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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#327226: Sep 15th 2020 at 9:46:45 AM

[up]No, he's incompetent too. If he weren't, he'd have managed to accomplish a lot worse in these last few years.

He failed to get his atrocious replacement for the ACA through, for one thing. Despite having every advantage.

Edited by M84 on Sep 16th 2020 at 12:47:24 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#327228: Sep 15th 2020 at 9:48:34 AM

Really, the only reason Trump gets anything done is because he has people enabling and coddling him. Same as with every other aspect of his life.

[up]Case in point.

Edited by M84 on Sep 16th 2020 at 12:49:48 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327229: Sep 15th 2020 at 9:52:05 AM

It's not incompetence if the goal was to do nothing in the first place.

In a way, incompetence would have been better. If Trump was merely incompetent, others in his administration could have taken up the slack. But he is not incompetent in this instance. The Woodward interview clearly shows that he knew perfectly well what the situation was, and what should be done. But he choose not to. Instead, he is actively working against containment and testing efforts to downplay the pandemic.

Incompetence is merely neglectful. What Trump is doing goes way beyond that.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#327230: Sep 15th 2020 at 9:56:37 AM

Trump has barely done any real work in his life. As a corporate magnate, he mainly gave nods to other people's decisions; when he intervened directly, the outcomes were uniformly bad. Similarly, on The Apprentice, he read scripts written for him by other people. He didn't understand a single thing about the "business ventures" and the writers did their best to keep him as far away as possible. As long as he got to say, "You're fired", he was happy... and as long as he got to say racist or sexist things back stage.

Trump is a dilettante who "accidentally'ed" himself to being President.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#327231: Sep 15th 2020 at 9:56:46 AM

[up]As a result, even when he tries to get something through, he fails more often than not.

Unfortunately, he's got enough enablers and sycophants that he's still caused an incredible amount of damage.

Edited by M84 on Sep 16th 2020 at 12:58:34 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#327232: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:00:59 AM

Incompetence and malice are not mutually exclusive.

Save where he can be malicious through total inactivity, Trump is unable to get anything done. Whether it would vaguely tread upon the realms of "actually productive" or unmitigated disaster or whatever.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327233: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:04:34 AM

[up][up][up] My point is that in this case, he clearly had a good enough understanding of the virus that he could have acted on it if he wanted to. Ignorance is not an excuse in this case.

[up] Very true. I'm not saying that Trump is never incompetent, but that in this case, his pandemic response was based on malice and political brinkmanship, not on ignorance or incompetence.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#327234: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:06:56 AM

[up]Except you think he's a case of Obfuscating Stupidity.

"He is not as stupid as he would like you to believe."

Thing is, he really is that stupid. It's just that he's still dangerous despite that.

It takes a blend of malice and stupidity to think that one could downplay a deadly virus and not suffer blowback for it. A smarter person might have realized that lying about the virus might bite them in the ass. Or their lie wouldn't have been exposed the way Trump's lie was.

Edited by M84 on Sep 16th 2020 at 1:11:22 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#327235: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:11:53 AM

A lot of people want Trump to be a genius schemer or a complete moron.

He is both.

Trump is uneducated and uncaring about facts but quite good at playing games as well as pushing the weaknesses of systems.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327236: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:12:14 AM

He's stupid, but not stupid enough to not be dangerous. Same for incompetence.

Besides, he got plenty of things done. He aided big business by sabotaging regulations on pollution, replaced scientists with industry representatives, placed GOP cronies in charge of formerly apolitical agencies, put several Republican judges on the Supreme Court, as well as who knows how many other judges in lower courts. He also got that tax cut passed, and managed to wrangle money from the military for his wall. And he's tweeting. A lot. Which does have an impact. It's not like he isn't doing anything at all.

[up] Exactly, he is a moronic schemer. He is smart enough to concoct schemes to get ahead, but he is not quite smart or competent enough to pull them off (not usually, anyway).

And it's not like all his schemes fail. His hush money scheme with Stormy Daniels worked disturbingly well until his election forced it into the open. Same for his tax evasion schemes.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 15th 2020 at 7:14:50 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#327237: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:14:36 AM

I don't think Trump did any of that.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#327238: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:15:06 AM

[up][up][up]Trump gets away with most of the shit he's gotten away with so far because a lot of people support said shit.

[up][up]The tax evasion isn't his brainchild though. That's the work of his family attorneys and accountants.

[up]Yep, the rest of the GOP did.

It's sometimes a bit sobering to realize that the USA is being damaged so badly by someone who isn't a particularly cunning Evil Genius.

Edited by M84 on Sep 16th 2020 at 1:20:44 AM

Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327239: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:24:10 AM

[up][up] How about those two last examples? Surely those were Trump's own ideas, even if he didn't do the dirty work himself?

[up] He sure thinks he is one, though, which is perhaps worse.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 15th 2020 at 7:25:07 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Resileafs I actually wanted to be Resileaf Since: Jan, 2019
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
#327240: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:24:43 AM

Yeah, can't really call him a genius of any kind when he reveals his evil plan to a journalist who is recording him, fully aware of the fact that his words are being recorded.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#327241: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:25:29 AM

The tax cuts are standard GOP practises, and I am fairly certain that someone else worked out how to get the wall money to shut Trump up and so the GOP could say "Look, we're doing something!"

Trump's involvement in anything is "pay someone else to make the problem go away, possibly by further paying another person".

Edited by RainehDaze on Sep 15th 2020 at 6:26:28 PM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327242: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:27:05 AM

[up][up] Oh, no one is saying that he is a genius. He clearly is a blabbermouth about his own schemes and lies. It reminds me of that group of German spies in the UK during the war who got captured pretty much immediately because they pretty much gave themselves away as being German right away.

But even trying and failing can do damage. See his sabotage of the testing effort.

[up] Sorry, I meant the hush money payments and tax fraud.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 15th 2020 at 7:29:23 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Aszur A nice butterfly from Pagliacci's Since: Apr, 2014 Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
A nice butterfly
#327243: Sep 15th 2020 at 10:33:28 AM

Hello. I am not sure if this is old news by now and if it has already been managed, however...

Mauricio J. Claver-Carone elected president of the Intermareican Bank of Development (Official IBD Press Release)

Trump Succeeds in making advisor Mauricio Claver Carone president of the IDB (Tico Times, an independent expats on Costa rica focused english newspaper on Costa Rica)

Of notice:

Saturday, President Donald Trump’s adviser, Mauricio Claver-Carone, became the first U.S. citizen to be elected as president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) despite the opposition of some countries that wished for a continuation of the tradition that the entity be led by a Latin American.

The senior White House adviser for Latin America was the only candidate presented during the virtual meeting of the 48 governors — a vote in which Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago abstained, according to the Buenos Aires Foreign Ministry.

“It is not just a diplomatic victory, it is a surprise and frankly one that is humiliating,” the expert told AFP, adding that “the politicization of the hemisphere contributed to the election of the candidate.”

Claver-Carone, a 45-year-old lawyer of Cuban origin, is known for his strong opposition to Havana and Venezuela.

The abrupt irruption of the US candidate generated surprise, since Trump’s foreign policy line has been contrary to multilateralism and its institutions, as evidenced by his intention to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO).

But the promise of Claver-Carone to be a counterweight to the aggressive inflow of loans from Beijing in the region was stronger.

However, the US official may face problems on the domestic front due to partisan divisions in the US Congress, which is charged with approving the funds destined for the bank.

For Benjamin Gedan, of the Latin American program of the Wilson Center in Washington, foreign policy always implies compromises, particularly in the negotiation with a superpower.

“But this decision was avoidable, it is significant and not so easy to reverse,” he told AFP.

In other news that have to be assertianed from each nations independent countries with potential candidates, it is important to notice...prior to election times every single potential cnadidate who had vowed to run for this position dropped out with little to no excuses. In the example of Costa Rican ex-president, Laura Chinchilla that had announced her candidacy for the position back in july (Forbes, in spanish).

On September 3, few days before the election, she renounced her candidacy for hte position citing hte pandemic, and suggested the election should be postponed.

This thing reeks of good ol fashioned corruption and Claver only stands to potentially face a very hostile congress to whom he cannot barter for money, eroding much of the purpose the bank may have. If anyone stands to lose for this, however, it is mostly Cuba and Venezuela who are going to get little to no support from an anti Castro cuban Trump appointee.

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#327244: Sep 15th 2020 at 11:17:07 AM

So it looks like Biden's average polling lead in Wisconsin has grown by 2.2 percentage points since the Jacob Blake shooting. It's not so much the poll resultnote  that I'd like to raise but more the observation that the "backlash to BLM will help Trump" meme a lot of people believe in is not in fact a fact. And what that might say about the mentality of pundits (mostly white and male) that peddle it. And that this phenomenon might not stop at BLM.

Also a bit of obviously-bogus poll hilarity.

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Sep 15th 2020 at 8:18:13 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327245: Sep 15th 2020 at 11:29:29 AM

I thought we were not going to do a day by day poll news run any more?

Maybe someone should set up something like the WTF weekly news update for those polls.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#327246: Sep 15th 2020 at 11:48:29 AM

The endorsement from Scientific American really got the attention of the media. I searched "Biden" and its the first thing that pops up from like nine publications.

Runner up is the race for Latinos in Florida.

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#327247: Sep 15th 2020 at 11:55:01 AM

[up][up] No, we said to not post individual polls and draw conclusions out of them about trends. Talking about polling averages and how they have changed in a timespan after some event is a different matter, particularly as we're going to get far more polls on voting intention than we are specifically asking people how they feel about the event in question.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#327248: Sep 15th 2020 at 11:57:40 AM

[up][up] Being a rather exceptional endorsement probably has something to do with that.

[up] Fair enough.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 15th 2020 at 8:58:32 PM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#327249: Sep 15th 2020 at 12:16:48 PM

Hours before Ottawa was set to retaliate, the Orange House has announced that its dropping its tariffs on Canadian aluminum.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/aluminum-tariffs-trade-trump-trudeau-1.5724391

Targetting swing states worked like charm.grin

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
ScubaWolf from South Carolina Since: Feb, 2020
#327250: Sep 15th 2020 at 3:33:19 PM

[up] Surprising nobody. He'll be pouting for a while.

"In a move surprising absolutely no one"

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