oldenGoldenDecoy's picture

    Why is Trump forcing states to outbid each other for the medical supplies?

     It's a simple reasonable question...

    How about some serious, simple reasonable answers and ideas...

    It's all yours Daggers.

    Fill in the blanks.

    1. __________.
    2. __________.
    3. __________.
    4. __________.
    5. __________.
    6. __________.
    7. __________.
    8. __________.
    9. __________.
    10. __________.

    ========

    Stay covered...

    Stay safe...

     

    . ~OGD~

    .

    Comments

    1. Doing so would require setting up an authority and organization that would no longer have people begging him to give them stuff..
    2. The same organization would relocate the center of the activity outside the White House media operation. No more free Trump rallies..
    3. Doing so would be to admit everything he has done so far is dog whompie. He is incapable of admitting anything. It is a medical condition.
    4. Once he can no longer control allocation, the GOP will start looking for an escape clause in their contract with the Devil.
    5. The White House is his only chance to hold on to his loot. Trump Org is going down without special help.

    There are countless other reasons but they all come back to these five. And these five can be distilled to one:

    Trump is on the Titanic and he damn well intends to have one of the life boats for himself.


    I hear ya' moat...

    Thanks for chiming in

    ========

    Stay covered...

    Stay safe...

    . ~OGD~

    .


    I'm back to "one can't know for sure" after reading this:

    I think he has few ideas of his own that are not simplistic, i.e. fixates on Easter or before presidency "we have to have Trump golf courses". For White House policy, he only has the vaguest of ideas of what is acutally being executed. A reminder that the other day he came out for expanding Medicare and Medicaid.  Policy is generally not his idea, there is always a Trump whisperer who knows how to manipulate him and if he supports it verbally, they have been successful planting the idea in his head, whether it's Jared or Kudlow or some old CEO friend on the phone or a golfing partner, or a major donor at a soiree at Mar A Lago.

    On the topic in particular, moat has made a nice clear set of bullet points, but I simply can not do that because what I have to say is that: the situation is not intentional, it is simply chaos. And there's no way to explain the chaos with clear bullet points.

     I think it's a mistake to assume he is in charge and directing. He just opportunistically jumps on something he's heard about happening--one small thing-- and uses it to create a fantasy narrative that suits his favorite rally memes. I have seen some of his comments in press conferences about this or that state showing gratitude or the like as if he was in control, but then he'll backtrack OR as it seems more usual the case, he's just made that up out of whole cloth. As someone like Cuomo basically says: I just got off the phone with him and there was no problem, we were cordial and he says he'll help, so implying  Trump's basically making the discord  up.

    Two things recently convinced me that he's just a clown in front ot the curtain on this topic. That he's told what's happening once in a while for approval, but that's all and he doesn't understand that it's not really working, the reportees are not telling him what's up and Fox News watching certainly doesn't solve that problem.

    First is all the news about international and U.S. state dealing on PPE that I collated here. Especially the most recent item about a Patriots jet that had gone to get supplies from China for Massachusetts, and previous such runs, where Feds interdicted one plane. And then trying to seize supplies by dubious legal arguments! Who are these Feds, under whose direction are they working and what are they trying to do with the stuff?

    There is also the confusion about how it works with 3M being a company with international factories. It seems like some Feds at some time are (stupidly, counterproductively) trying to nationalize all it's output, while others are trying to push free trade in order to let bidding wars continue and thereby raise stock prices in the companies. IT IS CHAOS.

    Because what you actually have in this situation is explained in this very important article Who's In Charge? There's still a huge number of career civil service executing things out there according to the laws of this country. Without clear direction from an administration of nimcompoop Cabinet secretaries, they're just going with what they think is right and there are not lawyers on the ground with them at the airport or whatever to advise. IT'S CHAOS. Governors are stuck between a rock and a hard place wrestling with Feds who don't have clear direction, but probably don't trust what this administration says any one minute. Who is telling Feds what to do? Wilbur Ross? Give me a break!  There's choas because they are all Republicans and have an ideological aversion to "socializing" or nationalizing things, and would rather have private sector pick up the slack. And then someone like the CEO of 3M tells them: YOU'RE CLUELESS, you don't have a clue how to protect capitalism here!

    It all comes down to the inherent contradiction of MAGA as a flag of the Republican party rather than their traditional goals, because MAGA principles are protectionism and isolationism, that in this situation also would require socializing and nationalizing things!!! And cabinet heads and Trump advisors are free trading, price war, no price controls people! The conflict comes from their devil's bargain with MAGA over global free trade an Norquist principles of less control by the Feds of anything!


    On the topic in particular, moat has made a nice clear set of bullet points, but I simply can not do that because what I have to say is that: the situation is not intentional, it is simply chaos. And there's no way to explain the chaos with clear bullet points.

    Point very well taken.

    On the other hand, OGD asked for a response in this format and there shouldn't be just a blank page of blanks after such a reasonable request.
    In defense of my statements, consider the following:

     

    • The emphasis on Trump navigating a situation well beyond his ken was not meant to contrast his objectives with any set of alternative actions. There are only his objectives. Recognizing the very small world of that is not to suggest that his selections somehow weighed one set of values against another.
    • The man got to where he is now by keeping track of his options as the latest scheme came to its inevitable end. He has made it into a fucking art form. In this case, the reference to intercourse is not an expletive but a specific descriptor. For him, staying so late at the party is finally getting interesting.
    • Your last paragraph is what I was saying in all my bullet points.
    • You can have my bullet points when you can pry them from my cold dead hands.

    As far as his few beliefs, strikes me right now that this article, updated this morning describes the band of bros Trump would be traveling with if he had not run for president:

    Lawsuits Swell as Owners, From Gun Shops to Golf Courses, Demand to Open

    Orders to stay home and to shutter businesses because of the coronavirus are being challenged nationwide on the grounds they deny Americans their constitutional rights.

    Not just "state's rights" but allout libertarianism.

    Unfortunately he ran for president as a control freak who was deluded about how much power a president has. And who somehow also got a bee in his bonnet about free trade being bad for his country (equating country with Trumpco?) and furthermore that the party of global free trade, with the belief that the common good would trickle down was the one who elected him to represent it. Many catch 22's there for a pandemic situation.

    Can I just add tangentially that I am grateful for one thing: deficit hawks hae mostly disappeared in this situation, worldwide. Just print money, we'll figure out the consequences later. (Not coincidentally, this is analogous to the health care situation of uninsured or underinsured Americans: I'm gonna die if I don't do this, what are credit cards for?)


    Your comment goes in many directions.

    The Libertarians have abandoned their idea in exchange for something I cannot understand.

    Deficit Hawks are extinct.

    "State Rights" arguments against the Federal system used to be about continuing the status quo of promoting the privileges of white people but now are bound up with many other things as well. Some of that is not evil.

    I don't mean to blow off any particular story of what is going on. In line with the element of Chaos you cited earlier, some things can be located and tracked. Other stuff is mixed up with other stuff beyond recognition.

    I mostly don't want to get too far ahead of what I don't understand.
     


    Yet another example of being intentionally blind and deaf to maintain his fantasy world:

    Trump says small business loan program has been "flawless" and he knew of no "glitch." But SBA emailed lenders hours earlier apologizing for "ongoing technical issues" including slowness and trouble creating new logins. ⁦@SRuhle⁩ ⁦⁦@bpopkenhttps://t.co/YrupI6VqwF

    — Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 5, 2020

    The only curiosity about this phenomenon that I still have: when he does this sort of thing, does he see the equivalence of criticizing others for the same (i.e., Obamacare rollout website crash), which would indicate agency and purpose and some sense of reason (trying to give off image of more competence) OR is just pure unadulterated delusion, a denial of bad things happening, unrelated to anything else? Also, does staff participate by protecting him from bad news?


    Add to moat,

    It's not Trump's money.

    Trump and the Republican Party,  don't solve problems ... it would show government can work for more than Wall Street. ... they deny responsibility for screwups, blame the liberals, while making things worse which keeps The Base angry at the scapegoats du jour.

    Also, Republican ideology, as acted out in Dr. Strangelove:

     


    An important reiteration of something I said in my long rambling comment:

    I think it's helpful on topic to read "Who's In Charge?":

    https://bostonreview.net/law-justice/robert-l-tsai-whos-charge

    It's really not the Feds anyways. Trump pretends that it is. (Realize: FDR did sometimes, too.) There is a catch-22 in the makeup of our country. Those writing the rules didn't want a dictator or a king, they wanted a loose union of independent states. It is what it is.

    Adding a reminder: Trump barely knows or understands what is being done in his name and what is not. And his cabinet aren't the brightest lights on the planet either. Even if illegally working for their own personal interests here, they might be doing that wrong!

    World gummint is hard, we haven't really tried it seriously yet.


    I am glad you reemphasized that article.

    In the context of the present discussion, the article focused on what the Federal could do over the designs or wishes of States, Counties, and Towns. It left it to others to consider if all those elements actively cooperated in an operation.

    Let's get that other thing going on.


    Seriously, do we really want the Trump administration deciding who gets ventilators and who doesn't? Bad enough that this has been laid on someone like Cuomo who is now directing where they go within NY State. We basically got state run death panels here right now in real time. Yes, they're doing it in consultation with medical honchos But some of these medical honchos have proven themselves not always that swift in the past already. Best we can do, there's no miracles More and more though, I think Trump admin being given more power would be recipe for more chaos, not less. If they thought of all the governors as a band of bros, that would be the ideal, but we don't have that.


    I don't particularly want to give power to anybody, as a general principle.
    On the other hand, the administration we have is the one to do the work or not.
    I don't know how to ask for more from the people hired to handle emergencies and make sure I don't give them too much power.
    As a lesson for the future, being in the shit is the wrong time to figure that sort of thing out.

    But I also meant to say that a collaboration regarding what is permitted or not would be better than each agent exerting as much power as they have at any given moment.


    Trump knows if he gets good TV appearances, and reviews.

    It's been reported his objectives go no further than good press every day,. He's on a 24 hour cycle, matches his supporters memory. They believe whatever he tells them.

    He can go from "14 cases now, and soon zero", to "only 100,000 dead would be very good", and they still have faith and adore him. 

    Trump today, virus briefing, conflates his conquests with female models, and death models of hundreds of thousands of dead Americans. 

    “The models show hundreds of thousands of people are going to die and you know what I want to do? I want to come way under the model,” he said. “The professionals did the models and I was never involved in a model. At least this kind of a model.”


    another "why?"


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