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When leaders don't


GT6MK3

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Rule one of this thread.  This isn't about politics, it's about politicians behaving badly.  Not beliefs, just behaviour that's sometimes beyond belief.

I spent today sourcing laptops all over town, as step one of allowing my various employers to equip their vital employees with the abity to work from home if they need to shut the doors of the offices for a couple of weeks, or possibly more.  The pandemic thats gripping the world is well and truely in town, community transmission has begun, and the effect on personal and working lives is in play.  For me, that also meant cancelling my upcoming vacation, so I can be available to do whats needed to keep my clients running.

The true legacy of the virus won't be known for some time, but we're already discovering that pressure can create diamonds, or expose cracks.

It's time for world leaders to step up, be statesman (statesperson?) like, and lead.

So at just before 5:30am Washington time, the leader of the free world banged out this refresing duplex of 240 character missives:

" For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.... .... Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!"

I'm not overly fond of the leader of my country, his happy clappy pesona is as transparent as any undressed kings, but at least he wasn't directly elected.  I'm trying to find a propper description for someone who's had over 3 year in power since he was inaugurated, yet upon waking up in the middle of his first true opportunity to lead, his first thought is to tell a fat old lie about an agency his administration gutteds policies and workings, to dishonestly shift blame for that to his predecessor, then to proudly claim credit for possible future success.  

All before breakfast.

I think the term is "Ass Clown". 

I'm not sure how anyone who voted for him could defend his behaviour with resorting to whaddaboutism.

 

I can only hope he realises that the way to get re-elected is to stop worring about the election, do the bigger job his country and many others need him to do, lead by example and forget politics.  It should be a no brainer.

 

I suspect there's fat chance of that.

 

C.

 

 

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In his TV presentation he has passed the blame of the 'foreign virus' to the EU. Hence the banning of flights from the EU (apart from the UK and Ireland).
He is scarily mad, yet I expect he will get  re-elected. American politics is difficult to understand, but then we have elected a self centred liar for prime minister......

Mike

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His 'leadership' from the outset of this crisis has been disgraceful - disseminating untruths, perpetuating conspiracy theories, blaming others... the list goes on.  That he hasn't self-isolated following his recent close proximity to (tested positive) Bolsonaro & entourage demonstrates his rank unsuitability to the office he holds.

This will not end well, but yes, there seems little doubt he will be re-elected.

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1 hour ago, PeterC said:

Hopefully his many enemies are engaged in coating every surface he is likely to touch with gobs of contagious snot.

Absolutely. Though the devil takes care of his own.  Can think of plenty of deserving candidates closer to home too.

The tangerine moron has got to be a candidate for worst US president and is well up there in the rankings of worst world leader ever.

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See: 

 

In these times a black laugh is still a laugh.

 

And worst leader ever?    You may have a case.     But, Hold!   What clown is this?   The Rt.Honorable Alexander de Pfeffel Johnson, Pm of this fair and troubled land and Duplicitor in Chief.   He's been lying ever since .... probably since he was born, but more recently from the lies on the side to the Brexit Bus to the 40 Hospitals, 50,000 new nurses, 6000 new GPs and the lack of customs checks across the Irish Sea, he surpasses the Orange Leader by a mile.

JOhn

Edited by JohnD
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  • 4 weeks later...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/each-briefing-trump-making-us-worse-people/609859/
 

I think this guy has actually nailed what I’ve felt as I’ve watched this video oaf over the last few weeks.


“In a time of crisis, we should be finding what is best in ourselves. Trump, instead, invites us to join a daily ritual, to hear lines from a scared and mean little boy’s heroic play-acting about how he bravely defeated the enemies and scapegoats who told him to do things that would hurt us. He insists that he has never been wrong and that he isn’t responsible for anything ever.”

 

My last trip to America was filled with wonder at the disconnect between the good people I met, the great time we had, the casual dismissal of the need for affordable or any healthcare for the poor, and the incredible number of homeless. If your poor and sick, homelessness is a short journey.  Our hotel in Washington was 3 minutes walk from the White House, and had about 150-200  homeless folk living in the park next door. 
 

I hate to think what this virus will do to those poor folks, while the mean little boy up the road trips out his regular daily bile.

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Excellent summary of the odious cretin.  There is plenty to support the contention that his stupidity, narcissism and xenophobia, culminating (but not ending) in the six lost weeks between the notification of the threat of coronavirus and the end of Trump's denial have adversely changed the course of human history.

Yet he still garners huge support from the people on whose fears and prejudices he feeds.  Make no mistake, this malignant threat to peace, health and honesty will be re-elected this November.

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28 minutes ago, PaulAA said:

Yet he still garners huge support from the people on whose fears and prejudices he feeds.  Make no mistake, this malignant threat to peace, health and honesty will be re-elected this November.

Unfortunately I fear your right.

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Hmmmmmmmm!

