2020 US Election (Part Two)

[Traitorfish]

I think you're looking at it backwards. Its not about them being mutually exclusive at all, in fact its the opposite. The critique correctly identifies that the one is actually the cause of the other and they are essentially, one phenomenon rather than two. What Carlin's critique attacks, is the myopic view that these "sucky" politicians are being thrust upon the blameless, poor and innocent public, pointing out instead that it is the public who is the source of, and thus the cause of the politicians being sucky.

Attributing blame for the wickedness and stupidity of those in power to the poor moral character of those who, by and large, hold no power at all, feels like a very dark game of "stop hitting yourself".

 

[Birdjaguar]

HHS Inspector General Asked To Look Into CDC Mailing Featuring Trump
A watchdog group says the postcard with coronavirus guidelines seemed designed to boost Trump’s reelection.

WASHINGTON ― The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is facing a call for an investigation after it sent a coronavirus mailing prominently featuring President Donald Trump’s name to millions of Americans.

“In terms of design, the main feature of the mailing is Trump’s name rather than the actual guidelines,” the watchdog group Accountable.US wrote in a Wednesday letter to the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general. “In fact, the message including the President’s name takes up more real estate on the postcard ― one full side ― than any other item.”

HHS oversees a number of agencies, including the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, that are involved in the coronavirus response. Both the CDC and HHS offered this response to HuffPost queries on the matter, and said they would have no further comment:

CDC, NIH, and Dr. [Deborah] Birx consulted on the content of this mailer through the White House Task Force for COVID-19. The Task Force has taken unprecedented steps to curb the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health and safety of Americans ― part of the response efforts include the mailer, which was sent out to millions of Americans to educate them on ways to help slow the spread.

The postcard dated March 16 is headlined “PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES FOR AMERICA” in all capital letters, and displays the logos of the CDC and the White House. On the back are the same recommendations that were unveiled that day and are frequently referred to by Vice President Mike Pence during White House briefings. The placards Pence has been holding up, though, originally titled “15 Days to Slow the Spread” and then “30 Days to Slow the Spread,” do not feature Trump’s name.

It’s unclear who decided to use Trump’s name so prominently – the font size of the headline is the largest of anything on the card ― particularly since he did not really support those recommendations, he said recently, and only went along with them because he was afraid of being criticized if he did not.


“I don’t think ― if I would have not done it we would have been unbelievably criticized for not doing it,” he told Fox News in a Rose Garden interview on March 23.

“Because this mailing features Trump’s name above all else and clearly seeks to cover up his well-documented history of undermining CDC public health recommendations, it can be quite reasonably viewed as electioneering ― especially with Election Day fast approaching,” stated the letter, signed by Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig.

Other critics, including health experts, pointed out that because such a large percentage of the population dislikes and distrusts Trump, many Americans were likely to ignore the CDC’s recommendations solely because Trump was associated with them.

Trump downplayed the seriousness of the virus and its threat to Americans from Jan. 22 through March 15, at one point even calling concerns about it “a hoax.” Only in the last two days has Trump acknowledged that COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is likely to kill 100,000 to 200,000 Americans, even if strict guidelines are observed across the country.

AMANDA TERKEL/HUFFPOST
The CDC mailer sent to Americans prominently features President Donald Trump’s name.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Trump is fiddling whilst America Burns

 

[Zardnaar]

Trump is fiddling whilst America Burns

Had a similar thought a while ago.

Can't say I disagree

 

[Gori the Grey]

Here's the calculation: by November the virus will have been contained to a degree that he will run on being personally responsible for having beat it.
It's the same as he likes to present trade deals as individual personal agreements between himself and the leader of the other country.

 

[IglooDame]

Boy the Federal Election Commission should take a look at that too, eh?

Oh, wait...

 

[Zardnaar]

Here's the calculation: by November the virus will have been contained to a degree that he will run on being personally responsible for having beat it.
It's the same as he likes to present trade deals as individual personal agreements between himself and the leader of the other country.

Gonna be a lot of dead bodies and a depression.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Gonna be a lot of dead bodies and a depression.

That's the point of yesterday's numbers: would have been 2.2 million if I hadn't done anything. When it's 200,000: "Look, I saved 2 million people's lives!"

