Purgatory: Oops - your Trump presidency discussion thread.

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  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited October 2020
    That chimes in with the possibility of him still having breathing problems, no?

    However much They try to dissemble...

    That is to be expected though. Week 1 of covid is generally mild (I had mild sore throat, mild fatigue, no fever). Week 2, if you get worse symptoms, is when you get shortness of breath, chest pain, etc (I had 'moderate' symptoms of central chest pressure, chest tightness, shortness of breath). That is when it starts to deteriorate.
    I was a fit and well 50 year old and I got week 2 symptoms. I would be very surprised if he wasn't short of breath. But that does not necessarily mean he will deteriorate - who knows?
    And I still have breathing problems over six months later, though they are caused my circulation not my lungs. I have long covid, or more correctly, post-viral syndrome.
  • Just looking at various polls showing a Biden lead of 12%, 16%, and even 21%. The trouble is, this could make Trump desperate, and likely to invalidate votes, or do something horrific.
  • The thing that's driving me freaking INSANE is that this is literally one sick old man. Surrounded by any number of hopefully-not-sick-yet human beings, all terrified of him. Surely SOMEBODY can say, "I've had enough of this BS, I'm taking your damn cellphone away, AND your TV set, we're just pulling the wires, tough it out. It's for medical reasons."

    Sure, they'd lose their job, but at this point, why do they give a damn?
  • Wouldnt they be toast in the Republican party? I mean, for ever.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    Apparently Don Jr floated the idea of an "intervention", which I think must mean "we need to stop him tweeting". Ivanka and Jared were opposed.

    But yes, it appears that even one of his supportive family members thought the sick old man's phone needed to be taken away.
  • Wouldnt they be toast in the Republican party? I mean, for ever.

    They should count their blessings. They could always join another party.
  • Or start another one. The Provisional Republicans, The Real Republicans, The Confessing Republicans ...
  • The Repentant Republicans...
  • Just looking at various polls showing a Biden lead of 12%, 16%, and even 21%. The trouble is, this could make Trump desperate, and likely to invalidate votes, or do something horrific.

    He can't invalidate votes directly. The administration of elections is in the hands of the states. He'd have to cook up a convoluted federalism argument to get the Federal Courts to even look at it, Congess, with a majority Democratic House are the ones who ultimately cerify the election.
  • I'd like to see some genuine God-Fearing Republicans
  • Well, there must be some. They just don't seem to be able to make themselves heard...
    :disappointed:
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    edited October 2020
    Multi-lateral calls for calm, while someone actually encourages unrest and violence.

    Do you think America is somehow uniquely insulated from such things?

    No. I don't. I never have. It's not likely I ever will. Here's what I think is in fact unique about my country's current situation:

    1. EDUCATION: We have disemboweled (partly through de-funding and partly through sowing mistrust and suspicion about the motives and designs of those actually wielding power) what was once a reasonably effective K-12 public education system. With all due respect to the True Believers among this readership, Christian fundamentalism is destroying democracy and undermining rational thought. In doing so, we rob our citizenry of the ability to read, think, write, and talk effectively with one another, to participate thoughtfully (or even civilly) in public debate or discourse.

    IMO, public schooling in a democratic society should require training in age-appropriately-modified governance from grade 3 on up. Today's typical US high school graduate is often let loose into her/his future without the faintest clue about how government(s) at any level work in their society. Then we're appalled and shocked when they don't vote and haven't the faintest clue how to go about this. No citizen should be permitted to graduate without (A) a passing grade in civics, and (B) proof of voter registration for those 18 years old and up.

    BOTTOM LINE: If you want your children educated within a religion-specific system, go for it, but also PAY for it yourself. Just don't come around to civil government begging handouts for teaching your kid how evil and wrong-headed civil society is.

    2. MEDIA AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE: We have turned the vast majority of our for-public-consumption media into profit-making enterprises. Straight news is no longer profitable; we've all been trained to seek infotainment -- and worse, infotainment which validates (and never, NEVER challenges) our pre-existing biases.

