lordy i hope there are tapes (woodward book/tapes)

[HornPhD 1,387]

3 hours ago, Red Five said:

Here’s what I don’t get. Handling this well would have won him the election. Just taking it seriously and showing that he didn’t want people to die might have won him the election. Just, not worth the effort I guess? We all knew in real time that the way he was handling it would only hurt him.

Exactly. This type of situation is in the wheelhouse of any person who understands leadership and/or politics: “It’s going to be tough; however, we’ll get through it together. Under my orders, every state, city, hospital will have whatever is needed to meet this challenge and protect the lives of American citizens. I will not rest until this virus has been controlled. Until then, everyone needs to unite in a common goal. Where a mask. Maintain a social distance of 6 feet. Listen to the experts who will follow next. Thank you and god bless America.”

[Goredho 17,633]

Dunno if this has been picked up on, but February 25th is when the head of the CDC went public to tell America to be ready for “disruption of everyday life.”  Trump’s interview with Woodward regarding coronavirus occurred before that on Feb 7th.  I expect a lot happened in those 18 days...

In early Feb Trump was aware of the danger of coronavirus, but not exactly what the protocols to combat it would need to be once we had local transmission.  When he was talking to Woodward, he didn’t know that following the expert’s recommendations would result in the economy being shut down and millions of voters being out of work.  That’s why he spoke so candidly.  There wasn’t yet a context where he was trying to flat-out deceive the American public about the impending danger.

Sometime later and before the 25th, Trump became aware that to fight this, you have to shut down and take a big hit to the economy.  He realized what this would do to his re-election chances.  So he started pushing back — behind closed doors against the the CDC who were giving him the sobering news and recommendations. He probably, more or less, tried to coerce the CDC to completely work against its mission by downplaying the threat and not recommending measures they had already developed for this type of scenario.

This led to the head of the CDC going public to tell Americans what was coming on Feb 25th. Think about it — if it had been any other President, they would have delivered the message.  The only reason a President wouldn’t deliver the message is if they didn’t want the message delivered at all.

Since then, Trump has been engaging in a real-time cover up of the effects of coronavirus in public view.  Working against the CDC and other public health experts, trusting that we might have a best case scenario and in his ability to control the truth for his base.  He downplayed the threat, called it the flu, undermined the ability to test or even the need, preached against masks, and so on.  All to increase his chances to be re-elected.  All in full knowledge that innocent Americans would die.

I cannot imagine a more vile human occupying the White House.  An election loss is not nearly consequential enough.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by Goredho

[Rimbo 26,868]

3 hours ago, BrickHorn said:

This Pollyanna bullshit brought to you by the same guy who used to tell us how lucky we were to have Greg Davis on staff.

Remember Shawn Watson?

[Rimbo 26,868]

2 hours ago, Bullneck said:

Wait, I thought he was the guy who drowned the squirrel?

Just one?

[Gatorubet 30,640]

The Fox website is running with Woodward should have gone public with the COVID stuff to save lives.

Because not POTUS’ job to do that right??

 

And who was so big brainy that they could have possibly figured out that Trump would lie about a thing like that without Woodward’s book?

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

Trump is putting ISIS out of business in America simply by outdoing them in the body count department.  They can’t compete with his homicidal negligence, mass death, and white supremacist terrorism. It must be frustrating for the radical jihadists that now struggle to get a media cycle with violence.  They simply can’t compete with dotard.

[Francisco 2.0 32,547]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-was-ecstatic-about-talking-to-bob-woodward-until-he-wasnt?ref=home?ref=home

 

Quote

For weeks leading up to the publication of Bob Woodward’s latest book, West Wing aides were chatting about how damaging some of President Donald Trump’s quotes would be. In the past couple weeks, two senior Trump administration officials told The Daily Beast they were quietly gaming out how to combat or downplay what they’d heard was going to appear in the published work, and attempting to ferret out what other big tidbits would be in there as well.

“It’s been known for a while that this was going to be something that… needed some dealing-with,” one of the officials said. “The anticipation was that it would probably be worse than the other [earlier] Woodward book.”

 

Quote

That sense of impending dread stood in contrast to how the president initially felt about Woodward’s Rage, which deals with Trump’s handling of a range of high-stakes national security issues in addition to the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump was “ecstatic” about the prospect of sitting for interviews with Woodward, according to a White House official, and relished some of his conversations with the famous Washington Post journalist. 

Ultimately, Trump spoke with Woodward 18 times for the book. And at some point along the way, he had a change of heart, becoming convinced that Woodward was using him. Trump then began rage-tweeting the very reporter with whom he was so psyched to go on the record.

 

Quote

“The Bob Woodward book will be a FAKE, as always, just as many of the others have been,” the president tweeted, seemingly out of the blue, last month. Later that month, Trump logged back on to blast the veteran reporter as a “social pretender” who “never has anything good to say.”

It is unclear when, exactly, Trump decided that the Woodward book could prove harmful. According to a person with direct knowledge, Trump privately said before sitting for interviews with Woodward, that one reason he was looking forward to doing so was because of how “fair” the journalist was to him on the issue of “Russian collusion.” However, late last month this source recalled the president complaining unprompted that the then-upcoming Woodward book would be filled with “fake stories,” and that the author was a “big phony.” The source did not recall Trump bringing up any of the stories or quotes he directly gave Woodward.

 

Spoiler

The damage done by Rage’s release was apparent mere moments after the first stories about the book were published, with the White House scrambling to lay out a defense and struggling to find a coherent one.

In a briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump “never downplayed the virus” despite Wooward quoting Trump saying he had done just that having known in early February that it was deadly and airborne. Less than an hour later, Trump himself admitted that he had indeed downplayed the pandemic, believing keeping people calm outweighed expressing alarm to Americans about the disease. 

“Well, as you said, in order to reduce panic, perhaps that’s so,” Trump said when asked if he downplayed the severity of the pandemic. “The fact is, I'm a cheerleader for this country. I love our country, and I don't want people to be frightened. I don't want to create panic, as you say. Certainly I’m not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy.”

The remarks were part of a string of dizzying moments on Wednesday with White House aides casting blame over who had convinced the president it was a good idea to sit down with Woodward. Among those pinpointed for the decision was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a close Trump confidant who acknowledged in a brief interview with The Daily Beast that he had recommended to the president that he talk to the longtime Washington Post scribe.

“Yeah. The last book Woodward wrote, Trump said he didn’t know that he had wanted to be interviewed,” Graham recalled. “So I said, well, the guy is a well-known presidential author. And, you know, you got a chance to tell your side of the story. The president agreed and there you go.”

Graham went on to dismiss the idea that Trump was wrong to have downplayed the pandemic publicly. “The idea,” he said, “of the president saying we're not all going to die seems smart to me.” But the public reaction to the Woodward book was yet another example of how the president and his team are often operating on vastly different planes, with Trump supremely confident in his ability to BS his way through any crisis and his aides often left to pick up the mess. 

The president has often felt that his interviews are smashing successes even when they’ve been widely panned by others, including by his own senior advisers, as pointless, self-implicating, or counterproductive.. In the wake of an interview with Axios earlier this summer—during which Trump trotted out an argument about coronavirus death stats that bordered on grotesque self-parody—the president gushed to several individuals close to him about how well the Q&A turned out and how he’d made some great TV, according to two people familiar with his private remarks.

“He said it went very well and that Biden could never stand up to that kind of questioning,” one of the sources said. “He absolutely was not mad about it.”

Such self-assuredness likely contributed to Trump’s decision to sit down with Woodward. So too did the reaction to Woodward’s first book on the Trump presidency.  While it contained some revelations about Trump’s ignorance of important foreign policy issues, that work—titled Fear—was seen as a dud that lacked a literary punch or many shocking surprises about the president’s first year in the White House. It was also criticized for conspicuously papering over one of the major scandals of the first several years of the administration, describing former senior Trump aide Rob Porter’s White House activities in detail, while barely noting the abuse allegations that led to Porter’s departure.

Trump, as Graham noted, never sat down with Woodward for Fear, a decision that was notable in the restraint that it showed. The longtime investigative journalist has vexed many White Houses with his work—though his depiction of George W. Bush in Bush At War was seen as somewhat sympathetic. And, usually, presidents and their teams decide that it’s better to play ball than to let Woodward chip away at a story by getting source after source to eventually break their silence. 

“Yes, you almost always have to talk to him,” Robert Gibbs, a former White House press secretary for President Barack Obama, told The Daily Beast. “Woodward is a superb journalist. He reconstructs meetings like a puzzle. He knows it all before you start the interview. But the book isn’t going to be a heroic tale. It’s something to be survived through putting some context around what is almost always the messy process of governing.”

But excerpts of Rage suggest that it will likely be one of Woodward’s more engrossing presidential reads, akin to his dismantling of the Nixon White House and investigation of the Reagan-era CIA.

In addition to the president’s on-record comments about the severity of the impending coronavirus pandemic in February, Rage details Trump’s bizarre close relationship with brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as well as private (and unsupported) suspicions by former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats that Russia has damaging information on Trump. The book also catalogues the full extent of the White House’s knowledge and fumbling of the coronavirus pandemic, from alarm bells earlier in the year, to the federal government’s inaction during crucial months leading up to the spread of the virus in the United States.

Indeed, many of the revelations in the book are newsworthy enough that media critics and journalists wondered whether Woodward should have disclosed Trump’s warnings about the pandemic sooner to jolt the public into understanding the severity of the impending coronavirus pandemic. 

In an email to The Daily Beast, a Washington Post spokesperson said the reason the information was not disclosed in the paper earlier is Woodward’s “book work is done independently of The Post,” and the paper did not know the contents of the book until receiving a copy in recent days.

 

[Homercles 10,206]

Pro tip:  it doesn’t matter.  We already have him grabbing pussies, fantasizing about shooting people and mocking a disabled reporter...among many others...the ~40% just says ‘woo that’s my dumbass’

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

7 hours ago, Goredho said:

Dunno if this has been picked up on, but February 25th is when the head of the CDC went public to tell America to be ready for “disruption of everyday life.”  Trump’s interview with Woodward regarding coronavirus occurred before that on Feb 7th.  I expect a lot happened in those 18 days...

In early Feb Trump was aware of the danger of coronavirus, but not exactly what the protocols to combat it would need to be once we had local transmission.  When he was talking to Woodward, he didn’t know that following the expert’s recommendations would result in the economy being shut down and millions of voters being out of work.  That’s why he spoke so candidly.  There wasn’t yet a context where he was trying to flat-out deceive the American public about the impending danger.

Sometime later and before the 25th, Trump became aware that to fight this, you have to shut down and take a big hit to the economy.  He realized what this would do to his re-election chances.  So he started pushing back — behind closed doors against the the CDC who were giving him the sobering news and recommendations. He probably, more or less, tried to coerce the CDC to completely work against its mission by downplaying the threat and not recommending measures they had already developed for this type of scenario.

This led to the head of the CDC going public to tell Americans what was coming on Feb 25th. Think about it — if it had been any other President, they would have delivered the message.  The only reason a President wouldn’t deliver the message is if they didn’t want the message delivered at all.

Since then, Trump has been engaging in a real-time cover up of the effects of coronavirus in public view.  Working against the CDC and other public health experts, trusting that we might have a best case scenario and in his ability to control the truth for his base.  He downplayed the threat, called it the flu, undermined the ability to test or even the need, preached against masks, and so on.  All to increase his chances to be re-elected.  All in full knowledge that innocent Americans would die.

I cannot imagine a more vile human occupying the White House.  An election loss is not nearly consequential enough.

 

 

Excellent post. It was Nancy Messonier, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Infectious Diseases at the CDC who went public on the 25th. She was severely dragged for this and Trump wanted to fire her. She had been giving teleconferences with the media since January and her teleconference on the 25th was as Trump was returning from his visit with Modi in India. Remember how we discussed Fox & Friends giving air time to people discussing Messonier's political leanings and those of her family? I do.

That timeline is so damning because you can see the political appointees such as Azar spinning so fast it's a wonder they didn't pass out. Here's some clips from a WSJ story from April:
 

Quote

 

The CDC’s Dr. Redfield alerted Mr. Azar to the coronavirus threat on Jan. 3. Mr. Azar asked the National Security Council to monitor what was happening in China, but waited two weeks to brief the president on the potential severity, calling him to assure him the agency was ready to handle any cases in the U.S.

____

FDA chief Stephen Hahn asked HHS in January if he could start contacting diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies about possible shortages of personal protective gear and other equipment, administration officials said. He was told no. An FDA official said the agency was already conducting outreach to companies.

Mr. Azar told associates such calls would alarm the industry and make the administration look unprepared, people familiar with the matter said. HHS officials waited weeks to contact manufacturers about possible shortages of medical supplies, the people said.

_____

On Feb. 25, Nancy Messonnier, a CDC official, said the agency was preparing for a potential pandemic and that community spread of the virus was likely. The stock market plunged.

At a media briefing later that day, Mr. Azar sought to quell concerns, saying the virus was “contained.”

But it was too late. A furious Mr. Trump, flying back to Washington from India, called Mr. Azar and threatened to oust Dr. Messonnier.

The next day, the president announced he was putting Vice President Pence in charge of the federal response—news Mr. Azar learned a few hours before the announcement.

 

If anyone at the CDC wants to step forward, do you think it may be too late? This close to the election it's going to appear as political in a public health crisis that should never have been politicized in the first place.

[Aqua Buddha 14,786]

 

[jimmyjazz 46,996]

Pointing the finger at Bob Woodward is just oh so leftish.  Clutch the pearls, ignore the elephant in the room.

Proof positive that it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference:  Trump's base is arguing TODAY that Woodward "cherry-picked" quotes to make Trump look bad.  There are almost 200K dead Americans, and they don't even have the intellectual honesty IN HINDSIGHT to recognize the gross malfeasance on the part of Dear Leader.

Woodward could not have added anything to the conversation.  Trump and his base ignored Fauci, Birx, Gupta, and hundreds of other scientists and public health experts.  Bob Woodward was going to turn that ship?  Hardly.

[Goredho 17,633]

40 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Excellent post. It was Nancy Messonier, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Infectious Diseases at the CDC who went public on the 25th. She was severely dragged for this and Trump wanted to fire her. She had been giving teleconferences with the media since January and her teleconference on the 25th was as Trump was returning from his visit with Modi in India. Remember how we discussed Fox & Friends giving air time to people discussing Messonier's political leanings and those of her family? I do.

That timeline is so damning because you can see the political appointees such as Azar spinning so fast it's a wonder they didn't pass out. Here's some clips from a WSJ story from April:
 

If anyone at the CDC wants to step forward, do you think it may be too late? This close to the election it's going to appear as political in a public health crisis that should never have been politicized in the first place.

If I was a reporter I’d be pulling on the thread I discussed with people at the CDC or others that might have “been in the room” during those 18 days so to speak.  And I would be pretty fucking forceful about it.  If people knew and didn’t speak against the President publicly or resign in protest, then they are  complicit in the unnecessary death of tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans.  When the reckoning comes for Trump after he is out of power,  those people should face it as well.  This is their last chance to get right with history and their conscience.

I think when/if all becomes known, Nancy Messonier will prove to be a hero.  She subverted our mad king at great peril to herself to warn America and fulfill her duty to serve the greater good.  That’s a legit Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for you.

[kevwun 16,363]

So when does Woodward start to release the audio?

[4th&Five 41,914]

Cross posting because I love it. 

 

[jimmyjazz 46,996]

Claire is from my hometown.  Contrast her with Josh Hawley . . . ugh.

[Francisco 2.0 32,547]

 

[4th&Five 41,914]

1 minute ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

[Pig Bellmont 8,879]

7 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

Wow. 

[Biff Tannen 46,074]

JFC.  I don't even have words.

Edit: and the comments are fucking mindblowing.  FUCK.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Biff Tannen

[Francisco 2.0 32,547]

7 minutes ago, kevwun said:

So when does Woodward start to release the audio?

Sunday, during 60 minutes.

 

 

[kevwun 16,363]

I hope the coronavirus comments were recorded.

[Biff Tannen 46,074]

1 minute ago, kevwun said:

I hope the coronavirus comments were recorded.

The ones the news has already been playing for two straight days?

[Mo Horn 8,933]

1 minute ago, kevwun said:

I hope the coronavirus comments were recorded.

You do know that several recordings about this have already been released and played on pretty much every media outlet?

[kevwun 16,363]

I don't ever watch the news, so I missed them.  Glad they were.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

43 minutes ago, Goredho said:

If I was a reporter I’d be pulling on the thread I discussed with people at the CDC or others that might have “been in the room” during those 18 days so to speak.  And I would be pretty fucking forceful about it.  If people knew and didn’t speak against the President publicly or resign in protest, then they are  complicit in the unnecessary death of tens and maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans.  When the reckoning comes for Trump after he is out of power,  those people should face it as well.  This is their last chance to get right with history and their conscience.

I think when/if all becomes known, Nancy Messonier will prove to be a hero.  She subverted our mad king at great peril to herself to warn America and fulfill her duty to serve the greater good.  That’s a legit Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for you.

And Dr. Rick Bright would be another one to track down. He was removed in April after saying 'no' to HCQ.

Having an investigative reporter lay out the timeline as you did, along with the cases and spread, juxtaposed with the various CDC and Administration officials in his cabinet either plumping for Trump or attempting to neutralize his comments would be quite illuminating. Doesn't even include the Fox and OANN blather.

 

In the end, it probably won't make a difference, but laying it bare will at least get it down in perpetuity. Until Trump is re-elected and the Library of Congress burns.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Mrs Whiggins
addition

[Biff Tannen 46,074]

4 minutes ago, kevwun said:

I don't ever watch the news, so I missed them.  Glad they were.

You might want to check it out every once in a while.  There's some stuff going on.

[The Royal We 3,095]

I know it's already been said, but Invasion of Migrants! guy, MS-13 raping errrbody! guy, Liberate Michigan! guy, Biden and Booker are going to invade your suburbs! guy, etc. etc. etc. - trying to spin this and say he was lying to the American people to keep them calm is some 1st rate, Prime Grade, Top Notch BS!  It's a MF'ing travesty that a sizable chunk of the country (including parts of my own family) will smear this BS on a few slices of bread and happily eat it up. 

Depressing.

Edited September 10, 2020 by The Royal We

[Red Five 41,618]

Look I don't want to cause a panic here or anything but OMG THE ELECTION IS GOING TO BE RIGGED AND BIDEN IS GOING TO DESTROY ALL OF YOUR HOMES!

Ok Mr. President, what about the pandemic killing 1000 people a day?

Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. Shit happens, amirite?

[USMCHorn 1,369]

38 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

Is this a new low for Trump? Has to be right?

[lemonlime 5,503]

Clearly, dotard is deeply concerned with not inciting panic.

[mchookem 16,743]

when there is no bottom, everything is a new low

[kevwun 16,363]

Do as I say not as I do is his mantra.

[The Royal We 3,095]

He made it 1 hour and 12 minutes before complete contradicting himself on the new I-was-trying-to-Remain-Calm! spin he trotted out this morning.

[wildcat09 29,569]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Pointing the finger at Bob Woodward is just oh so leftish.  Clutch the pearls, ignore the elephant in the room.

Proof positive that it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference:  Trump's base is arguing TODAY that Woodward "cherry-picked" quotes to make Trump look bad.  There are almost 200K dead Americans, and they don't even have the intellectual honesty IN HINDSIGHT to recognize the gross malfeasance on the part of Dear Leader.

Woodward could not have added anything to the conversation.  Trump and his base ignored Fauci, Birx, Gupta, and hundreds of other scientists and public health experts.  Bob Woodward was going to turn that ship?  Hardly.

Nobody is saying Trump's base would've changed their behavior. Trump's base makes up maybe 40% of voters, which are only roughly half of all Americans.  There are tens of millions of Americans in this country who don't pay attention to politics and don't watch the news much, who nevertheless based their response to covid in March and April in part on Trump's and the GOP's lies because they take their cues from elected officials on things like this. I don't care if their stupid political views wouldn't have changed, I care how many might have altered their behavior sooner if everyone they knew spent a couple of days in late March talking about how Trump actually knew it was way more dangerous than he was publicly admitting.

There's no way to prove any of this either way, but there are nearly 330 million people in this country and it is absolutely insane to think that some substantial number of them wouldn't have changed their behavior, or changed it sooner than they did, if there was a fucking tape being played in late March on every news channel about how Trump knew this was going to be the worst pandemic in 100 years. Now maybe a lot of those people aren't likely voters so the polls wouldn't have shifted significantly and we all would have looked on and said "my god nothing truly matters," but it would have fucking mattered to the lives that weren't taken because those people weren't out spreading a disease.

[jimmyjazz 46,996]

I find it shockingly predictable that people are pointing the finger at Woodward moreso than Trump.  'murica.  What the fuck ever.

[The Royal We 3,095]

The party of Personal Responsibility!!!!!1!!!1!!!one!!!! looking to place responsibility for their failure on someone else!?  Nuh uh!

[lemonlime 5,503]

6 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Nobody is saying Trump's base would've changed their behavior. Trump's base makes up maybe 40% of voters, which are only roughly half of all Americans.  There are tens of millions of Americans in this country who don't pay attention to politics and don't watch the news much, who nevertheless based their response to covid in March and April in part on Trump's and the GOP's lies because they take their cues from elected officials on things like this. I don't care if their stupid political views wouldn't have changed, I care how many might have altered their behavior sooner if everyone they knew spent a couple of days in late March talking about how Trump actually knew it was way more dangerous than he was publicly admitting.

There's no way to prove any of this either way, but there are nearly 330 million people in this country and it is absolutely insane to think that some substantial number of them wouldn't have changed their behavior, or changed it sooner than they did, if there was a fucking tape being played in late March on every news channel about how Trump knew this was going to be the worst pandemic in 100 years. Now maybe a lot of those people aren't likely voters so the polls wouldn't have shifted significantly and we all would have looked on and said "my god nothing truly matters," but it would have fucking mattered to the lives that weren't taken because those people weren't out spreading a disease.

Anyone with two working brain cells knew that trump and the GOP were lying about the severity of Covid.  The death cult was going to death cult no matter what.

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

21 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

 It's a MF'ing travesty that a sizable chunk of the country (including parts of my own family) will smear this BS on a few slices of bread and happily eat it up. 

Depressing.

I suppose it will be accompanied by a can of Goya black beans from the two cases out in the garage.

[Hagbard Celine 11,175]

12 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

I don’t think he thought it’d be contained. He just thought he could control the headlines as he’s always been able to do with his bullshit and as long as it wasn’t on tv nobody would care about it.

article from a month ago explains trump

The Stark Audacity of UnTruth

Spoiler

Opinion

Op-Ed: The truth behind Trump’s need to lie

By some tallies, President Trump has made more than 20,000 false or misleading claims in his 3½ years in office.

(Associated Press)

By Dan P. McAdams

Aug. 5, 2020

3 AM

Abraham Lincoln once said, “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” To be a good liar you have to keep track of all the lies you’ve told, and to whom, in order to keep the truth hidden. But Honest Abe never knew President Trump, or perhaps anybody like him.

Donald Trump is a successful liar because he refuses to remember. Not only that: He refuses to anticipate that he will remember the current moment in the future. If you live mainly in the current moment, then the future consequences of your lies will not matter to you. And if you have lived your entire life this way, and to great acclaim and success, why would you ever want to change?

The president was recently annoyed when Dr. Anthony Fauci stole the spotlight by throwing out the first pitch for Major League Baseball’s opening game. In response, he falsely claimed that the Yankees invited him to throw out the first pitch for Aug. 15. His assertion was roundly refuted a short time later. The incident recalls Trump’s false boast that the crowd attending his 2017 inaugural address was the largest in history. Objective photographic evidence decisively refuted that claim.

And yet Trump never pulls back on blatantly false statements — lies that are so obvious that they often defy the laws of physics, chemistry and common sense. Defying biology, even in the face of soaring coronavirus cases and mounting deaths, Trump recently claimed that the virus at some point is “going to sort of just disappear.” Of the economic crisis that has thrown tens of millions of Americans out of work, he said in March, “This is just a temporary moment of time.”

The key to Donald Trump’s psychology is that he moves through life as what I call “the episodic man.” For Trump, each day is indeed “a temporary moment of time.” Psychological research shows that nearly all adults develop stories in their minds about their own lives. These stories — what psychologists call “narrative identities” — reconstruct the past and imagine the future to give people a sense that lives have meaning and coherence over time. As you make daily decisions, you implicitly remember how you have come to be who you are, and you anticipate where your life may be going. You live within narrative time.

But the episodic man does not live that way. Instead, he immerses himself in the angry, combative moment, striving desperately to win the moment. Like a boxer in the ring, he brings everything he has to the immediate episode, fighting furiously to come out on top. But the episodes do not add up. They do not form a narrative arc. In Trump’s case, it is as if he wakes up each morning nearly oblivious to what happened the day before. What he said and did yesterday, in order to win yesterday, no longer matters to him. And what he will do today, in order to win today, will not matter for tomorrow.

What is truth for the episodic man? Truth is whatever works to win the moment. The boxer faces an imminent threat to his survival. If he takes his eyes off the immediate aim of winning, he may get knocked out. Boxing his way through life, moment by discrete moment, Trump does not have the psychological luxury to consider whether his tactics comport with the conventional criteria for truth — such as consistency over time or concordance with the objective reality of the outside world. Every day is a war. All is fair.

