General Politics Discussion VII [ARCHIVED] • Page 716

Yes! Exactly! I've been getting on my wife's nerves for the last week with my insistence that it won't be long at all before Trump (followed by the entire Republican party, after a bit of hesitance) dismisses the entire pandemic as a media hoax, even if thousands of people are dying from it daily. He will then explain how he is a hero for exposing the media's lies. I already believe he has a second term locked down, but this alone will make it a complete landslide.

 

The plan is to have no plan - PressThink

The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible — by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence.

Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign.

Reads as right on the money to me.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...a-9e23-6914ee410a5f_story.html?outputType=amp

The Post-U. Md. poll asked about the following types of businesses: gun stores, dine-in restaurants, nail salons, barbershops and hair salons, retail establishments such as clothing stores, along with gyms, golf courses and movie theaters.

The most significant opposition is to reopening movie theaters, with 82 percent of Americans saying they should not be allowed to open up in their state. There is also broad opposition to reopening gyms (78 percent opposed), dine-in restaurants and nail salons (both with 74 percent opposed).

Gun stores are next, with 70 percent saying they should not be reopened, followed by barbershops and hair salons (69 percent opposed) and retail shops such as clothing stores (66 percent opposed) and golf courses (59 percent opposed).

These numbers are not what I would expect given the outsized coverage the media has given the astro-turfed protests.

 

Everything has to be so fucking fucked all the fucking time

 

yesterday media was falling over themselves to praise dewine for saying to lay off harassing journos and to go after him instead

today he announced cuts primarily to medicaid and public education and that he won't be touching the state's rainy day fund

yep, still a republican

 

He’s also asking employers to report employees who decline to come back to work so they can be kicked off unemployment. The guy is standard gop but liberals, even a lot I know here in Ohio, go out of their way to compliment him.

 

Gyms can open up in Texas in May 18th, hair salons and nail places can open up Friday.

 

lol

 

Ugh I'm being gaslighted into thinking I'm crazy for not getting on a plane next month.

 

what a pos

 

it will be so cool when nothing comes of this and we forget about it by tomorrow

 

Yeah, I fucking hate him

 

You were never going to sustain shelter-in-place/public buy-in for remaining in lockdown without incentivizing it through massive economic relief. Other governments recognized this and acted. Ours never did, and the people never demanded it.

It illustrates perfectly the ways in which this is a nation in decline. If your choice is between 1200 bucks while rent is coming due and knowing that the longer things stay shut down the more likely it is that your job will be lost vs. fuck it let’s go back out, the latter is not an irrational response and in fact looks increasingly like a compelling argument. Really it’s a failure to even acknowledge that an alternative way of managing this ever existed.

 

Tell them to fuck off

 

Drive your butt down to Burger King for an impossible whopper