Commander's crazy statements continue!

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2020

As do normalization, indifference:
Even after the apparent suspension of the commander's nightly "briefings," the crazily inaccurate statements continue.

Yesterday, the commander did a press avail with New Jersey's governor, Phil Murphy. Luckily, it wasn't nationally televised during prime time, with millions of people listening to wildly inaccurate statements.

That said, the Q-and-A was still highly disordered. Once the brief Q-and-A began, the commander launched his trademark Ventilator Monologue.

Here's how the nonsense began:
TRUMP (4/30/20): I think our whole group has been spectacular. We had ventilators; we didn’t have any. We built them. We have thousands—tens of thousands are right now under construction. And we’ve given—as Phil said, you got, I think, more ventilators than anybody in the United States.

MURPHY: I believe that’s correct.

TRUMP: New Jersey needed them very badly.

MURPHY: Yep.

TRUMP: And there was never a person that needed a ventilator that didn’t get one in any state. Not one person that needed a ventilator. So we didn’t say, “He didn’t get a ventilator and somebody passed away. Somebody didn’t make it.”

Now, we had a mask problem. Now we have so many masks we don’t know what to do with them. We had a big problem. And you have to understand: When we took over, the cupboards were bare.
According to President Trump, now that we don't actually need them, we have tens of thousands of additional ventilators under construction. Also, we now have so many masks, we don't know what to do with them!

Is that second statement accurate? We ask for the following reason:

Roughly one month ago, the upper-end press corps spilled with reports about shortages of personal protection equipment for our heath care workers. That included shortages of various kinds of masks, including N-95 masks.

According to the commander, we now have so many masks that we don't know what to do with them. But is that claim accurate?

For ourselves, we have no idea. In our experience, our big news orgs dropped this topic weeks ago, never to go there again.

Last night, we saw several medical workers on cable news shows referring to ongoing shortages of PPE. Do widespread shortages still exist? The topic was hot a month ago, but it has largely disappeared from cable news and from our major newspapers.

We're left with the things we hear from Trump—and yesterday, as he continued, he was soon saying this:
TRUMP (continuing from above): And you have to understand: When we took over, the cupboards were bare. And the thing that—frankly, it’s not as tough as the ventilator situation. We’re the king of ventilators. But what we have done is—on testing, we’re doing numbers the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.

And I told you, the president of South Korea, President Moon, called me to congratulate me on testing. And we did more tests than any other country anywhere in the world. And I think they told me yesterday a number—if you add up the rest of the world, we’ve done more testing. And it’s a higher quality test.
Again, the president repeated the bogus claim about our doing more tests than the rest of the world combined. This drew an instant "Pants on Fire" from PolitiFact, but it was rated as "Officially Normalized" by our major news orgs, who no longer treat repeated obvious groaning misstatements as significant news events.

The president wasn't done. Before another question could be asked, he returned to this:
TRUMP: Let me just tell you, we have—we started off with empty cupboards. The last administration left us nothing. We started off with bad, broken tests and obsolete tests.

What we’ve come up with, between the Abbott Laboratories, where you have the five-minute test. Did they test you today?

MURPHY: They did test me.

TRUMP: Good. Now I feel better. (Laughter.)
A bit of towel-snapping repartee ensued. But Trump's claim about the empty cupboard and the broken tests triggered the day's second question.

A reporter asked a very familiar question. See if you can find an actual answer to the highlighted part of his query:
REPORTER: But the Obama administration—people from the Obama administration would disagree on your assessment that the cupboards were bare. They said that there was equipment in the national stockpile—

TRUMP: Well—well— I know, Jim. Let me just tell you—I—that’s fine.

REPORTER: —and as for, you say, "broken tests," it’s a new virus. So how could the test be broken when you needed a new test?

TRUMP: We had a broken—Jim, we had broken tests. We had tests that were obsolete. We had tests that didn’t take care of people.
Did Trump really mean that Obama had left him a "broken test" for the coronavirus? His endless statements about "broken tests" have never quite seemed to make sense.

