Trump as tragicomedy

[Cortopassi]

So I guess Chinese food and Chinese restaurants need to be renamed.
To what shall it be called from now on to not offend anyone?

Although I don't disagree with the notion that it's fine to link the bug with its place of origin, nor that the Left is pouncing on this for political gain, I think what's inherent in the original question is that viruses are unpleasant.
Chinese New Year? Ok
Chinese restaurant? Ok
Chinese virus? Well...I can understand why he asked the question.

How about calling it Covid 19? Like all other scientists and most politicians are calling it?

If you can watch that YT clip and think he isn't calling it the Chinese virus on purpose, when he stresses the Chyyyyy Na, I think you are mistaken.

I do agree the left should give it up as well, but again, I think it is a tweaking thing with him.

He came out at today's conf. and immediately called it the Chinese virus. Pompeo did the same. Everyone else did not. And as usual, the conference devolved when the questioning started.

I am still convinced if it started in Europe or some other "mainly whitish" country it would not be called by the country name by Trump. My opinion.

[dualstow]

I agree.
On the other side, I just remembered the so-called Asian flu of 1997. I had just left Thailand in '95, where they were erecting huge steel and glass buildings in the capital like crazy. Nobody moved into them.

Either nobody cared that it was called the Asian flu (and there was no character like Trump to focus on), or the Internet was too young to tell us all not to say it. :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asia ... ial_crisis

[flyingpylon]

I am still convinced if it started in Europe or some other "mainly whitish" country it would not be called by the country name by Trump. My opinion.

But what if that "mainly whitish" country from which it came launched a propaganda campaign blaming the US?

[Tyler]

West Nile Virus, Lyme Disease, Norovirus, Zika Virus, MERS (Middle East Resiratory Syndrome), Spanish Flu ...

But the Wuhan Coronavirus is racist? And only after Trump says it?

Personally I take the sudden media focus on the racial identity of the virus as a leading indicator that Trump must be doing a pretty good job dealing with the larger issues.

[dualstow]

Personally I take the sudden media focus on the racial identity of the virus as a leading indicator that Trump must be doing a pretty good job dealing with the larger issues.

That reminds me of a different video in which a reporter, from CNN I believe, suggested in her question to him that Trump hadn't initially acted swiftly enough. He responded by saying that he was quick to stop travel from China to the U.S., "and I'm pretty sure it was your network that called me a racist (for doing so)." No argument there.

[vnatale]

Were any of the below NOT Trump quotes? Aren't a few of the requisites of effective leadership (especially during a crisis) that that leader is:

a) Trustworthy
b) Possess creditability at all times?

Vinny


Trump Lies about Corona Virus -
January 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
February 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
February 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
February 25: “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
February 25: “I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
February 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
February 26: “We're going very substantially down, not up.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
February 28: “We're ordering a lot of supplies. We're ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn't be ordering unless it was something like this. But we're ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
March 2: “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don't think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2: “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5: “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5: “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6: “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6: “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6: “I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault.”
March 8: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”
March 9: “This blindsided the world.”
March 13: "I take no responsibility."

[Cortopassi]

Do you have citations for any of those so we can see the context? It's pretty easy to take one sentence out of anything and make it look terrible.

That doesn't sound like anything the MSM would ever do, especially regarding Trump.

That list almost certainly came from either a far left website or an email being forwarded without confirmation of truthfulness.

Pug, sorry about your pug.

tech and pug, you both know he said those things, regardless of context. I have listened to the past few press conferences. They are painful to listen to. He almost always tries to cover all bases on everything, so you are likely right, if taken as a whole, he'd say something like, "I think it will wash over us and be gone" and then follow that up immediately with "but it might not, I don't know. But I think it will."

His style of speaking seems to give him the ability to always come back and argue whether he said something and really meant it, or was generalizing, or was joking, or was being hopeful, or whatever. He cannot be pinned down. That drives some people crazy. It is artful, in one aspect, but really hard for *me* to listen to and not roll my eyes.

Like him or not, for us in IL, I have found Pritzker to be a good speaker.

[Cortopassi]

All I can say is that I'm extremely grateful that Hillary lost.
Whatever Trump's failings, he is light-years better than she is.

Yes

[Cortopassi]

Pug, sorry about your pug.

Thanks, Corto

Like him or not, for us in IL, I have found Pritzker to be a good speaker.

