White House Sunday Presser on Coronavirus

By Jeralyn, Section Trump Administration
Posted on Sun Mar 15, 2020 at 04:14:41 PM EST
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The White House is holding a press conference today on the coronavirus. If you are online now, you can watch it live here.

Trump begins with what he calls great news and he's very happy, the Federal Reserve has lowered the treasury rate to 0.

He wants to thank Google because they substantiated what he said on Friday (it was fake news that Google denied it.)

He just talked to the big honchos of the biggest groceries store in the country (Whole Foods, Costco, Publix, Kroger, Walmart, and many more). In the middle of announcing the names he veers off to say "The market went up 2,000 points Friday." Is there a tie-in? It was to the head of Walmart who was with him during the Friday announcement when it happened.

Trump said they are working 24/7. There are no shortages. There is "pent-up demand". The stores will stay open. They are stocking up. No one needs to hoard supplies.

Trump says we're fighting the coronavirus and "we're doing it really, really well." "It's a very contagious virus". Young people are hardly affected, but we have to watch over the elderly.

He's going to make some phone calls on the Federal Reserve and turn it over to Mike Pence. He said absolutely nothing new on the coronavirus.

He has the most annoying voice ever. Pence sounds like a phony politician spouting platitudes. Now he's talking about churches. Really. I'm out.

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White House Sunday Presser on Coronavirus | 56 comments (56 topical)

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I don't bother (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by Ga6thDem on Sun Mar 15, 2020 at 05:37:48 PM EST

to watch because he just really makes up stuff like the Google lie.

It's too funny that Tr*mp is going on about (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by vml68 on Sun Mar 15, 2020 at 11:27:26 PM EST

the market going up 2000 points on Friday and completely skipping over the fact that the market is 20% off from it's high and is now in bear market territory.

As far as Tr*mp being happy that the Fed cut interest rates to zero, I guess he is not aware of the market's reaction. Dow futures sank a 1000 points. US Futures hit 'Limit Down' again.

The situation in Ohio is insane (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by Peter G on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 10:41:44 PM EST

A local judge denied a request to postpone Tuesday's primary, but the State health commissioner has ordered all polling places closed. The election is not official canceled or postponed, but all polling places are closed? Huh? Gonna be fun seeing how this plays out.

The Awful Truth (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 11:43:44 AM EST

Trump is a very good TV president. Give him a part he can understand and he is very good.

We should thank god he is to undisciplined and looney to have been doing what he is doing today for the last 3 years.

Too late for this. Too late for him.

Agreed (none / 0) (#14)
by KeysDan on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 12:22:14 PM EST

And, he is a solo performer---he can do it all. A one-man presidency surrounded by toadies who have learned to tell him only what he wants to hear. A control freak equipped with nothing other than an urge to control and star. When he does turn the mic over to say, Dr, Fauci, he squirms around and shifts his eyes. Hurry up my turn, he seems to be uttering under his breath. And, so over his head.


: I had a meeting with a Bank officer (none / 0) (#15)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 12:32:44 PM EST

Yesterday. Probably a more representative person for the local population you could not find. I mean no insult. Clint is ASFIAC as good as it get around here.
He was seriously lost at the handshake. He didn't want to but was fully prepared for me to want to.
Loved the elbow bump.
He says well, "they are really blowing this whole thing out of proportion". Again, assuming my position.
After a pregnant pause, I love those, I said, "well, it's 10 times more deadly than the flu. AND it's more contagious than the flu. And I am over 65 and just trying to stay alive.
He seemed so relieved. Things went splendidly after that

A virus in the world (5.00 / 2) (#32)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 02:32:03 PM EST

this is pretty good from the Lincoln Project

: More of those (none / 0) (#44)
by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 12:01:08 PM EST

Dirty untrustworthy Never Trumpers.
........The enemy of my enemy...
Yeah, I know the Star Trek comeback.
It's a tv show.
Sadly so is our government.
We need these people.

Just stopped by the liquor store (5.00 / 1) (#40)
by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 10:14:15 AM EST

I asked him how was business

He said absolutely booming. Never better.

Trumps Raccoon make up (5.00 / 1) (#41)
by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 10:43:40 AM EST

Seems to get more ridiculous daily.

