Starker on 6/9/2020 at 06:28
Meanwhile, Project Lincoln insinuates Lord Dampnut has trouble keeping his ratings up.
[video=youtube;hjydniIywzc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjydniIywzc[/video]
And by "insinuates", I mean "gleefully rubs it in". And by ratings, they of course mean...
Inline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/oUTPPTd.jpgThough, it looks like there is no shortage of perfect metaphors in 2020:
Quote:
(
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-engineering-report-finds-privately-built-border-wall-will-fail)
It's not a matter of if a privately built border fence along the shores of the Rio Grande will fail, it's a matter of when, according to a new engineering report on the troubled project.
The report is one of two new studies set to be filed in federal court this week that found numerous deficiencies in the 3-mile border fence, built this year by North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel. The reports confirm earlier reporting from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, which found that segments of the structure were in danger of overturning due to extensive erosion if not fixed and properly maintained. Fisher dismissed the concerns as normal post-construction issues.
Donations that paid for part of the border fence are at the heart of an indictment against members of the We Build the Wall nonprofit, which raised more than $25 million to help President Donald Trump build a border wall.
Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, We Build the Wall founder Brian Kolfage and two others connected to the organization are accused of siphoning donor money to pay off personal debt and fund lavish lifestyles. All four, who face up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts they face, have pleaded not guilty, and Bannon has called the charges a plot to stop border wall construction.
[...]
heywood on 9/9/2020 at 12:24
Yep, there really is no bottom:
(
https://apnews.com/01d363af809beb6cf32a92598313d2a5) DOJ asks to defend Trump in rape accuser's defamation suit
People were already accusing Bill Barr of being Trump's private attorney. But I assumed he'd at least try to avoid doing things that make it so blatantly apparent.
demagogue on 9/9/2020 at 12:40
Note that they're arguing his statements (insisting why he couldn't have raped a woman because she's not his type) should get immunity because they were within the scope of his authority as president, as if that's something the constitution expects presidents to do as part of their job, insult their rape accusers. And if Trump loses the suit, they want it to be indemnified by the gov't, that is, they want taxpayers to pay for Trump's defamation of his rape accuser.
That's disgusting, of course, but that said, if they somehow rigged it so that only very religious evangelical Christians that voted for Trump were forced to pay for his crimes, torts, abortions, and damages for his rape victims, I might support that, as it would at last accurately represent where their loyalties and values really lie at the end of the day.
Nicker on 9/9/2020 at 15:23
Well he's emptied a lot of the campaign slush-fund into legal bills already so he needs some legal welfare to get him to election night. It's only fair, with all those peasants getting money for hovels and moldy bread...
Nicker on 9/9/2020 at 21:42
I think this deserves to be in both threads...
Trump knew the dangers of COVID19 and lied about it.
[video=youtube;YWeRz9pM0M0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWeRz9pM0M0&t=2s[/video]
Starker on 9/9/2020 at 23:44
Well, at least there's the answer to whether it was malice or incompetence -- as usual, a little bit of category A, a little bit of category B, and a huge helping of short-sighted self-interest on top.
...aaand the Lincoln Project has already capitalised on it:
(
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1303761269455904768)
Nicker on 10/9/2020 at 06:08
As fucked up as this is, just as fucked up is Woodward sitting on this for 6 months. What the fuck, Bob?
demagogue on 10/9/2020 at 08:30
The news is an excerpt from his newest book Rage, the text of which was just released.
Edit: Well that's not the real answer and not really justifiable for sitting on important news the public should know about. The real answer is in this article (he didn't know what, if anything, to believe about what Trump was saying, if he could even be sure he was understanding Trump's world salad version of it correctly, which is sadly a really credible answer): (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/should-bob-woodward-have-reported-trumps-virus-revelations-sooner-heres-how-he-defends-his-decision/2020/09/09/6bd7fc32-f2d1-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html)
In the bigger picture, the WHO had already gave notice of an international emergency on Jan. 30. Anybody that cared about following health news would have known about it from that, not not earlier from their own notifications and research going back to Jan. 20 and earlier. Trump is not the proper channel, much less via a journalist interviewing him for a book, for anything to do with a global response to a serious pandemic. You can say the proper channels failed in how they should have worked. E.g., the CDC should have allowed the branch labs to get exemptions on testing restrictions and local officials power to take early measures that could have started measures up in mid-Jan. like key people wanted to and could have arguably done. Or something like that.
Starker on 10/9/2020 at 15:09
On one hand, I'm inclined to agree, especially with the word salad part making it hard to take anything the guy says seriously. And most people already kind of knew Lord Dampnut was full of it and downplaying the threat for his own ends.
On the other hand, though, the tapes made it very clear that Lord Dampnut fully knew the threat the pandemic posed. He just didn't care and then he knowingly lied about it and worked against measures to contain it to not upset the stock market or whatever. This is not a small thing. Yes, he's clearly not a trustworthy source of information, not least because he lies all the time, but as difficult as it may seem to accept, not everybody knows (or wants to admit) that. People in this very forum tried to parrot his talking points that COVID was no worse than the flu or that the economic damage of containing it would be too great. It's quite likely that these lies cost more lives on top of the incompetent handling of the pandemic.
Nicker on 10/9/2020 at 15:39
I am not placing responsibility on Woodward to communicate medical information to the public. The critical information he withheld was Trump's knowledge of the seriousness of the threat and Trump's choice to downplay the danger while actively refuting the prevention practices which he knew could save lives.
This is the smoking gun of Trump's malice and negligence. This was important, timely information. If the public had been given clear evidence, in February, that Trump was lying about the need for and effectiveness of mitigation, more lives might have been saved and deep rooted backlash like anti-maskers in the USA and abroad, might not be as prevalent.