He was the one who fired the people responsible for preparing for that exact scenario.

More than that, he’s the one who thought that the existence of the pandemic made him look bad. He simply did not understand the concept of leadership and how he could have ended up looking better if he had tried to unite the country to make it through the crisis.

Because of this, the administration and campaign focused on downplaying the whole thing. They turned humans vs a plague into a partisan issue. And because the right wing propaganda machine exists to amplify these kinds of talking points, all the pro-Trump media followed suit and told millions of Americans whatever would get them to stop listening to public health officials.

The sad fact is that Trump is responsible for more than just the massive number of unnecessary covid deaths. He’s personally responsible for convincing a large portion of the population that vaccines and public health must opposed, and that will keep the body count rising for decades.

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month,” Lutnick said on the “All-In” podcast. “A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”)

Yes, of course. Fraudsters are the ones who will want to bring attention to themselves when the checks stop coming, and not poor people who rely on that money to survive.

I know these people are stupid, crazy and sadistic, but it’s like they have some kind of competition going to see who can be the stupidest and most repugnant.

While it would be nice if a significant portion of Republicans could open their fucking eyes and acquaint themselves with reality, the article is focusing on the independents who are far more likely to switch sides. One of the key factors in the last election was the large number of low information voters who voted for Trump because they wanted a change, driven almost entirely by being upset about the economy and inflation. Their economic illiteracy and confident ignorance was and is infuriating, but that feelings and vibes approach to voting is also a double edged sword. The more harm Trump inflicts on people through his idiotic trade wars and cuts to programs people need, the more they will blame him. That they will be right to blame him is just a happy coincidence.

Also, we are just two months in. We still have a long road ahead of us, and things are almost certainly going to get a lot worse.

The MAGA platform is inherently hateful, bigoted, selfish and shortsighted. It is lead by greedy amoral narcissists and sociopaths and preaches contempt for law, ethics and personal integrity. All issues are a matter of us vs them, so when one of us does something that gets called out by them, the problem is with them calling one of us out.

Anyone who is still a MAGA supporter has already excused the inexcusable more times than they can count. Those with a moral compass left a long time ago. Sure, there will be people who barely pay attention and who are genuinely ignorant of what the party they support is actually doing. But those people aren’t the ones running for office or actively participating in political organizations.

Close the loopholes. Tax the loans they take out as income. Then add an inequality tax that scales based on the difference between their total compensation vs that of the lowest paid employee or contractor in their company and any related companies, with an additional modifier to penalize layoffs. Make it impossible to get rich without raising everyone else up with you.

I probably would have gone with a navy seal copypasta.

Sure, rural areas with fewer employers and less diverse economies will have trouble adapting, but at least all the programs that help people through hard times are getting defunded and shut down.

It’s fine, I’m sure he’ll be selling them to Russia before too long.

Gyro meat. It’s like sausage but better. Fantastic with Canadian bacon and salami.

Also, salami.

Shrimp.

32% say it’s sometimes acceptable to play music out loud

I can’t say I’m surprised by the revelation that 32% of people need to fuck off and die, I just didn’t think that it would br for this.

A fair value without a Nazi CEO dragging their brand down. The fair value with Elon is damn near 0.

I would assume they’re getting the Intel already. The entire administration is comprised of Russian assets and useful idiots. Even if the info isn’t being handed to them directly, all the existing security is being ripped to shreds and the teams that would counter any threats have officially been told to ignore Russia completely.

That said, I wouldn’t put it past Trump to publicly give Intel to Russia, but only because he’s an idiot and assuming there is a low he won’t sink to his always a losing bet.

We were so close a few years ago when the senate passed a bill with unanimous consent, only for the house to say fuck you and refuse to even consider it (can’t have anything useful getting done).

Dwayne Johnson needs one of these.

Florida gets destroyed, and within a few years the Federation is founded and humanity enters a utopian era. Sounds about right.

A work requirement would be particularly perverse. It just further normalizes employers paying shit wages and providing little or no benefits, with programs like medicaid and snap making up the difference. It’s an indirect subsidy that only makes it easier to keep wages low.

Maybe we should do the opposite and tax businesses that pay low enough wages for their employees to qualify for assistance. Although, we’d probably get more results by instituting an income inequality tax that increases based on the difference in total compensation between the highest and lowest paid employees. Make it so that the only way executives can increase their own pay is by paying their employees well too.

I’m sure Russia will be getting all of our Intel instead.

In response, Trump rattled off a list of everything that “would have never happened” if he’d won the presidential election four years ago.

Trump’s nonanswer, which veered further and further off-topic, included the October 7 massacre, “Israel,” inflation, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and China possessing the Bagram Air Base (the Taliban has denied that China controls the former U.S. base). Finally, he circled back to Ukraine—but only to complain, not to actually answer the question.

Obviously he was never going to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Why would he? He’s only the one who negotiated the withdrawal.

“To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd,” Trump wrote.

“Have fun!” he added.

Doesn’t sound like an admission to me. Sounds like he’s just shifting the burden of responsibility to farmers and acted like this was doing them a favor.