Yesterday, a reporter actually asked! What you see was Trump's complete answer to the rather obvious question about the "broken tests" for the virus which didn't yet exist. He simply repeated what he had said. "Jim, we had broken tests!"

Things continued on from there during the relatively short Q-and-A session. In some ways, things got worse.

Luckily, this wasn't televised for two solid hours during prime time, exposing millions of people to all sorts of bogus assertions as the nation's major news orgs normalized this manifestly crazy behavior.

And make no mistake, this behavior has been normalized by our high-end orgs. Cable channels scrambled to broadcast this manifest lunacy every night for more than a month. Major orgs like the Post and the Times have long since come to ignore the president's endless array of misstatements.

In fairness, it would take a substantial amount of effort to record and report his many misstatements on a daily basis. That said, no president in American history has ever behaved this strangely.

Our big news orgs, and our major journalists, have never cared a whole lot about facts. But should they care if our sitting president seems to be out of his mind?

Our question, and it's important:

Is it true? Do we now have so many protective masks for our health care workers that we don't know what to do with them? Have our various PPE problems actually been resolved?

That's what the commander-in-chief seemed to tell a bunch of reporters. Was his statement true?

For ourselves, we don't have the slightest idea whether the statement was true or false. The topic in question has run its course. Does anyone actually care?

29 comments:

  1. In our experience, our big news orgs dropped this topic [the masks shortage] weeks ago, never to go there again.

    Trump has repeatedly made the point that the media focuses only on problems, never on achievements. The media stopped reporting on the mask shortage, because the problem was fixed it. They never reported on Trump's success in producing and distributing masks. Similarly, the media report on ventilators only when there was shortage. They dropped the topic when, thanks to the Administration, the problem was more than solved

    We will be able to tell that tests are no longer a problem when that topic is no longer covered, according to Trump's theory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When did Trump first order ventilators and why then? That's a good news story.

      He becomes president with a bare cupboard of ventilators.
      Being being so smart and such a great leader, he must have known this in early 2017. Yet he did nothing about it. Why? Then in January 2020, after wasting three years to restore the empty cupboard he is warned that a pandemic is coming that could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. And being a brilliant genius and unflappable visionary leader, surely he would right away get on to finally restore the empty cupboard he was left with. But he didn't do anything to replenish the empty cupboard. Instead, he held rallies around the country for months where he didn't even mention the coming pandemic or the empty cupboard. Why? For months he downplayed the severity of the threat and even called it a hoax that was far less consequential than the flu. Why did he say that? He must have actually believed it. That is why he didn't feel it necessary to restore the empty cup board. I guess. That's what makes it such an interesting news story. March came and people started dying. He was still holding rallies. Why? He was still making light of it and telling people not to worry about it. Why? He was still doing nothing about the empty cup board he was left with. Why?

      Inquiring minds want to know.

      After all, he's so smart and such a great leader. What explains that lack of cupboard restoration? It doesn't make sense. Inquiring minds want to know. Families of the tens of thousands of dead want to know.

      Delete
    2. If the mask shortage is fixed, why can't anyone buy a PN or P95 mask at Amazon? It isn't fixed. The public is walking around in cloth designer masks that won't stop a flea.

      Delete
    3. I just watched the new Press Secretary say that in an average year, the US uses 25 million N95 masks. In this short time, the Administration had already delivered 75 million N95 masks -- 3 years worth. I would bet that these figures will not be reported by the mainstream media.

      Delete
    4. As Somerby has noted, increasing the number three-fold is not an accomplishments if the pandemic has increased the need way beyond the supply.

      In a normal ICU, only a few patients with infections require that staff use protective equipment. Now we are talking about expanded ICUs (or whole hospital wards) with every patient requiring such measures. People don't understand that the PPEs are taken off and discarded every time you leave one patient and go to see another. ICU Nurses who used to be responsible for two or three patients are now responsible for 5-7. And they all require that PPEs be changed as you go from one room to another in response to patient calls or to do required procedures. And it isn't just nurses but all the other support staff, delivering meals from the kitchen, cleaning the rooms, turning the patients so they don't get bed sores, doing respiratory treatments, taking x-rays, and so on. That is a lot more PPE's needed, way beyond normal use.

