I was coming in after trying to put some amaryllis in pots, and Mike yelled, "Get in here, you have got to see what this clown is doing now !'
Incredulous, or maybe not ...maybe this whole Trump & COVID thing IS the October Surprise , or at least he is attempting to turn it into that. So there he is doing his one man parade, leaving the hospital for a twirl around his loyal supporters. Give me a break.
Shortly after. CNN was interviewing ( vid not up yet) a Trump campaign staff member who was the fastest talking salesman I have ever listened to, telling the world how deeply concerned the entire Trump team including Trump is over the pandemic and they ALWAYS have been. Pardon me if I barf.
****Update/edit: Computer problemas again, sorry: Here is the video from this afternoon's CNN interview. Several hours ago, CNN also ran a report to go with the vid :
Trump Campaign Advisor Says Rally Protocols Won't Change After President's Coronavirus Diagnosis
end edit.
So now obviously Trump has finally put his latest scheme together like Side Show Bob: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. From this point forward I predict we will be hearing from Trump nothing but how important and necessary wearing a mask is, social distancing, the whole nine yards - everything the experts like Dr. Fauci have been saying for months and months or the complete opposite of what Trump has been saying for months and months. He will turn over a new leaf, but he won't mean a single word of it despite actually having COVID - and he will never apologize for everything he did wrong with the virus. He will be doing a complete about face only to save face and to be re-elected. . And being the showman he is, he is determined to make this method work...that's the ticket he is thinking...this will get me re-elected.
~ From the Grammarist:
"If you can’t beat them, join them usually means if you can not defeat your opponent, you may as well join forces with him in order to have at least a modicum of control of the situation. An alternate meaning of if you can’t beat them, join them is the advice to adopt the methods that your opponent is using in a situation, but not necessarily the goals. In this case, if you can’t beat them, join them has a similar meaning to the phrase beat someone at his own game. Usage of the phrase if you can’t beat them, join them may be good-natured, deferring to the will of the group, or it may be a warning that the conflict is about to become more intense. If you can’t beat them join them is American English, though its etymology is shrouded in mystery. The earliest known use of the term is in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, in 1932. Senator James E. Watson listed the term as one of his favorite maxims, which means it was in use for some period of time before 1932. The exact quote is “If you can’t lick ’em, jine ’em.” This is a rendering of the phrase with slang terminology, used to communicate in specialized situations. The phrase if you can’t lick them, join them is still occasionally seen, but the word lick to mean defeat is not used as often as it once was. If you can’t beat them, join them is a proverb that is often quoted as pragmatic advice for those in politics. "
In other words, it is a strategy, and Trump is the best con man in the universe to manipulate the strategy and current conditions. Also meant to mention I read that Ivanka will be holding a Prayer Circle tonight at the White House for Dad. Oh brother, the evangelicals and born agains are going to lose their little minds and go into complete bliss, how disgusting, just.another strategy. Quite frankly, these are the false prophets of our times; talk about moonies, holy crap. Actually, they all need a good exorcism.
~~~~~
Meanwhile I need to go soak my knee in what little Calily Life mineral soak (from Istael ) I have left and which I can no longer find. There is something called "The Dead Sea Collection" but on further investigation it is being boycotted .
So here are some links, and I guess I'm stuck with Dr. Teals. Am also considering CBD Oil from Willie Nelson...which might work for Mike too.
~ From CNN:
The Latest On Trump's Covid-19 Diagnosis
By Ben Westcott, Brett McKeehan, Adam Renton, Amy Woodyatt and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN
About the Author
OtherWords OtherWords is published by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank. All told, their freely syndicated op-eds reach millions of readers each year in the heartland communities often overlooked by traditional national media. They cover politics, policy, and social issues from a progressive but non-partisan perspective.
How Trump gave $1 bn allocated for Masks for Troops, Families, to Arms Firms Instead
"(Foreign Policy in Focus) – As the pandemic continues to claim lives across the country, new information keeps coming out about how the Trump administration has made it harder for Americans to protect themselves.
We now know, for example, that early in the pandemic the U.S. Postal Service had planned to deliver five face masks to every U.S. household. It could have made mask-wearing a lot more common a lot earlier — and maybe saved a lot of lives. But the White House scrapped the idea.
Now we also know that the Trump administration took $1 billion in stimulus funds that were supposed to go towards making masks and other protective equipment for the pandemic — and gave most of it to weapons manufacturers.
Those funds were part of $10.6 billion in CARES Act money allocated to the Pentagon — a staggering sum, especially since the bloated military budget already claims 53 cents of every discretionary federal dollar available to Congress.
The Pentagon’s CARES money was supposed to help military employees and military families survive the pandemic.
The $1 billion in question was granted under a special law that lets the Pentagon require companies to manufacture urgently needed goods in case of a national emergency. This time, it was to make sure companies producing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), like N-95 masks, ventilators, and more, were making all they could.
But most of that money didn’t go to making PPE at all. Trump’s defense department gave it to corporations that make jet engines, drone flight controllers, and dress uniforms for the military. Two-thirds of it was distributed in big contracts worth more than $5 million each.
The military says that the “health” of the defense industry is crucial to national security. But the CARES Act money was specifically allocated to protect the health of the people of this country — not the companies that build weapons.
This comes at a moment when U.S. military spending is already near all-time highs — and when military contractors are doing better than lots of other companies.
“Major defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman,” the Washington Post reports, “have remained financially healthy despite some pandemic-related disruption, and have continued to pay stock dividends to investors.”
Indeed, the CEOs of those companies rank among the highest paid corporate executives in the country. Last year General Dynamics’s CEO raked in $18 million, Northrup Grumman’s made $20 million, and Lockheed-Martin’s pulled in a whopping $31 million.
Still, many of those same military corporations paid out of the $1 billion Pentagon slush fund also applied for — and received — funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program that Congress designated specifically to prevent COVID-related lay-offs. These extra Pentagon grants came on top of that, except without any requirements to protect jobs. Those companies could take the money and still fire as many employees as they want.
An additional $1 billion would have made a huge difference in the fight against COVID-19. My colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies found that $1 billion could have funded nearly 28 million COVID-19 tests or purchased over 294 million N-95 respirator masks.
What makes us safer in the pandemic — access to more testing and a lot more face masks, or helping military corporations and their CEOs make a killing on our tax money?
Add that to the canceled Postal Service plan to distribute hundreds of millions more masks, and the record keeps getting more appalling. Make no mistake: The Trump administration’s heartlessness and militarism are costing lives."
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Stay Safe Y'all