    Fixed broken quoting code. BroJames, Purgatory Host
  • Just looking at various polls showing a Biden lead of 12%, 16%, and even 21%. The trouble is, this could make Trump desperate, and likely to invalidate votes, or do something horrific.

    He can't invalidate votes directly. The administration of elections is in the hands of the states. He'd have to cook up a convoluted federalism argument to get the Federal Courts to even look at it, Congess, with a majority Democratic House are the ones who ultimately cerify the election.
    The direction of the electors, those who cast the actual votes for president, are under the authority of the states. The fear is that Trump, and the Republican party, will pressure states to direct their electors to vote for him regardless of the popular vote in those states.
    There is also the fear, in some places already taking place, that some states will move to invalidate and make difficult new voters voting as those are more likely to be against Trump and republican candidates.
    Trump not being able to invalidate votes directly is irrelevant.
  • Wouldnt they be toast in the Republican party? I mean, for ever.

    No. The party as it stands will either self-destruct (yeah, yeah, it is already) or by some miracle come back to its senses, and then the guy would be a hero. Basically we are looking for this sort of a moment. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-meets-his-match If it doesn't come (and it should have come years ago), well, they're finished.
  • Well, there must be some. They just don't seem to be able to make themselves heard...
    :disappointed:

    A lot of us have fucking left.

    Those who remain are in a terrible position.
  • There comes a time when the identification with the label has to severed to allow something new to grow. People stopped calling themselves Whigs. History moved on. The GOP wasn't born at Creation, but in a process leading into the mid-19thC. The same thing might well happen to the GOP, and something will grow out of its corpse. Some erstwhile GOPers will find a home there, some will not. The GOP had the opportunity to save itself when it had its 'post mortem' but decided to become a zombie party instead. Something else will come along.
  • Simon ToadSimon Toad Shipmate
    edited October 2020
    Ohher wrote:
    Here's what I think is in fact unique about my country's current situation:

    1. EDUCATION: We have disemboweled (partly through de-funding and partly through sowing mistrust and suspicion about the motives and designs of those actually wielding power) what was once a reasonably effective K-12 public education system. With all due respect to the True Believers among this readership, Christian fundamentalism is destroying democracy and undermining rational thought. In doing so, we rob our citizenry of the ability to read, think, write, and talk effectively with one another, to participate thoughtfully (or even civilly) in public debate or discourse.

    IMO, public schooling in a democratic society should require training in age-appropriately-modified governance from grade 3 on up. Today's typical US high school graduate is often let loose into her/his future without the faintest clue about how government(s) at any level work in their society. Then we're appalled and shocked when they don't vote and haven't the faintest clue how to go about this. No citizen should be permitted to graduate without (A) a passing grade in civics, and (B) proof of voter registration for those 18 years old and up.

    BOTTOM LINE: If you want your children educated within a religion-specific system, go for it, but also PAY for it yourself. Just don't come around to civil government begging handouts for teaching your kid how evil and wrong-headed civil society is.

    2. MEDIA AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE: We have turned the vast majority of our for-public-consumption media into profit-making enterprises. Straight news is no longer profitable; we've all been trained to seek infotainment -- and worse, infotainment which validates (and never, NEVER challenges) our pre-existing biases.

    It is just tragic that this is the case. I have always been very keen, if not obsessive about politics and governance. In the 1983/4 school year, I attended Tokay High in Lodi CA and took both the junior and senior civics classes. They were great! One of the best teachers I ever had was teaching senior civics, and his classes were entertaining and engaging. In the junior civics class, I was part of the entertainment as my teacher couldn't get over the Melbourne Catholic way I pronounced the letter H.

    I can't really recall similar classes in Australia. I *think* we called it politics, the subject that is, but I have a very dim recollection of learning about our government in high school. But I definitely thought you guys taught it better than us, had more focus on it that us, in 1983. Incidentally, you were streets ahead of us in maths and science, and we were slightly better in humanities (excluding civics). That was my impression anyway.
  • Imagine trying to care for Trump in hospital! I would think that the staff would have been glad to see the back of him and cheered when he discharged himself.
  • @Ohher

    Apart from PBS and NPR, when have US "for public consumption media" ever been anything but for-profit?