He may be a good speaker, but has proven himself to be a hack beholden to the public sector unions. Nearly everything he has done since taking office has been a net negative for the state, IMO.

Agreed, but he has had understandable, effective communications during his press conferences on the virus.

And ran into this from Scaramucci on Trump. Interesting to watch. Yep, short snippets, likely out of context, but generally shows the trajectory of his thinking.

https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1 ... 6838053889

[vnatale]

Pug, sorry about your pug.

Thanks, Corto

Like him or not, for us in IL, I have found Pritzker to be a good speaker.

He may be a good speaker, but has proven himself to be a hack beholden to the public sector unions. Nearly everything he has done since taking office has been a net negative for the state, IMO.

Agreed, but he has had understandable, effective communications during his press conferences on the virus.

And ran into this from Scaramucci on Trump. Interesting to watch. Yep, short snippets, likely out of context, but generally shows the trajectory of his thinking.

https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1 ... 6838053889

No need for anyone to make excuses for him (and, not accusing you of doing so). Sometimes there IS enough context.

Just received an email containing the below. Does it contain enough context? Or, does it need more?

And, could you ever imagine a debate between him and Biden??!! We might have a new national malady called, "Swivel Head Syndrome". With the way the two of them flit from thought to thought without ever finishing one we'll all be constantly swiveling our heads in a futile attempt to follow what each is saying!

Vinny

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/21 ... hecks.html


Trump Just Told Unemployed People To Keep Getting Their Paychecks
Sat, Mar 21st, 2020 by Jason Easley

Trump was asked what he wants people to do who just lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. He told them to keep getting their paychecks.

Here was the exchange:

Reporter: For those people who have lost their jobs already, or they’re worried about to lose it tomorrow, what do you want them to do now?

Trump: What they do right now is keep receiving their paychecks. Hopefully, their companies will been in a strong position. We want to keep everything together. We think we’ll have a tremendous bounce back. Some people agree with that strongly, some of our top economists say once we solve the problem, we’re working on the medical problem. So we want them to keep their jobs, stay where you are, and we’ll see what happens. If they don’t, we unemployment, checks, a lot of very positive things.”

[Tortoise]

LOL

[vnatale]

Pug, sorry about your pug.

Thanks, Corto

Like him or not, for us in IL, I have found Pritzker to be a good speaker.

He may be a good speaker, but has proven himself to be a hack beholden to the public sector unions. Nearly everything he has done since taking office has been a net negative for the state, IMO.

Agreed, but he has had understandable, effective communications during his press conferences on the virus.

And ran into this from Scaramucci on Trump. Interesting to watch. Yep, short snippets, likely out of context, but generally shows the trajectory of his thinking.

https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1 ... 6838053889

No need for anyone to make excuses for him (and, not accusing you of doing so). Sometimes there IS enough context.

Just received an email containing the below. Does it contain enough context? Or, does it need more?

And, could you ever imagine a debate between him and Biden??!! We might have a new national malady called, "Swivel Head Syndrome". With the way the two of them flit from thought to thought without ever finishing one we'll all be constantly swiveling our heads in a futile attempt to follow what each is saying!

Vinny

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/21 ... hecks.html


Trump Just Told Unemployed People To Keep Getting Their Paychecks
Sat, Mar 21st, 2020 by Jason Easley

Trump was asked what he wants people to do who just lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. He told them to keep getting their paychecks.

Here was the exchange:

Reporter: For those people who have lost their jobs already, or they’re worried about to lose it tomorrow, what do you want them to do now?

Trump: What they do right now is keep receiving their paychecks. Hopefully, their companies will been in a strong position. We want to keep everything together. We think we’ll have a tremendous bounce back. Some people agree with that strongly, some of our top economists say once we solve the problem, we’re working on the medical problem. So we want them to keep their jobs, stay where you are, and we’ll see what happens. If they don’t, we unemployment, checks, a lot of very positive things.”

Of course what he meant is that he wants companies to keep paying them if possible.
Surely no one here is dumb enough actually to believe that he could possibly mean anything else.

Or, does he not have an ability to say what he means? What is so difficult about that? That's another sign of great leaders - excellent communication skills.

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

[vnatale]

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

How short your memory is. "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance."
Also, Obama did not have the media trying undermine his every move.

That is THE quote that all anit-Obama's constantly use. But that seems to be the only one in the toolbox. Any others?

