All He Does Is Fight
 

One of the chief selling points about Donald Trump in 2016, one that persuaded many initially dubious Republicans, was the argument that “he fights.” Some of us tried to counter that his battles nearly always concerned his own fragile ego, not the cause of conservatism, nor even the Republican Party, but these objections were swept aside. He was anointed the right’s champion, willing to do or say anything to get (back) at their enemies, or so they believed, and they were gratified.

Since January, we have witnessed a vivid lesson in the limits of fighting. There were ample reasons before now to recoil from Trump’s style of combat. It is so consistently cruel, witless, below-the-belt, and unhinged (e.g. his recent tweets implying that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is guilty of murder), that it tainted by association any reasonable arguments that might be advanced for conservative ideas. But in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve witnessed that even when a dire emergency calls for traits other than bellicosity, fighting is all he knows how to do. This is proving to be a catastrophe for the nation, and also for Trump’s own self-interest.

Who doubts that if, in January and February, when his intelligence briefers were warning of a public health disaster, Trump had adjusted his style just a bit, he would now be enjoying the kind of approval boost that other world leaders have banked? If, instead of minimizing the threat, trusting Xi Jinping to handle it, and lashing out at Democrats for exaggerating the danger to harm him politically, he had attempted just a simulacrum of traditional leadership, he might now be coasting to reelection rather than bleeding support.

Disasters are opportunities as well as challenges, and while no president welcomes calamity on his watch, most recognize the chance to burnish their standing. Bill Clinton lamented, after his two terms were complete, that he never faced a major crisis. He was apparently regretting that the peace and prosperity the nation enjoyed during his tenure denied him the chance to be considered a great president, since only wartime presidents seem to make it into the first tier in historians’ rankings.

Confronting intelligence about an imminent world health crisis, Trump could have convened a special session of Congress (before lockdowns). With the unmatched optics of a joint session, he could have announced travel restrictions, requested a huge investment in testing, contact tracing, and supported isolation, and recommended the temporary relaxation of regulations to speed treatments and streamline supply chains. He could have called upon Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader McConnell to chair a task force to coordinate the production and distribution of testing and other medical supplies nationwide. If he were truly rising above his instincts and were able to utter a few unifying words, there is no telling how different things might feel now. He might have said:

We have deep disagreements in this country. There are bitter feelings between the parties. But this is not a time for grievances. We are facing a crisis. It will hit all of us in different ways, some more grievously than others. It will require courage and sacrifice and patience. It will call upon Americans’ volunteer spirit and generosity. I wish I could say it will be easy, but that just isn’t true. This is a new threat and we have much to learn. But one thing is certain: We will face this not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. American creativity, innovation, and flexibility have permitted us to meet great challenges before. This time is no different. If we unite, nothing will stop us.

In addition to enhancing Trump’s leadership credibility, such an approach would have buoyed national morale and set us on a path to control the outbreak. But this president can’t choose comity even when it is blazingly obvious that nothing would better serve his own interests. He fights not because he’s anyone’s knight in shining armor; he fights because it’s the only mode he knows.

Since the disease began spreading, Trump has failed to develop a plan of action. He has punted responsibility to governors, while claiming complete power for himself. He has lied and dithered and hawked quack cures. He has created confusion by forcing government agencies to waste time dealing with his callow son-in-law on a matter of urgent national concern. But above all, he searched for someone to punch.

While the situation cried out for competent coordination and planning, for calm briefings with experts, he looked only for foils. He fought with Democrats, exclaiming on February 28 that “this is their new hoax.” He tangled with insufficiently “grateful” governors who asked for supplies. “I say . . . don’t call the governor of Washington. Don’t call the woman from Michigan.” He disparaged frontline medical professionals, wondering on March 29 whether they were stealing masks (“Are they going out the back door?”). He had a spat with congressional leadership in late February when they proposed an initial coronavirus package more than three times the size of Trump’s request (“Pelosi’s incompetent.” He’s “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer”). He reversed his previous gushing praise and began to blame China for the virus, encouraging the use of nicknames like “Wuhan virus.” He picked a fight with the Postal Service, poured out tweetstorms about his predecessor, whom he accused of dark crimes, and above all, from before dawn till after dark every single day, he battled the press.

The death toll mounts. The economic damage is unprecedented.

Yes, he fights – and we all lose.

Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a contributor to The Bulwark, and host of The Bulwark’s Beg to Differ podcast.

how do we all llose? people who have jobs for the first time in awhile ( especially minorities), and who saw their tax rates go down, how did they lose under trump, exactly? disabled vets who had student loans forgiven, how did they lose? people, disproportionately minorities, who benefitted from criminal justice reform, how did they lose, Pete?
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USA 86,000 dead 15% unemployment
South Korea 260 dead 4% unemployment
Are you still proud of him
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The coronavirus pandemic is having an impact all over the world, but a disturbing trend is evident in the U.S.: People of color, particularly African Americans, are experiencing more serious illness and death due to COVID-19 than white people.
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those are corona virus deaths. are you saying that those deaths are a direct result of trumps personality? your article was about trumps demeanor. you pivot directly to coronavirus

policy decisions regarding the virus, were primarily made at the state level, not in DC.
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pete, one thing South Korea did, was ban travel. How was that received when trump did that here?
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All the efforts to gain more black support, if only marginally, have now run into one of the grimmest realities of the coronavirus: It is killing African-Americans at disproportionately high rates, and depriving them of jobs in high numbers as well.
Trump* has only fleetingly addressed the virus’s outsize impact on black Americans, and made no apparent effort to aggressively tackle the racial disparities, even as he continues his online appeals to black voters. Taken together, his lack of response, combined with political overtures, have cast into sharper relief his insensitivity about the unique concerns facing black Americans.
And now to rub salt in the wound, he’s attacking Obama.
That will be sure to get him the black vote.
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Correction...it's killing people who live a certain way in disproportionate numbers, and a disproportionate number of blacks choose to live that way (e.g., in urban areas). The disease doesn't effect blacks differently than whites. That's not the cause. But keep playing the race card.

We will soon see what his numbers are with blacks.

Blacks have a higher percentage of obesity than whites, a higher percentage of diabetes than whites, and a higher percentage have high blood pressure than whites. These are all factors that put people into higher risk categories for issues from Covid-19.

There also seems to be a possible link to Sickle Cell disease putting people into a high risk category as well.
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When the history is written of how America handled the global era’s first real pandemic, March 6th will leap out of the timeline. That was the day Donald Trump visited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. His foray to the world’s best disease research body was meant to showcase that America had everything under control. It came midway between the time he was still denying the coronavirus posed a threat and the moment he said he had always known it could ravage America.

Shortly before the CDC visit, Trump said “within a couple of days, [infections are] going to be down to close to zero”. The US then had 15 cases. “One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” A few days afterwards, he claimed: “I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” That afternoon at the CDC provides an X-ray into Trump’s mind at the halfway point between denial and acceptance.

We now know that Covid-19 had already passed the breakout point in the US. The contagion had been spreading for weeks in New York, Washington state and other clusters. The curve was pointing sharply upwards. Trump’s goal in Atlanta was to assert the opposite.

Wearing his “Keep America Great” baseball cap, the US president was flanked by Robert Redfield, head of the CDC, Alex Azar, the US secretary of health and human services, and Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia. In his 47-minute interaction with the press, Trump rattled through his greatest hits.

He dismissed CNN as fake news, boasted about his high Fox News viewership, cited the US stock market’s recent highs, called Washington state’s Democratic governor a “snake” and admitted he hadn’t known that large numbers of people could die from ordinary flu. He also misunderstood a question on whether he should cancel campaign rallies for public health reasons. “I haven’t had any problems filling [the stadiums],” Trump said.

What caught the media’s attention were two comments he made about the disease. There would be four million testing kits available within a week. “The tests are beautiful,” he said. “Anybody that needs a test gets a test.”

Ten weeks later, that is still not close to being true. Fewer than 3 per cent of Americans had been tested by mid-May. Trump also boasted about his grasp of science. He cited a “super genius” uncle, John Trump, who taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and implied he inherited his intellect. “I really get it,” he said. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.” Historians might linger on that observation too.

What the headlines missed was a boast that posterity will take more seriously than Trump’s self-estimated IQ, or the exaggerated test numbers (the true number of CDC kits by March was 75,000). Trump proclaimed that America was leading the world. South Korea had its first infection on January 20, the same day as America’s first case, and was, he said, calling America for help. “They have a lot of people that are infected; we don’t.” “All I say is, ‘Be calm,’” said the president. “Everyone is relying on us. The world is relying on us.”

America is first in the world in deaths, first in the world in infections and we stand out as an emblem of global incompetence

William Burns, former US diplomat
He could just as well have said baseball is popular or foreigners love New York. American leadership in any disaster, whether a tsunami or an Ebola outbreak, has been a truism for decades. The US is renowned for helping others in an emergency.

In hindsight, Trump’s claim to global leadership leaps out. History will mark Covid-19 as the first time that ceased to be true. US airlifts have been missing in action. America cannot even supply itself.

South Korea, which has a population density nearly 15 times greater and is next door to China, has lost a total of 259 lives to the disease. There have been days when America has lost 10 times that number. The US death toll is now approaching 90,000.

You can read the rest of it here, it's damning and that is putting it lightly. It's the economy or nothing and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Good luck with that path, just know he will take no responsibility at all.

https://www.ft.com/content/97dc7de6-...d-371e24b679ed

All true plus lower income which prob. means lower access to healthcare. Maybe delaying going to hosp/Dr?

Correct. Whites with those conditions aren't faring well either, and healthy blacks who live in rural areas are doing just fine.

We are all the same except for the color of our bike shorts
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It’s all pink in the middle. :hihi: :hidin:
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:hihi:
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🎯
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More people should ride their bike as it will help them loose weight so they won't be overweigh slobs.

Reading helps a lot also.
Especially with their spelling.
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Petty people with no intelligence comment on typos.

Where were you yesterday? Trying to find a job to earn some $.

You pathetic overweight loser.

I thought this thread was going to be about PaulS.....

yet in many instances, read in context they are quite humorous...except to the humorless

Just seems petty and snarky to comment. It would be interesting to hear from a Dr. about the Psych. of people who feel a need to do that.

I took the new boat for a ride to Menemsha where I picked up a friend. From there we went to Portsmouth RI and I dropped him off to get his big boat. Lots of pogies in Mt Hope Bay with bass under them. I brought a small setup and caught a couple. I had the boat back in the slip by 1230. From there I went to the garden for a few hours of work. It’s coming along nicely but would benefit from some warmth. After that I took out the fat bike for some trail riding with my youngest son,who just had put a new rear tire on.
Any idea what an older Litespeed Vortex may be worth? Fat guys look funny with skinny tires. Good luck with the spelling challenges.
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I used to ride with a very big guy who would get a new Cannondale bike wholesale every year directly from the headquarters. He would build it himself and then sell it the following year for more than he paid for it. Cannondale came out with a new line of clothing one year and sent him samples w/no coloring - plain white. First time he wore it I told him he looked like the Pillsbury doughboy.

Not a lot of titanium bikes around as people moved to carbon. Litespeed always were great bikes. The prices are probably all over the place bc people paid a lot, prob. took great care of them so want some % of what they paid.

let's ask pete...he knows everything

Here's a guy that knows everything, he's got a good you-know-what and he certainly could use your help with grammar and spelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQvWuiXC8c&t=12s

The document that was produced during the Bush and Obama administrations was an outline of method of response by a bureaucracy and gets fleshed out by the people involved when it occurs, do you honestly think that anyone thinks they are so prescient that they can predict exactly the issues any administration will have to deal with? If that plan had been dealt with, it should be volumes by now. Not a f'n binder.

Just like our military, all government agencies have plans to deal with things that might happen, not because we think that exact instance will happen but because we as a nation want to be prepared to deal with it if it or something similar happens and we have to deal with some untoward occurrence.
Battle plans will always change, are never static and if you fail to react to circumstances on the ground, you will fail and your men will die.

Trump and his team are the case in point and they have failed horrifically.
It's not over yet, his lack of planning and rolling the dice for the best possible outcome will very likely kill many more. Remember these words "vaccine or no vaccine, we're back".

Trump* views it as his only choice, it's the economy comes back or he loses and likely goes to jail.

Your presenter, Kayleigh McEnany spent three years as a producer on the Mike Huckabee Show.

That's Sarah Sander's dad for those of you who don't know.

The father of a woman who also lied every day in the White House press room.

Honestly, what more do you need to know?

She did a great job of pointing out that you're depiction of Trump not doing anything or that he has no plan or that he is not a leader, etc. etc. etc , is full of chit.

When this was presented in March the White House dismissed it, saying that it envisioned a flu, not a coronavirus. Yet the scenario uncovered a government unprepared, with big shortages and an absolute lack of preparedness. Now the question is what the WH did with the knowledge gained.

It's obvious that this administration failed horrifically, with 88 thousand, 500 Americans dead and countless others suffering with the corona virus.
But you claim he is what?
A savior? A genius? or a barking carnival clown?

I think the latter