Nearly 40 years ago, Donald Trump conveyed his philosophy of life to an interviewer: “Man is the most vicious of all animals, and life is a series of battles ending in victory or defeat.” Before he was sworn into office, Trump told his advisors to think about each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals.

The show is not, however, a long-running drama that builds over time to a conclusion. Each day, instead, is like an episode of “Seinfeld,” self-contained with its own beginning and ending, or like the opening-night game between the Yankees and the Nationals. Somebody will win (in Trump’s mind it is always him). And then we start all over again tomorrow.

For most people, and every other president in the history of the United States, an episodic life would be unsustainable in the long run. But for Trump, it has always been a winning life strategy. His admirers appreciate his total engagement of the moment. He brings it all to the battle today. There is a primal authenticity in Trump. He tells you exactly what he feels in the moment. He lies straight to your face, without shame, without any concern for future consequences. It is the stark audacity of untruth.

 

[Biff Tannen 46,074]

11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

'murica.  What the fuck ever.

New personal motto.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

I wonder what he means by Low Income Projects.  

[Sawbonz 28,094]

8 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I find it shockingly predictable that people are pointing the finger at Woodward moreso than Trump.  'murica.  What the fuck ever.

Some people are trying to do that. This 60 minutes episode is going to be epic. Trumps approval could drop below 40%. If that happens the senate falls and likely many state legislatures flip blue as well, especially if there is more stuff to come

 

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13,050]

17 minutes ago, lemonlime said:

Clearly, dotard is deeply concerned with not inciting panic.

You would have to be deep deep into the cult to read this and not begin to think, "that's a little obvious there Donny Boy. You're jumping the shark." Now, if he wants to take a different approach, he could solve his whole COVID problem by saying Dr. Doom (an overeducated sciencey elite) and his doombots are fixin to invade the suburbs and only Donald J. Trump has the health care plan to tackle the man with the mask and he'll let us know about it in two weeks...soon.

[GreenspointTexas 9,933]

1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

May be the dumbest thing ive ever seen him tweet

[Guest Lobo]

So woodward's editor and publisher are really behind the Covid-19 deaths, not China?  Got it.  

Oh wait, the binding glue for the books came from China!  Conspiracy! 

[DDD Dad 14,592]

35 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

I know it's already been said, but Invasion of Migrants! guy, MS-13 raping errrbody! guy, Liberate Michigan! guy, Biden and Booker are going to invade your suburbs! guy, etc. etc. etc. - trying to spin this and say he was lying to the American people to keep them calm is some 1st rate, Prime Grade, Top Notch BS!  It's a MF'ing travesty that a sizable chunk of the country (including parts of my own family) will smear this BS on a few slices of bread and happily eat it up. 

Depressing.

But you see the difference is all those other threats aren't real.  

[DDD Dad 14,592]

6 minutes ago, Lobo said:

So woodward's editor and publisher are really behind the Covid-19 deaths, not China?  Got it.  

Oh wait, the binding glue for the books came from China!  Conspiracy! 

Avatar checks out.

[Guest Lobo]

Well played.  Didn't even think of that.  Creepy thing is Woodward's editor's name is Susan.  

[DDD Dad 14,592]

1 minute ago, Lobo said:

Well played.  Didn't even think of that.  Creepy thing is Woodward's editor's name is Susan.  

[jimmyjazz 46,996]

I don't want to sound as if I think Woodward might not have had some small effect on Covid mortality rates had he dropped those tapes in, say, early April.  Some Americans would have been woken up.  But there are some other things we have to acknowledge:  anyone who wasn't aware how serious this thing was by then is either brainwashed or flat out stupid.  We were apoplectic on surly (non_DT) well before that 2nd clip from March 19.  Hell, most of us approved of the unfortunate necessity for Austin to shut down SXSW on March 9.  The information was out there.

Furthermore, we don't know the scope of Woodward's interviews.  He obviously wasn't just talking about coronavirus -- if he were, the book title would be more pointed than "Rage".  And, it's not as if the coronavirus is the only existential threat facing the United States this year.  There is election meddling and voter suppression, police brutality, race relations, the economy and Trump's desperate efforts to keep it afloat,  immigration matters including The Wall, trade wars and their effects on Americans, Trump's attitude towards the military, the list goes on.  Perhaps Woodward felt he has bombshells on multiple fronts, and given that combined with a reasonable perspective that he wasn't going to add anything to the discussion about a growing pandemic, it made sense to keep everything packaged together.  And, money.