This thread is about leaders, and while it's wrong to kick a man when he's down, the life of our own dear leader has similarities, not least in the " slogans and paranoid sentence fragments" that have been used by dePfeffle Johnson.  

 

Edited by JohnD
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As an American I see a constant drip, drip, drip of misinformation from this madman. He has desensitized a shockingly large part of the part of the population. There are TV and radio networks that defend his mistakes and brainwash intelligent rational people. He could take a shit on the Constitution then wipe his ass with the Declaration of Independence and Rush and Hannity would make an excuse for him. They have everyone convinced that he is an average American with their best interests in mind. Even though he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has never done a day's work in his life. 

More shocking is that his opposition has nominated an old guy who's one giant brain fart. If they put someone half qualified it would be a slam dunk. Trump's marketing department could sell ice to an eskimo  Biden's team couldn't sell that same ice cube to an Arab in the hot desert.

The most shameful thing of all is how few of us vote. On a good day only half of Americans go and vote. So we deserve this nightmare if voters don't show up in November.

I'll step down from my soap box now.

Mike

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Just out of interest, MIke, and in support of soap boxes,  in London's Hyde Park there is "Speaker's Corner".   It's based on the corner of the Park nearest to Marble Arch, which was the site of Tyburn, where public hangings (and drawing, and quartering) occurred, drawing enormous crowds, and so the political radicals of that age came there to address the assembled rabble.    The tradition, of public speaking there,  continues to this day - well to a day before the lockdown, anyway.

And there are Speaker's Corners elsewhere too, worldwide, and in the US, but the Wiki page I rely on doesn't list one for New York, or Washinton, DC.   Is there such a tradition there, or in your town?

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John

When I lived in DC, many moons ago, there was a drunk on P Street, near Logan Circle, whom I saw every time I went to site nearby.  He was just coherent enough to string words into a sentence, but the sentences themselves were meaningless - shouted nonsense.  He clearly believed passionately in whatever he was trying to say and was evidently frustrated that passers-by did not engage with him.

This is probably the closest that Washington has to Speaker's Corner and King Donald (as he should be known after today's exceptional press "briefing") is without doubt the most devoted disciple of the P Street Drunk.

Paul

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John,

I'm to young to remember the "speaker's Corner" and too old to tolerate Twitter that has replaced public speaking. This forum is as close as I get to social media. An astounding 15 posts.

Today his royal highness pulled the plug on funding for the World Health Organization just as it's needed most. 

Last week he was asked if he would open up enrollment for Obamacare ( our NHS ) to help the people who have lost their jobs and health insurance. He handed the question to the VP who said we would do just fine with the programs already in place. The orange one took great joy in that response. Just as people are getting sick there will be no way to pay for their care. What better time than now for National Health Care?

You're getting me wound up. I need to put the computer down and go back to teaching myself panel beating and gas welding.

Mike

 

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54 minutes ago, zetecspit said:

Yep, pretty certain he will get another term in office.

Would be a truly awful indictment of "democracy", human intelligence and the US political system.  Can't say we are much better here in the UK though :sad:

The world feels very broken at present.

The graph below (from the John Hopkins site) tells all you need to know about the "effectiveness" of the tangerine twats "management" of the crisis.  In spite have having more time to prepare than almost anyone else on the graph....... look at the damn slope!  If his aim is to kill as many as possible, as quick as possible..... he's on target.

covid attack.jpg

Of course, that Bolsanaro lunatic may give him a run for his money but Brazil will never match those numbers, if only because less testing.  I strongly suspect that UK numbers would also be far worse if the count wasn't restricted to those actually tested, who die in hospital.  True numbers must be way higher now it's in the nursing homes.

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Mike (SpitfireBGT), I know the feeling.    I had to take several steps back from the corona thread here, because the situation, not the people on it, was making me so angry.

Nick - Snowy White, he's a new man to me!   Had a look at his discography and he's been a sidesman to - everybody!    He's from the West country - mate of yours?   I looked for the discography because it sounded so Eagles,  I thought it might be an offshoot, but no relation to them.   Nice one!

 

 

But I will be contraversial for a moment, about people in care homes.     My parents went to care homes in their last years, and were very well looked after.   Dad was too demented to speak  and could barely recognise us.   He fell ill with a chest infection, and when we were asked if we wanted him to go to hospital for treatment we said no.     And he died.     His loss of dignity and disablement were over, to our and we believed his, relief.     But I hear people on the radio bewailing that their demented relatives in care homes are being denied admission to hospital, that ambulances would not be despatched to blue light them in, and journalists accusing politicians of ignoring the care home population.

If I survive this episode, and at my age and with my 'concomitant' illnesses that is uncertain to say the least, it is most likely that dementia will put me in a care home before I die.      Dementia is the last laugh that Death has kept going for us in the face of modern medicine;  the death of the mind that leaves the body alive.   I would rather that never happens and that I die first,  but if I don't, let influenza, or just an ordinary chest infection carry me off as soon as possible.   Care for me, but don't treat me, let alone take me to hospital.

