On top of what Betty said below, the other thing to keep in mind is that not only is it not his fucking decision to make, but it also doesn’t matter what he says because people are not going to “re-open” the country until they feel safe.
All this premature “re-opening” the country bullshit is about is blame shifting to the governors and telling his buddies in big business it’s ok to start firing people for not showing up, and signalling to everyone that there ain’t no more money coming. That is it.
Universities and colleges and public schools are still going to listen to actual medical experts and scientists, and the majority of people will continue to act like this thing can kill them, BECAUSE IT CAN AND WILL despite whatever Trump’s panel of dipshits decree.
Trump simply is not in control of the situation in any way, shape, or form, and that is both good and bad. It sucks that the power of the federal government can’t be harnessed and used to fight this. On the other hand, it is good that the public isn’t going to pay attention to this doofus because we’re not just talking about shitting on immigrants and making hand-signs anymore. This is life or death, and most people get that.
BobS
Fat Bastard is melting down on tv right now.
Waldo
@BobS: I’m picturing Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies — and thinking he would be a big improvement.
Urza
An odd thought I’ve been having. What happens if Red states open back up, and Blue states tend to stay closed awhile longer? Is it a significant hit to the economies? What happens when new infection waves start? And barring anything miraculous, does anything change after state level elections later in the year because the people agree or disagree with how things were handled.
BobS
@Waldo: Fat Bastard, Jabba the Hut, Kasper Gutmen- any of them would be an improvement.
Ten Bears
All the wind has gone out of the bag.
Nice.
Elizabelle
Trump’s lying. All lies, and I just tuned in to see what BobS was seeing.
It’s so transparent. You would not buy a car, carpet, toupee or ginsu knife from this fool.
Making it entirely clear he has no idea of the science of viruses, pandemics, or federal responsibilities.
Cannot remind people he banned travel from China enough — maybe 3 mentions in five minutes.
evinfuilt
@Urza: We’ll find out. I’m 99% sure all those Red States will open, and have tons of tragic deaths. Our Federal laws will prevent states from stopping interstate travel, so that will effect all of us.
Then there’s the unfortunate souls in Georgia, who elected a bright official, who would have helped them all, but some demon took her job. They won’t deserve what he does to that state.
BobS
A fucking reporter just referred to what he’s doing as a “rant”.
MattF
@Elizabelle: He’s encountering Nemesis, aka ‘irrelevance’.
Elizabelle
“If you call CNN a network. I don’t, personally.”
He is such a whingeing lizard. Now he’s whingeing about Joe Biden — who was “going crazy.”
Called me a xenophobe, a racist.
I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives …
Woman is getting after him. He shames her for rudeness.
He is getting pushback. Lots of pushback.
Q: What did your administration do in February ….
You know you’re a fake. The way you cover it. The people are wise to you. Speaks of their ratings.
Says Biden wrote a letter of apology and Democrats thought Trump acted too quickly.
Reporter is right back at him: Biden did not write a letter.
khead
I am loving this press conference.
Democrats, Pelosi, Biden, oh my! Curious to know who gave him the Civil War talking point.
Elizabelle
Trump’s taking credit for closing.
[Which the governors and mayors did.]
He has saved us from a Civil War level catastrophe.
Speaking of a surge. “We’re ready to rock.”
Sloane Ranger
This “briefing” is a train wreck and car crash combined. Anyone not totally brain dead can see this is a deeply insecure man.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MisterForkbeard
@BobS: What, more so than previous meltdowns during his propaganda commercials?
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m just listening, because I cannot look at his orange lizard face.
Whingeing again that the states did not have their own stockpiles. Which is fucking ridiculous.
Everyone who needs a ventilator has gotten one.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What’s that last thing referring to?
Lapassionara
Thank you all for watching so I don’t have to.
I heard he ran a campaign commercial put together by WH employees. Does any law matter anymore?
Baud
Fauci carefully walked back his criticism.
Kent
It is actually likely to be the opposite. Blue States like WA, OR, and CA are actually ahead of the curve because they implemented measures first while red states like TX, FL, and GA are accelerating into the abyss because they took too long. Here in WA we may be ready to go back to work while places like TX and FL are still at peak crisis. WA which started out leading the nation in both cases and deaths is now down to a 1.8% daily increase in cases. The curve has nearly flattened and WA has dropped from 1st down to #13 among the states for numbers of infections.
Some blue states may be ready to go back to work but will have to wait until the red states catch up.
khead
“Just like we didn’t have ammunition, we didn’t have medical supplies. You can read about that.”
joel hanes
@Urza:
Iowa is still half-open: the schools are closed, but most businesses have been allowed to continue. Reynolds is walking a tightrope, and I can’t predict how it will turn out.
I’ve been watching the curves, but testing data is inadequate, and so far the data from Iowa COVID-19 deaths is not good enough to see what’s happening.
I expect that Florida is still headed for a high peak that DeSantis will continue to do everything in his power to obscure, but deaths are a matter of public record, and eventually, the truth will out.
Elizabelle
Why can’t we sterilize or sanitize these masks? He kept asking.
Not something that ever occurred to medical professionals. But Trump knew. And there’s a company in Ohio that can do just that.
Per Trump, we are about drowning in supplies. Blaming Obama for a depleted stockpile.
Pro Publica looked into that. Blamed it squarely on the Tea Party.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
“You know you’re a fake.”
“You know you’re unpresidential.”
rk
We got our first case of COVID in the lab. A phlebotomist. He’s home and hopefully recovers without any complications. I was in direct contact with him, but that was over 3 weeks ago. But he was training with others in the lab. We’re together with the phlebotomists who go to draw blood from COVID patients all the time. So even though we don’t have direct patient contact, we’re not entirely unexposed. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed.
Hospitals in hard hit areas are barely managing. Open up everything and they will collapse. I don’t know how people are even talking about opening things up.
Evil_Paul
Interesting how just a week ago he was saying the pandemic is the States’ problem and the Federal government is only there as a backup. But now, after openly abdicating his leadership role, he thinks he can step back in and order the States to re-open?
Even if he had that authority, he publicly gave it up.
Sab
@Urza: In Ohio, the Governor said today that liquor stores in five counties on the PA border have to check ids. If you can’t prove you live in Ohio then you can’t buy booze here. Youngstown on the border is getting hit hard by the virus.
Librarian
Even if it’s not his decision, he can still do a lot of damage.
James E Powell
@Sloane Ranger:
I think I see what our problem is.
Elizabelle
I am catching this shitshow via C-Span online.
Where are you guys watching? Who is airing this ridiculous performance.
He cannot blame the governors enough. And we are testing more than anyone in the rest of the world.
Lies, lies, lies.
PenAndKey
The states can’t stop interstate commerce, but travel within the state by anyone else, and mandatory quarantines as decided by the state, are explicitly a state power.
Elizabelle
@James E Powell: LOL. You are not wrong.
BobS
@MisterForkbeard: Fair point, but he seems pretty agitated, and more defensive than usual.
I’d love for a reporter to ask Fauci if the timeline in the campaign commercial was an accurate depiction.
sixthdoctor
@Elizabelle: It’s amazing that despite his criminal incompetence, his virulent racism, his cartoonish levels of corruption, and his constant criminal activity, what I really find unbelievable about him day to day is that he is such a damn crybaby…
Lapassionara
@Kent: I don’t see how any state opens back up until there is a robust testing system with contact tracing in place.
Elizabelle
At this point, the car he is trying to sell you — the tires are deflating before your eyes, and there goes the radiator.
Wait? Is that a fender falling off?
Baud
@sixthdoctor:
His brand is grievance.
Elizabelle
He could auction this shit. He’s pressure speaking.
NotMax
Just the last verse is sufficient.
;)
Elizabelle
@sixthdoctor: I think of him as the Whinge Lizard.
And he is looking more lizardly than lizards these days. Orange lizards.
bemused
@MisterForkbeard:
He’s talking so fast and actually able to read his notes, he’s gotta be pumped up by pep pills.
khead
IamnowjustmakingsuretoreadwhatevertheygavemetoreadheretodayafterIwentbonkersonreport
ersduringthefirstpartofthepressconference.
Elizabelle
He’s been working on this so long. It’s been forever.
BobS
More reporters seem to have realized that they receive accolades for calling out his bullshit in real time.
Ramalama
Wasn’t it the NBA that made people sit up and exclaim WHOA? I’d add them to the list of resisters along with schools…
Kent
I agree. I’m just pointing out that blue states are further ahead on the curve then red states right now.
Look at the NYT map of where the outbreak is still accelerating the fastest: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html scroll down to the second map and compare the south to the west coast.
Elizabelle
@bemused: I might start watching. Maybe he will self-immolate.
And now, another committee. With the most successful people in the country. Announcing it tomorrow.
2/5s of whom will be Ivanka and Jared.
Baud
Elizabelle
Trump is putting the lie to the statement that he cannot read.
He is reading. Bigly. Fastly. Out loud even.
Understanding, umm…..
Thanks Putin. Thanks leader of Saudi Arabia. Thanks President Lopez Obrador of Mexico. Pronounced the name correctly. Points for that.
