General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLet me say this up front: yes, I know how this sounds but---
Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2020, 11:50 PM - Edit history (1)
Has anyone heard a reasonable explanation for the fact that virtually every decision that Trump has made in dealing with this pandemic has worsened the crisis and placed Americans in more danger?
Initially, he had to choose between taking action to protect us or do nothing and let the pandemic gain a foothold in our country. He chose to ignore the problem and gave the virus free rein for weeks.
Thereafter, he chose at several other stages in the viral invasion to ignore or dishonestly minimize the threat we faced, playing politics with American lives.
He has almost totally failed to develop and provide vital testing procedures and supplies to tell us who is infected so they can be quarantined and their contacts traced.
He has declined to use federal authority to compel US companies to produce critical supplies and sell them here for our benefit. Some US companies are producing "PPE's"---personal protective equipment---but sell them overseas while nurses in the US wear garbage bags in place of gowns and reuse the same masks for days.
In February, we shipped over 17 tons of masks and gowns to China, apparently from our national emergency stockpile which is now nearly depleted.
He has refused to coordinate the purchase of ventilators, masks and other supplies, leading to expensive, time-consuming and often futile bidding wars between states shopping for the same items.
He has refused to issue a nationwide stay at home order, resulting in an inconsistent patchwork of conflicting "requirements" state to state.
I could go on and on, but so could most of you. My question is this: given the consistent avoidance of options that would help contain the threat and save American lives, is it not possible that Donald Trump is intentionally choosing to sacrifice tens of thousands of us? I could speculate about several possible motives, but that would be all that it was: speculation. For now, I'm simply asking that question.
I cannot think of any significant decision Trump had made that has helped protect us from this virus and I can't think of any rational explanation for the consistent harm he has done.
NRaleighLiberal
(59,922 posts)something fishy, for sure (if not Putin-y)
i wondered the same thing. If nothing else 'population control' for us peasants.
wnylib
(21,146 posts)Let the old and sick die.
DENVERPOPS
(8,640 posts)Everyone should KNOW Trump's marching orders are coming directly from Putin. It is soooo clearly apparent it is ridiculous.
Putin was high up in the KGB when the cold war took Russia down.
He has been hell bent ever since to rise in power and exact a vendetta personal revenge on the United States. His only aim has been to destroy America. Period.
A Russian friend says he talks to the people back in Russia, and they are laughing daily at how Putin is playing Trump and succeeding.
They all say it is amazing that he has done it, with no hands on involvement and without firing a single rocket or missile.........
Was it Pelosi who said: ALL ROADS LEAD TO PUTIN ??????????????
Everyone laughed, when during the debates, Hillary said: THERE IS A HUGE RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WASF
lindysalsagal
(20,318 posts)Russian. Oligarch. Mobster. Money. GOP. TooK.
dchill
(38,234 posts)Conservative Republican, Tea Party, Libertarian, Nazi, MAGAT...
ALL synonyms for immature, selfish, greedy, immoral.
Or just plain "owning the libs" to the death.
joost5
(421 posts)in keeping his properties open for business, which are all heavily reliant on travel and tourism.
Rich people surrounding Trump don't give a single shit about the greater good or society, except to the extent they preserve their profits and privileges.
FightingIrish
(2,716 posts)dchill
(38,234 posts)lastlib
(22,895 posts)...so gallows probly would be better.
BComplex
(7,964 posts)Joinfortmill
(14,135 posts)edhopper
(33,075 posts)Who has screwed up everything he has ever touched. That is why.
blm
(112,873 posts)wryter2000
(46,008 posts)Vladimir wants us destroyed, so he's telling Trump all the wrong things, and Trump is too stupid to realize it. Trump doesn't get anything out of screwing this up. Quite the contrary.
bdamomma
(63,562 posts)for Putin's pleasure and revenge.
This POS needs to arrested. He is our biggest threat. Or even better tRump needs to contract it.
Walleye
(30,573 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,532 posts)If you look at the "patchwork" of inconsistencies that his decisions create, you'll see that the laws fall hardest on those he knows the least, and are softest with those he knows the most.
Walleye
(30,573 posts)Hospital in Queens. He said he knew it very well. The BBC showed it and said something like, there you see, in the money capital of the richest country in the world, corpses being loaded with a forklift into the back of a lorry. A bit starker than our newscasters reported it.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,640 posts)SEVEN MONTHS AWAY.....at the rate he is going, and the way he is making things accelerate, I seriously doubt we can make it that long.......
I seriously believe that they know they already have the election corrupted otherwise they wouldn't be so confident and so flagrantly screwing the entire U.S. population.
(Except, of course, the Uber Rich Republicans, any and all Republican Politicians, the leaders of the Republican Party, His entire Republican administration, himself and his family.....)
BigmanPigman
(51,368 posts)I think there should be a mandatory mental and physical check-up before being allowed to take office.
He clearly has a combination of serious personality disorders: sociopath, narcissist, sadist....not good for us.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,605 posts)sop
(9,846 posts)with profiting financially and politically from this crisis than actually helping people. Trump defiles everything.
MLAA
(17,115 posts)Ford_Prefect
(7,772 posts)Profit for his enablers and political allies- a substantial portion of which found its way into GOP political coffers. It was another money-laundering scheme. Also, it enabled the MIC to control foreign policy and arms purchasing to a degree they had previously only dreamed of. In turn that also empowered and emboldened the Right-wing in Israel, along with the faction of Saudi and Qatari princes who wanted to run their regional competition out of business with profits and power to further their agendas.
MLAA
(17,115 posts)SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Atticus
(15,124 posts)RussBLib
(8,950 posts)If I didn't know better. But I don't know better.
FuzzyRabbit
(1,956 posts)Nearly every decision he makes is designed to create as much misery for as many people as possible.
From taking babies out of their mothers arms and putting refugees in cages, to taking away food stamps from thousands of families, and nearly every other decision he makes, he tries to be as cruel as possible.
Cruelty is the whole point of his existence. He looks somewhat human, but he is a monster.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)We have much bigger problems than this one asshole.
is hes also killing people that support him by his do nothing attitude. As far as Im concerned he still has that same attitude. Its just all about him.
Flaleftist
(3,473 posts)dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)Buckeye_Democrat
(14,844 posts)... deny science and allow their children to die from untreated medical problems.
Theyre not living in reality, and Trump doesnt live in reality either. Hes such a narcissistic that he often favors his own idiotic notions over evidence, doubling-down if and when hes challenged.
None of this is new. His biographers shared his severe character flaws with us long before the election.
Hes NOT a genius with some overall scheme in mind, other than trying to satiate his own need for attention and power.
Edit: This interview of the Art of the Deal author (link below) is one of the better articles about Trumps severe flaws. (Other biographers made similar statements about Trump during interviews, but they seemed less concerned... as if the USAs political system would just bail him out of any real trouble.)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all
BigDemVoter
(4,149 posts)They lie through their fucking teeth about EVERYTHING. This epidemic shows what they are--goddamned traitors.
Pussy-Grabber should DEFINITELY be put on trial for treason along with that worthless Barr Hog and that piece of shit, Pence.
world wide wally
(21,714 posts)I don't give a fuck if he's driving so shitty because he is blind.
It's time to get off this crazy train
eleny
(46,166 posts)uponit7771
(90,193 posts)CousinIT
(9,087 posts)...he's not going to do it. And he IS PUNISHING BLUE STATES by outbidding them for supplies, dicking with their orders and cancelling them, deliberately sending them the wrong supplies, or simply sending them to another country who bid higher for them.
NO. CONCIENCE.
(aka psychopath)
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)One of the books that had a great influence on Trump's young life was Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking". The premise of the book is pretty much that outcomes depend heavily on outlook.
