I know this is a Trump thread, but on the subject of World Leaders - Bolsonaro on escalating Brazilian Covid-19 deaths "So what. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do?".

Just been reading on the BBC news website how Trump , whilst claiming China want Biden to become President , doesn't believe the American public will vote for an incompetent person . Any thoughts ?

The ‘great’, USA public, voted for a totally incompetent twit, once, they could do it again.

Just been reading on the BBC news website how Trump , whilst claiming China want Biden to become President , doesn't believe the American public will vote for an incompetent person . Any thoughts ?

The ‘great’, USA public, voted for a totally incompetent twit, once, they could do it again.

I visit the US a lot, and really like Americans. However I have had some weird conversations with apparently normal folk who turn out to be barmy. Last year a middle aged, apparently intelligent couple, tried to persuade my wife and I over breakfast that the result of more guns each year in America actually keeps murders down! Scarier still is a recent survey that 38% of Americans believe in creationism. I’m afraid that it’s perfectly possible that Trump could win again in the swing states, whatever stupid things he continues to do.

I know this is a Trump thread, but on the subject of World Leaders - Bolsonaro on escalating Brazilian Covid-19 deaths "So what. I'm sorry. What do you want me to do?".

Brazil .... where the nuts come from.

(Charley's Aunt 1892)

If you have netflix have a look at a few documentaries. 'Donald Trump, The American Dream': Michael Moore's 'Farenheit 11/9';
and 'Get Me Roger Stone' . The Americans fell for this hook, line and sinker. The people of Michigan want to go back to work against the wishes of the State Governor. Trump supports the people because Michigan is a swing state.

The "open up" mantra has taken a far more sinister turn now, because it seems as clear as day that Trump and his rich business cronies have basically adopted a slave labour approach to reopening - work them to death because there are always plenty more where they came from, and they're barely human anyway.

Trump never bothered to invoke the Defense [sic] Production Act to ramp up the supply of desperately needed PPE and all the rest, but he has used it to force meat-processing plant employees to go back to work on pain of losing any unemployment benefits if they refuse, when infection rates, including shocking numbers of asymptomatic, are staggeringly high in those facilities (where they've even bothered testing).

I think the logic is clear: with millions unemployed, if thousands of "warriors" (Trump's new favourite word) die in the cause of feeding America's insatiable meat habit, there will always be thousands more desperate people to fill their places on the production line with little or no protection or testing offered - not because they want to, but because they effectively have no other choice.

And, more broadly: as so many low-paid jobs in what are now potentially very dangerous workplaces are filled by blacks and Hispanics, it's a win all the way down the line for the heartless horrors who run the government and the big businesses. Reduce wages, reduce the welfare burden, reduce the percentage of brown people in the country - what's not to like? Add in appalling infection and death rates in care homes and prisons and many thousands more burdensome individuals disappear from the spreadsheets.

Just keep those hamberders coming.

Uh oh, this is seriously bad news, and a major threat to the integrity of the November election (as if there weren't enough already):

Top Republican fundraiser and Trump ally named postmaster general, giving president new influence over Postal Service

As I wrote here less than two weeks ago:

Speaking of wrecking, his next target is the US Postal Service. He plans to put it out of business before the election (assuming that the vote still takes place when it should) because he knows that postal votes are very bad news for the GOP - while he pretends that he dislikes postal voting because it lends itself to massive voter fraud. Because, you know, he's really down on fraud. Strongly, tremendously down. Down like nobody's ever seen before. It's very bad - horrible. The best words, the best words.

Dr Anthony Fauci will be testifying before a Senate committee later today - he's been barred from attending a similar House hearing because Trump says "it's full of Trump-haters". Fauci will be appearing by video because he's self-isolating because White House staff have tested positive because... the list is long, but of course ends with Trump.

In view of what Fauci has stated he'll be saying (via an email to the NYT*) - that he has very serious fears for the way the country is reopening - and that he'll be under oath so will not have the usual luxury of being so diplomatic about Trump's constant lies, two thoughts spring to mind:

1. If Fauci starts saying things that the Senate Republicans really don't want the country to hear, will there be mysterious "technical problems" that cut off his feed?

2. If he tells the unvarnished truth, will Trump finally get rid of him in the near future, as he's clearly wanted to do for weeks?

* Editied to add an extract from his NYT email:

"If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: 'Open America Again,' then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal."

Needless to say, the guidelines have not so much been skipped over as trampled underfoot. These are the White House's own guidelines, by the way.

Trump common sense:

“When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s common sense. Could be that testing’s, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated."

Here's an idea: let's not record any goals Argyle concede. Then they'll never lose. It's common sense.

I really do wonder if he is all ‘the ticket’, he seems to be getting crazier by the day.

I really wonder about his mental state.

To have one of the most powerful men in the world, to have this metal disability is very dangerous.

I really do wonder if he is all ‘the ticket’, he seems to be getting crazier by the day.

I really wonder about his mental state.

To have one of the most powerful men in the world, to have this metal disability is very dangerous.

Q: “You know the expression I’ve used … ? What do you have to lose,” Trump said. “Okay? What do you have to lose?”
A: Your life, Mr President??

My initial reaction to Trump's off-the-cuff claim that he's been taking hyrdoxycloroquine for the last couple of weeks, and that thousands of frontline workers are taking it all the time, was: You lying furking scumbag, you just said that to undermine whistleblower Rick Bright's credibility and to try to save face.

On sober reflection, my thoughts have evolved to: You utterly pathetic lying furking scumbag, you just said that to undermine whistleblower Rick Bright's credibility and to try to save your miserable bloated orange face.

Some side-effects of hyrdoxycloroquine are agitation, insomnia, confusion, mania, paranoia, hallucinations and lasting psychological problems. That means one of two things: either we have no way of telling if he's recently begun taking it as claimed; or he's been taking it all his life.

And, with the usual "I'm not a psychiatrist" caveat: yes, he's obviously seriously mentally impaired.