I believe that Obama believed it would be true at the time he said until. Then later he got boxed in by the obstructionist Republicans and had to bribe members of his own party to get their vote to finally get it passed. In the end he had to deal with political realities.

That does not somehow seem equivalent to Trump's over 12,000 (only since last August 2019) "false or misleading claims".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... over-days/

Why is the media trying to undermine Trump's every move? Could the answer be because he deserves it? In the eyes of some of us the media has treated him with kid gloves. NOT calling him out on his blatant lies. I think at the beginning it was simply shock to the media that we now have a president who so obviously has a disregard for the truth. And, they did not know how to deal with it.

And, was the media looking the other way during the Clinton / Monica affair? No. They were all over that one because that sold newspapers.

And, why is this media so liberal when it is owned by conservatives corporations driven by the profit motive?

Vinny

[vnatale]

Short-term thinking plagues Trump’s coronavirus response

Officials have yet to grapple with the long-term supply demands needed to fight months-long pandemic.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/2 ... nse-140883

Vinny

[Cortopassi]

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

How short your memory is. "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance."
Also, Obama did not have the media trying undermine his every move.

Pug, in 30 seconds of looking I can find this. Not all media was in Obama’s pocket.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainmen ... bama.html/

https://newsone.com/16051/top-10-racist ... gh-quotes/

[shekels]

Pug, sorry about your pug.

Thanks, Corto

Like him or not, for us in IL, I have found Pritzker to be a good speaker.

He may be a good speaker, but has proven himself to be a hack beholden to the public sector unions. Nearly everything he has done since taking office has been a net negative for the state, IMO.

Agreed, but he has had understandable, effective communications during his press conferences on the virus.

And ran into this from Scaramucci on Trump. Interesting to watch. Yep, short snippets, likely out of context, but generally shows the trajectory of his thinking.

https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1 ... 6838053889

No need for anyone to make excuses for him (and, not accusing you of doing so). Sometimes there IS enough context.

Just received an email containing the below. Does it contain enough context? Or, does it need more?

And, could you ever imagine a debate between him and Biden??!! We might have a new national malady called, "Swivel Head Syndrome". With the way the two of them flit from thought to thought without ever finishing one we'll all be constantly swiveling our heads in a futile attempt to follow what each is saying!

Vinny

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/21 ... hecks.html


Trump Just Told Unemployed People To Keep Getting Their Paychecks
Sat, Mar 21st, 2020 by Jason Easley

Trump was asked what he wants people to do who just lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. He told them to keep getting their paychecks.

Here was the exchange:

Reporter: For those people who have lost their jobs already, or they’re worried about to lose it tomorrow, what do you want them to do now?

Trump: What they do right now is keep receiving their paychecks. Hopefully, their companies will been in a strong position. We want to keep everything together. We think we’ll have a tremendous bounce back. Some people agree with that strongly, some of our top economists say once we solve the problem, we’re working on the medical problem. So we want them to keep their jobs, stay where you are, and we’ll see what happens. If they don’t, we unemployment, checks, a lot of very positive things.”

Of course what he meant is that he wants companies to keep paying them if possible.
Surely no one here is dumb enough actually to believe that he could possibly mean anything else.

Or, does he not have an ability to say what he means? What is so difficult about that? That's another sign of great leaders - excellent communication skills.

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

1. So being a grate orator is a sign of a Great Leader ✓
How about spelling does that count toward a Great Leader too?
What other conditions exist for being a Great Leader?
2. ____________________________________
3._____________________________________
4._____________________________________

Obviously, Trump made the mistake of assuming people knew what he was talking about.

[shekels]

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

How short your memory is. "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance."
Also, Obama did not have the media trying undermine his every move.

Pug, in 30 seconds of looking I can find this. Not all media was in Obama’s pocket.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainmen ... bama.html/

https://newsone.com/16051/top-10-racist ... gh-quotes/

It is well known that there is Fox on the right, and every other major network and newspaper on the left. And Rush is like Brietbart on steroids. I would have conceded your links from the get-go.

Surely you won't argue that the majority of the media was on Obama's side and the reverse is true for Trump? I wonder if it would be different if another Republican was president.

Which of the 60 states are you all Living in?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02D ... r_embedded

[vnatale]

Why do we continually need a cadre of apologists telling us, "That's not what he meant!" "This is what he was trying to say." "He was just joking! Are you an idiot that you could not tell that?" "He just used the wrong word." I somehow don't remember reading those same constant lines from others after Obama spoke.

