US Politics, March 2020 — There’s a very good chance you’re not going to die.

very Buck Turgidson of him

Trump's going to speak and pass on something pertaining to the FDA.

How CNN handled this, without specifically saying so: they're worried (probably even terrified) he'll go out there and say the FDA has a promising treatment, everything's fine, everybody, we've been doing a great job and we've won.

There's no percentage in trying to predict exactly how Trump is going to fuck something up, but nobody ever went broke defaulting to a general 'Trump will fuck this up.'

Incredible. First sentence: "Me, media, Chinese virus."

I don't think that qualifies as a sentence.

"If only we'd known about it."

Hardest workers:

1. Trump
2. Mike Pence
3. everyone else

Incredible. First sentence: "Me, media, Chinese virus."

jesus, seriously?

Seriously.

Now that he's onto the medical news, perhaps he should hand the mic to someone else.

this guy is a fucking disaster on wheels

He sounds bored.

where can you find verbatim transcripts from these briefings? obviously the white house isn't releasing them.

every single one of these press conferences is going to directly lead to more death and suffering

"i think it's gonna be very exciting, i think it's gonna be a game changer... and maybe not"

it is a very exciting time for medicine

"It's a very exciting time for medicine."

"Based on what I see, I think it could be a game-changer."

He threw out a bit of caution, but my guess is, he thinks these treatments signal the beginning of the end. And that's why he's monopolizing the mic--as opposed to the last few days, where he looked shaken and was very quick to cede the floor.

i haven't listened to him live in over a year and my updated opinion is that my 97 year old grandfather is more coherent than this asshole

rambling grandiose moronic hyperbole in the absolute worst moment

there is a great spirit among the people, many people are saying

we haven't seen anything like this before. but it is a war. not a financial war. but a, um. a medical war. it is very exciting

Someone tell me something positive about Stephen Hahn? I (foolishly) don't know a thing about him.

he is the greatest, he is cancer doctor
many people are saying we've never seen anything like this before, no one has had to deal with this before

we put the travel ban on china early on, saving much time

At the absolute very least, I desperately need someone to cauterize this motherfucker's mouth shut. I've never seen a literal piece of shit that felt the need to so consistently draw attention to its essential shittiness in every conceivable way. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, die.

early on, we did the travel ban on china, saving many beautiful lives. everyone tells me how it was the best move in a situation they had never seen before

The fact that Hahn began with dear-leader genuflection says a lot.

If only China had told us about the virus they planned on giving us, the foreign virus, the Chinese virus, we could have saved many more lives. MANY more lives. Many, many, many more...look, it's a foreign virus. And we've basically eradicated it. But maybe not. Maybe not. The economy is going to bounce back soon. Nobody's seen anything like this in history, but it's going to bounce back soon.

it says to me that it's still business as usual at the White House but what I'm curious about is if Hahn's bona fides are generally taken as legit.

xpost (NB, not a direct quote, but I'm working with the same set of magnetic poetry as the president, perhaps a little more intentionally arranged.)

Dear leader genuflection is their love language

but of course, it's not about the economy. this is a war. a... medical war.

he took the test and he didn't like it, very nasty. media made him take test

I've heard him describe the test as "very nasty" several times now and have no idea what he's talking about. A swab? That's nasty?

the guy who has been standing in the background for 2 weeks finally delivered his book report on giving blood

I don't think I've seen Fauci be so openly obsequious yet. (Any of these briefings without him there seem like they could go off the rails at any moment.) He has to walk a bit of a line, but he hasn't crossed it, not that I've seen, anyway.

Fauci is at least semi obsequious about every 5 public pronouncements, but afaict he's never exaggerated or misstated anything for the benefit of the Asshole in Chief.

very cool that for three consecutive days the President of the United States has whined about how much he didn't like getting the test that will save hundreds of thousands of lives

When grade 8 students were lined up for vaccinations, I used to love joking around when I passed them in the hall: "Is this the one they put right into your forehead?" Don't worry, I didn't traumatize anyone--they had a highly developed sense of irony.

This is basically what Trump has been doing in earnest.

engagement with private sector!
regulatory reform!
liability reform!

Maybe they finished his physical-in-progress while they were seeing him, and they told him his prostate exam was the covid test.

anytime he has his mouth examined it's definitely proctology

not endorsing this, but I watch it live here every day. https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

why do you guys watch this crap, there's no useful info to be gleaned from it

it's useful to know how useless your government is

(trading)

he always finds new ways to be such a petty bitch.

In actual news, the people actually running the government (ie, Congress): Schumer, Durbin, Warren introduce bill to immediately cancel student debt.

Yessssssss that will save both of my brothers who will be paying until they literally die even if that is decades from now.

I'm against these proposals being floated around about cancelling mortgages/rent payments (which would be catastrophic and further crush the economy - we want more money circulating right now, not less), but the student debt thing is a good idea. Crises should be taken advantage of to advance policies that were previously politically untenable.

it would save my life, I can't imagine such a thing happening

I can't see McConnell going for it but weird things are happening w/in the GOP caucus at the moment

it would be ridiculous if they aren't able to get it all canceled forever with all the other money they are tossing around.