The Political Thread

[Funt Solo]

That Trump press conference. Christ.

The CNN headlines alone.

How goes the voting in of a racist moron on a wave of Nationalistic idiocy, during a crisis? No, wait...

Not well. But that's kind of the point of the story: Trump's not in charge of everything (*breathes enormous sigh of relief*) but spits the dummy when people point it out.

Our state governor (Jay Inslee) had WA state on lock-down pretty early, so the outbreak's curve here is flattening now. Our first school district closure happened on March 4th - on the same Day Trump briefed that it wasn't anything to be concerned about and played down the death rate. See: if he was in charge of our state, we'd have a lot more deaths now.

What's really weird (imagine aliens observing Earth from space) is that each day the media cover what Trump says. I know it's not weird in the sense that "media cover President", but if you listen to him speak for more than a minute, it's weird in the sense that "media cover Terrible Narcissist".

Last bit of vaguely good news: the military don't like him. Man, if he had those guys on side...

[Rately]

That Trump press conference. Christ.

The CNN headlines alone.

How goes the voting in of a racist moron on a wave of Nationalistic idiocy, during a crisis? No, wait...

Not well. But that's kind of the point of the story: Trump's not in charge of everything (*breathes enormous sigh of relief*) but spits the dummy when people point it out.

Our state governor (Jay Inslee) had WA state on lock-down pretty early, so the outbreak's curve here is flattening now. Our first school district closure happened on March 4th - on the same Day Trump briefed that it wasn't anything to be concerned about and played down the death rate. See: if he was in charge of our state, we'd have a lot more deaths now.

What's really weird (imagine aliens observing Earth from space) is that each day the media cover what Trump says. I know it's not weird in the sense that "media cover President", but if you listen to him speak for more than a minute, it's weird in the sense that "media cover Terrible Narcissist".

Last bit of vaguely good news: the military don't like him. Man, if he had those guys on side...

It really is horrendous stuff to witness, Funt Solo.

A 73 year old man throws a temper tantrum, because of people being mean to him? Mean? Pointing out the truth more like. A horrible, horrible example of humanity.

If we make it to November, I would like to think Karma would deliver some good news this year, and he isn't ten foot from the White House before they start investigating every facet of him, his family and business, and not long after that he gets a set of handcuffs clamped on his little wrists.

You and yours stay safe, Funt.

[Tjm86]

What's really weird (imagine aliens observing Earth from space) is that each day the media cover what Trump says. I know it's not weird in the sense that "media cover President", but if you listen to him speak for more than a minute, it's weird in the sense that "media cover Terrible Narcissist".

TBH I think it is pretty weird for the majority of residents of the planet that watch him pronounce.  Mind you, a very close (wafer thin margin, barely detectable) second is Jared Kushner.  It must be absolutely terrifying for any rational American to watch the pair of them with the thought that "these twonks are making decisions about our nation".

Donnie Boy's highlights of the last few weeks include musing on the fact that he is allegedly number one on some social media sites, dressing down a journalist for asking a question and provoking a government official to facepalm on international television.  All this plus trying to claim that the pandemic is a conspiracy created by his democratic opponents to try and make him look bad ( no Donnie, you just have to open your mouth for that ...)

I do wonder if the Chinese are planning on changing their curse from "may you live in interesting times" to "may you live in Donald Trump's America."

[Professor Bear]

It's amazing to me that no-one even notices or cares at this point that the president gave high-ranking jobs in the American government to his daughter and son-in-law.  It's just not even worth registering anymore, kind of like if Romans stopped talking about the original reason why Incitatus shouldn't be allowed to hold public office at all and instead spent all their time and energy bitching about what a lousy job he was doing as chief magistrate.  Still, this is a country that has made peace with weekly high school shootings, so I shouldn't really be surprised.

FYI: March gone by was the first March since 2002 without a shooting spree in an American high school.

[Tjm86]

Oh people notice, without a doubt.  Care too.  I think though that many have reached the point where they realise that right now there is buggery ada they can do about it except for collect evidence.  Trump may not be impeached but it would not surprise me in the slightest that he finds himself on the receiving end of some very pointed legal action along with his nearest and dearest.

As for the shooting spree statistic, remind me again: when did the schools in the states close down?

[shaolin_monkey]

I'm amazed that shooting spree stat.  Got a source discussing that?

Re the US public not doing anything, what are they supposed to do? Revolt?  They're as powerless as we are.

[radiator]

That Trump press conference. Christ.

The CNN headlines alone.

How goes the voting in of a racist moron on a wave of Nationalistic idiocy, during a crisis? No, wait...

Not well. But that's kind of the point of the story: Trump's not in charge of everything (*breathes enormous sigh of relief*) but spits the dummy when people point it out.

Our state governor (Jay Inslee) had WA state on lock-down pretty early, so the outbreak's curve here is flattening now. Our first school district closure happened on March 4th - on the same Day Trump briefed that it wasn't anything to be concerned about and played down the death rate. See: if he was in charge of our state, we'd have a lot more deaths now.

What's really weird (imagine aliens observing Earth from space) is that each day the media cover what Trump says. I know it's not weird in the sense that "media cover President", but if you listen to him speak for more than a minute, it's weird in the sense that "media cover Terrible Narcissist".

Last bit of vaguely good news: the military don't like him. Man, if he had those guys on side...

Whereabouts are you in Washington, Funt?

[Funt Solo]

Up in Skagit, radiator. We've had it pretty light here - only five recorded deaths. Snohomish (one county south) has 70, then King has 295.

Deaths (by pop.):

WA: 0.0068%
NY: 0.0539%
UK: 0.0182%

[Jim_Campbell]

Re the US public not doing anything, what are they supposed to do? Revolt?  They're as powerless as we are.

I thought this was the Second Amendment was for.

The gun nuts are all "Gotta have muh guns so's I can defend muhself against a tyrannical gubmint" and when one comes along, they're fine with it, apparently.

[Funt Solo]

Gun advocates are fine with Trump because he won't challenge their ownership of guns.

You won't be surprised to know that gun shops got closed down as non-essential businesses, then the NRA immediately launched a legal challenge and they opened back up again.

Coronavirus: LA county gun shops to reopen as 'essential' business
How the coronavirus led to the highest-ever spike in US gun sales

(As a high school teacher in the US, I've come to the conclusion that I must be, by definition, suicidal.)

[Professor Bear]

I'm amazed that shooting spree stat.  Got a source discussing that?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-first-march-without-school-shooting-since-2002-united-states/

Re the US public not doing anything, what are they supposed to do? Revolt?

Why not?  We insist on regime change in all the other third world countries.

[Jim_Campbell]

Gun advocates are fine with Trump because he won't challenge their ownership of guns.

Brilliant, isn't it? So what that "tyranny" argument actually means is "Gotta have muh guns, so the gubmint can't take muh guns. Any other kind of tyranny is A-OK with me."

[TordelBack]

-WRONG THREAD POST DELETED-

[Professor Bear]

Labour's Tracy Allen, on discovering that her party had not been destroyed in the 2017 general election as she had hoped: "The people have spoken.  Bastards."

[Tjm86]

Following developments in the States as protests over the lockdown grow and the President complements them!!!!!!!

Not entirely sure the human race is going to get through this after all.  :-(