I noticed it yesterday it's worse today.

: Ivanka's (5.00 / 1) (#48)
by KeysDan on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 02:41:11 PM EST

spraying loses precision at six feet.

: It's so jolting (none / 0) (#42)
by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 10:49:47 AM EST

It almost distracts you from his hilarious attempts to pronounce the names of prescription drugs.

Trump's Agriculture Department (5.00 / 1) (#43)
by KeysDan on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 11:14:26 AM EST

will appeal Judge Beryl Howell's ruling that it would be "arbitrary and capricious" to move forward during a global health crisis with food stamp changes that could force hundreds of thousands from the program.

Judge Howell put a freeze on changes that would include work requirements to take effect April 1.

: Good old (none / 0) (#46)
by Zorba on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 12:04:33 PM EST

Sec. of Agriculture Sonny Purdue is sure something, isn't he? No compassion whatsoever.
(And Sonny certainly doesn't look like he's ever missed a meal.)

Max Boot at Washington Post ... (5.00 / 1) (#49)
by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 02:54:17 PM EST

... explains how decades of growing GOP anti-government ideology and sentiment launched our country on a political trajectory for the consequential (if not yet catastrophic) failure in political leadership we're presently experiencing during the coronavirus crisis:

"Our self-confidence, verging on hubris, should be shaken by the coronavirus. The United States has been a laggard, not a world leader, in confronting the pandemic. As The Post reported, a German company shipped more than 1.4 million diagnostic tests for the World Health Organization by the end of February. During that same time, U.S. efforts to produce our own test misfired.

"By Feb. 28, only 4,000 tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been used. U.S. testing is now ramping up, but as of Tuesday we had only tested roughly 56,000 people, or 1 in 5,800 Americans. South Korea has tested 274,000 people, or 1 in 187 South Koreans. 'Losing two months is close to disastrous, and that's what we did,' Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told Bloomberg.

"We should not be especially surprised by our failure at pandemic-fighting, because if we are being honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that the United States has long been failing. We remain one of the richest countries in the world, but by international standards we look more like a Third World nation."

[...]

"The Republicans' decades-long demonization of government has consequences. ... There are still plenty of high-quality civil servants, but their ranks are too thin, and they are too much at the mercy of political yahoos. ... That means Trump's band of grifters can do far more damage than they could in, say, France or Germany. The coronavirus failure should be a wake-up call that Trump has not made America great again. Quite the opposite: He has accelerated our decline."

Worth a read.

Among the many (none / 0) (#2)
by KeysDan on Sun Mar 15, 2020 at 09:44:10 PM EST

mistakes, is to create the misimpression that the danger of corona virus is,essentially, to the elderly. Or, at least those over 60 years of age. True, age is a risk factor, but any co- morbidity, at any age, is a risk factor. And, young people are not exempt--- -the course of the illness may not be as severe as with those older, but the long term effects could be lung damage that is irreversible. Not enough is known at this point to abide an impression that the young not worry. At a minimum, they can be asymptomatic carriers, bringing the virus to the more vulnerable.

The local Trumpsters have complained (none / 0) (#4)
by Jack E Lope on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 02:20:22 PM EST

...about schools closing, pointing out that children have low risk, and "the kids might as well get it over with".

My wife, a nurse, likes to point out that the children could make great disease vectors. (Most Trumpsters are anti-mathematics, so they are not concerned with vectors.)


"We Don't Want the Smoking Gun to be a Mushro (none / 0) (#7)
by RickyJim on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 03:28:24 PM EST

om Cloud." The speculations you are giving to justify the draconian measures being used to combat Covid-19 remind me of Condoleezza Rice's infamous worst cast scenario used to justify the US invasion of Iraq. There is good reason now to restrict access to nursing homes, cruise lines and religious services, all of which are populated by a disproportionate number of elderly people with compromised immune systems. Closing down gyms and schools, in which the opposite is true and for which there is no evidence that they have contributed in any significant way to the spread of the virus or for permanently damaging lungs is just adding to the hysteria that is wrecking the world's economy with perhaps real long term effects.


Permanent damage (none / 0) (#17)
by MKS on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 04:08:33 PM EST

to lungs.

That is a scary thought. I had read that somewhere before--that some of those who recover from the virus have diminished lung capacity. But that is right after they have "recovered."

In time, the lung capacity may come back. "Recovery" can have different stages and take a long time. I first experienced this with what they now call a high ankle sprain years ago. It was nasty for about 3-4 weeks, but still ached for a year; and frankly decades later is still weak....my bad for never really rehabbing it.

Too soon to know what the long term effects are of being infected.

But part of me wants to schedule a self-infection and two week hiatus on my own timetable just to get it over with. I have heard more than one expert opine that social distancing and flattening the curve just postpones the inevitability that most of us will "get it" at one point in time or other.

I suppose we all could shelter in place until a vaccine is available. But that would be almost worse than going underground during a nuclear winter.


: Had brunch Sunday with my old friend, (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by Peter G on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 04:25:36 PM EST

a renowned pulmonologist. He said damage to lungs after "full recovery" from COVID-19 appears to be permanent, as best he has read and heard from colleagues.

: Yes, there is much we (none / 0) (#19)
by KeysDan on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 05:16:57 PM EST

do not know. But, what we do know is that the novel corona virus needs to be taken seriously---and not just by those over 65 years of age. Pre-existing conditions and co-morbidities, for any age, are added risk factors. And, too, some of the young appear to be too cavalier about the dangers, perhaps, the feelings of invincibility of youth or that they, so far, do not have or know of those who have the virus. But, the risks are surely not limited to the aging process. About 50 percent of the most severe French patients in ICU are under 60.
The possibility of lung damage is real, CT scans show, what radiologists call "ground glass"--- indicating a hazy opacity suggesting partial filling of the air space. Whether it is irreversible or not, it is not good. Most lung injury is, at least, a long time in healing (moderate exercise, e.g. swimming, may help in some cases).

A CDC report, based on (none / 0) (#47)
by KeysDan on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 01:15:46 PM EST

nearly 2,500 cases in the US, issued March 18, shows adults of all ages are being seriously affected by the corona virus. The oldest patients had the greatest likelihood of dying or being hospitalized, However, of the 508 patients known to be hospitalized, 38% were between the ages of 20 and 54. And, nearly half of the 121 patients in ICU were adults under 65; 20% of hospitalized patients and 12% of ICU patients were between 20 and 44 years old.

During the period Feb 12.to March 16, of 44 recorded deaths, 15 were 85 or older, 20 were 65 to 84, and 9 were 20 to 64. While the records are no doubt preliminary and incomplete they do suggest the virus is not confined, as presented earlier, as a disease of the elderly. And, too, the young and asymptomatic can carry the contagion.


They have a window (none / 0) (#5)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 02:42:46 PM EST

Superimposed over Trump speaking with the stock market numbers. They are mostly going down.

With the headline Coronavirus Selloff

: Yikes (none / 0) (#8)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 04:07:38 PM EST

Dow Falls Nearly 3,000 Points As Virus Fears Spread
March 16, 2020 at 4:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 219 Comments
"U.S. stocks dropped sharply Monday even after the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero, reflecting investors' concerns that the emergency measures may not be enough to ward off a coronavirus-induced recession," the Wall Street Journal reports.
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 12.9%, or 2,999 points, as of the 4 p.m. Eastern time close of trading, dropping further during an afternoon news conference by President Trump."

"It's nobodys fault .... (none / 0) (#6)
by CaptHowdy on Mon Mar 16, 2020 at 02:47:46 PM EST

......unless you go to the original source."

Who or what he imagines that to be might be consequential.

House passes corrected corona virus bill (none / 0) (#10)
by ragebot on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 10:27:09 AM EST

After the pubs accused the dems of putting poison pills in the original bill passed last week that included possible abortion funding by passing the Hyde amendment a second "corrected" bill was passed last night. Still no idea just what is in the new bill; it looks like another Pelosi special of 'we have to pass it to see what is in it'.

This is one of my biggest gripes both the dems and the pubs load up bills with pet projects unrelated to the original purpose of the bill. While I am not sure a line item veto would solve the problem something needs to be done to stop this type of thing.

: Forgot the (none / 0) (#11)
by ragebot on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 10:28:03 AM EST

link.

My plan (none / 0) (#13)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 12:04:03 PM EST

I just came into a tiny financial windfall so tomorrow I plant to be at Walmart (here they are closing from 10pm to 6am to sanitize and restock) at 6am tomorrow.

I plan to stock up. I have a large freezer

As far as leaving my house

I just now - the guy told me they are stopping that kind of thing for 60 days. I was his last appt - switched to a new cable service in my area. Actually it's the old cable service in partnership with Amazon so it involves a fire stick but the bottom line is I will be getting the same service I had with DTV for at least 100 a month less.

I like it already.

Interesting thing, and one reason I did this, DirecTV may be going out of business. Google it.
Funny thing, I have have DTV before over the years. The way it's always worked is, if you want to end you ur contract with DTV you pay a prorated fee based on the number of months left in your contract.

I was told yesterday this is no longer. If you want to leave you pay a set (smallish, compared to the old days) fee.

They are saying "there is the door"

Just a heads up if there are any other DirecTV commenters

I will report on the FireStick based service.

Currently I'm keeping DTV. For at least a while.
The service visit was weird. He ran no wires. It's wireless. Just plugged a thing into my TV. No cable box.

FTR I already had internet service with them. So basically now my cable services are now net based

I just got (none / 0) (#20)
by Ga6thDem on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 07:04:09 PM EST

rid of Direct a few months ago. They had jacked up their prices and yes, I had to pay like $20 a month for the months left on the contract. Since AT&T now owns Direct I wonder what them going out of business means for Big Bell.


USA Today (none / 0) (#21)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 07:44:39 PM EST

DirecTV's days are numbered

I'm liking my new service (none / 0) (#22)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 07:47:18 PM EST

Everything streams in regular tv land and there are all the standard apps for other streaming services.

Best of all no wires. Not even for the bedroom tv.


I've had nothing but (none / 0) (#24)
by Chuck0 on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 11:07:04 PM EST

Streaming TV for about 3 years now. I've been with Netflix since the DVD days, about 13 yrs. I have Sling, Amazon Prime and also pay for the equivalent of basic cable with Xfinity streaming to get local channels. Was originally just for watching the Ravens but ended up keeping it. Also have access to Hulu. My TCL Roku TVs have a lot of other free apps with lots of programming. I couldn't believe how much religious cr@p was available for my mother.


: Very smart (none / 0) (#25)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 10:59:24 AM EST

The whole cable company, all channels and OnDemand are an app like YouTube and HULU

Some good news (none / 0) (#16)
by ragebot on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 02:57:22 PM EST

Pentagon to supply five million respirators.

When do I get my check? (none / 0) (#23)
by CaptHowdy on Tue Mar 17, 2020 at 07:49:57 PM EST

Apt 6 (none / 0) (#30)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 02:03:06 PM EST

And May 18


April 6th (none / 0) (#31)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 02:03:29 PM EST

Now you can buy that car you've been wanting. (none / 0) (#33)
by desertswine on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 04:55:10 PM EST

: Hot wheels (none / 0) (#45)
by CaptHowdy on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 12:01:26 PM EST

I feel like I'm ready for The Rapture (none / 0) (#26)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 11:02:51 AM EST

I don't think I ever bought that much food at once.

Very scary (none / 0) (#27)
by CaptHowdy on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 11:42:56 AM EST

Walmart was completely out of dog food. (After I took the last two bags)

Not completely but I'm sure they are by now.

Just a heads up to dog owners. Something I had not considered till I saw the wall of empty shelves.


: Didn't even occur to me (none / 0) (#28)
by Yman on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 01:33:20 PM EST

I usually buy a bunch every couple if months, so it wasn't on my mind. Thanks for the heads up.

: I went to Aldi (none / 0) (#29)
by Ga6thDem on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 01:57:30 PM EST

yesterday and they had enough of the finicky dog's food. Thankfully i bought a big bag of food for the pig dog a couple of weeks ago. The pig dog is only 10 pounds so her food lasts a while.

Now Fox is hyping (none / 0) (#34)
by jondee on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 06:35:54 PM EST

loading up on guns and ammo. In preparation for the zombie apocalypse.

Oh sure, of course they're "just reporting" what's going on. Of course.

: These red-white-and-blue (none / 0) (#35)
by jondee on Wed Mar 18, 2020 at 07:02:35 PM EST

Christian yutzes love their country, they're just sh*tting their pants with fear of their fellow Americans.

: Sadly, Fox News has become ... (none / 0) (#50)
by Donald from Hawaii on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 03:03:51 PM EST

... the Republican Party's equivalent of William Joyce's (aka "Lord Haw-Haw") propaganda broadcasts on behalf of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, which were directed at the British public in a concerted effort to undermine citizen morale and foster distrust of their own government and institutions.

Starting to get (none / 0) (#36)
by MKS on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 09:48:44 AM EST

a little stir crazy.

I somehow stumbled onto an Anne Frank website. Had a 3D of the annex where she hid. You could tour the rooms, attic, of the actual house.

So, I thought I would read the Diary of Anne Frank, never having done so all these years. If she and her family could live cooped up for two years, so could I--and no Gestapo at the door for us.

But, I am not having luck finding a copy of just the basic book--not the critical edition with the different versions--just the original paperback version I saw my high school classmates carrying around. Nice try. The basic paperback on Amazon is almost impossible to find and goes for close to $1,000.00.

But Kindle has it, so I guess I will do the Kindle version. I never liked Kindle but adapt we must....

Don't buy books from Amazon! (none / 0) (#38)
by Peter G on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 10:11:28 AM EST

Always try Better World Books first. And if not there, then American Booksellers Exchange (a co-op of independent bookstores).


My own favorite (5.00 / 1) (#53)
by Jack E Lope on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 08:34:03 PM EST

...is Powell's Books, which claims to be the largest new-and-used bookstore on this planet. I've shopped at their brick-and-mortar stores since the 1970s.

I suspect that some of the books that are located in "Remote Warehouse" are really from some sort of cooperative - maybe even abebooks or amasszone - but I installed a computer at their remote warehouse in the early 1990s, so I know it was a real place (and there was no Amazon yet).

They've temporarily closed their retail stores (all in Portland, OR metro area).


Peter, Abebooks is a (none / 0) (#51)
by leap on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 04:11:42 PM EST

subsidiary of Amazon...., since 2008. That really pi$$ed me off when abebooks sold out to Amazon. I used to buy hard-to-find books from them. I stopped doing that in 2008. Damnitallanyway.

Unless "American Booksellers Exchange" is something different from "Advanced Book Exchange" (Abebooks)?


: I had no idea that ABEBooks was owned (none / 0) (#52)
by Peter G on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 04:23:10 PM EST

by Amazon. Somehow I always imagined it was a cooperative venture among the booksellers themselves. Still, better than buying directly from Amazon, since most of what you pay goes to a bookstore owner ... I hope.

Try a used bookstore (none / 0) (#54)
by Zorba on Sat Mar 21, 2020 at 11:12:38 AM EST

We have a couple, unfortunately closed right now, but you can still order online. While their stores remain closed, they will ship for free. (Used to cost, or you could pick up your order for free at the actual store.)

Wonderbook That's the link to their page with the Diary, plus other books about Anne Frank.


A store I have used over the years (none / 0) (#55)
by CaptHowdy on Sat Mar 21, 2020 at 11:31:58 AM EST

Mostly because a friend worked there even years ago when I lived in St Louis. He retired from the store but I still use them.

Left Bank Books

I see they are now offering free delivery.


: They opened (none / 0) (#56)
by Zorba on Tue Mar 24, 2020 at 10:37:19 AM EST

A year before I moved away from St. Louis. I really never got a chance to go there because I was distracted by being busy with my senior year in college, working part time, and planning my wedding. It would have been great to have had this years earlier.

Well, I wuz wrong (none / 0) (#37)
by MKS on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 09:56:57 AM EST

There it was on Amazon for under 10 bucks.

: See my comment (none / 0) (#39)
by Peter G on Thu Mar 19, 2020 at 10:12:06 AM EST

No. 38.