When you have 15 people, and the 15 [cases] within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.March 29, 2020:
If we can hold [the number of deaths] down [to] between 100,000 and 200,000 — we all, together, have done a very good job.This is Trump's new strategy:
Aaron Rupar, Vox:You know that it's true.
Trump today repeatedly brought up the model indicating up to 2.2 million Americans would die if no measures were taken to slow coronavirus. People really need to process that he will tout any death toll below that figure - even if it's over a million - as evidence he saved lives.
“If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 we’ve all together done a very good job,” Trump says, about up to 200,000 Americans dying of #COVID19.pic.twitter.com/ricnlAbKKK— Jason Sparks (@sparksjls) March 30, 2020
This is what you are to him, Americans.— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 29, 2020
An audience.
Not his constituents. Not the people who hired him. Not even humans.
You're boxes in a spreadsheet of his Neilsen ratings. https://t.co/3cBSlS02Lb
"My hair is blowing around. And it is mine. The one thing you cannot get away with. It is a problem if you are president" -- Trump pic.twitter.com/ZifUxnquYQ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 30, 2020
He's not saying we won't get our hair mussed... https://t.co/LCtOKu5xqR pic.twitter.com/uLSIiuR2p2— digby (@digby56) March 30, 2020
12 comments:
He has been out of his mind and off the rails the last two days:
March 29, 2020:
White House, Rose Garden, March 29, 2020
US: 19,913 new cases and 363 more deaths
Beautiful day in the Rose Garden. …
An incredible hospital [was built] in the Javits Center, which I know well. ... They did it in less than four days. Everyone is trying to figure out how they did it, including me — and I was a good builder. ...
[W]e were in a conference room — a very nice one, actually …
It's up to 151 countries. … Think of it: 151 countries. Somebody said to me today that wasn't in this particular world — they didn't know that we had that many countries. A hundred and fifty-one countries. That's something.
I'll never forget the day when a general came and said, "Sir" — my first week in office — "we have no ammunition." That was in the military. … And we have so much ammunition. You wouldn't believe it, how much ammunition we have. ...
I wish we could have our old life back. We had the greatest economy that we've ever had, and we didn't have death. ...
I mean, I know insurance companies better than anybody. …
But now there's a spirit like I have not seen. I have never seen anything like it. I mean, even the media is much more fair. I wouldn't say all of it, but that's okay. They should be fair ...
I was on the call yesterday with the governors, and they were happy with the job we're doing. And I'll tell you what: If you had a different administration, they would not have been happy. … It was falsely reported by a couple of people that, "Oh, gee, they weren't" — they were happy. They were thrilled. ..
I'm dealing with the Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards. … I'm dealing with him very successfully. …
I wanted to be there so badly but Secret Service and all of the people involved won't let me. They won't let me. I would love to be there, but they won't love me, for obvious reasons. ... [Typo?]
[You've also said that you thought more people might die from the economic problems in America than the virus. Would that outpace, at some point, the virus's impact on the society?]
I could ask Dr. Fauci to come up, but it's common sense. You're going to have massive depression, meaning mental depression. You're going to have depression in the economy also. But you're going to have mental depression for people. You're going to have large numbers of suicides. … So you're going to have tremendous suicides, but you know what you're going to have more than anything else? Drug addiction. You will see drugs being used like nobody has ever used them before. And people are going to be dying all over the place from drug addiction, because you would have people that had a wonderful job at a restaurant, or even owned a restaurant. I spoke to great people today that have done a great job. And one day, at the top of their business, they're celebrity chefs, they've got the most successful restaurants, and in one day they have nothing. They've gotten wiped out. One day, from our enemy: this invisible, horrible scourge. So when you ask me that, it's — it's so easy to figure that. I mean, massive drug use, massive depression — mental depression, massive numbers of suicide. Anxiety causes, you know, disease, they say. A lot of people — you're going to have tremendous. And hopefully we're not going to have that, because hopefully, by what we're doing, we get the best of both worlds. We don't have 2.2 million deaths. We have a number that's much less — much, much less.
March 29, 2020
White House, Rose Garden, March 29, 2020 [US: 19,913 new cases and 363 more deaths]:
So I grew up in Queens, New York, and right next to a place called Elmhurst, Queens. And they have a hospital that's a very good hospital — Elmhurst Hospital. Right? I've known it. I've known where it is. I can tell you the color on the outside, the size of the windows. I mean, I know it very well, right? That was near my community where I lived. And I've been watching that for the last week on television. Body bags all over in hallways. I've been watching them bring in trailer trucks — freezer trucks; they're freezer trucks — because they can't handle the bodies there's so many of them. This is in my — essentially, in my community in Queens — Queens, New York. I've seen things that I've never seen before. I mean, I've seen them, but I've seen them on television in faraway lands. I've never seen them in our country. Elmhurst Hospital — unbelievable people. I mean, I — when I see the trucks pull up to take out bodies — and these are trucks that are as long as the Rose Garden. And they're pulling up to take out bodies, and you look inside and you see the black body bags. You say, "What's in there?" It's Elmhurst Hospital; must be supplies. It's not supplies. It's people. I've never seen anything like it. …
I just want to end by saying that we're all in this together ... It's a beautiful thing to watch. Unfortunately, the enemy is death. It's death. A lot of people are dying, so it's very unpleasant. It's a very unpleasant thing to go through. But the level of competence, the level of caring, the level of love, I — I just think it's brilliant, and it's possibly happening in other countries. Possibly. I don't know. …
March 29, 2020
White House, Rose Garden, March 29, 2020 [US: 19,913 new cases and 363 more deaths]:
Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won. That would be the greatest loss of all. … We can expect that, by June 1st, we will be well on our way to recovery. We think, by June 1st, a lot of great things will be happening. ...
[Easter] was just an aspiration. We actually will be hitting, potentially … on Easter, we probably — they — well, that could be a peak. That could be a peak period. That could be the peak. Sadly to say, that could be the peak number of deaths … No, that was aspirational. We had a — an aspiration of Easter. … So that was an aspirational number. I didn't say "Easter." I said, "It would be a great thing, if we could do it by Easter." … Easter should be the peak number, and it should start coming down, and hopefully very substantially from that point. ...
Think of the number: 2.2 — potentially 2.2 million people if we did nothing. … [Y]ou start to realize that … the $2.2 trillion, it no longer sounds like a lot, right? … So you're talking about — when I heard the number today — first time I've heard that number … I felt even better about … the $2.2 trillion, because you're talking about a potential of up to 2.2 million. And some people said it could even be higher than that. So you're talking about 2.2. million deaths — 2.2 million people from this. And so, if we can hold that down ... so we have between 100- and 200,000 — we all, together, have done a very good job. But 2.2, up to 2.2 million deaths and maybe even beyond that. ...
[W]e have aspirational thoughts. … We could have done it. We could have done it on Easter … [M]aybe it's going to be coming down by then. But we just felt it was too soon. … [T]he question is, from a lot of my friends, "Why didn't we just wing it? Why didn't we just wing it?" … And you hear about the 2.2 million people would have died. I don't mean we would have had 2.2 million cases. These are 2.2 million people who would have died. 2.2 million people. … And the number on the outside — and maybe it's not even on the outside; we don't know — is 2.2 million people would have died if we didn't do what we're doing. And now we're looking at numbers that are going to be much, much, much lower than that. And it makes everything we're doing feel much better to me. ...
We think it's going to really start to open up [June 1]. We think that that's going to be the bottom of the hill. That's where we're looking at — June 1st. Maybe even a little bit sooner than that. So we have this hill. If we did nothing, the hill would have been up here. We did a lot. We did just about maximum. … June 1st — we think we can reach the bottom of that hill on June 1st. And that would be a great thing. … I think that that could be a day. It could even be sooner. Could be a little bit later; it could be sooner. But I think people would be very happy if we did a job and saved, potentially, millions of lives. …
March 29, 2020:
I think our economy has a chance to be just as good and even better than it was before. … These are loans to great companies … They'll be back very soon. So much of the money that we're talking about, that money is coming back … I expect that we'll make a lot of money with that money. We're going to make a lot of money … I don't even want to talk about making money, because what I want to talk about is two things: Number one is saving lives, and number two is bringing our economy back. Okay? But I think we're going to do very well. That whole money, a lot of it is coming back. ...
