It's Trump V. Trump On Munitions

 

As the war of choice with Iran continues, there's a dispute as to whether the U.S. is short on munitions.  Let's see what the two sides are saying:

US President Donald Trump clashed with his defense secretary last week, accusing Pete Hegseth of misleading the White House about the state of American munitions stockpiles amid a potential return to major combat operations in Iran, according to a Wednesday report.

The exchange took place at Camp David, The Washington Post reported, on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting. According to the report, which cited two people familiar with the exchange, Trump told Hegseth he thought the problem – a shortage of long-range and interceptor missiles – “had been fixed.”

CNN reported Wednesday that the US military has used up close to 80 percent of its interceptors for the THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system and approximately 50% of its Patriot interceptors, leaving the supply of those munitions “dangerously low.”

When confronted about the problem, Hegseth punted the blame to his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, the Post report said...

So, the Malignant Fascist is angry that he wasn't told about munitions being "dangerously low."  But then this fella Donald J. Trump tells a different story in the wee hours this morning:

The Team of Rivals Team of Blame-Shifting Clowns would be our choice as to where to begin the hunt for the "treasonous statements" that were the subject of a Camp David meeting about a "dangerous" shortage of munitions that the Malignant Fascist got BIG MAD about being low and heads will roll!...blah blah.

The point of this is that the Malignant Fascist's on-going bluffing about "massive amounts of 'munitions'" was exposed by the reporting.  He must believe the rest of the world didn't already know about that (most certainly his far more clever foes in Tehran did), and that his bluff and bluster is effective, not the source of grim amusement.  Our emperor has no clothes, or munitions, either.

QOTD -- Tanking

 

"... There is one exception to the general rule that presidents don’t have much control over gas prices: Donald Trump. He can’t bring them down, but he certainly sent them up.  [snip]

"There aren’t going to be too many voters who call themselves MAGA and will vote for Democrats because Trump made gas prices go up. But Democrats don’t need them to. It’s enough if the persuadable voters who believed Trump when he told them that he’d bring down the price of everything — including gas — are mad that he broke his promise and decide to send him and his party a message.

"In fact, if the Iran war drags on and gas prices stay high, this could wind up being as decisive a campaign issue as Trump’s misbegotten tariffs, his parade of idiotic construction projects, his rampaging incompetence, or his boundless corruption.

"Of all the ways a president could tank his political standing and sabotage his party’s chances of success in an upcoming election, few are as straightforward as directly causing an increase in the price of gasoline at the pump. Yet Trump has managed it. He truly is a president like no other." --  Paul Waldman, "Public Notice" Substack, on "Why Trump deserves all the blame for high gas prices."  Waldman notes that many experts believe if the  Malignant Fascist's bungled war with Iran doesn't end soon (and what would Iran's incentive be for that to happen?) gas prices could remain high for a prolonged period.  Elect clowns ...

 

Trump's "Meritocracy"

 

ICYMI, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart covers a range of topics starting with "Cankles Muldoon's" photobombing Spain's World Cup celebration, last week's bullshit gaslighting on election security, the explosive diarrhea outbreak that was un-monitored by the incompetent regime, along with many other examples of Trump's clown car "meritocracy" -- Whiskey Pete Hegseth's testosterone testing, Bobby "Brainworm" Kennedy making America un-healthy again (Stewart eviscerates this particular clown), and more.   A great puncturing of the anti-DEI balloon.

Trump's $20 Billion Firing

 

Tariffs, DOGE cuts, the Iran War, tax cuts for the rich, cuts to affordable health care. We've already seen the costs of the blunders in economic and human terms.  That's not even including the cost of the Malignant Fascist's graft.

But specific consequences of the incompetence of the Malignant Fascist and his clown car of fascist flunkies aren't always known in a timely manner, if they become known at all.  They're often superseded by the daily outrage, or by distractions thrown into the media environment, or simply covered up.  But sometimes when such a consequence becomes public, the sheer, senseless self- sabotaging shocks.  This is one of those instances:

Last year, President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of ousting Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after alleging economic data was being "rigged" without evidence. Now, research suggests Trump's move packed a punch against the U.S. economy.

A new analysis published ... in the Center for Economic and Policy Research from four economists indicates that the U.S. economy took a $20 billion hit in lost economic activity due to Trump's firing of McEntarfer last August. The analysis attributed the figure to a "sharp increase" in policy uncertainty that depressed economic activity since businesses operating in a cloudy landscape tend to pause investment decisions. 

"The estimate is necessarily imprecise, but the broader implication is clear: trustworthy federal statistics are valuable economic infrastructure," the quartet of economists wrote in the blog post, adding that the finding was "particularly relevant for democracies" managing top-tier statistical agencies to measure economic development.

The analysis was authored by Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economist; Erica Groshen, an ex-BLS commissioner; Duncan Hobbs, a senior research associate at the  American Enterprise Institute; and Michael Strain, another AEI economist.

