Virus thread, the political one.

[zachateseverything]

Trolling about this would be a lot funnier if we didn't already have 30 thousand Americans sick and a couple hundred dead in the beginning stages of a pandemic. Some people just have different priorities I guess.

[Blue Jays]

FACTS:

• President Trump did not silence scientists, China did, with several recently disappeared.
  
• President Trump did not cut funding for the CDC. It has increased since he took office.
  
• President Trump did not eliminate the NSC Pandemic unit.
  
• President Trump did not call COVID-19 a hoax.

[thollandpe]

In heartening good news, VP Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence have tested negative for COVID-19.

Good. Hope they're saying prayers and lighting a candle for the people of Indiana, since he did enough damage as governor.

[theflashunc]

FACTS:

• President Trump did not silence scientists, China did, with several recently disappeared.
  
• President Trump did not cut funding for the CDC. It has increased since he took office.
  
• President Trump did not eliminate the NSC Pandemic unit.
  
• President Trump did not call COVID-19 a hoax.

Wrong at least on three of these, and partially wrong on a fourth:

“One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it.’ They tried the impeachment hoax,” said Trump. “And this is their new hoax.”

Trump casts criticism of his coronavirus strategy as a “hoax” - Vox

He also hasn't cut from the CDC, he's just proposing to do so, and his budget chief is standing by that choice as a pandemic is happening.

Trump budget chief holds firm on CDC cuts amid virus outbreak | TheHill

Trump doesn't silence scientists, he just undermines and second guesses them in public. I'll point to Friday's hearing with Dr Fauci about the malaria drug.

Lastly, as the President loved to point out during the post-Impeachment purge, the National Security Council serves at his leisure and for his own foreign policy decision making. Whoever made the decision to cut it, ultimately the buck stops with him. The Pandemic unit was axed, good people who helped shepherd through the ebola crisis were sidelined, and now we are where we are. Literally the first line on the National Security Council website.

The National Security Council (NSC) is the President's principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and cabinet officials.

Lastly, is there anything in this monumental fuck up this President will take responsibility for?

[thollandpe]

Pence, who gazes at his president as adoringly as Nancy Reagan gazed at Ronald, went after Nancy in a public forum just days after the President's death in 2004 from Alzheimer's, about her support of stem cell research:

"I pray for the family. I've buried parents. I've buried people I love, but those that would erode the sanctity of human life in the law, by advancing embryonic stem cell research in the name of Ronald Reagan, would do more than desecrate his memory than I can possibly imagine."

He's kinda scary. That was the widow Reagan.

[Blue Jays]

"Pence."

VP Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence tested negative for COVID-19.

[Mark Walberg]

FACTS:
[*]President Trump did not call COVID-19 a hoax.[/list]

No. But he did say it would go away when it warmed up.
Just don't worry about it. No big deal.

[vertical_doug]

FACTS:

• President Trump did not silence scientists, China did, with several recently disappeared.
  
• President Trump did not cut funding for the CDC. It has increased since he took office.
  
• President Trump did not eliminate the NSC Pandemic unit.
  
• President Trump did not call COVID-19 a hoax.

A 1m17s mark speaking at rally, he definitely did call the coronavirus their new hoax.





Here is the CDC budget fact sheet from the CDC website. It shows a decline in budget from 2018-2019 and the proposed decline 2020.

https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents...-factsheet.pdf


So once again BlueJay. I am happy you support the President, and you are allowed that opinion. We all hope the government is successful in containing the coronavirus. But will you at least admit that two of the facts you claimed are wrong?

I'll wait for this one.

[BBB]

This has transformed into a very weird thread.

This is obviously an unprecedented (at least in our time) global health emergency with significant economic blowback.

And through this Trump is somehow a saviour. Is this one big troll or is there genuine feelings here? I’m trying to rationalise this against the reaction when I adopted the Trump persona (and I can’t really rationalise it).

I, for one, would not want a guy whose leadership credentials seem to extend to paying off a hooker to keep her quiet (resulting in his lawyer going to the can) or lying about the size of a crowd, or abusing people on Twitter, or labelling a global pandemic fake news, anywhere near the controls of the ship of state.

Here in Oz we’ve got a happy clapping twit who thinks thoughts and prayers will suffice. Not good enough. We’re a couple of weeks behind here and now the clamps are coming on.

Weird times. Weird thread.

[Chik]

America First is literally the slogan Nazi sympathizers used in this country before WWII.

I'd venture to say that what's actually being practised today is America Last.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'll wait for this one.

He'll just move on to the next dubious "fact" the enables his fawning over Trump. Just like he won't answer my question about the WaPo article, he won't watch the video you posted. Or he will but he'll just continue gaslighting us. Though I guess he learned how to do that from the best in the business. (please nobody read that as "best in business").

[Too Tall]

Hi kids ;) This is the "Political Thread" which, from the amount of complaints I'm getting, has devolved some into a he-said-she-said. I got no dog in this one and hey it is the political thread so...

Here is my advice, resist the urge to bite down hard on click bait. Both political statements as well as strawmen that are tossed out like chum on the waters.

If you get called out, fucking prove it. Learn your lesson or do the victory salute and move on. It is that simple and we get to have more POLITICAL conversations. Key word there >>> conversations.

Now I'll just duck out 'cuase this gives me gas.

xxoo

PS the gag on swearing has been temporarily lifted and put back in place. Sorry about that.

[guido]

The media must stop live-broadcasting Trump’s dangerous, destructive coronavirus briefings | Washington Post

[guido]

How the Coronavirus Shattered Trump’s Serene Confidence | The New Yorker

[monadnocky]

nvm. Better not. Good luck to all.

[guido]

Deniers and Disbelievers: ‘If I Get Corona, I Get Corona.’ - The New York Times

[Sbti]

Lastly, is there anything in this monumental fuck up this President will take responsibility for?

“Yeah, no, I don’t take responsibility at all"
-Forever impeached game show host

[guido]

American Partisanship May Find Its Limits in Coronavirus - The New York Times

[Sbti]

"Just a feeling. You know, I'm a smart guy. I feel good about it"
-Forever impeached pharmacologist commenting on chloroquine.

[gregl]

Trump officials weigh reopening Obamacare enrollment over coronavirus - POLITICO

Apparently the last refuge of a scoundrel isn’t patriotism, it’s health care.

Greg