It was instinct
Daniel Dale has more samples from Trump’s fake “town hall” on Fox.
Asked what prompted him to take his first action on the coronavirus — a member of his team, a world leader, etc. — he says, "It was instinct." He also says he had been "reading a lot about it," and seeing things on television.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
He hadn’t been reading anything about it.
Here is what Trump says health experts told him: "Sir, we're gonna have to close the country." He says he responded, "This has never happened before…are you serious about this? We are going to take this country that's fully employed…and you're telling me we have to CLOSE it?"
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Even now, he has to remind us that he is Sir.
Trump says people can go to work and clean their hands five times more than usual, and not shake hands, "and things will happen," but this situation can't go on. "You're going to have suicides by the thousands."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Trump just read out a headline from the very bad website Gateway Pundit claiming Cuomo established "death panels" instead of buying ventilators.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Trump: "I would love to have it open by Easter," April 12. He says it's an important day for other reasons, but he wants it important "for this too."
Fox host Bill Hemmer responds that that "would be a great American resurrection."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Asked why he said tests were perfect when they hadn't been, Trump responded, "What I said is perfect was my conversation with the head of Ukraine. That's what I really said is perfect."
He said both were perfect. Here's the transcript. https://t.co/lii1PHPKOj pic.twitter.com/bBxsxav3pa
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Trump, touting his proposal to quickly reopen things, turns to his favorite anonymous validators: "I've had many, many people…most people think I'm right about it."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
And, as he told us the other day, he’s been right a LOT.
Cuomo is saying there is a critical ventilator shortage and they need immediate help from the federal government. Trump is saying Cuomo should’ve bought ventilators years ago and can’t be aggressively demanding stuff from him now. https://t.co/PTQ88iI6D1
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
We have to ask him for lifesaving medical equipment nicely or he won’t give.
As others have noted, Trump is a transactional being. To get something from him you have to give him something in direct exchange. It’s one of the primary reasons he is grossly unfit for even the lowliest of public service jobs.
It’s one of the primary reasons he is grossly unfit for even the lowliest of ditch digger jobs.
Which is ironic or interesting or something because Amanda Marcotte has annoyed (to put it mildly) a lot of people who would normally be allies by making a very transactional claim on Twitter about how old people need to compensate young people for all this.
I don’t think any of the otherwise allies would have objected in the slightest if she’d said people need to be made whole after all the economic hardship – but she made it explicitly payment, by the old to the young. Just weird.
It’s as if Trump’s transactional mindset is spreading…which of course it must be.
It’s not just the transactional mindset. It’s the OK Boomer idea that Boomers are to blame for everything…I suspect even the Peloponnesian war and the crucifixion of Jesus. To name just a couple of things Boomers should feel guilty about.
I was in an argument recently with someone who claimed that if it wasn’t for Baby Boomers, Ronald Reagan wouldn’t be president. He knows because…well, the gated community where his parents live is all GenX liberals, apparently, and didn’t vote for Reagan. So, must be Boomers.
You can’t claim that “Ok Boomer” (or my preferred “Fuck off Boomer”) isn’t an appropriate response to Lt. Gov. Fitzpatrick or whatever his name is…
This answer is more truthful than he realizes. The lie enters the picture when it comes to recalling what his instinctive response was.
He downplayed it. He hoped ignoring it would make it go away “like a miracle,” without any need for thought, effort, or action on his part at all. He ignored or downplayed the advice of people who knew better. He called the alarmed response from Democrats at his inaction “a hoax.” He thought that saying things were going to stay at a minor level and improve quickly would keep them at a minor level. As things escalated, he blamed others for his own failures. He refused to take responsibility. He worried more about money and business than the health and well being of people. He continued to backbite and belittle people who were actually facing up to the crisis, but had been insufficiently deferential to him in the past. He made pronouncements and predictions completely disconnected to the reality on the ground. He offered feel good bullshit optimism based on lies. He offered his unwanted, uncalled for and counterproductive “expertise,” over the sound advice of those who actually know what they’re talking about. THAT is Trump’s “instinctive” response.
Yeah, I can claim that. Just because someone is an asshole doesn’t mean it’s because he is a boomer, or that OK Boomer is an appropriate response. Sorry, but I prefer substance.
I much prefer unbridled hatred… In any case assholes seem to be overrepresented in a certain population (which is not to say there isn’t a more than adequate supply in others).
I posted this in a more recent thread, but I think it bears repeating: Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW will no longer carry the daily White House briefings live, due to the amount of false and misleading information they contain that cannot be fact checked in real time.
I actually wish I could believe that, because that means the asshole quotient could drop at least a little bit as that generation dies off, but from where I sit, it is obvious that there is a full contingent of assholes up and down the spectrum. In fact, in my area of the country, the boomer assholes at least seem more likely to be housebroken. The millennial assholes, on the other hand, rule the roost…and the misogyny we face at school as a result is unbridled. And for the most part, uncorrected by the administration, too many of whom share their mindset.