They applied a statistical model previously used to measure the economic impact of uncertainty during the 2008 financial crisis and the pandemic. They calculated the impact to total $20 billion in lost output.

The group argued that preserving independent economic data is critical for the US economic growth since reliable statistics allow consumers and businesses to make their financial decisions with having to fly blind.

"Protecting the credibility, independence, and technical capacity of federal statistical agencies is therefore not merely an administrative concern," they wrote. "It is a consequential economic one."...  (our emphasis)

Twenty billion dollars.  

Now that the illegitimate Republican Supreme Court has ruled that the MF can fire executive branch officials at will for no cause (Trump v Slaughter), who knows what other ill-advised, intemperate firings by the Malignant Fascist will cause significant damage of one sort or another.  He's incompetent, but he's quite proficient at doing damage to our country, isn't he.

(Photo:  Erika McEntarfer, the $20 billion firee / BLS)

Trump Mad He Was Left Out Of Dictator Parade

 

Strategic genius and budding dictator Malignant Fascist, who recently used tariffs to drive India further into the arms of war criminal Putin and Xi because Prime Minister Modi wouldn't nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize (!!), had to endure more fruits of his incompetence with this spectacle yesterday in Beijing:

Xi Jinping staged a staggering show of China’s military power on Wednesday before some of the world’s most powerful authoritarian leaders, rallying them behind his vision for a new world order as US President Donald Trump wages a global trade war and shakes up American alliances.

From atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, Xi presided over a 70-minute parade to mark the end of World War II – flanked by a strongman waging Europe’s bloodiest conflict since 1945 and an Asian leader funneling him troops and weapons.

To many in the West, the defining image of the spectacle is not the parade of stealth fighter jets, nuclear-capable missiles or troops marching in perfect synchrony – but the sight of Xi, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un standing side by side, in an unprecedented show of solidarity against the US and its allies.

They formed the defiant face of a growing bloc of illiberal leaders determined to push back against Western rules and tilt the global balance of power in their favor. [snip]

The deliberate display of unity is a pointed rebuke to Trump’s faltering attempt to end Russia’s war in Ukraine – and an open challenge to America’s waning global leadership under the US president.  (our emphasis)

If the intention was for the narcissistic, fragile MF to be meant to feel left out of the gathering of authoritarians, well:

That message has seemingly been received by Trump, who wrote on Truth Social as the parade was underway: “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.”  

Putin, of course, was quick to troll his jealous Agent Krasnov:

Putin responded during a Wednesday news conference in Beijing, saying “the US president does not lack a sense of humor,” adding that none of the world leaders who joined the summit in China “expressed negative judgments about the current US administration.” 

Ouch!  Nothing stings so much as the rebuke of a lover!

Meanwhile, here are are the three tyrants greeting WWII veterans:

You can see the full 2-hour parade here, if you're of a mind.

America First = America Alone = America Weak.

(Cartoon: Morten Morland / The Times, UK;  photo: screenshot via AP)

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/op eds.

Robin Givhan has a beautiful essay in the Washington Post, saying what so many of us feel now.  Here's a small sample:

"As the country waited for ballots to be counted, it was Biden — not the occupant of the Oval Office — who was reassuring people that this democracy was intact, that the system was working and that the center would hold. He was the voice of calm optimism in the midst of tumultuous times.

"When he became president-elect late Saturday morning, he did something far more herculean than accepting responsibility for a worsening pandemic and a struggling economy. He removed a terrible, suffocating weight from the back of this nation. For the more than 74 million Americans who voted for him — and surely even for some of those who did not — Biden’s election allowed this country to laugh, to dance and to breathe. He cracked open a space where the light could shine through. Indeed, his victory caused people to weep in joyful relief as they became aware of the heaviness that had afflicted their hearts, after they’d suddenly been relieved of it." 

Tim Alberta, in a long piece about "the election that broke the Republican Party," includes one facet of the election where a cowering party that was lashed to their cult leader's incompetence paid for it painfully:

Did we really think the president worked so diligently these past eight months to create an environment conducive to allegations of mass voter fraud, only to stop short of alleging mass voter fraud? Of course not. Even if the president had been swept in every swing state, and by big margins, he was always going to cry foul. That he lost such close contests — and lost them in a style so unfamiliar to so many voters — only made his reaction all the more inevitable. [snip]

To recap: The president scared his own voters away from voting by mail, resulting in lopsided Democratic margins when those ballots were counted; and Republican lawmakers in several key states refused to allow those ballots to be counted early, resulting in delays that created an early mirage of the president winning because the votes tallied first were those most favorable to him. Trump has good reason to resent those mail votes: They made the ballot box more accessible; they created the illusion that victory was possible; then they shattered that illusion in agonizing fashion, every incremental dump of returns amounting to a slow twist of the knife.

Fact:

 

Joe Biden will be the 1st candidate to win 51% of the vote against an incumbent president since... FDR.

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) November 8, 2020

 

Meanwhile, on the pandemic front,

The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.

The grim milestone came on the same day as global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million.

The United states has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first novel coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.

The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday and has reported over 100,000 infections five times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.

The U.S. latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases, ramped up by at least 29%, is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst affected countries in Asia and Europe.

Some good news, however, that's sure to amp up COVID Donnie's paranoia about the pandemic being used as a political tool against him:

Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective. 

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

You may recall that Der Spiegel cover from 2017, with COVID Donnie holding the head of Lady Liberty that he'd just severed?  Here's their update:

German Der Spiegel’s take on outcome of #USElection2020 on right below.
Trump cover from 2017. pic.twitter.com/qTkCXVx7CK

— Theresa Fallon (@TheresaAFallon) November 7, 2020

 

If you haven't already been there -- first, shame on you! Now you can redeem yourself by going right to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best collection of links to interesting, informative, stimulating posts from around the Internet.

"It Did Not Have To Happen This Way"

The Washington Post has a must -read front page feature article this morning about the failures of the Trump regime, and particularly of Donald "Moron Vector" Trump himself, in recognizing and mitigating the danger of COVID-19.  The article is a devastating indictment of the inaction and bungling of the Trump regime in the crucial two months between when Moron Vector was first briefed on the danger by our intelligence agencies and when he dubbed himself a "wartime president."  If you read nothing else today, please read it.

Here's a small sampling to give you a sense of the article's unflinching critique:

... the United States will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up catastrophically overmatched by the novel coronavirus, sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation.

It did not have to happen this way. Though not perfectly prepared, the United States had more expertise, resources, plans and epidemiological experience than dozens of countries that ultimately fared far better in fending off the virus.

____________________

The Trump administration received its first formal notification of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China on Jan. 3. Within days, U.S. spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat to Trump by including a warning about the coronavirus — the first of many — in the President’s Daily Brief.

And yet, it took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus not as a distant threat or harmless flu strain well under control, but as a lethal force that had outflanked America’s defenses and was poised to kill tens of thousands of citizens. That more-than-two-month stretch now stands as critical time that was squandered.

____________________

The most consequential failure involved a breakdown in efforts to develop a diagnostic test that could be mass produced and distributed across the United States, enabling agencies to map early outbreaks of the disease, and impose quarantine measures to contain them.  [snip]

Other failures cascaded through the system. The administration often seemed weeks behind the curve in reacting to the viral spread, closing doors that were already contaminated. Protracted arguments between the White House and public health agencies over funding, combined with a meager existing stockpile of emergency supplies, left vast stretches of the country’s health-care system without protective gear until the outbreak had become a pandemic. Infighting, turf wars and abrupt leadership changes hobbled the work of the coronavirus task force.

 ____________________

Beyond the suffering in store for thousands of victims and their families, the outcome has altered the international standing of the United States, damaging and diminishing its reputation as a global leader in times of extraordinary adversity.

“This has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent,” said Gregory F. Treverton, a former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, the government’s senior-most provider of intelligence analysis. He stepped down from the NIC in January 2017 and now teaches at the University of Southern California. “That was part of our global role. Traditional friends and allies looked to us because they thought we could be competently called upon to work with them in a crisis. This has been the opposite of that.”

____________________

In reality, many of the failures to stem the coronavirus outbreak in the United States were either a result of, or exacerbated by, his leadership.

For weeks, he had barely uttered a word about the crisis that didn’t downplay its severity or propagate demonstrably false information. He dismissed the warnings of intelligence officials and top public health officials in his administration.

At times, he voiced far more authentic concern about the trajectory of the stock market than the spread of the virus in the United States, railing at the chairman of the Federal Reserve and others with an intensity that he never seemed to exhibit about the possible human toll of the outbreak.

In March, as state after state imposed sweeping new restrictions on their citizens’ daily lives to protect them — triggering severe shudders in the economy — Trump second-guessed the lockdowns.

These snippets only scratch the surface of this well- researched, deep dive into the incompetence that has been a hallmark of Moron Vector and his regime of 4th- raters since the beginning.  This time, the results of that basic incompetence is costing the lives of Americans in a very graphic and transparent way.

At 8 a.m. EDT, there are over 311,000 confirmed cases and 8,454 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. Those numbers are rising by the minute.

It did not have to happen this way.

(Photo: Moron Vector taking a late February victory lap on the risk to Americans being "very low." How did that work out for ya',  Moron Vector?)

Fools, Gougers And Pirates

The disordered, sociopathic, criminal mind of Donald "Moron Vector" Trump is now fully reflected in his regime's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Exhibit A is the tasking of failson- in- law Jared Kushner as overseer of the response, who quickly made it clear he knew nothing about how strategic stockpiles are supposed to work (but plenty about how gaslighting does):

The website of the Strategic National Stockpile was edited on Friday to soften language about how the stockpile is supposed to be used by states -- a day after media outlets reported that the original version contradicted a claim by senior White House official Jared Kushner.

Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, said at Thursday's coronavirus briefing that states themselves have medical equipment stockpiled -- and argued that "the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile; it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."

Journalists and others quickly pointed out that the federal stockpile's own website made clear Kushner was wrong. (our emphasis)

The language in the website was scrubbed to reshape the stockpile as "a short-term stopgap buffer" for states, presumably after they've exhausted their resources and precious time bidding against each other for critical supplies, and for governors still willing to kiss Moron Vector's ass. After successfully bringing peace to the Middle East, Kushner will doubtless play the same inept, counterproductive role as a coordinator of federal disaster relief in this pandemic.  But at least he's on the same page as Moron Vector:

"By the way, the states should have been building their stockpile. We have almost 10,000 (ventilators) in our stockpile. And we've been building it, and we've been supplying it. But the states should be building. We're a backup. We're not an ordering clerk. We're a backup," Trump said Thursday.

"Our stockpile," my ass. These aren't Kushner's or Moron Vector's stockpiles to divvy up among favored Republican governors or states, or for some other, even more grotesque backroom dealing.

Exhibit B is the "Lord of the Flies" competition Moron Vector's bizarre policy is creating:

The effects of this situation have found states in bidding wars amongst each other and the federal government to get critical medical supplies. New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been an outspoken critic of the situation saying, “This is not the way to do it, this is ad hoc, I'm competing with other states, I'm bidding up other states on the prices.” [snip]

Similarly, Kentucky Governor, Andy Beshear, admitted that his state lost out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency when bidding to get protective equipment saying, “It is a challenge. The federal government says ‘states, you need to go find your supply chain’ and then the federal government ends up buying from that supply chain.” [snip]

The effects of these bidding wars are damaging to all parties involve, but they leave poorer rural states without options when they are forced to compete with the federal government and states that have more financial resources... 

So, what's happening is that the Moron Vector regime is using our tax dollars to bid against states to procure medical supplies, then turning over the supplies it's purchased to private distribution companies, who then sell those supplies at inflated prices to the highest state bidders.  That's a slow, inefficient system that's also perfect for kickbacks quid pro quo. Sounds Trumpian, all right.

But, as they say, that's not all.

Exhibit C brings us another example of Moron Vector's contempt for our allies and international law. In his panic to make up for months of criminal indifference to the pandemic, Moron Vector is making our country a pirate nation:

German officials on Friday were stinging in their criticism of the Trump administration after a consignment of face masks that they said was ordered and paid for by the Berlin police was diverted en route from China.  Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s interior minister, said the delivery made it as far as Bangkok before being “confiscated.”

In a statement, he said he couldn’t provide further details of what happened at the airport but “we are currently assuming that this is related to the U.S. government’s ban on mask exports.”

“We consider this an act of modern piracy,” he said, calling on the United States to “comply with international rules.” “This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners. Even in times of global crisis, wild west methods shouldn’t rule.

It's not just Germany.  Officials in France and Brazil have complained about purchases they thought they'd made, only to be told the deals "fell through" due to U.S. outbidding them.

So, instead of international cooperation to save lives and fight a pandemic that knows no borders, Moron Vector's out there doing his best to exacerbate the problem and make us even more of a villain in the world's eyes than he's already done.  And those supplies he's "pirated"?  They're sure to go to the stockpile he thinks is his and Jared's, only to have them enter into the bidding process noted in Exhibit B, above.

If the stakes weren't so high, this could be shrugged off as just more shady dealing by the most corrupt, criminal administration in American history.  But lives are at stake, and evil things are being done in our name.

BONUS:  On a lighter note, satirist Andy Borowitz informs us that the National Incompetence Stockpile is at full capacity.

Vid Of The Day: "Playing The Villain"

Mother Jones put together this video comparing existential threat Donald "Moron Vector" Trump's coronavirus response to actions of disaster movie villains.  Life imitating art.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

In case you missed the latest blame- shifting and conspiracy- mongering by the Golden Turd:

President Donald Trump went off on a rant accusing hospitals, doctors and nurses of hoarding equipment and intentionally exaggerating the things they need.

Speaking in the Rose Garden Sunday, Trump asked, “How do you go from 10 to 20 to 300,000 masks? Where are the masks going, are they going out the backdoor?”

Indeed, the masks are going in the trash after they’re used. The masks are one-use masks, which Trump said he wants to be able to sanitize them so people can reuse them.

“They have to look into that in New York,” Trump said, noting that he heard they went from 10,000 masks to 300,000 masks. 

“I don’t think it’s hoarding, it’s maybe worse than hoarding,” Trump said.

