You can’t mourn it any stronger
If only he wouldn’t ad lib. It wouldn’t change anything or fix anything of importance, but still – if only he would stop doing that.
Starting at 27 seconds:
Reading in the robotic monotone he reads everything:
While we mourn the tragic loss of life
Then the pause – the looking up – the tilt of the head – the blink – and the ad lib:
And you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it.
MAKE.IT.STOP.
Trump clearly says he’s talking about a per-capita basis, then Rupar implies he’s wrong because the US has the highest absolute number of deaths. Does it get any more disingenuous than that? Is it OK to mislead if it’s done in service of our side?
The US has the 14th highest per capita rate of death. We’re at 121 deaths per one million people, and Spain is at 437, Italy is at 391, France is at 302, the UK is at 237, and Sweden is at 152.
We have 7 times as many people as Spain. Since their per-capita rate isn’t a full 7 times as high as ours (it’s “only” 3.6 times as high), yes, we have more absolute deaths. This is neither a surprise nor an indication we’re handling it worse than Spain.
Which isn’t to say Trump has handled this as well as he could have. He hasn’t. But I don’t think citing misleading claims like Rupar’s, even if just to mock Trump’s speech, is a good thing to do.
I’ll happily mock Trumps speech. His claims about America’s health outcomes is bullshit no matter how you slice it. Just. Utter. Bullshit. Somis Skeletor’s half hearted attempt to defend him, again.
Somebody told him Mourning in America was a good theme for a speech.
I know it’s not his most troubling shortcoming, but jesus christ—he is just so inept with language.
Can you mourn something strongly?
Hah, it really bothers him that he can’t claim to have the absolute best health figures. Curse you, Germany! I’m actually a little annoyed that he wasn’t annoyed at Australia, we’re doing relatively well. But then again, his annoyance at Germany is potentially fuelled by the fact that they are led by that pesky Merkel woman who upstaged him several times.
Also the “we’re #1 in testing” comment, ok maybe overall tests, but per capita, we’re around 30th. More ‘cheerleading’ BS.
Maybe Skeletor should wait until the final figures are in. The as-yet unrecorded/unreported deaths in care homes will certainly increase the per-capita rate, and with the idiocy in several states that Trump is both endorsing and encouraging, plus the sheer amount of potential carriers still untested across the country I doubt that the US has seen the worst of it yet by a long way.
Skeletor, I don’t think popping up at intervals on someone else’s blog to shout about something irrelevant and then ignoring all responses, only to come back a week later and do it all again, is a good thing to do.
Skeletor
I wouldn’t be so sure that per capita infections is the right approach to say that the US is doing better.
The fact that you’ve got 7 times as many people as Spain means that it should take longer to reach Spain’s per capita infections, because 7 times as many people have to be infected for that to happen.
That it takes less time to fill a small glass than a big glass doesn’t mean that you’re doing a better job at preventing water getting into the bigger glass.
What you should be looking at is the rate of new infections, and according to CNBC the country with the fastest growth in new infections is – still the US.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/19/coronavirus-live-updates-asia-europe.html
Even on a per capita basis, even if it was frozen in time now, it would still be nonsense.
Australia, South Korea, Greece, Canada, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Iceland, New Zealand all have lower per capita. On relative progression, many other countries will be able to say the same in a matter of days.
Skeletor (not that you’ll read this, but as a courtesy) –
You don’t have a real email address so I can’t email you to explain that I’ve had enough of the drive-by challenges/failure to engage the rest of the conversation, so your comments will now have to await approval.