Tag: politics

trumpoem #10

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

So
supposing we hit the body
with a tremendous
whether its ultraviolet
or just very powerful light
and

(I think you said
that hasn’t been checked
but you’re going to test it)

and then I said
supposing you brought the light inside the body
which you can do
either through the skin
or in some other way
and

(I think you said
you’re going to test that, too)
sounds interesting
right

and then I see
the disinfectant
where it knocks it out in a minute
one minute
and
is there a way we can do something like that
by injection inside
or
almost a cleaning

because you see it gets on the lungs
and it does a tremendous number on the lungs
so it would be interesting to check that
so that

you’re going to have to use medical doctors
but it sounds
it sounds interesting to me
so we’ll see

but the whole concept of the light
the way it kills it in one minute
that’s pretty powerful

tin pot

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

I sincerely believed I would not live long enough to hear a president of the United States declare he has the absolute power to tell the individual states what they could and could not do.

Q: What provision in the constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies, and then —

Trump: Numerous provisions. We’ll give you a legal brief, if you want.

Q: What happens if you say, ‘We want states to reopen’ but California or New York do not open?

Trump: Well, I think everyone wants to open. I guess, you know, that could happen, but I don’t think that would happen.

Q: It’s been states that have ordered schools to close, it’s been state that have ordered businesses like restaurants —

Trump: That’s because I let that happen, because I would have preferred that. I let that happen. But, if I wanted to, I could have closed it up. But I let that happen. And I like the way they’ve done it. And the seven that remained in a sort of semi-lockdown, if you look at those states, they’ve really done a very good job. They’re very much different from a New York, or from other places where they’ve been hit very hard.

Q: There are two consortiums of states today – California, Oregon, Washington on the west coast, northeastern states – in total representing one-hundred million people, who’ve said they’re going to cooperate and decide when to reopen —

Trump: Well, they can decide —

Q: Does that underminee what you’re trying to do?

Trump: No, not at all. Let me just tell you very simply, I’m going to put it very simply: The president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots. If we weren’t here for the states, you would’ve had a problem in this country like you’ve never seen before. We were here to back them up, and we more than backed them up. We did a job that nobody ever thought was possible. It’s a decision for the president of the United States. Now, with that being said, we’re going to work with the states, because it’s very important. You have local governments, they’re pinpointed; it’s really, you talk about, it’s like a microchip, they’re pinpointed. We have local government that hopefully will do a good job, and if they don’t do a good job I would step in so fast but, no, they can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.

Q: Just to clarify your understanding of your authority, vis-a-vis governors, just to be very specific, for instance, if a governor issued a stay-at-home order —

Trump: When you say, ‘my authority’ – the president’s authority, not mine; because it’s not me. This is, when somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total.

Q: Your authority’s total?

Trump: It’s total. And the governors know that. You have a couple of bands —

Q: If a governor issues a stay-at-home order, could you rescind that order?

Trump: You have a couple of bands of ‘democrat’ governors, but they will agree to it. They will agree to it. But the authority of the president of the United States, having to do with the subject we’re talking about, is total.

Q: You said, when someone is president of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that is true?

Trump: Okay, you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to write up papers on this. It’s not going to be necessary, because the governors need us, one way or the other, because, ultimately, it comes with the federal government. That being said, we’re getting along very well with the governors, and I feel very certain that there won’t be a problem.

Q: Has any governor agreed that you have the authority to decide when their state opens back up?

Trump: I haven’t asked anybody, because I don’t — you know why? Because I don’t have to.

Q: But who told you that the president has the president has total authority?

Trump: Enough.

Q: On this question of constitutionality, I’m just wondering what changed your view, because —

Trump: No, nothing changed it. I know exactly what you’re going to say. Nothing changed it. The fact that I want to rely on states, or maybe will, or maybe have, and the fact that we’ve got — that’s one thing. The fact that I don’t want to use the power, that’s another thing.

