trump is serious!!!!!

[Bicycle Bill]

With PPE short in supply,
The people feared loved ones would die.
A sociopath
Sat doing the math.
“My ratings,” he grinned, “are so high!”
(note: 'PPE' = 'personal protective equipment')

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Did you pen that?

[Bicycle Bill]

Yes and no.  Someone else told it to me as a four-line poem with all the same rhyme,

With PPE short in supply,
The people feared loved ones would die.
While their leader just calmly stood by,
'Cause his approval was reaching new highs.

so I rewrote it as a limerick.

And after further consideration, since some people will not immediately get the PPE reference, I'll further revise the first line to
"With protective gear in short supply," so it now reads:

With protective gear in short supply,
The people feared loved ones would die.
A sociopath
Sat doing the math.
“My ratings,” he grinned, “are so high!”

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

[Lord Jim]

Why are you asking such a nasty question?

Don't be a cutie pie...

[Big RR]

What we need is a Ministry of Truth like in 1984; that's the way to get rid of charges of fake news.

[datsunaholic]

What we need is a Ministry of Truth like in 1984; that's the way to get rid of charges of fake news.

Isn't FOX news already that?

[Big RR]

They're trying, but they can't figure out how to delete the inconsistent records.

[Scooter]

[Lord Jim]

[RayThom]

Damian's Arrest

On 13 January 2017, Harvey Spenser Stephens was given a suspended prison sentence for a road-rage attack on two cyclists at Toys Hill, Westerham, Kent, on 21 August 2016. The court had heard that Stephens repeatedly used his horn when riders Mark Richardson and Alex Manley, who were out cycling separately, were side-by-side on the road as one overtook the other. Richardson responded by flicking his middle finger at Stephens, who then pulled over.

After getting out of his car, Stephens punched Richardson, knocking him unconscious, which prompted Manley to intervene. Stephens responded by asking Manley: “You want some do you?” before punching him twice in the face, causing him to fall on his back with his bicycle still between his legs. Stephens then held him down and punched him six or seven times, inflicting dental injuries and damaging his helmet.

In 2017, at Maidstone Crown Court, Judge Martin Joy sentenced Stephens to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, for causing actual bodily harm, and to two months, also suspended for two years, for criminal damage. Stephens, a resident of the High Street, Edenbridge, Kent, was ordered to undergo rehabilitation, perform 150 hours of unpaid work, pay compensation of £1,000 to each victim, and an extra £120 to Mr Manley for his damaged helmet.

Method actors often take their characters way too seriously.

[BoSoxGal]

'Trump is killing his own supporters' – even White House insiders know it
Lloyd Green

A plague is raging and the president is leaving the heartlands and blue-collar voters exposed. This could be the endgame

Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.07 EDT Last modified on Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.32 EDT

On Sunday, initially at least, there was no White House briefing on the president’s public schedule. But the bad news kept coming. Coronavirus deaths continued to climb and reports of the heartland being unprepared for what may be on its horizon continued to ricochet around the media.

In the words of one administration insider, to the Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.”

Members of the national guard, emergency workers, rank-and-file Americans: all are exposed. Yet Trump appears incapable of emoting anything that comes close to heart-felt concern. Or just providing straight answers.

Rather, he is acting like Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America: repeatedly letting governors know the burden of shoring up their sick, their doctors and their people falls on their shoulders first. The national government? It’s the world’s greatest backstop.

Remember when the Republican party freaked out about Barack Obama and the US “leading from behind” abroad? Remember the howls that evoked from GOP leaders? Those days are gone. Welcome to what Martin O’Malley, a Democratic former governor of Maryland, calls the “Darwinian approach to federalism”.

There is nothing like populism marinated in wholesale contempt for the populace.
Trump is telling NFL owners he wants the season to start on time. He is disregarding Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice on wearing facemasks in public. And he is touting untested coronavirus cures live on national TV.

Think Trump University on steroids, only this time we all stand to be the victims.

When Dr Anthony Fauci says there is no evidence to back up Trump’s claims surrounding hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, pay attention. The fact Jared Kushner is on the case is hardly reassuring. He’s the guy who thought firing James Comey was win-win politics and promised Middle East peace in our time.