BobS
@Ramalama: Indeed it was. Adam Silver deserves a lot of credit for pulling the collective head of the US out of it’s ass.
Elizabelle
@Ramalama: Yes. Kudos to the NBA. That was the big one.
Frances Perkins
Speaking of Trump’s corruption, there is a superb, carefully detailed account of the widespread corruption of the Trump Administration which everyone should read. see current edition of The American Prospect.
bemused
@Elizabelle:
I was just imagining what he’s been like behind the scenes today. Shudder.
debbie
@Lapassionara:
DeWine was warning businesses today to be careful about the tests they were ordering to use on their employees. Apparently, a lot of them are fake.
NotMax
@bemused
Railing, flailing, failing.
Lapassionara
@Kent: I saw where some states are getting together to move forward toward a more normal way of living, but I have not heard where they are going to get sufficient tests, etc. too bad we don’t have a federal government to handle these kinds of issues.
Mnemosyne
@Kent:
Our three governors announced today that CA, OR, and WA are forming a consortium to coordinate Covid-19 responses. United States of Cascadia, here we come! There’d better be a bear on the new flag, is all I’m sayin’. ?
Elizabelle
@bemused: Truly. This is what we see in public. Recorded for posterity.
His mediocre staff deserves whatever they had to put up with. Fauci, not.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Mickey Mouse holding aloft a salmon and an apple.
:)
BobS
@Mnemosyne: And a marijuana leaf.
Quaker in a Basement
Praise Jeebus, I’m retired and the house is paid for. There is an upside to being old.
Aleta
He’s playing the press, and they can’t help jumping for the bait, to stop them from doing so many stories on the timeline of his mistakes and the stress and infection of essential workers. To force a switch to reality-show anticipation: Torn Over Reopening Economy, Trump Says He Faces ‘Biggest Decision I’ve Ever Had to Make’ The president suggested he wanted to move soon (NYT). Trump spends Easter weekend pondering the ‘biggest … (CNN). White House denies Trump is considering firing Fauci (Post).
After the first thousand times he’s done this— “Trump says he will soon announce his decision on xyz.” “Is Trump about to fire Bcd?” — one can only scream.
Elizabelle
He’s bragging about the stock market.
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
Gee, if only there was some kind of federal agency that could monitor stuff like that. We could call it the Food and Drug … something.
/s
Elizabelle
Q: What provision in the Constitution gives the president the power to open up?
Trump is taking credit for the state lockdowns. “I let that happen.” He could have stopped it. But he let it happen.
Ruckus
@sixthdoctor:
I keep harping on the fact that his current development leaves him at about that of a 4 yr old brat. And between his personality defects, his base intelligence and his dementia, I’d say giving him 4 yrs old is being pretty damn generous.
Mnemosyne
@BobS:
Is it legal in Oregon, too? If not, they need to get on board.
Duane
@khead: Until now I thought Trumpov would start a war in another country, not here.
bemused
@Elizabelle:
Working with him would be any rational person’s worst nightmare. I don’t know how Fauci and Birx do this.
Elizabelle
“The POTUS has the authority to do what the POTUS has the authority to do.”
He’s backing the states up. Doing a job no one has ever done before.
If local government was not doing a good job “I would step in so fast.”
It’s all Trump.
Ramalama
Meanwhile, my Brother-in-law, Chicago Police, working at the jail dere, says 300 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. 1/3 of the police have it as well. I’m bloody nervous.
Friend of mine in Chicagoland who voted for Trump has a parent in long-care facility where… you can guess the Animal Farm types of things going on. Really and truly terrible treatment of the elderly and infirm. Friend blames the Democrats because governor.
Ugh on all sides.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Because he “allowed” it to drop by more than 300 points today?
Elizabelle
Trump’s vocabulary has been more expansive than I usually see. (Probably cuz I avoid him as much as possible.)
Anyway, he has been briefed and prepared for this one.
Ruckus
@khead:
Nice summary.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
“It will be the biggest, beautifullest economy ever.”
//
Elizabelle
@debbie: My sister and I were saying last night we think it best not to open our Merrill Lynch statements. We would just … rather not know. At this time.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
You’ll also sleep better at night.
waspuppet
Yeah but that’s a lot, isn’t it? I think he’s setting up to tell the governors “Well, I can’t stop you from keeping your orders in place, but I’m not signing another relief bill.” Then what?
Elizabelle
Trump: “Steve: do you want to talk about Phase Four?”
There’s a Phase One? Or Two, even?
James E Powell
@Elizabelle:
I took a look at twitter saw a lot of things like this:
“Trump kicked their asses! Best. Briefing. Ever.”