Trump was trying to talk the virus away from our shores in pretty much the same way that Mike Pence believes you can "pray away the gay".
When you look at how unlikely it seemed in June of 2015 that Trump would get the nomination, and then win the election in the Electoral College, he must have believed that he "thought" it into being, and he had the same sort of delusion in dealing with C-19.
Talitha
(6,450 posts)Definitely yes. Since the very beginning of this hell we're now living in, I've felt that everything he does is intentional.
He's pure evil.
littlemissmartypants
(22,332 posts)Psychopath/sociopath, a twisted mind that thrives on inflicting the worst pain possible. That's our president.
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)for three years and I haven't seen him do one rational thing yet...
Dan
(3,522 posts)A Jonah!!!
A Jinx!!!
I thought about all his bankruptcies - I mean Casinos.
Who would have thought that he could fuck up the nation.
The Magistrate
(95,237 posts)"Everything Trump Touches Dies."
onecaliberal
(32,373 posts)Trump is a psychotic soulless sack of shit and republicans are aiding him. The death toll is already unbearable. People are dying horrendous deaths alone.
Trueblue Texan
(2,342 posts)...and Putin is holding the reins. They are ALL compromised. If Trump goes down, they all do.
onecaliberal
(32,373 posts)California_Republic
(1,826 posts)Miguelito Loveless
(4,427 posts)1) Stock market manipulation/insider trading
2) Instructions from Moscow
duforsure
(11,880 posts)He has others doing things to prop the market up , and to use to profit from , and putin is giving him orders what to do to help him look good so trump can lift the oil sanctions for him. Putin has trump doing things so they can get this done for putin , and this is all PR to do that . trumps intentionally weakening this country for putin , and probably unable to pay his russian debts now. Putin also has gotten some republicans compromised now to, and working to get more.
tclambert
(11,077 posts)Sure, the flattened curve saves lives, but it lengthens the time we can't get back to business as normal. The spikier curve gets the business outage over faster and will get the stock market back to normal sooner.
If your moral compass only functions on the profit motive, what do a few million lives matter? They're mostly retirees anyway, who drive up your company's pension costs, and cost more in Social Security and Medicare. Take them out of the picture and you lose some customers while saving on retirement costs. Most important, you get business up and running months earlier.
liberalla
(9,131 posts)also an excellent read.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213211477
Media's Taboo Topic: Why's Trump Doing This?
pnwmom
(108,914 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)At the beginning it was sheer incompetence and inattention. But he's brought malevolence to bear by the way he's playing Hunger Games with state requests for supplies, demanding governors grovel and express personal gratitude for any crumbs of help he sends their way, and using the crisis to continue to destroy public institutions like the postal service and EPA. And he is also setting himself up to be viewed as a savior by the MAGAts by contrasting the very worst case projection of deaths (in the millions) with what we can do despite his incompetence (~100,000 dead) and claiming credit for the difference.
He lacks the wit and discipline to have engineered the whole crisis, but does have the shamelessness and depravity to turn it into a tool for his own purposes.
ecstatic
(32,532 posts)level of evil and cruelty this guy is capable of. We choose to blame his actions on stupidity and this allows him to get away with basically everything.
He's using the same playbook as hitler and it looks like people won't get it until it's too late.
dhill926
(16,200 posts)CloudWatcher
(1,829 posts)You really don't need to overthink it. Everything is all about him.
He has no empathy, no concept of service, no motive even to help or harm us. He just wants to do whatever he thinks will make him look better.
Combined with an IQ approaching double-digits, and a drug problem that would kill an elephant, he's just on a "drunkards walk" through the possible things he might do on a daily basis.
And yes, it's quite possible that he's taking orders from Putin. But it's all in the context of how to preserve & inflate his image.
world wide wally
(21,714 posts)and I totally agree!
procon
(15,805 posts)He's hollowed out critical government agencies and fired the experts. Qualified and experience professionals refuse to work in his administration. The government barely functions, leaving people more vulnerable and at risk.
Remember the fate of Puerto Rico. American citizens were left to die. Trump is whittling away at Obamacare, and more Americans are going to die. He cut food programs to feed hungry Americans and took food away from school kids. Trump cut Medicaid programs, making it harder for people to get medical care. More people will die.
He's cut health and safety regulations to the delight of wealthy corporate polluters. Our air is getting dirtier and our water more contaminated, how many Americans will become sicker as these health hazards get worse? Food inspections have been reduced to a voluntary status, and more Americans are getting sick from eating contaminated foods.
The list keeps growing and people keep getting sicker and dying. The reason behind this isn't clear to me. Although, simplistically, it might be nothing more than some dystopian effort to eliminate the unworthy, "the takers" that Republicans are always complaining about.
kurtcagle
(1,594 posts)Trump has sold Crisis Capitalism since well before he was elected. You don't buy a business when it's thriving, you buy it when it's battered and bruised and can be had for a song - and if you were the one doing the battering and bruising, so much the better. The problem is that sometimes you can get caught in the crisis. The problem that Trump faces now is that he can't finesse or buy his way out of this particular problem.
Trump is holding up deliveries to the blue states and trying to make them take the worst of the impact, then will open up the largess of HIS great beneficence, but only to those who bow down in obeisance. At least I think this was how he had expected it would play out. What he failed (and fails) to take into account is that this virus is an indiscriminate killer, and it's likely to hit the red states far worse ultimately. He knows that if he doesn't get elected in November he's facing prison time, and he's been pretty consistent about appealing only to his base because he's lazy - he doesn't want to expand beyond that base, may not necessarily even know how to.
I've noticed that his supporting press has been playing up his epiphany moments, but I think it's actually wishful thinking on their parts, trying to prop up someone who's coming to the realization that he's played the wrong strategy for too long. I also think its finally sunk in that he could actually DIE. Yet even in the face of that, he still continues to play by his old playbook, because he has no clue what to do at this point.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,216 posts)better than Obama could have done great and wonderful job of managing this crisis. That might be all he needs to get through the day.
ooky
(8,866 posts)I don't know if this is happening because he is trying to kill us or because he is so stupid, but it does seem reasonable that in either case that it would be stopped. This is like a major corporation's board of directors watching a pathetically incompetent CEO destroy their company and letting it continue to happen while all the directors and the chairman say nothing. It really is that bad and that obvious. It's very strange.
Tucker08087
(621 posts)Im afraid I dont have the link. The article said now that red states are getting cases, hes concerned he will lose the election. Thats why hes holding those press conferences. Those are for the MAGA. Its also why he He was hoping it would stay along the coastlines. I looked up and said, So I really havent been crazy all this time! Hes doing this on purpose. Damn! So either he was trying to kill us, destroy our economy, or at the very least make sure our lives were crushed by grief and we dont vote. But it seems to be mostly about the election. But Im pretty sure he enjoyed it.
Demovictory9
(32,297 posts)Cozmo
(1,402 posts)murielm99
(30,617 posts)We have all seen dysfunctional families. The father, trump, is a vicious sadist and narcissist. The wife is ineffectual and she drinks. The children, all raised on cruelty, are trump's inner circle. They try to undercut each other and to curry favor with the father. They are doing this so they can get a larger share of the inheritance.
One of the sons (advisors) is in charge of procuring masks. He makes sure the supply is dwindling and misdirected. Another is in charge of gowns. He sends them overseas instead of making sure that American hospitals have what they need. A daughter is in charge of respirators. She finds broken ones deliberately and sends them to the most afflicted areas. All of them go to papa and brag about their accomplishments. He rewards them with attention and money. All of them, but papa most of all, delight in the distress and pain they are causing the less powerful family members, like the minor children and the cousins who have harmed no one. They delight also in the pain they cause each other. They keep hurting each other and trying to one-up each other. All of them are broken.
One big dysfunctional family. And they are killing us.
Lock him up.
(6,861 posts)When he started to cultivate him, bailing that orangevirus out of his six bankruptcies through his oligarchs:
Killing more and more Americans every day without having to fire a single shot.
TXPaganBanker
(210 posts)To get this much wrong, this consistently, it has to be done with malicious intent. Sending all the broken ventilators to LA county, sending 300,000 of the wrong type of mask to Illinois (surgical vs. N95s), sending load after load of equipment to red states that don't need them (Florida received three times what it asked for, Oklahoma got equipment it never ordered). It's worse than doing nothing. It's actively harming the country's ability to respond to the crisis.
MerryBlooms
(11,711 posts)This is most certainly true. Malicious intent. We are on 5th Avenue and Trump is shooting at us. We are all Ukraine now. He has proven who he is over and over again.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)uponit7771
(90,193 posts)Maru Kitteh
(28,302 posts)excellent governor, Steve Bullock ran briefly for the presidency 2020. Oh, and he hates our senator, John Tester too. Tester is the one who lowered the boom on Dr. Feelgood who said DFT could live to be 200 years old.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)The recovery until September or October so that he can pretend to be Savior justin time for the election.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,480 posts)KY.........
lapfog_1
(29,147 posts)this is affecting mostly blue states that won't vote for him anyway...
He thinks that reducing the number of voters in blue states (and thus making many red state residents "happy" about the deaths in SF and NYC) he was helping his cause.
Note that Red States that ask for assistance from the White House are getting everything they want and sometimes more than they ask for, while blue states (or at least purple states with Democratic governors) get short changed or empty promises.
Is this intentional... YES.
Meowmee
(5,164 posts)Removed from office immediately, whatever the reasons. I would like know who if anyone is going to step up to the plate and do it?
pansypoo53219
(20,879 posts)calimary
(80,521 posts)Most of us have seen and heard and read enough by now to know - it's impossible to believe ANYTHING but the worst of him, and from him.
MerryBlooms
(11,711 posts)bluestarone
(16,641 posts)He's worse than an asteroid hitting earth because he actually ENJOYS seeing the numbers rise!! NO question about his EVIL!
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)He has been warned every single day that people will die if he doesn't take a specific list of actions. He consistently refuses to do so, and even does the opposite.
Trump is working for Putin. Putin's goal is to destroy America.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)That's also the entire GOP's goal.
Destroy it and build the Fourth Reich from the wreckage.
ThoughtCriminal
(13,996 posts)Everything and everybody he touches is destroyed. Completely.
Turbineguy
(37,127 posts)incompetence.
wryter2000
(46,008 posts)He doesn't have any motives other than to get through the next news conference.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)he'd be gone in a heart-beat if it were not for their full support. Out of all the crap that's gone on, for them...nothing has been out of line. 1-Senator has had 'concerns'. I'd love to know what the end game is..if they have one. Does seem like they have a check-list and are just crossing things off. Making decisions on the fly, and always to benefit they and theirs in some way.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)he'd be gone in a heart-beat if it were not for their full support. Out of all the crap that's gone on, for them...nothing has been out of line. 1-Senator has had 'concerns'. I'd love to know what the end game is..if they have one. Does seem like they have a check-list and are just crossing things off. Making decisions on the fly, and always to benefit they and theirs in some way.
underpants
(182,064 posts)Its a mixture of narcissism and fueled by years inside his own bubble. Everyone kowtowed to him. No matter what he decided it had to be correct.
He doesnt need briefings. Give him a problem and he instantly will know what to do. Regardless of the outcome no one questioned him.
He also simply doesnt do negatives. I think thats internal too. Hes in some weird world where he just wills himself to be right and for years no one ever dared speak up.
The only real counsel that he seems to have taken was from Jared who early on told him it was just a PR problem. You see Jared is always right became Trump asks for his opinion so he HAS to be right or a Trump wouldnt have asked him in the first place.
aikoaiko
(34,113 posts)That's the most direct line. He was in denial that such measures were inevitable.
