Memories...

Remember when we had a competent and very cool president?  Not the fucking buffoon we have now.

Shoot your shot. https://t.co/XdZz4dh82T pic.twitter.com/elpBmzu6hV

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 31, 2020

Madame Tussauds Dumping Trump

 Taking out the garbage in Berlin.  

Trump Is Killing His Own MAGA Faithful

Trump doesn't care if his MAGA followers get Covid-19 and die.  As long as he gets worshiped by the mob at the event, he feels no guilt or remorse for the damage he is doing to his own supporters.

According to a new study from Stanford University, President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies have resulted in 30,000 COVID-19 infections that would not have happened otherwise — and 700 of the infected people died.

New @Stanford study estimates that 18 Trump rallies have led to 30,000 COVID cases and 700 deaths 

(via @AaronBelkin) https://t.co/zcR4yKwnEl pic.twitter.com/1yaPivbYFS

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) October 31, 2020

Silence Trump - Just Takes a A Flick of the Wrist

 The perfect way to turn off the Trump noise machine.

Uncle Joe, this is a brilliant ad. @JoeBiden pic.twitter.com/Va0gGSzmzn

— the greg (@mistergeezy) October 29, 2020

Trump's Version of "Herd Immunity" Is Racist To Its Core

Trump never intended to deal with the pandemic.  He saw it as a distraction from his reelection effort and did everything possible to place responsibility onto the states.  To achieve that, he first sidelined the CDC, removing the world's leading public health organization from its designed role on the front lines of the pandemic response to an almost invisible public role.  And, even that diminished role was subject to oversight by Trump toadies to insure the CDC did nothing to contradict Trump's incorrect or deliberately false public statements.

Trump implemented his Covid-19 task force to insure that his message regarding the pandemic was the message provided to the public.  On that task force, Trump marginalized the experts and for a time made himself the public face of the federal government response.  He minimized the Covid-19 risks, promised almost immediate vaccines and attacked state and local officials who implemented quarantines, social distancing and mask requirements.  

Ultimately, Trump turned away from the knowledgeable public health professionals complete and put his faith in Scott Atlas, a doctor, but not an epidemiologist.  Atlas is a proponent of "herd immunity," which proposes to let the pandemic run it course.  His assumption is the once a sufficiently large percentage of Americans have had the virus, the pandemic will be under control.  No actual epidemiologist or public health specialist believes that herd immunity is the right path to follow.  They recognize that achieving herd immunity would result in hundreds of thousands of additional deaths and potentially leave a vast numbers of Covid-19 survivors with long term physical disabilities.  

Despite publicly downplaying it, President Donald Trump and his team of White House advisers have embraced the controversial belief that herd immunity will help control the COVID-19 outbreak, according to three senior health officials working with the White House coronavirus task force. More worrisome for those officials: they have begun taking steps to turn the concept into policy.

...those working on the government’s COVID response say that the attempts by the White House and Atlas to steer clear from using the phrase “herd immunity” are merely a game of semantics. Privately, one of those sources said, the actual policy pursuits have been crafted around a plainly herd immunity approach; mainly, that the government should prioritize protecting the vulnerable while allowing “everyone else to get infected,” that source said.

Even as Trump and Atlas pursue herd immunity, they are making no effort to the protect vulnerable.  And, I think there is a simple Trumpian reason for that - racism.  The most vulnerable Americans are Black, Hispanic and Indigenous (including Pacific Islanders).  Trump is willing to deal with the deaths of quite a few white grandmas and grandpas, if the result is twice as many dead Black Americans.  

Trump - "incompetent political tourist"

Time for Trump to go.  His presidency has been a disaster for our country and the world.  It's something that was obvious well before his election to the office based on an arcane 233 year old process that denies the will of the majority of voters.  This article build a personal case for Trump's defeat, but it also identifies the MAGA hat wearing enablers that helped boost this failure of a human being to his minority victory.

His relationship with his disciples is a match made in hell, given that his Red Hat fanboys have an equally stunted view of the presidency. I assure you, they'd never allow Trump-style behavior from their doctors, their kids' teachers or, hell, their airline pilots. If they hadn't been so badly brainwashed by the conservative entertainment complex, they never would have gifted the nuclear codes and the immense power of the presidency to such an unstable, erratic, incompetent political tourist who has utterly failed to grow into the job and rise to the occasion — who has failed to accept the intense gravity of his post.

Is Santa's Pushing Vaccine?

The Trump gang has confirmed that it intends to let Covid-19 run amuck in the US.  They are going to let the body count and medical damage to those that don't die run its course.  Trump will take credit for vaccines that real doctors and scientists have made an historic effort to get tested and approved and he will take credit for therapeutics that medical professionals have found to be useful in treating the virus.  But, if another 100,000 or 200,000 die... He's good with that.  

So it's not surprising that one of his hand selected goons came up the plan to promote the hopefully upcoming Covid-19 vaccine through shopping mall Santas and their helpers.   Fortunately the plan has been abandoned for the time being.

The Trump administration has discontinued a $250 million advertising campaign aimed at promoting COVID-19 vaccinations that included a plan to offer Santa Claus performers early access to a vaccine in exchange for their help convincing the public to get vaccinated.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that, according to audio recordings of discussion of the plan, the deal would have been available to Mrs. Claus and elf performers, too. The idea was conceived by embattled Health and Human Services assistant secretary Michael Caputo prior to his leave of absence after a public meltdown last month in which he accused CDC scientists of sabotaging the Trump administration’s pandemic response.

The segment of the population at the most risk from Covid-19 doesn't seem to be the group most likely to be sitting on Santa's lap in December.  And, the plan to compensate Santa and his elves with early access to a vaccine that will be in short supply at first instead of emergency and health care professions and elder care residents seems a bit short sighted.

This is how Trump responds to the country's most significant health crisis in a century.  Give away vital medicine to Santa Claus.