“Omg Trump just owned that podium today. Owned #CNN and other fake news.”
This country is filled to the brim with crazy people.
Elizabelle
The reporters will not let it go — Trump’s authority vs. the governors’.
Trump says his “authority is total. It’s total.”
Speaks of “Democrat governors.” They’ll get on the page. (My paraphrase.)
Gloomyjim
@Mnemosyne: Yes it is. And as an Oregonian I am surprisingly OK with a bear on flag.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
I just wonder what illegal drug he’s on so that the briefing and preparation had any effect.
Elizabelle
@James E Powell: Which is why you could not pay me to follow Twitter.
Filled with twits. My friends’ Facebook friends are as much as I can put up with.
Why should we amplify the words of the usual morons?
We are sticking to amplifying our moron in chief at the moment.
khead
“We inherited broken testing. Now we have great testing. I just spoke with the CEO at Abbott.”
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: He is sounding deranged. Not demented. Deranged.
I guess that’s … a step up.
dmsilev
(open up the Tweet to see CNN’s chyron. It has to be seen to be believed)
Edit: The chyron on this next clip is also good:
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Nitwitter-in-chief.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
What else would you use to compare the sane people to?
Elizabelle
Who is this young male reporter? He has asked some good questions.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: CNN chyron: “Trump melts down ….”
Good to see some getting a clue. But are they still running the presser??
Elizabelle
Female reporter re Trump’s authority quote: “That is not true. Who told you that was true?”
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: There’s actually a whole bunch, also including:
The chyron writer clearly has reached his or her limit.
Elizabelle
Chanel Rion just asked a question from the back of the room, standing there. She is with OAN. They do not have a seat. But she crashes the pressers anyway.
Trump now talking about how we’re getting ripped off by the WHO and World Trade. “I call them the Bobbsey Twins.”
NotMax
@dmsilev
Does the word dictator ring a bell?
//
Elizabelle
Paula Reid of CBS is the brave blonde reporter in the front row who does not let Trump lie to her face.
Elizabelle
Pence there, quietbragging that they are in charge at an unprecedented time. All 50 states have declared emergencies.
Well. Yeah.
joel hanes
I really wish that the yellow-coated California sub-species of grizzly had not been driven extinct. It’s weird having an extinct animal be a symbol of the state; like having the Great Auk be the state bird of Maine, or the Passenger Pigeon the state bird of Ohio.
Am I correct that none of California, Oregon, Washington have any grizzlies at all ? That’s the way I remember it.
Grizzlies really are pretty close to incompatible with human settlement of any density.
Here’s “Escudilla”, a chapter/essay from Aldo Leopold’s wonderful A Sand County Almanac
Elizabelle
Pence is wearing a tie striped with red and blue, with a little white. That’s diplomatic.
Trump in the usual red.
khead
I encourage folks out there to tell your friends to watch every coronavirus press conference each day during this crisis. Your friends are at home and have nothing better to do than watch and learn how our government works.
hueyplong
I don’t know how you all can watch these things in real time. I can’t go 10 seconds.
Elizabelle
Pence feels gratitude to the American people, the White House’s experts, the governors.
It’s gracious. Wholly beyond Trump. Kudos to Pence. He’s crediting Trump with the mitigation measures, but Pence has got to Pence.
Elizabelle
Q re whether the regional governors told Pence before their press conference what they would be announcing.
BobS
@Mnemosyne: I don’t know whether it’s legal or not, but it’s my impression that per capita usage in Oregon is as high as or higher than Washington or California.
WaterGirl
@khead: A word that goes beyond the boundaries of the site often causes issues on mobile devices. Since your edit window is over, I am going to make an edit.
Elizabelle
Pence word saladed the question, so the reporter repeated her question again. “Did they tell you?”
The Dangerman
@Elizabelle:
I think you meant “step in it so fast”.
This is kind of like that scene in “The Jerk”:
Son, this here is shit and that’s shinola (I wonder how close I have come; youtube, here I come).
As opposed to Trump, the Jerk-Off.
ETA: I wasn’t THAT close:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDXN7T3-Jrg
jl
Newsom said CA would start publicly discussing reopening plans in next few days. CA public health showed the real time CA epidemic models forecasts and historical tracking a few days ago, seem to be right on track for opening up around bogus Trump time table. Which is pure coincidence.
Maybe Newsom talking about plans several weeks before state knows whether that can be done on Trump’s schedule, and a full month before it most probably can start happening is not coincidence. Keep the toddler happy.
A lot of Red states try to do Trump’s insane big beautiful bang reopening, everything all at once, they are going to get re-hammered by a full blown repeat epidemic wave.