While all this is going on, the Wisconsin Republican party is giving America a taste of the campaign to come in the fall. Right now, the Badger State GOP is fighting in the US supreme court efforts to extend mail-in voting for this Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

In other words, voters will be forced to choose between foregoing their rights and risking their lives. Democracy shouldn’t work that way.

Back in the day, Republicans looked upon absentee voting as a valuable adjunct, a key piece in the party’s election day arsenal. Not anymore. Instead it is a dreaded foe, a fact readily admitted by Trump on Fox & Friends this week. If the US were to adopt mail-in voting, said the president, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again”.

For good measure, Trump later declared from the White House: “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting.”

For the record, Trump voted by mail in 2018. In March, the Palm Beach Post reported that he had requested a mail-in vote for the Florida Republican primary.

There is nothing like populism marinated in wholesale contempt for the populace. In case Trump and the Republicans forgot, “We the People” are the constitution’s first three words.

If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe.

Sadly, once again we are reminded that Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s masterpiece, Gladiator, is the movie for this presidency and its tumultuous times. In one scene, a senator, Gracchus, attempts to confront Commodus, the emperor, about a plague spreading through Rome. The emperor declines, threatens the senator and muses about disbanding the Senate.

On Thursday, Trump forced the removal of Captain Brett Crozier from his command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, for having the temerity to plead his sailors’ case as more than 100 of them tested positive for coronavirus.

If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe, no matter what Jeanine Pirro may say. Crozier left the ship to the cheers of the crew – then reportedly tested positive himself.

Hours after dismissing Crozier, Trump sacked Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, for simply doing his job. Trump’s Ukraine call was never perfect, however many times he says it was.

To Donald Trump, coronavirus is just one more chance for a power grab

Hail Caesar, indeed.

Whether Trump wins reelection is an open question. For now, the economy is cratering and the coronavirus death toll has exploded. Not a promising combination. Herbert Hoover faced a depression, not a plague. Trump may contend with both.

According to Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor and the man who sent Charlie Kushner, Jared’s father, to prison, November will be a referendum on Trump. Joe Biden is nearly irrelevant.

For the moment, Trump holds a commanding lead among Republicans. Seven months from now, we will learn if party loyalty is enough to secure a second term.

[ex-khobar Andy]

On Thursday, Trump forced the removal of Captain Brett Crozier from his command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, for having the temerity to plead his sailors’ case as more than 100 of them tested positive for coronavirus.

If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe, no matter what Jeanine Pirro may say. Crozier left the ship to the cheers of the crew – then reportedly tested positive himself.

According to the Navy Times, Theodore Roosevelt himself wrote a very similar letter when his Rough Riders were beset by malaria and yellow fever and he wanted then pulled out of Cuba. The letter was leaked to AP - by some accounts by TR himself- and McKinley requested that "“every possible effort [be] made to ascertain the name of the person responsible for its publication.” An interesting read.

[Bicycle Bill]

'Trump is killing his own supporters' – even White House insiders know it
Lloyd Green

A plague is raging and the president is leaving the heartlands and blue-collar voters exposed. This could be the endgame

Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.07 EDT Last modified on Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.32 EDT
(excerpt)
While all this is going on, the Wisconsin Republican party is giving America a taste of the campaign to come in the fall. Right now, the Badger State GOP is fighting in the US supreme court efforts to extend mail-in voting for this Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

In other words, voters will be forced to choose between foregoing their rights and risking their lives. Democracy shouldn’t work that way.

Back in the day, Republicans looked upon absentee voting as a valuable adjunct, a key piece in the party’s election day arsenal. Not anymore. Instead it is a dreaded foe, a fact readily admitted by Trump on Fox & Friends this week. If the US were to adopt mail-in voting, said the president, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again”.

For good measure, Trump later declared from the White House: “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting.”

For the record, Trump voted by mail in 2018. In March, the Palm Beach Post reported that he had requested a mail-in vote for the Florida Republican primary.

There is nothing like populism marinated in wholesale contempt for the populace. In case Trump and the Republicans forgot, “We the People” are the constitution’s first three words.

If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe.

Sadly, once again we are reminded that Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s masterpiece, Gladiator, is the movie for this presidency and its tumultuous times. In one scene, a senator, Gracchus, attempts to confront Commodus, the emperor, about a plague spreading through Rome. The emperor declines, threatens the senator and muses about disbanding the Senate.