 

[Zardnaar]

That's the point of yesterday's numbers: would have been 2.2 million if I hadn't done anything. When it's 200,000: "Look, I saved 2 million people's lives!"

And they can okay attack ads if Trump downplaying things.

Intellectually we know it's gonna be bad.

But wait until funeral homes are overwhelmed, bodies piling up in temporary morgues, virus gets into old people homes and the staff bail etc.

Throw in a depression as well. See Hoover but with tens of thousands dead.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Oh, I'm not sure it will actually cut his way. I'm just saying what his play is.

To your other point, the scene that will be utterly intolerable is more people needing ventilators than ventilators, i.e. people triaged off to their deaths. Nobody is psychologically prepared for that.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, I'm not sure it will actually cut his way. I'm just saying what his play is.

Yeah he'll blame everyone else.

It's just starting in the US. It's gonna be Italy+Spain on a greater scale.

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Why is the onus on illegal drugs atm when the virus is killing hundreds?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

That's the point of yesterday's numbers: would have been 2.2 million if I hadn't done anything. When it's 200,000: "Look, I saved 2 million people's lives!"

He's already started making that argument. Yesterday's press conference was doom and gloom but he made sure to give himself credit for saving 2 million people personally.

 

[onejayhawk]

I suspect once the serious dying starts anyone who can put their hand up and say they're not Trump has an advantage.

Have you seen the polling? Trump is above 47% approval for the first time. He has positive scores on his handling of the COVID-19 situation on every poll for over two weeks. Trump is seen as being Presidential.

While professors get a lot of leeway, civil servants are required to be largely apolitical on the job. That one passed muster on the desk for a while though.

In theory anyway. Not so much in practice. Accountability of bureaucrats is proverbially poor.

That's the point of yesterday's numbers: would have been 2.2 million if I hadn't done anything. When it's 200,000: "Look, I saved 2 million people's lives!"

It has the advantage of being true.

If some of the drug therapies work out, the death toll may be another order of magnitude lower. Trump can truthfully claim his January travel ban gained the time we needed to do the research.

J

 

[Gori the Grey]

And, just think, he can have a new campaign slogan: Trump, better than nothing.

 

[Zardnaar]

Have you seen the polling? Trump is above 47% approval for the first time. He has positive scores on his handling of the COVID-19 situation on every poll for over two weeks. Trump is seen as being Presidential.


In theory anyway. Not so much in practice. Accountability of bureaucrats is proverbially poor.


It has the advantage of being true.

If some of the drug therapies work out, the death toll may be another order of magnitude lower. Trump can truthfully claim his January travel ban gained the time we needed to do the research.

J

The dying hasn't really started yet, neither have the lawsuits.

By November the US will likely be in a depression.

 

[onejayhawk]

The dying hasn't really started yet, neither have the lawsuits. By November the US will likely be in a depression.

Will the dying really get started? We have learned a lot about how to treat the disease and the new drug therapies are only now being tested.

Given the number of people not working, a depression is certainly possible. That said, this is not a normal recession. Jobs are mothballed, not gone. Work is backlogged, orders are accumulating, and so on. When we can start easing people back into the workplace, things will pick up quickly.

J

 

[Sommerswerd]

Attributing blame for the wickedness and stupidity of those in power to the poor moral character of those who, by and large, hold no power at all, feels like a very dark game of "stop hitting yourself".

Nah that doesn't work because this is a democratic-republic, not a dictatorship, at least not yet...

And excusing the wickedness and stupidity of people on the grounds that they don't have as many cookies as someone else is just the other side of the coin of "the poors are too dumb to have any rights."

 

[Zardnaar]

Will the dying really get started? We have learned a lot about how to treat the disease and the new drug therapies are only now being tested.

Given the number of people not working, a depression is certainly possible. That said, this is not a normal recession. Jobs are mothballed, not gone. Work is backlogged, orders are accumulating, and so on. When we can start easing people back into the workplace, things will pick up quickly.

J

Well you just passed 3k, USA will probably be the new Italy

 

[Takhisis]

As the lesser of 2 evils hes the best choice you've got.

dammit people are moving into Kyriakos' niche while he's away

Nah that doesn't work because this is a democratic-republic, not a dictatorship, at least not yet...

‘Democratic republic’? Like the Congo? Or the People's one in North Korea?