    I'll admit there's been a bit of a decline evident between the days of Omnibus and the days of The O'Reilly Factor, but I'm not sure if that's attributable to the owners suddenly discovering the profit motive.

    (And yes, this applies to other countries as well: privately owned media everywhere are in the business of earning money.)
  • I think things began to change significantly for the worse from the late 1980's, when the business elite decided that making money was an end in itself, and ideas around collective responsibility and providing a service to the nation became old hat.

    Those ethics were a significant part of the way the generation that survived the second world war did things in Australia, or at least liked to be seen to do things. Community was important to them, provided of course that you complied with their rules and fitted their idea of the right sort of person. The criticisms of the leaders who were young during WW2 are many and varied, but they did have this strong community bond, a sense of responsibility for others, reinforced by prejudice and oppression.

    The classic example for me is the Murdoch family, where Keith Murdoch, made famous by his dispatches from the battlefields of WW1, was seen as a benevolent businessman, albeit with similar aims as his son Rupert as regards the making of money and wielding power to achieve that end. Its hard to tell whether Rupert is also charitable in his giving like his parents were. The Murdoch name is prominent in the arts and on hospital wings but I always understood that was his Mum. But Keith Murdoch never tried to break a printing union. He never asset stripped. He never had to throw hundreds of journalists out of work to save his good name. There were limits to what he was prepared to do. I don't think his son has those limits.

    I think this abandonment of collective responsibility in favor of this cowboy capitalism has infected privately owned media very much by the agency of Rupert Murdoch and his allies and that his competition has been forced to ape his ruthlessness.

    I think, and I have not really had this thought solidify before, that the career of this one poisonous man, who simply can't blame his father for his bastardry (not that I think Trump can either @Golden Key ) is largely to blame for the appalling standards of our media on the right everywhere in the Anglosphere.
  • And now Trump says/it has been revealed to him that his infection with the virus was a gift from God to the American people, not for the reason that you might think, but because it caused him to insist on being dosed with a new and uncleared drug which worked brilliantly and which he will make available free to the public. You couldn't make it up.
  • Proverbs 16:18

    Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    And now Trump says/it has been revealed to him that his infection with the virus was a gift from God to the American people, not for the reason that you might think, but because it caused him to insist on being dosed with a new and uncleared drug which worked brilliantly and which he will make available free to the public. You couldn't make it up.

    I don't wish to sound too tinfoil-hatty here, but this reminds me more of the beast in Revelation than anything Messianic:
    One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
    (Revelation 13:3).

  • There certainly are moments when the Bible hits the spot...
    :flushed:
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    ...and those are usually moments you really wish it didn't.
  • One wonders if the new drug has affected his brain.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Eirenist wrote: »
    One wonders if the new drug has affected his brain.

    The steroid is associated with euphoric feelings.
  • DafydDafyd Hell Host
    edited October 2020
    Eirenist wrote: »
    One wonders if the new drug has affected his brain.
    It looks like he's now incoherent, idiotic, sociopathic, narcissistic, and impulsive.
    So exactly the same as before the drug.

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited October 2020
    Hmm.

    I'm quite jealous - they put me on dexamethasone when I was first diagnosed with a brain tumour, but I don't recall any euphoric feelings...mind you, perhaps I was more concerned with wondering how long I had left to live...
    :fearful:

  • So Donald Trump suggested (demanded?) that Bill Barr arrest Joe Biden, and apparently that's not a big news story.
  • stetson wrote: »
    @Ohher

    Apart from PBS and NPR, when have US "for public consumption media" ever been anything but for-profit?
    Yes, back in Ye Olde Days, news on the telly at least was considered a public service. In the 1960's this began to change.

    Have you never seen the film Network? It makes absolutely no sense if the news were never about the news rather than profit.
  • Crœsos wrote: »
    So Donald Trump suggested (demanded?) that Bill Barr arrest Joe Biden, and apparently that's not a big news story.
    Seems like his O₂ saturation levels have dropped again.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    @Dafyd said ...
    It looks like he's now incoherent, idiotic, sociopathic, narcissistic, and impulsive.

