[Winstonm]

 kenberg, on 2020-April-27, 04:57, said:

I can take pleasure in seeing the opinions of others. Often they are interesting, some are memorable. Sometimes I want to examine their opinions closely. So the analogy has gaps.

But I have to ask. Are you still comfortable with Trump as president? No need to explain why you are or are not, but I have been expecting for quite a while that people will change on this, and I am now thinking it is happening, so I am curious.

I notice you got no response. How quaint.

[johnu]

The Grifter in Chief is 1000% responsible for this travesty

How Profit And Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died At The VA

Quote

It’s also unclear why the VA gave Stewart’s fledgling business — which had no experience selling medical equipment, no supply chain expertise and very little credit — an important contract. Or why the VA agreed to pay nearly $5.75 per mask, a 350% markup from the manufacturer’s list price. In the end, after ProPublica asked questions about the deal this week, the VA quickly terminated it and referred the case to its inspector general for investigation.

Quote

Stewart wasn’t alone. The coronavirus pandemic had unleashed a bonanza for untested contractors riding a wave of unprecedented demand and scarcity of everything from hand sanitizer to ICU beds. So far, the administration of President Donald Trump has handed out at least $5.1 billion in no-bid contracts to address the pandemic, federal purchasing data shows. The VA, far more than any other agency, appeared to be awarding large contracts to little-known vendors in search of the personal protective equipment that’s pitted local, state and federal agencies against one another.

I wanted to know how a company the 34-year-old Stewart had formed two years earlier had gotten one of the largest no-bid contracts. And, more importantly, could it fulfill it?

There was reason to wonder. A quick Google search showed large portions of the text on FGE’s company website had been lifted verbatim from a 1982 Harvard Business Review article. The company primarily advertised IT consulting and advertised a “block chain” A.I. solution to government procurement, whatever that means. But I found nothing suggesting the company could buy and ship life-saving medical equipment — and fast.

The complete and absolute failure of the Incompetent in Chief to take control of the supply chain for personal protective equipment directly lead to this unbelievable boondoggle.

[kenberg]

I have argued that in the upcoming election we want to go with the simpler the better. An examplle.

As we know, Mike Pence met with doctors, nurses and staff at the Mayo clinic. He was the only one without a mask.

His wife has said that he was not aware that a mask was expected.

A reporter has said that they were all told that it was.

Pence is mad at the reporter.

Ok. We have the vice-president of the United States, he is also the chair of corona virus task force, unaware that a mask was expected in a hospital. He has his wife lie for him. He is mad at the reporter.

This is who we have in office now.

It is stunning. Could the man at least tell his own lies? Are there really people who are still ok with this team?

Is Donald Trump also unaware that universities across the country are having virtual addresses at virtual commencement ceremonies?

And really, are the gun toting protesters at state capitals really fine people?

In life there are subtle issues and there are issues that are not at all subtle. The head of the corona virus task force has his wife explain that golly gee, he just didn't know that a mask was expected. That's not one of the subtle issues.

It's beyond words.

[Winstonm]

It is past time for a simple repudiation of this administration and the party that backs them - it is time for a reckoning.

[Winstonm]

I'm sitting here on a Sunday and reading about the impossible positions in which Doctors Birx and Fauci find themselves, and as explained by the author they do not have the usual choices of quit or complain as Trump will turn on them if they complain and replace them with someone totally unqualified but who will say what Trump wants them to say.

And then it occurred to me - this is Donald Trump's sole skill - and he is masterful at its use: he manipulates perceptions. That is all he does; I think it is all he is capable of doing. It has worked for almost 72 years of his life, but now, the pandemic has stripped him of his ability to distract and deceive and create illusions.

There was a young man on one of the news shows earlier, and he admitted he had been duped by Trump and had been a Trump supporter, and what helped change his mind, he said, was a change in his own personal worldview. I think this is right. It is simple during good times to think simplistic thoughts - like nationalism as a solution to world problem - but when serious troubles set in and we see that we indeed are all dependent upon each other and the rugged individual of Atlas Shrugged is only a fictional invention - at that point it becomes simple to denounce Donald Trump. And his party.

[Chas_P]

 Winstonm, on 2020-May-03, 14:54, said:

I'm sitting here on a Sunday and reading about the impossible positions in which Doctors Birx and Fauci find themselves.

What a lousy way to spend a Sunday afternoon! You should be looking for something to make you happy. You need to stop and smell the roses.

[kenberg]

 Chas_P, on 2020-May-03, 19:08, said:

What a lousy way to spend a Sunday afternoon! You should be looking for something to make you happy. You need to stop and smell the roses.

