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[TamerVirus]

We've investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing!

[Iduno]

So, stock market just surged after positive vaccine trial news. In summary, of 45 volunteers 8 developed antibodies. Market is probably getting a little ahead of itself, but it’s something I guess. Might take a few more iterations of the vaccine for it to be good enough to end the crisis. Not expecting anything this year.

Oh, there will definitely be some rushed-to-market cures and vaccines that cause people to panic more and trust less. I wouldn't expect the disease to really be slowed down here for 12-18 months yet.

Trump's claim that he is taking hydroxychloroquine could easily just be a lie to distract from more substantial news, such as his recent purge of inspector generals.

purge? I’m assuming this is firing, why would he be firing inspector generals?

Mostly, yeah. Some suspicious deaths, but their claims were pretty far-fetched as well. It's tough to tell what's really happening.

[martinuzz]

So now Trump is threatening to cut all government funding for Michigan and Nevada, including corona crisis funding, if they don't stop their plan to vote over the mail.
Secretary Benson of Michigan commented that her Republican colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska, and West Virginia did exactly the same thing (poll the residents whether they would like to vote by mail to prevent corona spread), but that Trump is only threatening democratic states over it.

Ehm.. What's that second amendment for again? Something something take up arms against an oppresive government?
Lately I sometimes feel that an armed government takeover would be less devastating to the US than a few more months of Trump.

[ZBridges]

Would people here say that Donald Trump is generally a worse president than George W. Bush? At least he hasn't started two forever wars (yet).

[sluissa]

Would people here say that Donald Trump is generally a worse president than George W. Bush? At least he hasn't started two forever wars (yet).

Yes.

[wierd]

Yes. Fucker is desperately trying to start a cold war with china.

[Frumple]

Dubya probably did more damage over the course of his terms, but he had two of them and I'd still say Trump is the worse president, by a significant degree. If the shitgibbon isn't literally the bottom, he's down there with andrew "lol genocide" jackson -- and even with what that fucker did to the natives, he still had some redeeming stuff here and there. Trump just... hasn't. At all. While just running roughshod over what respectability the POTUS position had and what little the U.S. as a whole had, on top of a slew of far more material fuckups and by far the most odious personality of anyone to lead the executive branch in the last century or so. Dubya may have been a piece of shit, but he never compared my WWII vet grandfather to fucking Nazis.

I don't think it's actually in question, if trump's not the worst president in american history, he's definitely the worst in living memory.

[SalmonGod]

Would people here say that Donald Trump is generally a worse president than George W. Bush? At least he hasn't started two forever wars (yet).

I've got pretty strong opinions on this, actually, and people get really offended and angry at me about it, but I stick by it. 

I get really frustrated with everyone's fixation on Trump as an individual.  Trump is a terrible individual, but everyone's fixation on him reveals just how much they weren't paying attention before.  The only things he's done differently from the last few administrations that I'm aware of are the trade war, and being generally much more incompetent.  Everything else is stuff that was already happening or had already been set in motion before Trump took office.  Everyone's suddenly aware of these things now, because Trump's personal character draws attention to them.

All of this stuff has precedent and roots going back generations.  Most of USA's history is not flattering, honestly.  The stage for modern day was set long, long ago.  But the Bush administration really lit that stage up and got the modern shitshow started.  They started the forever wars based on lies, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocents.  Made the global issue of terrorism what it is today.  Normalized the use of mercenaries who are unaccountable to any legal structure, and thus free to carry out war crimes, which also launched Erik Prince, one of the most terrible people alive and the brother of Betsy DeVos, into a position of frightening power in the modern world.  Brought torture back into the civilized world.  Kidnapped hundreds of people from all over the world, many innocent, for torture and indefinite detention through their extraordinary rendition program.  Expanded surveillance programs to dystopian extremes the likes of which the world has never seen, and launched a massive campaign of domestic intimidation and suppression of dissent that knocked activism to one of its lowest points ever.  And many countless other severe rollbacks of civil liberties, including suspension and weakening of Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus.

Bush turned the white house, and frankly the world, into a fascist's wet dream.  Obama reinforced the structure of that house.  Trump hasn't done much more than live in it and play with the toys that others put there.

[MrRoboto75]

Yes. Fucker is desperately trying to start a cold war with china.

and/or iran.

[Iduno]

Dubya probably did more damage over the course of his terms, but he had two of them and I'd still say Trump is the worse president, by a significant degree. If the shitgibbon isn't literally the bottom, he's down there with andrew "lol genocide" jackson

I'm trying to think of a president during my lifetime who didn't spend most of their term doing race-related mass murder (tough to call what they've been doing the last 10+ years genocide, but that's more just a lack of success).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Your lifetime? I don't think any of them meet that qualification. Even Harrison counts thanks to the immense government effort put towards native genocides at the time.

[Iduno]

Your lifetime?...Even Harrison counts

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[misko27]

I mean it should be a rule of thumb of all informed observers of American politics that the fixation on the President is generally in outsize of their actual relative importance and power. Just considering the federal system alone a huuuuuuge amount of the important decisions which effect the average person come from the states, or even local. Even within the federal government the president's power is constrained; even within their own branch it is the people they appoint who do much of the groundwork. But, people historically blame recession and growth on the sitting President even if they have no responsibility for it, for instance.

That said presidents are disproportionately influential in setting the tone and defining the debate, which does have a big impact in the policies taken by those other government officials across the country (and abroad) and it is on this factor, more than any other, that makes them important.

[Iduno]

I mean it should be a rule of thumb of all informed observers of American politics that the fixation on the President is generally in outsize of their actual relative importance and power. Just considering the federal system alone a huuuuuuge amount of the important decisions which effect the average person come from the states, or even local. Even within the federal government the president's power is constrained; even within their own branch it is the people they appoint who do much of the groundwork. But, people historically blame recession and growth on the sitting President even if they have no responsibility for it, for instance.

That said presidents are disproportionately influential in setting the tone and defining the debate, which does have a big impact in the policies taken by those other government officials across the country (and abroad) and it is on this factor, more than any other, that makes them important.

And because their previous country had a king who made too many decisions, the writers of the constitution wanted to make sure the other 2 branches had limited power that the president could veto. Because they were dumb as hell.

[Lord Shonus]

I mean it should be a rule of thumb of all informed observers of American politics that the fixation on the President is generally in outsize of their actual relative importance and power. Just considering the federal system alone a huuuuuuge amount of the important decisions which effect the average person come from the states, or even local. Even within the federal government the president's power is constrained; even within their own branch it is the people they appoint who do much of the groundwork. But, people historically blame recession and growth on the sitting President even if they have no responsibility for it, for instance.

That said presidents are disproportionately influential in setting the tone and defining the debate, which does have a big impact in the policies taken by those other government officials across the country (and abroad) and it is on this factor, more than any other, that makes them important.

And because their previous country had a king who made too many decisions, the writers of the constitution wanted to make sure the other 2 branches had limited power that the president could veto. Because they were dumb as hell.

Despite focusing on George III in the Declaration and other pronouncements (in no small part because up until the Declaration, they had hope of a peaceful settlement that kept the colonies British), the Founders knew full well that their major beef was with Parliament. Giving the President veto power over the legislature was done because they saw a danger there. Same reason the President appoints Supreme Court justices - it is to keep Congress from putting excessively pliant justices to rubber-stamp whatever they do. Meanwhile, the Court has explicit power to hard-stop anything the other Branches do, and the legislature can remove the President if he gets out of control.