Pepsidog
(6,252 posts)seta1950
(932 posts)I have had the same question from the beginning, its as if hes working against this country
TrogL
(32,818 posts)They hope it will bring on the Rapture.
live love laugh
(12,961 posts)in a coherent way. That takes thought and work.
I would like your permission to modify or use excerpts as I do battle with the enemy regarding these issues.
#iamthemedia
Atticus
(15,124 posts)trueblue2007
(17,111 posts)Joinfortmill
(14,135 posts)Lonestarblue
(9,808 posts)And those orders are to destroy as much of the federal government (especially the intelligence services) and the power of the US as possible. I also believe that Trump supports Putins goal of weakening the US for personal reasons. The social elite in New York never accepted Trump and his family, most likely because they saw them as the charlatans they are. His resentment at that slight, which his money could not overcome, left a need for vengeance. Then Hillary won the popular vote, further frosting his butt because he knows that millions of people hate him and believe he is a nincompoop. He is known for wreaking vengeance on anyone who displease him. I believe that he actually hates the US and is taking out his vengeance any way he can, including deliberately letting people die.
We all know that Trump is not normal. We just didnt know how warped he is until now.
Smackdown2019
(1,168 posts)He should check on the Nazis Furfer and demonstrate how to cough.
no matrix
(17 posts)Last edited Thu Apr 2, 2020, 11:01 PM - Edit history (1)
Over and over again, the military has conducted dangerous bio warfare experiments on Americanshttps://www.businessinsider.com/military-government-secret-experiments-biological-chemical-weapons-2016-9
"Here are some of the other difficult-to-believe germ warfare experiments that occurred during this dark chapter in US history.
These tests were documented in Cole's book and verified by Business Insider using congressional reports and archived news articles."
Experiments.
From the last paragraph of the article:
"And the "War on Terror" raises other concerns, according to Cole.
After the 2001 anthrax attacks, funding for bio terrorism research spiked by $1.5 billion. Then in 2004, Congress approved another $5.6 billion bio terror research project.
These projects are meant to protect society from the dangers of biological agents, but they may have an unintended consequence, Cole says.
"Thousands and thousands of people became familiar with pathogens that they were not familiar with before," he says. "You now have many more people that could potentially do bad with these organisms, and it only takes one person."
Response to Atticus (Original post)
no matrix This message was self-deleted by its author.
byronius
(7,362 posts)If he weren't the tool of a foreign power he'd get at least something half-right.
But his compass points directly south. Constantly.
The only argument against your reasoning is this: it's too obvious.
McKim
(2,412 posts)Atticus, you have something there. Remember that old saying from the Bible: By their fruits you shall know them. Think about that. I keep a very open mind about your idea and I agree that Trump seems bent on destroying this country. Look how he has destroyed customs, institutions, programs that build and that care for our citizens. He encouraged ignorance and hate, violence and now he pretended to screw up and let the virus have its way with us. He is being supported by a group of henchmen in the whitehouse. Surely some in his administration have a better grip on reality. This leads me to think that this negligence is intentional. The goal is to kill off Democrats and poor people.
nini
(16,670 posts)He'll let people die while figuring out how to make money off of masks, ventilators, etc etc
Someone in his family could get it and he still wouldn't give a shit.
DAngelo136
(264 posts)I am convinced that DJT is a saboteur. He was installed as President by an adversarial foreign power to weaken from within, if not destroy the United States of America specifically and the West in general.
If a group of radical leftists or so called Islamic terrorists were to attempt such acts of sabotage, they would be rounded up by the FBI, charged, tried and convicted by the U.S. Justice Department. But in this case, it's the President of the United States who by definition, cannot be charge with a crime, while being aided and abetted by the Republican Party and certain parties operating under the cover of religion who wish to install a form of Christian Fascism.
Plausible or no?
Gothmog
(143,654 posts)Every decision or action listed in the OP weakens the US and helps Putin/Russia