The crooked cheater is projecting again, suggesting that the most heroic, selfless people in our communities are crooks and cheaters like him.  ER doctor and Executive Director of Committee to Protect Medicare Rob Davidson:

Accusing heroic healthcare workers in NYC of stealing #PPE and #ventilators is an all-time low from @realDonaldTrump. They deserve our praise, and they get slapped in the face from this pitiful man. They give more of themselves in one shift than he could give in 1000 lifetimes.

— Dr. Rob Davidson (@DrRobDavidson) March 29, 2020

As the death toll relentlessly climbs, Golden Turd can't help but give himself a pat on the back should we "only" lose under 200,000 lives:

Anthony S. Fauci, the White House adviser, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that models suggest the virus could cause between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths and that millions of people could be infected. But he stressed that the 200,000 figure was a worst-case estimate that is unlikely to come to pass.

In the Rose Garden on Sunday, Trump compared those numbers favorably with the more than 2 million deaths forecast as a worst-case scenario had the nation not taken strict measures to respond to the virus. If coronavirus-related deaths remained under 200,000, he said, “we all together have done a very good job.”

Spoken like a true sociopath who ignored the health experts, dragged his feet, and placed more value on "the markets" than on human life.

Meanwhile, let's get into the Wayback Machine to remind the Golden Turd about how his regime bungled the medical supply issue from the get go:

The U.S. State Department shipped 17.8 million tons of donated coronavirus medical supplies to China seven weeks ago, when health experts and some American lawmakers were already seeking federal action to prepare the country for the disease.

The massive shipment to China included medical masks, gowns and respirators, now in desperately short supply across America. The supplies were contributed by American companies and nonprofits, according to a U.S. Agency for International Development official.

Maybe should have checked our own stockpiles first? Nah, too competent!

Let's stick with the State Department, run by odious toady Mike "Pompous" Pompeo. Here's  Jackson Diehl on some of what Pompeo has been doing to weaken what's left of our standing in the world:

Let’s recall how the U.S. secretary of state has historically behaved at a time of grave international crisis: circling the globe (at least telephonically); formulating a coherent multilateral response; and lining up nations behind it — starting with America’s closest allies.

Now, consider how Mike Pompeo spent his time last week, as cases of covid-19 soared in the United States and numerous other countries. He kicked off Monday by indulging in a pointless war of words with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whom he accused of lying about the country’s grave coronavirus outbreak. [snip]

On Wednesday, Pompeo had an opportunity to lead when foreign ministers of the Group of Seven convened by telephone. James A. Baker III, George Shultz or Madeleine Albright would have emerged with a clear statement of purpose by the world’s leading democracies — perhaps a commitment to aiding the poor nations and refugees that face devastation by the new disease.

Instead, Pompeo blocked the G-7 from issuing any communique after the other ministers sensibly refused to go along with his petty insistence that it refer to the “Wuhan virus.” The message he sent was clear: Scoring a rhetorical point against Beijing is more important to this U.S. administration than forging a consensus with Britain, France, Germany and other close allies.

For all the evidence of Golden Turd's incompetence, vindictiveness and evil you won't ever see on any of the national network news evening broadcasts (they're failing even more spectacularly than they did in 2016), Digby has the lowlights of his latest "briefing."

As we usually do, we highly recommend you visit Infidel 753's link round-up for a much more comprehensive view of what's going on all over the world.  Go!

Trump: New York Doesn't Need More Ventilators! (UPDATED)

He's going to have more blood on his hands, because “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be”:

TRUMP on New York’s ventilator needs for the coronavirus outbreak:

"I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes, they'll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they're saying can we order 30,000 ventilators?" pic.twitter.com/WMuOlkaGZk

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 27, 2020

In the recording, he always comes back to what's most important to him, being able to point to the stock market and the economy as a rationale for his re- election.  To that end:

We haven’t seen anything like it, but the end result is we’ve got to get back to work, and I think we can start by opening up certain parts of the country.

That's what you get when the phone rings at 3 a.m., and the person answering it is an ignorant, childish, narcissistic sociopath. (Note: A commenter makes a good point about how ventilators are being parceled out as they are.)

(This is also another Trump quote that will end up in a Democratic ad using his own words as evidence of his incompetence and culpability for lives lost unnecessarily.)

UPDATE:  Apparently he's telling Michigan they're on their own, too.  Pure, evil sociopath.

UPDATE II:  The Moron Vector continues to flip flop.  Maybe these would've been destined only for red states --

Just over 12 hours ago Trump told Hannity that "I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators.” Now he’s reversed course. He’s totally incoherent. https://t.co/hIJI8PnAem

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2020

UPDATE III:  Someone who would know calls out Moron Vector's claims --

According to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Trump isn't even talking to the auto industry and helping them manage the production of PPE and equipment. pic.twitter.com/U4QlbLvpiD

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 27, 2020

COVID-19 Cases Accelerate As Trump Considers Backsliding

The deeply ignorant, mercurial Man Baby currently posing as President considers lifting social distancing guidelines ... a dangerous and catastrophic move at precisely the wrong time.  Would could've predicted?

A surge of infections across the United States that has seen a tripling in the number of coronavirus cases could make the country the world’s next outbreak hot spot, World Health Organization spokeswoman Margaret Harris said on Tuesday.

“We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential,” she said, according to Reuters.

The United States has more than 46,500 positive cases of coronavirus, though experts believe there to be more. Only China and Italy have recorded more cases, according to Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.

It should be obvious to all but the most devoted red hat cultists that it would be a "catastrophically bad" idea to lift distancing guidelines just as the number of cases is rising exponentially:

We are engaged in an effort of social distancing—physically separating ourselves from one another. This is hard, and nearly everyone wants to know when we can stop. Beyond being personally painful, these actions take a massive economic toll: millions of lost jobs, billions if not trillions of dollars of wealth wiped away. It is tempting, at this point, to say that the cure is worse than the disease.

It isn’t. While the cure has large side effects, the disease is worse. [snip]

...[S]ome leaders are already losing their nerve. People without medical or public-health expertise are questioning whether physical distancing is worth it. They’re wondering whether it might be better to let this disease just run its course.

That’s a catastrophically bad idea. The human cost would be devastating, and the economic toll from that devastation might be even steeper than what we’re seeing right now. It’s hard for people to understand just how bad an unchecked pandemic could be. More people could die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in just a few months than have died in every single war this country has fought since its inception. Such devastation would shut down our hospitals and the entire health-care system. Tens of thousands of doctors and nurses and other health-care professionals would likely get sick. The ripple effects on finances, and on human lives, would be massive and uncontrolled.

Meanwhile, the narcissist- in- chief is monopolizing the airwaves, spreading lies and deadly ideas in his nightly news conferences ego- stroking sessions (held after the markets close to avoid selloffs). Dr. Anthony Fauci has missed the last few of these evening sessions, exhausted no doubt by the prospect of stepping in to correct the nonsense the big turd is constantly blabbing. The effect of the timing of this is that the portion of the country in the time zones that would normally have network news during that time have been having that news preempted, shutting down a source of information about the spread of the virus and what leaders at the state and local levels are doing in the void created by Trump's cluelessness and inaction.  Purely coincidental, of course.

Tweets Of The Day

First, some context.

Look who existential threat Donald "Moron Vector" Trump is taking his coronavirus policy lead from:

Fox News host Steve Hilton blasted “our ruling class and their TV mouthpieces whipping up fear” over the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday and warned that a recession due to shutdowns could be deadly.

Donald Trump seemed to be watching. Soon after the segment aired, the president fired off an all-caps tweet repeating some of Hilton’s talking points.

Here's what Hilton said:

“Our ruling class and their TV mouthpieces whipping up fear over this virus, they can afford an indefinite shutdown. Working Americans can’t, they’ll be crushed by it. You know that famous phrase, ‘The cure is worse than the disease?’ That is exactly the territory we are hurting towards.”

Here's what Moron Vector tweeted shortly after (note time stamp):

WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020

The fool, through his lizard brain fear of the consequences of his incompetence, will convince many of his drooling cultists that they don't need to self- quarantine and can get back to work.

The twitterverse responds:

The good news is that Trump doesn't have the power to lift the quarantines (it's handled by governors and mayors).  Even Republican governors will be reluctant to do this. The bad news is if Trump goes anti-quarantine his many supporters will listen to him.

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 23, 2020

The president is signaling that after 15 days he wants to “isolate the high-risk groups” and tell everyone else to go back to work — based on a recommendation from a Twitter rando and in direct contravention to public health experts. pic.twitter.com/v68EQ8EYd4

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 23, 2020

Remember--the people of America never mattered to Trump.  Haven't since he took office.  He cares only about his re-election, his wallet and his status with his cronies.  Those things drive his policies and explain his many errors.  They are demanding America go back to work now. https://t.co/5Z7rI6ohUq

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) March 23, 2020

Thank God this lunatic doesn't have any power, right? pic.twitter.com/wIdblrVCG0

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 23, 2020

Meanwhile, Moron Vector continues to heed the advice of numbnuts his experts on coronavirus:

Trump, getting more explicit, has now retweeted posts calling for everyone outside “high risk groups” to go back to work in early April to avoid economic damage: pic.twitter.com/orlPftTwbh

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 23, 2020

Trump Ignored 2019 Pandemic Report

Mentally unfit sociopath and pathological liar Donald "Moron Vector" Trump and his cohort are furiously gaslighting us on their lack of preparedness for the COVID-19 outbreak, when in fact an exercise called "Crimson Contagion" in 2019 simulated a flu pandemic and demonstrated how unprepared the country was. He and his senior officials ignored the findings:

"Asked at his news briefing on Thursday about the government’s preparedness, Mr. Trump responded: 'Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before.'

The work done over the past five years, however, demonstrates that the government had considerable knowledge about the risks of a pandemic and accurately predicted the very types of problems Mr. Trump is now scrambling belatedly to address.

Crimson Contagion, the exercise conducted last year in Washington and 12 states including New York and Illinois, showed that federal agencies under Mr. Trump continued the Obama-era effort to think ahead about a pandemic.

But the planning and thinking happened many layers down in the bureaucracy. The knowledge and sense of urgency about the peril appear never to have gotten sufficient attention at the highest level of the executive branch or from Congress, leaving the nation with funding shortfalls, equipment shortages and disorganization within and among various branches and levels of government.

The October 2019 report in particular documents that officials at the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and even at the White House’s National Security Council, were aware of the potential for a respiratory virus outbreak originating in China to spread quickly to the United States and overwhelm the nation.

“Nobody ever thought of numbers like this,’’ Mr. Trump said on Wednesday, at a news conference.

In fact, they had." (our emphasis)

Our earlier post links to the disturbing news that Trump's gaslighting, aided by many in the broken Beltway media who are desperately trying to make a President out of him, is starting to succeed in the polls. It's essential that his lies and distractions be called out in real time, not after he's moved on to others.

BONUS: Also --

“Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were — they just couldn't get him to do anything about it,” this official said. “The system was blinking red.” https://t.co/LTmZmxNz79

— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) March 21, 2020

  

Giant Toddler Offered Gun, Decides To Use It

There are apparently some dim- witted officials at the Pentagon who haven't been observing how unstable moron Donald "Rump" Trump makes decisions:

In the chaotic days leading to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s most powerful commander, top American military officials put the option of killing him — which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq — on the menu they presented to President Trump.

They didn’t think he would take it. In the wars waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pentagon officials have often offered improbable options to presidents to make other possibilities appear more palatable.

After initially rejecting the Suleimani option on Dec. 28 and authorizing airstrikes on an Iranian-backed Shia militia group instead, a few days later Mr. Trump watched, fuming, as television reports showed Iranian-backed attacks on the American Embassy in Baghdad, according to Defense Department and administration officials.

By late Thursday, the president had gone for the extreme option. Top Pentagon officials were stunned. [snip]

Mr. Trump, who aides said had on his mind the specter of the 2012 attacks on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, became increasingly angry as he watched television images of pro-Iranian demonstrators storming the embassy. Aides said he worried that no response would look weak after repeated threats by the United States.

When Mr. Trump chose the option of killing General Suleimani, top military officials, flabbergasted, were immediately alarmed about the prospect of Iranian retaliatory strikes on American troops in the region. (our emphasis)

"Flabbergasted."  Who could possibly have foreseen the guy who doesn't pay attention to intelligence briefings (but watches a lot of tv), who is coming more unhinged every day due to his impeachment, who thinks he makes the best decisions and knows more than "his generals" -- who could possibly have foreseen this Giant Toddler choosing the worst possible option, one that you assumed was beyond the pale?

We're fortunate the "guardrails" are holding up, aren't we?

Who Better Than Donald Trump?

We're pasting today's op/ ed by Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri in full because, well, we just didn't want to leave any of it out.  Since it's titled "Whatever happens with Iran, I’m confident Donald Trump can get us through it," you know Petri's tongue is buried in her cheek:

Don’t worry! You or I may not know what the fallout will be from the drone strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. We may be a little unnerved by Iran’s vows of revenge. We may, naively, fear for the stability of the region and the safety of those who live there.

But surely Donald Trump would not have taken such an action without fully thinking through all of its possible consequences. Donald Trump does not just do things. Donald Trump must have applied exactly as much caution and forethought to this matter as we are accustomed to seeing from him on all issues, and, therefore, we have no cause for alarm. Whatever will come next, Donald Trump has surely anticipated it. This is Donald Trump we are talking about.

He is surrounded by the best people, people who would tell him if something he had done or was about to do was a bad idea. He does not randomly turn on the TV and implement whatever the blondest man suggests. He is the president of the United States, with access to maximum information, and that is what he uses to guide him.

This is not some low-stakes matter, like whether to flush a toilet 10 times or 15 times. On this question, human lives hang in the balance. And thankfully, Donald Trump understands the cost of war. The fact that his personal intervention has been key in the clearing of a Navy SEAL who now uses his platform to promote “KILL BAD DUDES”-themed merchandise and specialty knives after posing for photos with a dead body is — not a reflection of how Donald Trump sees war.

Donald Trump is not just flailing haplessly around like a cat with its head stuck in a bucket. This guy gets it. He is the one who put Jared Kushner in charge of the Middle East!