OTOH, will be plenty of people and organizations waiting at the courthouse door to file the cases the second Trump tries to exert his ‘total’ authority.
Elizabelle
A Brit asks about reopening and then a second wave. Trump agrees, that weighs on his mind.
The young male reporter asking another question for a colleague who was not able to be here. Second time I have heard that.
Is our press corpse learning?
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Over the weekend, I saw clips of Trump wearing a pink tie, clashing horribly with his orange face. Just no.
laura
@Mnemosyne: if you watched his ramble rally campaign propaganda episode today, could I please request that you tell us what this is NPD-wise? Is he president cornered rat, or I dont pay no never mind to sassy lady questions, or is it just a need to have a spotlight and the reassuring sound of his voice? Because I feel like I lost an IQ point for having caught a snip it of the presser
Duane
@Elizabelle: He’s backed them up all the way to a fifty state disaster declaration. Moving forward could look really ugly.
Elizabelle
Love it. Q re Michelle Obama got behind mail in voting. Today. In light of coronavirus.
Trump dodges the question. Asks it was absentee voting, and then dodged on hearing it was cuz of virus.
Elizabelle
@Duane: I know. “We’re underwater. All 50 states. At least 20 feet. No other administration has ever faced this.”
Elizabelle
John has put up a new blogpost.
On the same topic. Trump and his press conference. And he is not getting away with his bullshit.
jl
@Mnemosyne: Can we add NV? They’ve done a good public health job too, has a Democratic governor.
ID public health has been good too, but it is run by GOPers, so problems at the political level.
We need more states in on the deal.
Ruckus
@hueyplong:
I like my computer and TV. Smashing them with a hammer won’t solve anything so I don’t watch them at all. I don’t have the stomach, patience, desire, fortitude, enough BP medication…….
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Mnemosyne:
Damned straight it is legal here! I just got back from my local place of purveyance with some THC loaded gummies, taffy and caramels. I’m already well stocked with distillates for my pen and bong.
West coast is legal all the way!
jl
@laura: A politician who has seriously messed up everything says whatever to get through to the next week, then day, then hour, then minute, then next ten seconds. Sooner or later that approach reaches certain limits.
Trump is making so little sense he’s gone into the zone of saying self-contradictory whatever at the same time.
jl
@Elizabelle: “And he is not getting away with his bullshit.”
You mean Cole or the Trump admin?
khead
@WaterGirl:
Sorry about that. Didn’t think about what it would do to the site when I posted it.
laura
Another Scott
@rk: Hang in there.
Talking about Planning is one thing. Planning is a second thing. Implementing a Plan is a third thing. Adjusting a Plan based on changed circumstances if a fourth thing.
The trouble with all of this reporting about “planning to open” again is that it’s mixing all of those things up together and making a mess of the information that people need to know.
The press is complicit in this because they’ve trained themselves to have the attention span required to read a tweet and refuse to have the expertise needed to understand the real issues and to be able to sort mouth noises from information.
Grrr…
Our big boss said today that our return to the work site is going to be evidence-based and we’re going to be “fast followers” – we’re not going to be the pioneers with the arrows in their backs. I suspect most of the country is going to have the same attitude.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: I wouldn’t buy a shovelful of manure from this orange shitpile.
catclub
@NotMax: Bear and the Pope shitting in the woods.
rk
@Another Scott:
The CEO of my daughter’s company has tentatively set the first week of June as when they physically go back to work. That’s subject to change. He’s apparently taking advice from an epidemiologist. It helps that the company has a lot of PhDs working for them. My daughter’s friend’s boss however has somehow managed to get his company designated as essential (it’s a very small law firm). He insists that people come to work three times a week. She can’t quit of course. But it makes my blood boil to even hear this.
This pandemic seems to be a battle between the morons vs the smart people.
catclub
I think you only learn that Trump is highly off-kilter from those, but NOT how the government works. If you already knew that trump is off-kilter…
Mnemosyne
@laura:
I never watch his pressers, because they would drive me to suicide, or at least self-harm. I don’t think that the Hoarse Whisperer is watching them, either, and he knows way more about NPD.
I think Trump just really likes getting to be in front of the microphone and talk. It gives him all kinds of narcissistic supply, even if his lessers are talking back.
Death Panel Truck
@Gloomyjim: And a steelhead and a beaver.
James E Powell
@Mnemosyne:
He also really delights in being rude to women.
Philbert
@Death Panel Truck: “We’re gonna need a bigger flag!”
Morzer
What can one say? Chutzpah has committed suicide, because its existence no longer had any meaning: