Tom Toles for March 31, 2020

Indeed. His depth of character continues to amaze me, and I’ve thought several times that I had discovered how shallow it is possible to be. And he’s exceeded my ability to predict… repeatedly.

The utter pettiness of this toxic, dystopian bully astounds. People are sick and dying and sequestering themselves away from any semblance of normalcy, and Trump has never uttered a single word of comfort, sympathy, empathy or compassion for those suffering.

Instead, as it always it, it is only about himself.

His ratings.

After 9/11, and the collapse of the Word Trade Center twin towers, he bragged (falsely) that he now had the tallest building in lower Manhattan. Nothing about the victims. No sympathy for those who suffered (and still suffered) losses of unimaginable enormity. Just another excuse to brag and lie.

And now he is doing it again. People are losing parents and grandparents and can’t even be there to say a final goodbye, and Trump and his allies are talking about sacrificing even more to save their financial investments.

Oh, and ratings. Trump has the ratings. The best ratings.

Ha ha, that’s funny. Nobody would say that. I mean only the most shallow, sick minded person would care about ratings at this time! (he did!…my bad)

Raving about ratings.. I would expect nothing less from a raving madman. The only thing more insane are those who believe him.

We’re mostly tuning in to see if you display any symptoms yet!

Preempting popular tv shows during heavy viewing isn’t ‘attracting’ interested people. It’s a old ploy to fudge the ratings.

Yet still, we see no strong champion of truth justice and democracy that can effectively make the resident’s supporters see that they are following a deceitful phony. Is this how our constitutional democratic republic ends … without even an attempt to save it?

Even as a ‘TV president’ he’s a total failure.

Love the line: “I’m not responsible for anything”! Sums up his Presidency pretty well.

“Not the Cure For What Ails U.S.”

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When Donald Trump puts on his act,

Droning on and on, and mangling fact,

And swivels and squirms from side to side —

I think: Is this the year I will have died?

.

When I see him approach the podium,

I feel a wave of rushing odium.

Disgust and bitterness rise as bile —

Will I suffer a short or long while?

.

And as he smirks, makes tasteless jokes,

Implying conspiracy and a hoax,

I call up a horrid fantasy —

What will become of my family?

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As he acts like a game show host

Of “I Bet Your Lives” and makes the boast

All is Good, with insipid adjectives —

I cringe at all the blasted lives.

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The Donald Show gets mixed reception,

The critics hate it with few exception,

But millions watch in fascination

As Disease and Death prowl the nation.

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Doctor, Preacher, Commander in Chief,

He mimics them all, but my belief

Is: Fools rush in where Angels dread!

God, is this the year that I am dead?

You just need the fear of death in the populace, but that’s a small price to pay, right?

“Which numbers”? ALL the wrong ones.

The repulsion, the outrageous stupidity, is why people are watching….the master clown and his butt licking sidekicks….an unintentional comedy……

THESE NUMBERS… https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Remember in November.

His staff is encouraging him to be nicer. So far, so . . .bad?

Well he did realize a dream. He made No 1 ahead of ITALY and CHINA.

Trump’s attempt to improve perceptions of his response by depicting the pandemic as a shock to everyone is just one of numerous ways he has dishonestly described the crisis.Trump claimed Saturday that the situation has been “urgent for me” from the very beginning, citing his late-January decision to restrict travel from China.

But Trump downplayed the severity of the issues facing the US long after that — even as experts were issuing the warnings Trump is now saying did not happen.Almost two months ago, experts were saying that the new virus in Wuhan was potentially a global threat.. One month ago, experts were saying that it was likely to be pandemic, and the White House’s response was that this was under control, despite the fact that the US’s lack of testing was demonstrably giving a false picture of the extent of infection. After all, you can have a confirmed case without a test, which requires a test that isn’t available.

Jeremy Konyndyk, who served under former President Barack Obama as director of the US Agency for International Development’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, wrote during the first two months of Trump’s presidency in 2017 about what he argued was Trump’s unpreparedness for the pandemic he warned could be coming. “A major new global health crisis is a question of when, not if,” he wrote in Politico.John Bolton, then Trump’s national security adviser, disbanded the team during a reorganization of the NSC. Bolton tweeted Saturday that it’s “false” that his “streamlining” hurt the country’s “bio defense.” Trump disavowed responsibility on Friday, March 13th for the NSC changes, saying, “I didn’t do it” and “I don’t know anything about it” — though he conceded that “the administration” did. Trump is either responsible or irresponsible. This is his fault. The Trump Plague is his.

He plays one on TV……..poorly.

trumps ratings are more important than losing a mere 200,000 American lives. And.. what is really sick.. is that republicans and Fox news seem to be fine with that.

Besides his daily combat with women reporters, what else is right in front of us is how insufficient Trump is as a leader. He thinks his daily presser is somehow demonstrating that he understands the crisis and has the situation under control and nothing could be further from the truth. Talking in superlatives, “greatest, the first time ever done, wonderful” is not a substitute for substance. The contrast with Cuomo is stark and Trump no doubt knows it so he parades business leaders and cabinet members to the mike who thank him for the good or wonderful work he is doing. The fraudulent picture created is so stark that CNN and MSNBC are openly questioning why they should continue to cover this Potemkin Village.

We will have the bigly death count of 200,000 because Trump is number one in lying and denying.

What would he do if each news organ (not his butt-kissers, of course) published a daily body count?

Plus, he bragged about seeing “thousands of Arabs” dancing in the streets after the planes hit the towers.

The outrage over this tragedy is only surpassed by the utter disbelief that this miserable excuse for a president is what we have to lead our government and out of this mess. But we are likely to survive in spite of him due to the dedicated health professionals who put our lives and well being above their own.

Please STOP the MADNESS of the Donald’s daily campaign briefings!

The 2009 animated movie Monsters vs. Aliens featured a president much like the one we have now. Here’s the “Big Red Button” scene: https://youtu.be/7vCaMmP1fP8

The principal difference between our current resident (who would’ve just stupidly pressed the wrong button by accident) and the VP he’s put in charge of responding to this national calamity is that Pence would have done it on purpose, figuring that God had put him in that position specifically to bring on the End of Days.

MORAL: Don’t let a lunatic run your country—it MIGHT be counter-productive!

Keep thinking he’s Don Rickles with poorer taste and no humor.

If this were only a joke . . . !

play one on TV, and badly.

P.I.N.O.= President In Name Only!

As always, the most important issue in the world is always Trump’s ego (to Trump and his supporters)…

And, his Acting on TV is really BAD.

Maybe when trump dumps pence, he could give the VP job to “the pillow man”? Those two are buds, thought the pillow guy was gonna smack a wet one on trump, right on national TV. Gag!

He doesn’t realize everyone turns down the volume while he’s talking as they wait to hear from the few who are still professionals and honest about what’s happening.