Most of us are fine with roses. I spent part of Sunday working with the raspberry bushes but, roses or raspberries, or preferably both, we do have a pandemic, a crashing economy and a president who is not just the worst of my lifetime but worse than even i had expected him to be. But the raspberries do need some weeding and I think I should transplant a few, the patch is getting crowded.

[Chas_P]

 kenberg, on 2020-May-04, 06:42, said:

I spent part of Sunday working with the raspberry bushes

Good for you! And I'll bet that at the end of the day you were a lot happier than Winston was.

[kenberg]

Recent posts give me an opportunity to again stress a point.

From Winston

Quote

There was a young man on one of the news shows earlier, and he admitted he had been duped by Trump and had been a Trump supporter, and what helped change his mind, he said, was a change in his own personal worldview. I think this is right. It is simple during good times to think simplistic thoughts - like nationalism as a solution to world problem - but when serious troubles set in and we see that we indeed are all dependent upon each other and the rugged individual of Atlas Shrugged is only a fictional invention - at that point it becomes simple to denounce Donald Trump. And his party.

Now Chas has posted, but has not yet indicated he has given up on Trump.


So here is my point, boringly repeated. I have no belief that I can change Chas's worldview, or even any desire to. But I do hope that somewhere along the way he and others recognize the obvious: Trump's handling of the covid crisis has been an absolute disaster. Sure there are others who can have a share of the blame.But Trump is the president. He had far more resources and far more power than most others, and he totally blew it Totally. Moreover, the disaster followed directly from his general approach. If there is another crisis, he is very apt to blow that also. It is time to send him back to the reality show business.


Getting people to change their worldview is tough. I changed a lot during my adolescence, and I have changed some since then, but do not expect me to be a different person tomorrow or next week than I am today. However I do sometimes reconsider my choices. That's where the push needs to be. People can keep their worldview, they can still see that Trump does not fit into anyone's worldview. An irresponsible nut job is an irresponsible nut job. whatever our worldview might be.

[barmar]

I wonder if Trump thinks that Truman's "The buck stops here" slogan meant that the President gets to keep all the profits, but still gets to deflect blame.

[Chas_P]

 kenberg, on 2020-May-04, 10:09, said:

Recent posts give me an opportunity to again stress a point.

From Winston
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Now Chas has posted, but has not yet indicated he has given up on Trump.


So here is my point, boringly repeated. I have no belief that I can change Chas's worldview, or even any desire to. But I do hope that somewhere along the way he and others recognize the obvious: Trump's handling of the covid crisis has been an absolute disaster. Sure there are others who can have a share of the blame.But Trump is the president. He had far more resources and far more power than most others, and he totally blew it Totally. Moreover, the disaster followed directly from his general approach. If there is another crisis, he is very apt to blow that also. It is time to send him back to the reality show business.


Getting people to change their worldview is tough. I changed a lot during my adolescence, and I have changed some since then, but do not expect me to be a different person tomorrow or next week than I am today. However I do sometimes reconsider my choices. That's where the push needs to be. People can keep their worldview, they can still see that Trump does not fit into anyone's worldview. An irresponsible nut job is an irresponsible nut job. whatever our worldview might be.

Ken, all I was saying is that I think "sitting here on a Sunday and reading about the impossible positions in which Doctors Birx and Fauci find themselves" is a lousy way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I would say the same thing had it been "sitting here on a Sunday and reading about Joe Biden sniffing women's hair and putting his hand in Tara Reade's britches". In my worldview, there's more to life than that.

[kenberg]

 Chas_P, on 2020-May-04, 11:40, said:

Ken, all I was saying is that I think "sitting here on a Sunday and reading about the impossible positions in which Doctors Birx and Fauci find themselves" is a lousy way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I would say the same thing had it been "sitting here on a Sunday and reading about Joe Biden sniffing women's hair and putting his hand in Tara Reade's britches". In my worldview, there's more to life than that.

Yes, I understood that. I hope the roses boom, my raspberry plants produce fruit, and more importantly than either I hope that next January we have someone else as president.
Raspberries need tending, the rose bush is in serious need of cutting back.
Still. Trump is president.
I think how to fix that is worth addressing.
Winston and I do not disagree about that being a problem but we probably do disagree on how to go at it.
Don't bother trying to change worldviews, just get their votes.
Central to this is that Trump is so awful that people can have many different worldviews and still agree that we need a new president.


But I do enjoy being out in the garden.
In fact, I am on my way out the door.