Vinny

How short your memory is. "If you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance."
Also, Obama did not have the media trying undermine his every move.

Pug, in 30 seconds of looking I can find this. Not all media was in Obama’s pocket.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainmen ... bama.html/

https://newsone.com/16051/top-10-racist ... gh-quotes/

It is well known that there is Fox on the right, and every other major network and newspaper on the left. And Rush is like Brietbart on steroids. I would have conceded your links from the get-go.

Surely you won't argue that the majority of the media was on Obama's side and the reverse is true for Trump? I wonder if it would be different if another Republican was president.

The media was totally complicit in cooperating with a Republican president in supporting him in probably the greatest foreign policy blunder in our country's history - The Iraq War. The New York Times with Judith Miller were the head cheerleaders.

Vinny

[vnatale]

I think the MSM is way more hostile to Republicans now than they were in 2003.

For some of us they are still being way less hostile than necessary!

And, you are leaving out that all the talk radio is absolutely dominated by conservatives. They are a MAJOR part of the media.

What were they all saying during 8 years of Obama? Was all that they were saying falling on deaf ears?

Vinny

[Dieter]

I think the MSM is way more hostile to Republicans now than they were in 2003.

For some of us they are still being way less hostile than necessary!

And, you are leaving out that all the talk radio is absolutely dominated by conservatives. They are a MAJOR part of the media.

What were they all saying during 8 years of Obama? Was all that they were saying falling on deaf ears?

Vinny

Fox News is too rated news channel and has almost as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC combined.

And, don't recall a majority of coverage is Fair and Balanced.

https://deadline.com/2019/12/cable-rati ... 17561/amp/

[vnatale]

I think the MSM is way more hostile to Republicans now than they were in 2003.

For some of us they are still being way less hostile than necessary!

And, you are leaving out that all the talk radio is absolutely dominated by conservatives. They are a MAJOR part of the media.

What were they all saying during 8 years of Obama? Was all that they were saying falling on deaf ears?

Vinny

Fox News is too rated news channel and has almost as many viewers as CNN and MSNBC combined.

And, don't recall a majority of coverage is Fair and Balanced.

https://deadline.com/2019/12/cable-rati ... 17561/amp/

Or, so they say!!!

Vinny

[vnatale]

I've now sees a lot of a few of New York Governor's lengthy daily solo briefings (complete with Power Point for those like me who prefer to read rather than listen).

QUITE the communicator in contrast to the person who shall remain unnamed in what I am writing here!

"I play basketball! There is no way you can maintain social distancing while playing basketball!"

I am such a constant C-Span viewer / listener these days that I'm just realizing this is the second time around I am experiencing this particular briefing.

Vinny

[Cortopassi]

This guy is president. When he was asked about the tweets he responded:

"Well, I've read that CNN doesn't want to cover them. I've read that -- except they can't help them because their ratings are so high. You know, if the ratings were low, they wouldn't be here. This man wouldn't be here. In 100 years you could bet your life that he would never be here with CNN and all their cameras....because we help their ratings. We help -- we lift up their ratings because their ratings are very low. ... But I think the American public ultimately they should be the decider, it's like if they don't want to watch, they shouldn't watch."

Yes, I watch them for you Mr. President. Not for news of the virus.

[vnatale]

This guy is president. When he was asked about the tweets he responded:

"Well, I've read that CNN doesn't want to cover them. I've read that -- except they can't help them because their ratings are so high. You know, if the ratings were low, they wouldn't be here. This man wouldn't be here. In 100 years you could bet your life that he would never be here with CNN and all their cameras....because we help their ratings. We help -- we lift up their ratings because their ratings are very low. ... But I think the American public ultimately they should be the decider, it's like if they don't want to watch, they shouldn't watch."

Yes, I watch them for you Mr. President. Not for news of the virus.

He did look somewhat shook yesterday when he was given and seemingly accepted the information given to him that if we did nothing that over 2,000,000 Americans would get killed by this virus.

But that was yesterday. That hour. That minute.

His instincts may well having him give different reactions today.

Vinny

[Mountaineer]

Perhaps this site could be useful to some. Take your pick and hope for the best. Unfortunately, or fortunately, we shall never know the real truth. That is why I minimize my time listening/watching "news". It isn't, and the opinions/talking head/ blathers "reports" are usually not actionable. And, not very entertaining.

After a quick scan, I did not see the NYT or WaPo listed.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/center/