[W]e had a lot of people who were saying, "Maybe we shouldn't do anything. Just ride it." They say, "Ride it like a cowboy. Just ride it. Ride that sucker right through." That's where the 2.2 million people come in, who would have died, maybe. But it would have been 1.6 to 2.2. … But there were a lot of people that said — I thought about it. I said, "Maybe we should ride it through." You know, you always hear about the flu. I talk about it all the time. We had a bad flu season. We're in the midst of a bad flu season. You know, we had a bad season last year as an example. A bad flu season. … But this is different. And part of this is the unknown, and part of it also is the viciousness of it. I had a friend who went to a hospital the other day. He's a little older, and he's heavy, but he's tough person. … I call: "How's he doing?" "Sir, he's in a coma. He's unconscious." He's not doing well. The speed and the viciousness, especially if it gets the right person, it's horrible. It's really horrible.
… the June 1st date? And that's a very — that's aspirational. But I think that's, really, modified aspirational, because I think we're going to hit it. And maybe we'll even beat it.
March 30, 2020:
Challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days. We're sort of putting it all on the line, this 30 days. So important because we have to get back … and return to our lives. And they will be great lives — maybe better than ever. …
[Wind blows] And we've opened up — whoops, there goes our box. And my hair is blowing around, and it's mine. The one thing you can't get away with. If it's not yours, you got a problem, if you're President.
Joining us this afternoon are CEOs of the great American companies … And these are great companies. … A friend of mine, Mike Lindell of MyPillow. Boy, do you sell those pillows. That's unbelievable what you do. ...
We have to get our country back to where it was and maybe beyond where it was because we've learned so much. … Men and women are doing a job that — the likes of which I don't think anyone's ever seen. … And you see the numbers. You see the numbers like I see the numbers. I have some friends that are unbelievably sick. We thought they were going in for a mild stay. And, in one case, he's unconscious — in a coma. And you say, "How did that happen?" …
We're sending a lot of things to Michigan because that's becoming a hotbed … It's become very hot. It's become — I don't know, could even, at some point, supersede. …
[W]e're letting the governors do in their states pretty much what they want with our supervision, and they consult with us in all cases. … I could give you plenty of examples, but I'm not going to do that because we never want to be controversial. …
I mean, you know, we want our country back. We're not going to be wearing masks forever …
We're going to get the economy back. I think the economy is going to come back very fast. … [W]e had the greatest economy in the world. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had to go from doing a great job for three years to shutting it down. [Well, boo fucking hoo for you.] But you know what? We're going to build it up and we're going to build it up rapidly. And I think, in the end, we'll be stronger for it. We learned a lot. We learned a lot. … We learned a lot. We're learning a lot. And we're also learning that the concept of borders is very important … It's very important. Having borders is very, very important. … The economy is going to come back. … We're going to bring the economy back and we'll bring it back fast.
Trump also said: "I know South Korea better than anybody" and was bragging that he knew Seoul's population was 38 million, but the reporter did not.
The population of Seoul is actually 9.7 million.
HA
HA!
Hmm.
Knowing he's an incoherent, ignorant, whining, vainglorious, self-aggrandizing, vindictive, lying, paranoid, self-pitying, bullying--oh, you know all the adjectives!--asshole is one thing. Reading these transcripts is another--the worst way to start my day. But I can't stop reading them either! A moth to the flame....
How in the name of holy fuck can nearly half the country (and an actual majority in my corner of Maine) think highly of this fuckhead? Forget "highly"--how can they not see that he's a not-very-bright sociopath? That's the most depressing thought of all, the most crazy-making: to see so clearly the reality of Trump but to have so many people around me either gaslighting me or sincerely inducted into his absurd cult.
Well, back to baseball! If we could do trading places, I'd be happier with Trump as Baseball Commissioner and Manfred as POTUS. Presumably however much mischief each could do in his new role would still be less than at present.
WATCHING them is on a whole other level.
I can't really take much more than 45-to-60-second clips.
I have no idea how these reporters take two hours of this shit - every single day. I also don't know how they refrain from really calling him out on this garbage.
The incessant repetition ...
I cannot figure out if it's simply his idiocy and rotted brain or if it's a key part of his actual genius in catapulting the propaganda. ... Probably both, but at this late date, he no longer can realize it.
Allan,
I used to check your blog every day for updates on the Sox. I still check it everyday, multiple times a day, with a collection of news on how the world is going to hell. Thanks for sharing this, and keep doing what you do. Keep mixing it up with a few "fuck offs" to the "stick to sports" morons.
Also see here.
Just reading that drivel is painful. Actually listening to a cretin say it would be unbearable.
I've seen more intelligence at the bottom of ponds.
People here ( in the U.K. ) keep on saying ' it's not the time ' to criticise the government.
Yes it is.
More.
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