Anyway. Advice to dems: Don't try to change anyone's world view, be satisfied with getting them to vote Trump out. Replacing him with a cabbage would be a substantial improvement.

[johnu]

 Chas_Troll, on 2020-May-04, 11:40, said:

Grifters have to grift.
Trolls have to troll.

[cherdano]

If you haven't seen this yet, watch:
How to medical

By the way, I think it's worth parsing out why this is so scandalous. Obviously it's ridiculous and dangerous when The President Of The United States suggests injecting bleach. (Which can kill.)
But why Trump is saying something like that? He fakes being engaged with the scientists, that he is actively following what they are doing, and what that might mean for the future of the pandemic. He fakes because he isn't. And that he isn't is the real scandal. (Or would have been, for any other head of state, or any previous POTUS.)

[Winstonm]

 kenberg, on 2020-May-04, 13:17, said:

Yes, I understood that. I hope the roses boom, my raspberry plants produce fruit, and more importantly than either I hope that next January we have someone else as president.
Raspberries need tending, the rose bush is in serious need of cutting back.
Still. Trump is president.
I think how to fix that is worth addressing.
Winston and I do not disagree about that being a problem but we probably do disagree on how to go at it.
Don't bother trying to change worldviews, just get their votes.
Central to this is that Trump is so awful that people can have many different worldviews and still agree that we need a new president.


But I do enjoy being out in the garden.
In fact, I am on my way out the door.

Anyway. Advice to dems: Don't try to change anyone's world view, be satisfied with getting them to vote Trump out. Replacing him with a cabbage would be a substantial improvement.

The point of my post about the young man's world view change is that it expresses just how difficult it is to get Trump supporters to alter that view - and that explains to me why someone so totally unqualified can still have approval ratings in the 40s.

A big problem as I see it is even if Trump is defeated in November and a new president is sworn in, that 40+ percent will still be with us, unable or unwilling to deal with a factual world.

But, I suppose if you want to spend Sundays and all the other days with your head buried in the sand - and that makes you happy - by all means breathe deeply.

[johnu]

More right fringe lunacy

Oklahoma city backs off mask mandate after threats, as officials struggle to enforce public health rules

Quote

For some, defiance to mask-wearing has a conservative bent. To many Trump supporters, declining to wear a mask is a visible way to demonstrate “that ‘I’m a Republican’ or ‘I want businesses to start up again’ or ‘I support the president,’ ” Robert Kahn, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who has studied Americans’ attitudes toward masks, told The Washington Post last month.

Quote

Joyce amended his emergency declaration on the same day it took effect “in response to concerns voiced by business proprietors and citizens,” according to a news release. The anger directed toward store employees started in the first three hours businesses were open and included a threat of gun violence, the release said.

“I hate that our businesses and their employees had to deal with abuse today, and I apologize for putting them in that position,” Joyce said in a statement. “I am not the kind of person who backs down from bullies, but I also will not send someone else to fight the battle for me.”

Stillwater was never close to being one of my future visit wish list cities, but it is now on my "I'm afraid for my safety and I'm never setting foot in that place cities".

Who would have guessed that personal and public safety was a partisan issue. Democracy has officially failed when citizens refuse to take any responsibility for the safety and well being of others.

[Chas_P]

 Winstonm, on 2020-May-04, 14:06, said:

The point of my post about the young man's world view change is that it expresses just how difficult it is to get Trump supporters to alter that view - and that explains to me why someone so totally unqualified can still have approval ratings in the 40s.

Clarence Darrow once mused, "When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it."

Why don't we just let it go at that.

Cheers.

[Chas_P]

 johnu, on 2020-May-04, 13:45, said:

Grifters have to grift.
Trolls have to troll.

Go to your room Johnboy. Play with your tinkertoys.

[johnu]

 johnu, on 2020-May-04, 14:31, said:

More right fringe lunacy

Oklahoma city backs off mask mandate after threats, as officials struggle to enforce public health rules


Stillwater was never close to being one of my future visit wish list cities, but it is now on my "I'm afraid for my safety and I'm never setting foot in that place cities".

Who would have guessed that personal and public safety was a partisan issue. Democracy has officially failed when citizens refuse to take any responsibility for the safety and well being of others.

A fine person shopping at a supermarket.

California Shopper In Ku Klux Klan Hood Alarms Customers, Officials

The Grand Wizard in Chief approves of this type of mask worn by one of his rabid supporters. He is still waiting for his custom hood embossed with Presidential Seal to arrive from China.

[Winstonm]

When it comes to the sociopath in the White House, all those he suckered in 2016 are like Doc describes Wyatt: