As El Trumpo heads for the scrapheap of history, we have all been waiting for him to throw his final tantrum. Some last Hail Mary attempt to wrest the election from the virus that has killed his presidency. We were right to expect so, the toxic narcissist will always exact his revenge if publically humiliated. But we may have been looking in the wrong place.
Instead of recapturing the election, EL Trumpo’s denouement is to allow the virus to kill as many of his fellow Americans as possible:
The Trump administration signaled on Sunday that it had given up on controlling the spread of the coronavirus, even as Covid-19 makes its second run through the White House, three in four Americans are concerned that they or someone they know will contract the disease, and millions of American families are suffering as negotiators struggle to clinch an elusive relief deal.
“We’re not going to control the pandemic,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.” “We are gonna control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”
Moreover, his cult members are suffering the most, having proven too weak to lift his mighty person:
Which makes a very nice overlay with those glowing red states:
I’m crazy, I know. This is all just coincidence and seasons etc. You’re probably right. But, there is one way in which it isn’t crazy. The White House does not need to let another 200k Americans die. It can use lockdowns and contact tracing to fend off the illness until vaccines arrive. The Republicans can get another fiscal deal done to enable such and prevent economic devastation. On both counts, failure is a choice.
In short, it is not so much El Trumpo that is exacting his revenge as it is the entire Republican Party that is doing so. Its final act in power is to leave as much human devastation in its wake as it can by dropping a virus daisy-cutter into the heart of Americana for Democracts to have to clean up.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
And, not next year as well if the GOP maintains some number in the Senate.2021 is going to be “interesting”
Matchbox
ay caramba!
migtronixMEMBER
Zero evidence for your suggestion and Obama said he left a playbook. Fauci said it was coming in January and Trump admitted to Woodward he knew it was worse than the flu!! You’re full of crap and probably a actually bigot
Haw Kiss
Are you suggesting Obama knew about coronavirus and therefore left a playbook for how it should be handled?
PeterMEMBER
Unfortunately, this looks likely to be what comes next…
We are indeed the Lucky Country. Six states v fifty has its advantages. We are fortunate the Premiers took over in March. I shudder to think what would have happened if ScoMo had Presidential powers. Instead, the Premiers have been able to fend off the rwnjs and our terrible media and get it done. How Andrews held off the blow touch against him, and got it done in Victoria I will never know. He and his government made some mistakes, but Victoria got it done. If they had failed, so would the rest of Australia in due course.
happy valleyMEMBER
Post the next federal election when the LNP has control of both houses of Parliament, ScoMo will be the benevolent dictator we had to have?
macrofishMEMBER
How would that matter? Prime Minsters have no actual power.
Change some rules, introduce more vaguery into government policy decisions and day-to-day execution, keep up the refusal to be held accountable and, walla!, ou can pretty much do what you want – effectively authoritarian.
Cristian
Hopefully the fat fck has a heart attack watching the Sharks lose in Round 1 next year, and Jim Chalmers can take over after the next Federal election.
Swampy
Dim Chalmers? Isn’t he the one with no real life experience outside politics?
RobotSenseiMEMBER
You’re confusing him with pretty much every over politician
kierans777MEMBER
As much as Victoria’s implementation of hotel quarantine was really screwed up, the idea was Andrew’s. ScoMo would have been content to let returning travellers pinky swear that they’ll stay at home for 2 weeks. The premiers of Qld, WA, SA and Tas all brought their A game.
@ Christian. Well put. We are in this aspect the lucky country. Thank dog for the premiers and the compliance and good sense of most Aussies. And yep, I have no idea either how Andrews kept going, but thankfully he did.
GramusMEMBER
Scummo would have done NOTHING if he was in charge of the health response. He has white anted everything the Premiers have done.
IanMEMBER
You mean do nothing like closing our border to china before it was declared a pandemic.
kierans777MEMBER
Which he didn’t do quickly enough, and was dragged to doing. Anything good that is “attributed” to ScoMo should be really attributed to those who pushed him kicking and screaming to take any action.
dennis
Yep, tired of reading polls saying majority happy with Scumo’s performance, it was NSW & Vic ignoring him and then the rest of the states doing so and closing their borders. If he’d had his way, we’d be in an entirely different position today.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
Remember the flak Dan Andrews copped when he shut down the Melbourne F1?
Hard call but correct call. That alone would have been a disaster beyond all reckoning.
Tim
IIRC he was pretty much committed to that happening until very late piece…..Italian teams putting boots on ground etc.
RomulusMEMBER
If Trump loses expect him to do everything in his power to crash the market and economy.
He will have no qualms in scorching the earth behind him in the lame duck session with the added benefit of saying its because Biden was elected.
Gonzo
He should go full Saddam and light the oil wells on the way out.
Bob Grude
Let’s see, if he loses in an incontestable way then I bet he bows out without your scorched earth approach. If it’s a close and contestable election result then I guess he will try everything he can to hold onto power, just the same as the Democrats would do in the same position (and have done previously).
RobotSenseiMEMBER
Yep, just like Al Gore did in 2000.
Wait, no he didn’t.
Bob Grude
Why did you cherry pick the 2000 election to try and make a point? How is that more relevant than the most recent election? If it’s a close and contestable election both sides will contest it if they are deemed the initial loser.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
Because last time the Democrats were in a highly contested election, the candidate conceded for the good of the country.
Making your analysis incredibly myopic.
RomulusMEMBER
Not the way I see it, it will be even worse if Biden’s victory is big. A close race he can work it through the courts. If its a landslide the guy will take it as an insult by people who voted against him and will do everything in his power intentionally will crash the economy and market to try and blame it on Biden. Republicans will also be happy to because they see it as a way to a) not spend b) saddle the Dems with a much weaker economy to get them a platform to stand on in 2022 if they lose the Senate this year (ala 2008/2010).
Cristian
Yes that’s a significant risk, almost 3 months between election and inauguration. I hope the Dems reclaim both Senate and Presidency and that provides stability moving forward. I don’t think Biden will be a great President, but he will provide some calm after the Trump storm. Plus the GOP is acting disgracefully pushing forward with the Supreme Court nomination.
Bob Grude
The only reason a democrat win might provide any semblance of stability is because the extreme left have been using and threatening violence if they don’t get their way. If Biden wins it’s unlikely we will see trump supporters burning and looting. So yeah, stability and somehow the unrest is Trumps fault?
Tightwad
You can’t argue with TDS but I admire the effort.
China PlateMEMBER
he’ll ream(us) the economy hey romulus
RomulusMEMBER
+1. Feed us to the wolves he will..
drt15MEMBER
@ Romulus. See DLS article here today on Trump and the republicans exacting their revenge via Covid – letting it rip will kill many thousands more, over run their hospitals, devastate families and kill the economy – leaving a pretty comprehensive scorched earth for the dems to inherit.
It would be truly hilarious if the GOP got back in.
COVID is certainly one aspect of how his scorched earth strategy will play out. A lot of it stems from the fact that he did very little and the odd occasion he did do something it was too late which has been damaging enough. I’m saying instead of doing nothing he will actively try to disrupt and destroy the economy. He has found very creative ways to sidestep “norms”. If he loses by a big margin that he can’t argue the result in the courts he has nothing to lose in these last few months…
Who knows what he may end up doing knowing that prison (via state lawsuits) likely awaits him if Biden gets sworn in.
drt15MEMBER
@ Romulus Agree he would try, but surely letting the virus rip is the easiest and surest way to ‘actively disrupt and destroy the economy’?
Trump truly is a sack of sh1t, but he always was. It was never news. The problems that made his presidency possible have not gone anywhere. Cliched to say it, but he is a symptom.
If the Dems don’t win everything, then what will come after another few years of government gridlock?
It’s not great
Bob Grude
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Not on Trump and not on the virus. I don’t think it’s correct to blame Trump for the deaths any more than it is to blame Dan Andrews for deaths. We don’t blame them when people die from the flu or diabetes. Were there policy errors? Sure. Same the world over. Is anyone blaming Jacinda for virus deaths in NZ few as they may be? This is a virus we will have to learn to live with unless/until herd immunity or a vaccine arrives. This is being politicised no end as an attack on Trump in an attempt to sway the election by the TDS crowd.
Swampy
You can definitely catch diabetes from being near someone, that’s true, so it’s a great comparison.
Is endemic flu as contagious/dangerous as Covid 19? Citations required.
Bob Grude
Could a leader do anything to help prevent deaths from diabetes? Of course. Did they? No.
Covid19 is more contagious than common flu. No argument. But not sure what your point is. Is it more dangerous than common flu? That’s age dependant but it is if you’re old. Still. Not sure why this makes these deaths Trumps fault.
drt15MEMBER
>Not sure why this makes these deaths Trumps fault.>
Because countries that have locked down, worn masks (including their presidents) socially distanced and tested early and often, have much lower infection and death rates. Trump is a sociopath who must control the narrative on everything.
Europe ? I dont think so LOL as of today 4 times more cases per Million than US (despite few lockdowns and compulsory masks)
Robert
Novel influenza has a mortality rate of up to 60%. So the fact this is only 0.5% IFR is exceptionally lucky. Influenza is a more deadly virus mitigated by the fact you have pre existing immunity from childhood exposure to some extent. Your T cells drop by up to 80% once you reach adulthood.
dennis
What a load of stick my f222ing head in the sand rw claptrap. It wasn’t a policy error as there was no policy, just let it rip. Trump has signalled it often enough of how he views CV.
Trump set the cultural response for at least million Americans; he influence them and their views on Covid strongly.
He also could have done more at the Fed level, as well as providing more financial, planning and cultural assistance to the states.
He’s indirectly very responsible.
HoodyMEMBER
Any chance of getting some thoughts or views around Trump winning? Or are we going to do what happen at the last Federal election and just play catchup?
Robert
Last election was a battle between cancer and an enema.
This election is a battle between hatred of Woke vs The Joke!
Bizarrely American’s accept that death is the price of freedom, so who wins this is anyone’s guess. American’s won’t go quietly into a brave new world.
Bob Grude
“Bizarrely American’s accept that death is the price of freedom“
I think you mean “ Bizarrely American’s accept that risk of death is the price of freedom”. And I agree with them. A government promise of security at the cost of liberty should be considered very well. Both how possible is it to for the government to deliver on that promise and is the price worth it when other options (like personal responsibility) may be available.
Craftsman
It’s disappointing how this blog can show such a strong bias against trump, which borders on fanatical. Just saying. What’s the harm in being objective? Trump is blamed for impact of the coronavirus, without acknowledging responsibility of the states. ANTIFA, riots Biden withholding policy, blah blah, yeah all good no worries mate, orange man bad.
Trump is a counter weight to the left, simple as that.
Denis413MEMBER
+1
Swampy
Which left would that be? The corporatist Democrats who don’t support universal healthcare (a left policy if you care to frame it that way, I prefer to frame it as an equality/fairness/humane policy).
Mega65MEMBER
That would be fake left I’m guessing. There is no real left any more.
Correct. I wish people would stop talking about the ‘left’.
They have some socially progressive preferences aka ‘lefty’, but basically everyone that the hawks call ‘left’ is actually no further left than centre, economically speaking, and often no further left than the centre-right. Nuts.
Kolchak
Oh boohoo. They’re about to pack the Supreme court 6-3 with Republicans and you cry about balance.
Come on!
The whole Trump family look like weird cultists. The women are like Stepford Wives and the men are like weird Mormonie serial killers.
drt15MEMBER
The whole of the Trump family *are* weird….also deranged sociopaths and narcissists the lot.
Ronin8317MEMBER
The US had got COVID-19 under control in April. One tweet from Trump telling his supporters to go out and protest against lockdown changed it all. You can pinpoint the rise in cases in USA from then on.
Macrobusiness have been very pro-Trump for his anti China stance, but Trump completely blew it with COVID-19.
Mega65MEMBER
So the massive BLM protests didn’t contribute?
fitzroyMEMBER
Like going to a football match or shaking hands with the infected or hug a Chinese person during a festival, of we should have open borders from our CHO and the WHO.. There are leaders like that everywhere.
Exactly. We love Trump’s China and immigration stands. If he were rational on anything else he’d get a tick too.
maddz
Peace deals? Cancelling the Iran deal. Started no wars. Pulling troops out.
DLS a balance assessment of Trump’s achievement is so rarely given by you – pretty much never – that I have concluded you just don’t make an effort to inform yourself.
I think he’ll also be remembered for bringing the USA closer to fascism than it every has been before.
maddz
Nothing on peace deals. The way your assessment falls out there is contentious and smacks of pure partisanship.
Again from reading your columns I don’t think you can be balanced. There is a lot of unnecessary panic encouraged on this site e.g. @burbwatcher re fascism. If you weren’t so left wing, you’d be cancelled.
Maddz, you’ve been brainwashed into a cult. Trump is good in some ways. The shake-up is great. China is great. Immigration needed a good whack. Globalisation needed a kick.
We’ve taken him policy by policy. And the rest of it is terrible.
Sober up, mate. Trump is a conman.
JC
Personally I agree that canceling the Iran deal was not a good move. That said, one thing people can’t accuse Trump of is actually trying to implement policies he said he would. This is in sharp contrast to other US politicians who offer nothing but empty rhetoric.
Franck Kessie
The BurbWatcher have you ever read the fascist manifesto? Which particular part(s) do you have issue with?
Craftsman
DLS, before you can make that claim, I think you need to summarise in one table Trumps positives and negatives in the context of putting America citizens first (his 2016 election platform).
And one could argue that Trumps style (you seem to liken it to dictator for some reason), is a anti depression/counter attack defence against being surrounded by media bias. Most people not be able to take it.
drt15MEMBER
+1
Stewie Griffin
climate, tax, inequality, race relations, the economy long term, budget and, mostly, the virus.
Climate – agreed done nothing, worse, loosened restrictions. But backed fracking, which still sets the marginal price of oil which along with low interest rates has kept a small gap between a rock and a hard place that the world will inevitably find itself with the energy equation.
Tax – the biggest crime, allowing the corporations to bring back their un-US taxed overseas held profits at vastly concessional rates – yup terrible for inequality. But do you really think any of those offshore dollars would ever have been taxed or brought back any other way? The reality is the same rich people would still have controlled it, just offshore – 15% of something is still a hell of a lot more than 100% of nothing.
Race relations – his main crime, refusing to bow down and prostrate himself before the Peggy MacKintosh napsack of white privilege and ridiculing the media and big brained classes definition of ‘race relations’ which is simply a rebranded form of class warfare.
Economy Long Term – is just as phucked as it would be under the democrats, as we run down the backside of the Hubbert Oil curve that really big brained thinkers like Grantham are so preoccupied with. Democrat or Republican, there is nothing that either could do.
Budget? Phfhhh – I thought we were in the land of MMT now?
Virus – currently the US is running just ahead of the UK in terms of number of deaths per million at 685 vs 673 per million, or at 9th or 10th position. Both the UK and the US have the distinction of having two or three of the major travel hubs in the world and were heavily seeded with the virus in the early stages of the outbreak. Spain, another nation also infected relatively early comes in 6th on the list with 744 per million, while Italy is 13th on the list and rising with 617 per million. But unlike the UK, Spain or Italy, Trump runs a Republic made up of 52 States, with far less power over the internal operations of those states in terms of curfews or lock downs.
The popular media narrative is that Trump has done a terrible job at containing the virus – the reality is that he’s done about the same as other Western nations that were heavily seeded in the initial stages of the outbreak, plus is faced with a limitations over his internal political powers, a problem that don’t exist to the same extend as they do in leaders in other comparable nations.
Trump is an egoist, he is vain and he is incredibly self centered, this is all true, but then so everything else that I’ve mentioned.
I think trump has been bang on for race relations. Focus on the real issues (eg jobs) not confected issues like police brutality and systemic thism or thatism. Culturally he has come into his own by breaking through stifled left wing wokism. Thats a more important issue than most realise.
maddz
I read MB regularly and havent seen anything like the assessments you say you do… policy by policy.. on foreign policy. Perhaps you could link me to these so I can give you a fair go.
A cult is bred thru close-mindedness and prejudice. I dont subscribe to cults and will keep your responses in mind when it is time to renew. Ridicule and contempt isnt attractive, though it is being more common place on MB.
JC
“If he were rational on anything else he’d get a tick too”
I’m genuinely curious, what policies or matters do you think he has been irrational on?
drt15MEMBER
LOL Climate. He will be judged by this deliberate act of sabotage more than any other.
JC
Ok, what else? Surely there is a huge list?
macrofishMEMBER
LOL ANTIFA
Anyone who talks about that tripe is just a mindless murdoch drone
Franck Kessie
Yes you really debunked that. The San Francisco police were attacked by just an idea.
migtronixMEMBER
Citation needed.
TrooDoh
DLS got TDS.
Tightwad
Unfortunately he’s about the only counterweight left. If he loses we all walk blindly into the socialist utopian police state.
happy valleyMEMBER
And it looks like one way or another, the GOP will have a lasting legacy, with or without El Trumpo being El Presidente, being a RWNJ appointed to the Supreme Court for life in her mid 40s?
Cristian
The Dems will have to expand the numbers on the court to counter the disgracefully GOP conduct in filling the vacancy during an election campaign, and even after the results are in ( assuming they lose in November).
Europe is doing better but not great. But it’s not a united states.
Andrew
Europe is pretty disastrous. It isn’t too far off the US by any means.
Robert
Lol why didn’t the 80+ YO judges retire during Obama’s presidency? Thats right they wanted a Female president to appoint their replacement. Democrats deserve a stacked court.
JC
The court is not stacked right now. The rules are simple. When you are in power if one of the nine dies, you can fill it. The Democrats are now talking about stacking it – contrary to the prescriptions of their hero RBG. Just another Dem move that is pulling at the very fabric of the American Republic. If they stack the court it is one more step to the very destruction of the idea of the USA. The damage they have done in the last four years with nonsense such as Russia collusion, and political theatre of impeachment is tragic!
drt15MEMBER
@ JC >When you are in power if one of the nine dies…>
A little drink of novichok’ll fix it, sure thing.
JC
Novichok, a substance so dangerous a drop the size of a pin head kills a horse, yet no humans ever seem to die from Nocichok poisining. In any case, what does it have to do with the Supreme Court?
GingerMEMBER
Nonsense
Franck Kessie
Lol who did RBG replace?
maddz
What is this “disgraceful GOP conduct”? It is the Senates’ job to confirm Judges. You just need to have good ideas to win an election.
drsmithyMEMBER
What is this “disgraceful GOP conduct”?
Remember the song and dance made by the GOP about appointing judges during an election campaign when they weren’t the ones doing the appointing ?
drsmithyMEMBER
And it looks like one way or another, the GOP will have a lasting legacy, with or without El Trumpo being El Presidente, being a RWNJ appointed to the Supreme Court for life in her mid 40s?
It’s important to understand it’s not just the Supreme Court, either – it’s been happening to courts all over the US for his whole term.
migtronixMEMBER
Not one single African American appointee.
revert2mean
Yep, the devil’s in the details. 👿
JC
“Not one single African American appointee.”
And why is that an issue? Should people be appointed by the colour of their skin or their gender or their actual qualifications to do the job?
dam
How is it going in Europe, without glorious Trump as Leader and with compulsory magical masks ? I suppose COVID is history there, inst it ? Are they doing a Sweden ?
I so wish a Trump win just to witness an epical Leftist meltdown, this alone would be worth it.Unfortunately, it s unlikely Covid has killed his re-election but one can dream 😉
Denis413MEMBER
I don’t care who wins the US election (nor do I think it matters – spoiler alert – it doesn’t – refer to… history…). But god I hope Trump wins. It will be up there with the garbage DLS wrote about Malcolm Turnbull when he was elected.
dam
Biden is supported massively by all the Billionaires/Big Tech/Large Corp.Harris admin will work for the richest, they have forgotten/despise the little guys ( their Dems donors built their wealth on the little guys back) (by the way Trump got far more small/popular political contribution.)
You like Fascism more than you dislike ‘wokeness’? No/yes?
Haw Kiss
So fascist he resisted all calls to do a nationwide lockdown
dam
Fascism? He lets the States do their democratic job.Biden/Harris/Dems are the Big Business/Billionaires guys, that s the real/original Fascism
Yes I despise wokeness deeply
Denis413MEMBER
Honestly, how do they differ. If you’re not with the woke, then you’re against the woke, unfortunately there is no in between for those who have gone woke.
Franck Kessie
Ask West Germany.
Tim
Never go full woketard.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
Donald Trump’s legacy will be presiding over the largest economic and healthcare disaster to have hit the USA since WWII, and the grand sum of his actions were to not only sit back and do nothing, but actively spread misinformation, fail to adhere to basic social distancing and mask-wearing advice, contract the virus itself, spread it around his inner circle, and stuff the SCOTUS full of partisans to remove healthcare insurance from 20m people.
Just sad that a nation so powerful can be so handicapped by a petty head of state.
Craftsman
If what you were saying was wrong, how would you know?
RobotSenseiMEMBER
Which of those statements I’ve made are objectively misleading?
RobotSenseiMEMBER
It’s not really an opinion. All of the above things happened. “The sun came up today” is not an opinion.
Robert
That maybe the real power of the US stems from it’s people’s love of liberty, and that they may consider the death caused by this virus to be less dangerous than the creeping power of the mega corporations and globalists wokesters?
RobotSenseiMEMBER
That addresses a grand total of 0 from the above statement. Try again.
RobotSensei’s statements are merely objective facts (except for “did nothing”). They are not opinions to be assessed and found right or wrong. While the pandemic is not Trump’s fault, his response to it is. President is supposed to protect first and foremost the lives and livelihoods of his citizens, and while some of his actions have supported those objectives, all too often his actions run counter to the medical and economic advice that would contribute to those objectives.
From an Australian perspective, this campaign reminds me of Howard/Keating 1996. Howard ran a very disciplined small target strategy against a Prime Minister who was very much on the nose, was behind and therefore said a lot and did a lot hoping to provoke a mistake and pull voters back to him. Given PM’s unpopularity, Howard allowed the public focus to stay on the PM, and did nothing to distract the public from their dislike for the PM.
Biden doing the same with Trump, although his comment to reduce weight to the oil industry was a mistake and has encouraged more provocation and lies from Trump looking to provoke more mistakes. If Biden stays disciplined and on message then the record surge of COVID cases keeps reminding people of Trump’s failure.
maddz
@curious that you cannot tell the difference from fact and opinion is the problem. MSM doesn’t either – ‘peaceful protests’.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
So give us your take: what of the above I’ve said is misleading?
My understanding is that most of the protests were, indeed, by number, peaceful.
maddz
FWIW @robotsensei the only thing truly factual is the state of economic and health crisis, and is true that Trump is/was POTUS during the term. This is hard to get wrong.
The rest is your narrative of what you ‘feel’ is true, as you have had fed to you by MSM (and MB). And so very obviously the parts that are futuristic, attribute motive and have not yet happened… are clearly your forecast opinion.
@robotsensei I don’t care you have those views. Just don’t pretend you are objective.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
@maddz none of those are takes. They all literally happened.
Franck Kessie
The BurbWatcher your understanding is ignorant.
drt15MEMBER
@robotSensei Agree. But you forgot to add climate sabotage – the world will remember him for that if nothing else in decades to come (plus the totally unmemorable for-any-other reason, Scummo)
The BystanderMEMBER
If all the Covidiots were going to come out and obnoxiously refuse to wear masks or socially distance, then yes, outbreaks would have continued. I doubt the infection and death toll would have been nearly as high though, given the Obama administration’s ability to listen to expert advice. Or any non-Trump administration for that matter
Tightwad
If all the lock us down psychos didn’t come out and obnoxiously insist that their fellow man lives in fear of a virus with a IFR of .03 to pander to their irrational fear then life would be a lot better.
If you’re fearful, hide at home and let the rest of the normal people get on with their lives.
Swampy
All the commenter hyperbole and histrionics and “MB is so TDS!!!oneone 1111” and hand-wringing aside, it’s interesting to note the scale of Covid in more sparsely populated rural areas vs similar in AU.
Would like to understand why.
HI appears to be doing ok.
drt15MEMBER
@ Swampy DLS makes the point today that they’re mostly Republican states with the high numbers.
Arasaka
Same here. Trump got called a racist for wanting to stop travel from China in the very beginning. Pelosi and others made a big show of it. Conveniently forgotten. I used to think they were misguided but I now know it is dishonesty. Anyway, it’s 2016 again and it will be pretty funny watching heads melt. The fact that some people think Biden is a credible candidate is hilarious.
Ronin8317MEMBER
After Trump’s “travel can from China”, 40k Americans in China went back to the USA without quarantine, making it almost pointless.
Mega65MEMBER
So despite that, was it racist and the wrong thing to do?
kierans777MEMBER
Sabotaging on the way out. Reminds me of what the Liberals did in 2019 because they didn’t expect to win. The one joy from them getting back in was when they realised they had to deal with the booby traps. COVID in a way saved them from themselves.
Tightwad
You’re certainly not alone.
Tightwad
I love the way 2nd and 3rd order effects of lockdowns are totally ignored just as all the failings of Trumps opponents are ignored.
The myopic bias is fascinatingly on display and amply demonstrates the complete lack of credibility.
You will probably find that most of the 2nd and 3rd order effects would have happened anyway, regardless of actions, because of the virus, not because of lockdowns…
You might be attacking a straw-man therefore.
Tightwad
Just as you’d find that most of the deaths would occured anyway as originally envisioned when we were sold the ‘just 2weeks to flatten the curve’ propoganda, just over a longer period
kiwikarynMEMBER
First, Trump does not have the power to put the country into lockdown. He would have to declare martial law in order to get that power, and just imagine the screams from the Left if he actually did that! Secondly, there is nothing stopping the State Governors (who do have the power) to put their individual States into lockdowns. The fact that few of them have done so is not Trump’s fault. The fact that the US death toll was so high was due to Democrat dipsh1ts like Cuomo sending Covid infected patients back to aged care homes. Just like the reason the death toll in Victoria was so high is because nothing was done to prevent Covid from getting into aged care homes. The fact that kids went to school and young adults went to bars had zero relevance to the infection control failures in the aged care system. As Sweden shows, once you get a handle on the aged care problem everyone else can get on with their lives, and the death toll drops to practically nothing.
You’re not seriously arguing that Trump has done all he can to lock down. Cripes, he’s egged on resitence at very point.
kiwikarynMEMBER
No, he could have done more to “encourage” the States. I’m just pointing out that ultimately its not within his control, and that every State Governor had the choice to ignore Donald Trump and do their own thing. But didnt. Because no Democrat wanted to shut down the economy and throw their voters onto unemployment in an election year. They are all as bad as each other, and anyone who thinks a Democrat leader would have done anything different needs only look at the current crop of Democrat Governors and see that they chose to not lockdown either. And if there had been a Democrat in the White House, the open borders policy would have been continued, there would have been no travel bans, and the death toll would have been a lot higher as the disease would have taken hold of more places more quickly back in March.
JC
Trump didn’t do everything he could have, but ultimately the seed was planted in New York and this spread to the rest of the US from there. The State Authorities did a disgraceful job in NYC.
dam
As of Today, the US have 179 new cases per million, France (and most of EU) : 796, 4 times more without Trump and with lockdown+mask.
Thank you Trump 😉
drt15MEMBER
@ DLS Yep. Guessing we were lucky Oz state premiers ignored Scummo, who was nowhere near as blatant as Trump in sabotaging the states, tho’ we’d now be in the same mess as the US if they hadn’t done their own thing despite him.
fitzroyMEMBER
We were lucky the politicians ignored the experts and closed the border- remember Prof Murphy and the WHO.
Tightwad
That’s why I’d vote for him.
He’s not intimidated into incarcerating his people and turning the country into a police state to pander to the ‘lock us down pshycos’.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
“Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”
@realDonaldTrump, 9 Nov 2013
A federal leader very much sets the tone, culture and vision of a national response
JC
@kiwikaryn. I totally agree with this. This is nothing but political theatre from Democrats. People are being harassed in their own home for having gatherings of 10 people, and their businesses are being shuttered, but Black Trans Lives Rallies are totally ok, because “racism” is the real virus. The reality is that, yes, Trump could have done better with his own personal rhetoric, but controlling 320 million people is a pipe dream. Our idiot in Victoria can’t even handle one city.
Ronin8317MEMBER
You don’t seem to understand how it works in the US. After Congress approves the money, Trump can say “only states that implements lockdown will receive the cash”. What Trump have done is the total opposite : “only state that open up will receive the cash”
The whole “it’s the state’s responsibility’ is pure humbug.
kiwikarynMEMBER
Actually you dont understand how it works. The Stimulus bills clearly specify where and how the money will be spent. The entire Senate and House would have to agree that only States in lockdowns would get the money, as that is how the law would have to be written. The first Stimulus bill was 800 pages long – as there is no “blank cheque” pot of funds. The current Stimulus bill before the House is held up exactly because they cant agree which States will get the money, and how it will be used. Not to mention that the Democrat States would complain that Trump was trying to destroy their economies by shutting them down – remember, anything Trump does the Democrats automatically argue the opposite of. Lastly, Trump has tried to withhold normal federal funding from Sanctuary Cities, and the courts have struck it down every time.
The scrapheap of history has done quite a lot of good things in his first term, and was under duress from the media and Democrats the entire time like no other candidate has been.
– First Step Act
– Music Modernisation Act
– Peace deal between Israel and UAE
– Bahrain peave deal with Israel
– Sudan one too if he can win the election
– First President in 60 odd years not to start a new war
– 10 year funding for HBCU’s
– Opportunity Zones
– Manufacturing growth that wasn’t thought possible
– Actually funding Veterans Affairs rather than paying lip service
– Transparency in medical pricing
– Cheaper Generic drugs
The bottom line is that these accomplishments, had they been attributed to anyone else are very POSITIVE.
dam
He would have done much more and not mess up that much covid, he had not been distracted/harassed by the Dems with their impeachment/witch hunt/Russia RussiaRussia hoax
I suppose The GOP will dig deep in Biden’s laptop for the next 4 years, it will be China China China (But they dont have big tech/medias with to do their bidding)
JC
The GOP should steer clear of such strategies and focus on policy. The Dems will eff everything up. It’s what they do. Look at all the Democratic voters with mobility leaving cities like LA and San Fran for Nashville, cities in Arizona and Texas due to high taxes, homelessness issues etc. and what do they do? Bring the same puerile ideology to these places and start implementing the same policies they fled from.
Narapoia451MEMBER
What war did Obama start?
JC
He entered the Syrian Civil war and also Libya. They count! One thing i will say is that Trump has unfortunately followed the disastrous policy of his predecessors in feverishly using drone strikes. In fact Trump has likley tripled them! A disaster of a policy if i ever saw one. I’m not seeking to make Trump out to to be a saint on Foreign Policy, but his instincts not to enter or escalate existing conflagrations has been great imho, as i don’t believe empire serves the long term US interest or crucially that of the normal man on the street.
JasonMEMBER
The Republicans have already won which their 3 SCOTUS appointments. Everything else is just theatre.
RobotSenseiMEMBER
That’s the crux of the matter, sadly.
drt15MEMBER
+1 And their now let it rip scorched earth policy – salting the earth as they leave indeed.
Denis413MEMBER
Censor/delete my post/people calling you out for moderating ‘anti-narrative’ posts and leave vile posts – says it all – good bye MB – you’ve lost a subscriber.
Tightwad
When you re enter the real world you’ll realise that you’ve been trapped in a lunatic asylum where everyone suffers from TDS or is a lock us down psycho and there is no place for anyone else.
drt15MEMBER
Cripes must have been bad considering the number of let it rip/pro-Trump/anti-woke posts here today. Think the lock us down brigade are totally trumped (sarc)
maddz
Yes. Mine too. Hard to have an argument when so many posts are ‘cancelled’.
RubiconMEMBER
Good riddance! Goodbye. As one of the silent majority, I will for once raise my voice in echoing others and wishing you well in your trolling elsewhere. Please take your fanboys with you and dont return thanks.
Denis413MEMBER
Good luck with your vaccine, I hear it’s 18 months away.
jdliveuk
Can’t see Trump going quietly, but watch a few Republicans turn on him and invoke the 25th amendment – president not fit for office.
Its going to get nasty!
A lot of people are lining up to put the boot into Trump should he lose.
Craftsman
But how good is democracy? The voting booth, one of the only places left where a individual can make a decision without threat or fear, in what they believe is in their best interests.
drsmithyMEMBER
It’s amazing how many people who will, on the one hand, insist Trump is powerless to have done anything, but on the other will insist his continued presidency will save America.
Stewie Griffin
It’s amazing how many people who think being the President of the US is akin to driving an Audi fast back sports, as opposed to directing an oil super tanker. Steering it away from rocks is more important than trying to dodge every wave.
(It also displays a significant miss-understanding of the powers of the US executive branch over the operation of internal State Govt affairs).
JC
What amazes me is the proclamation that he is a fascist and a racist with literally ZERO objective evidence on either point.
Tightwad
You don’t need evidence here, hyperbole suffices!
RobotSenseiMEMBER
A super tanker has a horn.
This one plays children’s songs when a loud, deep warning tone is required.
DarenM
This article (and almost all MB articles on covid) are the best example how much mental health can be destroyed by long lockdowns.
What Trump does may be crazy but what MB writes on covid is literally insane … it willbtake years of therapy tp fix
kiwikarynMEMBER
Anyone else noticed the complete absence of any media reporting on the Covid situation in Canada? Over 4000 cases a day now. They have more daily cases now than they did in the first wave, so its just as big a basket case as its southern neighbour. Yet only “orange man” is bad.
Tightwad
Anyone notice how well Sweden is doing.
Oops, sorry not supposed to mention that.
Ronin8317MEMBER
The ‘no lockdown countries’.
USA : 60k new cases
Canada : 2145 new cases
Sweden : 1255 new cases
The ‘lockdown’ countries.
Australia : 7 new cases .
Taiwan : 2 new cases.
New Zealand 1 new cases.
Tightwad
And at what cost.
You can sacrifice everything for your fear of a virus with a 99.7% survival rate but not everyone lives in fear.
I also note you have ignored deaths in Sweden as cases are immaterial as the vast majority survive (in fact the vast majority are asymptomatic).
You have also ignored all the deaths due to the lockdown.
Pretty pathetic response. Lockdown is winning by a VERY LONG WAY.
DarenM
Lockdown winning?
Sweden has 6k covid deaths and 3500 excess deaths
USA has (had at some time in Sept) 210k covid deaths and 300k excess deaths. This difference is growing fast and it’s larger in states with hard lockdowns
Lockdowns as well make people die prematurely we just dont have the data to say how much.
In first 6 months of 2020 Australia had 100 covid deaths and 1500 excess deaths (and no flu) … what do you think caused those excess deaths?
Tightwad
Only in the echo chamber here.
DarenM
USA had and still has in some parts hard lockdowns
Also lockdown countries are those with huge rises in cases like France, Czech republic, Ireland, Spain, Italy, …
DarenM
Anyone aware that going into the summer our (sub)tropical states have rising chance of getting next wave while our temperate states have reducing chance.
QLD may experience what Florida and TX did during northern summer.
No stimulus this presidency.
And, not next year as well if the GOP maintains some number in the Senate.2021 is going to be “interesting”
ay caramba!
Zero evidence for your suggestion and Obama said he left a playbook. Fauci said it was coming in January and Trump admitted to Woodward he knew it was worse than the flu!! You’re full of crap and probably a actually bigot
Are you suggesting Obama knew about coronavirus and therefore left a playbook for how it should be handled?
Unfortunately, this looks likely to be what comes next…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj0DRjlfvhw
NOT inspiring…
yes and under the presidency of benjamin harrison as well i suspect
Biden’s campaign focus is on other areas.
https://twitter.com/MonarchofMayhem/status/1320841110869188610
We are indeed the Lucky Country. Six states v fifty has its advantages. We are fortunate the Premiers took over in March. I shudder to think what would have happened if ScoMo had Presidential powers. Instead, the Premiers have been able to fend off the rwnjs and our terrible media and get it done. How Andrews held off the blow touch against him, and got it done in Victoria I will never know. He and his government made some mistakes, but Victoria got it done. If they had failed, so would the rest of Australia in due course.
Post the next federal election when the LNP has control of both houses of Parliament, ScoMo will be the benevolent dictator we had to have?
How would that matter? Prime Minsters have no actual power.
Change some rules, introduce more vaguery into government policy decisions and day-to-day execution, keep up the refusal to be held accountable and, walla!, ou can pretty much do what you want – effectively authoritarian.
Hopefully the fat fck has a heart attack watching the Sharks lose in Round 1 next year, and Jim Chalmers can take over after the next Federal election.
Dim Chalmers? Isn’t he the one with no real life experience outside politics?
You’re confusing him with pretty much every over politician
As much as Victoria’s implementation of hotel quarantine was really screwed up, the idea was Andrew’s. ScoMo would have been content to let returning travellers pinky swear that they’ll stay at home for 2 weeks. The premiers of Qld, WA, SA and Tas all brought their A game.
I think you are right about ScoMo and LNP!
‘She’ll be right, snowflake!’
Party of churn.
@ Christian. Well put. We are in this aspect the lucky country. Thank dog for the premiers and the compliance and good sense of most Aussies. And yep, I have no idea either how Andrews kept going, but thankfully he did.
Scummo would have done NOTHING if he was in charge of the health response. He has white anted everything the Premiers have done.
You mean do nothing like closing our border to china before it was declared a pandemic.
Which he didn’t do quickly enough, and was dragged to doing. Anything good that is “attributed” to ScoMo should be really attributed to those who pushed him kicking and screaming to take any action.
Yep, tired of reading polls saying majority happy with Scumo’s performance, it was NSW & Vic ignoring him and then the rest of the states doing so and closing their borders. If he’d had his way, we’d be in an entirely different position today.
Remember the flak Dan Andrews copped when he shut down the Melbourne F1?
Hard call but correct call. That alone would have been a disaster beyond all reckoning.
IIRC he was pretty much committed to that happening until very late piece…..Italian teams putting boots on ground etc.
If Trump loses expect him to do everything in his power to crash the market and economy.
He will have no qualms in scorching the earth behind him in the lame duck session with the added benefit of saying its because Biden was elected.
He should go full Saddam and light the oil wells on the way out.
Let’s see, if he loses in an incontestable way then I bet he bows out without your scorched earth approach. If it’s a close and contestable election result then I guess he will try everything he can to hold onto power, just the same as the Democrats would do in the same position (and have done previously).
Yep, just like Al Gore did in 2000.
Wait, no he didn’t.
Why did you cherry pick the 2000 election to try and make a point? How is that more relevant than the most recent election? If it’s a close and contestable election both sides will contest it if they are deemed the initial loser.
Because last time the Democrats were in a highly contested election, the candidate conceded for the good of the country.
Making your analysis incredibly myopic.
Not the way I see it, it will be even worse if Biden’s victory is big. A close race he can work it through the courts. If its a landslide the guy will take it as an insult by people who voted against him and will do everything in his power intentionally will crash the economy and market to try and blame it on Biden. Republicans will also be happy to because they see it as a way to a) not spend b) saddle the Dems with a much weaker economy to get them a platform to stand on in 2022 if they lose the Senate this year (ala 2008/2010).
Yes that’s a significant risk, almost 3 months between election and inauguration. I hope the Dems reclaim both Senate and Presidency and that provides stability moving forward. I don’t think Biden will be a great President, but he will provide some calm after the Trump storm. Plus the GOP is acting disgracefully pushing forward with the Supreme Court nomination.
The only reason a democrat win might provide any semblance of stability is because the extreme left have been using and threatening violence if they don’t get their way. If Biden wins it’s unlikely we will see trump supporters burning and looting. So yeah, stability and somehow the unrest is Trumps fault?
You can’t argue with TDS but I admire the effort.
he’ll ream(us) the economy hey romulus
+1. Feed us to the wolves he will..
@ Romulus. See DLS article here today on Trump and the republicans exacting their revenge via Covid – letting it rip will kill many thousands more, over run their hospitals, devastate families and kill the economy – leaving a pretty comprehensive scorched earth for the dems to inherit.
It would be truly hilarious if the GOP got back in.
They’d still just blame the Dems
COVID is certainly one aspect of how his scorched earth strategy will play out. A lot of it stems from the fact that he did very little and the odd occasion he did do something it was too late which has been damaging enough. I’m saying instead of doing nothing he will actively try to disrupt and destroy the economy. He has found very creative ways to sidestep “norms”. If he loses by a big margin that he can’t argue the result in the courts he has nothing to lose in these last few months…
Who knows what he may end up doing knowing that prison (via state lawsuits) likely awaits him if Biden gets sworn in.
@ Romulus Agree he would try, but surely letting the virus rip is the easiest and surest way to ‘actively disrupt and destroy the economy’?
He’s still got lots of Blackshirts to rally
Trump truly is a sack of sh1t, but he always was. It was never news. The problems that made his presidency possible have not gone anywhere. Cliched to say it, but he is a symptom.
If the Dems don’t win everything, then what will come after another few years of government gridlock?
It’s not great
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. Not on Trump and not on the virus. I don’t think it’s correct to blame Trump for the deaths any more than it is to blame Dan Andrews for deaths. We don’t blame them when people die from the flu or diabetes. Were there policy errors? Sure. Same the world over. Is anyone blaming Jacinda for virus deaths in NZ few as they may be? This is a virus we will have to learn to live with unless/until herd immunity or a vaccine arrives. This is being politicised no end as an attack on Trump in an attempt to sway the election by the TDS crowd.
You can definitely catch diabetes from being near someone, that’s true, so it’s a great comparison.
Is endemic flu as contagious/dangerous as Covid 19? Citations required.
Could a leader do anything to help prevent deaths from diabetes? Of course. Did they? No.
Covid19 is more contagious than common flu. No argument. But not sure what your point is. Is it more dangerous than common flu? That’s age dependant but it is if you’re old. Still. Not sure why this makes these deaths Trumps fault.
>Not sure why this makes these deaths Trumps fault.>
Because countries that have locked down, worn masks (including their presidents) socially distanced and tested early and often, have much lower infection and death rates. Trump is a sociopath who must control the narrative on everything.
https://www.newsweek.com/sociopaths-more-likely-refuse-wear-masks-1526985
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/masks-and-emasculation-why-some-men-refuse-to-take-safety-precautions/
Europe ? I dont think so LOL as of today 4 times more cases per Million than US (despite few lockdowns and compulsory masks)
Novel influenza has a mortality rate of up to 60%. So the fact this is only 0.5% IFR is exceptionally lucky. Influenza is a more deadly virus mitigated by the fact you have pre existing immunity from childhood exposure to some extent. Your T cells drop by up to 80% once you reach adulthood.
What a load of stick my f222ing head in the sand rw claptrap. It wasn’t a policy error as there was no policy, just let it rip. Trump has signalled it often enough of how he views CV.
Have the balls and come out of the closet.
Edit: sorry Bob, it’s you who is deranged.
Of course Trump has a Covid plan!
https://www.trumpcovidplan.com/
Trump set the cultural response for at least million Americans; he influence them and their views on Covid strongly.
He also could have done more at the Fed level, as well as providing more financial, planning and cultural assistance to the states.
He’s indirectly very responsible.
Any chance of getting some thoughts or views around Trump winning? Or are we going to do what happen at the last Federal election and just play catchup?
Last election was a battle between cancer and an enema.
This election is a battle between hatred of Woke vs The Joke!
Bizarrely American’s accept that death is the price of freedom, so who wins this is anyone’s guess. American’s won’t go quietly into a brave new world.
“Bizarrely American’s accept that death is the price of freedom“
I think you mean “ Bizarrely American’s accept that risk of death is the price of freedom”. And I agree with them. A government promise of security at the cost of liberty should be considered very well. Both how possible is it to for the government to deliver on that promise and is the price worth it when other options (like personal responsibility) may be available.
It’s disappointing how this blog can show such a strong bias against trump, which borders on fanatical. Just saying. What’s the harm in being objective? Trump is blamed for impact of the coronavirus, without acknowledging responsibility of the states. ANTIFA, riots Biden withholding policy, blah blah, yeah all good no worries mate, orange man bad.
Trump is a counter weight to the left, simple as that.
+1
Which left would that be? The corporatist Democrats who don’t support universal healthcare (a left policy if you care to frame it that way, I prefer to frame it as an equality/fairness/humane policy).
That would be fake left I’m guessing. There is no real left any more.
Correct. I wish people would stop talking about the ‘left’.
They have some socially progressive preferences aka ‘lefty’, but basically everyone that the hawks call ‘left’ is actually no further left than centre, economically speaking, and often no further left than the centre-right. Nuts.
Oh boohoo. They’re about to pack the Supreme court 6-3 with Republicans and you cry about balance.
Come on!
The whole Trump family look like weird cultists. The women are like Stepford Wives and the men are like weird Mormonie serial killers.
The whole of the Trump family *are* weird….also deranged sociopaths and narcissists the lot.
The US had got COVID-19 under control in April. One tweet from Trump telling his supporters to go out and protest against lockdown changed it all. You can pinpoint the rise in cases in USA from then on.
Macrobusiness have been very pro-Trump for his anti China stance, but Trump completely blew it with COVID-19.
So the massive BLM protests didn’t contribute?
Like going to a football match or shaking hands with the infected or hug a Chinese person during a festival, of we should have open borders from our CHO and the WHO.. There are leaders like that everywhere.
Exactly. We love Trump’s China and immigration stands. If he were rational on anything else he’d get a tick too.
Peace deals? Cancelling the Iran deal. Started no wars. Pulling troops out.
DLS a balance assessment of Trump’s achievement is so rarely given by you – pretty much never – that I have concluded you just don’t make an effort to inform yourself.
Iran deal was great for US. It was cancelled for Israel.
As for now making wars, fine, but I’m not going to applaud not doing something. Who did he not invade?
I think history will remember Trump most for his China stand and he’ll come out OK.
But beyond that he’s been terrible for climate, tax, inequality, race relations, the economy long term, budget and, mostly, the virus.
Which is why he’s very likely going to lose not because of some imagined “fake news”.
I think he’ll also be remembered for bringing the USA closer to fascism than it every has been before.
Nothing on peace deals. The way your assessment falls out there is contentious and smacks of pure partisanship.
Again from reading your columns I don’t think you can be balanced. There is a lot of unnecessary panic encouraged on this site e.g. @burbwatcher re fascism. If you weren’t so left wing, you’d be cancelled.
Maddz, you’ve been brainwashed into a cult. Trump is good in some ways. The shake-up is great. China is great. Immigration needed a good whack. Globalisation needed a kick.
We’ve taken him policy by policy. And the rest of it is terrible.
Sober up, mate. Trump is a conman.
Personally I agree that canceling the Iran deal was not a good move. That said, one thing people can’t accuse Trump of is actually trying to implement policies he said he would. This is in sharp contrast to other US politicians who offer nothing but empty rhetoric.
The BurbWatcher have you ever read the fascist manifesto? Which particular part(s) do you have issue with?
DLS, before you can make that claim, I think you need to summarise in one table Trumps positives and negatives in the context of putting America citizens first (his 2016 election platform).
And one could argue that Trumps style (you seem to liken it to dictator for some reason), is a anti depression/counter attack defence against being surrounded by media bias. Most people not be able to take it.
+1
Climate – agreed done nothing, worse, loosened restrictions. But backed fracking, which still sets the marginal price of oil which along with low interest rates has kept a small gap between a rock and a hard place that the world will inevitably find itself with the energy equation.
Tax – the biggest crime, allowing the corporations to bring back their un-US taxed overseas held profits at vastly concessional rates – yup terrible for inequality. But do you really think any of those offshore dollars would ever have been taxed or brought back any other way? The reality is the same rich people would still have controlled it, just offshore – 15% of something is still a hell of a lot more than 100% of nothing.
Race relations – his main crime, refusing to bow down and prostrate himself before the Peggy MacKintosh napsack of white privilege and ridiculing the media and big brained classes definition of ‘race relations’ which is simply a rebranded form of class warfare.
Economy Long Term – is just as phucked as it would be under the democrats, as we run down the backside of the Hubbert Oil curve that really big brained thinkers like Grantham are so preoccupied with. Democrat or Republican, there is nothing that either could do.
Budget? Phfhhh – I thought we were in the land of MMT now?
Virus – currently the US is running just ahead of the UK in terms of number of deaths per million at 685 vs 673 per million, or at 9th or 10th position. Both the UK and the US have the distinction of having two or three of the major travel hubs in the world and were heavily seeded with the virus in the early stages of the outbreak. Spain, another nation also infected relatively early comes in 6th on the list with 744 per million, while Italy is 13th on the list and rising with 617 per million. But unlike the UK, Spain or Italy, Trump runs a Republic made up of 52 States, with far less power over the internal operations of those states in terms of curfews or lock downs.
The popular media narrative is that Trump has done a terrible job at containing the virus – the reality is that he’s done about the same as other Western nations that were heavily seeded in the initial stages of the outbreak, plus is faced with a limitations over his internal political powers, a problem that don’t exist to the same extend as they do in leaders in other comparable nations.
Trump is an egoist, he is vain and he is incredibly self centered, this is all true, but then so everything else that I’ve mentioned.
If you think that Biden’s victory will benefit Australia read the article below and think again what you wish for https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/strange-but-true-donald-trump-is-better-for-us-than-joe-biden/news-story/9bcd8e1840eee87657e9cf95031dcc38
I think trump has been bang on for race relations. Focus on the real issues (eg jobs) not confected issues like police brutality and systemic thism or thatism. Culturally he has come into his own by breaking through stifled left wing wokism. Thats a more important issue than most realise.
I read MB regularly and havent seen anything like the assessments you say you do… policy by policy.. on foreign policy. Perhaps you could link me to these so I can give you a fair go.
A cult is bred thru close-mindedness and prejudice. I dont subscribe to cults and will keep your responses in mind when it is time to renew. Ridicule and contempt isnt attractive, though it is being more common place on MB.
“If he were rational on anything else he’d get a tick too”
I’m genuinely curious, what policies or matters do you think he has been irrational on?
LOL Climate. He will be judged by this deliberate act of sabotage more than any other.
Ok, what else? Surely there is a huge list?
LOL ANTIFA
Anyone who talks about that tripe is just a mindless murdoch drone
Yes you really debunked that. The San Francisco police were attacked by just an idea.
Citation needed.
DLS got TDS.
Unfortunately he’s about the only counterweight left. If he loses we all walk blindly into the socialist utopian police state.
And it looks like one way or another, the GOP will have a lasting legacy, with or without El Trumpo being El Presidente, being a RWNJ appointed to the Supreme Court for life in her mid 40s?
The Dems will have to expand the numbers on the court to counter the disgracefully GOP conduct in filling the vacancy during an election campaign, and even after the results are in ( assuming they lose in November).
Europe is doing better but not great. But it’s not a united states.
Europe is pretty disastrous. It isn’t too far off the US by any means.
Lol why didn’t the 80+ YO judges retire during Obama’s presidency? Thats right they wanted a Female president to appoint their replacement. Democrats deserve a stacked court.
The court is not stacked right now. The rules are simple. When you are in power if one of the nine dies, you can fill it. The Democrats are now talking about stacking it – contrary to the prescriptions of their hero RBG. Just another Dem move that is pulling at the very fabric of the American Republic. If they stack the court it is one more step to the very destruction of the idea of the USA. The damage they have done in the last four years with nonsense such as Russia collusion, and political theatre of impeachment is tragic!
@ JC >When you are in power if one of the nine dies…>
A little drink of novichok’ll fix it, sure thing.
Novichok, a substance so dangerous a drop the size of a pin head kills a horse, yet no humans ever seem to die from Nocichok poisining. In any case, what does it have to do with the Supreme Court?
Nonsense
Lol who did RBG replace?
What is this “disgraceful GOP conduct”? It is the Senates’ job to confirm Judges. You just need to have good ideas to win an election.
What is this “disgraceful GOP conduct”?
Remember the song and dance made by the GOP about appointing judges during an election campaign when they weren’t the ones doing the appointing ?
And it looks like one way or another, the GOP will have a lasting legacy, with or without El Trumpo being El Presidente, being a RWNJ appointed to the Supreme Court for life in her mid 40s?
It’s important to understand it’s not just the Supreme Court, either – it’s been happening to courts all over the US for his whole term.
Not one single African American appointee.
Yep, the devil’s in the details. 👿
“Not one single African American appointee.”
And why is that an issue? Should people be appointed by the colour of their skin or their gender or their actual qualifications to do the job?
How is it going in Europe, without glorious Trump as Leader and with compulsory magical masks ? I suppose COVID is history there, inst it ? Are they doing a Sweden ?
I so wish a Trump win just to witness an epical Leftist meltdown, this alone would be worth it.Unfortunately, it s unlikely Covid has killed his re-election but one can dream 😉
I don’t care who wins the US election (nor do I think it matters – spoiler alert – it doesn’t – refer to… history…). But god I hope Trump wins. It will be up there with the garbage DLS wrote about Malcolm Turnbull when he was elected.
Biden is supported massively by all the Billionaires/Big Tech/Large Corp.Harris admin will work for the richest, they have forgotten/despise the little guys ( their Dems donors built their wealth on the little guys back) (by the way Trump got far more small/popular political contribution.)
You like Fascism more than you dislike ‘wokeness’? No/yes?
So fascist he resisted all calls to do a nationwide lockdown
Fascism? He lets the States do their democratic job.Biden/Harris/Dems are the Big Business/Billionaires guys, that s the real/original Fascism
Yes I despise wokeness deeply
Honestly, how do they differ. If you’re not with the woke, then you’re against the woke, unfortunately there is no in between for those who have gone woke.
Ask West Germany.
Never go full woketard.
Donald Trump’s legacy will be presiding over the largest economic and healthcare disaster to have hit the USA since WWII, and the grand sum of his actions were to not only sit back and do nothing, but actively spread misinformation, fail to adhere to basic social distancing and mask-wearing advice, contract the virus itself, spread it around his inner circle, and stuff the SCOTUS full of partisans to remove healthcare insurance from 20m people.
Just sad that a nation so powerful can be so handicapped by a petty head of state.
If what you were saying was wrong, how would you know?
Which of those statements I’ve made are objectively misleading?
It’s not really an opinion. All of the above things happened. “The sun came up today” is not an opinion.
That maybe the real power of the US stems from it’s people’s love of liberty, and that they may consider the death caused by this virus to be less dangerous than the creeping power of the mega corporations and globalists wokesters?
That addresses a grand total of 0 from the above statement. Try again.
An unnecessary straw man scenario
RobotSensei’s statements are merely objective facts (except for “did nothing”). They are not opinions to be assessed and found right or wrong. While the pandemic is not Trump’s fault, his response to it is. President is supposed to protect first and foremost the lives and livelihoods of his citizens, and while some of his actions have supported those objectives, all too often his actions run counter to the medical and economic advice that would contribute to those objectives.
From an Australian perspective, this campaign reminds me of Howard/Keating 1996. Howard ran a very disciplined small target strategy against a Prime Minister who was very much on the nose, was behind and therefore said a lot and did a lot hoping to provoke a mistake and pull voters back to him. Given PM’s unpopularity, Howard allowed the public focus to stay on the PM, and did nothing to distract the public from their dislike for the PM.
Biden doing the same with Trump, although his comment to reduce weight to the oil industry was a mistake and has encouraged more provocation and lies from Trump looking to provoke more mistakes. If Biden stays disciplined and on message then the record surge of COVID cases keeps reminding people of Trump’s failure.
@curious that you cannot tell the difference from fact and opinion is the problem. MSM doesn’t either – ‘peaceful protests’.
So give us your take: what of the above I’ve said is misleading?
My understanding is that most of the protests were, indeed, by number, peaceful.
FWIW @robotsensei the only thing truly factual is the state of economic and health crisis, and is true that Trump is/was POTUS during the term. This is hard to get wrong.
The rest is your narrative of what you ‘feel’ is true, as you have had fed to you by MSM (and MB). And so very obviously the parts that are futuristic, attribute motive and have not yet happened… are clearly your forecast opinion.
@robotsensei I don’t care you have those views. Just don’t pretend you are objective.
@maddz none of those are takes. They all literally happened.
The BurbWatcher your understanding is ignorant.
@robotSensei Agree. But you forgot to add climate sabotage – the world will remember him for that if nothing else in decades to come (plus the totally unmemorable for-any-other reason, Scummo)
If all the Covidiots were going to come out and obnoxiously refuse to wear masks or socially distance, then yes, outbreaks would have continued. I doubt the infection and death toll would have been nearly as high though, given the Obama administration’s ability to listen to expert advice. Or any non-Trump administration for that matter
If all the lock us down psychos didn’t come out and obnoxiously insist that their fellow man lives in fear of a virus with a IFR of .03 to pander to their irrational fear then life would be a lot better.
If you’re fearful, hide at home and let the rest of the normal people get on with their lives.
All the commenter hyperbole and histrionics and “MB is so TDS!!!oneone 1111” and hand-wringing aside, it’s interesting to note the scale of Covid in more sparsely populated rural areas vs similar in AU.
Would like to understand why.
HI appears to be doing ok.
@ Swampy DLS makes the point today that they’re mostly Republican states with the high numbers.
Same here. Trump got called a racist for wanting to stop travel from China in the very beginning. Pelosi and others made a big show of it. Conveniently forgotten. I used to think they were misguided but I now know it is dishonesty. Anyway, it’s 2016 again and it will be pretty funny watching heads melt. The fact that some people think Biden is a credible candidate is hilarious.
After Trump’s “travel can from China”, 40k Americans in China went back to the USA without quarantine, making it almost pointless.
So despite that, was it racist and the wrong thing to do?
Sabotaging on the way out. Reminds me of what the Liberals did in 2019 because they didn’t expect to win. The one joy from them getting back in was when they realised they had to deal with the booby traps. COVID in a way saved them from themselves.
You’re certainly not alone.
I love the way 2nd and 3rd order effects of lockdowns are totally ignored just as all the failings of Trumps opponents are ignored.
The myopic bias is fascinatingly on display and amply demonstrates the complete lack of credibility.
You will probably find that most of the 2nd and 3rd order effects would have happened anyway, regardless of actions, because of the virus, not because of lockdowns…
You might be attacking a straw-man therefore.
Just as you’d find that most of the deaths would occured anyway as originally envisioned when we were sold the ‘just 2weeks to flatten the curve’ propoganda, just over a longer period
First, Trump does not have the power to put the country into lockdown. He would have to declare martial law in order to get that power, and just imagine the screams from the Left if he actually did that! Secondly, there is nothing stopping the State Governors (who do have the power) to put their individual States into lockdowns. The fact that few of them have done so is not Trump’s fault. The fact that the US death toll was so high was due to Democrat dipsh1ts like Cuomo sending Covid infected patients back to aged care homes. Just like the reason the death toll in Victoria was so high is because nothing was done to prevent Covid from getting into aged care homes. The fact that kids went to school and young adults went to bars had zero relevance to the infection control failures in the aged care system. As Sweden shows, once you get a handle on the aged care problem everyone else can get on with their lives, and the death toll drops to practically nothing.
+1
You’re not seriously arguing that Trump has done all he can to lock down. Cripes, he’s egged on resitence at very point.
No, he could have done more to “encourage” the States. I’m just pointing out that ultimately its not within his control, and that every State Governor had the choice to ignore Donald Trump and do their own thing. But didnt. Because no Democrat wanted to shut down the economy and throw their voters onto unemployment in an election year. They are all as bad as each other, and anyone who thinks a Democrat leader would have done anything different needs only look at the current crop of Democrat Governors and see that they chose to not lockdown either. And if there had been a Democrat in the White House, the open borders policy would have been continued, there would have been no travel bans, and the death toll would have been a lot higher as the disease would have taken hold of more places more quickly back in March.
Trump didn’t do everything he could have, but ultimately the seed was planted in New York and this spread to the rest of the US from there. The State Authorities did a disgraceful job in NYC.
As of Today, the US have 179 new cases per million, France (and most of EU) : 796, 4 times more without Trump and with lockdown+mask.
Thank you Trump 😉
@ DLS Yep. Guessing we were lucky Oz state premiers ignored Scummo, who was nowhere near as blatant as Trump in sabotaging the states, tho’ we’d now be in the same mess as the US if they hadn’t done their own thing despite him.
We were lucky the politicians ignored the experts and closed the border- remember Prof Murphy and the WHO.
That’s why I’d vote for him.
He’s not intimidated into incarcerating his people and turning the country into a police state to pander to the ‘lock us down pshycos’.
“Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”
@realDonaldTrump, 9 Nov 2013
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/398887965302091776
A federal leader very much sets the tone, culture and vision of a national response
@kiwikaryn. I totally agree with this. This is nothing but political theatre from Democrats. People are being harassed in their own home for having gatherings of 10 people, and their businesses are being shuttered, but Black Trans Lives Rallies are totally ok, because “racism” is the real virus. The reality is that, yes, Trump could have done better with his own personal rhetoric, but controlling 320 million people is a pipe dream. Our idiot in Victoria can’t even handle one city.
You don’t seem to understand how it works in the US. After Congress approves the money, Trump can say “only states that implements lockdown will receive the cash”. What Trump have done is the total opposite : “only state that open up will receive the cash”
The whole “it’s the state’s responsibility’ is pure humbug.
Actually you dont understand how it works. The Stimulus bills clearly specify where and how the money will be spent. The entire Senate and House would have to agree that only States in lockdowns would get the money, as that is how the law would have to be written. The first Stimulus bill was 800 pages long – as there is no “blank cheque” pot of funds. The current Stimulus bill before the House is held up exactly because they cant agree which States will get the money, and how it will be used. Not to mention that the Democrat States would complain that Trump was trying to destroy their economies by shutting them down – remember, anything Trump does the Democrats automatically argue the opposite of. Lastly, Trump has tried to withhold normal federal funding from Sanctuary Cities, and the courts have struck it down every time.
Salt the land on your way out
Lol Good one 🙂
Godwin’s law and all, but still …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Decree
The scrapheap of history has done quite a lot of good things in his first term, and was under duress from the media and Democrats the entire time like no other candidate has been.
– First Step Act
– Music Modernisation Act
– Peace deal between Israel and UAE
– Bahrain peave deal with Israel
– Sudan one too if he can win the election
– First President in 60 odd years not to start a new war
– 10 year funding for HBCU’s
– Opportunity Zones
– Manufacturing growth that wasn’t thought possible
– Actually funding Veterans Affairs rather than paying lip service
– Transparency in medical pricing
– Cheaper Generic drugs
The bottom line is that these accomplishments, had they been attributed to anyone else are very POSITIVE.
He would have done much more and not mess up that much covid, he had not been distracted/harassed by the Dems with their impeachment/witch hunt/Russia RussiaRussia hoax
I suppose The GOP will dig deep in Biden’s laptop for the next 4 years, it will be China China China (But they dont have big tech/medias with to do their bidding)
The GOP should steer clear of such strategies and focus on policy. The Dems will eff everything up. It’s what they do. Look at all the Democratic voters with mobility leaving cities like LA and San Fran for Nashville, cities in Arizona and Texas due to high taxes, homelessness issues etc. and what do they do? Bring the same puerile ideology to these places and start implementing the same policies they fled from.
What war did Obama start?
He entered the Syrian Civil war and also Libya. They count! One thing i will say is that Trump has unfortunately followed the disastrous policy of his predecessors in feverishly using drone strikes. In fact Trump has likley tripled them! A disaster of a policy if i ever saw one. I’m not seeking to make Trump out to to be a saint on Foreign Policy, but his instincts not to enter or escalate existing conflagrations has been great imho, as i don’t believe empire serves the long term US interest or crucially that of the normal man on the street.
The Republicans have already won which their 3 SCOTUS appointments. Everything else is just theatre.
That’s the crux of the matter, sadly.
+1 And their now let it rip scorched earth policy – salting the earth as they leave indeed.
Censor/delete my post/people calling you out for moderating ‘anti-narrative’ posts and leave vile posts – says it all – good bye MB – you’ve lost a subscriber.
When you re enter the real world you’ll realise that you’ve been trapped in a lunatic asylum where everyone suffers from TDS or is a lock us down psycho and there is no place for anyone else.
Cripes must have been bad considering the number of let it rip/pro-Trump/anti-woke posts here today. Think the lock us down brigade are totally trumped (sarc)
Yes. Mine too. Hard to have an argument when so many posts are ‘cancelled’.
Good riddance! Goodbye. As one of the silent majority, I will for once raise my voice in echoing others and wishing you well in your trolling elsewhere. Please take your fanboys with you and dont return thanks.
Good luck with your vaccine, I hear it’s 18 months away.
Can’t see Trump going quietly, but watch a few Republicans turn on him and invoke the 25th amendment – president not fit for office.
Its going to get nasty!
A lot of people are lining up to put the boot into Trump should he lose.
But how good is democracy? The voting booth, one of the only places left where a individual can make a decision without threat or fear, in what they believe is in their best interests.
It’s amazing how many people who will, on the one hand, insist Trump is powerless to have done anything, but on the other will insist his continued presidency will save America.
It’s amazing how many people who think being the President of the US is akin to driving an Audi fast back sports, as opposed to directing an oil super tanker. Steering it away from rocks is more important than trying to dodge every wave.
(It also displays a significant miss-understanding of the powers of the US executive branch over the operation of internal State Govt affairs).
What amazes me is the proclamation that he is a fascist and a racist with literally ZERO objective evidence on either point.
You don’t need evidence here, hyperbole suffices!
A super tanker has a horn.
This one plays children’s songs when a loud, deep warning tone is required.
This article (and almost all MB articles on covid) are the best example how much mental health can be destroyed by long lockdowns.
What Trump does may be crazy but what MB writes on covid is literally insane … it willbtake years of therapy tp fix
Anyone else noticed the complete absence of any media reporting on the Covid situation in Canada? Over 4000 cases a day now. They have more daily cases now than they did in the first wave, so its just as big a basket case as its southern neighbour. Yet only “orange man” is bad.
Anyone notice how well Sweden is doing.
Oops, sorry not supposed to mention that.
The ‘no lockdown countries’.
USA : 60k new cases
Canada : 2145 new cases
Sweden : 1255 new cases
The ‘lockdown’ countries.
Australia : 7 new cases .
Taiwan : 2 new cases.
New Zealand 1 new cases.
And at what cost.
You can sacrifice everything for your fear of a virus with a 99.7% survival rate but not everyone lives in fear.
I also note you have ignored deaths in Sweden as cases are immaterial as the vast majority survive (in fact the vast majority are asymptomatic).
You have also ignored all the deaths due to the lockdown.
Pretty pathetic response. Lockdown is winning by a VERY LONG WAY.
Lockdown winning?
Sweden has 6k covid deaths and 3500 excess deaths
USA has (had at some time in Sept) 210k covid deaths and 300k excess deaths. This difference is growing fast and it’s larger in states with hard lockdowns
Lockdowns as well make people die prematurely we just dont have the data to say how much.
In first 6 months of 2020 Australia had 100 covid deaths and 1500 excess deaths (and no flu) … what do you think caused those excess deaths?
Only in the echo chamber here.
USA had and still has in some parts hard lockdowns
Also lockdown countries are those with huge rises in cases like France, Czech republic, Ireland, Spain, Italy, …
Anyone aware that going into the summer our (sub)tropical states have rising chance of getting next wave while our temperate states have reducing chance.
QLD may experience what Florida and TX did during northern summer.
https://hubpages.com/politics/Pfizer-Chief-Science-Officer-Second-Wave-Based-on-Fake-Data-of-False-Positives-for-New-Cases-Pandemic-is-Over
I did not know that – Trudeau must be as crazy as orange bad man…