Trump

[morepork]

Public health 101 from King Donnell:

"There’s a chance that it could get worse,” Trump said. “There’s a chance that it could get fairly, substantially worse. But I don’t think it’s inevitable ... there’s a chance that it won’t spread."

“We’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner,”


Everybody got that? For a real belt-and-braces approach to the chance of it getting fairly, substantially worse, the King has put Mike Pence in charge of preparedness. This is the same piece of human furniture that tried paying away an HIV epidemic in Indiana before evetually being compelled to admit that a clean needle exchange program was the only thing standing between achieving HIV rates of infection that would be the envy of sub-Saharan Africa.

Donnell reassures the public re: Pence:

"Everybody who knows anything about health care, they look at Indiana," he said. "They’ve established a great health care (in Indiana) … a lot of other states have looked to. They wanted to change their health care systems."

[Digby]

In saying that Trump followed a CDC expert by a matter of moments who said they'd have a vaccine in 18 months or so

[Digby]

Panic over, Mike Pence is in charge of the US response to Coronavirus and. Although I don't know how much we can mock, here our cabinet continues to refuse to talk to the BBC, exactly what you'd want at the onset of a possible pandemic. But to stick with the US Trump has outsourced responsibility, despite having previously resolved the problem, and health officials have their task, which is to ensure nobody blames Trump for anything.

It's not yet confirmed if Pence will deny treatment to drugs users and gays

[belgarion]

Panic over, Mike Pence is in charge of the US response to Coronavirus and. Although I don't know how much we can mock, here our cabinet continues to refuse to talk to the BBC, exactly what you'd want at the onset of a possible pandemic. But to stick with the US Trump has outsourced responsibility, despite having previously resolved the problem, and health officials have their task, which is to ensure nobody blames Trump for anything.

The bit about talking to the BBC may be true but they have spoken to the media & told the public what is going on, what to do etc.

It's not yet confirmed if Pence will deny treatment to drugs users and gays

That maybe true but they have spoken to the media and informed the public about what is going on, how the NHS is doing/will do, what the public should do etc.

[morepork]

Mike Pence is gagging the CDC and vetting all information provided to the public. He doesn't need science as he has the Lord's Force pulsing through his purple headed love warrior.

He is also likely vetting the Trumpet in case he, you know, says something stupid out loud.

[Digby]

Mike Pence is gagging the CDC and vetting all information provided to the public. He doesn't need science as he has the Lord's Force pulsing through his purple headed love warrior.

He is also likely vetting the Trumpet in case he, you know, says something stupid out loud.

When does he start quarantining anyone he thinks might be from of have family from Asia?

[morepork]

Tell him people from India are Asian and watch his mechanism struggle to process it.

[Digby]

I was tempted to simply say yellow people in tribute to Donny, I assume he'd think his own orange tone is suitably white

[Banquo]

Deal done with the Taliban. Seems....odd.

[Digby]

Trump in backing rapists shock. Though in truth there's no way out of this that doesn't involve them

[WaspInWales]

Deal done with the Taliban. Seems....odd.

Another draw? Vietnam 2.0?

[Sandydragon]

Trump in backing rapists shock. Though in truth there's no way out of this that doesn't involve them

Quite. Whether this will hold is another matter, but the very significant support the Taleban has amongst the Pashtun must be factored into any peace deal. Hopefully it works out.

[Galfon]

Deal done with the Taliban. Seems....odd.

Another draw? Vietnam 2.0?

18 years - DT wants out..it must be a success.

[Banquo]

Deal done with the Taliban. Seems....odd.

They've been making deals with them for ages.

that so- like this one?

[Banquo]

They've been making deals with them for ages.

that so- like this one?

They've been doing a lot of prisoner and hostage exchanges for years. How do you think the US got Bowe Berghdahl back?

Entirely different sort of ‘deal’ I’d think. I was merely highlighting the significance of this move, especially in a Trumpian context.