      So who cares that Trump triples the number of masks if it is still not nearly enough?

      Delete
    5. Ask David how Donald J Chickenshit, Acting President, managed to have some shady middlemen gouge the VA for N95 masks at 5 to 10 times the normal price. DinC is an insufferable little troll.

      Delete
    6. AnonymousMay 1, 2020 at 7:16 PM - check your arithmetic. The Adminstration produced 3 years worth in a month. That not tripling; it's thirty-six times as much.

      Trump-hater begin with an unshakable conviction that nothing Trump does is good. So, they give him no credit for producing masks at 36 times the rate of 36,000 times they rate.

      Most of the media write their reports following that same pattern.

      Delete
    7. David, three years in a month? What month was that? April? Why didn't he start that in March or February? He could have produced 108 months worth.

      Why wasn't he producing masks in February and March?

      Why wasn't he producing masks in February and March?

      Why wasn't he producing masks in February and March?

      Why was he holding rallys in March and not producing masks?

      Do you know why?

      Why?

      Delete
    8. Meanwhile, I still cannot buy an effective mask on Amazon. Employers want to give their employees masks so they can open their businesses. Where are their masks? If Trump cannot supply hospitals how can he supply all the employers and their employees across the nation? How can people go out and walk their dogs when a mask is required in many states. How many people with dogs are there in this country.

      You do the math, Trump supporters.

      Delete
    9. Poor dembot can't buy an effective mask on Amazon.

      Tsk. Surely there can only be one reason for this unfortunate dembot's horrible trials and tribulations:

      Orange Man Bad.

      Thanks for the laughs, dembot.

      Delete
    10. Trump's success in producing and distributing masks.

      ***
      Yesterday, a letter published by the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the extraordinary measures that had to be taken to secure the delivery into Massachusetts of equipment that had been bought and paid for. The NEJM, which featured the letter in its COVID-19 Notes series, is far from a platform of partisan alarm or hysteria — it is among the most sober and high-minded professional journals in the country. It’s worth reading the correspondence, written by an executive running a small health system, at some length:


      Our supply-chain group has worked around the clock to secure gowns, gloves, face masks, goggles, face shields, and N95 respirators. These employees have adapted to a new normal, exploring every lead, no matter how unusual. Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies was not easy.

      Those measures do not seem unusual, horrifyingly enough. Last month, 3 million masks ordered by the state of Massachusetts were seized by the federal government. Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, was arranging secret chartered flights of supplies as a way of outmaneuvering federal interference. “The governor has clearly outlined the challenges this administration has faced as we’ve worked around the clock to purchase PPE for our health-care workers and first responders,” a spokesperson for the governor told the paper. “The supply chain has been likened to the Wild West, and once you have purchased supplies, ensuring they get to the state is another Herculean feat,” he continued. “These flights are carrying millions of masks and gloves our workers need. They’re scheduled to land in Illinois in the coming weeks and the state is working to ensure these much-needed supplies are protected and ready for distribution around the state.” A source “knowledgeable about the flights” told the paper that the governor didn’t want to be more open about the shipments “because we’ve heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States.”
      ****

      David, you're a goddam fool. Put down your pompoms now.

      Delete
    11. Orange Man wants to fuck his own daughter.
      If Orange man can sucker her into believing he's not a dead-beat business failure, like he suckered his supporters, Orange Man has a shot.

      Delete
    12. David is excited Trump ordered a lot of masks in April which like being excited your team scored 21 points in the second half after getting shutout 50-0 in the first.

      Delete
    13. David is excited that Trump has Made America no less worse than Europe (except Germany). (tm)

      Delete
  2. Yes, look how many people haven't died.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "According to the commander, we now have so many masks that we don't know what to do with them. But is that claim accurate?

    For ourselves, we have no idea."

    But of course you do, dear Bob.