On Thursday, Trump forced the removal of Captain Brett Crozier from his command of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, for having the temerity to plead his sailors’ case as more than 100 of them tested positive for coronavirus.

If you can leave your soldiers to suffer then no American is truly safe, no matter what Jeanine Pirro may say. Crozier left the ship to the cheers of the crew – then reportedly tested positive himself.

Hours after dismissing Crozier, Trump sacked Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, for simply doing his job. Trump’s Ukraine call was never perfect, however many times he says it was.

To Donald Trump, coronavirus is just one more chance for a power grab

Hail Caesar, indeed.

Whether Trump wins reelection is an open question. For now, the economy is cratering and the coronavirus death toll has exploded. Not a promising combination. Herbert Hoover faced a depression, not a plague. Trump may contend with both.

According to Chris Christie, a former New Jersey governor and the man who sent Charlie Kushner, Jared’s father, to prison, November will be a referendum on Trump. Joe Biden is nearly irrelevant.

For the moment, Trump holds a commanding lead among Republicans. Seven months from now, we will learn if party loyalty is enough to secure a second term.

[Bicycle Bill]

'Trump is killing his own supporters' – even White House insiders know it
Lloyd Green

A plague is raging and the president is leaving the heartlands and blue-collar voters exposed. This could be the endgame

Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.07 EDT Last modified on Sun 5 Apr 2020 17.32 EDT

(excerpt)
While all this is going on, the Wisconsin Republican party is giving America a taste of the campaign to come in the fall. Right now, the Badger State GOP is fighting in the US supreme court efforts to extend mail-in voting for this Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

In other words, voters will be forced to choose between foregoing their rights and risking their lives. Democracy shouldn’t work that way.

Just a note from this board's member from the Badger State — Governor Evers of Wisconsin issued an executive order today postponing the Wisconsin spring primary, scheduled for tomorrow (4/8).  It took the Wisconsin Supreme Court a matter of minutes to overturn that order, letting tomorrow's election go on as scheduled even in the middle of a state-wide "stay-at-home" order.  In another decision that also followed along strictly partisan lines, the conservative-packed US Supreme Court also blocked an extension of the mail-in vote.  As of now, all absentee ballots must be postmarked no later than April 7th in order to be counted.

As for me, I'm going to go vote in person tomorrow.  Not because I'm trying to prove a point or show my disregard for the stay-at-home order, but because I hadn't changed my registration to my new address in time to be able to get an absentee ballot.  And as little as three weeks ago, who would have thought I would be needing one?

-"BB"-

[Econoline]

I just posted this in a different thread.

Stay safe up there, Bill. (We're gonna need your vote in November!)

[eddieq]

Interesting. I got on DJ's email spam list (a LOT of spam daily - he is desperate and I get messages from his campaign, his daughter, his son, etc. multiple times a day. Thank God for gmail filters).

Anyway, one of the spams from yesterday encouraged me to get a mail in ballot so I could be sure to vote in PA's primary. I am registered "R", so perhaps that's one of the reasons he is encouraging me to vote. Although in the same day, I get multiple, "President Trump has been officially named the presumptive nominee" spam messages. I always read that and wonder how many morons will be like, "oh, yeah. It's official. MAGA". Of course, there is no way he's being "primaried" so he'll be on the ballot come November. Just another chance for me to vote for whomever is put up against him. I'll vote for a soap dish at this point. At least that is useful.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Interesting. I got on DJ's email spam list (a LOT of spam daily - he is desperate and I get messages from his campaign, his daughter, his son, etc. multiple times a day. Thank God for gmail filters).

I know the feeling. I pissed off someone (or two) on FB and they signed me up for 'em (I guess).

[MajGenl.Meade]

The two faces of a Stable Janus (although why we need the 'J' I don't know):

Saturday: "The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place. That's not appropriate...I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter...Perhaps you don't do that [port call in Da Nang) in the middle of a pandemic. History would say you don't necessarily stop and let your sailors get off"

NOTE: The call was authorized by Admiral Philip Davidson

Tuesday: "The letter shouldn't have been sent. But all of that said, his career prior to that was very good, so I'm going to get involved and see exactly what's going on there because I don't want to destroy somebody for having a bad day."

Trump changes his mouth. I'd say 'mind' but he doesn't have one

[eddieq]

He uses the phrase, "People are saying..." often. It's just the voices in his head.