Trump's Got The Pleurisy

[Siúil a Rúin]

I initially wondered if Trump would record a few short video updates on progress before he ever left for the hospital in case his illness got worse. I'm trying to notice any small differences between video to suggest they are presented out of the real timeline.

I think he would do that. I think he would have videos like that ready, but would not use them if he did get better or didn't get too sick.

The one this morning I wonder about because he said "I feel 20 years younger - something I said recently." That phrase would serve the purpose of reinforcing an artificial timeline for the videos. It's subtle, but I think about stuff like this.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Btw. towards certain logic if there is a pandemic among the staff and he doesn't want to wear a mask in many situations that means that he is likely to get even more of the virus. What evidently wouldn't help his current condition.

This is a good point, the viral load a person is exposed to makes a difference.

I caught wind of an article yesterday saying the Trump administration claimed they aren't releasing the numbers of how many staff members are infected for privacy reasons. Which is bullshit - they can release numbers without releasing names, they just want to hide how bad it is.

 

[Virtual ghost]

This is a good point, the viral load a person is exposed to makes a difference.

I caught wind of an article yesterday saying the Trump administration claimed they aren't releasing the numbers of how many staff members are infected for privacy reasons. Which is bullshit - they can release numbers without releasing names, they just want to hide how bad it is.

Well, at this point it is pretty obvious that Trump will use "Captain should go down with the ship" rhetoric. I mean he has nothing to really gain at this point by admitting that COVID is serious problem. So he will just continue pushing his story and what happens happens. Election day is too close for some serious changes in strategy.


However privately he should perhaps change some things. Because being surrounded with potential other cases surely isn't something that will help his health.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

This is a Ben Garrison spoof (but have a look at the actual Ben Garrison drawings to understand Trump supporters and masculinity) and it's awesome. That's a shocking unit on Marx. Because you can't be a real man unless your dick runs down your leg, right?

The comments from conservatives and the right on this cartoon were predictable. They don't grasp satire and that's why there aren't any funny conservatives.

It's astounding there's such a large pocket of people who find humor in this, and apparently have no idea how it belies deep and pervasive insecurity. Sad!

(Included Clement's comment for additional "Thank God for all the Clements in the world" emphasis).

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

[MENTION=7842]Z Buck McFate[/MENTION]
I don't understand the Clement comments. How do those relate to the masculinity issue?

 

[Totenkindly]

Cliche of women spending a lot more on their hair than men.

Which I think is generally true, though.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

[MENTION=7842]Z Buck McFate[/MENTION]
I don't understand the Clement comments. How do those relate to the masculinity issue?

The full tweet says "Who spent $70K on his hair? Mr. Wheezy." (The button on my phone blocks the full text). There was a deduction in Trump's taxes stating he supposedly spent $70K on his hair for his reality show that year (and claimed it as a business expense deduction). Like Tokenkindly says, there's kind of a poncy/effeminate stigma of spending that much on hair (a stigma based on truth, probably).

 

[Lexicon]

Gender & gender stereotyping aside, anyone who spends more than $100.00 on hair (& I’m being generous with that amount— I cut my own hair at home, so I don’t even know ‘reasonable’ salon prices anymore for pro cut/styling/color/whatever) is extravagant & insanely wasteful to me. Unless they’re infusing your hair with fairy dust or nanobots that comb your hair for you— I just don’t get it.


Also, he paid that much to look like.... that.
That.
Fucking, wow.




And, keep this Trump/Covid related, apparently there’s a video of him ‘working’ while in the hospital, writing, but upon closer inspection, he’s actually scribbling/signing on a blank paper with a Sharpie.


Trump has coronavirus: President mocked for signing apparently blank paper in ‘staged’ photos at Walter Reed | The Independent

That just further speaks to how dishonest this guy is. Who does that? That’s literally a gag out of a cartoon.

 

[Totenkindly]

And, to keep this Trump/Covid related, apparently there’s a video of him ‘working’ while in the hospital, writing, but upon closer inspection, he’s actually scribbling/signing on a blank paper with a Sharpie.

That just further speaks to how dishonest this guy is. Who does that? That’s literally a gag out of a cartoon.

He's done it before for other photo ops too, when he claimed to be "working" -- people have checked the embedded photo data and zoomed in on what he's actually writing on, and it's clear it's all just one big staged photo op.



I also ran across this on FB today. I couldn't find another yet on the regular internet, so I uploaded it to my file-sharing place just so you could all experience the wonder.

I mean, people will be able to write their doctorates on this particular style of art, it's like black velvet elvis paintings or fake porn art for a particular actress... What a niche

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Also, he paid that much to look like.... that.
That.
Fucking, wow.

If it's true, can you imagine what it would look like if he hadn't spent $70k on it?

And, keep this Trump/Covid related, apparently there’s a video of him ‘working’ while in the hospital, writing, but upon closer inspection, he’s literally scribbling/signing on blank paper with a Sharpie.


Trump has coronavirus: President mocked for signing apparently blank paper in ‘staged’ photos at Walter Reed | The Independent

That just further speaks to how dishonest this guy is. Who does that? That’s literally a gag out of a cartoon.

There's so much about this administration that would fail as fiction, because it wouldn't be believable. It would look like the worst writing ever, like something submitted by a junior highschool kid. We'd watch a few minutes, then turn it off, thinking, "...as if people that remotely incompetent could ever get elected." Turns out reality somehow truly is that banal.

 

[Jaguar]

I mean, people will be able to write their doctorates on this particular style of art, it's like black velvet elvis paintings or fake porn art for a particular actress... What a niche

The goofball is on steroids and he still has covid. No Superman there, just super stupid.

 

[The Cat]

If it's true, can you imagine what it would look like if he hadn't spent $70k on it?



There's so much about this administration that would fail as fiction, because it wouldn't be believable. It would look like the worst writing ever, like something submitted by a junior highschool kid. We'd watch a few minutes, then turn it off, thinking, "...as if people that remotely incompetent could ever get elected." Turns out reality somehow truly is that banal.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Vanity Fair: “Don Jr. Thinks Trump Is Acting Crazy”: The President’s COVID Joyride Has the Family Divided

Sources said Donald Trump Jr. is deeply upset by his father’s decision to drive around Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last night with members of the Secret Service while he was infected with COVID-19. “Don Jr. thinks Trump is acting crazy,” one of the sources told me. The stunt outraged medical experts, including an attending physician at Walter Reed.

According to sources, Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner to convince the president that he needs to stop acting unstable. “Don Jr. has said he wants to stage an intervention, but Jared and Ivanka keep telling Trump how great he’s doing,” a source said. Don Jr. is said to be reluctant to confront his father alone. “Don said, ‘I’m not going to be the only one to tell him he’s acting crazy,’” the source added.

One area where the family seems united is over the president’s manic tweeting early Monday morning. After Trump sent out more than a dozen all-caps tweets, the Trump children told people they want Trump to stop. “They’re all worried. They’ve tried to get him to stop tweeting,” a source close to the family told me.

[...]

There is a long history in the Trump family of denying serious illness. According to a Trump family friend, Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., insisted on working even after his Alzheimer’s disease advanced in the 1990s. “To retire is to expire!” Fred Sr. would say. The friend said that as Fred Sr.’s disease worsened––he once came down the stairs wearing three neckties––the family created a system so that Fred could think he was still running the Trump Organization. Every day Fred Sr. would go to the office in Brooklyn and they would give him blank papers to sort through and sign. The phone on Fred’s desk was set up so that it could only dial out to his secretary. “Fred pretended to work,” the family friend said.

The White House did not immediately respond for comment.
​

I'm taking this with a grain of salt ("sources"), but still super LOL.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Gender & gender stereotyping aside, anyone who spends more than $100.00 on hair (& I’m being generous with that amount— I cut my own hair at home, so I don’t even know ‘reasonable’ salon prices anymore for pro cut/styling/color/whatever) is extravagant & insanely wasteful to me. Unless they’re infusing your hair with fairy dust or nanobots that comb your hair for you— I just don’t get it.

Also, he paid that much to look like.... that.
That.
Fucking, wow.

And, keep this Trump/Covid related, apparently there’s a video of him ‘working’ while in the hospital, writing, but upon closer inspection, he’s actually scribbling/signing on a blank paper with a Sharpie.


Trump has coronavirus: President mocked for signing apparently blank paper in ‘staged’ photos at Walter Reed | The Independent

That just further speaks to how dishonest this guy is. Who does that? That’s literally a gag out of a cartoon.

I get the sense more and more that people he employs have to do exactly what he says, so he may be very specific about how he wants his hair done and it goes against the stylists opinions, but paying a lot makes it feel like it's done correctly. I am getting that same sense from his reporting doctor who carefully says this morning Trump reports no symptoms. It isn't the doctor, it's Trump reporting no symptoms.

Just an odd aside, I noticed when I watched that "The One Percent" documentary that the extremely wealthy all looked really goofy with bright glasses, funny hair, odd details in their clothes. I think it is a psychological dominance thing that they don't dress to please. It shows no one dares criticize them. I think it might be a 'thing' for the most extravagantly rich almost like they are above fashion. I think he might be signally and fitting in with the mostly grossly elite in this way. I could be wrong, but everyone in that documentary looked really goofy.

Edit: I lean towards believing their presentation is by design and not all goofy wide-eyed mistakes. A lot of celebrities seem to do well acting dumb and ditzy. Not sure why that serves them so well, but even politicians like George W. benefitted from being ditzy, just like Paris Hilton, and a bunch of others. One especially ditzy blonde Fox News anchor - the one who looked dumb into the camera and would talk about needing to Google simple concepts turned out to be a virtuoso violinist. In many cases it is constructed image, so I'm not one to easily assume flubs and foibles. They have entire teams working on their images.

 

[Virtual ghost]

The comments from conservatives and the right on this cartoon were predictable. They don't grasp satire and that's why there aren't any funny conservatives.

Regarding that picture, I wonder how people would react to that picture in the case that Merkel is the savior and in the background there is EU flag. By this I mean that all these dreams of American left about just and fair society aren't really the dreams about "Socialism". They are actually dreams about European social democracy, even if average American doesn't know the principles to the point that they never even heard for social democracy as a social model. I mean the Americans that are familiar with the term seem to be pretty rare actually.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Who specifically is "y'all"?

You know the answer to that.

Anyway, the attitude you mentioned is better employed on humans seeking to strike terror into one's countrymen as part of a strategic objective. I'm afraid it doesn't serve a purpose against a virus.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

He's done it before for other photo ops too, when he claimed to be "working" -- people have checked the embedded photo data and zoomed in on what he's actually writing on, and it's clear it's all just one big staged photo op.

I also ran across this on FB today. I couldn't find another yet on the regular internet, so I uploaded it to my file-sharing place just so you could all experience the wonder.

I mean, people will be able to write their doctorates on this particular style of art, it's like black velvet elvis paintings or fake porn art for a particular actress... What a niche

I found another one, and I think it is serious if you look at the entire line of T-shirts. I can't stop giggling with this one.

Trump Stable Genius Qanon - Trump - T-Shirt | TeePublic

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

In a similar vein complete with overt cheese...

Trump's following has a similar emotional fervor. Nothing new under the sun.

 

[Mind Maverick]

He's done it before for other photo ops too, when he claimed to be "working" -- people have checked the embedded photo data and zoomed in on what he's actually writing on, and it's clear it's all just one big staged photo op.



I also ran across this on FB today. I couldn't find another yet on the regular internet, so I uploaded it to my file-sharing place just so you could all experience the wonder.

I mean, people will be able to write their doctorates on this particular style of art, it's like black velvet elvis paintings or fake porn art for a particular actress... What a niche

Meanwhile......

"YEAH, I'M GREAT! IT'S ALL GREAT! I HAVE THE GREATEST BODY, MAYBE I'M IMMUNE!" *Gasping for air*
Gee, seen this pattern from him before.........
"AMERICA IS HANDLING IT BETTER THAN ANYONE! WE'RE THE BEST COUNTRY!" *Is doing the worst in the world*
Whew, more narcissism...

 

[ceecee]

Regarding that picture, I wonder how people would react to that picture in the case that Merkel is the savior and in the background there is EU flag. By this I mean that all these dreams of American left about just and fair society aren't really the dreams about "Socialism". They are actually dreams about European social democracy, even if average American doesn't know the principles to the point that they never even heard for social democracy as a social model. I mean the Americans that are familiar with the term seem to be pretty rare actually.

Right. Just like the things people are in the streets about aren't about socialism. Not even about politics. Human and civil rights never are but they need political force to make them a reality.

As far as Merkel and the EU flag, I would imagine most Americans would have no idea how to answer thoughtfully - they would just scream and point and act like hyenas.