes to the larger project of communicating the absolutely toxic mendacity of the entire Republican party and chief among them their dear leader, I don't think we should slow that down at all. The s*** that went on just the other day about the Michigan governor? It's absolutely disgusting and inexcusable. It does affect lives, it does influence who gets to live and die because of access to the necessary equipment. If that's shocking to people, that's because it's absolutely shocking moral degeneracy. People need to grasp this. If it takes being afraid for their own life to finally see that the goddamn emperor has no clothes and never has, then it's high time they woke up so that we can actually save people's lives.

[Eliahad]

You guys gonna line up to swear fealty when the corona-viral-ation happens? 'Cause he's thinking about it. I just need to know what I want to bring for tribute. *wham wham wham wham wham wham wham wham.* That was me...head-desking.

Citation: "When somebody's the president of the United States, the authority is total."

[Mike]

Trump has pulled all funding for the WHO until we can investigate their mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Relief checks for Americans without direct deposit will be delayed for several days, because Trump wants his name to appear on all the checks.

[Phoebe]

This has to be a bad dream. I am in the wrong multiverse the wrong timeline something went wrong and we never woke up. How the hell did people elect this pathetic carnival barker, and why are they thinking of trying to do it again? Ha ha just kidding, will we even have a real election?

[Stan]

"I don't take responsibility at all" is the catchphrase for this administration.

[Eliahad]

And now he's setting it up so he can take all the credit and relinquish all the blame. Don't open your state's economy and it's your fault that things didn't get going. Open your state's economy and the virus resurges, and it's your fault for opening too soon. I hate this thing that is playing with our lives. This narcissist who is in it for his own self-inflation over people. And he is killing people. Not directly, /never/ directly, but he is killing people for the sake of himself.

[Phoebe]

It's pretty close to direct when you start giving bogus medical advice from the pulpit. Some people are forced to get the Kool-Aid and a few people get to choose whether they take it, but somebody is still serving it. (I don't use the metaphor lightly ever since reading about what actually happened there. I am just amazed at the number of Republican politicians who are like, shrug, if some people gotta die so we can have our labor force and shoppers back, then some people gotta die. "Pro-Life Christians".)

[poorpete]

It was nice not to see this on the list of "New Posts" for over a month. But here we are.

President started yesterday retweeting a video saying "the only good democrat is a dead democrat"
Ends it calling protesters THUGS (his caps) and saying looting means shooting (them), which is... bad.

Twitter put a warning on the post warning that it condones violence, which GOOD and FINALLY, but will be seen as an escalation -- but again, who started the violence, and who is doing the escalating?

Also, we're back to being reminded that Trump started his political career in racism (keeping blacks out of his condos, demanding the death penalty for the Central Park Five), started his presidential campaign in racism (America First, the wall) and three years of him learning on the job, and we get.... more racism.

I want him to change. I want him to not be racist. But it's dumb for people to expect it or to think his silence for a few days means change.

[Phoebe]

Basically he's calling for people to be murdered and apparently he realized that might have been a slight step too far so he tried to walk it back, but he's calling for people to be murdered. This s*** is crazy and I am terrified for what happens in November. The only acceptable outcome is that he has voted out and there is a peaceful transition of power, and every day I become more and more worried that he's going to be voted out and not have a peaceful transition of power. Hopefully he'll be satisfied to turn up the crank on his grift for those months before he leaves and then go off and make money having an even crazier version of Fox News.

[Tahlvin]

What a shit show.

[akiva]

More people need to be criticizing Tom Cotton. He's a military guy, and talked about using the military to stop riots. Then he said "no quarter"--in a military context, that means "kill 'em all."

[akiva]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics ... index.html

Hasn't Trump been bragging for weeks that he stopped all travel from China?

Why yes, on March 5th he claimed that "closed the borders."

[akiva]

[poorpete]

Iowa republicans voted out their racist congressman. Now the seat is safe from going Dem.
Nixon was kicked out and his successor Ford almost won election two years later.

Do the right thing and keep your party's influence? It's always been possible. Wake up.

[Phoebe]

People are saying that the new guy is, in private, not much worse than the old guy but has the savvy to do it in private. I use "people are saying" for humor. Some Republicans who primaried King out may have had no particular problem with him but recognized the political necessity of putting another horse in the race this time; others may have been disgusted by his performance. Hard to say. It was a politically expedient move but I wouldn't count out the challenger because a lot of grassroots organization led to his near victory last time, and it's not clear that most of his voters were Republicans who would switch back with a different candidate. He's had a long time to make personal connections meeting people across the district.

[akiva]

According to the Washington Post, Trump tried to register to vote in Florida while stating his legal address as the White House. So, in other words, Trump attempted to commit voter fraud.

I think he actually ended up committing voter fraud--he switched his official address to Mar a Lago, but in Florida you can't use a business as your home address.