    You know perfectly well that if there was even the slightest hint of a shortage - somewhere in Puerto Rico or Alaskan wilderness - then your goebbelsian zombie media would've already had their usual goebbelsian hate-mongering campaign in full swing.

    And if they haven't, then the answer is clear. Okay? Is this so complicated?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ladlad 3: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing

      “Oh, but of course you do, dear."

      Delete
  4. One day Somerby is urging us to call Trump crazy. The next day he is referring to him as The Commander.

    ReplyDelete
  5. When you fire all of your competent staff, simply because they used to work for Obama, what you wind up with is bad, broken tests.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unfortunately Trump wasted all of February and now has wasted all of April putting us so far behind. God knows what he was doing in February. He certainly wasn't replenishing any stock piles. Then he spent all of April desperately scrambling to make up for what he didn't do in February and embarrassingly bragging about it on television, which to his credit, did fool his hapless supporters. But here we are with April gone, the virus still with us and no plan at all to come out of this and move the country forward to recovery. Trump is by far the most inept and dumbest leader in our history. The guy is a demented fool.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "For ourselves, we don't have the slightest idea whether the statement was true or false. "

    I think this is Somerby's problem, not the press. They write their little hearts out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am very happy today with my family My name is Bianca Bethune living in CANADA My husband left me for good 4 years now and i love him so much i have been looking for a way to get him back since then i have tried many options but he did not come back, until i met a friend that darted me to Dr AYOOLA a spell caster who helped me to bring back my husband after 48 hours Me and my husband are living happily together today DR AYOOLA is a good man is great you can contact him via email drayoolasolutionhome at gmail dot com Now i will advice any serious persons that found themselves in this kind of problem to contact him now a fast solution without stress now i call him my father contact him now he is always online or contact him on his whatsapp +31684065675

    ReplyDelete
  9. Marriage restMarriage restoration..Stop your marriage from breaking apart today. I lost my husband to another woman 2 weeks ago after 27 years of marriage . We had a lovely marriage but he started a relationship with a co worker who chased after him . He is living away near his work and her and refuses to talk to me or to come home . I am devastated and am finding it hard to cope . I wish I did not love him and that I could move on but I can't . I don't know how to stop feeling like this I wish I didn't as its eating me away and I m starting to feel ill. I have degraded myself begging him to come home all to no avail. I became very worried and needed help. As I was browsing through the internet one day, I came across a website that suggested that Chief Dr Lucky can help solve marital problems, restore broken relationships and so on. So, I felt I should give him a try. I contacted him and he did a spell for me. two days later, my husband came to me and apologized for the wrongs he did and promise never to do it again. Ever since then, everything has returned back to normal. I and my family are living together happily again.. All thanks to Chief Dr Lucky. If you need a spell caster that can cast a spell that truly works, I suggest you contact him. He will not disappoint you. if you have any problem contact him, I give you 100% guarantee that he will help you, This is his details,Email him at: Chiefdrlucky@gmail.com you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348132777335 Website :  http://chiefdrluckysolutionhome.website2.me/
    oratio

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello viewers around the Globe, I was despondent because i had a very small penis, about 2.5 inches soft and 4 inches hard not nice enough to satisfy a woman, i have been in so many relationship, but cut off because of my situation, i have used so many product which doctors for me, but none could offer me the help i searched for. i saw some few comments on the INTERNET about this specialist called Dr,OLU and decided to contact him on his email: Drolusolutinthome@gmail.com) so I decided to give his herbal product a try. i emailed him and he got back to me, he gave me some comforting words with his herbal pills for Penis Enlargement, Within 3 week of it, i began to feel the enlargement was surprised when she said that she is satisfied with my sex and i have got a large penis. Am so happy, thanks to Dr OLU I also learn that Dr OLU also help with Breast Enlargement Hips and Bums Enlargement etc.. If you are in any situation with a little Penis, weak ejaculation, small breast_hips_bums do get to Dr OLU now for help on his email (Drolusolutionhome@gmail.com) or add him on whatsapp line +2348140654426 

    ReplyDelete
  11. I want to share a testimony of how Dr OSAGIE herbal mixture cream saved me from shame and disgrace, my penis was a big problem to me as the size was really so embarrassing ,and i was also having weak erection problem i had so many relationship called off because of my situation,m i have used so many product which i found online but none could offer me the help i searched for Which was very painful and then i saw some few testimonies about this herbal specialist called Dr OSAGIE and decided to email him on so I gave his herbal product a try. i emailed him and he got back to me and we discussed, he gave me some comforting words and encouraged me also ans then gave me his herbal pills and cream for Penis Enlargement Within 1 week of it, i began to feel the enlargement of my penis, " and now it just 2 weeks of using his products my penis is about 9.7 inches longer and am so happy contact Dr OSAGIE via drosagiesolutionhome5 @ gmail. com Via whatapp +2348034778129.





    I want to share a testimony of how Dr OSAGIE herbal mixture cream saved me from shame and disgrace, my penis was a big problem to me as the size was really so embarrassing ,and i was also having weak erection problem i had so many relationship called off because of my situation,m i have used so many product which i found online but none could offer me the help i searched for Which was very painful and then i saw some few testimonies about this herbal specialist called Dr OSAGIE and decided to email him on so I gave his herbal product a try. i emailed him and he got back to me and we discussed, he gave me some comforting words and encouraged me also ans then gave me his herbal pills and cream for Penis Enlargement Within 1 week of it, i began to feel the enlargement of my penis, " and now it just 2 weeks of using his products my penis is about 9.7 inches longer and am so happy contact Dr OSAGIE via drosagiesolutionhome5 @ gmail. com Via whatapp +2348034778129.

    ReplyDelete
  12. God bless Dr. USELU for his marvelous work in my life, I was diagnosed of HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS since 2018 and I was taking my medications, I wasn't satisfied i needed to get the HERPES out of my system, I searched about some possible cure for HERPES i saw a comment about Dr. USELU , how he cured HERPES with his herbal medicine, I contacted him and he guided me. I asked for solutions, he started the remedy for my health, he sent me the medicine within 3 days. I took the medicine as prescribed by him and 2weeks later i was cured from HERPES contact him via email (dr.uselucaregiver@gmail.com) once again thanks to you Dr. USELU cure the flowing virus, contact his email or add him on whatsapp (+2349019328641) cancer cure
    diabetes cure
    ringing ear
    herpes cure
    warts cure
    HPV cure
    HIV cure
    get your ex back
    pregnancy herbal medicine
    Hepatitis  

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a joy my husband is right here with me all thanks to DR Ayoola for helping me, me and my husband was separated for good 2 years and 7 months i try everything to get him back and i did not see until i read a testimony about DR Ayoola online and i contacted him and tell him my problem and he promise me that my husband will come back if i do what he will tell me to do and i said yes and i did it after 2 day my husband came looking for me and ask me to come back home all thanks to you DR AYOOLA i am living happily with my husband right now if you need help in getting your ex or husband or wife contact him today and i promise you that you will get what so ever you want here is email ( drayoolasolutionhome@gmail.com ) also add him on Whatsapp: +31684065675. or his website https://drayoolasolutionhome.com/

    ReplyDelete
  14. A GREAT SPELL CASTER (DR. EMU) THAT HELP ME BRING BACK MY EX GIRLFRIEND.
    Am so happy to testify about a great spell caster that helped me when all hope was lost for me to unite with my ex-girlfriend that I love so much. I had a girlfriend that love me so much but something terrible happen to our relationship one afternoon when her friend that was always trying to get to me was trying to force me to make love to her just because she was been jealous of her friend that i was dating and on the scene my girlfriend just walk in and she thought we had something special doing together, i tried to explain things to her that her friend always do this whenever she is not with me and i always refuse her but i never told her because i did not want the both of them to be enemies to each other but she never believed me. She broke up with me and I tried times without numbers to make her believe me but she never believed me until one day i heard about the DR. EMU and I emailed him and he replied to me so kindly and helped me get back my lovely relationship that was already gone for two months.
    Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com  
    Call or Whats-app him: +2347012841542

    ReplyDelete