Government Response to Coronavirus 4: The Reality Show From Hell

[fraurosena]

3 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

because he needs the praise and thanks

I may be cynical, because I don't think he's doing it for praise and thanks alone. I'm willing to bet he's getting something in the way of financial benefit in return. He's got a hotel in Indonesia (or he's building one there, I'm not quite sure of the status) and I believe he also has Trump-affiliations in both other countries as well. 

[GreyhoundFan]

23 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I may be cynical, because I don't think he's doing it for praise and thanks alone. I'm willing to bet he's getting something in the way of financial benefit in return. He's got a hotel in Indonesia (or he's building one there, I'm not quite sure of the status) and I believe he also has Trump-affiliations in both other countries as well. 

It's probably both the praise and financial aspect.

[fraurosena]

As his administration grapples with reopening the economy and responding to the coronavirus crisis, Trump worries about his re-election and how the news media is portraying him.

Home Alone at the White House: A Sour President, With TV His Constant Companion

Quote

President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.

He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing. He makes calls with the TV on in the background, his routine since he first arrived at the White House.

But now there are differences.

The president sees few allies no matter which channel he clicks. He is angry even with Fox, an old security blanket, for not portraying him as he would like to be seen. And he makes time to watch Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s briefings from New York, closely monitoring for a sporadic compliment or snipe.

Confined to the White House, the president is isolated from the supporters, visitors, travel and golf that once entertained him, according to more than a dozen administration officials and close advisers who spoke about Mr. Trump’s strange new life. He is tested weekly, as is Vice President Mike Pence, for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The economy — Mr. Trump’s main case for re-election — has imploded. News coverage of his handling of the coronavirus has been overwhelmingly negative as Democrats have condemned him for a lack of empathy, honesty and competence in the face of a pandemic. Even Republicans have criticized Mr. Trump’s briefings as long-winded and his rough handling of critics as unproductive.

His own internal polling shows him sliding in some swing states, a major reason he declared a temporary halt to the issuance of green cards to those outside the United States. The executive order — watered down with loopholes after an uproar from business groups — was aimed at pleasing his political base, people close to him said, and was the kind of move Mr. Trump makes when things feel out of control. Friends who have spoken to him said he seemed unsettled and worried about losing the election.

But the president’s primary focus, advisers said, is assessing how his performance on the virus is measured in the news media, and the extent to which history will blame him.

“He’s frustrated,” said Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Mr. Trump who was the president’s pick to sit on the Federal Reserve Board before his history of sexist comments and lack of child support payments surfaced. “It’s like being hit with a meteor.”

Mr. Trump frequently vents about how he is portrayed. He was enraged by an article this month in which his health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, was said to have warned Mr. Trump in January about the possibility of a pandemic. Mr. Trump was upset that he was being blamed while Mr. Azar was portrayed in a more favorable light, aides said. The president told friends that he assumed Mr. Azar was working the news media to try to save his own reputation at the expense of Mr. Trump’s.

Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, disputed that the president’s focus was on his news coverage, but said in a statement that “President Trump’s highest priority is the health and safety of the American people.”

Aides said the president’s low point was in mid-March, when Mr. Trump, who had dismissed the virus as “one person coming in from China” and no worse than the flu, saw deaths and infections from Covid-19 rising daily. Mike Lindell, a Trump donor campaign surrogate and the chief executive of MyPillow, visited the White House later that month and said the president seemed so glum that Mr. Lindell pulled out his phone to show him a text message from a Democratic-voting friend of his who thought Mr. Trump was doing a good job.

Mr. Lindell said Mr. Trump perked up after hearing the praise. “I just wanted to give him a little confidence,” Mr. Lindell said.

The Daily Briefings

The daily White House coronavirus task force briefing is the one portion of the day that Mr. Trump looks forward to, although even Republicans say that the two hours of political attacks, grievances and falsehoods by the president are hurting him politically.

Mr. Trump will hear none of it. Aides say he views them as prime-time shows that are the best substitute for the rallies he can no longer attend but craves.

Mr. Trump rarely attends the task force meetings that precede the briefings, and he typically does not prepare before he steps in front of the cameras. He is often seeing the final version of the day’s main talking points that aides have prepared for him for the first time although aides said he makes tweaks with a Sharpie just before he reads them live. He hastily plows through them, usually in a monotone, in order to get to the question-and-answer bullying session with reporters that he relishes.

The briefing’s critics, including Mr. Cuomo, have pointed out the obvious: With two hours of the president’s day dedicated to hosting what is still referred to as a prime-time news briefing, who is going to actually fix the pandemic?

Even Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the experts appointed to advise the president on the best way to handle the outbreak, has complained that the amount of time he must spend onstage in the briefings each day has a “draining” effect on him.

They have the opposite effect on the president. How he arrived at them was almost an accident.

Mr. Trump became enraged watching the coverage of his 10-minute Oval Office address in March that was rife with inaccuracies and had little in terms of action for him to announce. He complained to aides that there were few people on television willing to defend him.

The solution, aides said, came two days later, when Mr. Trump appeared in the Rose Garden to declare a national emergency and answer questions from reporters. As he admonished journalists for asking “nasty” questions, Mr. Trump found the back-and-forth he had been missing. The virus had not been a perfect enemy — it was impervious to his browbeating — but baiting and attacking reporters energized him.

“I don’t take responsibility at all,” Mr. Trump told White House correspondents in answer to one question.

His first news conference in the briefing room took place the next day, on a Saturday, after Mr. Trump arrived unannounced in the Situation Room, wearing a polo shirt and baseball cap, and told the group he planned to attend the briefing and watch from a chair on the side. When aides told him that reporters would simply yell questions at him, even if he was not on the small stage, he agreed to take the podium. He has not looked back since.

When Mr. Trump finishes up 90 or more minutes later, he heads back to the Oval Office to watch the end of the briefings on TV and compare notes with whoever is around from his inner circle.

The New Pecking Order

That circle has shrunk significantly as the president, who advisers say is more sensitive to criticism than at nearly any other point in his presidency, has come to rely on only a handful of longtime aides.

Hope Hicks, a former communications director who rejoined the White House this year as counselor to the president, maintains his daily schedule. His former personal assistant, Johnny McEntee, now runs presidential personnel.

Ms. Hicks and Mr. McEntee, along with Dan Scavino, the president’s social media guru who was promoted this week to deputy chief of staff for communications, provide Mr. Trump with a link to the better old days. The three are the ones outside advisers get in touch with to find out if it’s a good time to reach the president or pass on a message.

Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s new chief of staff, is still finding his footing and adjusting to the nocturnal habits of Mr. Trump, who recently placed a call to Mr. Meadows, a senior administration official said, at 3:19 a.m. Mr. Meadows works closely with another trusted insider: Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and de facto chief of staff.

“They have been really confined and figuratively imprisoned,” Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, said about presidents who have kept close to the White House in times of crisis.

While many officials have been encouraged to work remotely and the Old Executive Office Building is empty, the West Wing’s tight quarters are still packed. Mr. Pence and his top aides, usually stationed across the street, are working exclusively from the White House, along with most of the senior aides, who dine from the takeout mess while the in-house dining room remains closed. Few aides wear masks except for Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, and some of his staff.

The Day Ends as It Began

As soon as he gets to the Oval Office, the president often receives his daily intelligence briefing, and Mr. Pence sometimes joins him. Then there are meetings with his national security team or economic advisers.

Throughout the day, Mr. Trump calls governors, will have lunch with cabinet secretaries and pores over newspapers, which he treats like official briefing books and reads primarily in paper clippings that aides bring to him. He calls aides about stories he sees, either to order them to get a world leader on the phone or to ask questions about something he has read.

Many friends said they were less likely to call Mr. Trump’s cellphone, assuming he does not want to hear their advice. Those who do reach him said phone calls have grown more clipped: Conversations that used to last 20 minutes now wrap up in three.

Mr. Trump will still take calls from Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, on the latest on polling data. The president will in turn call Mr. Meadows and Kellyanne Conway about key congressional races.

The president’s aides have slowly lined up more opportunities to keep him engaged. Last week, a small group of coronavirus survivors were led into the White House, and Mr. Trump took one of them to see the White House physician. Then Mr. Trump hosted a celebration of America’s truckers on the South Lawn.

After he is done watching the end of the daily White House briefing — which is held seven days a week and sometimes goes as late as 8 p.m. — Mr. Trump watches television in his private dining room off the Oval Office. Assorted aides who are still around will join him to rehash the day and offer their assessments on the briefings. Comfort food — including French fries and Diet Coke — is readily available.

Lately, aides say, his mood has started to brighten as his administration moves to open the economy. His new line, both in public and in private, is that there is reason to be optimistic.

“And at the end of that tunnel, we see light,” Mr. Trump said in the Rose Garden last week.

If he is not staying late in the West Wing, Mr. Trump occasionally has dinner with his wife, Melania Trump, and their son, Barron, who recently celebrated his 14th birthday at home.

By the end of the day, Mr. Trump turns back to his constant companion, television. Upstairs in the White House private quarters — often in his own bedroom or in a nearby den — he flicks from channel to channel, reviewing his performance.

 

[fraurosena]

Yah, we believe you.... 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I do hope that this crisis does get Biden elected.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

21 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Yah, we believe you.... 

 

No one with a brain believes this for one second, but for the sake of argument lets say it was true.

Then he should still be immediately removed for fucking with minds of his medical team and the public when 50,000 Americans are dead.  There is nothing funny about this and even if he was messing with the press for Lolz then that's still dispicable. 

[fraurosena]

This could have gone into the "man" thread, but as this is a direct consequence of Trumps idiotic statements, I think this is the better place for it. 

Conservative radio host agrees with caller that vaping bleach might cure COVID-19: ‘You’re not crazy’

[soundcloud link embedded in quote]

Quote

A talk radio caller suggested vaping bleach as a possible treatment for coronavirus, and conservative host Jeff Kuhner assured him the recommendation wasn’t crazy.

The caller, who identified himself as Zack from Stoughton, called into Boston’s WRKO-AM on Friday morning to talk about President Donald Trump’s dangerous suggestion to use disinfectants or powerful light internally to treat COVID-19.

“I’ve been thinking about this thing,” Zack began. “I was a smoker for years, I smoked about three packs a day, and I never liked this new vape thing coming out with the nicotine in it, but I also have a bunch of friends with big cleaning companies.”

After hearing an ad on Kuhner’s program offering a disinfecting service during the pandemic, Zack said he started connecting the dots and wondered whether vape pens could deliver bleach and other disinfecting chemicals into infected lungs.

“Maybe they could make some sort of vape that could help people, you know, that would atomize chemicals into your lungs and you could blow it out your nose,” Zack said. “Thinking outside the box is what we need to do now, and no one seems to want to do it. I don’t know if I’m crazy.”

The host assured the caller his idea was sound.

“No, you’re not,” Kuhner said. “Zack, you’re not crazy, and bingo — you said the word, you said the phrase. Thank you for that call. Thinking outside the box.”

“That’s literally what the president was doing yesterday,” Kuhner added. “That’s what a good chief executive does.”

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning following Trump’s remarks that disinfectant was intended for use only on surfaces, and not internally or topically.

“Never apply the product to yourself or others,” the EPA warned. “Do not ingest disinfectant products.”

Most disinfecting products, including chlorine and alcohol, are also hazardous when inhaled in large enough amounts.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

He does seem like he is developing dementia. He's confusing men and women now?

 

[fraurosena]

This exchange in the last video in @GreyhoundFan's post is... something.

"You were there, I'd never forget. You were eh... "
"I wasn't there."
"You were not?"
"No sir."
"I didn't think you were there... Okay... uhhhhh... " 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Trump just left presser without speaking after Pence and without taking one question from the press, even though they were screaming his name.

Is this the first for this?

What do you guys think?  Who put a leash on him?

[Ozlsn]

4 hours ago, fraurosena said:

The president’s aides have slowly lined up more opportunities to keep him engaged

This more than anything else says that Trump isn't running squat. "Keep him engaged"?!? He should be run off his fucking feet dealing with pandemic updates on top of the usual country stuff, and they're giving him busy work?

Or they're giving him things to play with so the adults can get things done in peace, which pretty much sums up some of WFH for me. I give my son the iPad when I need 30 minutes for a Zoom meeting; Donnie gets a playdate with truckers so staff can organise something.

Of course this assumes that someone in the WH is in fact running something other than babysitting, and frankly based on current responses I'm not convinced.

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

This could have gone into the "man" thread, but as this is a direct consequence of Trumps idiotic statements, I think this is the better place for it. 

Conservative radio host agrees with caller that vaping bleach might cure COVID-19: ‘You’re not crazy’

[soundcloud link embedded in quote]

 

Because what the US needs right now is another group of people who have severely damaged their lungs and need ventilators. I would like to see the radio host trial it first, live on radio and preferably livestreamed. 

Who has to move to invoke the 25th Amendment, anyway?

[Becky]

3 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Trump just left presser without speaking after Pence and without taking one question from the press, even though they were screaming his name.

Is this the first for this?

What do you guys think?  Who put a leash on him?

Whoa.  Now THAT is interesting. 

I really, really hope clips of his most ludicrous ramblings from these press conferences, juxtaposed with stats of sick and dead, show up in campaign ads later this year.  We cannot allow people to forget and make excuses for this sorry excuse of a leader.  

[GreyhoundFan]

9 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Trump just left presser without speaking after Pence and without taking one question from the press, even though they were screaming his name.

Is this the first for this?

What do you guys think?  Who put a leash on him?

I think they probably drugged him. They need to continue to do so.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I think they probably drugged him. They need to continue to do so.

I didn't see the beginning, I turned it on as Pence was on.  Was Trump contained when he (I assume) spoke earlier?

[FiveAcres]

19 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I didn't see the beginning, I turned it on as Pence was on.  Was Trump contained when he (I assume) spoke earlier?

I've always wondered if Pence can possibly be as slavishly devoted to Trump as his fatuous expressions try to indicate. If not, he has to be careful: any sign that Pence is becoming more popular with "the base" than Trump would lead him to be dropped from the ticket. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Very mild musing, but the only of such I've seen even noting that Birx didn't emphatically respond about how dangerous it was.  Gupta and Cooper seem to be giving her the benefit of the doubt about not knowing how to respond, but the white house corresponded did note she just said she'd never heard of it as a treatment and didn't emphatically refute it as dangerous.

I get that these people are trying not to get fired by Trump, but they are professionals and at some point ethics have to come into play.  Her lack of response imo goes against the do no harm part of her oath.

 

 

[AuntK]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:17 AM, clueliss said:

How gyms lobbied their way to the top of the reopen list 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/23/politics/gyms-reopening-lobbying-coronavirus-trump-phase-one/index.html

I wondered how gyms got to the top of the list. It's always the money!

I belong to a local gym associated with a local hospital, but I cannot imagine what they would have to do to make it safe! The equipment is very close together, the locker room is big, but like most, lockers are jammed together. But, like this article points out, gyms are full of sweating people in close contact using the same equipment and the results could be disastrous. 

[JMarie]

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/494143-mississippi-to-sue-china-over-response-to-coronavirus-outbreak

Quote

Mississippi has announced plans to file a lawsuit against China over its response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, which was first detected in Wuhan last year and has led to the deaths of more than 45,000 people in the U.S. so far.

In a statement announcing her plans on Wednesday, the state's Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R) said that “too many Mississippians have suffered as a result of China’s cover-up.”