John

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1 hour ago, JohnD said:

Mike (SpitfireBGT), I know the feeling.    I had to take several steps back from the corona thread here, because the situation, not the people on it, was making me so angry.

Nick - Snowy White, he's a new man to me!   Had a look at his discography and he's been a sidesman to - everybody!    He's from the West country - mate of yours?   I looked for the discography because it sounded so Eagles,  I thought it might be an offshoot, but no relation to them.   Nice one!

 

 

But I will be contraversial for a moment, about people in care homes.     My parents went to care homes in their last years, and were very well looked after.   Dad was too demented to speak  and could barely recognise us.   He fell ill with a chest infection, and when we were asked if we wanted him to go to hospital for treatment we said no.     And he died.     His loss of dignity and disablement were over, to our and we believed his, relief.     But I hear people on the radio bewailing that their demented relatives in care homes are being denied admission to hospital, that ambulances would not be despatched to blue light them in, and journalists accusing politicians of ignoring the care home population.

If I survive this episode, and at my age and with my 'concomitant' illnesses that is uncertain to say the least, it is most likely that dementia will put me in a care home before I die.      Dementia is the last laugh that Death has kept going for us in the face of modern medicine;  the death of the mind that leaves the body alive.   I would rather that never happens and that I die first,  but if I don't, let influenza, or just an ordinary chest infection carry me off as soon as possible.   Care for me, but don't treat me, let alone take me to hospital.

John

John that is heartfelt and honest. We are in a situation with my parents. My sister said a while ago, "if they were an animal they would go to the vets to be put to sleep" and my mum has said a few times she wishes she could have an injection to get rid. . (I did suggest that getting to Switzerland would be a challenge, but she didn't have her hearing aids in!) Sounds horrible, but it is honest

Maybe it comes down to the old adage, its not the years in your life, but the life in your years.

This came up recently somewhere on here, to do with booze.... yep, live well, enjoy. And I hope when my time comes I won't fade away loosing possession of all the things that make me me.

 

Anyway, I did jokingly say to my sister that when our parents need to go into a care home, at least there will be vacancies. (doesn't that sound terrible) but worryingly will some of them close down as no longer profitable? That would be a problem that will come back to bite in a year.

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We were discussing this here very recently due to the recent "discovery" that care home deaths from C19 are going largely uncounted.

My, somewhat "heartless", premise was that although it's obviously horrible on some levels, care homes in general, but most notably nursing homes are, quite literally, deaths waiting rooms.  For the latter particularly, residence times are short, typically months, before death intervenes anyway.  Additionally, (from the manager of my grandmothers nursing home a few years back) residence times for the mentally well, but physically frail tend to be much shorter (weeks to months) than the dementia patients, who might still be in fair shape physically and last months to years.  Therefore, deaths here are not having much effect on "days of human life lost" numbers.  If you factor in the numbers who actually still know they are alive, it's even lower.

I've also seen it suggested (possibly the Spectator article Peter referenced before) that although this pandemic might put a kink in the graph of overall death rates in the short-term, it probably won't (even now) make very much of a mark in the longer term rates because a fair proportion of the deaths would have occurred anyway over a relatively short timescale.

From my own experience, both paternal grandparents died suddenly after very short illness while still independent.  Came as a shock, those left behind suffered more than they.  Both maternal grandparents however lived into their 90s and both were quite clear they would have gone sooner given the option.  Grandfather lived to 92 and remained mentally sharp as ever to the very end.  He, by his own reckoning lived 2 years longer than he would have chosen, his spouse, responsible for his care, only half jokingly, reckoned 5 years longer than she would have chosen!  He had heart problems and diabetes, but what what really spoiled things for him was going blind to the point he couldn't read or even watch TV and deaf to the point where communication was a struggle.  He avoided a care home as my Grandmother was considerably younger than he and able to care from him at home until the end.  She unfortunately didn't have the same luxury and though she remained independent for another 11 years, eventually she fell, broke her arm, and after a couple of months in hospital, deemed unfit to live in her home, we had to move her to a nursing home near us.  She was most unhappy about this as she had always been determined to die in her own home.  The nursing home was the best we could find and they did their very best for her, but she didn't take to it.  Couldn't get a decent game of scrabble with the staff, never mind the other inmates. She might get a half decent game out of a visiting grandchild, but only if they were concentrating!  Anyway, she made no secret of the fact that she was determined to die a soon as possible and any doctor called to see her would be asked "have you come to put me down?"  " Why on earth not, it's long past my time!"

So it's not that the deaths in care/nursing homes don't matter or don't count, just that in many cases they may actually be a blessed relief to the victims and, once they've had time to reflect, their families as well.  No one could argue that the current circumstances are not particularly distressing though.

Perhaps another incentive to consider our attitudes to the old and end of life care that allow so much (nearly) dead wood to pile up.

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