PLAYPEN: Covid-19 Everything Political

[MattBurt]

I didn't know you did irony.

I think a lot of people "doing irony" don't realize it themselves.

[hogloff]

But the people want the economy to improve.  Trump is responding to their concerns.  They're worried sick about their lost jobs or those they might lose.  They're afraid their pensions will be gone; their savings will be inflated away.  EVen Biden sees the handwriting on the wall pushing jobs and other economic arguments copied from Trump.

Everyone does...so why don't they all wear masks? Why don't they all stay apart? Maybe it's because their fearless leader is leading them into another New York City catastrophe. Again...other countries have opened up and are doing commerce. They just happen to have great leadership from their elected officials as well as their medical experts...something sorely lacking in the US.

[hogloff]

It wouldn't be very smart for Biden to expose himself right now - financially, healthwise and from the PR point of view. Much better to wait until the race heats up and then go fully out.
He used this strategy successfully in the Democratic primaries.

He doesn't have to do a thing. Trump is self destructing.

[hogloff]

There's a theory that if you repeat a false narrative with enough conviction and frequency, some will start to believe it.


Then once they take the bait, you jerk the line hard and start turning the reel. Because by then, they'll believe anything you say, no matter how ridiculous.

Isn't that right out of Trump's playbook. And he used it on his deciples, like Alan, and it seems to work pretty well. We're do you think Alan got this message about Biden hiding in his basement...right from Trump's big mouth.

[John Camp]

Isn't that right out of Trump's playbook. And he used it on his deciples, like Alan, and it seems to work pretty well. We're do you think Alan got this message about Biden hiding in his basement...right from Trump's big mouth.

I love Jr's book cover. What a looser. 8-)

[John Camp]

The usual deflection.  Do you think Biden's hiding in his basement is reasonable behavior for a candidate running for president?  Is that how leaders operate?

I think it's reasonable. Why should he deflect attention from Trump, while Trump is self-destructing? That's like running into a burning building.

A NYT columnist suggested last week that Biden refuse to debate Trump unless Trump releases his tax returns, on the ground that Biden may have exposed himself to criticism by releasing his returns, and it's not fair to let Trump come after him, without Biden being able to see where Trump's money came from. Seems like a reasonable argument to me.

[Ray]

He is going to love tomorrow. His niece's book about him is scheduled to go on sale to the public.  Most in the media have already read it. I can't wait to read the reviews. What a loser. Here's a sample:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/mary-trump-book-psychoanalysis-enablers.html

This should be an interesting read. The book doesn't just concentrate on the character flaws and deficiencies of Donald Trump, but also addresses the deficiencies of those around him who support him.

"At bottom, Too Much and Never Enough may be the first book that stipulates, in its first pages, that the president is irreparably damaged, and then turns a clinician’s lens on the rest of us, the voters, the enablers, the flatterers, the hangers-on, and the worshipers.

It is here that Mary Trump’s book makes perhaps the most enduring contribution to the teetering piles of books that have offered too little too late, even while telling us that which we already knew. Because Mary Trump begins from the assumption that other analysis tends to end with: Donald Trump is lethally dangerous, stunningly incoherent, and pathologically incapable of caring about anyone but himself. So, what Mary Trump wants to know is: What the hell is wrong with everyone around him? As she writes in her prologue, “there’s been very little effort to understand not only why he became what he is but how he’s consistently failed up despite his glaring lack of fitness.”

[Peter McLennan]

but also addresses the deficiencies of those around him who support him.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating..."

[Alan Klein]

I think it's reasonable. Why should he deflect attention from Trump, while Trump is self-destructing? That's like running into a burning building.

A NYT columnist suggested last week that Biden refuse to debate Trump unless Trump releases his tax returns, on the ground that Biden may have exposed himself to criticism by releasing his returns, and it's not fair to let Trump come after him, without Biden being able to see where Trump's money came from. Seems like a reasonable argument to me.

The American public isn't stupid.  If Biden refuses to do the debates, they'll understand he's afraid that people will really see he's incapable of handling the presidency.   

[Peter McLennan]

The American public isn't stupid.

.
Neither is the Canadian public.
.

[KLaban]

This. ^

We're at 135,000 dead in the US, and it will be at 140,000 by the end of this week. Given the number of positives, that probably means that the actual death rate has declined, and I believe that has happened, but the number of deaths will increase because the infections are increasing so much. I think the death rate is down for a number of reasons, but I think one of them is that treatment is better. There are no silver bullets, but more people are getting out of hospitals. The elderly ill still have much to fear.

Two or three months back (I didn't look it up) a member of this forum asked to be waked when the number of deaths went past 60,000. I think we'll be at two-and-a-half times that number by the end of July. Where will it stop? I doubt the U.S. fatalities will be under 200,000 before a vaccine arrives, sometime late this year or early next year.

That could well be a best case scenario.

There's a possibility, likelihood even, that an effective vaccine won't arrive in that time-frame and may never arrive.

Here in the UK many experts are predicting a second wave this winter with another 120,000 deaths.

Second Covid-19 wave in UK   

[LesPalenik]

The American public isn't stupid.  If Biden refuses to do the debates, they'll understand he's afraid that people will really see he's incapable of handling the presidency.

The presidential debates are non-essential activities. If you want a meaningful debate, talk to your barber.

[Robert Roaldi]

The presidential debates are non-essential activities. If you want a meaningful debate, talk to your barber.

Agree 100%. If you are interested in policy, they should be written down by the candidates and available somewhere to read at leisure. TV debates are a prime-time TV show that, at best, show a superficial glibness that plays well on camera, and anyway it is being superseded by the interweb and social media. Besides which they are not debates, no one ever discusses ideas during them, they just deliver messaging and try to score insult points. Somehow, we have developed the notion that two (or more) people standing there criticizing and insulting each other is political debate. I hope this changes.

[Robert Roaldi]

And another thing.  It is my understanding that Trump has handed over responsibility to the individual states to determine when and how they will re-open, something that has been met with some praise in these parts. So why is he now threatening districts who won't open their schools? Is it hands off or isn't it?

[hogloff]

The American public isn't stupid. 

Well they did elect Trump...that's not too smart.

[hogloff]

And another thing.  It is my understanding that Trump has handed over responsibility to the individual states to determine when and how they will re-open, something that has been met with some praise in these parts. So why is he now threatening districts who won't open their schools? Is it hands off or isn't it?

Remember, Trump has ultimate power.

[Jim Pascoe]

But the people want the economy to improve.  Trump is responding to their concerns.  They're worried sick about their lost jobs or those they might lose.  They're afraid their pensions will be gone; their savings will be inflated away.  EVen Biden sees the handwriting on the wall pushing jobs and other economic arguments copied from Trump.

So Trump will tell the people what they want to hear.  But good leadership would involve being honest with the people and doing the best for the long term.  If that means dealing with Covid before the economy can return to a healthy state surely that is the right thing to do.
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." Winston Churchill - May 1940.  He had his failings, but he did understand leadership.  Of course he could have said, ..."don't worry about the Nazis - they will not bother us - I'm sure they will go away soon and everything will be really good..."  I think it took the UK about 50 years to pay off that debt.  The alternative was worse.  Of course Covid is not a threat on that scale, but leadership is leadership - not bullshit.

[Ray]

Wow! It's now 10.45 pm, Tuesday, in Brisbane, Australia, and Mary Trump's book is already available on Amazon. However, I don't understand why a 'Hard Cover copy' is only slightly more expensive than the Kindle version??

https://www.amazon.com/Too-Much-Never-Enough-Dangerous/dp/1982141468

Review:

"This book is very highly recommended, especially for those who want to gain a deeper understanding of the forces driving the current president. It is unfortunate that those who most need to read this book won’t, or if they do read the book, then it will be dismissed as self-serving drivel from a “libtard”. They do so at their own peril. The president’s mockery of his father and role model succumbing to Alzheimer’s should be a lesson for us all."

[Alan Klein]

Agree 100%. If you are interested in policy, they should be written down by the candidates and available somewhere to read at leisure. TV debates are a prime-time TV show that, at best, show a superficial glibness that plays well on camera, and anyway it is being superseded by the interweb and social media. Besides which they are not debates, no one ever discusses ideas during them, they just deliver messaging and try to score insult points. Somehow, we have developed the notion that two (or more) people standing there criticizing and insulting each other is political debate. I hope this changes.

It's not what they say.  It's how they handle themselves. 

[Alan Klein]

Well they did elect Trump...that's not too smart.

Electing Hillary would have been dumber.