“They must not be allowed to act with impunity,” she continued. “Mississippians deserve justice and I will seek that in court.”

The lawsuit will also seek damages under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, according to a release. The move follows a similar suit Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) filed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), according to a release.

Fitch is also calling on the Mississippi congressional delegation to back legislation recently introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) that would allow Americans to sue Beijing in an effort to recover damages for losses caused by the novel coronavirus.

Quote

The suit was met with swift backlash from. Beijing, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang calling the move “absurd” during a briefing on Wednesday,  The Associated Press reported.

“This so-called lawsuit is very absurd and has no factual and legal basis at all,” he said during the briefing, while also claiming that China was “open, transparent and responsible” in its response to the outbreak.” He also called on the Trump administration to “dismiss such vexatious litigation."

 

[47of74]

Sigh 

Quote

An unusually high number of New Yorkers contacted city health authorities over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners in the 18 hours that followed President Trump’s bogus claim that injecting such products could cure coronavirus, the Daily News has learned.

The Poison Control Center, a subagency of the city’s Health Department, managed a total of 30 cases of possible exposure to disinfectants between 9 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday, a spokesman said.

None of the people who reached out died or required hospitalization, the spokesman said.

But compared to last year, the number of cases was worthy of a double-take.

 

[47of74]

And down in Tennessee it looks like people followed fuck head's advise

Quote

The Tennessee Poison Center has seen an increase in calls related to cleaning supply overexposure as well as a jump in people hospitalized after ingesting hydrogen peroxide as Tennesseans try to ward off the coronavirus.

Since the coronavirus hit Tennessee, health care workers at the center, housed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, have fielded more calls from people across the state who have possibly overexposed themselves to disinfectants.

Dr. Rebecca Bruccoleri, the medical director of the Tennessee Poison Center, told The Tennessean that people have phoned the center for concerns related to bleach, hand sanitizer and all purpose cleaners.

“A lot of it is just getting exposed," Bruccoleri said. "Someone might ingest it or they might get it on their skin and be concerned about it.”

 

[Dandruff]

How fucking stupid can people get?  Bleach?  Unfortunately, I'm sure we haven't hit bottom.  There will be another evil, demented idea spoken from the position of (so-called) leadership and the jackasses will jump.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

13 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

How fucking stupid can people get?  Bleach?  Unfortunately, I'm sure we haven't hit bottom.  There will be another evil, demented idea spoken from the position of (so-called) leadership and the jackasses will jump.

Is it just me or does this one seem to be getting a lot more traction than the other dumbass things he's said?

Maybe because the average person understands how stupid it was, it's not like you need to be able to read a study of chloroquine trials to know injecting bleach is bad.

Could just be me, but more people seem horrified about this one.

[fraurosena]

Oh, he was not speaking with dr. Birx, so it doesn't matter what he said... 

Also.. nobody in the media said that he was speaking to dr. Birx. Everyone is commenting on her lack of response when he made his imbecilic claims. 

Nice try at gaslighting. Not gonna work, dear.

[GreyhoundFan]

This is infuriating, but not surprising.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

21 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Oh, he was not speaking with dr. Birx, so it doesn't matter what he said... 

Also.. nobody in the media said that he was speaking to dr. Birx. Everyone is commenting on her lack of response when he made his imbecilic claims. 

Nice try at gaslighting. Not gonna work, dear.

He was speaking to her, though, I thought?  When he talked about light being used inside the body and again when he talked about disinfectent and being a cleanser for the lungs (paraphrasing) he looked directly at her both times and said that's something we should look into.  

He was speaking generally over all, but at two points he did address the health experts and her in particular.  The man (forget his name) nodded along and her face was just deer in the headlights.

I could be wrong, but it looked to me like he was addressing her for part of it.  

I haven't been a fan of Dr. Fauchi's softpeddling Trump lately, but I do think he would have addressed it better had he been there.

Edited April 25, 2020 by HerNameIsBuffy
Edited to indicate I'm qualifying my statements as not sure