DL Open Thread: Tues., April 14, 2020
For Trump, Every Day Is Festivus. An utterly-unhinged President and his utterly-unhinged press conferences. Yesterday alone featured a campaign video paid for by the taxpayers, a presidential assertion of absolute power, and a two-hour monologue uninterrupted by even one mention of what his administration is actually doing to stop the pandemic. Here’s a good take. The governors have given up on the federal government and are going their own way. We have a mentally-ill narcissistic autocrat in the Oval Office. Isn’t that what the 25th Amendment is for?
Rethugs Rig Wisconsin Election. Lose. The Rethugs in the legislature put their fingers on the scale, the Wisconsin Supreme Court put its finger on the scale, the US Supreme Court put its finger on the scale. They lost, although they may have infected a batch of primarily Democratic voters in the process. John Heileman put it well this morning: Every election is a proxy on Trump. This will not make Trump happy.
Everything Falls Apart, Ctd. The latest carnage, not quite as bad as yesterday’s carnage (who says I can’t find a ray of sunshine every now and then?): 582,594 confirmed cases and 23,649 deaths in the US. Nursing home deaths soar, the Feds aren’t counting them.
Florida Governor Deems WWE An ‘Essential Business’. Costumed humans swapping sweat, blood and saliva. Doesn’t matter as long as Fla. Governor Ron DeSantis is in charge. Is there recall in Florida?
This South Dakota Governor Is…Something. She continues to resist a stay-in-place order despite the outbreak at Smithfield, and…touts testing of Trump’s pet malaria drug. Malaria and malarkey. Perfect together.
Feds Are Just Stealing Supplies From The States. More Thievery. More Thievery:
Officials in one state are so worried about this possibility that they are considering dispatching local police or even the National Guard to greet two chartered FedEx planes scheduled to arrive in the next week with millions of masks from China, according to people familiar with the planning. These people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, asked that their state not be identified to avoid flagging federal officials to their shipment.
Sanders Endorses Joe. Early and often. Can’t hurt.
What do you want to talk about?
Whoa! Second Trader Joe’s coming to Delaware. I had no idea:
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/04/14/trader-joes-take-place-saks-off-5th-christiana-fashion-center/5021258002/
A canary in retailing’s coal mine.
That space is huge. I thought Trader Joe’s were smallish by design and temperament.
Have to admit the spectacular fail in Wisconsin brought a smile to my face, they pulled out all the stops and still lost the judicial seat that was their goal. Bodes ill for Trump and the Republicans in November, maybe there is a god? (just kidding!). As for the hapless Ron DeSantis in Florida he now has a death grip on worst of the worst governors in America, truly he is either rather stupid or just doing a damn good impression.
Don’t forget corrupt. DeSantis is corrupt.
Be sure to read the piece about South Dakota’s governor. Where do they find these people?
Annnd, Trump starts out his daily monologue by announcing he’s cutting off funds to the WHO. It’s all their fault.
DL doesn’t PAY me enough to watch this shit.
Credit where credit’s due. Chuck Todd has a panel who is correcting the President’s lies in real time.
Turns out Trump hasn’t given a plugged nickel to the WHO in the last three years.
Trump says he will ‘authorize’ the 50 governors to reopen their states.
They don’t need his authorization to reopen, just as they didn’t need his authorization to close.
This. Is. Excruciating.
Thankfully, we’re binge-watching Breaking Bad. Hadn’t seen it before. A welcome break from reality.
So many cliff-hangers. It’s easy to get hooked. Once you finish “Breaking Bad,” you’ll need to start watching “Better Call Saul.”
Well I, for one, certainly appreciate you all taking one for the team. I have no value whatsoever for anything that mendacious fool trump and his proxies have to say. His followers have made it perfectly clear that they could not care less how much he lies and mismanages things, so any fact checking or ‘gotch ya!’ moments from the news corps are pointless. For that reason, I avoid his rantings in print, video, or audio like the plague.
Seriously, the only question folks at the presser should ask is “Are you done yet? We’d really like to hear from Dr Fauci.” Heck, stop televising the first two hour campaign rally and tune over when the actual briefing starts. trump would blow his stack and that would be glorious. But they won’t. The cynic in me believes (fears?) that the news producers have figured out that they can exploit that dopamine hit to drive click-throughs until November. All for nothing.
I agreed with you. But I think he’s now doing more damage to himself and his prospects every time he starts talking. I’m now all for letting him talk.
Agreed. He looks at the ratings and thinks all the viewers are cheering. More likely a growing majority is laughing, crying or screaming. The ratings high makes him all the more delusional, and increases the odds of voters canceling his reality show in November.
lol. You got me.
Has anyone noticed that the President is a complete dumb fuck know nothing who is totally destroying a fragile yet great democratic nation? OK, just checking
Oh I noticed. What I was not prepared for is how willingly the GOP went along with the charade simply because they saw trump as a means to an end, i.e. appointment of conservative judiciary. I mean, I’m angry a duplicitous “we hate Hollywood, govt. over-reach, and financial deficits” electorate elected a reality show host president who then made all those concerns even more dire and refuse to acknowledge that situation. I am positively livid that supposedly educated and aware politicians McConnell and Ryan went along with it to further their agendas. Trump would have just been a derided comic book villain if those two hadn’t enabled him. They are the ones that should be held accountable. Well, a lot more too, now that I think about it.
This ^ exactly. If the GOP had insisted, from the moment he entered the race, that he had to release his tax returns, and kept up a steady drumbeat, they could have gotten him out of the race.
Ironic that the Democrats, who are famously always in disarray, were able to quickly winnow their field to line up behind Biden, while the lockstep Republicans went every-man-for-himself in ’16 and couldn’t stop Trump.
It’s enough to make you think that the conventional wisdom about the parties might be bullshit.