[Digby]

Buttigieg out ahead of the mass voting on Tuesday. Taking a view the effect of him remaining in the race would have when he's not going to be the nominee, but resolves to work hard to seek a Democratic win (learning from Bernie's mistake, or just not being as daft to begin with)

[Banquo]

Buttigieg out ahead of the mass voting on Tuesday. Taking a view the effect of him remaining in the race would have when he's not going to be the nominee, but resolves to work hard to seek a Democratic win (learning from Bernie's mistake, or just not being as daft to begin with)

must have boosted Joe's chances.

[Digby]

Buttigieg out ahead of the mass voting on Tuesday. Taking a view the effect of him remaining in the race would have when he's not going to be the nominee, but resolves to work hard to seek a Democratic win (learning from Bernie's mistake, or just not being as daft to begin with)

must have boosted Joe's chances.

Over to Bloomberg to see if he cares about that, and indeed to Warren and Sanders (really Warren given the majority want the bloke with the less impressive policy and detail background) to jump on the other side

[paddy no 11]

Pete's numbers weren't so bad that he needed to drop out yet, Biden gets the swing

C'mon Bernie

[Digby]

Pete seemingly figured if he wasn't in it to win it then get out of the way. Why the establishment would be rowing in behind Biden I've no idea

[gransoporro]

Pete's numbers weren't so bad that he needed to drop out yet, Biden gets the swing

C'mon Bernie

Buttigieg thought he had no path to the nomination, and did not want to split the moderate field, which would favor Sanders.

Same for Klobuchar.

So now the moderate field has Biden and Bloomberg only, with both Buttigieg and Klobuchar supporting Biden.

Keep in mind that there is still the chance of a brokered Democratic convention, and Buttigieg could come up as a white knight because of his early drop and early success. I heard Senator Brown is groomed for that role as well, but frankly it is too Byzantine for me to follow these scenarios.

We will see what happens tomorrow and what Warren and Bloomberg will do if they are in single digit, low tens.

[gransoporro]

Pete seemingly figured if he wasn't in it to win it then get out of the way. Why the establishment would be rowing in behind Biden I've no idea

This is the moderate wing compacting, not the establishment. It is always about an electable candidate to beat Trump. Biden always had those credentials, shaken by the initial lack of success. The landslide in SC showed a return to that belief.

[Digby]

Pete seemingly figured if he wasn't in it to win it then get out of the way. Why the establishment would be rowing in behind Biden I've no idea

This is the moderate wing compacting, not the establishment. It is always about an electable candidate to beat Trump. Biden always had those credentials, shaken by the initial lack of success. The landslide in SC showed a return to that belief.

I find it hard to concede Biden has much in the way of any credentials, a poor speaker with a poor background in policy and seemingly no ideas. He's very similar to Trump, bar he at least doesn't seem a piece of shit as a human being

[gransoporro]

Pete seemingly figured if he wasn't in it to win it then get out of the way. Why the establishment would be rowing in behind Biden I've no idea

This is the moderate wing compacting, not the establishment. It is always about an electable candidate to beat Trump. Biden always had those credentials, shaken by the initial lack of success. The landslide in SC showed a return to that belief.

I find it hard to concede Biden has much in the way of any credentials, a poor speaker with a poor background in policy and seemingly no ideas. He's very similar to Trump, bar he at least doesn't seem a piece of shit as a human being

I find it hard to find ways Biden is similar to Trump.

He is not my favorite candidate, but who am I to judge. He has those credentials with the democratic voters. That is all that counts.

There are also factors like:
Sanders followers are trumpians in methods.
Sanders campaign is favored by the Russians, like Trump.
Sanders is Trump’s preferred democrat candidate.

All reasons to prefer another candidate over Sanders for the moderates. And Biden is the only credible one, from the look of it.

[Digby]

Klobuchar and Butigieg both look much more credible to me than Biden, if there is to be a standard bearer it'd be better to find one who can bear things. Biden barely had any cash on hand, so if this isn't the party apparatus falling in behind the former VP its hard to know what it is