Q: But you said, from the standpoint of the constitution, you thought it should to be up to the governors —

Trump: Yes, constitutionally, constitutionally, you can look at constitutionally, you can look at federalism, you could look at it any different way. John, the fact that I don’t want to exert my power is much different. We have the power. You asked, ‘Does the federal government have the power?’ The federal government has absolute power. It has the power. As to whether or not I’ll use that power, we’ll see. I would rather, John, I would rather work with the states because I like going down to a local government. That’s why with, I guess it’s now seven states, not eight, because South Carolina did you know they went away from what we discussed the last time, so that’s why I looked at the individual states. They’re doing a very good job, they’re really doing a very good job. I’d rather have them make the decision. Now, the fact that I’d rather have, that’s fine. But I have the absolute right to do, if I want to. I may not want to.

And just to put the icing on the cake, the vice president agrees with the president:

Q: It sounds like you think his power is a little more circumscribed than ‘total?’

Pence: In the long history of this country, the authority of the president of the United States during national emergencies is unquestionably plenary [complete power; without limitations; absolute].

I will not sleep well tonight. I’m not sure I will ever again.

Trumpoem #9

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

tremendous strides have been made
I think

the vaccines
we’ll have a report of that
but the vaccines

working together with other countries
we’re also working with other countries
many other countries
and we all want everyone else to be first

we’re very happy
but we are very far down the line on vaccines
we’ll see how that all works
Johnson & Johnson’s doing a great job
working very hard

a vaccine would be great therapy
a therapy
therapeutics would be great
we’ll see what happens

in the meantime
you may listen to what I said
about the two drugs mentioned

#TrumPoems are 100% verbatim, straight from the horse’s mouth – this one comes from yesterday’s press briefing. Now, maybe that’s correct, maybe it’s false; you’re going to have to check it out.

more snake oil

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

Trump, selling a new kind of snake oil at tonight’s press briefing:

The other thing that we bought a tremendous amount of is the hydroxychloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, which I think, as you know, it’s a great malaria drug; it’s worked unbelievably; it’s a powerful drug on malaria and there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs; and in the meantime, it’s been around a long time; it also works very powerfully on lupus, lupus, so there are some very strong, powerful signs; we’ll have to see because again it’s being tested; now, this is a new thing that just happened to us, the invisible enemy, we call it, and if you can, if you have a, uh, no sign of heart problems, the azithromycin, azithromycin, which will kill certain things that you don’t want living within your body, it’s a powerful drug if you don’t have a problem, a heart problem we would say; let your doctor think about it but, as a combination I think they’re going to be, I think they’re two things that should be looked at very strongly; now, we have purchased, and we have stockpiled, 29 million pills of the hydroxychloroquine, 29 million; a lot of drug stores have them by prescription and, also, and, they’re not expensive; also, we’re sending them to various labs, our military, we’re sending them to the hospitals, we’re sending them all over; I just think it’s something, you know the expression, I’ve used it for certain reasons: “What do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?” and a lot of people are saying that, when, and, are taking it; if you’re a doctor, a nurse, a first responder, a medical person going into hospitals, they say taking it before the fact is good but, what do you have to lose? They say, take it. I’m not looking at it one way or the other, but we want to get out of this. If it does work, it would be a shame if we didn’t do it early, but we have some very good signs, so that’s hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin; and, again, you have to go through your medical people, get the approval, but I’ve seen things that I sort of like, so, what do I know, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a doctor but I have common sense; the FDA feels good about it; as you know, they’ve approved it, they gave it a rapid approval, and, the reason, because it’s been out there for a long time and they know the side effects and they also know the potential; so, based on that, we have sent it throughout the country and we have it stockpiled, about 29 million doses, 29 million doses; we have a lot of it; we hope it works

Although he’s barely intelligible at the best of times, that could only have been an advertisement.

snake oil

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

Trump, selling snake oil at yesterday’s press briefing:

Last Saturday the FDA also gave emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine and, the hydroxychloroquine is a, I hope it’s going to be a very important answer; we’re having some very good things happening with it, and we’re going to be distributing it through the strategic national stockpile; it’s going into the strategic national stockpile to treat certain patients, and we have millions and millions of doses of it, 29 million, to be exact; in addition to that, we’re making it, and we’re also getting it from various other locations and countries and, in one case, I called Prime Minister Modi of India this morning; they make large amounts of hydroxychloroquine, very large amounts, frankly, and I said, they had a hold because, you know, they have 1.5 billion people, and they think a lot of it, and I said I’d appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered, and they are giving it serious consideration; but they do make, India makes a lot of it; but we have already 29 million, if you look, and that’s a big number, 29 million doses, we’ve got millions of doses that are being made here and many millions of doses that are made elsewhere that are being shipped here, and it will be arriving; we’re just hearing really positive stories and, we’re continuing to collect the data but, I’ll just speak for myself, it’s been out for a long time; it’s a malaria drug; it’s also a drug for lupus and there’s a, there’s a study out that people with lupus aren’t catching this horrible virus, they’re not affected so much by it; now, maybe that’s correct, maybe it’s false; you’re going to have to check it out, but there’s a lot of very positive things happening with that; that’s a game-changer, if that’s the case

Even if this didn’t make him sound as if he and everyone he knows has bought up all the stock in companies that manufacture hydroxychloroquine (and it really does sound like that), how is it at all ethical for the president of the United States to go on television and repeat an unfounded rumor that people with the autoimmune disease lupus aren’t affected by COVID-19 because they’re prescribed hydroxychloroquine? He’s been selling this snake oil since mid-May, and now it’s going into the national stockpile? If this doesn’t turn into the biggest insider trading scandal of all time, I’ll eat my boots.

the end

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

This is how the conclusion of Trump’s prepared remarks for yesterday’s press briefing were scripted:

I want to thank the American people most of all for the selfless sacrifices that they are making for our nation, and I want to encourage everyone to keep following our guidelines on slowing the spread. Sustaining this war effort is the patriotic duty of every citizen. While we may be more physically distant for a time, we’re closer together in the heart and in the spirit, and through this great national unity we will conquer the disease and restore our nation to its full and glorious might.

Setting aside for the moment how much that sounds like something Mussolini’s speech writer might have come up with, it would have been a pretty solid conclusion even if Trump had delivered it in his usual bored monotone.

Here’s how Trump’s ad-libs watered it down to a weird hash of run-on sentences, barely glued together with “but” or “and” or sometimes a vaguely muttered “um”:

I want to thank the American people most of all for the selfless sacrifices that they are making for our nation – I know it’s not pleasant, although some people have said they’ve gotten to know their family better and they love their family more than ever; that’s a beautiful thing; they’ve actually gotten to know them; they’re in the same house with their family for a long time; I guess it can also go the other way perhaps, but we don’t want to talk about that – and I want to encourage everyone to keep following our guidelines on slowing the spread sustaining this war effort is – and that’s what it is, it’s a war effort – it is the patriotic duty of every citizen while we may be more physically distant for a time we’re closer together in the heart and in the spirit and through this great national unity – it’s happening; we’re having a great unity developing that a lot of people didn’t think would be possible to develop like this – we will conquer the disease and restore our nation to its full and glorious might – and we’re doing really well, and I’m very proud of everybody out there; we’re very proud of you; it’s something that nobody could have ever projected; it’s been over 100 years that a thing like this has happened, and the problem with this one is that the contagion, it’s so contagious; nobody’s ever seen anything like that, where it’s so contagious; you can be feet away, and just talking to somebody, and catch it, you can catch it, you know how long it can live on surfaces; so things that nobody even thought of, the level of contagion; so we’re getting there; we’re going to make sure that it’s over soon; and just keep going; it’s not going to be long; and thank you very much.

Listening to it was even worse than having to read it. Most of the time he seemed bored, and frequently he seemed hardly lucid, like when rambled, “the problem with this one is that the contagion, it’s so contagious; nobody’s ever seen anything like that, where it’s so contagious; you can be feet away, and just talking to somebody, and catch it, you can catch it, you know how long it can live on surfaces; so things that nobody even thought of, the level of contagion.” That kind of babble from any seventy-three-year-old crank would make me slowly back away as I nodded agreement, “Sure, yeah, so contagious, it really is, well, it’s been nice talking but I’ve got to go …”

infested

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

Trump’s bigoted rants aren’t going to stop. He’s going to keep on ranting and he’s going to get more offensively racist with each rant. How much longer are we going to put up with a blatantly racist president?

DRT rants about Cummings 7-27-29

concentration

~ Dave O ~ Leave a comment

A congressional delegation inspected facilities operated by the Customs and Border Patrol agency where asylum-seekers were being held in inhumane conditions. The delegation included Pete Aguilar (CA31), Joaquin Castro (TX20), Judy Chu (CA27), Madeleine Dean (PA4), Veronica Escobar (TX16), Sylvia Garcia (TX29), Joe Kennedy (MA4) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY14), Ayanna Pressley (MA7), Rashida Tlaib (MI13), Norma Torrez (CA35), Greg Stanton (AZ9), Lori Trahan (MA3), and Marc Veasey (TX33).

Joaquin Castro: “At the El Paso Border Patrol Station #1, women from Cuba, some grandmothers, crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands with. Concrete floors, cinder-block walls, steel toilets. Many said they had not bathed for 15 days. Some had been separated from children, some had been held for more than 50 days. Several complained they had not received their medications, including one for epilepsy. They asked us to take down their names and let everyone know they need help. They also feared retribution. We then went to the Clint Border Patrol Station that warehouses children and some parents. The tents outside, used during the surge recently, were dark and surrounded by chain link fences. The showers — mobile units — were dank, dirty and only too small in number for the hundreds of people there just a few weeks ago. And a boy, perhaps three years old, pressed his face against the dirty glass of a locked steel door. He smiled big and tried to talk to us through the thick glass. His family — or another — ate Ramen on the floor a few feet away.”

Judy Chu: “We just left the El Paso border patrol station … what we saw was appalling and disgusting. We talked to a group of women, detainees who said that they didn’t have running water, that one was an epileptic and she couldn’t get her medication. They were separated from their children. They’d been there over 50 days. One woman said that the border patrol agent told her if she wanted water, just to drink from a toilet … There seriously has to be some change.”

Madeleine Dean: “Just left the first CBP facility. The conditions are far worse than we ever could have imagined. 15 women in their 50s- 60s sleeping in a small concrete cell, no running water. Weeks without showers. All of them separated from their families. This is a human rights crisis. We were met with hostility from the guards, but this is nothing compared to their treatment of the people being held.
The detainees are constantly abused and verbally harassed with no cause. Deprived physically and dehumanized mentally – everyday. This is a human rights issue.”

Joe Kennedy: “Spent the morning in TX at Clint and El Paso detention facilities. Big takeaways — 1) CBP was very resistant to Congressional oversight. They tried to restrict what we saw, take our phones, block photos and video. Atmosphere was contentious and uncooperative. 2) Facilities are wholly inadequate. Cells maxed to capacity, concrete floors … It felt jail-like. No way to keep a child or innocent human being. Group of 13 women from Cuba were in tears when we spoke with them.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Just left the 1st CBP facility. I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress. After I forced myself into a cell w/ women & began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as “psychological warfare” — waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a “lack of funding?” Now I’m on my way to Clint, where the Trump admin was denying children toothpaste and soap. This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals. What’s haunting is that the women I met with today told me in no uncertain terms that they would experience retribution for telling us what they shared. They all began sobbing — out of fear of being punished, out of sickness, out of desperation, lack of sleep, trauma, despair.”

Rashida Tlaib: “We can’t just focus on the children anymore. I met grandmothers, mothers and fathers who are suffering. This is devastating. The look in one father’s eyes broke me. I can’t look away. A little boy not more than 4 years old asked me where his Papa was through a glass door. An Abuela hasn’t seen her grandson in 40 days & has no idea where he is. A woman, pregnant w/ her first child, just wants to be w/ her family in FL. A father teared up telling me that his wife, 8 yr old daughter & 14 yr old son have been sleeping on concrete floors in a tent for 4 days. They haven’t been able to shower, no real food (chips & juice boxes) & so scared of being separated.”