I am sure he gave this just as much thought as — or, indeed, even more thought than — he gives less important decisions, such as whether to tweet or whether to accept Rudy Giuliani’s services as his personal lawyer. It is surprising and inconsistent that the Pentagon’s statement about it misidentified the organization Soleimani led. That does not reflect the level of professionalism at work here, which is no doubt high.

As we walk down a road whose end not even experts can possibly guess, who better than Donald Trump to lead us? He is no expert. Who would you rather have steering this country through a nerve-racking and divisive period than Donald Trump, with his keen sense of history and equally keen sense of reality? And if things go south, whom else would I trust to keep an even keel and figure out solutions in a clearheaded manner? What name could possibly leap to mind before the name “Donald Trump”?

In the past, America has blundered into thankless wars that devoured decades and ended thousands of lives. We did not know what we were doing, and we did not know how to get out. But that was because Donald Trump was not in charge.

Petri's piece is an excellent antidote to an op/ ed on the same page (no link) by human- termite- looking- for- a- Trump- reach- around Hugh "Man Boobs" Hewitt, who concludes his fever dream/ fairy tale by suggesting the Soleimani assassination will not only save lives (!), but result in a Trump "landslide."  He must've read Petri's op/ ed and taken it literally.  Sad!

Trump's Just Doing What He Does Best: "Giving Bad Advice"

Stephen Colbert covers the Notre Dame fire, the Boeing 737 MAX, Tiger Woods, and the release of the redacted Mueller report, with a malignant orange- hued stain running through everything:

Puerto Ricans Won't Be The Last Americans To Suffer Because Of Trump's Incompetence

Michelle Goldberg writes on how malignant narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump's incompetence, as tragically displayed in his bumbling of Hurricane Maria relief for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, will some day have an inescapable impact on millions more Americans:

Many Americans — maybe most Americans — have yet to experience the material consequences of having an unfit president. Trump inherited a growing economy, and it got a short-term boost thanks to tax cuts whose ultimate cost won’t be felt for some time. The majority of the crises Trump has faced have been self-inflicted. America’s reputation is collapsing abroad, but that doesn’t yet affect most Americans directly. The country is just starting to feel the effects of Trump’s trade skirmishes. The consequences of his assault on environmental protections have been serious but diffuse. The people whose families are being ripped apart by his immigration policies are largely noncitizens who cannot vote. 

We’ve been at once lucky and unlucky. It’s a blessing that much of the country has escaped physical disaster, but eventually the bill for having a cruel, scatterbrained demagogue in the White House will come due. The longer it takes, the more he’ll be able to consolidate power and exploit his position for private gain. America has become like one of Trump’s casinos, surface glitz hiding corruption and rot that Trump will ultimately make others pay for. (our emphasis)

Goldberg kicks off her article by noting that Rump attended a meeting on hurricane preparedness this past Wednesday at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. The topics Rump covered?

According to The Post, Trump spoke about the coming North Korea summit meeting, polling on the midterms, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, his love of coal and his administration’s “great” popularity. He claimed that the government saved $1.6 billion on Air Force One after he got involved in negotiations. The Post reported, “Military officials have not been able to explain where Trump got such a figure.”

But the victims, living and dead, of Hurricane Maria?  Nada. 

"Message: I Hear You"

In a moment reminiscent of George H.W. Bush's "Message: I care" moment, rotted- out shell Donald "Rump" Trump apparently had to be reminded to act like he was listening sympathetically at his White (Supremacist) House "listening session" today with people impacted by gun violence at schools:

Trump brought cliff notes to the gun violence listening session. Final note “I hear you” pic.twitter.com/AQZAXIkFep

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 21, 2018

A few selected thoughts from the Twitterverse:

Raise your hand if you're surprised that Trump needs to reminded to say "I hear you" in a listening session. https://t.co/O12HICfsUl

— Amy Bingham (@BlondMsKang) February 21, 2018

"Don't forget to show human emotions like a real human" https://t.co/4a6leDmQda

— Will Federman (@wfederman) February 21, 2018

Student: We want universal background checks and stricter regulations.

Another student: Also important to outlaw semi-automatic weapons and recoil tools that make guns perform like automatic weapons.

Trump: I hear you. I am going to eliminate gun-free zones and arm teachers

— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) February 21, 2018

Donald reveals the rest of his notes at the school shooting "Listening Session" pic.twitter.com/tVSLExTmmQ

— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) February 21, 2018

More reactions at Raw Story.

Photos Of The Day - Representing America To The World

Self- proclaimed smartest guy Donald "Rump" Trump had a problem figuring out how to execute a simple chain handshake at the ASEAN conference in the Philippines, a "carefully choreographed" handshake at that.  #MAGA!

(click on images to enlarge)

"D'oy duh, what do I do now?"

"Whoa, I'm supposed to do the alpha male shake!"

"Ow ow ow, my blubber is getting pinched!"

(Photos: Agence France- Presse)