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Celerity

(42,666 posts)
Thu Sep 10, 2020, 08:46 PM Sep 2020

Trump Admitted To Downplaying The Pandemic, But There's Only One Way To Make It Stick

Trump committed fraud and caused almost 200,000 negligent homicides. There is only one way to hold him accountable for this.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/trump-admitted-to-downplaying-the



WASHINGTON, DC -- As if we needed further confirmation of Donald Trump’s negligent homicide -- his malicious refusal to take seriously the pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans -- along comes Bob Woodward with the tapes to prove it. Woodward’s latest book about the Trump White House includes at least several bombshell revelations about the president. Former Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, told Woodward, “To him, a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks. He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie.” Trump also told Woodward -- on tape, no less, "My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies." That one adds further authenticity to The Atlantic’s reporting.

But the most disturbing quote so far has to do with the pandemic. In February, Trump told Woodward that the virus was “deadly stuff” and that it was "more deadly than even your strenuous flus.” Weirdly, Trump was (privately) correct. But in March, Trump changed his attitude and said, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” What Trump defines as “play it down” is, in reality, committing fraud and causing almost 200,000 negligent homicides. Trump didn’t just downplay the virus, which would’ve been bad enough, but he literally told us that it would vanish, “like a miracle” when it gets warmer outside. We learned last month that Trump was merely repeating the “warm weather” thing from something he heard on Fox News Channel’s The Five. And as a consequence of his downplaying tens of thousands more Americans died from a preventable crisis.

Once again, we have no choice but to ask why. Why did he catastrophically fail to follow the add-water-and-serve procedures for handling a pandemic? Why did he knowingly allow 200,000 Americans to perish, with six million more Americans permanently burdened with pre-existing conditions? The answer today is the same as it was when he inexplicably confessed to Bob Woodward. It’s always been the economy as it relates to his re-election chances. That’s it. And today, Trump continues to pat himself on the back for the status of the financial markets, and the decline in the unemployment rate from 16 percent down to eight percent.

Naturally, these trends are strictly the consequence of his negligence on the virus -- as long as he doesn’t shut down the economy to, at long last, end this crisis, the financial markets will remain buoyant, and certain economic indicators will appear to improve. First of all, call me conspiratorial, but I’m skeptical about the unemployment numbers. Trump has been purging the bureaucracy of anyone who’s disloyal to him, and it’s fair to assume that includes government workers at the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. We already know that BLS undercounted the number of unemployed workers earlier this Summer because the bureau admitted it in its reports. Suffice to say, I’d like to see BLS’s receipts once Trump is gone. But ultimately, the cost of Trump’s herky-jerky, sociopathic attempt to keep the economy afloat is unfathomable by any other standard.

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Trump Admitted To Downplaying The Pandemic, But There's Only One Way To Make It Stick (Original Post) Celerity Sep 2020 OP
He's definitely... 2naSalit Sep 2020 #1
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