    Yes - on steroids.

    (There’s a reason for that saying!)
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Perhaps he could be put in strict isolation due to being contagious, and be given a dependable supply of happy-making healing steroids? And Pence could be safely distanced in another place, trying out the meds, and communicating with his boss via Zoom or such.

    Meanwhile, we could have some ice cream, fix everything fixable, and get on with our lives.
  • Wesley JWesley J Circus Host
    Golden Key wrote: »
    [...] communicating with his boss via Zoom or such. [...]

    I'd suggest another app(ropriately named gadget): Doom and/or Gloom.
  • Golden Key wrote: »
    ...and those are usually moments you really wish it didn't.

    No kidding!
  • Why bother? Give them both an etch-a-sketch.
  • Steriods? I think we're in hallucinogen territory. Bring on the mushrooms!
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    {Cues Monty Python tribute band.}
    Well, there's egg and bacon
    Egg sausage and bacon
    Egg and mushrooms
    Egg, bacon and mushrooms
    Egg, bacon, sausage and mushrooms
    mushrooms, bacon, sausage and mushrooms
    mushrooms, egg, mushrooms, mushrooms, bacon and mushrooms
    mushrooms, sausage, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, bacon, mushrooms tomato and mushrooms
    mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, egg and mushrooms
    mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, baked beans, mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms and mushrooms..."
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Why bother? Give them both an etch-a-sketch.

    Watch T try to bring up Twitter. He'd shake it in frustration, then throw it across the room. One more thing not doing what he wants it to do.
  • In the wake of the alarming plot against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey had this to tweet:

    “A threat against our Governor is a threat against us all. We condemn those who plotted against her and our government. They are not patriots. There is no honor in their actions. They are criminals and traitors, and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Well said, sir.

    These words are words that Trump could not bring himself to say about the CSA or Proud Boys, or the alt-right generally. But then, how could he? As has been pointed out repeatedly already, Trump helped to create and amplify the conditions which made the plot conceivable.
  • Eutychus wrote: »
    Eirenist wrote: »
    And now Trump says/it has been revealed to him that his infection with the virus was a gift from God to the American people, not for the reason that you might think, but because it caused him to insist on being dosed with a new and uncleared drug which worked brilliantly and which he will make available free to the public. You couldn't make it up.

    I don't wish to sound too tinfoil-hatty here, but this reminds me more of the beast in Revelation than anything Messianic:
    One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.
    (Revelation 13:3).

    If the tin-foil cap fits, wear it! I've been getting resonances from Revelation ever since Trump ascended his prophetic throne in Washington.

    And is it true now that, having apparently only been diagnosed as lately as last Thursday with the virus his doctors have signed him off today as fit to return to public duties? Covid-19 has clearly mutated in a most unusual fashion.
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    Trump thinks he's uperman, not subject to "human" weaknesses like getting sick. But he really is a super in one way: he's superspreader of COVID. Someone in the White House will die becasue of his obstinacy - probably an elderly female maid, though it might even b
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    ...might even be someone closer to him.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    He’s killing himself to appear well.
  • Looks like polyclonal antibodies work?
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    edited October 2020
    Martin54 wrote: »
    Looks like polyclonal antibodies work?

    Tested on cells derived from aborted foetal tissue, no less. I wonder how the "pro-life" movement will twist their supposed beliefs into a pretzel to justify that.
  • Quick thought - 'bringing good out of evil' ?
  • Trump's disassociation from reality is causing the plot to thicken somewhat:https://theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/08/nancy-pelosi-donald-trump-25th-amendment-removal

    Presumably this won't be necessary if Trump loses the election, but I guess they're thinking of a worst-case scenario.

    Apparently Trump has said publicly that he's a perfect physical specimen, and extremely young.
    :flushed:
  • This is a mistake by Pelosi, as Trump can portray himself as a victim, attacked by these Dem gorgons.
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